30 November, 2009

Continuation of the Blue Mamba Trail

I left the story of the road trip unfinished. It’s about time I return to telling that story even though it’s now been 3 months since the events described below occurred

So I left off outside of Denver. Growing up in Chambersburg, PA, I enjoyed hiking in the mountains. Going up tumbling run or to the top of flat rock were always activities that allowed me to appreciate the beauty of God’s creation. The journey out to and from Taylor University in Indiana for the years I attended, I always used to look forward to getting into the mountains of Central PA on the way back, and dread leaving them as I got to hours of flat, boring driving in Ohio and Indiana. After traveling Route 40 from Denver to Salt Lake City, Utah, I recognize that people in the West might not refer to the Appalachians as mountains but rather hills.

The ride was gorgeous. There were steep climbs, beautiful overlooks, picturesque valleys, and fun curves to ride up and down. Hours straight of this made for a great day, until late afternoon when I reached a stretch of road that few people travel. During the stretch of US 40 in the West of Colorado and the far east of Utah, I traveled over an hour where I passed maybe 5 vehicles headed towards me and didn’t see a single vehicle headed in the same direction as me. The scenery by this time had become much more dull than the previous hours through central Colorado had been, so the monotony only made me more tired. In that stretch, there was around 50 miles or so between gas stations (or any business or point of interest whatsoever), so I’m extremely glad that the bike didn’t experience any problems and leave me stranded so far from anything.

After staying the night somewhere east of Salt Lake City, the following day I headed northwest into Idaho. There were some nice views and scenery along this stretch, but the best part of this stretch was Twin Falls, Idaho. I never thought much of Idaho other than laughing at Napoleon Dynamite, and a previous trip across a 20 mile or so stretch of southeastern Idaho with a couple friends 5 years before didn’t leave much of Idaho itself to really talk about. The Snake River Gorge on the eastern edge of Twin Falls is absolutely stunning, though. It really is a postcard type of view, and after a brief stop, I realized I might could actually enjoy spending more time in the city on another visit. But, I pushed on to try to make Boise for the night where I hoped to find lodging with someone from back home in Chambersburg. So after passing by the Humanitarian Bowl’s blue turf football stadium, I pulled into the apartment complex where I was to stay for just the night.

After a night’s sleep, I got up and went out to prep the bike for a journey that I intended to begin before 8am. When I got outside, though, I realized that the motorcycle had leaked petrol out of the overflow tube all night as a strong odor of gasoline and a discolored pool and trail across the blacktop led to the drain in the parking lot. Knowing this was not a good sign, I went to my gracious host for some help. And thanks to the friendliness and generosity of Michael, his roommate, and their friends, I managed to get a couple of guys to help me analyze the problem and see if there was anything that could be done. It turned out the carburetor had a problem and the gas just kept running into the engine and was being spilled out as well as being spit back even into the air filter box under the seat. Considering my lack of mechanical experience or skill, this was not anything I was going to be able to do on my home. With Rob’s great coaching (and a lot of his work), I was able to get things apart and clean the carbs. When it came to resetting the float level, however, I was unable to get it to work properly and the bike continued having problems after spending more than a day taking it apart and putting it back together again. Thankfully at least I had a place to stay and some good company. And, there was a BMW motorcycle dealership in town that I was able to take the bike to that was able to get it looked at and fixed in a couple days time. But after a four day unexpected stay in Boise, I was able to continue my journey with some new friends made and a great opportunity in which to see God’s faithfulness and protection.


View from Route 40 in Colorado

Snake River Gorge from the Bridge in Twin Falls

Bridge I crossed in Twin Falls




View US Rockies and Snake River in a larger map

20 November, 2009



You can read the article as well here