CA-1R’s Rally in the Valley

                I had been toying with the idea of attending the Rally in the Valley for several months, and as is what is becoming my ‘norm’, I procrastinated until the last minute.   I was able to get a room at the hotel and registered for the event on March 1 st.   I’m really glad I was able to make this event.

                Day one – the ride down to Mesquite.   There is really nothing to report about the ride down 99 to 58,   or the ride across the desert to I-15.   The ride up I-15 through Las Vegas and Baker was un-eventful, with the exception of once again being able to complain about the gas prices in Baker.   Everything there seems to be more expensive.   I arrived in Mesquite on the 23 rd at 3:30, just as the rally organizers were also showing up.   Pretty good timing!   I got checked into the hotel and found that the room was quite comfortable with a sliding glass door, and a little patio with a table and chairs to relax on.   Got the bike all unloaded and was heading back out about 4:00 to clean it up, when I see a familiar GL1500 Blue Trike in the check in area, and two familiar blue suited riders next to it.   Rich and Linda Sciacqua had ridded up from 29 Palms to attend the rally too.   Great!   I had someone to hang around with.   After they got checked in we headed down to the Eureka Casino to check it out, and to see what was in the offing for food.   They had a Mexican Buffet that was pretty good, and was very reasonably priced.   By the time we finished eating and were walking back to the hotel we could tell that quite a few more riders had shown up, I counted a little over 30 in the lot.

                Day two – First full rally day.   Up reasonably early and met Rich and Linda for breakfast – had to try the chicken fried streak and eggs, boy that gravy on the steak should have its own food group.   There was so much food I couldn’t begin to eat it all.   After Breakfast we got ourselves registered – that whole process was very smooth and well organized.

                We took a short stroll through the vendor area, and finally decided to take a ride.    Rich had been talking to one of the organizers, and this guy suggested a ride up to St. George, UT and a ride up US-91 that does a loop from St. George back down to I-15.    What he didn’t mention was that US-91 was poorly signed, and that the I-15 went through the Virgin River Gorge.   WOW!   That was some eye popping scenery.   I had heard of the Virgin River Gorge before, but had never had the opportunity of riding it.   I had to capture at least some of the scenery on my digital.   Rich can tell you all about how much fun it is trying to follow a rider who is taking pictures with his throttle hand J .   Once we made it into St. George we stopped and asked for directions to US-91.   No one seemed to know anything about that highway, so we bought a map hoping to find it, no luck.   So we decided to try a ride through Snow Canyon Park.   We navigated through town and eventually wound up at the pay gate to the park.   I asked the duty ranger if she could direct us to US-91 and of course she could!   We were about 3 miles away from it and   we were soon tooling our way down this well maintained, albeit   rough highway heading back toward Mesquite.   This historic two lane highway winds it’s way over the hills outside of St. George   back down to I-15 just a few miles North of Mesquite.    Mile after mile of sagebrush and lots of Joshua Trees along the road.   We were back at the Hotel by lunch time.

                Not being one to let a ride opportunity slip by Rich suggested that we head south for an afternoon with the “Valley of Fire State Park”.   We weren’t the only ones interested in doing that ride and followed a group until we missed our turnoff and had to backtrack a ways.   By the time we were back on the right road we were by ourselves.    The Valley of Fire is Nevada’s oldest state park located 50 miles North of Las Vegas, or about 30 mikes south of Mesquite. The park consists of red sandstone bluffs and sand dunes.   Its claim to fame also resides in its ancient Indian petroglyphs.   Everything you ever wanted to know about this beautiful spot can be found here: http://www.desertusa.com/nvval/.   We spent a lot of time riding through the park.   There was so much to see and,   I made the comment that because there was so much to see I could see how easy it would be to miss one of the curves and find yourself “off roading” – as indeed happened to a Harley rider.   We exited the part at its South entrance and headed back to the hotel, arriving about 5:15. I checked with the registration folks and found out that our illustrious Mr. Hole had arrived a short time earlier and was looking for us.   There was indeed a message on my phone from him indicating that he would like to try and find something to eat around 6:00.   Rich Linda and I met him at 6:00 in the lobby and headed down to the Casino for a little food ---   NOT.   Everything was packed. We wouldn’t be able to get in to anyplace until after 9:00.    So we trekked back up to the hotel and called for pizza delivery.   We sat around and chatted and ate pizza till about 8:30 when I headed back to my room for some quality shut eye time.   The last two days had been excellent!

Day 3 – Second full day of the Rally.   We all decided that we wanted to be “Wheels up” at 8:30 for the Poker Run.   Bob, Rich and Linda met and had breakfast --- Me?   Well, I slept in a little bit and had a bottle of water and a Payday candy bar – (the Breakfast of long distance riders J ).   Anyway, we met at 8:30 and were on the road.. We wound up taking the same basic route back to St. George as we did the day before, only in reverse – this time from I-15 up to St. George via US-91.   When we got to the next to the last checkpoint (The last one being back at the hotel) Bob suggested a ride up to the Kolab Canyon in Zion National Park.    None of us had ever been there, so we all agreed.   Bob led the way and after a brisk 53 mile ride up I-15 we found ourselves in the red topped parking lot for Kolab Canyon.   The fee for day use of the canyon is $5.00.   The ride up to the top is 5.3 miles and worth every penny of the fee.   This was another Eye Popping scenic adventure.   We made it back to the hotel about 2:00 for a little bit of free time before the big bash dinner at 6:00.

                We met in Bob’s room at 5:15 and headed over to the casino for the B-B-Q dinner.   The food was good and the company was only a little rowdy.   I won two T-shirts to add to my collection.   I was in Bed by 9:00 as I wanted to be on the road by 6:00 in the morning.

Day 4 – The long ride home.   I don’t often do 6 – 7 hundred mile days, but have on occasion.   This was one of those occasions.   I left at 6:00 (just minutes behind Bob), rode without incident to Baker where I took my first break, then continued on to Mojave for a late breakfast.   The ride from Baker to Mojave felt like the longest stretch, as the traffic in, and South out of Las Vegas was really intense.   Most were following the speed limit, but there were some that felt the desert and I-15 deserved their special triple digit driving ability, and their amazing skill at passing on the right.    I really enjoy the ride over 58.   Every time I’m on that road I see something I missed before, and the sweepers are a real blast to ride on a nice dry day like Sunday was.   I continued on 58 into Buttonwillow, and then picked up I-5 for the last 280 miles or so home.

                Great ride,   a little over 1700 GPS miles in 4 days of riding. Good people, Great Scenery.   If you didn’t go but were thinking about going let me encourage you to put it on your calendar for next year.   This is a fun, well attended and organized event that supports the Southern California chapters and there are some really Sterling rides in the area.

                All my best folks!   Get out there and Ride --- Safe.

                                           Jim J