We pulled into a gas station to U-turn this evening. A truck screeched to a halt, turned round and pulled in beside us to have a look at the bikes. "That's the new V-Rod isn't it. I've seen them on TV but that's the first one I've seen. Nice bike"

This isn't the first interest we've had and I know it wont be the last.
At our first stop, at Zion National Park, after the third person came over to have a look at the bikes, the girl unpacking the car next to us asked
"Does that happen a lot?"
"Don't know, we just picked up the bikes yesterday"
"Well you better get used to it coz it will"

I'm a lot more comfortable on the bike today.
Comfortable in that I'm happier to throw the bike around. The bike isn't any more comfortable than yesterday but I'm getting used to it.

After a couple of hours wandering through Zion we headed east on Route 9.
We stopped before the tunnel to remove sun glasses. In the dark, the side lights illuminate the front of the bike orange like it was some kind of alien space craft.

Just before Carmel Junction a couple of mule deer decided that it was perfectly safe to cross the road in front of us. I didn't see them until the first one hit the road. Paul had time to pick a gap between them. I just hung onto the brakes and prayed that the first deer would make it far enough before I reached it. It did, but only just. I must have missed it's back legs by an inch or so. (It was one of those "I've no idea how I missed it", "I didn't think you had" moments).

On my bike I would have had the front wheel chirping as it locked up. On the V-Rod the bike kinda slowed down. I'm not sure it's possible to lock the front wheel no matter how hard you tried. Not exactly confidence inspiring.

A couple of miles later we stopped for a coffee and this guy comes over to us and asks "when did Harley start making water cooled bikes" turns out that he used to be a dealer.
After some discussion about the merits of various makes of motorbikes, he did suggest a slightly different route for later in the week that should save us some 'running out of fuel' trouble. (More on that later). We tried not to insult the bikes, but there were only so many polite things we could say about them. (Well - so few actually).

South to Kanab with a quick detour to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, the only actual sand dunes in this desert. The sand there is famously 'well sorted' which is a good thing coz I have no idea how sand would react to therapy.

Kanab is a small place that is further away from the railroad than anywhere else in the US. Given that everyone here has a truck this isn't really a modern day problem.

247 miles total - 107 miles today