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At the beginning of April, I rode my '07 Venture to KC to help my brother out after having back surgery. Due to a variety of unforeseen circumstances, I ended up leaving the bike in his barn and fly back home to San Jose. Fast forward a month and my son wrapped up his 1st year of college in St. Louis and wanted to drive home and see some of our National Parks along the way. We threw together a quick plan, made some reservations and my wife & I jumped on a plane to KC to pick up the bike and meet my son to start the journey. As it turned out, my wife never got on the bike with me as we only packed warm weather riding gear for her. There were only two days that would have been appropriate for her riding with me. I was extremely tired from a long hike on the 1st day and the 2nd was a miserably hot day going into Vegas. So, the trip highlights, in order: Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs (highly recommend!) Royal Gorge Bridge (cool to see, but not my favorite) Highway 50 from Colorado Springs to Montrose (2 of the best days of riding scenery I've ever had....at this point...) Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP Arches NP (amazing! Did a nice hike to Delicate Arch) Bryce Canyon NP (pretty cool, but not something I would make a trip just to see, but I was also wiped out from the ride there.) Zion NP (Wowsers of all wowsers!) We did the Angel's landing hike on day 1 but I chickened out of the last mile which required holding on to chains as you climbed up with a straight dropoff 1500' down! 2nd day we hiked the Narrows @ Zion, best hike ever! We rented water boots/socks & poles as the hike is up a river in water that ranges from ankle to waist deep. We got very deep into the slot canyons & had to climb up a couple of small waterfalls, fallen trees, boulders, etc. It was quite an adventure! Was completely wiped out at the end of the day. Las Vegas - hmm, I actually don't have a lot of good to say about Vegas itself, the strip is way overbuilt, overcrowded and apparently a favorite hangout for pot smokers (to each his own, its just not my thing and I don't like to be around it - and it was inescapable). But, the highlight from our day in Vegas was at the Vegas speedway. My son & I each took 5 laps behind the wheel in a 760HP Shelby GT500 Mustang! That's an unreal amount of power and one intense experience. And now, the favorite part of the trip for all three of us: The drive down highway 128 from I-70 to Moab (on our way to Arches). By chance, we met a couple from Ohio the day before who recommended taking 128, even though every mapping app does not tell you to go that way. We said what the heck, let's check it out. OMG! And I say that with all due respect because the one thought that kept popping into my mind on hiway 128 was "This must be where God goes to hang out on his day off..." If you ever make it westward, hiway 128 is an absolute must see. Its ~40 miles and will take an hour to drive. I hate to oversell it, but I am not ashamed to admit that the beauty of this place literally moved me to tears. Perhaps my expectations were so low that they were easy to exceed. Perhaps its some weird manopause hormonal thing I got goin on that made me tear up. Perhaps I need to get out more. But in any case, after a little over 2,000 miles in 9 days, 4 National Parks in 4 days, it was the favorite part of the trip for all three of us. Highly recommended! And my love of my Venture just grows deeper! I got more than one "Nice Bike!" comment along the way.

Recent technical events made me think of keeping a ride journal / logbook / diary. A brother of mine has always done this with surfing outings, it seemed silly to me years ago when we were younger but looking back it has more than one time put the pieces of a trip together we couldn’t quite recall, and put a smile on our faces. Anyway I was thinking it could help with technical issues in the future as well as serve as a written memory of each ride. Maybe just a five minute routine of jotting time/date, location, weather, whom with, anomalies…etc. Just wondering if anyone else does this and what they include. It wouldn’t be digital for my initial thought, a leather bound book to keep in the saddlebags.

Pretty cool idea! I just finished a 9-day trip and took some pictures along the way for memories, but there was much more to the trip than what was captured in photos.

Yep! I’ll even send it back vacuum packed with indicator card free of charge 🤓

If I send you mine can you dry mine for me. My wife won't let me near anything in the kitchen.

As we all know, Wind Therapy is very important for our well being. Ride safe.

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?

Heavenly Father, Lord we humbly come to you on behalf of our brother Dennis. You know all that happened with him and what he's going through right now. We ask for 1st of all your healing power in his body, we also ask for the peace that only you can give for him and his family. As it says in Matthew 18:19-20 19) “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20) For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Lord we ask for peace and healing in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior....Amen.

I personally like paying the $12. Keeps the riffraff out. (Somehow I made the cut 🤫). What I don’t see here that I see in just about every free car forum out there is endless bashing of ideas or questions. I don’t have to sift through 50 -100 posts looking for the three that may help me. I don’t see discouragement. I see genuine honest people with similar interests having a good time.