Another View of SW-FOG

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Tyler

Miss Demeanor
FJR Supporter
Joined
Nov 19, 2007
Messages
5,740
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Location
Mountain View, CA
After almost a year of moto forum foreplay for SW-FOG, it was finally here and time to head for Cedar City. I worked a half day on Wednesday and then slabbed it via I-5 to Tehachapi. Pretty boring other than the semi truck on the side of the road fully engulfed in flames that exploded after I passed by it... yikes! Made it to the hotel and walked to the pizza joint next door... that place was hoppin'! Had a nice salad and pizza and washed it down with a couple of these...
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Up early the next day for some more fun on the slab... I had originally planned to go along 167 and the Valley of Fire but the day's temps were in the triple digits and that would have added an hour and a half onto my day so I just decided to slab it and get to my destination, Ivins, UT to visit friends Cletha and Eric, as soon as possible.

Pretty much what most of the day looked like... a necessary evil which would be rewarded over the next couple of days...
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I stopped in Baker for gas and chatted with some gents that were on a college field trip with their class to observe local animal life including a sidewinder snake that they had picked up and were going to relocate back to the desert... don't think there's a whole lot going on in Baker and the local motel has definitely seen better days...
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As I droned along the highway just before Primm, I saw these huge structures that appeared to be reflecting the san... it almost looked like some sort of extraterrestial communication location... I checked the map and it appears that it's the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System... a 377-megawatt net solar complex using mirrors to focus the power of the sun on solar receivers atop power towers... pretty cool and massively bright!
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I blasted through Vegas thanks to an express lane section to avoid all the city traffic... Vegas used to be a wonderous place... now it is just way overdone, imo...
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I stopped off in Mesquite to cool off... triple-digit temps for multiple hours was getting to me a bit and I had realized the day before that my cooling vest was safe and sound... back home in the garage... DOH! I finally got to get off the damn freeway and headed on 91 toward Beaver Dam... the scenery was your typical desert stuff which cool colorations in the rock mountains...
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And then I came around a bend and was greeted with this... Red Mountain (gosh, wonder why they named it that??)... such a startling contrast of color and of course I stopped to get a photo!
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I arrived at Cletha and Eric's beautiful home which is at the foot of Red Mountain with some pretty stellar views from their backyard...
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As the sun set, the colors changed during what they call "The Magic Hour" which seemed a fitting name...
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My dear friend, Lydia, met me at their house and joined us for a lovely spaghetti dinner and also some of Cletha's famous cookies...
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Lydia headed back to her friend's house in St. George and I drifted off to sleep with the mountains out my window... I could feel the miles of slab fade away to a distant memory and the thought of the friends and roads ahead taking their place...

Stay tuned. :)

 
I awoke to a beautiful clear morning and was ready to get the party started... I bade farewell to Cletha and Eric and headed out to meet up with Lydia who was obviously in good spirits as well...
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We arrived in Fredonia to find some of the fine feathered FJR friends had arrived... many hugs and greetings to new friends were shared and you could feel the positive vibes that were lighting up the morning...
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The cat herd then saddled up and headed for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon... it was a gorgeous day and good to be alive...
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Lots of happy faces...
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We headed in to see if we could get tables for lunch and came to the realization that AZ doesn't do daylight savings time so we were an hour earlier than we thought and had some time to kill before they opened the restaurant... so we wandered out to the observation point to view the spectacle that is the Grand Canyon...
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These chairs made me think of Lily Tomlin doing Edith Anne... and that's the truthththththththth... :)
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What an ass...
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Some of da boys chit chatting... or dozing as the case may be...
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The restaurant finally opened and we all had a delicious meal before heading back for Cedar City... how many bikers does it take to pair up their Senas? Can you hear me now???
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There were a couple of moments where we got rained on a little bit but nothing major... the clouds gave the scenery a wonderful energy...
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Our motley crew gassing up...
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We arrived at the hotel, unpacked, showered, and then found a group to have dinner with at the pizza joint across the street... I had ordered breadsticks... and this is what i got!
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And then it was off to the parking lot for the customary drinking adult beverages, kicking of tires, and telling of tall tales...
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The moon peeked through the clouds...
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And seemed to put the resident Aussie in a good mood... I love you, man!
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Next up... Cedar Breaks and a wee bit of Bryce Canyon... B)

 
A good night's rest put us in the right frame of mind for a shorter and smell-the-roses ride with a smaller group of cohorts... but first, there was an industrious group of young people raising funds for their school and when they saw all the bikes at the hotel next door, they scrambled to offer a bike wash which I gladly took them up on and they did a mighty fine job!
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With that, we started out with some canyon carving out 14 in the cool morning air...
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And then 148 up to Cedar Breaks... at over 11K altitude, it was quite cool and there was still snow sticking around on the landscape...
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I am always amazed at the colors of this region and the amazing rock formations...
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Continuing along 148...
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And out to Brian Head for the Aussie...
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Backtracked and then onto 143...
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Past Panguitch Lake...
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