National Park And Triple-D Tour 2010

OK, I now have something to write about. The National Park/Triple-D motorcycle tour got off to a slow (or maybe I should say fast) start with three straight days of burning miles on I-40 west. We (Pit Stop, Diamond Jim, and me) made nightly stops in Nashville, Fort Smith, and Tucumcari, before exiting the interstate for good on Tuesday and heading towards Durango on back roads through rural New Mexico and Colorado.

I am a fan of Guy Fieri's Food Network show, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, and I have my list of Triple-D establishments with me. I had hoped to eat at some of the establishments on my list on the ride west, but the closest we came was lunch at Lucille's Roadhouse on old Route 66 (adjacent to I-40) a little west of Oklahoma City on Monday. While never frequented by Guy Fieri, Lucille's served up some classic American road food in nostalgic Route 66 surroundings.

We were shooting for lunch at Ogilvie's in Taos on Tuesday, but discovered upon arrival that Ogilvie's is now The Gorge Bar and Grill...so we ate at the Gorge Bar and Grill, presumably named after the Rio Grande Gorge that we rode over as we exited Taos, heading for Durango.

In Durango Tuesday evening, we were looking forward to dinner and music at Scoot'N Blues, but discovered upon arrival that Scoot'N Blues is now The Irish Embassy Pub...so we ate at the Irish Embassy Pub. Anybody see a pattern here?

After taking care of some minor mechanical problems in Durango Wednesday morning we headed for Torrey, Utah. Handlebar Motorsports in Durango deserves a shout-out for getting us in and out quickly, and fixing the problems on my Venture and Jim's Goldwing for a very reasonable price.

Torrey sits on the western edge of Capitol Reef National Park. We plan on spending three nights here while exploring the surrounding area. Today we rode south down Highway 12 from Torrey to Escalante. This has to be one of the most picturesque roads in the country with major changes in topography every few miles of the 65 mile distance. Here are some samples.



The Aspens are putting on a beautiful show of yellow and gold right now.

You can see the road down below that we rode to get up to the point whee I took this picture.

Ron took a picture of Jim taking a picture of me sitting on a rock.

A very cool rock formation that looks like a giant alien brain.

The Escalante Petrified Forest State Park seemed like a good thing to see. To actually see some petrified wood required a fairly strenuous two-mile hike to the top of a mesa where you can view a couple of dozen pieces of pretty old wood turned to stone. The best use I could think of for old wood turned to stone was a place to rest.

Jim couldn't help trying to unbalance the balancing rock.

I never met a lizard I didn't like.

Tomorrow we check out Capitol Reef.