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June 22, 2011

Grand Junction to Green River, WY

Franz' plan for this day was to take the scenic route through Rangley on 139 and then turn east to Dinosaur National Monument and the Museum's wall of dinosaur bones. Then we would stop just shy of the Utah/Wyoming border at Naples (another no motel city!). We stopped for coffee at the city of Dinosaur and the owner of the cafe, who made excellent coffee, told us the Museum was closed for several years. She suggested some other options so the maps and GPS came out and we changed plans to head up the western side of the Flaming Gorge and end in Green River, WY which was equidistant from our next night's stay in Jackson Hole, WY. Rob and Daryl had spent a night in Rock Springs, WY on a previous motorcycle trip and had not thought much of it, so it's neighbor, Green Springs, sounded much better. Sometimes you are right and sometimes not! The ride along the Flaming Gorge was better than could have been hoped for, long stretches of sweeping, high speed roads, interspersed with beautiful scenic vistas. Green River was a real let down and to top it off, even though it was a Wednesday, getting hotel rooms was impossible. During the week, mining engineers take up most of the rooms and that weekend was a big one in both towns with a rodeo and rock festival. Franz, Rob and Daryl hunted high and low, even forsaking the pool requirement and finally the staff at the Hampton Inn (Full!) called Rock Springs and a couple of places in Green River and found the Sweet Dreams, almost across the street from where we had dropped the group. They had 7 rooms, but there was nothing sweet about the place. The restaurant was the snack bar at the adjacent bowling alley. But beggars can't be choosers so we took what they had. Franz went out to locate some sort of restaurant and we all went in the van to the Krazy Moose, where it was deep fried heaven. Rob and Daryl finally tried deep fried pickles (done it once now) which Spike finished off all by himself. The deep fried agenda included cheescake for desert, which tasted just how it sounds. When we got back to the motel, Franz discussed tires with Rob and they had a look at the Gold Wing. The guys at JBJ Cycles had assured Rob that the tires would last, but they had been talking about normal use, not the mad Austrian riding kind of use. Looked like new tires were in our future.