DR650 Rally - LaSal, Utah - Sept. 5-8

The last mx race I entered was on my brothers 69 CZ 250, in 1974.
Hmmmm, that may have been the last race I officially entered of any type.
Of course I am always racing anything and/or anyone going in the same general direction I am.

BTW, I only drink DIET Dr Pepper.

But on our rides I only had water and Gatorade, and a LOT of both.
It wasn't really HOT for the Rally, my body just can't regulate heat anymore, my thermostat is broken.
I lived 12 years in Lahaina (merciless sun) Maui and didn't mind the heat until one month when my body seemed to crash.
I can't handle even minimally hot conditions anymore.
Just a wimp!

That’s cool, I have never seen a street bike CX

It looks just like this one, only not as clean and shiny.

I'm home! I caught up with @sandwash on Monday evening for a beer and feed in Flagstaff after driving down from Salt Lake City, then had a lazy morning Tuesday, whence I headed for Phoenix Airport. I dropped off the renta cage at 14:30 and then checked my bags though to Sydney which was convenient. Got to LAX about 19:15 and found the Virgin gate for my Sydney flight. I also noticed my aisle seat reservation had changed to a window seat on my Phoenix boarding pass. I queried this at LAX and got my preferred aisle seat, along with an upgrade to Economy X for more leg room and headphone for the AV system, nice! Takeoff was delayed for an hour, so lifted off at 00:45 Tue which was as much of Tuesday as I saw.

I landed in Sydney at 08:00 after 14.5 hrs on Thursday, yesterday. I declared the last of my fruit and nut, a trail mix, and that I'd been out getting dirty. I had managed to thoroughly clean all my gear though, and they didn't bother checking it, just the trail mix, and I sailed through the bio security without issue. Then to the bus stop and I got my self a ticket after figuring out how to reenable my newish dual SIM phone to my Oz SIM for data.

Hopped on the bus at 09:25 to Canberra where my wife collected me 3 hrs later. Then off to a long lunch with a couple of mates, @DougW and Phil who had just returned from their 2.5 weeks on the road to the DSMRA AGM and Tibooburra for the TK Ride, the ride I'd have been on if not for LaSal. Then another 1.5 hrs in the car and home last evening about 18:00. Fast asleep by 20:00.

Looking through a backlog of emails right now, lots of stuff to catch up on, the penalty paid for being mostly offline for the last 4 weeks.
Thanks again to all

good stuff you made it back home safe and sound..

cough..ride report..
cough..pictures..
cough, cough.. food and beer report..

any will do..

all in good time Simon...

all good

hopefully weather and Cooma will line up on the way down or back to PI and i can catch up in person.

guess i'm the same.
when i did my lap, i don't think i posted a single pic for the months i was away.
think i posted when i had some bike trouble and that was about it.
it's good to be riding and away from the computer.

Mine are now in my album, including some you requested for those on the road to La Sal, at ...

https://fishnbiker.smugmug.com/Motorcycle-Travel/19-Moab-DR-650-Rally-Trip/i-5Mhbhm4.

Not yet captioned though.

cheers mate..

making my way through atm..
it's hard to get my head around the scale of big empty.
looks awesome.

Bergdonk,it was nice to see you again.Glad you made it both ways.Now you are certainly the longest distance supporter.
Have a great day......

Magnificent pictures!
Thanks for the link, now I can show Robyn more of what it looks like.

Thanks to whoever left this in my cooler, I've been slowly making my way through quite the variety of leftover beers. I wish I had given all the IPA's to @NC Rick but here's one I wouldn't mind having again. It's from Boise, ID. Doug?

What kind of party (rally) has leftover beer? We must be gettin' old

We just needed another evening or two.

To be fair, I brought enough beer to the rally that if no one else brought beer, everyone would have been able to have at least one. Or two.

Answer: A party where @Lil' Steve brings the beer! **

** and @Nogoodnamesleft pitches in...

I had brought a cooler and a half...think I brought 8 home. And half those weren't mine.



I liked the idea of bringing beers from everywhere, got to try some great stuff!

Even @drmiller100 offered to share his goat filtered piss he called beer!

Leftover beer..
Sounds like a rally that's one Aussie short..

Life rules..
Don't leave a guy stuck on the track or a beer in the esky..

Way back I owed people a beer or two for DR advice..
Then that moved on to a beer for support and life advice..
By the time this rally happened,
it was a beer because I now consider you and a lot of good folks here just mates.

I've written up my adventure to the US and LaSal for the Rally, starting here; https://advrider.com/f/threads/bergdonks-dr650s.646076/page-113#post-38441872

You are welcome my new friend! There is more where that came from!