SLC

Yes, the lighting is horrible- and my smartphone doesn't do it justice, but I've just been so struck with mountains surrounding the city here

Leaving SLC

So its Sunday morning, I just had breakfast (@ eggs in the city) with Julie Chang and her roommate Holly in Salt Lake City and I'm hitting the road.
SLC seems beautiful, I wish that I could enjoy it more. But I'm off.

Day endurance

So one of the bad things about staying with friends is that you don't get to leave as early as you'd like. It's not bad as in bad, just not as efficient. And when you have a long dat ahead of you, well, that just screams, 'be efficient!'
But yes, after a delightful morning, I had a long day on the road. Like 11 hrs of riding. I started to care less and less about fuel efficiency as the trip went on and on. I did have some poignant thoughts today while riding, and why yes, I'd love to share them with you.
1) take pictures of the people I meet along the way. I met Kip, a bearded Tom Sellick, who was an Alaskan fisherman at a point overlooking pendleton, there was Kim and Wes who told me they'd pray for me after  giving me directions in south Idaho. (They were hauling the family out to Montana- this was Wes's first trip since he went head on with his motorcycle against a car.) Also some dude who gave me directions in front of a tack bell at a truck stop in Boise- though I don't think he'd of been the type to allow me to take his picture. Yes, I did have a cheesy bean and rice burrito.
2) I felt by days end I was qualified to determine there is not only one smell for manure, but many different smells; at the same time, all distinctly manure.
3) Whatever meat product that sasquatch endorses is pure crap. Seriously had to take a second bite because I could not believe the first was that bad.
4) I wish that I had a voice commanded camera to my helmet. But realized that it would probably be really boring footage unless it was montaged with a good soundtrack.
5) Don't underestimate how much audio book you can listen too. I naively put in two cds of a book my roommate suggested. I finished that and was almost legitimately angry with myself for not putting the whole book on.
5) I think the Russians found out about this trip and covertly started construction zones along 70% of it.
6) I don't know where Idaho stopped and Utah began. I know that once 86 & 84 split, Idaho finally started to have some landscape, but there were not any defining boards of welcome.
That's all I have right now. I'm exhausted. The sunny pics are outside the tri-cities, the sunsets were next to snowville. And yes, scenery coming into Utah was amazing.

Nice to meet you, Mr. Skid Plate

I have not pushed the off-road limits on my v-strom. Actually, a handful of gravel roads, a muddy few miles to join some friends camping and a few loops in the Tuscan countryside sum up all of my off-road experience.  The limited experience that I've had has convinced me though that I'm putting my bike a little more at risk.  And considering on my upcoming trip I may take a few roads off the beaten path, I decided that a skid plate was about due.

After some research online, and reading threads off of advrider and stromtrooper I noticed there plenty of good options out there.  One that matched the minimalist design that I was interested and importantly the price range that I was interested in was the skid plate made by Dan Vesel out of Spokane, WA.  When I first contacted them, it was a seasonal item for them, when I asked to be placed on their wait list, they told me they could possibly ship the next Monday.  And they did.

Installation was a snap, with the only disclaimers being to not tighten the back bolt too tightly (6-8 ft lbs) and check the bolts periodically (its sad yes, but common sense is a must.)  I threw the idea of locktite around, but with removing the plate at each oil change (I made sure to change my oil the night before) I decided against it.

Overall it looks great!  Covers the engine, oil filter and part of the exhaust.  Once again, I like the minimalist coverage, though I do hesitate over the exposed part of the exhaust in front.  Hopefully I'll sing its praises in the future here. Ride safe, but more importantly, ride.