Day 16

8/23/11  A fun day today.  We left the motel after a good breakfast of eggs, bacon, and hash browns.  And some fruit.

Part of the day was to make some miles east; Indianapolis is about 1,500 miles from where we're staying, and we'll be in Indianapolis Friday night.  So, we hopped on I-70 and rode east to Grand Junction, CO.  There, we had lunch and jumped on US 50 South to ride some roads that are known to be scenic and interesting.

Several miles south of Grand Junction, we got on Colorado 141 and went south.  WOW what a road!  I've ridden now over 150,000 miles on a motorcycle, and this is the prettiest road I've been on.  It didn't start out so pretty; they were paving the road; it was 102 degrees, and we were sitting still on the  bikes in the sun waiting for traffic to move.  About 15 minute delay, and the scenery started.  The road went down a canyon, with green mountains on one side of the road and rocky mountains on the other side.  It reminded me of the Icefields Parkway near Banff, Canada, which was one of my prettiest roads.  Note the "was"; this road is better.  After some miles, we were riding along with red cliffs going up about 1,000 feet high on both sides of the road.  Beautiful.  Then it changed to mountains on both sides again.

The road itself was in good condition, and it winded along with enough curves to be interesting and fun.  We did witness one thing that could have been a problem, but wasn't.  We were following a truck pulling an air compressor behind it.  I noticed the trailer swaying back and forth, with each oscillation more pronounced, when suddenly it was no longer attached to the truck.  The trailer started sliding on it's tongue, throwing up sparks and dust.  It stopped on the side of the road and didn't turn over!  The weird thing was that the truck never realized it no longer had the trailer.  It kept going!

We speeded up to catch the truck and caught it about 5 miles down the road.  As we passed the truck, we motioned that the trailer was not behind the truck.  It slowed down and stopped.  It was a DOT truck!

At a scenic point, we stopped to see the suspended plumes.  When the area was being mined for gold, they needed lots of water to produce the gold.  So, they built a wooden sluice or plume on the side of cliffs for 13 miles!  The plume carried 23 millions of water a day!!  Amazing to see and to think about how difficult a feat it had to be.

A while later, we veered off this road to ride a high mountain pass.  The road went through Ouray, a quaint town at the bottom of Big Red mountain.  We rode to the top of the pass (altitude 11,110 feet).  It was fun and exhilarating to ride.  Then we backtracked down the pass and rode the 50 or so miles to the hotel in Montrose.

That was it for the day; 450 or so miles, including about 250 miles of smiles.

Tomorrow--more high passes and then visit a friend.

No pics tonight; it's getting late.  But come back later and I'll have some posted.

Days 14 and 15

8/21-22/11  Another twofer post.  Last night we got to the hotel late and there just wasn't time or energy to write a blog.  So, I'll cover two days in this post.

We got up and took our time in getting ready to leave the hotel.  When we left, we rode over to our lunch place, the Mona Lisa restaurant, near Chinatown. Since we had some time on our hands before the restaurant opened, we walked into Chinatown to see the sights.  I had never been there, so it was a real eye-opener.

There was a mass of people in the area--mostly Oriental, but a mix of all of humanity was present.  The sidewalks were filled with people. 

Foods for sale ranged from fresh fruit to live fish to dried shrimp.  And everything else you can imagine, and some that you would not begin to think about, like cow stomachs.  Ugh!  I got nauseous just looking at some of the things.  Peking duck, raw and cooked chickens, whole and in pieces.  Some kind of small bird, whole and feathers plucked.  We saw live fish being taken from fish tanks on a truck  being sold to a fish market.  Talk about fresh; it doesn't get any fresher than those fish!

And the aromas on the street.  Some were somewhat pleasant, but many were awful.  Think fish market combined with cow paddiy--and worse.  It was a real treat to see all of what was going on.  Gary and I were in agreement that the health department cannot have been present to inspect the places; they were very rough.

At 11 we walked back to the Mona Lisa, an old and famous Italian restaurant.  I ordered lasagna, and was served one of the top 3 lasagna dishes I've ever had.  It was traditional, red sauce with beef and cheeses.  What made this one delightfully different is that the meat sauce included chunks of beef, cooked to a great taste.  It also had ground beef, but the chunks really made it different and delicious.  I ate all of it!  If in San Francisco again, I'm going back!

After lunch, we got on the bikes and headed homeward.  We wanted to see Yosemite National Park, so we headed to it.  About 4 hours later we were there.

Time was getting short, so we had time only to ride through the park.  We didn't even get off the bikes.  But we saw a lot.  The most striking feature, to me, was the huge rock faces.  Whole mountains of solid rock.  I've not seen a place like this, where a mountain is clearly one huge boulder.  And waterfalls; very beautiful.  And big trees.  It is beautiful, and next trip to California will allow some time to see things in Yosemite.

It was getting late, and we needed to be moving on, so we got on Hwy 120 that runs some 65 miles through the park.  Just as we got moving, traffic stopped.  For about an hour!  Seems that there was some kind of auto accident that had the only road through the park blocked.  So we waited it out.  Once rolling again, we had many miles to go, and darkness was occurring.  By the time we got out of the park, it was black night, a time that we try hard not to ride in.  But we had no option.

Once out of the park, we rode to the town of Lee Vinnies to find a hotel.  Unfortunately, all were full.  So, we made some calls and secured a motel some 30 miles away.  The ride to the motel was tense; pitch black and unfamiliar roads.  But we got in safely.  Checked in the hotel, had a quick dinner, and called it a night.

Today, we left Mammoth Lakes and headed east.  We found some smaller roads and rode for hours along miles and miles of nothing but sagebrush and small undergrowth.  One road we were on went for 76 miles, and in those 76 miles, there was one abandoned house.  Nothing else.  No buildings.  No businesses.  Nothing but sagebrush!  I'd guess that of the 536 miles covered today, 450 of them were in the middle of nowhere.  No traffic (maybe a car every half hour or so), nothing but sagebrush.

We are staying in Richfield, UT tonight.  It's a little town along I-70 where I had some bike repairs made on our first trip out west in 2007.  Actually had dinner at the same place we ate at on that trip.  It was good both times.

Tonight we're washing clothes--probably the last time we'll have to do that on this trip.  A necessary evil.  But it will be good to have clean clothes again.

Tomorrow, head east towards Denver.  We plan to ride some roads southwest of Denver where there are a number of high mountain passes.  Should be fun...

Day 13

8/20/11  From San Luis Obispo to San Francisco.  It was another good day on the road.  I guess the thing that stands out most in my mind was the weather.  It is so weird that the temperatures can vary so much in such a short distance. 

Most of the ride, the temperatures were in the 60s.  We got on Hwy 1, the famous Pacific Coast Highway in San Luis, and headed north.  The skies were gray and heavily overcast.  It misted a little along the way, but no rain fell.  At one point, the highway swung inland for several miles, and the temperature rose from 63 to 85.  Then the road swung back towards the ocean and the temperatures dropped back to the mid 60s.  The ocean has a definite cooling effect on the temperatures.

The PCH is a wonderful road for motorcycle riding..  It runs along the beach most of the way, but in California, the beach and the mountains are literally feet apart, so the road is just like riding the twisties in the mountains, complete with hairpin turns and significant elevation changes.  While the speed limit is 55, there are few places where most people can reach that speed.  There are straight, level stretches for a mile or so along the way, but much of the road is twisty, making it a motorcyclist heaven.

Along the way, we saw a sign for an elephant seal viewing area, so we went there.  On the beach below were about 25 elephant seals lying on the beach, sleeping.  They would lie still and periodically flip sand on their back.  Why, I don't know, but all of the seals did that.  Occasionally one would move towards the water, moving it's body in an undulating motion that pushed it forward a few inches.  They are definitely not fast on the beach, but I bet they can really go fast in the water.  It was something to see!

Gary worked on his headlight problem while still at the hotel.  We were not able to get the spring to stay in its holder.  But in testing, we determined that one of the leads to the bulb was the problem.  Something about the wire was causing a short that turned off the headlight circuit.  He finally decided to leave the bulb out and ride with only a high beam.  That worked just fine.  He'll work on it more at home.

We rode into San Francisco on Hwy 101, and experienced first-hand the famous slowdowns on that road.  We stopped and rolled and stopped and rolled for a long time, making little progress.  Finally, the traffic picked up and we rolled into town.

Gary led us through town to the Golden Gate Bridge, one of our destination.  We rode across the glorious bridge in bumper-to-bumper traffic, with fog blowing in from the ocean; it was great!  The bridge itself is beautiful, with the large cables gracefully swinging from buttress to buttress.  And all of the vertical supports from the bridge deck to the huge cables were beautiful as well.  Six lanes of traffic cross the deck; three north and three south.  It is truly an amazing bridge.

On the north side of the bridge is a viewing area, which we used for some pictures.  It was cold there; 61 degrees and a pretty stiff wind coming off the ocean.  I wore the bumblebee all day, so I didn't get cold; it felt great.  But other people wearing summer clothes were huddled up and clearly cold. 

After taking a few pictures, we headed back into town to the motel.  Along the way, we did the famous Lombard street, the "crookedess street in USA".  It is pretty steep and switchbacks every few feet.  It would be a bit of a challenge on a motorcycle to ride down it without traffic.  However, we were behind a car with a driver that appeared to be terrified, stopping every few feet and then inching forward.  Going that slow made it very difficult because we were stopping on a steep slope in a curve with camber, making it hard to touch a foot to the ground.  I almost dumped the bike twice, and Gary said he almost went down once.  It was not a fun ride down the street.

We found the motel, checked in, rested a few minutes, then walked down to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner.  We had a good dinner at one of the places over the water and then walked around to see what we could see.  Gary knew that seals would be hanging out down by Pier 39, so we went there to see them.  Wow!  There were 7 docks covered with seals!  They were honking and hollering to each other; it was quite a sight.

We finished the night life by stopping at an Irish bar for some Irish coffee.  We sat in front of the bartender and watched him preparing the drinks; it was quite a performance.  He would line up a half dozen glasses, rims just touching.  Then he poured hot water in all of them in one swooping pour.  The water sat in the glasses for just a while, I guess to heat the glass.  Then he poured the water out and placed two sugar cubes in each glass.  Next came coffee, about half full.  He then did a motion with a spoon to swish coffee out of the glass without making a real mess.  Next, he stirred the coffee, dissolving the sugar, all in just a second or two per glass.  Then he poured Irish whiskey in each glass, in one swooping motion again.  Finally some frothy cream on top.  He was definitely an expert in his craft of making Irish coffee.  It was very good!

Then back to the hotel for the night.  It was a very good day.

Sunday, we'll see a few more sights, have lunch, and then head for Yosemite National Park.

Days 11 and 12

8/18-19/11 Another twofer post.  Last night, I could not get an Internet connection to work, so I didn't write a post.

On Thursday, we had a great day of riding.  Wonderful roads full of curves and elevation changes.  I have worked on my turning techniques, and think I've improved my carving the roads.

We stayed in Big Bear lake, a ski resort located at elevation 7,500 or so feet.  Our room there was nice; it even had a fireplace!  And it had a very good breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and home fries.  It was very good.  Last night, I was not feeling well; very tired and stomach ache, so I skipped dinner (for those of you who know me well, me skipping a meal is unheard-of).  But I just didn't feel like eating.  That made breakfast much better!

It was a very good day of riding.  Noth8ing noteworthy except the roads for the day.  And a piece of very tasty pie.  We learned from a local that the Julian Pie Company makes great pies.  So, for lunch, we headed for Julian so we could try one out.  We ate at a restaurant beside the pie factory, thinking surely they would have the pies.  But on ordering, our waitress told us that their pies were not fresh; that fresh pies were delivered on the weekends.  So we didn't have pie there; but with the factory next door, we went there and had a piece of Apple Mountain Berry pie.  It had apples, boysenberries, strawberries, and raspberries.  With an apple crumb crust on top.  Finally, topped with vanilla ice cream.  It was wonderful! 

Then good roads to Big Bear Lake.  Oh, I almost forgot--we went by an airplane glider park, where a glider was being pulled up to glide.  It went up amazingly fast, and interestingly, the glider was in the air long before the towing plane.  We considered going on a flight, but I nixed it.  The thought of being up several thousand feet without an engine was not something I was interested in doing...  I'm a chicken, I guess.

We left Big Bear Lake this morning; it was 43 degrees when we got up!  Yes, it was 43 degrees.  But it warmed up very quickly, and we never had really high temperatures (about 95 was the high for the day).  The ride today included mountain twisties, valley flats, and freeways.  All went well, and the rides were great.

We stopped for gas, and Gary noticed that none of his headlights were burning.  Low bulb and high bulbs were out!  We decided to ride to our place for the night, San Luis Obispo.  We found that the hotel rates in this town were very high, so we found a mom and pop hotel for a little less and stayed at the Villa Motel. 

Once checked in, we found an auto parts store to buy bulbs for the headlights.  The we tried to install them.  Unfortunately, the access to the headlights is pretty tight, making it difficult to work on them.  Gary got the bulb out just fine, stuck the new bulb in place, and then tried to put the little springy thing in place that holds the bulb in its socket.  Damn, the spring popped out of its holding thing.  So, we fiddled with it for about an hour, failing to get it fixed before dark set in.  We finally decided to go back to the hotel and wait until morning to try again.  

At the motel, he discovered that the high beam was now working!!  Weird stuff. We ordered a pizza and called it a day.  A good day, but frustrating at the end.

Tomorrow--fix the headlight and move on to San Francisco.

Day 10

8/17/11  A good day on the road.  We left Yuma AZ and immediately crossed into California, one of our destination states.  When we left the hotel at 7:30, it was 98 degrees outside!  So much for cooling off overnight...

Once in California on I-8, we rode through one area of huge sand dunes.  They went for several miles, and covered a huge area.  No pics; it was hot, and we wanted to get on to San Diego.  A while later, the Interstate narrowed to one lane, and all the traffic was sent through another Inspection Station, looking for illegal immigrants and drugs.  We didn't have to stop; they waved us through.  I guess two old guys on BMW bikes were not good candidates to smuggle immigrants or drugs.

It got fairly hot along the way, hovering around 100 degrees, until we started up the mountains between east and west California.  The Interstate was fairly boring, so we found an old historic road that paralleled I-8.  Hwy 80 was more interesting, with the road following the lay of the land more than the Interstate, and it had more curves.  But, alas, it crossed the Interstate and headed north, so we had to get back on the fast road.

 We had one side trip that a mutual friend had suggested.  I was told that in a town along the way there was a Buck Knife factory.  I collect knives and love to have them, so I wanted to see the place.  So, off we went to find it.  I had a street address, so the GPS took us directly to the location.  But, it was not there!  It looked like an industrial building, but nothing to do with Buck knives.  A wild goose chase is what it was.

On to San Diego.  The Interstate was not bad; traffic was moving fine, and it was not heavy.  We followed the Interstate almost to the ocean.  Once off the Interstate, I followed some small streets and found Dog Beach.  A weird name for a beach, but it happens to be a beach dedicated to letting dogs run free and to be trained.  LOTS of dogs there! 

We walked out to the beach and let the waves run up onto our boots, and dipped our hands into the surf, to feel the water of the Pacific Ocean.  It was cool, but not nearly as cold as the water is further north.

Then to find a place to eat.  Just up the street we found Shades restaurant.  I had a BLAT sandwich.  Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, and Tomato, and it was excellent.  Gary did his usual fish and chips.  A good lunch with a view of the Pacific.

Then we walked out on the Ocean Beach pier, a concrete pier built in the 1960s.  It's the longest pier on the west coast, at 1,600 feet long!  Much longer than any I've ever seen or been on.  It's a fishing pier, and we saw a few people fishing, but they were not catching much.

Back to the bikes and up the beach highway, just taking in the scenery along the way.  It's so weird to have the ocean just a few hundred feet from the road, and mountains immediately on the other side of the road.  Neat!  It was cool and foggy along the way, with the temperature dipping to 69 degrees.  Almost cool!  It was an extraordinary experience, going from 100 degrees to 69 in the space of 15 miles or so.

Our northernmost point today was San Juan Capistrano.  We rode to the famous town where the Swallows stop and saw the mission building.  Stopped to take a pic and then on to our hotel in Temecula.   The ride from Capistrano to the hotel was a blast, going through the mountains down into the valley on the east side.

Tomorrow--mountain roads!

Days 8 and 9

8/15-16/11  Well, it's another multiple day post.  This one will cover 2 days.

On Monday, we got up and packed the bikes and headed into the park.  Our hotel was only about a mile from the park entrance, so it was an easy roll into Carlsbad Caverns National Park.  We stopped for a picture at the park sign--the one to prove that we were actually there.  I noted that in the 10 weeks or so since last visited with my sister, a fire had burned  most of the vegetation on the hills and mountains, leaving burned stalks of yucca and cacti along the way.  I learned that the fire occurred on June 12, just two weeks after the trip with Bar.

The trip into the caverns was great.  I've been in many of the caverns in the eastern part of the USA, but none of those compare with Carlsbad.  I believe Carlsbad is the Grand Canyon of caves.  Gary enjoyed them as well.  For more descriptions, refer to my blog at www.threeweekswithbigsis.blogspot.com  .

We had lunch at the caverns gift shop, and then got back on the bikes headed for Roswell NM.  The 80 or so miles between the towns went pretty fast; the speed limit was 75mph, and traffic was moving at about 85-90 mph.  A good ride to Roswell.

In Roswell, we stopped at the UFO Museum (same as visit with Barbara).  I think Gary enjoyed the museum, although it is a bit weird.  It does cause you to think about whether there is any validity to the stories or not.  I haven't decided for myself.

After Roswell, we hit the road to get to Las Cruces NM for the night.  It was about 200 miles away, and it was getting a bit late.  Along the way, we found the White Sands National Monument.  It is an area with bright white, very fine sands forming dunes that look like sand dunes on our NC beaches.  Weird!!  We went into the area, first on paved roads, then on sand-covered, hard-packed road surfaces.  It felt neat to ride the heavy RT on sand roads.  But in truth, since the surface was hard and solid, it was no problem at all.

As we were leaving, we noted black skies to the southwest, just where we were headed.  So, Gary put on his rain gear and I put my bumblebee on.  We just knew we were riding into a bad storm and we wanted to be prepared.

The road was dark, and the wind gusting a bit, so the ride was a bit hairy.  However, the heavy rain we were expecting never showed up.  We did run into rain, but it was not bad at all.  I found the hotel okay, and we checked in.

It was about 9pm when we started trying to find a place to eat.  The place we chose had closed by the time we got there, so we had to walk a little further to find a bar at the Ramada Inn, where they were serving food.  Nachos supreme were good!  Then the walk back to the hotel.  We got in about10:30, and I was too tired to turn the computer on, so there was no post for Monday.

This morning we headed out to Yuma AZ, our destination for the night.  It was showing as 505 miles, so the distance was not too bad.  When we started out, the temperatures were great; 70s and low 80s. Perfect for a good ride.  We were on I-10 with a 75mph speed limit, so the miles went pretty easy.  Just before Tuscon is the East part of the Saguaro National Park, famous for its large number of saguaro cacti.  Since it was just off the Interstate, we decided to take the 15 mile ride to the park.

Once inside the park, we took the 8 mile loop through the park.  While it was an easy ride, and it had some spectacular views of a forest of giant saguaro, it was HOT.  On the loop, the temperature reached 104, the highest for the day, and the highest we'd experienced in several days.

Working our way back to the Interstate, the GPS took us by the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.  We stumbled upon the place where the military stashes their surplus aircraft.  Hundreds if not thousands of aircraft are stored in this location.  Old, not so old, huge, and small aircraft are stored here because it's a good location to preserve metallic items.  No rain!  So, rust and decay is delayed here, whereas in other places, the aircraft would simply decay away.  It was amazing to see them in rows as far as you could see.  A special treat for the trip.  We took a few pics and moved on towards Yuma.

The ride from Tuscon was VERY HOT.  The temperature went from 104 to 106 to 108, where it stayed for a while.  Then 110 and 112 degrees.  The last two hours of the ride was between 109 and 112 degrees!  We stopped twice in the last couple of hours, once to take in some fluids, and later for gas and fluids.  The air was so hot that it was painful to have any skin exposed to the air--it felt like sticking your hand in an oven.

All in all, we did okay, but we both pledged to each other that we'll never be back in the southwest on bikes in August.  It's just too hot to really enjoy being here.

We found the hotel ok and checked in.  Drank a beer and rested a bit, then had dinner and called it a day.

Tomorrow--on to San Diego and other new places.

Day 6--Marathon TX to Carlsbad NM

8/14/11  A good day today.  We left Marathon after finding one of two gas stations open.  Gary needed gas, and I was worried that, with it being Sunday morning, we might not be able to find a place open.  I'm not sure what we'd have done if none had been open, but it turned out that we found gas.  Not cheap, but $4.38 per gallon for premium.  But high priced gas is better than none.

The road to the park is 68 miles long.  It was pretty much straight, but with some changes in elevation and a few curves.  The scenery was pretty much western--lots of low, scrubby brush and mountains off in the distance.  It wasn't boring, but it wasn't spectacular either.

Inside Big Bend National Park, we stopped at the visitor's center and asked where we could view the river.  The ranger told us two places and warned us about one road that probably had overwash from the rain that fell yesterday and last night.

The roads in this part of the world are sorta weird.  There are many dry washes that cross the road.  When it's dry, there's no problem.  But the water is meant to cross the road (cheaper than building bridges, I guess).  Many of the larger overwashes have depth gauges to show how deep th water is so a driver can decide whether or not to cross the river running over the road.  We have seen hundreds of them, some very large, and some very small.  I guess it's the best way to deal with infrequent flash flooding.

We rode to a group camping area, where there was a boat ramp.  At the boat ramp, we found the Rio Grande river and were astounded at how small it was.  The river at that point was maybe 50 feet wide, and it looked pretty shallow.  I wanted to walk down into the water, but there was a slippery very soft mud for about 5 feet to get to the water.  So, I didn't get my feet wet in the Rio Grande!  I was pretty disappointed in what I saw.

Thinking about the illegal immigrant problem in the USA, having seen the river, it's no problem to cross the river.  In fact, at a viewing area, we watched a man walk from one side to the other.  The water was about thigh deep; he didn't even get his shirt wet!  Later, we saw two boys on a horse cross at the same place.

Not to digress from Big Bend, but we did see a lot of Border Patrol vehicles along the way.   I believe we're pouring a lot of money into protecting our borders, based on the number of vehicles and officers we saw.  And, we came through two "Inspection" stations along the way.  They are set up to find illegal immigrants on the main roads.  Each one has a dog that sniffs about (I'm not sure what he's sniffing for) the vehicle.  Our passing was easy since we were on bikes.  They asked if we were American citizens.  We replied that we were, and they let us pass.  Cars took longer.

A small bunch of mountains are in the center of the park, so we rode up to check out what was there.  At the top was a lodge and restaurant.  Since it was lunchtime, we went in for lunch.  My club sandwich was pretty good!

Down the mountain and back to the main park road and then headed west for Presidio on the River Road.  The River Road is supposedly the best road in Texas.  It winds along parallel to the Rio Grande, and follows the contours of the land.  It is roller-coaster, winding road that runs about 60 miles from the park to Presidio.  While I liked the road, IMO it's not the best road in Texas; the roads in the hill country were better.  But it was fun and I'm glad we did it.

Then north to Carlsbad NM.  The roads we rode on were something else.  Well maintained, straight, and wide, the two-lane roads had speed limits of 75 mph much of the way.  We rode from 75 to about 90 mph most of the way.  I'm sure we averaged over 80 mph, including towns along the way.  It was a fast blast.

We found a hotel just outside Carlsbad Caverns National Park, checked in, walked to dinner, and called it a night.  Before going to bed, I had to repair a boot where the heel had come unbonded from the sole.  Ductape can fix anything!

It was a good day; we covered about 450 miles.  BTW, I've now ridden almost 2,500 miles since leaving home last Monday.

Tomorrow, Carlsbad Caverns and then start west towards San Diego (another 1,000 miles away).

I'm not posting pics tonight; my Internet connection is very poor.  I hope to post pics and blog tomorrow night.