We started out in los angeles during a sort of heat wave across the region. It was 110 in needles at midnight. We pulled in to the grand canyon at about 3am. The next day we drove through the grandest canyon i've ever laid my eyes on. There was a thunder and lighting storm lingering around the area which made for some ideal lighting situations. The skies were amazing and there is no hdr involved on any of the photos for the whole trip. We hit our first batch of heavy rain while riding in the grand canyon. One second it was nice and sunny and the next we were laughing hysterically at how drenched we were. We left out of the east entrance of the canyon and headed up through navajo territory on the 89 towards kanab. every 1/2 mile or so there are little structures on the side of the road where the navajo sell navajo made items. we stopped at one and i purchased a little bear necklace that's supposed to bring good luck and strength (which just about everything they sell brings.) that night we tried to make it to steve's property by navajo lake which is located just north of zion off hwy 14. we were to camp there and give him an update on the property. after driving up and down a muddy dirt road a few times and nearly missing dozens of elk, we couldn't find his property and ended up staying at a local campground. the next day we headed over to the 15nb and drove all the way up into idaho. i'm sorry if you're from utah but the people we meant there were not friendly. we stopped at the first town in malad, idaho. we decided to stay in a motel and get some drinks. we meant some very nice people at the bar chat and chew. the photo of the motel sign is from malad and the rooms were awesome and the breakfast the next morning was one of the bests i've had. that day we headed up the 15 through idaho and made a stop in pocotello where we needed to buy a charger that could plug into the bike. we went to a harley shop, got some ****** about having a triumph and not a "real bike", and bought what we needed. it was a cigarette type car charger but we needed a usb adapter so we went to radioshack. the harley charger zapped two different usb adapters so we went back to the harley shop to ask what was up and to get heckled for having a triumph again. after a couple hours of the harley guy telling us how it works fine on his bike and it's probably because of a british electrical system (******) we discovered that his harley part had the polarity hooked up wrong. so f.u. harely guy. we left pocotello and entered montana and yellowstone through the west entrance. at the west entrance is the town of yellowstone and we bought some badass hats there, drank beer, ate chicken fried steak, and asked a ranger if it was possible to take down a grizzly with an axe. every time i asked that question on the trip people basically told me a story about how they new someone with a gun who was mauled and killed. i say they didn't want it bad enough. we camped in madison campground the first 3 nights which is a beautiful campground with the madison and firehole rivers connecting right at the door step. the photos of the bench and us sitting river side are here. yellowstone is the most unreal and wild place i've ever seen. the geyser basins are kind of like mars meets armageddon. all the colors on those photos are the actual colors. i didn't tweak any of them. the shoshone would actually take the mud from some of the mud pots and use them to paint on there horses. they also rubbed it on their fresh hides to clean the smoke out of them without damaging the hide. We also found out while we were in madison that a man was killed by a grizzly two days before we got there about two miles away from us. the photo of the bear warning sign is where that happened. we spent the next 2 nights in the tower campground which is way smaller and more remote located closer to the north east entrance. the photo of jasmine in the hammock is that campground. there is also a river that runs through it which is the source of tower falls. while in the park we meant a couple biker dudes who told us about this highway called bear tooth highway and it's supposed to be the "best road in america." they said "go check it out one morning it's beautiful. so we decided to take a little trip over bear tooth. we didn't realize it was going to be 3 hours of freezing cold high winds along the edge of an 11,000 ft summit to the other side. when we finally got to the other side we came to the town of redlodge montana. the bartender there told us of a different warmer way to head back on through wyoming so we did. while on this road the bike broke down, we thought. we think it's the ignition pick up coil. the photos of the sunlight spilling onto the base of the mountains is where we broke down. there was nothing around at all but we remembered a small bar we passed a ways back. so the suns setting and jasmine and i are pushing the bike down the road to a downhill where we hop on and coast down to the bar. when we get to the bar an old man, maybe 90, that we can barely understand, says "you guys broken down? you can stay in my trailer tonight if you want." for some reason he had a little trailer parked in the parking lot of the bar, the edeleweiss. Shocked, and not knowing what else to do we say yes. Harry gave us the key and said he'll back in the morning to drive us back into redlodge where we saw a harley shop. so we unload are stuff and go to grab a drink in the bar. at the bar were the gnarliest looking cowboys i had ever seen. spurs and all. and they didn't look pleased to see us. the first thing i thought of us was deliverence. but the bartender tra (cy) was extremely pleasant. she let us use the phone, since both of ours were dead. after talking with adrian my mechanic, we realized the part i needed was a triumph part and i couldn't get it from a harley shop. so we didn't want to stay in harry's trailer and wanted to get back to cody which is a bigger city with motels. this whole time our tent is still set up back in yellowstone with all our ******. aaa tells us it'll be $300 for a tow to cody. so we start freaking out. a couple at the end of the bar see what's going on and tell us they have a trailor and will give us a ride into town. there names are joe and janet and are extremely good people, which we concluded all people in wyoming are, even the scary cowboys. we get a motel in cody that had an african safari theme. fake elephants and crap in the lobby. the next day i walk my bike over to cody's custom cycles. the owner was very nice to let me use his tools for some troubleshooting. so i'm checking resistance on some of the wiring and am going to pull the plugs to check for compression (like adrian told me to do.) while picking up the gas tank i notice that it's way to light. no way. i put the tank back on, switch it to reserve and it starts right up. woops. apparently when we stopped in redlodge for gas i never put it in because my tripometer said i was only at 40 miles. so on my way back to the motel i stop to grab jaz a beer and tell her about the good and bad news. she took it well. i think it was the beer. we went back to yellowstone for another night at our campground and left the next day. we stopped had a few beers and exited the park through the south entrance towards the tetons. on our way out there was a line of traffic held up by a heard of buffalo. we drove right up to the front of the line to get a good look. we were kinda buzzed. as soon as we get up there a giant buffalo stops in the middle of the road and gives us a stare down. a ranger pulls up next to us in her truck and says "what the hell are you guys doing? do you want to die?!!!!" ahhhhh. we drove down through the tetons and into jacksonhole wyoming where there's a bar called the cowboy bar. this place is insane. all the barstools are actually horse saddles. we get a beer and a shot of whiskey and go outside to leave. when we get out front we start talking to a couple guys who's bikes were parked next to mine. as we're talking to them a guy who appears to be wasted, gets up from a bench and stumbles into my bike and knocks it over. i say "w. t. f. duuuuuuuuuuuude!!!" pandemonium breaks out. i yell at the guy to stay where he's at and tell jazz to call the police because he's an old wasted guy. one of the guys we were talking to, tony, helps me pick up my bike. as i'm checking the damage (smashed up headlight) tony holds the drunk guy who's trying to leave. the drunk guy get's up and starts freaking out, swinging at tony, and kicks tony in the nuts!! i run over, tackle the guy to the ground and pin him by his shoulders. as i tackled him a box of cheez-its go flying all over the place! the cops come and discover the guy is not drunk at all but actually insane and homeless. so i write the damage off as bad luck and tony presses charges for assault to get the guy back off the street. there's a photo of the guy in cuffs. when it clears up a lady comes up to me, gives me a 20 and says i don't want you to leave this town thinking badly of it. tony says "here's my number, if you guys break down anywhere i'm coming with my hummer and trailer and i'm driving you back to los angeles!" all the people in wyoming are nice (except the local crazy guy.) we leave to look for a campsite, the only one we find is completely booked and it's 10:30 at night. so we call tony to ask if he's knows of any others orrrrrrr if we can possibly put up our tent in his front yard. He says "come over. you're staying on my living room floor." Tony had the most amazing log cabin i've every seen. the next day we take off towards zion but only make it to wasatch national forrest in northern utah. we camped in a surprisingly pleasant little campground and made it down to zion the next afternoon. zion is ridiculous. i wish we could of stayed there longer but we had to get home the next day so jaz could go to work. on our way home it was slightly rainy out of utah and into nevada which was nice because it kept us cool. we stopped at the orleans and grabbed a drink at the alligator bar and rode though holiday traffic all the way to baker where it became hellishly hot. luckily our friend tony told us about a sweet trick when it gets that hot. we bought a bag of ice and stuck it in between us and just let it melt all the way home to venice. thanks for reading about our trip. now i'll remember all the details forever.
