Re: Arizona travels

tomslik · April 27, 2004, 11:05:50 AM

Quote from: "Crosley"Indulge my ramblings here

I'm a 50 yr old native of Arizona and I had never been to the four corners area where Az , Colorado , Utah and New Mexico meet.

Janice is on vacation with her sisters. I took some time off work and on monday I saddled up the Goldwing and rode 843 miles round trip to the four corners area. Any of you guys that ride cycles know 800+ miles in one day is quite a few.

I rode up through Flagstaff, over to Tuba City , Kayenta , then up to Four Corners

The weather was perfect , the bike ran flawlessly. About 42 mpg was seen on the trip.

This Goldwing has a sweet spot at 3400 - 3600 rpm which puts the bike at 85+ mph or so. A few speed limits were broken . :!:

800 miles on anything is quite a few, even on a taurus;)

ya bum!

1FATGMC · April 27, 2004, 12:23:10 PM

Now if you would have come to Blanding I could have pointed to 4-corners on the horizon and then taken you guys out to some really pretty country.

Blanding is only 400 miles from Phx, so next time you decide on a 800 mile trip I expect you to show up here and you can spend the night and not have to kill yourself.

c ya, Sum

phat46 · April 27, 2004, 04:44:04 PM

I stood on that Four Corners monument with my wife and two daughters in the late 80's, we could all hold hands and be in a different state, (usually I'm in a state of confusion). Of course Dad had to be goofy and be in four states at once..., Did you stop and see the dinosaur tracks near Tuba city? If not you'll need to run up there again....

purplepickup · April 27, 2004, 04:51:04 PM

The scenery looks familiar.

Sumner is right. His place is just down the road a piece and well worth the trip.

purplepickup · April 27, 2004, 06:21:21 PM

I think we stop at the same signs....

I like the Flagstaff area. Got a picture of the truck with the same mountains in the background but I'll stop posting pick-em-up pics. It's dinner time and all that purple is making me nauseous.

One of these days I want to get out in that area with my bike. I see why you put so many miles on yours.

Sean · April 27, 2004, 06:45:25 PM

Quote from: "Crosley"Janice is on vacation with her sisters.

Then who took this picture? Girlfriend? And are you really that short, or is that an extra large Goldwing....?

phat46 · April 27, 2004, 07:43:30 PM

[
======== I saw the signs and from the shape of them i figured it was some chinzy deal. I take it that there are real dinosaur tracks?

Yup real dinosaur tracks, right in the stone. Apparenty it was a muddy spot a few (thousand) years ago. It's on a reservation, you just turn off the pavement at the "fancy" signs. We had a really nice native guide show us the tracks. My kids had to stand in the tracks so dad could take pics. At that time it cost only what you wanted to donate. I gave the guy $5 for pointing at the ground for us. The tourist ahead of us dug through his change to pay the guide; nice guy, he was driving a new Lincoln, the guide had walked a mile or so from a mesa you could see in the distance....

tomslik · April 27, 2004, 08:13:32 PM

[
I did not ride too far into Colorado. I figured tomslik might be getting a burning sensation on a certain body part...

[/quote]

uhhhh, which part?

? :?:

1FATGMC · April 27, 2004, 09:15:51 PM

Quote from: "phat46"[
======== I saw the signs and from the shape of them i figured it was some chinzy deal. I take it that there are real dinosaur tracks?

Yup real dinosaur tracks, right in the stone. Apparenty it was a muddy spot a few (thousand) years ago.

About 60 to 90 million years ago. I had driven by them countless times and finally stopped a couple years ago in the winter. There are also some nice tracks in a couple different locations by Moab, Ut. and I'm sure there are more in the area.

They feel that one set by Moab shows that dinosaurs might have been quicker than they first believed. There is a set where it looks like one of the meat eaters was chasing something smaller as both sets are there and at a certain point it looks like the smaller dino veered to the right and so did the large one right on it's tail.

There is also a lot of dino bone in the area.

c ya, Sum

phat rat · April 27, 2004, 10:28:39 PM

Quote from: "phat46"[
======== I saw the signs and from the shape of them i figured it was some chinzy deal. I take it that there are real dinosaur tracks?

Yup real dinosaur tracks, right in the stone. Apparenty it was a muddy spot a few (thousand) years ago. It's on a reservation, you just turn off the pavement at the "fancy" signs. We had a really nice native guide show us the tracks. My kids had to stand in the tracks so dad could take pics. At that time it cost only what you wanted to donate. I gave the guy $5 for pointing at the ground for us. The tourist ahead of us dug through his change to pay the guide; nice guy, he was driving a new Lincoln, the guide had walked a mile or so from a mesa you could see in the distance....

If your guide was satisfied with $5 you did better than SWMBO & I did last year. After telling us it was what ever you wanted to give and I gave him $10 he told that the usual was $20 and was pretty persistant until he realized I wasn't stopping to dig more out. Made a good story to tell about the trip so it was worth the $10 but certainly not anymore

HotRodLadyCrusr · April 28, 2004, 12:17:16 AM

Pretty popular photo opportunity spots

parklane · April 28, 2004, 01:23:28 AM

Tony You must have calluses on your butt. I've done 600 on mine, and thought I was a hero. LOL

John

parklane · April 29, 2004, 12:22:15 AM

Tony When a bug hits the windshield of your bike, do you know the last thing going through his (her) mind?

Its rear end

BTW have you ever tried those gell seats, or air bladder seats?
John

tomslik · April 29, 2004, 07:02:28 AM

Quote from: "Crosley"
Quote from: "parklane"Tony You must have calluses on your butt. I've done 600 on mine, and thought I was a hero. LOL

John

Actually my butt was fine. I do have a problem with my right hip joint that I inherited from my dad's side of the family.

I use some of the taxi cab special wooden beaded seat covers from Wally World. I trimmed it to fit the contours of the goldwing seat & put a towel over the beads.

I do wish i had remembered to rub on some SPF 45 sun tan lotion onto my arms since I was wearing a T-shirt for hours in the sun at 90mph. Wind burn and sun burn too......

the attached photo shows my windshield on the wing with a few bugs on it...hopefully the photo shows up OK.

pay no attention to the 'garage" sign in the back ground

Quoteuse some of the taxi cab special wooden beaded seat covers from Wally World. I trimmed it to fit the contours of the goldwing seat & put a towel over the beads.

don't you find those, uh, "beads" make it hard to get a "grip"?

hey cros, i picked up a corbin touring seat for mine off ebay for $100ish.
figgered it was cheaper to try it this way than to spend 500+ for a new one.
like the seat but theres a couple of things that could be changed.
might do that when i get it recovered..

purplepickup · April 29, 2004, 11:03:56 AM

Quote from: "Crosley"I may purchase a gel pad that installs under the seat covering.

Tony, do you know where to get those gel pads and can they be glued to the back side of the covering? Here's a picture of my seat and the covering is glued to the pad so that it keeps that bucket shape. I've got a boney butt and after a couple hundred miles I have to fidget to get comfortable and it just gets worse if I keep riding. One of those pads under the covering sounds like it would help.