Thursday, September 9, 2010

Topsy Turvy at Timanogos Caves

Up at 1am, turn the coffee on and said this is ridiculous and went back to bed. Alarm off at 3am, out of bed and pored the coffee this time. Woke up MeAsWe. Tavana picks us up at 4am and off to TF Greene for a flight at 6am. We were ready but Delta wasn't, delayed the flight 40 minutes. TSA really checked out our stuff, tearing it all apart. The agent pulled all stuff out of the tank bag and finally said he was looking for 3 round discs showing up on the Xray. MeAsWe said probably the magnets that keeps the tankbag attached to the bike. Guy smiles and says you are all set.

Hit Minneapolis at 9, walk 10 miles, burn 10,000 calories and used up all the cortizone in my knees. Have coffee with my brother John and his wife Heika at Starbucks.



Walk back 10 miles, burn another 10,000 calories to the gate but stop here to add to my collection of shot glasses



Back thru security and they didn't even bat an eye this time.

Plane sets down in Salt Lake City at 1pm. Grag a cab to Bailey's, notate some scratches on the bike and we are out of there at 3pm right on plan.

Riding out of Salt Lake City





Head out I215 to I15 and make our way to UT92. This is the road that leads to Timpanogos Cave National Monument. As soon as we pass thru the US Forest check point, I found myself weaving all over the road from looking up at the mountains to both sides. Immediate eye candy and I am addicted. Focus back on the road. This is one awesome road as well. Grab our INK and watched the video on the caves. To get to the caves it is 1.5 mile hike up the mountain, which neither my knees nor MeAsWe hips will take. The movie was the tour one would take with a ranger. At the end of the movie I cursed my knees for not allowing me to hike up the mountain.





Some pictures along UT92







We reached the summit which was around 8400' which is no big deal to you westerners but for us in the New England it is. Mt Washington is the highest point in the northeast at 6288. Heading back down 92 we find ourselves on many swithbacks and steep decents. The road is narrow and one only hopes you don't get run down by an over zealous truck on the way up.

We pick up US189 to US 40. Moving right along and the temps drop to 45. Brrr. Pull over and put on our Frogg Toggs for another layer. Works great but we end up pulling over again to put the pants on as well. I hit the GPS for elevation and find we are cruising at 8000+ feet. As soon as we drop 1000' we pick up 10 degrees.

At 6pm Utah time and 8pm Mass time we grab our first food for the day at this place



Mandatory food shot. Chili here was great, the hamburger was just a hamburger.



Back on the road. Alan told us we should always get gas when we have a chance. Even though we have only gone 75 miles, we fill up heeding his advice, since Vernal is another 125 miles.

Pics along US 40







GPS says we were going to hit the Super 8 at 9:07. It's always right. There is probably speeling errors and grammatical goofs, because my editor is fast asleep. It has been along day, but the start of this journey couldn't be better.



7 comments:

Jan said...

Nice First Day...may all the remaining ones be as amazing!!!

Unknown said...

Nice read Bill. Just getting ready to head out for Stowe. I'll catch up when we're back.
Have a great trip,
Rich

Anonymous said...

Awesome trip Willy! have fun and looking forward to reading more!!

osj

Anonymous said...

The editor is now WIDE AWAKE and has spotted some typing errors and missing words. I should have known he wasn't joking about posting a pic of me sleeping...geez...when will I learn. Otherwise, well written as usual, Willie!

MeAsWe

p.a.henderson55@gmail.com said...

If you can't be there, following Willie around virtually is the next best thing!

Anonymous said...

Looks like a great trip so far!! How could you tell the new scratches from the old....just sayin :)

Magilla

Anonymous said...

Hard way to interrupt your trip. Hope you heal fast Crystal and we are glad only the bike bit the dust
John