(17) Rhodes Off the Road
I’m writing this update from my house in Bullhead City, AZ. Neil is back in Alaska and John came down so we can spend some time together. Neil and I are taking a break off the bikes for a while before starting the next phase of the trip and go into Mexico. We’re kind of held hostage by the State of Arizona at this point anyway. Neil and I got to the house last Sunday (8/21/2022) and I dropped him off at the airport in Las Vegas Monday. On the way back home from dropping him off I stopped into the post office hoping to find that my motorcycle license plate was waiting for me there. Alas, no such luck.
I spent the rest of the day going back and forth between the DMV and post office trying to see what could be done to find a way to get a permanent license plate for the motorcycle. According to DVM the plates were mailed to me the first time I requested them on July 2nd. Those never arrived. I requested a reissue and DMV shows that those (3 motorcycle and 1 car plates) were mailed on August 4th. Again, nothing ever showed up at the house. Somewhere around the 15th I called the post office in Bullhead City as requested that they just hold my mail rather than actually delivering it in case I had mail stolen from my box. That is why I went to the post office to see what they had for me. Still no plates.
After talking to DMV, I was told that there is no other way they can deliver plates. They cannot mail them in such a way that I have a tracking number to monitor where they are. They cannot be mailed to the local DMV office so I could go pick them up there. There is no place where I could go to pick them up in person. UGHHHH!
If plan A was just ordering them and plan B was reordering them I guess I’m down to plan C at this point. This time around I have rented a post office box at the Bullhead City post office. I had my mailing address with DMV changed to the new PO Box. I also asked that the DMV give me new license numbers than the prior plates. I’m hoping that they show up at the PO Box this time.
Things are still moving though during this hiatus. Both bikes are in for their 6,000 mile service right now. I want them all set and serviced before we set off into Mexico. I have a couple more modifications I need to do to them also. I will be putting handlebar risers on to help when we ride standing up on dirt. I need to make a more permanent wiring job than I did before we left the last time on our GPS mounts and some other minor things. It’s also time for both of us to sign up for medical evacuation and international health insurance services. I also need to see what is required to get motorcycle insurance for Mexico. I know that we must get that in the US prior to showing up at the boarder. So there is still a lot to do in the next couple weeks while the whole license plate saga plays out.
Anyway, we did have some interesting riding since the last update. We were able to get new tires and an oil change done in Grand Junction. Our front tires were pretty much shot but the rear tires still had some good tread life left in them. So we kept them and just strapped them on the bikes and rode with them back here to Bullhead. We won’t use them on this trip but will put them on and use the rest of the tread at some point in the future.
From Grand Junction we decided to head to Cortez. The original plan was to ride the “Million Dollar Highway” from Montrose to Durango in Colorado, but the weather report for that area was for major rain and thunder storms. So, after looking at a bunch of weather radar forecasts we decided to head to Cortez instead. As usual though, we took a backroad route rather than the direct route. Leaving Grand Junction we went to Gateway, CO through the Delores River Canyon to Naturita and near Telluride before ending in Cortez. We couldn’t avoid the rain though and had to get the wet weather gear out again to get though the pass near Telluride.
During our stop for a rest in Gateway Neil noticed that his rear tire appeared to be misaligned. For the non-bikers in the audience, chain driven motorcycles like ours have markings on each side of the swing arm (the part of the bike that holds the rear tire) for wheel alignment. The gauge on one side showed four notches and the gauge on the other side was set at three notches. It’s not a huge difference and Neil couldn’t feel any issues, but it can make tires wear faster than normal. So we decided to take a minute and fix the alignment issue. So it was time to throw the bike up on it’s center stand, get all the tools out, loosen the axel bolt and move things back into alignment. For once, the process actually only took the fifteen minutes that it should have to complete, LOL Normally something always goes wrong and the fifteen minute job turns into an hour and a half job, but not this time.
From Gateway it was on to Naturita, Monticello and into Cortez. We were able to get online and get a reservation for a tour into the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park. We skipped the park the last time we were in Cortez due to our inability to get a tour reservation and threatening thunder storms. The cliff dwellings were neat to be able to see up close. Unfortunately you are not allowed to wander around inside them. The tour is just a presentation by one of the rangers out in front of the buildings. I can understand not allowing people to wander around the ruins but it would be nice to get to check out the depths of the site.
Our original plan was to head back to Durango and take the Million Dollar Highway north to Montrose the day after visiting Mesa Verde. However, the thunder storm gods were against us again and we chose to find another destination. After looking at lots of weather radar we decided to head for Moab instead. We spent two nights in Moab and did a great hike in Arches National Park in the day between. Entry to Arches NP is controlled by what the park services refers to as “Timed Entry Permits”. Basically they limit how many vehicles can enter the park in any given day. They allow 3/4 of the permits to be requested up to a week in advance. Those were all gone by the time we decided to go. The last 1/4 of permits are opened up for reservation at 6:00pm for entry the next day. We both logged on right at 6:00pm and were able to get permits for the day we wanted. We got to the trailhead at the end of the road by 10:00am and were back ready to go back to the hotel by 1:00pm. So we managed to miss the worst of the heat for the day. As it turns out, we left Moab just in time. The day after we left they were hit by a major thunder storm and the main road through town was flooded and closed entirely for the day.
Neil’s girlfriend asked if he could get her a hoodie from a company in Leadville. So our plan was to do a long mostly freeway day to Leadville, CO. There were no hotel rooms available in Leadville though and Frisco was the closest town to Leadville I could find a room for a reasonable price. So that’s where we ended up. It’s about 330 miles from Moab to Frisco, but we hit some hard rain and really bad crosswinds coming over the pass on I70 near Vail. So we arrived at the hotel pretty wet and tired. The store in Leadville only sells their hoodies by appointment from the store (no online sales, no walk ins, etc.). So once we were at the hotel Neil had about an hour to rest up before gearing up again for his 5:00pm appointment and the 60 mile round trip ride to pick up hoodies for himself and his girlfriend. Thankfully by the time he left the thunder storm had passed and he was able to get there, buy the hoodies and get back to the hotel dry. We ended the day with a beer and BBQ at a brewery in downtown Frisco.
That pretty much ends the sight seeing portion of our trip through the US. From Frisco we put in our longest day of the trip riding to Kayenta, AZ. That took us back over Independence Pass (approx. 11,000 feet) to Leadville again, over a second set of mountains at Poncha Pass (approx. 10,000 feet) and then over a third 10,000 foot pass at Wolf Creek. At each pass we hit rain. The total distance for this day was 440 miles. The beginning of the day over Independence Pass was also cold as well as wet. Both of us had really cold hands by the time we finally came down in elevation enough to warm up. The weather finally really warmed up and we left all the clouds behind as we went through Cortez (for the third time) and we stopped here to get gas and finally take our rain gear off. We pulled into the hotel in Kayenta around 6:00pm. Both of us felt that we were too tired to even go into the restaurant at the hotel for dinner. We just picked up a sandwich each from the gas station next door and a soda and had that for dinner and then off to bed early. Kayenta is in Navajo Nation land, and they do not allow the sale of alcohol, so no beers for us that night.
The last day was from Kayenta back into the house in Bullhead City. After 440 miles the day before the 330 miles into Bullhead seemed like a short leisurely ride to end this section of the trip. Now, it’s just time to wait for license plates.
The final route from Vancouver, WA to Bullhead City, AZ is shown here. Totals for this portion of the trip are 38 days (including a week long rest in Bullhead after the riding class) and 6,000 miles traveled.
