Saturday started off with the main group of tourers gathering at the Hogle Zoo. It appeared that we were expecting colder weather and precipitation since everyone, save John & Barb Progress, had the tops up on their vehicles. We headed off right on schedule to meet up with the second group in the Smith’s parking lot in Heber.
From there, we headed up Daniel’s Canyon toward Duchesne. The weather was holding for us, but the wind had begun to blow. It seemed that the further east we went, the harder the wind blew. From Duchesne, we followed Drew and Jenny south over Indian Head Pass and down into Helper. The wind was so strong over the Pass, that I didn’t use my brakes; just let the wind slow me down. Of course a Memorial Day Tour would not be official if we didn’t have some sort of precipitation and so we had a few snow flakes over the Pass. We gathered in Helper and Allison said she knew where a micro brewery was for lunch. After the requisite U-turn, we arrived at the brewery.
Heading toward Green River was a challenge with the wind gusting even stronger. The closer we got to Moab the redder the air became. It wasn’t a dust storm, but very close. A Moab old timer told me that he had never seen the wind blow as hard. We arrived at the hotel and took over the parking lot with our traveling car show. Jon Hermance had a problem getting his TC to run, but with all the club mechanics right there, he was up and running in a short period of time.
Dinner was at Eddie McStiff’s micro brewery, do you detect a theme? Kevin had called ahead and talked the people at Eddie’s into taking a reservation for twenty! It was good to get out of the wind and tell stories of our first day of travel.
Sunday dawned clear and warmer. We took John Progress to Arches National Park to get his Lifetime Senior Pass. John, you are now officially OLD! Arches was beautiful as always, but it was also filling up with visitors at a furious pace. Several places where we wanted to stop were like ant hills, so we headed for the North River Rd. With its close proximity to the Colorado River, this road is a driver’s delight. It’s nice and twisty with ever changing spectacular scenery. The winery beckoned so the car show made another stop. After the winery, the film museum was the next attraction where I was able to see pictures of some of the people I work with who had their roots in the Moab film industry.
Sunday night we commandeered a section of the hotel parking lot and had an impromptu concert. Dave entertained us all with his banjo picking and bawdy songs.
Monday morning everyone was up and ready for either heading back to SLC or, for a few of us, heading for more driving along the western edge of Colorado and the San Miguel River. As quickly as we had descended on Moab, the BMCU was gone. I cannot speak for those who retraced their steps back to SLC, but for the four LBC’s that headed south, adventure was just around the next corner.
It seems that Golden Eagles like small, yellow, Sunbeam Alpines. Jill and I were leading the group when the first huge eagle flew right in front of us and landed on a telephone pole. There was no mistaking who’s neighborhood we were traveling through. A bit later, we learned that Colorado really likes sharp, downhill, switchback turns. So much so, that they start to have signs warning about the turns two miles away! As we headed toward Bedrock, CO, the road just seemed to go down and down and down. It was quite the drop off the plateau we were on.
Joining highway 141, it was evident that this was not a major artery. The traffic was pretty much non-existent which gave us plenty of time to enjoy the smooth, curving pavement and awesome scenery. The San Miguel River has cut through the rock much like the Colorado River has, creating an ever changing panorama of spectacular sights. At Gateway, CO. we stopped to get rid of some coffee and wanted to check out the car museum there, but decided that the curator liked his cars too much for our miserly pockets.
Leaving Gateway we had our next grand adventure. This is cattle country and much of it is open range. Several times we had encountered livestock grazing by the side of the road, but this time we discovered, “Ferdinand the Bull.” Now bulls are pretty good sized animals to begin with, and Ferdinand was on the large size as far as bulls go. He was standing with his back feet on the highway and front feet on the shoulder of the road. I was leading and noticed that there were rocks and dirt out onto the pavement, so I swung into the oncoming lane to avoid Ferdinand and the rocks. Ferd turned his head and looked at me as I went by, but he paid little attention as he was after bigger game than an Alpine. I looked into the rear view mirror just in time to see Ferdinand paw the earth with his right front hood and send all sorts of dirt and stones directly into the side of Kevin & Marie’s Healy even though they had also opted for the oncoming lane. It was a direct hit, but wait! There’s more! Here comes Rich’s nice light blue TR-250. Yep, you guessed it, another direct hit. What can make a bull more angry than something RED and here came Jim in his shiny RED TR-6. Yep, another pawing of the earth and another direct hit. Old Ferdinand was 3 for 4 and ready for more.
Tromping on the accelerator, we sped off, leaving Ferdinand the Bull with what had to be a big smile on his face. Well, sped off until my fuel filter decided that it had done it’s job and was clogged, preventing any power sorts of tactics. Pulling to a stop, Rich had me drive back onto some rocks to lift the rear of the Alpine, where he slid under and worked his magic. With the filter cleared enough to drive up hill, we continued on towards Grand Junction and the first parts store we could find. Before we could get there, another large Golden Eagle swooped down and almost hit us. Those behind said that it looked like the eagle was trying to get it’s talons into Jill. He must have seen her finger nails, because he pulled up at the last moment and continued on. A British car just cannot drive past a parts store with out stopping, so we did, picking up a new fuel filter.
Since the theme of micro-breweries had been set, we treated ourselves to lunch at the Rim Rock. My salmon fish and chips was excellent. OK, this isn’t a gourmet column so off we went for the last leg of our journey to Rangely, CO. There was one more tough Pass to climb and we had been warned by several people to watch out for Douglas Pass. Hairpin turns with speed limits of 10 mph and elevation gains that the GPS could hardly keep up with were what we encounter, and, conquered. I think we were all happy to see Rangely come into sight.
I had forgotten the address of the Blue Mountain Inn, but figured that since Rangely is really small, how hard could it be to find the hotel. When we reached the far side of town and I had not seen a sign of any sort indicating where the hotel was, I pulled into an abandoned hamburger joint and called. The front desk asked where I was and when I told them, they said to just go across the street, because that’s where the hotel was. Sure enough, right there, kiddie corner from where we were, was the hotel. The only thing that could have made that worse, is if I had been in the hotel parking lot to make the call!
If you are ever in Rangely, I highly recommend the Blue Mountain Inn. The people of the hotel went out of their way to make us feel welcome and help us in any way they could. They told us that nothing was open in the way or restaurants, but that right next door was a super market that could purchase whatever we wanted to BBQ. No grill? No problem, use ours. No dishes? No problem, use ours, no condiments, no problem, use ours. And that’s the way the evening went. It was as if we pulled into town and stayed with friends. Now they are our new friends. The hot tub was a most wonderful thing after all the driving.
Tuesday, we up and on the road by 8 AM. Vernal had way too many big trucks and we stopped to fill gas tanks. I led off again as Rich, Jim, and Kevin & Marie followed to be certain that I had no more problems. The towns come pretty quickly on US 40 and we were making good time. I figured I’d stop in Heber for lunch, so I blew right through Duchesne and headed for Strawberry Reservoir. Just before getting there, Jim came ROCKETING past me, followed shortly by Rich and Kevin. A while later, after they had slowed down for me to catch up, they signaled to turn into the Grill at the top of Daniels Canyon. When we stopped, the first thing Jim asked was, “does Roger ever stop to pee.” (Note to self: when leading a group, always stop every hour to hour and a half) Another great lunch and we were back on the road for the final push, back into civilization and heavy traffic. Sure was easy to get spoiled on those deserted, winding, smooth, roads through the outrageous western scenery.
If you’ve ever thought about taking one of the BMCU tours, start planning now for next year. Arrange your vacation or whatever you need to do, now. Do not worry about your car breaking down. Do the best preparation that you can and then if something happens, you’ve got the support, expertise, and knowledge of the BMCU behind you. Our cars are old and need to be constantly adjusted or worked on. That is a matter of fact. Just don’t let that keep you from having the ultimate fun you can with your car and the club.
Watch the newsletter for information on next year’s Memorial Day Tour. The planning has already begun. Hope to see you on “the Tour.”
-Roger Davis
