Epic Bonneville Salt Flats but Harleys to my rescue!

Salt Lake City, UT to Ely, NV via Bonneville Flats International Speedway - 254 miles - Saturday 7 July
Left the lovely Inn on the Hill around 7.30 after breakfast and making sure the bike was once again prepped and ready for what has to be the highlight of the trip.
Riding on R80 from SLC passing the Great Salt Lake, once a popular holiday 'beach' resort, it eerily started to get quieter and quieter until about 150 miles further the terrain started totalling flattening out with white salt plains as far as the eye could see.
And finally the first stop to view the Flats - spectacular.
Then drove into the flats to the famed starting point to view the incredible length of the course.
Utah's famed measured mile is well infront of the mountains on the horizon but due to the curvature of the earth (there are only about 6 places in the world to see it), it's impossible to see from one end of the course to the other. 1st record in 1935 reached 301mph and current record by Blue Flame is 622mph!
The conditions of the sands were too wet to venture out but clocked up about 80mph getting to the view point on the flats!
Amazing place and to watch them racing on it must be wow! But hey I was very happy with my little experience and accomplishing riding a Bonneville out to the Bonneville flats!
Leaving Wendover onto Rte 93 it was posted that there were no gas stations for over 100 miles so topped up and thought everything would be OK.
The roads were empty and were straight for tens of miles - I was starting to think that just maybe for the 3rd time on this trip I wouldn't be able to reach my destination!
I'm not saying panic set in but I was gauging the fuel getting lower and literally calculating how much further I could go - if I didn't get a top up in 30 miles I had problems and there was no station for at least 50!
Envisaging pleading with any driver to get me some help!
Then all of a sudden literally in the haze I see 4 Harleys parked at what looks like a gas station!
Unfortunately no gas there but explained my predicament and wow they were absolutely amazing and literally came to my rescue. They suggested we ride in convoy and if I ended up with no fuel they would transfer some over from their tanks. I counted every mile and extraordinarily with just 2 miles left in the tank we entered McGill that even my Harley biker friends didn't know had a station. Talk about glad to fill the tank!
They were all biking down to Ely too having come from SLC the same morning, so we all continued the trip together which was really cool.
Plans to meet up for drinks later which can't be a bad idea!
Checked into the hip retro Hotel Nevada and Gambling Hall - opened in 1929 at the height of prohibition and provided bootlegged refreshment and gambling 24 hrs a day ! In the same year the Stock Market crashed and Depression struck and the hotel provided illegal gambling and booze - sounds like my kind of place ! A place that has welcomed many celebrities and more importantly prioritizes bikers who can park right out at the front doors of the hotel and also get a discount!
Took a fascinating trip on the Ely Steam train line thru to the old mining towns and then met up with my Harley buddies for one last drink in the eclectic gambling rooms of the hotel - something else!

Me no see!

This isn't going to be a history lesson on SLC as that can be looked up on wikipedia but with such short time just wanted to absorb the unique atmosphere here and see if it had anything quirky to offer - quite a bit actually!
SLC is big and fairly dispersed and I optimistically walked to Gilgal Garden, a mysterious vision of Thomas Battersby Child, mid 20th Century backyard mason, who created 12 original wacky pieces - think the head on the Sphinx is him!
Ok, Ive seen around the massive Temple Square complex that everyone seems to wear badges either visiting or advocating the church.
Twee is not the right word but millions must be spent on the floral gardens around The Temple Square - it all feels a little surreal n like a film set - I promise you they're looking for perfection with guys even going round plucking out the minutest weed or imperfection in the grass or borders.

Salt Lake City from what little I've seen of it seems to be a city of extremes but nothing more than the liquor laws here that only up until 2009 required bars to operate as private clubs and collect membership fees. There are still some rules you need to know - those wierd black things on bottles are required to insure a precise one and a half ounce shot and you're not allowed a double but it can be done. Places can legally serve 2 drinks at a time as long as the 2nd shot contains ice! Wierd but apparently one strategy I've been told is to ask the bartender 'I know you don't have doubles in Utah, but supposing I wanted a double, how would it work?'

On a totally opposite parrallel see street artists to die for
muralling an entire wall on the south side - cool!

More importantly coming back to the theme of this trip 'Go or Bust', things came tumbling back to reality this morning when I started having acute eye pains in the left eye - so bad I had to get a cab back to where Im staying aware of the fact that I only have a small number of contact lenses left for the trip and had just used a new pair this very morning. I was concerned that vision also appeared to be changing- help! By pure fluke I found an opticians and was immediately able to see my saviour for the day Dr Matthew Watson - news not good!
Due to the length of time wearing the lenses on the trip and probable grime from the roads I was told I had 2 corneal ulcers on the left eye and keratoconjunctivitis! This basically means I can't wear lenses for at least 5 days and had to fork out on a minuscule 3ml and I mean small bottle of eye drug for more than 100 buckeroos! But as they say money can't buy health but this time I was happy to pay! So wearing my pair of glasses to the Bonneville Flats wasn't what I'd anticipated but he's reassured me the eye will get better but caught early and in time - phewee!
But I'm not going to stop living ...
Dry not stirred Martini cocktails at the cool Che Bar to chill me out.
Hottest place to eat in town is currently Bambara - clams to die for before the main course even arrives!
Got to look after myself now before the Bonneville Flats spectacular tomorrow!

Pressure? Not enough! .. Riding through a Storm Front!

Moab,UT to Salt Lake City, UT - 254 rainy miles.
Out of any long distance bike trip this has to be the #1 most difficult and arduous day ever! The 2nd worst was setting out from London to the tip of Cornwall with terrible winds over Stonehenge but terrible, god almighty rains all the way down the 4 hr trip - didn't think anything could get much worse - ha ha she chuckles!

Move on to the next one! Yea I guess cos it's on a bigger continent!
Firstly, my main and stupidly silly issue for most of you bikers was to once again check the tyre pressure and inflate them - I know this sounds stupid but Altho now equipped with a gauge to measure I was still petrified just in case I wouldn't be able to pump the tyres or create the right gauge or whatever stupid little quirks came about to delay the trip.

But this morning I knew with the forthcoming ominous weather conditions and the long trips I needed to do it- so gulp drove into Moab as the rain was already starting to spurt. First gas station can't quite work out even where the pump is so go to the 2nd and think that if all else fails I've seen a tyre repair garage further down who could help - but hey the whole issue of traveling independently is to be
self sufficient. OK get all the stuff out and actually complete the task- hurray!
My tyres are now ready to go the distance and thankfully to prepare for the weather conditions I can't even start to imagine will come my way!
So its on the way out of Moab but the rain starts to go from small spots to a blackening sky of heavier rain - no good I have to stop and put on my waterproof trousers and leather jacket as its also getting a lot colder - little do I know but the temperature will drop by almost 40 degrees from just over 100 yesterday to just over 60 degrees at the 6000ft elevation I go over later. Visibility is getting increasingly less and therefore speed less due to the ever enormous trucks coming down on me and creating rivers of water either side of Bonnie.

It's just no use continuing, have to fill up and take a little respite from the ever chilling, cold weather and incessant rain.
Funnily the landscape is like from a James Bond film of people mining for things on another planet - it does feel like somewhere quite distant with mining quarries along the road with trains carrying mysterious goods back and forth.
When is this rain going to stop? Never!
On one of the fuel stops a guy on another long distance trip n on a big Beemer just quietly says that a trip without things like this doesn't make it something to remember - right!
Landscape turns into I think although I can't see much more than 30' in front of me nice green hills but clouds now down on the level of the bike and me!
Oh when is this trip ever going to end and when will I get to SLC and oh boy I have to map read again and find where I'm staying- hands numb, boots and feet soaked I just have to keep going.
Finally get to the beautiful Arts and Crafts listed building Inn on the Hill and look over to the incredible SLC landscape with the churches domineering everything. A hot shower has never felt so good. Very much like Standen's arts and crafts house I. The UK where it had William Morris designs
and Philip Webb's architecture. This one is designed and built in 1906 by Hedlund & Wood and interior hand painted by local artist William Culmer. Leather covered walls, oriental rugs, tiffany glass, hard wood floors and a grand staircase typifies the craftsmanship of the time.
But guess what, yes you got it in one - the skies open up and it's once again a fabulous cloudless blue sky and hot afternoon - wonders will never cease .
I think I also see my first Mormons and am convinced i see 30 couples holding hands and walking down the street who may all have got married together!
Cheeky drink or 2 at fab cool Kristauffs Martini Bar where once again the talk around the bar is about why live in SLC which is basically a great base for going elsewhere! No I mean skiing extreme sport stuff etc.
Cool place recommended excellent food Wild Grape on 550 S. Temple - really good. No better than good;)
All in all a pretty amazing and adventurous day when naively I thought it would be once again one of the easier days- ha ha!

Perfect 4th July or any other day for that matter!

So what would a near perfect thing be to do in this beautiful place?
During my days working at the World Equestrian Show I met the incredible horse trainer Les Vogt and by pure coincidence his good friend and head rancher here is James who helped create beautiful Red Cliff Lodge on the edge of the Colorado River.
Wouldn't it be great to ride out into this breathtaking scenery and on an above average horse?
But no way did I think he'd take the time out to do this as he has his own people who normally take the horses out.
The horse truck rolls up at 8 this morning and out jumps James! Near perfect weather with enough cloud cover to not make it too hot. We drive out to a nearby valley, unload the beautiful horses including the 3 year old quarter horse mare he's currently training I think mainly for roping, my cross thoroughbred quarter horse who must stand at 16h, bridle them up and mount into that luxurious well worn western saddle - and it only gets better!
Not being in a large group is magical, walking for hours through brush grass, hilly slopes without a military march following others, wading through crystal clear streams, letting them drink, viewing the spectacular mountain ranges (one called 'the priest and the 3 nuns', i think, of 4 columns reaching up to the sky) but free to go wherever - that's true riding to allow the horse to go at his own pace - mouth contact so delicate that you could turn them on a pin. Anyway i'm getting carried away just thinking about it.
Thank you James for a day I'll remember for a long time.

ps - everyone tonight seems to be talking about Salt Lake City, my next destination ... and feeling those first drops of rain which had been predicted for a possible storm tonight !