The End of the Road

Departing Horseshoe Bend and the town of Page, we rode past Lake Powell and continued into the scorching desert. We only had a short distance to go today which we became very grateful for as the thin morning clouds disappeared and the temperature soared to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Stopping for fuel and lunch at the only fuel stop we saw between Page and Zion national park, we took refuge from the sun in an old diner; here we saw a couple of Harley riders curiously covering their fingertips with tape which, as they informed us after they saw our puzzled looks, they had to resort to in order to protect their fingertips from the hot dry desert air which was causing them to crack and bleed with their fingerless riding gloves. Thankfully, our gloves weren’t fingerless and protected us from sharing a similar fate! Wishing them well, we set about wetting our riding gear in order to provide us with a primitive form of evaporative air conditioning then mounted our tired steeds and continued towards Zion.

Reaching Zion in the early afternoon, we proceeded to the secondary entrance to inquire about camping in the park, only to find that all of the campsites were full and were not likely to become free anytime soon. Lucky for us, there was a campsite just outside the park that we had passed through on our way to the gate so we turned around made our way to the office; finding that there were ample campsites available which were cheaper, more secluded and with already made fire pits and wooden tables, winning! The campsite manager warned us that they were expecting storms that night and the next day. Considering we had just ridden through what was probably the driest place we’d been on the trip, we thought the weatherman must have made a mistake; yet, having been reminded on the trip many times that Mother Nature is unpredictable, we decided to heed the warning and prepared our campsite for a storm. In this case, the weatherman had hit the mark, it stormed overnight and continued to rain intermittently the next day. This limited our exploration of Zion the next day as some of the trails were closed off due to the risk of flash-flooding, it did afford us some spectacular views though of water cascading down normally dry canyon walls.

The day after the storms, the sky cleared and it became insanely hot again; never an in-between. We went back into Zion to spend more time exploring the areas that were not open the day before, namely Angel’s Landing and The Narrows. The climb to Angel’s Landing was spectacular; sheer 1000 feet drops bordering a steep 1.1 mile return path up the ridge leading to the peak, with nothing but a chain bolted to the rock for safety. After admiring the views and making our way back to bottom of Angel’s Landing, we had a late lunch at the only restaurant in the canyon then headed for The Narrows. From what we’d seen on The Narrows, we had expected a very narrow canyon with a river flowing through it; however, we found that the river was actually quite wide and there were a huge amount of tourists moving through it. We followed the river for a while but decided to turn around after realising that we would wade a few miles through the murky water before we found solitude and, since it was getting late, we thought it would be best to leave that for the next time we were in Zion.

Saying farewell to Zion, we hit the road the next morning, aiming for a spot just short of Denver; our goal now was to head back to Michigan, we’d reached the limit of our budgets and were ready to be back in our own beds. As we rode further north-east the scenery changed dramatically from incredulously hot desert plains of Utah to forested mountain ranges most famously known as the Rockies. Riding through here was absolutely beautiful and much cooler thanks to the shade and elevation of the mountains. With evening fast approaching we decided to grab some gas for the bikes and ourselves, stopping at Wendy’s for dinner. Here we sat with our burgers and discussed what we were going to do about sleeping that night. We came to the conclusion that riding through Denver (which was about an hour away) in the morning would be terrible as we would encounter the busy morning rush to work; we decided that it would be best to blast through Denver that night. With gas in the bike and our belly’s we headed out into the dark night, making our way down the mountain towards Denver with our new destination being a rest area just past Denver. With the sun down it was absolutely freezing, we thought this was summer! Luckily for us we had sweaters and rain-jackets from M&M Motorcycles to keep us warm. As we got closer to the city we saw bright flashes of lightning and rain, just our luck. The road however, branched to the north and the wind was dragging the clouds south and we made it out of Denver and to our rest area for the night without getting too wet.

The next day we packed our gear for what would be the last time (hopefully) and headed into the corn field roads of the Midwest. Tim and Shaun had friends in Lincoln, Nebraska who they had intended on visiting for a few nights. We stopped at a gas station and discussed what we were to do. Chris decided that he really wanted to get home and see his parents and girlfriend so we parted ways there and Tim and Shaun rode to Lincoln, with Chris riding onwards to Iowa City and Kalamazoo the next day. In Lincoln Tim and Shaun got a tour of the city from their friends, ate great food, and fixed a lawn-mower. After a relaxing two-night stay with their family friends in Lincoln, Tim and Shaun reluctantly left the comfort of a home away from home and kept riding towards Milwaukee, Wisconsin where they would meet their parents and take the ferry across Lake Michigan and ride back home with an entourage of 2 Harley’s.

Since Tim and Shaun still had 2 nights till they were to meet up with their parents, they decided to break up the trip by spending half a day in Chicago; which turned out to be a fantastic decision. After finding a parking spot in downtown, they were greeted by a kind stranger who, having an interest in adventure riding himself, offered to shout them lunch in exchange for stories about the journey. Following a delicious lunch, Tim and Shaun walked down towards the Navy Pier, only to find out that The Blue Angels (arguably the best aerobatic display team in the world!) were practicing for the Chicago Air and Water show. How could this day get any better?!

After spending a great half-day in Chicago, Tim and Shaun left in the afternoon just before the peak hour traffic set in. Finding a nice rest area just over half-way between Chicago and Milwaukee, they stopped for the evening and walked across the road to have dinner before setting up. After setting up though, it became apparent that the warnings people had given us of camping in rest areas were not entirely false.. In the space of an hour, a very creepy man was caught trying to peep on both Tim and Shaun whilst they were using the restroom; an unfortunate ending to such an awesome day. Not willing to run the risk of the peeping Tom coming back while they were asleep in their tents and trying something more daring, Tim and Shaun decided to pack up and find the nearest hotel so they could sleep peaceably.

Upon rising the next day, Tim and Shaun completed their ride to Milwaukee, meeting with their parents for lunch. We walked around the local markets and grabbed some supplies for cooking dinner on the barbeque at the hotel that night: sausages and salad. Luckily the outside cooking area was undercover because we were blessed once more with thunder, lightning and torrential rain; our faithful companion throughout the journey. We slept well that night and rose in the morning with our sights set for Michigan as we rode to the dock that held our ferry back home. The lake voyage took a mere 3 hours to cross Lake Michigan and for the first time in close to 4 months we had our feet back in Michigan; ah what a feeling to be home! We rode off the ferry and pointed ourselves south heading for the quaint town of Kalamazoo: our starting point. The next 2 hours of riding went by in a blur as thoughts of home filled our heads, and soon enough we were riding down familiar streets and eventually pulled into our driveway. Home: the same as we left it 4 months ago only now much greener. How lovely it is to be back!

And so, after travelling 14 000 miles through nine countries in 3.5 months, our journey has come to an end. We’ve seen some incredible things, met some fantastic people and had experiences that we never would have imagined; it’s been an amazing adventure and, without a doubt, it’ll be something that we will all look back on in the future and think “wow, I can’t believe we did that!”. Thank you to our families for your love and encouragement; to our sponsors, M&M Motorsports, Contour and Princeton Tec, for your support both before and during the journey; to the friends we made along the way, you’re such an important part of what makes a journey great; and, to those of you that followed our journey along the way, we thank you for your prayers and encouragement. Most importantly though, we would like to thank our servicemen and women, both past and present; without the sacrifices you have made, we may not have had the freedom to undertake this journey. Although our adventure is over, we haven’t forgotten why we started in the first place; if you haven’t made a donation to the Wounded Warrior Project already then please, take a moment to think of those have given so much for your freedom, click on the “how to donate” tab on the top of our page and give a few dollars to help the thousands of wounded warriors and their families.