On the upside I will have a full weekend to "recover" from vacation. No, I'm not talking about the normal recovery people seem to have a problem with at the end of a vacation. That I don't understand. My "recovery" amounts to steeling myself to go back to work. Man, I could vacation for the rest of my life and I don't think I would ever get bored.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
The trip is (mostly) over
Well, the long ride is about over. We decided to hightail it back home via the Interstate (80) and we've got 1 day of "hard riding" left. Well, Pete has 2 (sorry Pete). We had a nice ride out of Placerville to Carson City through the Lake Tahoe area, but it was I-80 from then on out. Today was cold and wet, and tomorrow looks like more of the same. *sigh*
Monday, June 8, 2009
Day 8, Navigation Fail.
Today was another great day - we made a quick trip to San Francisco to check out Fisherman's Wharf and eat some sourdough. We spent about an hour wandering around and decided to head out. I'm not much of a shopper and I didn't have a lot of room even if I was. We had to drive down the famous block of Lombard Street and then across the Golden Gate bridge (which was much larger than I had imagined).
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After the bridge I made my first (of many) navigation errors. I turned off too quickly and we went on a quick detour before we got back to the main road. We finally got on the right track and headed up the coast for the last time. Everything went well until we got onto 80 East where we met our first real section of heavy traffic. It was a pretty brutal 40 miles and then I made my big mistake. I noticed I was supposed to turn off at the next exit with about a block of freeway - and we were in the left hand lane. I made a dive for the exit, for some reason thinking Pete would follow me to my doom. Well, fortunately he didn't. I did make it without killing anyone and he had to keep going up the Interstate. I quickly got back on, but he had already turned around and came back to where I turned off.
As I was waiting (at the next exit) I noticed that I had gone too far North anyway, so it was a good thing we had that "break" to figure out where to actually go. Of course, because of my navigational prowess, we had to endure about a half hour of "stop and go" rush hour traffic in Sacramento. We finally made it to the hotel though and hopefully tomorrow will be better... We will be doing the last bit of "fun driving" to Carson City, NV and then we will be sticking to I-80 for the duration of the trip. It's been a long drive and my butt is ready for a motorcycle break. 8*D
Today's trip:
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Sunday, June 7, 2009
Days 6 and 7, bring on the pain...
Friday started poorly, with rain and cold. We tried to keep off the major highways, but that was probably a mistake. It took until around noon to get out of the rain, and we never really managed to get out of the cold. Other than that it was pretty uneventful. Here's the trip:
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Saturday was gorgeous. We started with a tour in Hearst castle which was pretty cool. I'm not really into all of the artwork, but the architecture was pretty neat - I especially liked all the tile and stonework, so I spent most of my time taking pictures of the ground... LOL. I didn't know this, but they ended construction early and Hearst said it was only "50% done." I wonder what it would have been like if it were complete.
The ride up Highway 1 was really scenic. It's a great road, but all this time on the bike has really taken its toll. When I started I could get off for a few minutes, and be ready to go for another hour. Not any more. It hurts to get back on the bike even after a night in a bed. Here's the route for the best riding of the trip so far:
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We are going to just relax on Sunday. It's been a long trip and we are going to check out the Computer History Museum, and I know that I will want to spend at least an hour or so there - probably more.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Day 5, Made it through the tough part...
Well, we are finally on the coast. Ventura, CA to be precise. Next couple of days we will take it easy up the PCH and hit Hearst Castle. Nice!
I replaced my rear tire today. It was worn to the wear indicator, and while I could have pushed it another couple of hundred miles I just felt that was a bad idea.
Not much else to report. Other than I'm not taking many pictures. Sorry folks. Pete has been uploading his pictures to Flickr - you can see them here:
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Day 4, Hot!
Today was the longest day yet, both in terms of miles and "feel." It started well and the drive from Flagstaff through Prescott was a lot of fun and it hadn't gotten hot yet. The rest of the drive, no so much. It was hot - had to be in the 90's. The road was straight and every "leg" was grueling. At the end of the day, all the hotels we checked out at our planned stop at Twentynine Palms, CA were full. So, we headed 20 miles down the road to Yucca Valley. We finally found a decent hotel for a reasonable price and checked in.
In related news, I need a new rear tire. Hoo boy. Hopefully the local Yamaha dealer has something in stock.
Tomorrow we would like to make it Santa Maria, but we will see. This is the part of the trip I'm wondering the most about. It looks like we will circumvent much of the traffic, but the route is really difficult. There isn't an easy "connect the dots" route. I'm trying the Garmin route planner for the first time... Yeah, not such a good idea actually.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Day 3, pretty boring
Today was pretty quiet. Southern UT (from Moab through Mexican Hat) was pretty and the miles went by quickly. We decided to stop by Monument Valley and it was just our luck that the wind picked up as we got there. Also, it turns out they have a strange definition of "paved" roads. There was something put on the surface at one point, but it's pretty much a dirt road now. We drove about a mile in and just decided to turn around. If you visit with a car or a street motorcycle, just take the guided tour.
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The rest of the trip was booorrring... It was hot, windy, and desolate. We didn't go to the Grand Canyon - we were just ready to be done with the day.
Unfortunately it looks like much of tomorrow will be the same. The ride looks nice through Prescott, but from then to Twentynine Palms, CA looks pretty desolate. Here's the planned route:
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Monday, June 1, 2009
Day 2... Wimping out...
Well we planned on heading south through Colorado to Cortez, but that didn't happen.
The day started at 9:30 with overcast skies and very little rain - it was pretty warm (in the 40s) and was going to warm up to to the 60's on the way. Also, I decided to stop by a local motorcycle shop to pick up a balaclava. No, I didn't bring one - because I didn't have one. Unfortunately the motorcycle shop on the way to Gunnison was closed today. Well, I felt I had survived this far, so I could live a little longer.
Fortunately the trip was pretty uneventful, until we went through Monarch. Those high mountain passes are just BRUTAL even in the summer I guess. There wasn't any snow, but it was wet and I was afraid it was cold enough to freeze. We made it through without any major mishaps though and it was smooth sailing to Gunnison which we reached by about noon. We stopped for some hot chocolate and I picked up a balaclava at a local sporting goods store. Oh, man, that made a HUGE difference.
We pressed on to Montrose and it actually warmed up even more. Of course it helps if your neck isn't exposed to the elements. We had lunch in Montrose and started looking at the map. The road to Durango had 2 10,000+ foot mountain passes. Well, I had enough of that (cold, wet, potential snow) for one trip after yesterday and this morning, so Pete and I decided to head north to Grand Junction and perhaps try to hit Moab.
The road to Grand Junction was boring - it was a divided highway and straight as an arrow. Fortunately it warmed up significantly and we started peeling layers off. We got to Grand Junction by 3:30 and had plenty of time to get to Moab. The roads weren't great but the sun was worth it. We pulled into Moab about 5:30 and called it a day.
Here's the revised route:
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(you may have to click the "larger map" to see the proper route)
Tomorrow we are going to try to get to Flagstaff. We are going to go through Monument Valley and try to hit the edge of the Grand Canyon. It's going to be the longest day yet, so we may miss the Grand Canyon loop.
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Well, that isn't quite right - we may take a little detour west to the south end of the Grand Canyon National park.
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