Kansas....waste of a state?

Maybe it is from being in Colorado and Utah so long, but Kansas is really a slap in the face. Took all day to drive across some of the worst weather of the trip, plus the only toll road of the whole trip....seriously, I gotta pay for this? Gas mileage really takes a crap when you are pushing against a 40 mph wind....got about 8 mpg on the last tank. No interesting pics, so you get hay bales and a freaky cloud.....thats all I got.

We needed paddle tires for this...

Our home for 3 days

Ouray Colorado has been our home for the last 3 days. Not a bad place to hang out for a bit. Our hotel has natural hot springs that they use to heat a bunch of hot tubs. There is a nice mexican joint and a few pubs on Main Street, and everything is in walking distance. The waitresses in the Mexican place laughed at us last night (our 2nd night there) cause we were the guys who don't like sitting next to each other. For some reason they put the chairs at the tables next to each other, and we have to rearrange the chairs across from each other so we don't look fruity. I guess dudes in Colorado are a little more friendly with each other....or at least smell better.

There is tons of riding areas around here....hwy 550 (the "million dollar hwy") takes us towards Silverton and Durango and is know all over the world as one of the best motorcycling roads in the US. There is dirt everywhere, and the passes up towards Telluride to the West, and Lake City to the East are also known to be some of the best Jeep trails in Colorado. I could stay here all summer.

Bryan rollin' down the Mountian

Animas Forks / Engineers Pass

This blogging stuff has gotten way too complicated to mess up a vacation.  Here is a link to today's pictures from the coolest place on earth....literally.

http://picasaweb.google.com/brystarks/SilvertonAnimasForksEngineersPass?authkey=Gv1sRgCLGwmLKcsJf27wE&feat=directlink

the view from 12,700 ft on Engineer's Pass

Moab Day 3

Moab Day 2

Catch up

To our loyal followers.  We realize we have neglected you, but would like to explain.  We've had about 2% internets over the past five days, and were really having too much fun to update this frequently.  We are now in Ouray, CO...have the internets, and will be posting pictures shortly.  Stay tuned.

New campsite near Castle Valley.

Headed up onion creek to castle valley.

Park avenue in arches national park.

Headed into Arches.

Shafer trail

You can't see the road, but we just came down that.

Camping in moab.

We are here!

Quick ride looking for a camping spot.

Headed down the hill to Moan.

Glenwood Springs, CO

Safe and sound 4 hours from Moab.  Where's Waldo?  If you can find Geoff in this picture, you win a cookie.

Media overload

The truck has been a mobile command center for the last few days, so I thought I'd share a picture of what we are dealing with. On the left windshield is the Garmin Nuvi GPS Nav for guidance on directions, estimated time of arrival, total mileage, etc. We call her Gladys. On the right side is Bryan's Motorola Droid Phone being used to stream Pandora radio off the internet and played through the truck's stereo system. It is also running Google Navigation with traffic and weather warnings. We both have Macbook laptops that get WiFi from a Verizon MiFi that is up on the dash under the clock.....it basically uses cell signal to give us wireless highspeed internet access for the laptops.

It is cool to be able to download pictures and blog while hanging out in the passenger seat, or just surf the net. The funnies part however, is when we pull off an exit to get gas or whatever. Both GPS devices notice we are off the intended path, and they both start bitching at us in womens's voices, talking over each other and telling us to make legal u-turns and other rubbish. Very funny, but kinda scary at the same time.

Awesome landscape.

Colorado

Getting close to the front range!

Destroyed a crackerbarrel somewhere in middle Kansas. Got another early start so this is more like lunch

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Kansas....Now that is flat.

Flat?

Great day heading west.  We didn't exactly prove the world isn't flat today, as our drive was pretty darn flat.  Other than the hills from Asheville to Nashville, we saw a lot of horizon.  Tomorrow will be another ordeal after we get through the doldrums of Kansas, into the serenity of CO.  We look forward to making that big turn towards the Rockies, and promise to have some great pictures.  Bring on the altitude!

The final tally for day one

Started at a little after 3am (think about that for a minute), and got 882 miles in before calling it quits. We are holed up in Blue Springs, Missouri for the night getting recharged for the sprint across Kansas tomorrow. Looks like we are shooting to end up in Eagle, Colorado tomorrow night, which is cool little town with good food. The trailer is pulling great, after a little scare earlier in the day when we realized that it was riding a little lower on the right side. After much debate and measuring, it turns out the fender was just installed a little lower on that side. Much better than having a bent or broken axle, etc. Gotta get some rest....another 800+ day is in store for tomorrow.

The Gateway

The Beast anxiously awaits!

Almost packed up

Two days to go, and the supplies are piling in!

Explanation

Welcome to the blog of a couple of adventurous souls. Geoff (aka Goofa) and myself (aka Ironman) will be headed out early AM on the 14th of May, with the ultimate destination of Moab, UT. We will have a truck and trailer fully loaded down with camping and motorcycle gear. This trip has always been a dream, and now has become a fruition thanks to our families that might not always understand, but always and thankfully support the "next adventure". We will do our best to keep a daily update of our adventures as we head to Moab, and parts in between. Our ultimate goal is to ride our BMW F800GS's where "no man has been before". Thank you for keeping in touch, and we hope that you enjoy following our adventures Westward! More to come soon!