Day 16 Zion National Park

Chuck and I roomed together again and 6:30 AM came quickly. I finished my computer work last night about 12:30 AM and finally made it to bed. We got dressed, packed and walked to the lobby area for the breakfast room. The others soon joined us. The weather was great for a motorcycle ride. We soon finished our breakfast and returned to our rooms to pack our Motors for the day's ride. Knowing that Chuck was my roommate and his history of forgetting stuff, I made my normal sweep of the room. There wasn't much left in the room when I walked out. All of my stuff was out of the room and on my Motor. Chuck had a bag, jacket and helmet in the room. I thought that that shouldn't be hard to miss. Chuck went back into the room to go to the restroom one last time. I was at my Motor setting my Navigation System. Chuck came out of the room, closed the door and went to his Motor. We were all set to go and then rode to the lobby to check out. We left at 9:25 AM.

C.E. was in the lead and took us out of town and south on I-15. As we were getting onto the freeway, the winds were very strong. We traveled on I-15 for a short time and then got off onto Hwy 17. The road took us through small towns and farming communities. We stopped in LaVerkin, UT. at 10:04 AM and after riding for 44 miles, we stopped at a Chevron gas station to take a pit stop. We were all parked at the side of the gas station drinking, (water and pop, NOT alcohol!), and talking when Chuck had this look on his face. It was like his whole world fell! He was noticing that all of the Motors had a bag on the back rack except Ken's. He thought that Ken's Motor didn't had a bag on the back of his Motor like his...and then the world fell! He told us that he had left his bag back in the motel in Cedar City. I got on my cell phone and called the Motel and spoke with the gentleman behind the desk. He told me that he would go to our room and take the bag to the lobby. I told him that Chuck would be returning to pick it us. Chuck got on his Motor and left us. He told us that we could go on to Zion and he would catch up with us.

After Chuck left, Jan told me that because I was Chuck's roommate, I was on "probation" because I let Chuck forget his bag. I told Jan that I would much rather be on "probation" than be on the "blog" because of something I did or didn't do! Jan said that I had a good point. We weren't going to go on to Zion. We moved our Motors to the other side of the building, in the shade and went inside. There was a good size sitting area with tables and chairs inside the store. They had coffee and water inside. This was the Gold Wing guys. Guess what the other two Harley riders, Jan and Bruce, did? There was a Harley store in Zion, about 13 miles away, that they went to. Who would have guessed? They left and we waited.

Chuck rode the 44 miles back to the motel with the wind at his back. He had enough gas to get there. He picked up his bag, gassed up and returned to LaVerkin, where C.E., Ken and I were waiting patiently. Chuck came in and went straight to the restroom, came to us and reloaded his system with another cup of coffee. Minutes later, Jan and Bruce returned from the Harley store. Bruce bought two new t-shirts and a quart of Harley oil for Chuck's Motor. We had a good time talking about the incident and Chuck tried to convince me NOT to include this incident on my blog. I told him that I would consider...NOT! chuck finished his coffee and we left at 12:04 PM.

C.E. led us into Zion Canyon where, 22 miles later we stopped at 12:31 PM for lunch. Jan had told us that if we didn't stop to eat before we entered the Park, we would have to eat much later, as there was no place to eat inside the Park. We finished lunch at 1:35 PM and headed for the Park.

We entered the Park at 1:40 PM, which was only 1 mile from the restaurant. We toured the Park on its many winding, mountainous roads. The landscape was spectacular! We rode into dark tunnels. The first tunnel that we rode in had a sign that told us that the tunnel was dark, put on our headlights and take off our sun glasses. The tunnel was 1.1 miles long and was build, or dug, in 1930. IT WAS DARK! We stopped a few times and took in the splendor and took pictures. We stopped at Checkerboard Mesa and took pictures. A bus load of tourist, German and French, stopped and many cameras were trained on us and our Motors. One gentleman took many photos of Jan's Motor. I told him that that German tourist was probably thinking, "Dat is a good looking Gold Ving!" We left in unison and the cameras were clicking away! We had ridden 23 miles in the Park and exited at 2:50 PM.

We rode Hwy 9 through more farming communities. We passed a large pasture which had an Ostrich farm. We then passed a Buffalo ranch. The weather was still kind to us and we enjoyed the ride. We stopped in Mt. Carmel, UT. at 3:03 PM after riding 13 miles. we gassed up and then left at 3:11 PM.

Chuck's turn to lead. He led us onto US 89 southbound. Chuck had mentioned at the gas station that he was craving an ice cream and that we would stop for one soon. We stopped in Kanab, UT. at 3:31 PM after riding 21 miles at a gas station with a mini mart. Ken had seen a sign a few miles back about an Ice Cream Parlor. Chuck led us all over Kanab for 7 minutes looking for a Dairy Queen, Cold Stone Creamery or SOMETHING before stopping at 3:38 PM at a Wendy's. We had Frosties. With our bellies content, we left at 4:18 PM.

We continued on US 89 and at about 4:15 PM, we crossed into Arizona! Since we were back in Arizona, we gained an hour. Although, did we? We did spend an hour or so waiting for Chuck to ride his 88 miles round trip back to Cedar City to get his bag that he forgot. We stopped at Glen Canyon Visitor's Center at 4:23 PM after riding 74 miles. We, again, did the tourist thing and took a lot of pictures. We left at 5:00 PM.

We only rode for 3 miles and at 5:04 PM we stopped at the Best Western Arizona Inn in Page, AZ. We went in and checked into our rooms. We took our bags into our rooms. Chuck left his "forgotten bag" in his Motor. We changed and all went into the hot tub. It felt sooooo good! When we finished, we changed back into our street clothes and walked to Ken's Steak House" across the street and had dinner. Afterwards, we walked back across the street back to the motel and tucked our Motors in for the night. We spent a little time talking in the lobby. Chuck and I couldn't get on the Internet on our laptops. Chuck did his blog on the motel computer. I chose to wait until the morning.

We rode 191 miles today. Chuck rode an additional 88. Tomorrow before we leave Page, AZ. and our motel, we ALL will check Chuck's and my room to make sure that Chuck doesn't forget anything. We plan to ride towards Show Low, AZ. tomorrow. That should be a nice ride. After a night in Show Low, it will be time to go home. So, until tomorrow...