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On the bright side they all can use the same lawyer....get a group discount, never pay retail.

I will post 4 ride reports from Morocco, from the past, from 2014 to 2017. Here is the first. Early in 2014 I bought a BMW R1150GS, specifically to tour with Maria, my girlfriend. I had been without a road bike for a long time, ever since I had sold the Transalp, and we both felt like touring together. First trip had been to the Algarve, and served as a shakedown run, it was good fun, ever since I had updated some of my gear and the bike had been fitted with Heidenau K60 tires which offered a lot more confidence out of tarmac. Tires were fitted the previous day, so I wasn't too confident on them On the 27th, early morning we fueled up on our local gas station and I was feeling properly excited like a hardcore adventurer ? We travelled with a phone and a small camera, Maria used the camera to take most of the onboard pictures, the reason there are none from the road during the first two or three days is that I deleted them all one morning while checking the camera when waking up. We had about 8 or 900km to go to get to Tarifa and catch our Ferry. Had I not deleted the pictures we would have some great ones of us riding into a rain storm on the way there, and stopping under a motorway bridge to put our plastic overalls on. As such, there is only this one of a brief coffee stop in Portugal, before venturing into Spain and coffee instantly turning to shit. Weather was shit, but spirits were high. Like real VIPs, we rolled into Tarifa and into the port, must have waited no more than 10 minutes before arriving and passing a long line of cars, bikes being given priority into the Ferry. Maria, unquestionably the better half of us We messed around taking selfies and making videos such as this one, of me trying for the first time pack Maria's plastic rainsuit into it's own pocket. We thought we had all the time in the world, never having been on this boat we didn't know that customs immigration desk was aboard the boat, by the time we realized what the big line was about we had a nice long line to get behind of. At least you now have the rain suit video because of that. Getting off the ferry was easy, and customs were easy too, with just enough difficulty to make a newbie feel like an adventurer. We had booked a hotel in Tangier and only had a couple of km to ride to get to it. First meters into Morocco, for the first time: I'll never forget these minutes first entering this country, traffic was noisier, roundabouts weren't quite dealt with in the same fashion as in Europe, temperature was higher than when boarding the boat in Spain, you could smell Africa in more ways than one. I'm glad we have this short video, nothing really interesting to see but I remember how happy and fearless I felt doing this. Easily made our way to our hotel, securely parked the bike on a guarded parking, and checked in. I'm taking my time describing all this because it really felt like everything was new, from the way we were saluted when getting in, to the hotel decor itself, not European at all The room didn't share any of the grandeur of the lobby, so no picture of that A quick shower, a little rest, and we're off to have dinner and a walk. Also buying a mobile data card to use on Maria's phone. I loved leaving my own phone with an employee so that he dealt with everything while I was gone. Mercedes station wagon converted into a snail selling food van (just to clarify, snails as food): Made our way into the Medina, which was pretty busy, and went into a proper restaurant to have our first meal in Morocco, I was starving: Here I am waiting for my full tasting menu viewed from the second floor: First some soup and light entries Pastilla, which is a some of sweet and sour pastry, with lots of cinnamon outside and curry chicken or vegetables inside: I was full by the time the tajine arrived, but I had never lost a fight against a meal before and wasn't about to either. Furniture was built with no regard for industry standards, here are Maria's feet while sitting on the restaurant After dinner, we made our way back through some deserted streets and went to bed early. Noisy street outside the hotel, heat, and most of all excitement prevented me from falling asleep early and I must have stayed up until 2 or 3 AM thinking of what would happen the next day. Will continue later on.

CSP caught 10 Porsches doing 40 mph over the limit just down the road from my house. I'm amazed that all 10 actually stopped for him. If it were bikes, he might have caught 2 of them. 40 over is gonna be in the area of $450 each.

I use a DSLR camera - and shoot with my helmet on most of the time (Ahaa! There's your problem) so I rarely even get shit in frame, either! Need to rethink how I shoot pics. But the DSLR is great for pics while on the move and at least 50% of my pics are shot on the fly in the saddle - see the camera resting on my tankbag in attached pic? Works well, just not for cockpit shots.

The next day we had a very nice breakfast quite early on, on a cafe near the hotel, and headed out with Maria showing her worth as navigator equipped with her phone. No camera pictures for this morning, as we made our way south and into Marijuana country, passing Chefchaouen where we stopped for a look around and bought some dry fruits for the road. I had some great footage of us slowly riding through a rural market, people were not happy to move over for the bike and until today it was the only place where I was truly made to feel uneasy in Morocco. The last stand had a few guns, and as we asked for directions to where we wanted to go, we were discouraged and directed further south. Upon what seemed like great advice we moved on. Stopping later on for lunch, there was no food for a while despite being near farmed fields, so we munched on the dried fruits, raisins and quite salty toasted peanuts. Little later one, we stopped in Volubilis for a coke and some touristing. Volubilis used to be important as a Roman city, it's quite impressive how they made it so far south. Here after what I think was our first fuel stop, maybe not. This was near Meknes, I never liked Meknes enough to stop so we didn't. Made our way south and slept near Azrou, which is on the mountains and is a ski resort during the winter. I remember we got lost and it was chilly when we got there, a hot shower well into the night and a hot meal. We were the only guests and it was far away from anything within a walking distance, the hot chicken and fries tasted great. Here I am quite happy to have brought my warmest sweater to Morocco. Had a great night, nothing like a long bike ride followed by a hearty meal to put you to sleep.

Cop pulled them all over at once. Lots of car clubs come to our area as the roads are good for driving, ( curvy, elevation changes, etc). Cops must have heard about it and decided to play as well.

That his ticket quote done for the week

I always try to get a "from the cockpit" pic when I go out on rides, but always seem to mess it up; outta focus, wrong focus, nothing in the pic, etc. Will keep trying though - gotta get lucky some day....

Then i just toddled around the back roads to head for home but also taking in this short lane on the way back.

So, after a cold night well slept in a big bed covered by the heaviest bed covers I've ever slept under, I then proceed to delete all pictures in the camera, and we go one to have a little breakfast and get out, making our way to Azrou for some memory cards Proper Moroccan hill scene, with plenty of space and big taxis. Old Mercedes E-class never die, they just regroup in Morocco From Azrou, we made our way to the Cedar forrest, first stopping to visit the monkeys and make some friends: And then on to the cedar forrest proper, first through what must be one of the roughest tarmac roads in Morocco This is sheep herders country, nomad people move their herds up here during the summer to feed, and then lower to escape the snow during the winter. It's a hard place to endure as you can tell by the state of the tarmac. We stop by a half dried lake, where eventually I think we'd make a point of visiting ever since. And onwards: Towards the big cedars: As we cross the cedar forrest heading south we appreciate the harsh environment these people live in These trucks drive at quite the pace considering their size and the gravel switchbacks we usually come accross them: Brief urination stop on an idilic location: Warning: baby donkey extreme cuteness alert!!! Heading south, exiting the forrest with it's grand trees, and heading towards more arid but still mid altitude landscapes:

They are saying no unnecessary journeys but i cant see anywhere it restricts me other than leaving the borough so wont be doing much biking as there's not much to do on the bike in RCT

Yup all locked down again

The only asphalting I do is all new with hot sealed joints so no over banding needed at all. Hopefully I won't evert have to supervise that again, I found that quite stressful, every road in London has someone who needs to get in or out and they all choose the day it needs to be closed to come out of the woodwork.

Fuckin' overachiever.

From the way it was chewy, probably hoof

Word, none of the "summer people" are going home this year because of cornhole, they are staying here, ugh...we should trun off their utilities.

Pedro ia beeing too kind. I'm a shitty rider. ?

Perusing my old pictures, I found this oldie from 2010: After which I tried to go artistic with my sand drawing:

Update on the UTV crash that I saw: https://www.outtherecolorado.com/news/vehicle-with-six-inside-plunges-300-feet-off-mountain-road-in-colorado/article_8d01cb38-f9d2-11ea-93d1-0789d261a6cf.html?fbclid=IwAR1m2agJW1Nc7KSJpnsjQ2TiqCGDGgADFG19Vy6H-EZleNhYRikjAUNhk5M Hopefully you guys can access it from Europe.

I think you'll find that's Yen's area of expertise

That's it. I got back on the freeway and blasted the last 300+ miles for home. Made just before dark and in time for dinner. Doesn't get much better than that. Until next time...

Rule #1 when riding in the American West; get fuel when you can, not when you have to....

Tinfoil hat people think these drawings are of men from outer space....

Checked out some petroglyphs - made somewhere between 6,000-1,000 B.C. (quite a range) by the ancient Indians of the area. Amazing that they still survive....

Almost into Moab now - saw a few cars and bicyclists so time to slow down....

Onward....

You can't imagine the fun I had on this road; cool air, alone and zooming along taking pics. Was so glad I wasn't there when that small rock decided to fall and cross the road...

Zoom zoom...

Welcome to Planet Mars. They could have made the road pretty straight, but looks as if they went outta their way to make it curvy. So thanks for that...

50 miles long, great scenery (when the smoke isn't in the air) and a road as smooth as can be...

..and then we drop into the canyons of my all time favorite road in the USA. No one really uses this road as it doesn't go anywhere - I think it's cool enough top be come a National Park. If people knew it was here , they'd flock to it...

The cool part about Utah is that there is absolutely no one out here - barren landscape with lots of nothing for miles and miles. Lots of wild fire smoke though...

Got out in the boonies and the real fun began...

On Friday morning , I left the hotel in the dark as it was gonna be a long day. Caught the sun rising while at a truck stop getting fuel in Utah..

What a fantastic ride report and the photos of the scenery is spectacular. This shot is a bit spooky for me......... I don't know if we had some sort of telepathic thing going on but yesterday I took this photo ?

Made it to the Marriott in Grand Junction for the night. Currently waiting on the Sun to come up so I can head to Moab and then home today. Gonna be a long ride today -500+ miles - but some good pics to come.

Hope ya like rock pics....

North end of the canyon opens up a bit to wider views...

Red rock for miles....

The canyon is about 50 miles long with a river and road at the bottom and several hundred foot tall walls at the sides....

This road is so much fun that I rode it 3 times today. Once at speed as curves are so much fun and then back down and back for pictures. Love this place!

And now off to the canyons...

The wooden structure you can see on the side of the canyon is a hanging flume - a waterway to transport water to a mine. Probably from the 1880's......

And on to Gateway - the real reason I wanted to head over to this part of the state in the first place. Desert road with bends, drop offs and walls. There are a few cars at the bottom of the cliff, just below the turn of the road - hard to see the bends at night...

Rode through Telluride, but it was beyond crowded with tourists, didn't take a single picture. Did stop outside of town at the abandoned gold mine there - place was huge! Looks to be from the 1920's or so...

...

Just me and a couple of tossers on cruisers...

Pretty empty today - no caravans, etc clogging up the roads....

One of the better roads in Colorado - if you're not afraid of heights.....