From MN to CA and return, started on 8/30/10

[DanTheMan]

I left my daughter's house around 3:30 pm and headed south on the super slab so I could head out of Utah on US 40 going east toward Colorado. As I went over the Wasatch range, I saw some bright fall colors, thought I'd see some more, but it all faded into pine trees. A little later on, a viewpoint looking over a nice little valley with a farmstead in it presented itself. Another traveler even took my picture......Here are the picts.

After I left this area, I went through some more small towns and started the descent into Vernal, UT. The sun was going down, and the painted desert was in full color. Unfortunately, I had no safe place to pull over and snap a few pictures, trust me, it was really neat looking though. I've been given orders by my wife to get many more pictures tomorrow, or I'm in big trouble. It'll be a slow trip through the land of dinosaurs and over the Trail Ridge road in Rocky Mtn National Park tomorrow snapping pictures.
I guess if you're from somewhere in the area of the eastern or western slope and want to join up, I'll be glad to see you. Ray, you've got my cell phone #, but there will be areas of no service. I'll check it every time I stop and fuel up and answer if I can connect.

 

[cowboyup3371]

Dan, like others I have been following your trip as well. How far south in CO are you planning on riding?

 

[DanTheMan]

From Utah to Colorado.....

From Utah to Colorado.....

I left my motel room in Utah and headed for Colorado and took a few scenery pictures on the way. The first one is entering Vernal, Utah, its brother or sister is at the exit from town. It's not Barney either....

Found a BLM kiosk with some interesting info on the way out...

a view up the road to the east...

and to the west (this is on US Route 40)

Getting into the real fun roads had its boring times too, look at this straight road in Colorado (still US route 40)

However, after several hours on the road (and there were some good twisty bits once the road got to those mountains in the distance) I finally made it to the west entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park.

The quaking aspen have already turned at the western entrance....

 

[DanTheMan]

more...

more...

Here are a few shots in the park you might enjoy...... A 108 year old cabin an early settler built and abandoned because of the rough winters, he gave up his homestead.

some views on the way up follow.

There were a lot of these signs in both directions, the washed out speed limit sign says 15.
A view from the road construction stop below.

altitude 11,354 feet.

At the treeline here.

This was at the top where the road construction ended and a brand new problem popped up for me. I turned into a parking lot to take the next couple of pictures and made a startling discovery. I hadn't been watching my volt meter and my charging system had fried, the stator was dead, I had no juice there. I rolled downhill, got started and it was rather interesting for the rest of the park and into Estes Park as well. More pictures coming up....

 

[DanTheMan]

An elk and more...

An elk and more...

Here's what I stopped to take pictures of as did many other people.

some tundra

Lava cliffs

Stay tuned and I'll tell you how this problem

was resolved..

 

[emjay]

Awesome pics. I love RMNP. Been there many times.
Stayed at the Y outside of Estes. I can't wait to get back there.
Good luck on the rest of your epic journey.

 

[Planecrazy]

Hiya, Dan!

What's an epic Suzuki GS road trip without the "famous" electrical issues? I hope it was an easy resolution ... your last post seems to imply it might be.

Regards,
Steve

 

[DanTheMan]

Dan, like others I have been following your trip as well. How far south in CO are you planning on riding?

Thanks, Cowboy! I got as far south in CO as I planned on my bike, and that was Longmont, and I ended up staying at GhostGs's house due to unforeseen circumstances. Another note to self: don't forget the spare parts sitting on the table next time.
I managed to get the bike into Estes Park with only 9.8v showing on the voltmeter, and it died before I could make it to the service station I was headed for. I sat on the side of the road in the middle of town with my jumper cables out and everyone ignored the bum with the dead bike so I had to call my emergency road service to get it jumped and ride three more blocks.
Ray (GhostGs) called me on my cellphone as I was getting ready to leave and find another wi-fi location since I wasn't able to connect at the McDonalds in town. I told him of my plight and he offered to bring his pickup and trailer to bail me out. I told him I had almost 12v at the battery after letting the trickle charge put some juice in for about an hour, so I would ride down hwy 36 as far as I could go before it shut down. He met me on the south side of Lyon and I followed him home, arriving with 9.8v showing again. I tore it down after confirming the stator had cashed in after 30 years and 86,700 miles. He let me stay the night, and the next morning we started searching for another stator as the one for his 1000 wouldn't fit.
Tkent came to the rescue and I borrowed the one off a '80 850G he was making ready to sell. Thanks, Tom! It's quite a drive from Longmont to Littleton, but it worked out well. Here are some picts of the stator debacle.

Ray on the left, Tom and his daughter in Tom's new shop addition.

The donor bike.

By 4pm I had my bike all reassembled and once again hit the road. Here are some pictures of the ride heading east and then north towards Julesburg where I spent the night. This is a part of Colorado that most of the travel agencies don't hype, it's the Pawnee country National Grasslands.

Now, as I finish writing this, it's time for a shower and then breakfast. I'll pack up the bike, make sure all my clothes are protected from the thunderstorms that I have to ride through today, ride eastward through Nebraska on the old highway, then north through Yankton and into Minnesota through the Pipestone area and then home. It's been a fun trip, but now I've got to quit the vacation and get back to work. Next post will be from home, and I post up the maps of the journey.
Once again, it's been proven that if you're on the road and need some help, call someone from our bunch of GS addicts and if they can help out they will.

 

[Detroit Diesel Man]

Sorry to hear of your elect issues but glad you got them resolved and have had a good trip so far..makes me wanna plan something more long distance..looks like a fun trip...thanks for sharing the pics and experiences.


DDM

 

[bonanzadave]

Welcome home .

 

[Guest]

Dan, Glad that you are underway and should be home this evening. I enjoyed meeting you, visiting and helping wrench on your bike. It was a learning experience on the stator, didn't realize there were that many variations. Also, you hold the record for distance traveled to return shims. LOL, Ray

 

[BassCliff]

Hi,

I warms my heart to see our GS family taking care of each other. Nice work Ray, Tom.

Thanks for sharing your adventure with us Dan.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[DanTheMan]

Well, I got home this morning about 11am, it got too misty/rainy last night and I got too tired to make it past Pipestone. I'm not quite ready to finish the story yet, but the last casualty to occur was my to Garmin Nuvi GPS. When I got it, I downloaded what was supposed to be a fix for screen freeze up. It didn't fix it, as I was leaving Pipestone the GPS went nuts navigating to different screens, shutting off, restarting, it thought it was hooked up to my computer instead of the 12v battery shunt. After shutting down and rebooting several times (it did this whether it was plugged in or not), it froze up with Garmin and the computer hook up displayed. Then, I hit a particularly bad section of road and it flew off the bike to land in the traffic lane. There was no traffic coming so I made a u-turn to recover it, there it sat in the middle of the east bound lane where I'd been. I couldn't retrieve it yet, an 18 wheeler was coming through. He saw it, straddled it and it was fine. The SUV driver behind him though, either was yakking on his cellphone or driving without seeing what was on the road, or he just liked running over small items in the road because he ran over it with both of his left tires and completely obliterated it. I was going to use it to validate my mileage (if I could unlock it), but there was no chance, it's in tiny pieces in the ditch now.
Oh well, I've still got my maps on the DeLorme on my computer that are quite accurate.
Now, I've got to go, my wife says it's time to get off the computer.....

 

[Planecrazy]

Great that you're home safe and sound, Dan - Sucks that the GPS got munched at the very end of the trip! Nevertheless, looking forward to your followup on what looked to be an awesome adventure!!

Regards,

 

[Charlie G]

Sorry to hear about your GPS. Glad you made it safely home.

"I've got to go, my wife says it's time to get off the computer..... "
I never hear this at home:-\\\nor do I rush to get her off:-\\\!

cg

 

[DanTheMan]

Well, when I left Julesburg, CO the weather was perfect. Clouds in the distance, nothing remotely threatening. I was detoured off of Hwy 30 onto the super slab for about 30 miles due to road construction, then I was able to resume my route on Hwy 30. along the way I did take a few pictures, not enough (my wife thought over 200 pictures that she went through was pretty extensive though), so here are some pictures of interesting things going through Nebraska on Hwy 30.
Remember the Lincoln Hwy sign from the beginning of my return trip? Here's another one:

This interesting historic landmark caught my eye as well..

And in the next town I found the Pony Express again.

This is the building they operated out of in Gothenburg

And, along the railway is a monument to an Indian that attacked a train.

I did have a good ride, no rain until I turned and went north toward Yankton, I then got showered on pretty good, it dumped pretty solid with lightening and everything for about 20 minutes. I got through Yankton and headed out to the superslab for a few miles and then got on the road to Pipestone (the Pipestone National monument is in this area, many ceremonial Indian pipes were made from the stone here and still are).
I found a Super 8 motel around 11pm and spent the night there, it was raining pretty steady by then and dumped quite a bit while I slept. The next morning I got up early, ate breakfast and headed north towards home. I neglected to take any more pictures, but it had been raining enough in that part of the state that rivers and streams were overflowing their banks and yards were flooded.
More later, I'll post the maps then.

 

[Planecrazy]

I have a very amusing story involving Julesburg, but don't have the time for it right now ... will post about it later this weekend.

Regards,

 

[DanTheMan]

I have a very amusing story involving Julesburg, but don't have the time for it right now ... will post about it later this weekend.

Regards,

Julesburg is quite the boomtown isn't it? The Flying J there is closed now too. Oh, in post 17 I forgot to add the picture of the motel I stayed in and Hotel Howdy across the tracks, now they're there.

 

[Guest]

Great to hear another story of the GS family helping eachother out in a time of need. Thanks for the trip, enjoyed the posts.

 

[shirazdrum]

Dan i just finished reading your story. Nice adventure and glad you're safe and sound at home.

Tom Kent's House in Littleton has become one of my favorite pit-stops. His latest part donation (spare original Suzuki clutch cable) got me out of the middle of nowhere in Honduras not long ago. There isn't anyhing GS that you can't find in his shop and he's as selfless as it comes. Glad you got to meet him.

When i was Alaska, my rear tire went flat with 3 holes and i had to ride down on 3 plugs for over 500 miles. The tire was falling apart and i couldn't find a new tire for my life in the northern British Colombia. Andy (a GSer in Vancouver called me and offered to send his complete rear wheel on a bus up north to get me down! how many BMW owners do you know who would do the same?

In San Jose, CA, Tom Murphy came to rescue and we pretty much rebuilt the front end of the bike, and many others have done the same for me that i can go on listing names till tomorrow...

The GS comunity is a tight joint and you won't know it until you start travelling on a GS. I'm honored to be a part of it and if i had to do it all over again, i would still pick a GS to go around the world because of this website.

I almost lost my Nuvi on the road too! then i switched to RAM mount and 15000 miles later it still holds.

Welcome home.

Chris Sorbi