Arches

Up early so I can get back to Arches. It’s 20 miles away so I’m already behind, since I was hoping to wake up there. As I’m packing up my stuff, the Camp Nazi comes up to me and chews me out for coming in too late and leaving too early. He says my motorbike makes too much noise and that I came there just to wake people up. I tried to apologize, but as soon as I said the word “sorry” he snapped, “no you’re not!” Well. Not any more. Jerk. I almost delayed Arches another day so I could come back and wake him up the next night too.

But I had to get moving.

Arches was amazing. There are rocks. And arches. And I didn’t see the Roadrunner or Wile E. Coyote. But I did get to see this:

Cue “Lubbock in my rear view mirror”

Ok, that was way too many pictures, but it was pretty cool. I want to come back sometime when I have something I can take off road. They have some awesome looking back roads. Technically I was on the perfect bike for it, but loaded down with all my gear, and running behind schedule, I opted to stay on the pavement.

Now, off to Salt Lake City!

I came here just to get some pics of the Salt Lake LDS Temple. It’s kind of hard to photograph since it’s surrounded by tall buildings in downtown, but it is quite beautiful.

I tried to get it, but it is closed to visitors. I tried to talk my way in, but when I couldn’t do the secret handshake, they turned me down.

The size of the complex, the attention to detail, the obviously huge amounts of money and power, I haven’t seen anything like that since Catholicism in Europe.

Many of the other buildings in the complex are open, but I had gotten the photos I needed. Besides, I was starting to think I was in a department store – everyone was in a white shirt, tie, and nametag. It was eerie.

All in all I recommend it, the gardens are beautiful and the tour guides are friendly and knowledgeable.

Ok, enough of that, on to Grand Teton National Park!

Cross into Wyoming:

And back and forth between Utah and Wyoming like 8 times. What a stupid road.

And Idaho?

I didn’t even know I was going to be in Idaho. Am I on the right road?

Not 10 miles down the road, a fuse blows in the bike and I’m stranded on the side of the road. I think I find the problem, get a new fuse, and on the road again.

50 miles down the road, a fuse blows in the bike and I’m stranded at a gas station, that closed 5 minutes ago. Luckily I picked up some tools during my last breakdown, so I fix everything up nice and tidy. There should be no more wiring problems, everything is awesome.

15 miles down the road (in the middle of NOWHERE, and in the pitch black) the fuse blows again. Since it’s electrical, there are no headlights. I’m 13 miles from the nearest streetlight, it’s pitch black, and I’m doing 75mph. Not fun. But I safely stopped, replaced the fuse, and decided to stop using the suspect circuit.

The problem was with the cigarette lighter, I had plugged in an inverter so I could charge up the laptop (so I can write these genius updates for you all) and something with that was killing fuses left and right. Ok, no inverter and no laptop, I’ll just stick with the normal GPS charging. To top it off, when I unplugged the laptop, I found that the battery had disconnected, so it hadn’t even charged at all the entire time.

It’s been a long day.

With all the breakdowns, I’m still a few hours from Grand Teton. Add to that my frustration, the cold, and the fresh impression of the Camp Nazi, I decide to just stay at the first place I can find. Luckily, I happen upon another National Forest and find a camp ground.

Odometer Reading: 8218

Elapsed Miles: 4,572

Lessons Learned

People in Utah are ultra helpful. Which is great if you need help (broken down on the side of the road). But when you don’t need it, it can get a little annoying.

Cheap electronics should NEVER share a fuse with anything.

The “engineer” at Bell who “designed” the cigarette lighter I bought should be shot. Then fired. And I just happen to know an engineer that can take his place.