How I Learned to Love the Bomb and Fry My Butt in Utah
Ogden, Utah, about a half hour putt outside Salt Lake City is one of those best kept secrets you hear about. But when this rider/writer ventured there recently to experience the STAR Days rally, he got more than he bargained for.
They sat Life is a matter of timing, and this time Ogden was experiencing a record breaking heat wave... 105 degrees F as in Farfrigginhot! Like it was reaching critical mass. I had to keep ice in my tankbag to make sure my film wouldn't melt. Stuffing some in the pocket of my jeans helped, too, except for the frostbite where frost usually never bit. But despite the brain fogging temperatures and freezer burn, I'd have to say it was a cool deal, all five days running.
A big reason STAR chose Ogden was its great riding opportunities. Everywhere you looked there was a Kodak moment twitching in the crosshairs of your camera. Utah has count-em, 27 designated State Scenic Byways and the most national parks of any U.S. state, five to be exact. Ogden's nearby Snowbasin mountains catered to the 2002 Winter Olympics and during the winter season the slopes are crawling with skiers. Now Utah is also famous for its Bonneville Salt Flats where things with wheels try to break records set by other things with wheels... bikes, cars, bikecars, carbikes, two wheels, three wheels, four wheels, 18 wheels. But you don't want to break any land speed records in Ogden.
It's a cruising kind of environment that you want to savor. It's got one of those historic 1800's storefront downtowns that could stand in for some Western TV series. Speaking of Hollywood, lo and behold who do I bump into at the Marriot Hotel when its AC system broke down and they bought every portable electric fan at the local Wal-Mart and passed them around? Well, I found the people making the new bigger and better version of the classic "Benjie" film? Yep, right there in Ogden. Doggone it, not only that, but Ogden is actually the location where they film that series "Everwood" that's supposed to be in Colorado. Nope, Ogden.
Since I grew up with Godzilla in my crib, I just had to visit the Ogden Eccles Dinosaur Park on East Park Boulevard. I was in Hadrosaur Heaven. Six acres chocked full of 100 life-sized dinosaurs plus a cozy little museum with a huge T. Rex and even a super rare Ultrasaur, one of only two found in the country.
Back trolling through the downtown area, you find yourself facing Union Station, about any way you face since it's so huge. Inside you'll find a Natural History Museum, train and vintage cars exhibits and way up their on the "Have Gun, Will Travel" wish list is the John M. Browning Museum bristling with the original 1911 Colt , the famous BAR and every other pistol, shotgun, rifle and machinegun ever designed by Browning. You don't have to shoot holes through stop signs to appreciate the design, workmanship and history, but it helps.
A number of vendors gravitated to the rally including California's Baron Custom Accessories (http://www.baronscustom.com/), builders of radical custom Yamahas and the parts to make them so. The Missouri based Cycle Care Products (http://www.cyclecare.com/) helped keep bikes spiffy and clean while the ProMetrix company out of Phoenix displayed their trick floorboards, pulley and rotor covers (http://www.prometrix.biz/).
On the last day of the event Ogden's historic 25th Street looked like Main Street at Daytona or Sturgis with Yamahas and STAR riders partying into the evening. And then it was adios Ogden. The next STAR Days rally is being planned as we speak. Yamaha or not, you're invited.
For more info contact:
STAR Touring and Riding Association
1870 W. Prince St.
Tucson, AZ
Tel: 520-572-8367
Web: http://www.startouring.org/
Ogden Utah Information:
Ogden Convention & Visitor's Bureau: http://www.ogdencvb.org/
George S. Eccles Dinosaur Park & Elizabeth De Shaw Stewart Dinosaur Museum: http://www.dinopark.org/
Union Station: http://www.theunionstation.org/
Browning Firearms Museum: 801-629-8535.
Hill Air Force Base Aerospace Museum: www.hill.af.mil/museum
More by Paul Garson
Comments
Join the conversation