Day 10: The compass now points East

I have arrived in Cannonville, Utah, late this afternoon, having now 3,178 miles behind me.  Cannonville is a small town nestled in South West Utah, just a few miles away of the mega enterprise that has now become Bryce Canyon.

The ride itself was something like 475 miles.  This is probably the longest segment I have undertaken during this trip.  Knowing that it would be a long, hard push to make it to my camp ground at a decent hour, I packed everything as much as I could last night.  The plan was to leave at 7 am.  However, when I checked the oil level this morning, I discovered that it had dropped some.  This was to be expected because of the heat of the last day, and I had packed an extra quart with me.  So it was time to add some.  Fortunately the BeMWu engineers had a lot of nice design descisions with the boxer engine.  One of those smart decisions was to put the oil filler plug on the left cylinder.  Since the cylinders jut out to each side of the engine, it is just a matter of unscrewing the cap and adding the oil. Since I did not have a funnel, I cut a hole at the bottom of a platic cup, and was done in 5 minutes. After taking care of that I noticed that I could not mount the right side case onto the rack.  I soon realized that since the cases had not been on when I fell a couple of days ago, on the right side, it must have misaligned the bolting points.  The quickest solution here was to shave of some of the rubber from the dampers.  The sidecase now fits really tight, and it will stay there until the end of the trip;  God willing.

After filling the gas tank, and adding air to the tires I was finally on my way.  I took the long way round, one more time, and headed North.  After about 90 miles to Tonopah, NV, I turned East for the first time.  The route home was now under way, and I could not help it but to feel bummed out.  I passed mining towns through out the day, and in one of them, at a gas station, I met a guy who had a trailer with a Desert Rose logo printed on it.  I took a picture and asked him what it was about.  It turned out he had his speedster in it, and he was on his way to Bonneville for the speed trials.  This makes it the second team I meet this trip that is headed to this event.

Navigating East on highway six I got to the intersection of six and 375.  Mr GPS said we needed to go that way but I had my doubts.  However, I noticed that this was called the Extraterrestrial Highway, and that just seemed too good to pass on, even though the sign also said ‘Next Gas 111 miles’.  Oh well, I just topped off the tank, and probably had enough for at least 112 miles.  Learning why it is called the Extraterrestrial Highway is gonna require some research on my side, or yours, but one thing that was noticable is that in the pitch black tarmac something glittered or twinkled in the sun light.  It was as if I was riding on the Milky Way.

Signs also warned about low flying aircraft, but they never showed up.  About mid way the small town of Rachel blipped onto my radar.  No gas here, but there sure were a lot of space craft looking things.  Having a gazillion miles still ahead of me, the alien ware was something I could pass on, so I continued rolling down the highway.

By mile 111, a gas station at the town of Alamo provided the much needed fuel, as well as lunch.  Gas stations are the places to meet people, and sure enough, a guy in his 60s came over to talk BeMWu shop, of course.  He has two of them, an old R75/5, and a F800ST.  The R75/5 is an old BMW boxer design from the 1970s which he uses for long trips, while the F800ST bike is a sport touring machine which he enjoys for short trips because it ‘has more torque and is peppier’.

The journey today took me through Joshua tree plains, long desolate flat deserts, mesas, and twistie forest roads.  At one of the many crosses between Nevada and Utah I dismounted again to pray for the captives, bringing to mind Jame’s call to be doers of the word.  The orange flag with this words now hangs from the barbed wire fence at the border.

I approached Cannonville from the West, through the wonderful orange and pink rock formations of the Dixie National Forest.  Tomorrow is a more restful day.  I will spend part of it at the Kodachrome Basin, just a few miles from here, and then prepare for another long haul from here to Durango, Colorado.