Hubbard Motorcycle Adventures

DAY 52. LAS VEGAS TO BISHOP. 541 km Today was " D Day " - Death Valley day. There was a certain amount of trepidation in the camp as recent temperature recordings in the valley were 51 Deg C , 50 Deg C, 51 Deg C etc etc. in other words bloody hot consistently day after day. So the cunning plan hatched over a few beers in Las Vegas was to hit the road by 6 am at the very latest and get thru Death Valley before to much of the afternoon heat. And I was a little worried as to how the air cooled BMW engines would cope with the 4,000 ft climb out of the valley in those conditions. Such conditions of course do not exist near the Munich testing grounds in the Bavarian hills. Somewhere up on that hill is a sign that says sea level - Minus 268 ft ! Well would you believe dear reader , and I kid you not, but it rained on us in Death Valley and we got cold. They get about one inch of rain a year in Death Valley. Just before we got there there was one and

DAY. 49. TORREY TO KAIBAB.         545 km The first theme of the day was. " Oh Dear ". This was caused by deer coming out of the bushes and crossing the road or threatening to cross the road in front of the bike. Not a good look ! Then we came around a corner and there was a pickup truck with two chaps on camouflage gear standing on the tray. The truck was moving slowly down the road and they were scanning the bushes on the side of the road. They had bows and a quiver of arrows each As I passed I Dort of half waited for the sensation of an arrow piercing the gap between my shoulder blades. Then I realized that it was not my problem. I had Diana on the back shielding me! She is a good wife! From there it was a trip down thru Escalante and then down to Bryce National Park. Another glorious Park. In fact I think Bryce might be the pick of the bunch for all the parks we have visited From Bryce it was on to Zion National park which can only be accessed by sh

DAY 42 SALT LAKE CITY TO CRAIG. 470km If you have to leave Salt Lake City and are worried about the traffic then 7.00am on a Sunday morning is a pretty good time to do it. The sunrise was spectacular as we headed over the pass to the East We stopped at Vernal for a break about mid morning. The town was delightful with about 2km of hanging baskets in the street and hundreds of American flags. I have always been not sure about excessive displays of patriotism but somehow this seemed to not only be appropriate but rather touching. I have to sat the American flag does look good and it reinforces my thoughts that we need a radical revamp of the New Zealand flag. Then it was a stop at the dinosaur quarry where you can see the dinosaur bones bedded in the rock. At 64 million years old they do have a bit of age "The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone and the hip bone is connected to......" Certainly in another 64 million years I do not think they will f

DAY. 37. JACKSON TO HAILEY. 430km First off today was a lovely blast thru the rural roads of Idaho flanked by fields of wheat of an almost impossibly golden colour. As we headed West the temperature started climbing and climbing and climbing and by the time we got to Idaho Falls for lunch it was reading 35 deg C on the temperature gauge. We were now getting into seriously hot country. It is hard to reconcile these temperatures with the fact that the roads have high snow poles on each sides and numerous chaining up pullovers. It is a land of temperature extremes . A land of wheat and corn and plenty- And plenty of patriotism The afternoon however was the real wake up call. We found ourselves on a 120 km virtually straight road with temperatures climbing to almost 38deg C The road just shimmered into the distance Slightly sobering was the fact that we were passing thru a huge Nuclear test area where they build experimental feeder reactors and test them. I