Leadville and back: day 3, Bud's tank leak....

The night took its sweet time to vanish with the morning light. I suppose being partially wet all night slows time down. Isn't that part of Einsteins theory or summat.
........but no use kicking or squawking, we began breaking camp for the new day.

The good news was that the rain had dampened the sand which made it easier to get back to the road. We were soon underway, and in a few minute we were in a cafe in Caliente for coffee and sustenance.

The Caliente train Station

We each ordered a full order of biscuits and gravy. We couldn't eat half of what they brought. Dang, if I'd been at home I'd have taken the left overs with me.
Caliente Nv has a great old train train station. There was lots of shipping goin on in the old days.

Today we were headed to Ceder City, Panguich, Escalente, and Boulder UT, prolly 250 miles at the most. That would leave us time to stop at the various attractions.

First stop was Ceder City for gas and Nip wanted to dry his sleeping bag at a laundry mat. That took an hour. From there we went up to 10000 ft and stopped at the Ceder Breaks national Monument. 'Breaks' is a description of a highly eroded area like the 'Bad Lands'. Note the National part of the Monument....that means free to geezers. Heh he.

Bud and Nip show off Supreme Point near the top of the mtn east of Cedar city.

OMB was a great one for taking naps. 10 to 20 minutes there at Supreme Point and we all felt a little better.

On we rode toward Brice and Escalante. It was a perfect day for riding. Bud and Nip were in new territory, which is all awesome in that part of Ut. I had promised to meet Tom, from Florida, at LD's house on Thursday, but being that today was Wednesday. I didn't see how that was going to happen at our present pace. I had managed to make a 1000 miles trip into a 1600 mile one by going thru Tonopah. That happens to me a lot.
Red Canyon as we approached Brice on HWY 12

It's hard to believe how red those cliffs are....

We gassed up in Escalante. While sitting there who should show up, but the Bike Doctor. I've been to Escalante 3 times and have met him three times. He wanted to fix our bikes for us if we should need anything,.... and take picture of my trailer. He remembered seeing me 2 years ago when I was there with Ara from www.oasisofmysoul.com .

While we BSed at the gas station, Bud drew my attention to a gas tank leak near his petcock. Closer inspection showed a constant, tiny spurt of gas coming from an itty bitty hole, and squirting on one of his spark plugs. Too bad we had filled the tank already. Emptying for repair would be that much harder if we had to take the tank off.

Desperate problems require desperate solution. I told Bud to push the bike into the shade, and I went into the gas station/hardware store, and took a look at his epoxy supplies. I found some 2 part Devcon that hardens in 5 minutes. $5 later I was mixing a batch on the ground beside Bud's bike. I mixed in a piece of napkin to give it some matt strength. I applied a glob over the leak and held pressure on it till it cured. Damned if it didn't work. We were back on the road in about a half hour.... Cool. Luck beats Good!

We didn't have far to go as Boulder was only 30 miles up the road. Boulder is at the start of the Burr Trail, a road that goes about 75 miles down to Bullfrog on the Co River. We rode there stopping at the spectacular Capital Reef view point for a look see.
Capital Reef looking north

....and again looking south.

Soon we were at the Boulder grill for dinner. I couldn't help but notice the cool hat on the young man at the next table. Richard Petty or Mick Dundee would have been proud to own this guy's hat. Turns out it's made by the San Diego Hat company. I may own one myself someday.

The Boulder grill is a bit yuppie, and charged 11 bucks for there lowest Hamburger. The other restaurant a 100 yds East on Burr Trail Rd is a much better bet.

After Dinner we had enough time to ride 25 miles out the Burr Trail which is one of Utah's little known secret canyon drives. That's Burr Trail down there.

We located a side road where we camped without any of the drama from the night before. We made a nice campfire and took our leisure as we unwound from another great day on the road.

Breaking camp in the morning

We rode out Burr Trail till the canyon ended and the dirt road started as it dropped down the Burr Trail Dugway....

At the top of this Dugway, you can scream and get half a dozen echos back.

...... then turned around and went for breakfast in Boulder. Burr Trail is a delightful ride and eventually turns to dirt and will end up in Bullfrog if you go far enough.....but from Boulder there is 35 miles of pavement before the dirt.
Nip and Bud on Burr Trail