As Shannon and I anticipated our approaching anniversary (last Friday), we felt growing pressure: Would we actually do something, or would we just sit around the house because we didn’t want to bother finding a baby-sitter? So in a bold move of activity planning, I booked us a room at the Homestead, where we had gone on our wedding night ten years ago. And for a little extra adventure, we decided to travel by motorcycle.
Ten years. It seems like it ought to be extra special. I guess if the Mayans had dominated America, we’d still have to wait another ten years for the momentous rolling of the digits in the vigesimal number system. And as a computer geek, who routinely works in hexadecimal, decimal and binary, I realize that 10 can be kind of arbitrary. But it’s still a good excuse to do something fun.
Taking the motorcycle posed some extra challenges as well as excitement:
- Weather was an important factor
- Luggage space was limited
- The risk was kind of scary
We tried to think of the last item only so much as was useful in suggesting caution, because it’s easy to psych yourself out about what could happen. Luggage was a challenge because even though we were only staying one night, trunk space is pretty limited on a sport bike, and we had to bring nice clothes for our dinner out. And I studied the National Weather Service web site for days before the trip, because I have limited experience riding in the rain.
So leaving the boys in Debra’s capable hands, we set out Friday afternoon. The original plan was to ride the Alpine Loop, which starts at nearby American Fork Canyon and winds through to Provo Canyon near Sundance. That would leave us with with a ride around Deer Creek Reservoir to Midway, Utah, where the Homestead is located. Unfortunately, we discovered that the Alpine Loop hadn’t been opened to road traffic yet for the year, so we just rode down to Orem and took Provo Canyon the whole way.
The ride was pretty nice. In spite of a bit of wind and threatening clouds all around, our bit of ground was mostly sunny the whole way there. Ironically, the scariest moment came from another motorcyclist who decided to share our lane to pass on the right.
Shannon, safe and sound at the Homestead
May 21, 2004
You know you’re traveling light when you check into a hotel, and when given a few papers, room keys, and some complimentary fudge you think, “What am I going to do with all this?”
After getting cleaned up, we had dinner at the resort’s nice restaurant, Simon’s. I probably could have skipped eating for the rest of the trip after that one meal. Not that I did.
Cleaned up for dinner
May 21, 2004
We stayed up late watching a movie, and slept in to the luxurious hour of 8:00 AM. Normally the boys would be getting the household going around 6:00 AM, so it really was a treat.
In the morning we discovered our patch of sunshine had run out, and it rained on and off. We hoped that when it was time to head for home, the rain might have passed by. We had a nice breakfast, a pleasant soak in the hot swimming pool, and a quick perusal of some antique cars that were there for a show.
Some antique cars on display
May 22, 2004
The rain had stopped by the time we checked out, so we were ready to head for home. The good fortune didn’t last long, though, as it started to rain on us before we had gotten even a few miles. Then it got worse. At 50 MPH we ran into a wall of hail. If you add the speed of the wind to our own speed, you end up with a fairly painful calculation. I imagined running a gauntlet of two hundred air-rifle toting boy scouts.
Fortunately the hail didn’t last too long, and we were back into the rain, which was strangely comfortable at that point, given our trepidation about it before leaving. By the time we were about halfway through Provo Canyon, the rain had stopped, the roads were dry, and we’d found our patch of sunshine again.
It was nice to get home, to see the boys again, and to spend some quality time sitting around the house.
Copyright © Eric Smith, 2004, All rights reserved.