March 7 - March 9

March 7, 2009

We arrived early to Saddleback Harley-Davidson so A) Eric could join the local HOG Chapter, and B) so that the two of us could get our mileage recorded by the local HOG safety officer. It’s a contest of sorts in the HOG chapter to see who can ride the farthest. I am in the Sportster category and Eric in the Dyna category. After that we were on our way. The Jeep pulled the trailer just fine and Eric slept a good chunk of the way.

We arrived in St. George and stashed the Jeep and trailer at our friend’s house. His grandparents stay there at the house during a few months out of the winter and “ole John” commented as we were loading up our bikes, “I don’t think you’re going to get all of that on there.” He was only half way right.

After riding to the In & Out Drive In, and after losing our gear in the a couple of intersections, we decided that we would do some evaluating of necessary gear once we got to our friend Sunny’s house for the night.

March 8, 2009

We managed to shed one full bag, a helmet, a jacket, and a lot of food before we were packed and on our way Sunday morning. We made it into Zion’s National Park easily and it was a beautiful ride. There was ice in spots and those corners had to be taken with care. After Zion’s it was straight into Arizona.

We climbed the roads to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon but the road was closed that lead to the Rim, plus there was a lot of snow. It was a bright clear day, but at 8,000 in the first of March, it is still really really cold. We continued on along the Vermelin (not sure on the spelling) cliffs. They were amazing! Truly a beautiful sight. We stopped along a scenic look out and read about a poet named Sharlot Hall. She apparently wrote quite a bit about the area and I tucked the name away into a mental file to look up later.


After that we went on to Cameron, which is pretty much the bridge to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Burly had told us that we had to check out the dining room inside Historic Cameron Trading Post. We hadn’t eaten all day so we decided that was a good idea. We devoured the largest Navajo Tacos that have ever been made!
Up the mesa we went from there to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
We arrived there right as the sun was setting so we got ourselves a camp site and hunkered down for an intensely cold night. Firewood was extremely scarce and after we ran out of wood, there was only one thing left to do: Sleep.

March 9, 2008

It was hard to get out of the sleeping bags this morning. A car had pulled into the camping spot next to ours after we had gone to bed. A group of students from Minnesota were on their spring break, “We thought Arizona was supposed to be warm!” was there lament as they were packing up this morning. We like wise packed up and headed out; only after we walked to the edge of the Grand Canyon.
WOW! It’s huge. Pictures and movies don’t even begin to do it justice. But as storm clouds were rolling over our heads and word that it was snowing already in Flagstaff, we decided that we should get on our way!

Rolling back into Cameron, a worker at the Trading Post gas station allowed us to charge my I-pod while we got gas and planned out our day. A tank of gas, a Rockstar, and a butter finger later, we were on our way. Heading for St. John.
We rolled along the Navajo Nation, stopping only for gas. Mesa after mesa, plateau after plateau, we just seemed to be climbing higher and higher and the temperature kept getting lower and lower. We stopped “in the heart of the Hopi” our Hopi friend Edward told us as we were munching on some beef jerky and neon gummy worms.
Apparently there are a few different tribes all on the “Rez” as they call it.

We were eyeballing storm clouds all day and at about 3:30 they caught up with us. Snow, Hail, and Rain were the impediments of the day and they pricked at us until we made it to Window Rock, AZ. After gas and small chat with a native waiting for a bus, and another native asking for money we were off heading south for St. John.
Coming out of the mountains and into the flatter lower ground was a big change. It has been neat to come down these roads that are built what seems to be right around the mesa. As we hit the lower plateaus the temperature had gone up a bit, but clouds were still blocking the sun from warming my hands and face. Making it to St. John and filling up on gas we had five more miles to log before we were at our camp spot at Lyman Lake State Park.

Here I am, catching up on blogs (even though I can’t post them yet) in the bathroom at the camp site. Camping here has already been much more enjoyable than at the Grand Canyon just because it is so much warmer! I am guessing Lyman Lake is a man made reservoir, something like Palisades of Alpine, Wyo. But on a much smaller scale than the WYO version. The moon is nearly full and the skies have cleared off. It’s beautiful.

The Route

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Arizona here we come!

The preparations for our trip are in their final stages. Eric spent about an hour talking with Burly today at the Harely shop getting ideas as to where we should camp and how long it will take us to travel from camp spot to camp spot. He has been extremely helpful.

My bike is all set to ride! It seriously handles better than it ever has. The new Bassani exhuast sounds great and runs so well! The tank still hasn't arrived, but Joe and Brandon from the Harley shop did one hell of a job getting my banged up tank back on and all cleaned up. It's going to work just fine, even if it is a bit of an eye sore.

We are leaving from the Harley shop Saturday morning right after we log our starting miles for this season with the HOG official, Aaron. It's gonna be an awesome adventure!


If these bikes would only pack themselves.....

"Much Ado About EVERYTHING"

The semester is charging at full speed. We've got spring break just around the corner and I am looking forward to a break from it all for a solid week!

I wouldn't want anyone to think that I'm so laden with homework and assignments that I haven't taken time to enjoy some of the awesomeness that USU offers to students and the community.

This past week, the English Department and the Theater Department hosted a the "Actors from the London Stage" who performed William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing." It was amazing! Picture this: five actors, one stage, little to no props,and that's enough for all the characters! The five actors each played about 4 or 5 roles and the role change was a simple as changing their voice and putting on a pair of glasses. It really was impressive!


This was the second time that I have seen the Actors from the London Stage perform here at Utah State. They came two years ago and put on a production of Hamlet which was so great! This time, that they visited, one of the actors even participated in one of my classes and helped our class with the interpretation of a Caribbean play that we are studying.

It really was impressive to have this professional actor in our class having us read lines and act in front of the entire class. But that's just another day at USU i guess...

Look I'm Artsy - I'm Joaquin Phoenix

What a moron! Seriously.

28 days left...

Only 28 days remain until Eric and I take off on our Spring-Break Moto trip. We are still in the planning stages right now, but we know we will be leaving Logan on the evening of the 6th of March and will eventually make it to California and back.

I'm working on getting my Sporty up and running after the "little" mishap I had this past December. Brandon is working on getting my new handlebars fitted with cables and performing a 20K service on the bike as well.

The Bassani exhaust system I ordered arrived today. Amazing because the order was placed yesterday morning!

I've been giving myself a healthy dose of Ewan McGregor's Long Way Round to get me stoked for this epic Spring-Break!

Look mom, I'm tastefully on YOUTUBE (well... Kind of)

... not that there's anything wrong with that.

Jerry in Seinfeld was always being mistaken for a homosexual because he was single, thin, neat, and clean. There are several episodes where he must prove his heterosexuality even when George tries to dispute in futile attempts using Jerry as a gay scapegoat to get out of a current relationship. All the while Jerry must reiterate: not that there's anything wrong with that. I likewise have had to assert the now common catch phrase. I mean I am single, not really thin, somewhat neat, and clean.





This past week, I feel that I've had a few experiences that certainly merit the "... not that there's anything wrong with that" slogan. After watching Real World VS. Road Rules: The Island at Katie Jo's house, my friend Eric and I were leaving on my motorcycle (yes two-up on the bike). Katie Jo's roommate was walking up the drive-way as we were sitting on the bike ready to take off. We engaged in some chit-chat for a while and then Kate Gildea came out of the house with treat bags for us (the bags were made of the delicious Chex treat that Kate had made for the show). Some how we got on the topic of how Eric was fat but yet he still wanted to go to Taco Bell and he and I go into a mild bickering match. We said our good-bye and drove off into the night. 20 minuets after arriving home, I got a text from Kate that read: Yup, just was asked if you were gay.

Saturday I after the football game I came back to my place and got into a really good cleaning groove, tackling both the kitchen and bathroom. By the time I had finished it was 8:30 and Rick texted me saying he was hungry and that we should go to the Chili's. I called Eric but he was with a girl, who he subsequently ended up kissing that night, so it looked like it would be just me and Rick going out to dinner (... not that there's anything wrong with that). We were seated and the hostest asked if it was just the two of us, in a "wow, these guys are either gay or really pathetic" -kind of way. After making a joke that yes it was just the two of us but that we weren't "together" we were seated. Right behind us were a

couple of girls that I've known since my Frosh year here at USU. We exchanged salutations and they made the joke that they'd be eavesdropping. (Exactly like what happened in the Seinfeld season 4 episode where the journalist eavesdrops on Jerry and George pretending to be gay). Our conversation for the evening (Rick and myself) consisted of talking about how "our day is coming" and "if that guy can get a girl, we surely can too." When all of a sudden one of our really good friends - who is gay - walked into the Chili's

on a date. He left his date for a second and came over to talk to us. He inquired about our entrees and we made small chat. I made the joke that we were just discussing how not-gay we were. He chuckled and said, "Oh, used to have that discussion with myself all the time ." Rick and I looked up and each other and just shook our heads. Our friend giggled and returned to his date. When the waiter came he asked if he should do one or separate checks. We then bombarded him with comments of making the check absolutely as separate as possible!





It was an interesting week. One that I believe probably shouldn't be reflected upon too much. For the future I no doubtingly will be making an asserted effort to plan more dates (with girls) and have something set up so that there is no confusion as to weather I'm gay or not, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Peach Days

Last weekend I had the chance to partake in a colloquial event that could only be rivaled by the Box Elder County Fair. The coming together I speak of is none other than Brigham City's own Peach Days. Now, up until 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, I didn't even know that Peach Days existed. However, a good friend, who's father-in-law was showing his GTO in Peach Days Classic Car Show, sent me a text telling me to get my trash over the hill to sink my teeth into the succulent display of all that Brigham has to offer.

Off we went, my self and a few of my closest friends. Nothing could have prepared me for what I encountered. If I could break down what a saw in perhaps terms of musical genres, Peach Days was 35% Country, 18% Western, 27% Mariachi, 13% Rock-Rap, 17 % Industrial-Trash, and 89% Kick-Ass! Granted my percentages may be off, but then again, I think Peach Days might be also.

Enjoy the Hot Girls At USU While They're Around

A couple of years ago, I was working with a good friend of mine who had recently graduated from USU. We were talking about USU and the plethora of attractive females that it seemed to have. However, he presented a theory that I have come to somewhat believe. He stated that the "hot" girls on the USU Logan campus were all part of an effort to maintain retention of students. He presented the idea that the University paid attractive girls to walk around campus in the fall when the weather was nice. Of course they would be obliged to wear somewhat revealing clothing as to draw as much attention to them as possible. This would be done in an effort to remind the USU male students of how much they loved USU and likewise how much they had missed it over the summer. During the winter there wouldn't be much use for the "hotties" so they would then disappear only to return when the weather in Logan would once again be conducive to shorts, skirts, and tank tops in the spring. The good looking ladies would then remind the male students how great USU was and that they (the boys) would surely be missing USU over the summer. Is it true? I don't know, but pay attention around campus as the weather changes and just take notice.