Ride-Of-Change-2008: Friday 10th -Saturday 11th October : Ride the wild wind

When I got into Moab Thursday nite on my way south out of Arches, I started looking out for a place to spend a nite in my tent. Weather forecast announcing a pretty powerful coldfront with snow and thunderstorms for the next couple of days- the outlook was anything but good to spend life outdoor. So I checked some of the campsites in Moab - not could I know what a wonderful experience should rise from this decision.
While I was hitting back on the mainstreet 2 dirtbikes and some 100GS BMW turned off the mainroad and into one of the local campsites. Looking after them I noticed a German licenseplate on the BMW - good enough a reason to see where the guys were from and who they were.

So when I followed them to their site it did not take us longer than just a few minutes to feel and know : Bikers just met bikers !

So I put up my tent next to some really special and wonderful people again :

It was Dan and Barb from Canada( just coming back from a 110 mile dirtroadride around Island-in-the-Sky-Nationalpark ( gotta know that MOAB is one of THE American offroad paradises) and Rick - and guess what !

Rick had left Germany 3 days before me and travelled through Russia, Siberia and Far East without ever knowing of each other or having met. From Vladvostok he travelled through Japan to Vancouver and Canada - and we meet in Moab !!!!

We spend wonderful days in Moab while we expect the coldfront - Dan and iBarb are two wonderful and warmhearted people - and with Rick being as openminded we talk as much about the bikes, the world and the philosophies behind all that . I feel back into "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance " in its deeper sense .

Despite I had planned to travel on rather fast, the great atmosphere of our little team makes me stuck in Moab - just not wanting to leave this great people too early.
We can actually feel the coldfront with the temperatures dropping drastically and the winds blowing off thick branches from big trees and the corregated sheet roofs of he camping shelters next to us. Despite all that it stay sunny while next to us in the nearby mountains it pretty much looks like the world´s coming to an end. It would be mad to ride into these mountains with snow, hail and thunderstorms at more than 3000 m altitude now.

But there is a lot of good things to do in the meantime.
While Rick and me find ourselves a wireless lan Cafe in town to do some blogwork we meet Dieter and Renate from Germany - travelling round the world in their Unimog-Truck for 8 years now. Quickly I get my first Skype-Instruction - that is where Ride-of-change meets Skype !
Next Dan cannot stand the temptation of his mechanics heart - noticing my chain and sprockets are pretty done and due to be changed rather yesterday than tomorrow - we start undoing the old chain, and while I organize a new 520-O-Ringchain in one of the bike shops in town Dan gets round getting the proper socket to undo the frontsprocket. So I end up with a brandnew chainset done by a 35 yearlong Canadian BMW-mechanic and simply a great and helpful character : Dan McLaren - thank you from the bottom of my heart, Dan, Barb and Rick.

The testride took me up an into the "Islands in the Sky"-Nationalpark. Not only another stunning Canyon-landscape but riding really wild and stormy winds on some even wilder roads....no rangers wide and far.....;-)

We spend so much more good and enriching time - that finally I am very greatful that coldfront stopped me from going on - again : Follow the signs of life ! MAKTUB...