Heading west...

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Sorry about the holdup on pics. I went out of state on another ride this weekend to Eureka Springs. AR, with friends. All five of us were on XS/XJ 1100's. Not many pics, but a great ride with friends. We tore up over 300 miles of roads, but kept it at a mostly sane level... A few pegs were scraped, but no "OH $*&T" moments. High 70's/low 80's temps. From the left to right.. Ivan from Wichita Kansas, Me, and Greg, from Oklahoma, Harry from K.C. Missouri, and Bob Falter clear down from Iowa.









The pics are loaded up to Photobucket for the trip this thread is about, and I've got a lot of the narrative done, but I need to copy and paste the links for the pics where they need to go. Lots of pics..

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That picture Tod posted with the sleet covered road....

Now that was one of those "severe pucker factor" moments, right there!

We had been trying to outrun and outmaneuver a huge storm that evening.
Somewhere a few miles back we managed to lose Brent...?

We were still quite a ways from where we were trying to room for the night, and looked like we were headed straight into bad weather if we kept following the main roads.

Tod had found a shortcut across a Navajo Indian Reservation... A blacktop road that looked to cut across the corner and save us time and miles.

We stopped at the intersection, and he asked me, "What do ya think?"

I said, "Let's go for it!"

We were doing just fine for the first 4-5 miles, and just as we started to crest the top of this hill that swept down and back to the right sharply, it had just finished hailing there... Big time! For the next mile, most of the road was covered with 4-6" of hail!

Was I glad my new bike had ABS and KTRC traction control!
I just knew there wasn't time to slow down enough without locking up and sliding off that curve! But... We made it.

Now... I see not only did Tod make it on his 31 y.o. Maxim just fine,
He was using one hand to take pictures too.....

Figures.....
LOL...

Great trip. Lots of memories. Great ride.
Tod's knowledge of Vegas and how to get around really helped.
Very grateful to his wife Tammy for all her internet skills each night helping us find great places to stay at great prices.

I enjoyed Hoover Dam a lot, and Nellis AFB at night, with the Vegas skyline in the backdrop, while a rainstorm was going overhead and lit up was cool... As we watched the jets taking off with their afterburners, doing touch and gos...

This was my second year in a row to visit Springdale, Utah and Zion as well as Bryce Canyon. Got to hike up Angel's Landing this year... Wow... Awesome!

The morning we left Springdale to ride over to Bryce, it was overcast and 60.
We hit rain most of the 80 mile trip over, and temps kept falling.
When we arrived at Bryce, it was 37 degrees, and sleeting... Heavily!
But when it finally lifted, the clouds rolled back, and the guys got to see the mountains with snow caps off in the distance.... Way cool.

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Oh, btw...
My roundtrip mileage showed 3,968 total miles.

That last day (leg) home was a personal record for most miles logged in a day for me... 838.

30 more than in '09 when we rode from Stillwater, Ok. To Pagosa Springs, Co. In one day... 808.

Brent's HD, has 203,000 miles on it, and never once hiccuped.
My '11 Concours 14 has the "eco" mode cpu remapper, that adds mpg's.

I averaged around 44 for most of it, Brent kept outperforming mine by 1 mpg!
Not bad.

We hit lots of headwind, and went through lots of rain on this trip.
Bucking headwind always kills mileage... So felt like all 3 bikes still did pretty well.

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Wow... My whole ride report is gone. That sucks...