Day 1, supposed to be day 0, as I was going to just work on the bike after the delay caused by my bags being missplaced.
I went to bed knowing that I could sleep in and it wouldn't make much of a difference, as all I was going to do was wrench on the bike.* Got up at 0650, no idea why but I woke up before my 0700 alarm and just couldn't fall back asleep, so after about an hr of tossing and turning, I reluctantly got up.
I decided I was going to load up the bike with everything so that I could see how the bike handled and how I wanted to organize it.* I had some time to kill as I didn't want to show up at Chester's too early.
As you can see it had started to flurry a little bit, so I figured I'd go out and find some nice area's for pictures. LOL
Turns out by the time I got on the road, the roads of down town Farmington were white.* I pulled over and took these just outside Farmington.
I arrived at Chester's around 0900, and proceded to take the fairings off and get things set to install the new lights.* Now when I first ordered the lights I figured they were about 1.5" tall by maybe 3-4" wide... nope... 3" tall by 6" wide* and HEAVY.* The current bracket, while sturdy enough to hold them, wasn't wide enough to allow clearance.* So, they were scrapped, I'll try again in Portland to maybe fab up a new bracket or just say F it and put them on my truck.* Next was hardwiring my GPS.* this went on with no issue, other than me dropping screws like crazy.* This was the first time my left hand really caused me issues with it's lack of dexarity,* casuatly report, 1 bolt, 1 phillips bit.* Dunno where they dropped to, but they went unretreaved.* While I had the plastics off I attacked the issue with the heated grips, found they didn't work on my ride home last night.* I checked both the fuse and the wiring to the switch with no luck.* I stopped there as I didn't want to gut it to find the fault.* I will in Portland though, my hands FROZE today, more on this later though.* While I did that, Chester attacked the right fog light.* For some reason it only worked intermitantly.* It didn't work when I picked up the bike, but came on when I filled up.* Didn't work no matter what he did, but just as I left it came on (went back out after lunch and hasn't come back on since)* At this time I started to think, maybe I should just get on the road as the weather was cleaing up and the forcast for tomorrow was more snow.* So I opted to button everything back up and hit the road.
First, I had to return to the Hotel, check out, and after some deliberation, ship some of my clothes and extra crap to Portland.* I could have put it on the bike, but it'd have been just more useless weight (didn't need any of it till Portland)* Chester was nice enough to offer to ship it out Monday morning for me, so I ended up leaving him about half of one of my green "A" bags of crap to ship.* Mostly just clothes, but the fog lights and a few other odds and ends.
Before I get on the street, I needed food.* I couldn't NOT have Mexican in New Mexico, so off to Si Senor.* Man, 1200 on a Sunday and there was a 15 min wait... MUST be good.* The food didn't dissapoint, though spicier than I'm used to.* We ate and then parted ways.* I shook Chester's hand and thanked him several times for the hospitality and assistance.* I hope to connect with him again, in my experience, people of his quality of character are too few and far beween.
So off I head.* West to Shiprock, then North.* I wished I'd had a chance to snap a picture of Shiprock, but couldn't find a good place to pull off with a decent view.* It rose out of the flat landscape like I'd invisioned Mordor did in Middle Earth... yeah I pulled a geek reference, but I'm on a motorcycle, and odds are, you're not... so deal with it.* The weather was mostly just small flurries, but cold.* The Pinlock anti-fog insert in my helmet didn't work as advertised.* It kept certain area's from fogging up, but that was usually in front of one eye.* I had to stop about 4 times through out the day to take the helmet off and wipe down the inside of the visor to de-fog it so I could carry on.* Usually this worked for about 20-30 min depending on the weather.
Oddly enough the weather cleared up at the borders.
Everywhere else though it was pretty steady snow.* Though it didn't stick most area's it was enough to make riding interesting.
About 40 miles outside Moab a funny thing happened, I came over a hill and "Life is a Highway" by Tom Cocrane came on and the weather cleared up, warmed up and looked AWESOME.*
I drove by a sign saying 4 overlook points were down is road to the right... but the weather didn't look promising.* Oh well, this is an Adventure... right?
About this point I had to turn back.* The weather was getting worse and worse, and I had no idea how much longer it was going to last, and I was running out of daylight (lights on the Dakar aren't the greatest, Highbeam doesn't work at all I've found)
All Iced up.
Yes my top vent is solid ice
I ended up back on the main road for 35 or so miles headed into Moab.* The snow was so bad we were doing 30 in a 65.* I was getting some crazy looks riding by some of the cars and trucks (passed on the uphill sections, as they really caused visibility to drop with the drafts they kicked up)* Didn't bother try'n to get pictures as the sun had already set and it was dark out.
Think'n I'm gonna pass on the White Rim Trail, unfortunatly with the amount of Rain/Snow they've gotten here, the road will be too slick for this heavy beast(and my lack of riding skills)
Till tomorrow!
