WOW! I’m often asked what is my favorite of all the places I’ve been… Tough question that, as God doesn’t do sloppy work. It’s all beautiful to this devoted viewer of all there is to behold! However, I do seem to have a special fondness for mountains, and the rugged earthen and stone mounds of the Rocky Mountains also exhibit a unique and elevated draw… for a couple of reasons.

As hard as it is to attempt to narrow the choices down to just one or two favorite places… well, I do have an answer… Just a personal opinion, though, and not one defensible with objective or scientific evidence.

I hesitate to make such a statement, as you can imagine, because that may appear to exclude other magnificent options, or to somehow diminish the ‘luster’ of other locations in comparison… Just one trekker’s thoughts here, and I do make this with all due appreciation for everything else, but to me personally, Utah, particularly southern Utah, and Colorado offer the most dazzling stimulus to my senses… and here I am…

I don’t often make it here, but that is partly by design. Each time I do venture into this magnificent realm, I find myself reeling and aweing as if I were seeing it all for the first time! It is one of the most unique and special places on this verdant orb we call earth, and it never fails to amaze and dazzle yours truly with its incredible variety of scenery, the sheer majesty of it all, and the wonderful variations of shapes, sizes, and colors of everything!

As is often the case, I changed my plans and route on the fly the other day… I mounted ALI in Payson, AZ, presumably headed for Kingman on the first leg of our ride to the cabin… At the turn-off, I just couldn’t bring myself to retrace the route(s) we’d been on just a short time before… Routine is the scourge of adventurous types, and repetition is the bane of the curious…

I stopped for breakfast and to ponder this enormous thought, but the need for another plan only got stronger. My lack of enthusiasm was the first hint something just wasn’t right… The thought of alternatives has an almost magnetic pull on my internal compass needle, and at times it simply cannot be ignored… like this time.

Two buildings in the middle of nowhere were all I saw of the very tiny, so-called hamlet at the turn-off that would take us to Flagstaff instead of through Prescott. More than an intersection, it was a choice point between two entirely different experiences for the following week or so… One of those two buildings happened to be a café…

Heavy-duty stuff, this innocent seeming but huge decision, and things of this magnitude deserve proper consideration over bacon and eggs! Besides, I was cold, having underdressed for the thousandth time on recent rides!

Elevation changes more than anything can cause rather impressive swings in the mercury level of thermometers out here, and my flatland, deep south roots bring with them as standard equipment, predispositions to misjudge and underestimate what might lie just ahead…

The breakfast was great! I was introduced to Cholula Sauce… it’s like Tabasco and other spicy sauces, but not as hot, and to me it actually tastes better. I like it! The bacon was sensational, too, and this was easily the best meal I’d had in a while… The coffee was hot and just the right strength, so ponderment and consideration were handsomely facilitated…

I will admit the choice had already been made really, but it just seemed proper to give something of this enormity due consideration… That, predictably, only led to my original inclination being confirmed… we would go in the ‘new’ direction!!!

Cloudy day so far, but the road did not disappoint. Nice curvatude and plenty of undulations provided a vigorous ride and a much-needed distraction from the temperature miscalculation recently made. The Gerbings did their good work, however, and this compensated for the continued oversight of having failed to add my neck collar/warmer that had been already placed in a convenient location but ignored nevertheless…

By the time we cruised into Flagstaff, the sun was out and the day had taken on an entirely different complexion…  Cool but no longer frigid, this clean, new-looking yuppie haven is very impressive… also quite expensive, I imagine, and a bit too upscale for the tastes of this simple rider. No sweat, I wasn’t thinking of actually staying there anyway.

We stopped just on the northern outskirts for motion lotion and hot chocolate… A couple of conversations happened as passers-by indulged their curiosity about the scruffy looking old dude on the filthy overloaded bike. I do enjoy these brief encounters… Folks just naturally get excited in such an atmosphere, and they (we!) do like to share the feeling.

We arrived at our most recent ‘planned’ stop for the night in Page, AZ, in early afternoon… I inquired of the clerk at the motel the price of a room… “With senior and biker discounts, it would be $195.00 plus tax,” he responded. Oppps!

I had anticipated stopping at this isolated tourist destination would be a budget-buster, just not by that much! This very nice person, who had the look and manner of someone who had twisted a throttle or two, asked me if I had another two hours left in me… If so, Hurricane, UT, would have rooms for half that amount… I thanked him and headed that way…

When we arrived in Kanab, UT, it was time for another stop… I’d figured the motel rates there would be similar to those in Page, and I was almost correct. I asked at a motel, just in case, and was quoted a very reasonable price. WOW! An unexpected but very pleasant surprise…

I then asked if it would be a problem for me to stay another night or two, and was told it would not be… but… The rate, however, would double the next night to weekend rates! The simple but irrefutable law supply and demand does drive things like this, and it is no mystery to this eager wanderer why so many folks want to venture here… Also, this not being a year-round destination, owners and investors must make a year’s worth of income during the much shorter ‘tourist season’…

No one to ‘blame’ for any of this, it just is what it is… For those of us with limited resources, the vast majority of us, life is a constant series of choices, and ‘value’ to us individually determines what we decide. Where the lines of cost and benefit on our ‘personal graph’ intersect is our unique point of determination…

For this imperfect being, the trade-offs so far in my life have all worked out. Sure, I could have done many things differently and had very different outcomes… I have few regrets, though… I’m just proud to be here doing what I do!!!