Saturday, September 21, 2013

Our Motorcycle Trip

We left on Monday morning, flew to Salt Lake City, to pick up a motorcycle James bought. Mary picked us up at the airport. I rode around with Mary, while James rode behind us getting accustomed to the feel and the controls of the bike.

We rode up to Ogden and looked at the house that James lived in between the ages of three and six. We also saw Marlon Hills Elementary where he attended kindergarten. We were only with Mary for a few hours, but we were so glad to be able to spend time with her.

We left there and rode to Delos and Bonnie's--my uncle and aunt who live in West Haven, UT. They had cooked an incredible dinner for us. Pork, home made bread, and potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and pineapple cooked on the grill--it was so good! They had homemade raspberry and strawberry ice cream as well as peach and pear cobbler. Again, we were only able to visit a short time before heading off to bed, but we enjoyed our time with them.

The next morning we left and drove to Logan to see Don and Kathleen. We were able to visit with them before heading north to Rexburg.

We had planned to take the scenic route through Star Valley, however that plan was nixed when the rain started. Fortunately, we were able to dive into an Arctic Circle in Soda Springs, Idaho and watch as it rained so hard the drops were actually bouncing back up off the pavement! We listened to the thunder and watched the lightning and the wind. Finally we got on our rain pants and heavy coats, braved the elements and headed over to Pocatello and up I-15. When we were almost to Blackfoot, we saw a transformer blow in vivid blues and greens and a crow take flight. As we got closer, we could see that the lines over the freeway were swinging and mid section there were two more bright flashes as they connected with each other. James slowed down and then opened the throttle and we hurried under the wires to the other side. We enjoyed our ride together, but grateful to arrive in Rexburg--wet--but happy to be out of the wind, thunder and lightening. We had a nice evening visiting with Kris and Brent.

Our trip to Yellowstone was nixed because it was so wet and cold. James spent the next day preparing for the ride back.

We headed home on Thursday morning
After a three hour delay due to it being 32 degrees and the battery was not good on the bike, this nixed our trip up around Stanley, Idaho. Instead we had a race with time across the lower half of Idaho to Boise where they had the battery James wanted. That night we stayed in Ontario.

We drove home Friday. We planned to drive across the center of Oregon, but that plan was nixed because I got sick and so we rode I-84 on home.

Yes, I love traveling on the motorcycle! We were out in the elements which is exhilarating and can (I am sure) be terrifying although I never felt that. We had better views of the world around us and I was mesmerized by the mountains, rock formations, and the changing sky as well as the Snake and Columbia rivers. It was a great experience.

The one drawback is that I caught a cold, and lay awake for five hours Thursday night---Did you know that you can't sleep on the back of motorcycle?

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