Day 10 – On The Way To Salt Lake City

Today was the earliest we’ve started riding which was great. I installed my new, charged battery, we loaded the bikes and off we went. The day is looking great so far. It looks like it’ll be a day without any bike problems and we’ll be able to cover a lot of ground.

The scenery and landscapes continued to drop our jaws. We just couldn’t believe how beautiful this state was. We stopped at a walmart about an hour or so into our riding so I could return the charger and buy some other things we needed like water for example. We also fill up our gas tanks as suggested by Gomes. That would turn out to be an extremely smart decision as after we left that town we didn’t see another gas station for miles. The water was also a good buy for the same reason.

After stopping along the way a few times to snap some footage and photos we get to a town called Dinosaur. There are some cool trails to check out here but we decide due to time that we want to cover the miles instead. We have lunch and head into Utah.

Utah was similar to the last areas of Colorado but there were a few landscapes that made me feel like I was on the moon. We get into Vernal, Utah which was supposed to be our day 8 checkpoint. We are running behind. We should be able to make up the time after LA. We start doing the math and we should be in Salt Lake City around 7-8pm. That would be great, it would only put us 1 day behind and we’ll have caught up a bit.

We continue down 40 west and roll into a town called Roosevelt. We missed a left turn that would put us in the right direction and we make the next left to stop and check the map. We shut off our bikes for a break as I check to make sure we are still on the right direction and I confirm that we can head down this road and get onto 40. We start our bikes back up to leave but Marco’s BMW is not starting. We start checking it and as he continues hitting the ignition button I start seeing smoke come out from under his tank. I tell him to stop because smoke is coming out. He inspects it and confirms the worst, the electric ignition system is fried. We are not going anywhere today, at least not on his motorcycle. 

As Marco is pulling out some cables a gentleman pulls up in a Chevy truck and asks what’s wrong. I explain that the bike is smoking and he pulls over to see if he can help us. He introduces himself and offer his garage if we’d like space to work on the bike. We take him up on the offer and he gives us directions to his house. He lives 2 blocks away so Marco rolls his horse over to the house. Patrick is this really cool, semi goofy guy with a great sense of humor and personality. He is super helpful and just wants to make sure we are taken care of. 

We get to his home and as we settle in he offer his RV for us to sleep in. We think to ourselves and ask if we could use his backyard to pitch our tents. He says we absolutely can. We get settled in and get our tents ready and then head down to the center of town to a store to buy some water. We end up leaving with a bunch of other stuff. They had almost every drink in glass and after I consider getting a bottled Coke I settle on a Jarritos. We each get one and some performance drinks to mix with the water in our hydration packs. Gomes gets 2 Gatorades and Marco and I each buy a 32oz Powerade for 59 cents. I couldn’t even believe the pricing. They are practically giving the Powerades away at 74% off the retail price. For Marco and I it was a no brainer.

We get back to Patrick’s house and he’s cooked us some food. We sit down to eat and listen to Patrick’s entertaining stories. Patrick has this way of telling stories with such detail that make them so vivid. As I listen to him I feel as though I’m actually in his story, living it. He lets us know that he has to go to Salt Lake City tomorrow and we ask if he could tow the bike using his trailer. He says that’s fine and we agree on a time to set out on the road. I’d like to continue hearing more of his stories but my eyes begin to weigh me down so we wrap everything up and call it a night.