Day 4: To Moab Utah

Today we left the hotel in Ouray where we had spent three nights to drive to Moab Utah, where we will spend the next three nights. The ride started out on rural paved road and then we hit dirt road through high plains ranching land. Then gravel road turned to non gravel road that was muddy from the rain a day before. But the dirt/mud was very slippery so we were in 2nd gear all the time. We stopped for a minute and I noticed that Jake's rear tire was completely flat.

This turned into a group effort to fix his flat tire. Everyone helped. I did the part with the tire irons since I changed a lot of motorcycle tires when I worked at a motorcycle shop when I was a teenager. We found a part of a log plus other pieces of half rotten wood and made a stand to hold the bike so the rear wheel could be removed. We removed the tube and it had a round puncture hole in it. Three of us took turns feeling inside the tire with our fingers to try and find a nail or screw that might have made the puncture. We were completely unable to find a nail either from feeling with our fingers inside the tire that was taken off on only one side, or by feeling and visually inspecting the outside. We wondered if something had punctured the tire but been flung off the tire and that's why we could not find it. We put one of our spare inner tubes in the tire and closed it all up with tire irons. We pumped it up with an electric pump that plugged into one of the bikes. After putting the wheel back on the bike (no easy job) we headed out again.

About 15 miles further down the road Christian thought Jake's tire looked like it was low. We pulled over and sure enough the tire was half flat. We pumped it up again and headed back to the tiny town of Norwood we had just passed through a mile back and we had noticed a snow mobile and ATV shop. The store was Hi-Country Motorsports. The owner Mike seemed kind of gruff at first, but warmed up to us as time went by. By the time we were done we found out that Mike has 6 kids and 23 grand kids.

He did not have a mechanic working that day so he helped us himself. We had to take the wheel off the motorcycle ourselves propping it up on pieces of wood Mike had outside his shop.

Mike took the tire completely off the wheel, unlike what is normal out in the field where you only remove one side of the tire. With the tire completely removed it was easy to spot the nail still in the tire. Somehow with all our feeling with our fingers we managed to miss the nail. Using his tire machine Mike put the tire back on the wheel with the tube inside. Jake and Tim were getting pretty good at putting the wheel on and quickly got it installed.

Right after they got the wheel installed they noticed the tire was completely flat again. So off came the wheel again, and back into Mike's shop. After taking the tire we found there was a small slit in the inner tube. Probably the tube got pinched by the machine when installing the tire. The tube got patched, installed back in the tire, and off we went. By this time it was about 2:30pm. We had spent a good chunk of the day dealing with the flat tire. We headed to the town of Naturita, about 29 miles down the road, and Blondie's Diner for a late, but well earned lunch.

Next to the diner was the Uranium Drive In with a notice about the upcoming Burro Race. Last summer I saw an actual Burro race in Buena Vists Colorado. Apparently Burro races are a thing in Colorado. Who knew!

After Lunch we headed to Moab. Near Moab we saw the famous Hole in the Rock tourist trap. Unfortunately it was already closed for the day. So all we could do was gaze in wonder through the rot iron fence.

We decided to drive to Arches National Park on the outskirts of Moab before checking in to our hotel. It was worth it as the evening sun lit up the rocks and it was beautiful.

We headed back to Moab to check into our hotel as the last glow in the west was fading and the red rock towers were just a sillouette against the sky. Thd ride back as it turned completely dark was a nice end to a good, but challenging day.