Day 5

Our original plan for this day was to do a short hike in Bryce Canyon then head to Capitol Reef. With the Wing needing some shoe attention that slightly changed our plans but we did get a 1.5 mile hike in going from the hotel to the service station. Well, so far so good. Received a call just before 9:00 am from the roadside assistance people and they stated that the tow truck is on its way and they are taking us to Panguitch which is just 30 miles away however; they stated that they were sending me to Southwest Truck Repair, suspect. I asked them if they were sure that this place could fix the Wing and they assured me yes. The tow truck showed up, a 2001 Dodge Cummings with a cargo trailer. I asked the guy why he didn't bring a flat bed so we can take my trailer also. He stated that the roadside assistance people didn't let him know we had a trailer and his company doesn't like towing motorcycles on flat beds. Oh well lets get this thing loaded and get on our way. We arrived in Panguitch and the place we were told to take it to doesn't exist, it's a transmission shop. I told the tow truck driver to sit put while I go in and ask these people if they were contacted by our roadside assistance people. Guess what? You guessed it, they hadn't heard from anyone and they don't work on motorcycles. I got back on the phone with the roadside assistance people and you can imagine the conversation I was having with them now. While I was on the phone/hold Carmel was calling motorcycle shops in Cedar City to see if we could find somewhere to take the Wing to rather than the roadside assistance people. Carmel spoke to about 3 different shops, some would have to order the valve stem, one couldn't get us in until next Tuesday and one ATV repair shop did say they could get us in and out today, bingo! Roadside assistance agreed to have the tow truck company take us there. While Carmel and I were on the phone we noticed our tow truck driver walking around and not looking so well. He stated that he had a terrible migrane headache and his vision is blurred. He said that he called his brother and he was going to meet us at the junction of Hwy 20 and Interstate 15, about 30 miles away. I offered a couple of times to take over driving so he could lie down in the back seat and he said "it's going to hurt no matter what I do". He continued to drive all the while laying his forehead against the steering wheel, rubbing his head and swerving on the road, Carmel and I were just hoping we would make it to his brother. Met up with younger brother and yes he was driving a 2001 Dodge Cummings but much nicer looking. Of course they couldn't just switch drivers they had to disconnect the trailer and put it on younger brother's truck, younger brother won't let trashy older brother drive his truck. Older brother was a bit trashy, he had to clean out the trash in the back of his extended to cab to get Carmel room to sit. We finally made it to the ATV repair shop and the tech was out to lunch. I didn't want to unload the Wing until I was certain they could in fact repair it. The people inside the sales area assured me they can. The toothless tech came back from lunch and I was immediately reassured, not! After talking with the guy he used to work at a Honda shop for years and loved working on Wings, now I feel better. While the tech was working on the Wing I was inside talking with the owner and he said that he was 2 weeks behind in service and really wasn't going to take me but he knew how much this tech loved working on Wings, he did it for him. After about an hour at the shop we were on our way. I decided that I was going to take a short cut back to Bryce where we had to pick up the trailer so that we could still make it to Capitol Reef before night fall. I knew the short cut would take us through a mountain pass which still had snow on the ground but I figured we would be cold only for a short while and back down the other side. Well, we ran into a snow storm on top of the mountain which really slowed us down and exposed us to more cold then I bargained for, we froze! We got through it and picked up the trailer in Bryce and swiftly headed for Capitol Reef. for the most part the ride to Capitol Reef was pleasurable but we had one more mountain pass to go over, freezing again. The weather never broke all to Capitol Reef. When checking in at the RV park the lady told me we had reserved a cabin and it clearly stated on my reservation a tent site, didn't argue, we took the cabin. The RV Park had some dinner options so we ate there and bedded down in a warm cabin. Let's hope those types of adventures are behind us.
Sorry not much for pictures for today...we were a little preoccupied lol. However, we did get a couple of the views from Bryce to Capitol Reef.