Thursday, 25 August

Rained last night.  Hotels are good.  But my budget is suffering.  (In a hotel tonight too!)

Today was mostly about Devils Tower.  (Why there is no apostrophe is a mystery.) First I stopped at Moorcroft, WY Museum.  Not much there.

The Tower is all one could expect.  Seeing it up close is worth the trip, though it seemed to match my expectations for size.  900 feet tall.  People climb it often.  The Park Service doesn’t have any qualification requirements, nor do they have a rescue service.  You’re on your own.  The 1.2 mile walk around was entertaining and not difficult.

There are a lot of motorcyclists in the area.  Very few Gold Wings.

Visited Deadwood, SD, but they were having an old car rally, so parking was scarce.  Just drove in and then out.  Been there before, so no loss.  It is a great place to visit.

Sturgis! Larger town than I thought.  Pretty normal looking for the most part.  Obviously a lot of motorcycle shops.  Some of the temporary structures are still standing.  But overall there wasn’t much buzz.  Don’t want to be there when there is.  (Gas stations/minimarts began welcoming bikers and selling merchandise 160 miles away!)  This year was their 76th rally.  Hadn’t planned on buying a t-shirt, but considering I’m an Annapolis grad of 1976, it’s now tempting.  I’m still nearby, so who knows.

Another trail

Calf Skin! Museum in Moorcroft, WY.

See the climber?

Closer

There he is. Just standing there. This is apparently the hard side. There were about 8 on the other.

There is still an old wooden ladder from long ago. Mostly I’m impressed by the photo. I had no idea were it was. Just took a guess.

Happy 100th Birthday to the National Park Service. I’ve been to at least 12 Parks or Monuments this year. First cake though.

“I’ve been to Sturgis.” Got that out of the way.

Wednesday, 24 August.

Yesterday was all about nature.  Today it was about history.  Glorious weather, nice two lane roads that weren’t challenging, pretty scenery.  Some road construction.  I laughed at one sign; “Motorcycles use Extreme Caution”.  It was a walk in the park.  Clearly they’ve never seen what road construction is like in Canada.

Rifle, CO seems to have health problems.  A “Student Health Center”, several chiropractors, and a senior health center, all on the main street.  But it’s a nice, clean town.

Meeker, CO, is also a pretty little town.  Very big on hunting.  Based on personal experience, deer roam the streets, where I assume they’re safer than in the forest.  The museum as very well organized, having descriptions on most things.

Craig, CO, also pretty, has a more organized though not so busy museum.  The pride and joy is their “Guns and Gunfighters” exhibit.  Exhaustive.  They also had an excellent exhibit of “then and now” town pictures.  Someone went to a lot of trouble to take “now” pictures in exactly the same spot as “then”.  Fun. I asked about a War Memorial and learned that they have a WWII statue ready to install, but the town council can’t decide where to put it.  Politics in a small town.  While driving through I passed four Gold Wings, three towing trailers and one a trike.  One of the GWs was a duplicate of mine.

Passed a power plant that used coal.  Nice Roadside display.  $1.8 Billion construction cost.  Huge.  “99% of pollutants are removed before exhaust is released into the air.”

Rawlings, WY is not much to look at.  The defunct Wyoming State Prison is an impressive building, but the exhibit was nothing exciting.

Learned a lot about emigrant trails.  The Overland was an southern (partial) alternative to the Oregon, which in itself was used for three destinations; Oregon, California and Salt Lake City.  Independence Rock on the Oregon Trail was an unexpected surprise.  A hostess said the name came from a wagon train guide who told people that if they got there by July 4th, they’d arrive at their destination before winter.  Climbing it was fun and surprisingly easy (non-slick surface).  People have been scratching out their names since 1824.

Casper, WY, alongside the North Platte River, is very clearly fishing territory (reportedly #1 in the country).  The road in was peppered with arrows pointing to boat access or fishing spots. But the town is ugly.  They’re certainly not putting any money into their roads.

A memorial with a touch of humor. Rifle, CO.

Rifle, CO again.

Meeker, CO. I so wanted to see something like this in Scotland.

Meeker, CO.

Mule deer. Note the baby in the background. In the front yard of a home in Meeker.

Museum in Meeker. Battle Creek, MI!

Hand made instruments.

Their grove still stands.

Museum in Craig. This is just one of three display cabinets dedicated to spurs. Lots of cowboy stuff.

Something in this narrative caused me to rapidly step away from the tall grass. Guess what.

The Fortification Rocks.

After 150 years, the tracks remain.

The old Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins. It didn’t look as interesting as the Yuma Territorial Prison, so I skipped the tour.

A view from the top. 138 feet high.

A signature on the rock from 1850.

This is a statue on a small island in Casper. A bank on the river’s shore had it built. Nice marketing.

Tuesday, 23 August.

It’s difficult picking out only a handful of pictures. It would be even harder if the sun had been out.

Cloudy almost all day.  I was chased by a bad storm front, which caused me to hurry a bit.  It also has me in a hotel tonight.  But getting back to the day’s beginning, very nice sunrise from my campsite.  Afterwards I signed up for a tour of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park.  RVs and motorcycles are not allowed.  Really, you’d be unwise to take your own car unless it’s built for extremely rough terrain.  Calling it a road is an insult to roads everywhere.  It’s a track.  The tour included 10 Italians who had no concept of “10 minutes”.  Really rude people.  The guide, who depends on tips, was a lot more patient than I wanted him to be.  But overall it was a great tour, even without sunshine.

Because of the tour I didn’t get going until 11.  Though it was a short day, for some reason I found it exhausting.  The town of Bluff had a really good museum village, which is a reproduction of the original settlement, called Bluff Fort.  Excellent.  Well worth a few hours.  You provided period cloths to walk around the grounds in while taking pictures wherever you liked.  I’d not seen that before.

Stopped at the totally tourist trap “Hole in the Rock”.  Lots of weird things.

Briefly entered the Arches National Park (being chased by rain).  It looked very nice, even with my short stay.  Only drove five miles in. It’s really convenient being a senior and getting in for free.  Don’t feel the need to “earn the entrance fee”.

Ended up in Fruita, CO.

I like this one.

It was a short demonstration, but I now know how to make yarn from sheep fleece. One blanket takes 5 months!

This butte is called “Left Mitten”. Near it is a mirror image, properly called “Right Mitten”.

“Three sisters”. Below it is “Submarine”.

They ask for a $5 donation to take a picture of the man on a horse. I donated. The horse was very fancy.  Pranced.

Sort of nice.

Oh! It’s tipping!

Remember the movie “The Eiger Sanction”? Clint Eastwood, George Kennedy? This is the tower they clim. . . er, landed on from a helicopter.

Bluff Fort Museum. Family interest only. We grew up with a kitchen table like this one.

The storm I was running away from. Lightning.

Wilson Arch. On route 193, not in a Park. See the kid on the left for sizing.

There is a dining room in the rock. The whole establishment screams tourist trap.

On top of the rock.

A lot of metal sculpture.

Arches NP. Could someone give that rock a nudge? It so wants to fall.

Called “Park Avenue”. It reminds me of the Ruins in Rome.

Very touching War Memorial in Fruita, CO.

Monday, 22 August

Great night sleep! Departed on time.  This time I stopped in Williams, AZ.  Usually zoomed past.  Quaint little town.  Very proud of being the last town bypassed by Interstate 40.  Lots of Route 66 stuff.  Worth a longer visit.  Grand Canyon Brewery.

Grand Canyon camping was full!  I’m lucky I didn’t drive all the way.  School must not yet be in session in a lot of America.  The view was unchanged.  Remarkable.

Lunch at Cameron.  It was just a tourist stop, but’s it’s become a community. Navajo Taco.  Way too much food for one person.  No dinner for me!

Small rain clouds kept me alert.  Fascinating to see them all over.  I got caught very briefly in only one.

In Tuba City I finally took a new route, towards Monument Valley.  Excellent road and fantastic view well before arriving at the destination, which is also beautiful.  Tent camping in a box canyon at Goulding’s.  Harry Goulding and his wife “Mike” started a trading post here in the twenties.  Showed pictures of the area to John Ford and the rest is movie history.  His potato storeroom became John Wayne’s “Nathan Brittles” home in “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.”  Still stands.  It’s all very nostalgic.

Campsite has wifi, an indoor pool, free showers, etc.  $28, but I guess worth it.  If only they’d put up/take down my tent.

Nice Statue of the founder of Williams, AZ

There are several very nice themed restaurants in Williams.

Grand Canyon

Navajo Taco. The bread is sweet.

View from the tent.

From the movie “She Wore A Yellow Ribbon”

Over the top perhaps? From Georgia.

Sunday, 21 August

Departed 6 AM.  An overcast made it excellent weather for going east in the early morning.  First stop was my now traditional apple pie at Mom’s in Julian.  Driving there on the some route as Grand Adventure Part 1 really illustrated how much better a driver I am.  Very cool.  I had decided to attempt, at age 62, to start drinking coffee, but my commitment only lasted for half a sip.  Yoriko suggests that maybe it wasn’t the right place to start.  Perhaps I’ll try again.

After Julian I continued on the same road I’d gone on last March.  But I eventually came to the fateful intersection where, rather than turn right towards Florida, I went left to reach Maine.  It was funny that there were two sections of the taken road that I’d never driven on before, but had ridden on my bicycle.

It was really a bit of a boring day.  I visited Desert Shores on the Salton Sea.  What a depressing community.  It literally stinks.  A common thread throughout most of the ride was that there were masses of ghost towns and derelict structures.  So many people have tried and failed to succeed in the desert.

I was going to visit Lake Havasu City, which rests on the shores of Havasu Lake.  But Yoriko told me that we’d been there, meaning I’d forgotten all about it.  If it was so forgettable, a second visit didn’t seem worthwhile.  So I skipped it.

It sprinkled for most of the day, which kept the temperature mostly south of 90.  But in Kingman, AZ, there were scattered thunderstorms forecast further east.  Hotels ahead, closer to the Grand Canyon, were priced out of my budget.  The campsite at the Canyon was 200 miles away, outside my comfort zone.  So I made it a shortish ride (360 miles).  I knew that the day would largely be just an attempt to get out of familiar territory.  Sometime tomorrow, after an obligatory look at the Grand Canyon, I’ll move on to a completely new road.

Since returning from Part 1, I put only 19 miles on the bike!

Carefully manicured orange trees

Parking available for those really big RVs.

Just one of hundreds of failed businesses near the Salton Sea.

This picture of the Salton Sea looks somewhat normal. But wait . . .

Yes, the water is red. Very red. The few house along these manufactured canals look like something from a Stephen King novel.

I don’t know what these plants are, but the fruit is tied up in bags. Grapefruit?

I originally took this picture because it just says “Marty”, not an organization. But now I also notice the trash on the ground and the typo.

I went to a little Route 66 museum, which has a collection of electric vehicles. This is an electric motorcycle.

Friday, 19 August.

I’m leaving Sunday.  The bike has been serviced and cleaned (three times to get most of the dirt off)!  I didn’t use any careful method when I unloaded it, so repacking has been a little more difficult than expected.  I am not carrying everything that I had before, so I will either have less or (perhaps more likely) add stuff.  We’ll see. I still hope to camp along the way, but I’m more aware that tent camping seems to be on it’s way out.  RV parks cost almost as much as a 2 star hotel, even if all one has is a tent!

Once I get to Virginia it’ll be more of a trip down memory lane than of discovery.  Rediscovery maybe.  My memories are from the 1970s and before, but I certainly won’t need much of a map. Somewhere in Michigan I’ll need to get an Ezpass. I hope to avoid most toll roads, but I learned in Florida that sometimes you just can’t.

The route will probably include:

• Lake Havasu (London Bridge)
• Monument Valley
• Arches NP
• Devils Tower National Monument
• Minuteman Missile Historical Site
• Green Bay
• Mackinac, MI
• Annapolis (40th Reunion!)
• Rome, NY (Childhood home)
• Prince Edward Island, Canada
• Nova Scotia
• ???

The heat is a concern but it won’t be a new experience.  I had planned to leave in mid September, but the reunion cause a change in start date.  I am hoping for an early fall so I can see changing leaves.  We’ll see.  I still don’t expect to rush.  I have a definite arrival time for Annapolis, but afterwards “The way that I wander will be the way that I choose.” [movie Jeremiah Johnson]

Oceanside – Key West – Fairbanks – Oceanside: Completed.

Yesterday I drove the I5 down from San Francisco.  The less said about the drive, the better. It was easily the worst day of driving.  But that was almost assured right from the start.  Though I still rank Floridians as the nation’s worst drivers, Californians’ are the least civil.

81 days elapsed, 69 days of actual driving, 17,203 miles, 22 states, 3 provinces and 1 territory.

The drive was awesome.  Words or pictures can’t describe the various experiences.  “America the Beautiful” really should be our national anthem.

Didn’t become a member of the “I Dropped My Bike” community.

The GoldWing performed beautifully. Small compartment door broken by my foot: Rear part of the front fender slightly cracked by gravel. (Worth mentioning; a BMW GS1200, supposedly built for rough roads, broke a fork on the Alaskan Highway gravel. Just because the GW is prettier doesn’t mean she isn’t tougher too.)

My plan to go east to Nova Scotia is delayed until September/October due to three factors: 1) Fall is a much better time to see the Northeast; 2) Reserving lodging/camping spots in the summer would be more difficult, and 3) Dealing with a multitude of noisy tourists would degrade the overall experience.  I think the drive down from Washington confirmed the second factor.

My walk across Scotland begins July 7th.  I’m not sure what the wifi situation will be there, but it was available in the most outback of Canada’s outback.

Tuesday, May 24th.

Crooked River Canyon is impressive, with good historical signs.

Collier Logging Museum is worth a stop.  Still a work in progress, but is very peaceful and informative.  More than logging.

Played tag with three rebuilt roadster convertibles.  We shared the pain of occasional rain squalls.  They said the Yosemite pass was closed due to snow.  Road was busy!  Clearly, summer vacations have begun.

Got hit by a bug squarely in the glass lens with force!  Thought it might have cracked.  Stopped to clean it off and a CHP officer came by.  Impressed with my trip.

Drove through Weed, CA.  “I [heart] Weed” t-shirts for sale.

This shall probably be my last story-telling post of this Adventure.  The rest of the ride covers ground already traveled.  A recap entry on Friday is likely.

Crooked River Canyon. 300 feet. Three impressive bridges.

Mountains in the background are nice.

This old bridge is still sound. Just too narrow. So they built a new one.

I like the fact that Oregon tore down the billboards. Southeastern states should consider this.

Collier Logging Museum. Free. Really great place. Wood carved boots, but with real laces.

A log would go under the axle and the hoist would lift the log’s leading edge so it could be dragged easily.

Portable wine container.

This Mack truck model had a longer production run than the Model T.

Wearing a Tilley hat.

This dude crawled up into my rear wheel well.

Oregon/California border. The entire display was once very fancy, but has fallen into disrepair.

Mt Shasta. I never saw the top.

Monday, May 23rd.  Yakima has many wineries.  Wow.  Stopped at only two.  OwenRoe has two; one here and another in Oregon.  The tasting room here is just their barrel room.  Nothing fancy.  Wine is okay.  Trevori makes sparkling wine.  Nice place.  Very good.  Says they sell at Costco and Trader Joe.  I’ll have to buy some.

Crossed the Columbia River twice today.  I had to do a zigzag route much of the way.  Wind towers spot the landscape.  I don’t mind them.  Pretty.  Mt. Rainer was in the distance for most of the day, through clouds.  The countryside kept switching from intense farming to wilderness.  Cattle certainly need a lot of hay.  Wind was fierce, but not dangerous.  Tiring.  Towns might have some history, but I didn’t see many markers.  A lot of driving down into a canyon, then back up.  Construction.  Loose gravel!  Saw rain, so stopped early.

Columbia River

Interesting fence

Sunday, May 22nd. From Cache Creek to wine country I had to drive through a mountain pass that warned of serious weather fluctuations.  Bone-chilling cold under threatening clouds was the result.  Fortunately, no rain.

Wine country is a long, thin valley containing a string of lakes and cliff walls.  Very impressive views. The vineyards are spread out on the edges and narrow slopes.  Lots of wineries.  After getting recommendations from the wine tourist center, the first non-stop was at a winery with a short, steep, downward sloping entranceway with a closed gate at the bottom.  I could see that the idea was to stop on the slope and push a button for entry.  But what if no one answered?  On a motorcycle, the concept of backing out up the slope was a nonstarter.  So I skipped it.

Second was Painted Rock.  Really lush.  Lots of money went into the facilities.  The wine maker was full of himself.  Wine was good/bad, but the presentation was off-putting.

Third stop was a winner.  Blasted Church.  Named after a true event when miners, to disassemble a church, used explosives to “loosen the nails”.  It worked.  I actually accidentally saw the church.  The wine is drinkable.  The bottle artwork is great.  The names are cool.  One wine, “Big Bang Theory”, caught the eye of the Bare Naked Ladies group, who autographed some bottles on display.  The place is definitely fun.

Other wineries were really pretty, though I didn’t try much more wine.  Overall, the area is outstanding.  I’d love to go back.

Crossing back into the USA was a non-event.  Visited some heritage sites and the Grand Coulee area.  Interesting and pretty.  Continuing south the wind picked up.  The gusts began to make it dangerous.  Shortened my trip, ending it in Ephrata.

The vineyard is actually several hundred feet above and away from the lake.

View from Blasted Church Winery.

True Canadian wine picture, with snow-capped mountains.