California and back August 2010

[krid80]

First real ride report, guys, so go easy on me. I always meant to do a ride report for the trip to Chicago in 2008, the 10 state trip through New Orleans and Florida in May 2009 and the weekend to Dallas in August (I think) 2009, but I never took the time to do it.

Start: July 31 at around noon (planned on leaving by 7am LOL)

I would be heading I-55N to Route M to Route 30W to I-44 to Oklahoma City.

First fuel stop was Springfield, MO where I grabbed a nutritious meal!

Bike looked pretty all loaded up so I had to take a picture.... there were lots like this, but this one is in Springfield, MO.

Rolled into Oklahoma City pretty late that night, but locked and covered the bike. I am a hotel bargain machine. Talked every hotel down on price.

End of day 1 showed just over 500 miles traveled:

 

[Mr Buck]

You guys have some great roads over there, and Jack Links too (I just finished the 5th bag my sis brought back from Tn ), what more could you need for a bike trip?!

Have a good One Dirk, and ride safe :thumbup:

 

[krid80]

Day two I got an early start!.... well.... 9:00 early.

I fueled up in OKC then aimed my FZ towards Texas. Made really good time on I-40 but found the gas stations were few and far between in places along Historic 66. Seems a lot of those small towns have pretty much died due to not having travelers through there much anymore. Pretty sad, really.

Here's the Texas state line:

This is a famous Conoco in Shamrock, TX

You may recognize the design from the movie "Cars"

Had to push the reserve to 39.1 miles once to find an open station on a Sunday. EEP!

Saw this huge cross near I-40 somewhere along the way.

As I was riding along on the New Mexico side of Amarillo, I topped a hill on the interstate and was surprised by a sudden change in scenery. It was beautiful compared to the flat lands I had been suffering through.

 

[krid80]

The scenery change was what I would be seeing for most of the way into Albuquerque.

Riding towards Albuquerque, I saw an ominous storm ahead so I decided it was time to rain gear up! I got my pants liner installed and the jacket off before rain started to splatter me. Got a little wet but the time it took me to gear up allowed the storm to move north of my path so I stayed mostly dry.

I was planning on riding to Gallup, NM to spend night two, but there were severe storms in that area so I decided to stop early and stay in Albuquerque. I had already gone past Albuquerque and stopped at a truck stop to fuel up when I noticed on radar, the storms ahead.

Looking back over Albuquerque:

My brother was following me on Google Latitude and this picture shows that GPS had me located accurate enough for him to see which parking spot I chose. I sent him this picture as confirmation.

I looked for a campground for my tent in Albuquerque, but only KOA's were there and they wanted $30 for a tent site. Instead, I got this motel 6 for $39.99.

Day 2 I covered around 550 miles.

 

[krid80]

Day 3 was going to be a long one so I wanted to get an early start.... I did start earlier than ever... 8am! LOL

I stopped for fuel in Gallup, NM on Route 66. Took a picture to remember that I stopped there.

From under the gas station canopy:

ON TO ARIZONA!

I had to make a stop in Winslow Arizona to find some corner to stand on....

I was on the fence on whether or not I wanted to go to the Grand Canyon as it was a 130 mile detour and weather was kinda unstable in central Arizona.

I ended up deciding it was worth it.

ON TO VEGAS!

I had on my rain gear because I got rained on in the Flagstaff area and a little bit west of there as well. Also, it was cooling off as the sun went down.

Turns out, Vegas is in the desert and wearing wicking riding underwear, jeans, rain liners and riding pants and coat are too hot for 104 degree desert heat. I sweated them wet by the time I made it through the construction leading to Hoover Dam. So..... at the top of the dam, I found a secluded place and took it all off down to my wicking underwear. Bet you can't say you have been standing at the top of the Hoover dam in your underpants!
Night time shot of the Hoover Dam:

Las Vegas, 20 miles out!

Finally in the hotel room!

 

[mponder]

I would have met you in Tulsa, i live about 10 miles from I-44. :Sport:

 

[krid80]

just about 700 miles at the end of day 3.

DAY 4 - Rest day

Took this day off (mostly) to relax and recoup before heading to Cali.
View of the mountains from the hotel room.

Bike under the cover and chained to a pole.

Met up with Vegasrider and lonesoldier84

Took a ride around town and then to Vegasrider's house. Got to play with his housemate's dogs. FUN!

Vegasrider bought dinner at mimi's cafe. THANKS!

It was delicious!

Got back to the hotel and saw an Iron Butt equipped FJR1300. This guy was from Wisconsin and headed to an Iron Butt rally in California to do 5 days of 1,000 miles each. YIPE!

Day 5 Leaving Las Vegas

Got a late start (LONE!!!) but left Vegas around 10:30am
Over 1800 miles on the trip meter

We rode across the Mojave desert at mid day.... it was 111 degrees F. That is friggin hot!

We stopped in Victorville, CA for lunch and fuel. I was at exactly 2,000 miles.

From Victorville, we went a few miles down the road and turned off onto Angeles Crest Highway. WOW! What an amazing road. It was here I discovered how truly afraid of heights I am. YIPE! 1,500 ft of air with no guardrails is pretty unnerving.

 

[Lefty]

Dirk, great ride report and pics so far. Anxiously awaiting more! :thumbup:

 

[krid80]

Along Angeles Crest we met up with some guys on Ducatis who were racers.

We noticed Lone had a nail in his tire so, Robert, on the 1098, said he had a tire he would give to Lone.

We followed them down from the mountain.

And Robert (RACER!) has this in his garage:

We left his house in North Hollywood and lane split up the 101 to Ventura to jtarkany's house.

Just about 350 miles this day.

 

[krid80]

Day 6
After a great night of hanging out with Motogiro and jtarkany, four 2006 FZ6's were ready to roll for Monterey, CA but first we had to get the free tire on Lone's bike.

Mileage at the start of the day's ride.

After getting the tire mounted in Santa Barbara, we headed north to Solvang, CA.

It is a neat little Dutch community.

Fuel stop in San Luis Obismo

Kenny (vegasrider) sporting his electric vest

Four to a spot at dinner

lone really is a gorilla:

Hearst castle up there somewhere

 

[krid80]

Shortly after Hearst castle we stopped at Elephant Seal Beach.

Lone wanted to wrestle one. I told him I'd hold his camera, but he declined.

Lots of bikes followed us in to this beach.

YAY! PACIFIC OCEAN!

Riding up US-1 Pacific Coast Highway was nothing short of magical. Amazing views, incredible road surface (mostly), curves with pull offs for slower cars... just about perfect..... if only it were warmer.

 

[krid80]

Getting ready to lighten our load of Lone....

Breathtaking!

Sunset on the PCH.

We rode into the hotel at well after dark. We all crashed in one room as it was too late to find a campground. We all snore, except vegasrider who carries on complete conversations.

 

[Humperdinkel]

Epic journey mate :thumbup: , more pics please im very jealous of all you guys geting together Makes me want to do the Aussie's Tassie run even earlier..

 

[Shiny_side_up]

Very nice trip. I used to live just a few miles west of Solvang - cool little town. Monterey is also amazing this time of year - that's about a 2hr ride from me. It sound like you've had an amazing time so far.

 

[krid80]

Day um..... 7????

"lefty" met up with us at the hotel and the 5 of us (four 2006's and lefty's 2008) rode to breakfast at a local place down on the pier.

After a hearty omelet breakfast, we were off to Laguna Seca.

At this point I had lost all knowledge of time and anything about how it worked. I woke, rode, ate, rode fueled, rode and slept. I didn't have a clue what day it was. Turned out, for some lucky Skip Barber participants, it was track day.

 

[krid80]

After Laguna Seca, Lone and jtarkany headed back south. Lone wanted to spend a couple days with his friend in Santa Barbara, and jtarkany was headed home.

lefty led vegasrider and I on some epic roads but before that, we had to stop for some sandy beach pictures. This would be the last sandy beach I saw before heading for home.

Kenny and John

Brought along a paper from my little hometown in Illinois.

After leaving the beach we headed inland through some redwood forests (near Redwood City and Woodside, CA) stopping for a moment at Alice's Motorcycle Restaurant Alice's Restaurant . Would have been nice to stop for a meal there, but time was short.

We rode skyline blvd and it was without a doubt my favorite ride of the entire trip. So twisty and beautiful without the insane cliffs.

So sorry no pics of this road but you can google or youtube search California Hwy 84 to California Hwy 35 (skyline blvd) up to I-280 where we slabbed it up to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Here's a map of those roads. If you are near there, go there!

We parted ways with lefty at the intersection of Hwy 35 and I-280. From there, vegasrider and I rode north to the Golden Gate bridge.

Alcatraz!

Last photo before vegas and I part ways.

I rode through (literally - lane splitting) about 25 miles of traffic near Napa, CA and on to Grass Valley where I met Doug (redwazp). He took me to see the Forest Hill Bridge where Vin Diesel jumped a Corvette off the bridge in xXx the movie.

 

[krid80]

All tucked in at Doug's garage

Doug's beautiful home where he and his family hosted me for the night.

Day 8

Doug and his friend Tom (BMW 1150GS rider) led me to Truckee, CA and gave me radar detection along the way. The interstate is quite bumpy in the Sierra Nevada's due to snow removal I'm sure.

I was going to travel the "Lonliest Road in America" today, US-50 from Fallon, NV to Salina, UT. It is quite a long road through absolutely nothing.

The Loneliest Road in America

In Fallon, I saw the horse in that one horse town. It was being ridden down the four lane road through town.

This road is desolate and empty... seriously

Nevada 722 detour added some curves!

When there was a gas station on US-50, you STOP! You never know when you'll see another.

 

[krid80]

Snow capped mountains just before sunset

Sunset over the lonely road

Hallelujah! Utah! Only 160 miles to go before I stop.

Made it to the Interstate! Back into cell service again! 1am local time.

Got into the hotel super late 2am or so. It sure felt good to lie down.

Long freaking day. Only one wrong turn that added 40 miles to the journey.

 

[Kazza]

Nice work Dirk. Good ride report. Very jealous of the trip. :thumbup:

 

[krid80]

GOOD MORNING UTAH!!!!

DAY 9

After about half as much sleep as I needed, I was up and off!

85 octane? Seriously?

Utah is beautiful

All interstates should have these!