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.