557 Miles
This year, instead of heading to Europe to ride with my friends, I decide that I would do some riding in my “backyard”. Ducati have an annual event called Giro Alpino that is only open to Ducati Multistrada riders. The 2024 event is being held in Stevenson Washington. I decided it would be fun to go along.
The event starts on Monday. I originally planned to leave on Friday afternoon to knock out a couple of hundred miles. Work travel got n the way of that so I did not leave until Saturday.
I targeted Ogden UT as my first night stop so that meant heading out across Wyoming.
I remember driving across I-80 and watching a pair of motorcycles ride at an angle. Today that was me. The wind was blowing at 50 mph across the highway. The warnings suggested that high profile vehicles avoid a 90 mile stretch. Given there was no alternative route, I just put my head down, loosened my grip and took a middle position in the lanes.
Some time ago, I saw an article on one of the news shows about a truck stop in Wyoming serving amazing Indian food. Guess what? I stumbled across it because I needed gas. I ordered lamb biryani. It was great but I head to wait longer than I was planning on.
One thing about Wyoming – fuel stops are sporadically positioned. Another thing is that driving into the wind your distance to empty lies to you.
I should have had 20 miles of gas to spare to reach my target refueling stop. Instead, I had 1 mile left rolling into a station 10 miles earlier. Needless to say, I was panicing. I slowed down to get the best instant consumption I could. I tucked in behind a big rig. I leaned across the tank and and got my head below the windshield. I guess it worked.
I made it to Ogden in time to walk around the town. It is quite interesting and has plenty of turn of the century – the 20th – buildings.
The Union Station is not quite as ornate as Denver’s but pretty none the less and part of a revitalization effort.
There is some cool art around from the mural above to a set of horses, one of which is shown below.
There were some interesting people walking around the town.
I was remind of the strange Utah laws around booze tonight. I went to the UTOG Brewery for dinner. There the bartender had to tell someone they need to pull up a chair so he could serve the beer. Back at the Courtyard I went to the bistro for a beer where the server said I had to order food in order to get a beer. Guess what? No beer for me.
