Saturday, September 12, 2009

Day Seventeen of the CCC trip

Dano says:
With a huge day looming over us that consisted of Monument Valley, Gooseneck Park and Mexican Hat rock I got up extra early. I wanted to get some pictures of the the famous Mexican Hat rock in the rising sunlight.





I also wanted to get pics in of the surrounding area because of the stunning rock colors. It was about 15 to 20 minutes before sun rise and Chewie was still outta it when he got on the bike, how did I know? Well when we left the parking lot he proceeded to ride in the left lane....his sleeping brain was still in Australia and the wrong side of the road...haha. Well we were treated to some stunning views and got great pics of the area.















After a gas station breakfast we zipped outta town headed to Goosenecks State Park. What an up close and personal look at what a river can do.






Once we had our fill of that, we blasted, (well Bucket and Chewie did) up the Mugi highway. Reading the reports on this road are a little misleading, it is a fine road for all bikes, it was easily navigated and provides for some spectacular views.






With those two places done we went back to the hotel and loaded up and headed into Monument Valley. I expected to see cowboys and Indians or Wile Coyote and the Road Runner at any moment, but didn't. What I did see is the famous stretch of road that is in Forrest Gump. Its the spot where he stops his running, turns around and goes home. I did get to see the landscape that I have seen for decades in movies, it was nice to see it in person.








We stopped at one spot to take pictures and started talking to a German couple. Two out of the three bikes were Honda V-twins and the German dude starts smack talking about Triumph triples and that V-twins are the best, Ducati, BMW twins this and that blah blah blah. The dude was talking all type of smack and didn't even know what a RC51 or VTR 1000 was. I wanted to slap him. After that and a few other photo detours we set sail towards Tuba City. When we pulled into Kayenta, Arizona we decided to chow some Subway. While doing so it was determined that all of our clothes were just a little funky, sooooo we did laundry and tried to get a haircut, no dice on the haircut as the waiting line was four hours. With our clothes all fresh we bounced out of town with visions of beers at nightfall. We rolled into town and found some rooms. Chewie and me went out after we unpacked to try to round up some beers to enjoy in the room. As we went down Main St. on our search for beers we came to a deserted intersection. Imagine this, tumbleweeds being blown across the street, dust in the air, and cattle walking along the street and sidewalks eating grass. It was a sight to see, made me feel like i was in the wild west, haha. Guess what....we found out that we were holed up in the smack dab middle of a Reservation. And guess what they DONT allow on the Reservation? That's right, fire water, AKA, beers, alcohol. DAMN. So we faced the fact that we weren't going to be imbibing tonight so off to have a culinary experience. I took the fellas to an American Classic, Taco Bell. With their taste buds exploding, I made them try an carmel-apple empanada, they thanked me afterwards. Off to the hotel we walked, the day was done.


miles traveled for the day=160

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