Coast2Coast Day 3 - Footloose and Tank Bag Free

There's a highway a few miles north of Phoenix called the Care Free Highway. Great name. That's as far north as I've ever been in Phoenix. Up to that point on the trip all of the roads I had already driven. As I passed under the overpass at the Carefree Highway, I closed my eyes for a quick second, took a little breath, and as I opened my eyes I emerged in completely new territory. From that point on, it was all new to me.

The heat in Phoenix was getting nasty early. It's 50 miles from Phoenix until you begin to climb to the plateau towards Flagstaff. The weather cooled off immediately and has been perfect for the remainder of the trip (thus far).

On the way up the hill a bird flew into the roof racks of the SUV directly in front of me! Feathers just exploded everywhere. It wasn't a good feather explosion... like a pillow fight at a sorority house. It was a bad explosion. Nasty!

At my first fuel stop I met a couple who are adventure touring for a month in the southwest. Spencer was riding a huge KTM, and his wife Sam has a F650GS similar to Gwen's. We snapped a couple of photos... I'll post those later. But Sam had a really cool "Care Suck" sticker across her windscreen.

I didn't dilly-dally around in Flagstaff. My goal was to make it to Monument Valley quickly, then I could begin taking time and screwing around. The scenery in Utah is unbelievable. It's constantly changing and always startling.

Monument Valley was cool. There is a 4 mile road from the main highway to the visitor center. About half way up the road there was a herd of goats and this really scrappy looking dog herding them along. I caught the eye of the dog (being on a motorbike, I guess I looked different or threatening) and he took his best shot at ripping my right leg off as I drove past! Thank goodness for motorcycle boots. I think my boxer motor clipped him a little, probably saving my ass.

After a nice break at Monument Valley I stormed on. There's a crappy, one horse town called Mexican Hat in Utah. It's called Mexican Hat because of a rock formation that looks like a sombrero. After fueling up I met up with another biker who I had met earlier in the day. His name is Mike and he's riding from Texas, touring the entire southwest on a really tricked out HD 1200 Sportster.

Mike was cool. He wasn't a "Harley Guy." He wore a textile touring suit and didn't fit the typical Harley Biker mold. We hit it off right away and I hung out at his camp for quite a while chatting.

For some reason, the day got away from me. I rode until nearly dark and pulled into Moab at 7:50.

By the way, I should mention that my arse was killing me. It's not really that bad though. The real health concern is my wrist. Years of spending too much time mousing on the computer has left me with the beginnings of carpal tunnel. My ring finger is completely numb from the long miles and the karting.

We'll see how this progresses.

By the numbers:
States today: 2 AZ & UT
Miles today: 475.3
Miles total: 892.7


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