Archives: 27th June 2001

At the appointed hour we turned up at North Dallas BMW to see the bike. Corbin was already there with his gleaming 1200cc Trophy in “British Racing Green”. He proudly showed us over the machine, pointing out the modifications he had made: D&D (extra loud) exhausts, anti-dive forks, sports brakes (argh … that’s why he had those anti-dive forks!), and a fancy cream leather (butt buster) seat, to name but a few.

With a certain amount of trepidation, John started the bike up and set off for a test drive (presumably leaving Brigid behind as collateral). Vroom! Off he went down Avenue K. He had only gone about 500 yards before he had to test the efficiency of the sports brakes (eek!) … at the level crossing. For the next 10 minutes John waited as one of those mile-long trains trundled past. At last the barriers were raised, and he continued his test drive. John went once more round the block … only to hit the level crossing just as the barriers were coming down again!

Despite the interrupted test-ride, the bike was an instant winner with us both. We agreed that Corbin should replace his brakes with the original Triumph ones. All that remained now was to withdraw enough cash to finance the purchase, organise some insurance, and we would be on the road tomorrow.

oday was to be our last day in Kanab, and we planned to see Bryce Canyon.

The trip to Bryce took a couple of hours, and we arrived at the Visitor Centre just in time for lunch. (We are getting better at this ‘sightseeing’ thing. After our experience at Zion National Park, we made sure we did not have to rely on the cafeteria for water, and we had equipped ourselves with two very smart – allegedly crushable – hats.)

From the Visitor Centre, you cannot see the Canyon, and the National Park is some 15 miles in length. It was difficult to know where we should go to get the best view. We decided on the Navajo and Queens Garden Loop Trail combination, which is about 3 miles in length with an elevation of 521 feet.

It was a good choice. Even from the rim, we had a great view of the characteristic ‘hoodoos’ (odd-shaped pinnacles left standing by erosion). The trail down to the Canyon floor, is quite steep in places, but well worth the climb.

Paiute Indian legend has it that the early settlers of the region where evil people, and as a punishment were turned to stone by Coyote. This seems as good an explanation as any for the ‘families’ of hoodoos, grouped around the rim of the Canyon.

We finished the day with a ride up to Rainbow Point (the highest point in the Park). Here we bumped into two fellow motorcyclists on BMW bikes, and got chatting (like you do …). Before long we realised the light was fading, and we had been hoping to catch a rodeo show on the way home.

We grabbed a quick bite to eat opposite the rodeo ground, gathering from the placemat that we needed to buy tickets in the General Store across the road. Having finished our meal, we duly queued behind some old Doris who had asked for several sets of wind-chimes to be gift-wrapped. By the time the unfortunate assistant had finished, the rodeo was half over, and we discovered that we could have bought the tickets on the gate after all.

Muttering oaths, we passed on the rodeo, and headed home in the setting sun.