Finally reached the Salt Lake City and BMW rally

Left Colorado this morning under cloudy skies and even the threat of rain.  It had rained a lot during the night.  I was on the road about 6:30 and was pleasantly surprised that the cloud coverage was keeping the temperatures down.  There was a period where the driving was rather boring and then we started to move up through a mountain pass and then back down again.  Didn’t last too long but was quite a thrill.  Drove as long as my gas tank allowed before pulling into a restaurant.  Met 3 fellows who all belon g to a K1600 club and they all travel together even though each lives in different states like Arizona, Tennessee.    Later I met up with them as well as the Brantford guys when I arrived at the rally.  I was absolutely shocked when when I crossed the the Utah border – never seen anything so desolate – nothing but patchy weeds, sand – all flat like pictures of mars.  Even stranger, there were signs saying ‘Welcome to Utah’ and then another sign saying no services for 60 miles.    Rather than travel with the 3 K1600’s, Ieft on my own – thinking I just might get a chance for pictures without holding them up.  Alas, there wasn’t much to photography and before long I was on a 5 lane highway for 50 miles heading intocon Salt Lake City and the temperature was rising rapidly.  It was hovering around 36C and the handlebars were getting hot to handle, I thought.  It could have been the tension in my hands from all the traffic.

 

 

Arriving early, the day before  the official opening of the rally was a little tricky as there were lots of people but no one who seemed to know much and the temperature continued to rise.    Finally had a walk around, found my tent all set up,talked to a bunch of the people here.   A lot of them are planning on heading north to Yellowstone park, the same as me.  So, I made a decision to change my plans.  I  will leave Saturday morning rather than Sunday morning.  It will mean I avoid one more day of heat here and will probably miss some cool bands playing on Saturday night but I can live with that.

So, tomorrow is my first full day at the rally.  Chaning the oil in the bike is the only activity I have planned for the first day so probably won’t have much to blog about…. We’ll see.