Day 1 - End of the day - Riding through Hell

Little did we know the price we were about to pay for our admission in to God's light and color spectacular... The thunder and lightning intensified and the winds began to pick up, it wasn't long before the rain began to come down. The problem that we were having was not in making the decision to push on or not, at this point we had no choice. We were near the Northern edge of Monument Valley, to far north to turn back and not far enough to be close to shelter for the night. It's nearing 8:00 pm and we've been on the road now for 12 hours, tired from everything that we've been through; worn out from the heat and the hours of riding. A quick group meeting on the side of the road and we've decided that Mexican Hat can't be that far away and surely there will be a place we can stay for the night. Unfortunately no one in our group has anyone ever ridden these roads before so there's no certainty to our decision. We put our greenhorn rider out in the front of the pack - a quick senior meeting and we've decided that we're all safer with him up front. A decision that later will cause us some worry and a bit of frustration.

Riding through the middle of the desert, there aren't any streetlights, and there's nothing in the distance that we can get a visual on that even remotely looks like it might be a town or some sign of life. The occasional flash of lightning to give us a glimpse of what's around us and then causes us to be temporarily blind as the light gives way to the complete darkness of the desert night.

The rains are now pouring from the heavens and the temperatures are dropping into the low 70's. Between the rain and our glasses / goggles now beginning to fog over seeing the road has gotten to be difficult at best.
We slow our speed to 30 - 35 mph and do our best to literally follow the white lines which are now submerged under the water that is running down and over nearly all of the road that we are travelling.

Continuing to push forward we can tell that we are climbing but we don't know how much or on what kind of road we're on. We don't know if there's a shear edge or rolling desert just off the roads edge. Slowly we make our way north, hoping that the rains let up soon. Still no signs of life or shelter. The lightning along with the rain has intensified and our periods of temporary blindness have become more frequent causing us to slow even more.

Riding in a staggered formation we're doing good to still see the tail lights of the bikes ahead of us. We are constantly loosing sight of the rookie rider who's out in front; none of us are sure if he's riding too fast and risking his safety in the process. The roads begin to curve back and forth, we must be riding in a canyon or up a mountain, or maybe down - it's nearly impossible to tell. We have lost sight of the bikes ahead of us only to find them again when the road offers a straight away for more than a few hundred yards. The water is pouring down the road now, we know we are climbing, the road snakes back and forth, one bend after another. Lightning flashes as we round a bend and in the flash we see a cow standing on the side of the road not more than 5' from where we are, thankfully the cow is just as surprised to see us as we are to see her. She doesn't move and we bend on by, our hearts beating just a beat faster than before.

We crest the mountain that we've been climbing and now the water runs down the road with us. The rains continue to pour on us soaking us through our leathers. Mexican Hat at last! Pulling in to the General Store / Gas Station we seek shelter from the rain and a room for the night. The group quickly parks and heads into the store, looking our road wear drenched best we ask if there's a room in town that the clerk may know about? Someplace, anyplace at all that we can stay for the night. No such luck, the only hotel is sold out there's some sort of river rafting event going on a a couple of white water clubs have the place booked solid. We're told that there's a place called Bluff about 30 miles or so down the road and we should have better luck there. 30 more miles, it might as well have been 300 more the way we were feeling and as hard as it was raining. It was after 9:00 now and the group wasn't in a big hurry to get soaked again, we decided that a few minutes to hopefully let the storm pass or slow wouldn't make that big of a difference. Something to drink, a snack, some discussion (mainly all of us bitching and complaining) and we decided it was time to get on the road, the storm seemed to have let up all that it was going to for the time being and we needed to get to Bluff to see if our day was going to end.

Two miles down the road the rains begin to pound down hard once again. Are we ever going to make it through this day! Once again we've lost our lead rider, he's long gone. Occasionally we'll see a flick of his tail light but it's just a speck on the horizon. The sky opens fully and lets loose with all the rain it had been holding, the winds blow between 20 and 30 mph, and we slow once again. There were points in this stretch where I literally could not see the road. I guessed where it was and when it curved. Each of the riders still with the group put some distance between the other; using each other as gauges for where the road was (and wasn't). I think at this point of the day my wife was quietly crying on the back of the bike. I know she was scared, although I don't think she ever said she was. Day one of her first cross country motorcycle trip... Good Lord I hope day 2 is better!

A light in the distance and it's growing brighter! Heaven has come to earth and we couldn't be more glad. Bluff is clearly in our sights. Coming in to Bluff from the West the first thing we ran in to was the Desert Rose. The Desert Rose had just been opened a few months before our arrival and was far more than we could have ever hoped. When we rode up we were in the worst shape that you could imagine, tired, soaked, road worn and we looked every part of it. The three guy's walked into the lobby; leathers dripping rain, jeans and boots soaked, faces sunburned and raccoon eyes from our sun glasses - we looked like hell. Without much hesitation we explained what we had been through and begged for a room -
even if that room was just a couch in the lobby. The lady at the desk was more than polite, extremely helpful and promptly took care of us - three rooms at a discounted rate. After we checked in it didn't look like the storm was going to pass any time soon so she asked if we'd like to keep our bikes in front under the overhang by the office for the night - this in part to keep them out of the elements and I'm sure in part because the parking lot wasn't completed yet. Regardless it was an extra mile that they didn't need go and they did. The staff and accommodations were top notch - so much so that the group would make Desert Rose a destination a few years later.