Days 17 (Denver to Iowa)

We got up and went to leave and I noticed my rear tire was worn down to the belts so we looked for a place to get it changed. We ended up finding a pretty cool store just outside Denver that gave us a good deal on the tires. We dropped off the bikes and new tires next door and we went to lunch. We met a guy there that told us about the 13 years he served in prison for attempted first degree murder on an officer.
After the tires were done we headed out for a really boring ride to Iowa. All day we rode along the edge of a massive storm that stretched as far as you could see in both directions. Luckily we missed rain all day and the highway was completely dry. This was one of the most boring rides and if I ever ride a trip from that direction again I would be happy to ride for an extra day just to avoid that stretch of road.

We got a bit turned around getting to the hotel as it was about 3:00 in the morning. We got pulled over doing 71 in a 60. The officer was pretty nice after I explained what happened and where we were going. We didn't end up getting tickets.

We got to the hotel and the girl at the desk was a bit of a jerk. I asked for a late check out as it was already 3 am and checkout was 11 am. She told us it was for premium members only. So we went to our room and fell asleep. We were woken up be a drunk Mexican asshole who kept banging on our door. Mike told him to go away. He did. For 10 minutes and came back. After mike had some not so kind words for him he left for good. I believe his words were "This isn't your fucking room dumb shit!" As tired and angry as i was at being woken up like that i could not help but burst into laughter.

Day 16 (Aspen to Denver)

I woke up with a semi wet tent. Apparently I forgot to close the outer zipper which keeps the outer shell tight so it doesn't touch the inner part. We they touched and it dripped on my sleeping bag. I couldn't figure out why my feet felt cold until I woke up in the light. Luckily the sun was out and it was fairly warm so iI could dry out my tent. As usual Mike got up pretty late so my tent was fully dry/clean/packed by the time he got up.

We left the camp site and headed into aspen. As we pulled up to McDonald's we thought someone got shot or something but it turns out there was a bear in a tree and the cops were stopping everyone from getting too close. We left the McDonald's on our way to pikes peak. The roads were pretty narrow but we managed to get to pike Forrest in about half the estimated time. Take that Google maps!

We pulled up to the pikes toll booth and the lady informed us basically that we didn't want to go up as there was going to be rain in about 2 hours. I knew it wasn't going to take that long to get up and down so we paid the lady our $12 each and headed up the hill. The road was pretty covered in junk as they had a serious rain storm the day before so I didn't get to make a wicked awesome video like I wanted but the peak was really nice. There was a gift shop and snack bar there so I got myself a pretzel and snapped some pictures. The air is so thin up there that both me and mike felt really light headed. We sat down for a bit and then rode back down the mountain where we were greeted by a rain storm. We threw on our rain gear and rode through. It was only about 20 minutes and then another 2-3 minutes down the road. So far we are winning with the rain.

We rode into Denver and found a $50 room at the super 8. I felt my chain skip on the front sprocket when I tried to pass someone today so I walked over to the parts place across the street. They had a free tool rental program so I got a 30mm socket and torque wrench and adjusted my chain. After some lube it seems good as new. We are FINALLY going to see batman. Figures the place we get the time will be the place a bunch of people got shot seeing the same movie we are going to see. Wouldn't it be crazy if the cause of our death was not the 12,000km motorcycle trip that everyone thought was so dangerous but instead was simply going to see a movie?

Here's to hoping we don't die.

Day 15 (Salt Lake City to Aspen)

We got up and decided to go for a swim in the pool. The water was a bit cold but nothing compared to the ocean so we swam for a bit dried off and left. We drove around the corner and started to do an oil change. We couldn't get the drain plug off Mikes bike so I changed mine and away we went.

Mike wanted to go check out the outlet mall which we thought was on the way but once we checked Google maps we found out we had to go back about 35 miles and then take a different road to get to Aspen. We found our way and drove for a long time. We needed fuel as it was getting pretty close to my fuel light and the sign said last gas for 68 miles. We didn't want to take the chance so we stopped.

After we got gas Mike wanted to rest for a bit so we pulled into the shade and lounged around. A couple bikers pulled up and one referenced the fact that "times like this make me glad I got my .45" as he walked into the store to buy a beer. The thing that made him say that was there was a tranny walking around with some weird costume on. Then the other biker sat down next to me and started rolling a joint. He looked over at me and said "I hope you're not offended". I wasn't but being that we were in Utah and i have heard from lots of people that drugs and Utah shouldn't mix. So we left there promptly and headed to Aspen.

It was really nice driving on curvy roads after the boring drives the 2 days before. We stopped at Walmart in Rifle, Co. for dinner. It was probably the best meal we had for $5 the whole trip (Chicken wings, pogos and chicken tenders Yum!). We got to the camp site after dark and setup our stuff. We couldn't get the fire going as everything was a bit damp. Our redneck liquid fire starter (gasoline) did the trick. We had a huge although stinky fire in seconds. After about 10 minutes it rained for about 10-15 minutes. I had a brilliant idea to take shelter in the bear food locker as we had not yet set up our tents. We sat by the fire again for a while after the rain stopped but eventually it rained really hard so we went to our tents. It rained hard for another 10 minutes then stopped and the sky completely cleared up. We were already in bed so we just went to sleep.

Day 14 (Reno to Salt Lake City)

We woke up and decided our chains needed to be actually cleaned before we re-lubed them. We made a huge mess in the parking lot of the hotel with the dripping dirty chain cleaner. We did a pretty thorough job on the chains which put us behind schedule again. We drove on a super boring drive all the way to salt lake city. The salt flats were pretty nice and we drove right by Bonneville speedway. I don't know if it was the idea of riding along the salt flats or what got into us but we made the last tank and a half of gas pretty short time wise but fairly long in the distance covered. Terrible gas millage but fun to ride.

We wound up spending half an hour looking for a KOA in salt lake as it was dark and the whole city was under construction. We got to the camp ground and it turned out to be an RV park. The pool was closed and the internet didn't work. We went to Denny's for dinner and used their wifi to plan the rest of the trip. We went back to the site and everyone at the park was sleeping. I tried to go to sleep but they built the site was right next to a train yard and for some reason the driver had the need to blow the whistle for 10-20 seconds at a time every other minute. There was also a main road about 20 feet away from the tent and an airport pretty close to the site. Not a good combo for a good sleep.

Day 13 (San Francisco to Reno)

We spent the morning in San Francisco. Well apparently its a $5 toll per bike to go back. Jerks! I have no idea why anyone would want to go to San Francisco. It was over crowded and people were generally rude. The highlight was a family of performers from England who although not great in acrobatic skill were very good at performing. It was to be expected because they were trying to raise money to go to acrobat school. The shop staff stood out on the street and tried to had you stuff so you would feel obligated to buy it.

We left San Francisco on our way to Reno. We checked into our hotel and headed out to the strip.
It was just crazy how weird it was. Everyone was old. It was as if you captured Las Vegas from 40 years ago and remade it. We walked into this art performance thing at the end of the street. It was pretty strange. Mike suggested we leave before we got ass raped. I agreed. We got some food from what Mike called the worlds oldest short order cook. He was working the whole show by himself and he looked to be about 70. The beers were cheap at $2 for tall cans but unlike Vegas you can't take drinks out of the buildings. After that we decided to walk back to the motel. On the way after stopping for snacks there was a group of bikers. We proceeded to walk down a dark alleyway to get around them. We made it back to the hotel without getting bothered.

Day 12 (Monterey to Oakland)

Well we left our crappy motel and headed for San Francisco. I wanted to stop at Facebook/apple/Google but we didn't have enough time. On the way we had to take a unplanned detour from the highway. Mike had to pee which coincided perfectly with the fact that we were driving fairly fast and there was a cop doing radar we passed. As we went to get back on the cop was also getting on the highway the other way to go back to where he was sitting. We got lucky on that one. That was the best hiding spot. Kudos chp. After that we got to San Francisco. I have to say, all of northern California is awful. The weather is always cold and the fog they always have is terrible. We found a great deal on a hotel but it was in Oakland. The reviews said it was a decent place so we booked it. Once we got there it was like something out of a movie. Drug dealers and crackheads. Great!  We wanted to finally go see batman but we decided against it. Coming back to the hotel at 1:30am was not my idea of a good time.

Day 10 (L.A. to Santa Barbra)

We rode back to the ranch for the last time and I had the biggest breakfast in my life. As we were sitting there 2 1199s's pulled up and parked right beside my bike. We then rode back down the 2 on our way to mullholland. We made the mistake of finding mullholland Dr and not highway. Not the same thing at all. After we found the snake it was pretty interesting. The best part was it was completely empty. After that we headed out to Santa Barbra. It was pretty cold out there to the point we had to put on sweaters while riding. We ended up at another national forest for the night. Tonight was the first time we had our own fire. I made the mistake of setting up my tent on a slope I didn't see. We need to work on getting to places before it gets dark.