1st August 2007
We joined our whale-watching tour this morning in beautiful sunshine. The tour started at 09:00 so it was really quite chilly out on the water but it warmed up as the day went on with sunshine all the way. We had hoped to see Orca (Killer whale) but didn’t, instead we saw a Minke whale, harbour porpoises, harbour seals, a pacific white-sided dolphin, bald eagles and a few other things too so all in all, it was a pretty good day. Once the tour finished we returned to our hotel and spent a lazy hour or two sat in the garden drinking lemonade (honest) and planning our route for the next few days and we’ve decided we will be heading across to the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic National Park. We have also managed to make contact with Rick & Jean Schrader who live in Oregon (not too far south of here) and it looks as though we will be able to meet up with them some time next week which will be great.
2nd August 2007
It was sunny and reasonably warm when we left this morning and we had an hour to make the 40 mile run to get to the ferry that would take us from the islands to the mainland. That sounded fine except we came across roadworks, more roadworks and then a coastal fog (which the area is infamous for) rolled in and it got really cold. It took us more than the hour we had to get to the ferry port but, as luck would have it, the fog had delayed the ferry and we just about got on it, and I mean just about (see photos) as we had just a few feet between the back of the trike and the water – there are no doors front or back on these boats! Once we’d reached the Olympic peninsula we went west on to the coastal scenic byway which was a bit of a disappointment really as, although the road itself was quite nice and twisty, it was still real cold and despite the name of the road, there were only a few glimpses of the ocean to be had. We are now in a motel (another one we used on our last visit here) and making good use of the guest laundry before we go explore the town.
3rd August 2007
We did go and explore town last night and it took us all of 20 minutes! It rained overnight and was cold, damp a dreary this morning as we left and headed further south on the coast road and in to the Hoh rainforest. It seems very odd visiting a rainforest when it’s cold but it’s one of three small rainforests in the area and, although it was an interesting visit, you really need to be able to get out in to the forest and walk to be able to appreciate it to the full. As the weather had stayed cold a dismal, we decided to stop early and to find somewhere where we could get our hair cut. We had seen a small mall on our way to the motel but were advised by the young lady on reception that there was a bigger, better mall only five minutes further away in the opposite direction – well either she can’t tell the time or she drives far too fast as it was over 20 miles further up the interstate towards Seattle, not a good idea on a Friday afternoon ! We rode around in a few circles trying to find the place then Graham asked a guy at a gas station who apparently got it horribly wrong too (should have asked a woman) – we never did find the mall but we did find a roadside hair salon so managed to get our haircuts after all. We’re planning on going to Mount Rainier tomorrow and taking our time about it, we’ll then go on to Mount St. Helens (the one which blew it’s top on 1980) on Sunday.
4th August 2007
The weather was a little better when we left this morning, not as cold and with a few blue bits about. As usual we took a circuitous route which took us through all sorts of back roads and small towns before we finally reached the scenic byway to the Mount Rainier National Park and the Sunrise road which takes you to one of the best view points. Sunrise is somewhat bumpy in places as they’ve had quite a few landslips but it’s still a pretty ride. Thankfully, the weather had continued to improve and we managed to get a few good sightings of the peak before the cloud rolled in again (it was, however, pretty cold at the top i.e. 6500 feet). One of the loop roads we had planned on taking was, for some reason, closed so we continued straight on via the Chinook Pass, to Yakima a small town to the east of the park and our motel for the night. We’re now in striking distance of Mount St Helens so we’ll be heading there tomorrow and then on to Oregon on Monday where, providing everything works to plan, we’ll be having another front tire (tyre) fitted on Tuesday.
5th August 2007
Yakima turned out to be a slightly odd little town with a few motels, restaurants and bars in a variety of states of repair (from really quite nice to hmmmm!) but there was little else in the town. We walked out to a restaurant to eat and popped in to a bar on the way back for a nightcap, that was fine until we realised it was Karaoke night and that few of the locals could sing !! We did stay for one drink and got talking to a local artist who suffers from ADHD and seems to do everything at 100 miles per hour including, talk, eat and draw. He said that, if we’d stayed longer, he would have got out his paper and paints and given us a portrait to take home but, as we were leaving he decided to provide us with a quick sketch so we became the proud owners of a ‘charcoal on napkin’!! (see photos). We went back in to Mount Rainier National Park this morning but this time from the south and we took a leisurely ride through the park and up to Paradise. The weather was on our side this morning and we had some stunning views which meant that the ride took us rather longer than expected so after we’d we stopped for lunch, and spent a very pleasant hour or so chatting to some fellow motorcyclists and others, we headed back west towards the Interstate so that we could find some accommodation that will enable us to get in to Mount St Helens fairly swiftly tomorrow.
6th August 2007
It’s been a bit of a disappointing day really. We woke to very overcast skies, low cloud and cool temperatures but decided to head for Mount St Helens and hope that the weather cleared – it didn’t. When we visited the volcano 15 years ago one of the things we most liked about it was the fact that nature had been left to take it’s course and there was very little human impact. There was a visitors centre approximately 50 miles away from the crater, a fairly good single road in/out, lots of pull-offs for viewing and, at the top, a large mound you could climb by use of a rough staircase to get a good look at the crater. Now, there is still only one road in/out but it’s bigger, there are 4 visitors’ centres the first being the original one which now charges $3 to see the films/displays which is very acceptable and well worth seeing. The second, which turned out to be no more than a snack bar and shop selling tourist tat, was free to get into but the other two wanted $8 per person for each separate building which we thought was rather steep as all they appeared to be were observatories i.e. concrete monstrosities with large glass walls facing the views (only of course there weren’t any views today because of the cloud) you even had to pay your $8 before you were able to climb the now tarmaced path up the mound - we chose not to pay for any of these ‘privileges’. We headed back in the direction we’d arrived from and stopped beside the Interstate to make a call to confirm that our new tire would be available for Tuesday but it turned out that the dealers couldn’t supply what we wanted anyway and, as they didn’t seem to know their a - - - from their elbow (or the put it more politely their head from their heels) we decided to try somewhere else and, after a number of calls and a few language problems, we now have a tire being fitted on Wednesday. The additional delays also meant that we headed south over the Columbia river into Portland, Oregon (the State capital) just in time for rush hour – it was rather reminiscent of the Antwerp ring road in the rush hour. Tomorrow we intend taking in the Mount Hood loop road, let’s hope we can see it !!
7th August 2007
We weren’t too hopeful of good views when we saw this morning’s weather as the day dawned with lots of very low cloud and light drizzle. We decided, as we had a day to spare before the tire is fitted, to go with plan ‘A’ and take in the Mount Hood scenic loop. The first part of the route took us on a pretty, narrow, winding road through a forest with a number of waterfalls en-route, this included the Multnomah falls which, although not very wide, are the highest in Oregon and bearing in mind we were in a forest, the weather didn’t affect our enjoyment. From there we had no choice but to join the I84 which, despite being an interstate, still offered some good views of the river, particularly as the weather had begun to clear. By the time we’d left the interstate the weather had pretty much cleared and we had some great views of the Mountain before the loop took us back into the cloud and cold damp conditions – still it was a loop! We’re now in a motel quite close to the Honda dealers so we should be there for when they open.
8th August 2007
We arrived at the dealers shortly before it opened at 09:00, unfortunately, the tire didn’t arrive until around two hours later !! We spent half an hour or so wandering around the shop that had a small mezzanine floor stuffed full of old bikes including (Mitch will like this) all sorts of elderly Honda mopeds. By the time they had changed the tire and completed the service (plus changed the front brake pads as they described them as paper thin) it was lunchtime. We headed west to the coast and we’ve now done the first part, for us, of the Pacific coast highway and we’re in a motel room with a balcony overlooking the sea, albeit across the road. We got talking to a Harley rider who was checking in a the same time as us and he was extolling the virtues of some of the scenic byways further inland plus we’re told that the further south you go on the coast the prettier it gets so, once again, we’re going to be doing some late night route planning.
9th August 2007
Our re-routing exercise now means that we’ll be taking in two more of the scenic byways people keep telling us we mustn’t miss, each one is around 150 miles in length. We left our motel rather later than usual this morning having got into conversation with fellow motorcyclists both before and during breakfast. The sun was shining (but it was chilly) as we continued south on the Pacific coast highway taking in some great views en-route; it would seem that the lady at the visitors centre was right, the scenery does get better and better the further south you go so we’ll be coming back out to the coast in a few days time. After 70 miles or so we took a left turn and headed inland towards the first of the ‘new’ scenic routes. Although the road we chose was not shown on the map as a scenic route it most certainly was as it headed for miles along the side of a very pretty river. The information we collected yesterday suggested that the scenic byway was completely devoid of accommodation and a local at our lunch stop confirmed this. Her words were “when they say scenic they mean scenic, when they say in the middle of nowhere they mean the middle of nowhere”; as a result we’ve stopped a little earlier than we might otherwise have done tonight and we’ve also booked ahead for the next two nights – not like us at all!
10th August 2007
We took the first of the ‘new’ scenic routes this morning – the ‘over the rivers and through the woods scenic byway’ (honest – that’s what it’s called) and, although it was very pretty, I’m not sure it was worth going out of our way for. It entailed a pleasant ride through a fairly dense forest but there were no stopping points so we’d reached the end by around 11:30 – rather too early to think about stopping. Having looked at the map again we found yet another scenic byway which met up with a scenic waterway so we decided to take those in as well. The plan was good and so was the first part of the trip; we were surprised to find a huge lava flow along the route but, unfortunately, after 20 miles or so the road had been completely closed by a rock slide so that put an end to that! Instead, we doubled back on ourselves (not much choice really) made a lunch stop at a very pleasant little town close by and then moved on, via an outlet shopping mall, to our motel.
11th August 2007
If you come to Oregon and only have time to see one thing, it has to be Crater Lake National Park– it’s stunning. Our route to the park took us on the Cascade Lakes scenic byway on nice winding roads through a great forest with views of some very pretty lakes. Once we’d reached the end and fuelled up, we headed for Crater Lake which was formed when a volcano collapsed in on itself. The lake is five miles wide and ringed by cliffs almost 2000 feet high, there is a rim road which is 33 miles long, very steep in places and also narrow with no shoulder to the road, no guard rails of any sort and drop- offs of, in places, hundreds of feet – it’s great! There are plenty of photo pullouts, trails and picnic areas too so, all in all, the drive took us around three hours to complete and it was worth every minute of it. We reluctantly left the park and, en-route to our motel, took in yet another (shorter) scenic byway through a really nice valley full of cattle and past yet another really nice lake. Today really has been a great day.
12th August 2007
It’s been another really good day; more scenic roads, more lakes, more forests, more mountains and more sunshine! Our original plan had been to take in one more scenic byway and stop, reasonably early, near to I5 and make our way to the coast tomorrow but the first scenic road we took was really pretty but also a really good road which meant we reached the end of it rather sooner than we expected. As a result, we decided to make for the coast today, that was no problem except the signposts through Roseburg, where we had to cross the I5, were non-existent and, this time, following our instincts didn’t work. We then decided to dial in Gladys to help us out – Hah – fat chance (Gladys is the name we’ve given to our SatNav as she sounds like Gladys Pugh from Hi-de-Hi with her constant ‘bing-bong’). We followed Gladys’ directions and ended up on a really fabulous road, narrow, twisty and very steep and once we reached the top, we were in for a real treat as the view was stunning. Unfortunately, it started to go downhill (both actually and metaphorically) from there as we headed out into the back of beyond with the road getting smaller and smaller. Then Gladys tells us to turn left but, having seen that the road was smaller still, we decided to keep going in a straight line, until that was, we reached the gravel. That’s when we decided we’d better take her word for it and turned around. By this time Gladys was having trouble with satellite reception and every time she regained a signal, the turning she was directing us to had got further away??? We took the road she had originally suggested and, as we thought, it got narrower still and took us even further into the woods until, eventually, we found what looked like a real road and made our way back to civilisation (but we did see our first real live skunk whilst we were out there). From there it was a very pretty run across to the coast but it meant we arrived rather later than expected and we’ve ended up paying a small fortune for a motel because, by that time, we couldn’t be bothered to shop around. Total mileage to date 12856.
13th August 2007
We left our very expensive motel hungry as it didn’t even have breakfast included !! We continued south along highway 101 where the coastal scenery is fabulous, very rocky coves but also some really great beaches. We stopped at one viewpoint and I got talking to a Park Ranger who told me that there were two further places we really must stop at – one of them being an area where a bunch of adolescent humpback whales are passing through, sometimes quite close to the rocks. We went along and we saw what we believe were whales but they were a long way off so we couldn’t be sure. Once we reached the California state line we headed inland for a bit to see the redwoods as we’d been informed we should do; there certainly were some huge trees to be seen and some pretty shots of the Smith river gorge too. We’re now in a slightly less expensive motel (which does have breakfast) and we’re trying to re-work our route plan as there is a lot still to see and it’s less obvious now which is the most practical route to take from here.
14th August 2007
I was woken at around 03:00 last night by what sounded like an intermittent alarm, there were also some very odd barking sounds (seals/sea-lions) coming from the ‘ocean centre’ across the road. When we woke this morning it became obvious that the ‘alarm’ was in fact a foghorn as there was a thick coastal fog surrounding the area and, as a result, we saw very little on our run down the coast this morning, it was also really cold (55F). Once we started to head inland, the weather improved dramatically with wall-to-wall sunshine and temperatures reaching 95F. The route we’d chosen went through a very large gorge and alongside a very pretty, crystal clear river. We had stopped at a state visitors centre and had been told that if we went beyond a town called Redding on the route we’d chosen, we would struggle to find accommodation so, once again, we’ve stopped a little early to make sure we got in to somewhere sensible. Tomorrow we’re going to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park and on to Lake Tahoe before heading towards Carson City (for Wild West history) and then to Yosemite – at least that’s the plan right now!!
15th August 2007
Lassen National Volcanic Park was well worth the visit. Unless you want to hike or fish, it is really just a drive through but one that is well worth taking and which takes you to over 8500 feet with some great views to boot. From Lassen we followed a fairly twisty, pretty and, in some places, high, scenic byway to Lake Tahoe which, itself, is quite a sight and, apparently, the second largest fresh water lake in the US. We drove around the lake and we’re staying in the town of South Lake Tahoe which is right on the state line with Nevada so there are a number of casinos close by. Casinos are rally not our thing so, after a brief walk to the lake, we decided to eat close to the motel and it just so happens that the Lake Tahoe brewery and restaurant is two doors down – oh blast !!!
16th August 2007
We took yet another detour this morning, following the lake around to a short but very sweet scenic byway past Mount Rose; the road was twisty and steep and the views were great. From there we went to Carson City (Nevada) which is famous for it’s Wild West history but it seems that the old town has been well and truly swallowed up by the expanding new town so we only made it a drive through rather than a stop. Just outside of the city is a wide-open valley where they had posted a high wind advisory and were diverting trucks/RV’s etc. but we carried on and it wasn’t too bad, certainly no worse than we’ve come across elsewhere. From there we headed back west into California and through the Sierra Nevada mountains on another real good, steep, twisty road with a summit of over 8500 feet at Carson Pass before heading south to the small town of Sonora and our stop for the night. This is a walking town with sidewalks and everything (pavements for those at home) so; once we checked in we went for a walk to try to spot a good place to eat tonight. There are quite a few eateries in town and no less than 5 of them are Mexican restaurants! As Mexican isn’t our favourite we’ll probably be trying one of the others and then maybe (just maybe) the bar we spotted on Main Street.
17th August 2007
We ate at a ’European’ restaurant yesterday evening and had Tapas, definitely a first for the US. We also thought that we really should check out one of the local watering holes and, once again, met up with some very chatty locals. Today was a real day of two halves; this morning we rode the 70 or so miles to Yosemite on great roads, nice and twisty and surrounded by forests and mountains. The Park was pretty much as we remembered with great scenery, pretty lakes and a mountain pass that takes you to 9965 feet. Once we’d left the park we headed east into Nevada and to the desert where we stopped for lunch at a really godforsaken little place where there was one building that was the store, the gas station (thank goodness as we were real low on gas), the café and the post office. Other than that there were a handful of tatty trailer homes and absolutely nothing else. The road from there became even more inhospitable, it was hot, very dry and very windy and, as we were in a wide valley, there was nothing at all to stop the cross winds – it was not a pleasant journey. We are now staying over in the only town for miles that has any accommodation, it has quite a few motels and, after this afternoons ride feels like quite the little oasis. It looks as though we are in for more of the same tomorrow (oh well!) so have pre-booked a motel in Utah so that we can take our time to get there if we need to.
18th August 2007
What an odd little town Tonapah is! It is a small silver mining town that is also famous (locally) for being home to the Stealth bombers back in the 1980’s. There are a number of motels, only two restaurants (as far as we could determine anyway) and at least two saloons. One of the restaurants was a Mexican (surprise, surprise) and the other was attached to the casino (I use the term loosely as it was really only a room full of slot machines) and that’s where we discovered that Nevada appears to have a free smoking policy – it is the first restaurant we’ve been in that has allowed smoking (unfortunately). From the restaurant we went across to one of the Saloons to find that it was occupied by a fair number of locals all of whom appeared to be three sheets to the wind (for those that don’t know the term it means they were p----d) and it was only 20:30. After one quick drink we left! We filled the gas tank first thing this morning as we were fairly certain that there would be a bit of a gap between gas stations and we were right. Just after we left town we saw a signpost saying ‘next gas 90 miles’ but we turned off before the 90 miles were up and found our next gas only once the trip was reading 188.5 miles !!! The journey which took us across the high desert and along the extraterrestrial highway (not sure why yet) was not quite as bad as yesterday afternoon’s although it was still very windy in places and hot too but this time the scenery was better with some fascinating rock formations amongst the wide open desert. We’ve lost an hour en-route today and are back in Mountain Time – so seven hours behind those of you who are in the UK. Tomorrow we’re heading for the first of the 5 national parks that are here in Utah before making our way to Monument Valley.
19th August 2007
The weather forecast for today was partly cloudy, hot & windy and they were definitely right as the temperature right now (at almost 18:00) is 100F and it’s still blowing a gale. Thankfully the wind hasn’t been too much of an issue as we’ve been sightseeing (I’m just glad we weren’t on those open roads of yesterday). The sights we’ve seen have included some of the most dramatic scenery we’ve seen so far with our first stop being the Cedar Breaks National Monument at a maximum of 10647 feet and with some superb views. From there we took a rather roundabout route to Zion National Park where we discovered that, since we were there last, the rules have changed and you are no longer able to take private vehicles into the main part of the canyon during the summer months, if you want to see it you have to get on one of the numerous shuttle buses with the masses. The full journey in and back apparently takes around 90 minutes if you don’t get off for more than ‘photo stops. As you’ve probably gathered, we decided not to take the shuttle but instead were content with seeing the stunning scenery on the drive through the park and on the alternative drive that the Park Ranger we spoke to recommended. The moral of this story is, if you can, come outside of the summer months. We’re now in the motel that we’d pre-booked which has turned out to be miles from anywhere – thank goodness for Pizza delivery!!
20th August 2007
We left the motel at around 09:00 this morning and it was already 80F. We rode for around an hour, crossing into Arizona, before coming across some signs to the Pipe Spring National Monument; we’d no idea what it was but decided to call in anyway. As we went in to the visitors centre the Ranger said that, if we were quick, we could just catch the 09:00 guided tour – surely she meant the 10:00 tour ?? Apparently not, it seems that Arizona doesn’t use daylight saving time (like British summer time) so we got back the hour we lost yesterday – it’s all very confusing! The monument turned out to be rather like a living museum with a guide dressed in the costume of the sites original era i.e. the 1820’s, showing us around a house (used by John Wesley amongst others) that had been built over a spring to prevent anyone else (including the Indians who owned the land) from getting to it. It was well worth the visit. From there we took the Vermillion Cliffs scenic byway which, not surprisingly, took us through a range of brightly coloured cliffs and on to Lees Ferry which is on the Colorado river and seems to be a major kicking off point for rafting trips into the Grand Canyon. It wasn’t far from there to our motel which is overlooking (at a bit of a distance admittedly) Lake Powell.
21st August 2007
It was real hot again this morning as we headed along the Navajo Mountain scenic byway en-route to Monument Valley. When we passed this way last time, we stayed at Gouldings Lodge, a particularly well-located motel/museum/restaurant that overlooks Monument Valley itself. We’d considered staying there again on this visit but had discovered that the nightly rates were now up to around $200 and decided no to bother (as it was they didn’t have any vacancies anyway) but we did stop for lunch instead. The views from there are still pretty special but there have been a few changes e.g. there is now a small airstrip in front of the lodge which allows for scenic flights and there is a gas station too. After lunch we rode through the valley and the scenery is still just as good as we remembered. Having looked at the detail of some of the areas other national parks we’ve decided to give one or two of them a miss as they are quite a bit out of our way and include mainly short scenic drives or drives on dirt roads – as we’ve said before, we’ve had to accept that we won’t be able to see everything – not even in six months.
22nd August 2007
More superb scenery, more sunshine, more very dry heat (102F this afternoon) - that just about sums up today. We started out by visiting the Natural Bridges National Park where a nine mile loop road has been built to allow viewings of three Natural Bridges – all very fascinating but very hard to photograph! Most of the rest of the day was spent on scenic roads that loosely formed a loop around the Canyonlands National Park before bringing us to the town of Moab which is quite a nice little town but pretty full of tourists so there don’t appear to be any locals haunts to go to. We’ve still to decide exactly where we’re going tomorrow but our first port of call will be the Arches National Park that is just outside of town. From there we’ll have to see where we end up.
23rd August 2007
Another really good day. We went along to the Arches National Park and have decided that it is probably one of our favourites. There is only one road in and one road out with a number of spur roads directing you to areas of particular interest; the drive through, with plenty of stops for photographs, took us around 2 hours (that was partly because I didn’t read the notice properly at one of the view points and only realised that it was half a mile trek each way once I’d got back). As the name suggests, there are a number of rock arches scattered around the park but there are also a whole host of other interesting rock formations to be seen. All in all, it was well worth the visit. From there we hung a left and headed east towards Colorado and within a very short space of time we were out of the desert and into greenery, trees and fertile valleys. The road we chose was not marked on the map as scenic but it certainly was with a whole host of colours to be seen. The road also took us through the town of Bedrock but we didn’t get to see Fred & Wilma !! After a further 60 miles or so we were in the Mountains at around 7000 feet and a different set of scenery again. We’re staying overnight in a very nice (small) historic town called Ouray (that’s hooray without the ‘H’) before taking a scenic route through the mountains tomorrow with a view to ending up near to Mesa Verde (the largest set of ancient ruins in the USA) for a visit either tomorrow afternoon or on Saturday.
24th August 2007
We spent a very pleasant evening in a local restaurant/bar and, having had to wait quite a while for our table, didn’t pay for the two rounds of drinks we had pre-dinner! Whilst having a post-dinner drink at the bar, we got talking to a couple who now live in Mexico (they run a company giving catamaran trips for tourists) and had a very interesting discussion about other areas we should visit (they strongly recommend Guatemala so that’s one we’ll have to have a look at). It had rained overnight so was rather cooler when we left this morning and it got cooler still as we went across the Red Mountain Pass at 11008 feet, the Molas Pass at 10910 feet and the Coal Bank Pass at 10640 feet – it got warmer as we came down though. These passes form part of a 245-mile loop that’s called the San Juan Skyway; we’ve now completed around ¾ of the loop and intend travelling the remainder tomorrow. This afternoon we also called in at the Mesa Verde National Park, somewhere Graham has wanted to visit since his childhood days. A number of the ruins within the park are only accessible by trail/ladder and with a guide so weren’t really suitable for us but there are a good number of overlooks to see the ruins from so it was still worth the visit (despite the delays/rough roads resulting from the fact that they’re re-surfacing most of the 20 mile road in/out). We’re now in a motel in Cortez, which isn’t really a walking town so we’ll just have to settle for walking next door to the pub/restaurant – oh, bother!
25th August 2007
We completed the Skyway loop this morning by taking a very pretty road alongside the Dolores River to Lizard Head Pass (10222 feet). From there we followed a route that took in two canyons both very pretty and both quite different in that one was formed by a vivid red rock and the other was granite grey. Our last stop of the day (apart from the motel) was at the Colorado National Monument, a 23-mile loop road through yet another canyon, once again very pretty. Unusually, the National Park Service had made little concession for the physically handicapped or families with children as most of the viewpoints involved a walk over rough rocks to get to them and there were large areas with no fencing and long drop offs. The plan for tomorrow is to visit Grand Mesa before heading for Glenwood Springs and the start of the Independence Pass.
26th August 2007
I think we must have been spoilt with the views recently as the scenic routes we followed today seemed slightly dull by comparison. We first rode through Grand Mesa National Forest where the road was fairly twisty but not particularly challenging; there were also very few stopping off points along the way so we reached our planned finish for the day before lunchtime. After a quick look at the map (and a discussion with a local fire-fighter) we continued on to Independence Pass and it’s summit of 12095 feet. Although we were at high altitude, there was little to see at the top as even higher peaks surrounded us. When we left this morning the sun was shining but the forecast was showing a 30% chance of scattered thunderstorms. We didn’t see any storms en-route but did have a few spots of rain here and there. Right now, there is a thunderstorm in the area so we’re not going to take our planned walk to the lake (we have a lake view room in a ski area – Dillon - at a very reasonable price), we’ll just have to go to the pub/restaurant next door instead! Mileage to date 16018.
27th August 2007
As the weather forecast for the Rocky Mountain National Park showed possible thunderstorms for all of the coming week, we decided that today was as good a day as any to go. As the majority of storms were supposed to be during the afternoon, we got up and left early hoping to beat the weather but it was very grey, very cold and a little damp as we rode through; there were also quite a few road works which meant that the traffic was bunched together – it is obvious that we have not seen the park at it’s best. There were some reasonable views from the top (the highest point being 12183 feet) but I’m sure we would have seen more on a different day. Once we left the park it warmed up considerably but there was a huge horribly black cloud following us so we stopped early and checked in to a motel quite close to a shopping mall. If it stays dry we may take a walk to mall just to get some exercise.
28th August 2007
We had showers yesterday evening and rain overnight but, this morning dawned with mostly blue skies so we continued on our way through northeast Colorado and in to Nebraska. We’d been told that Nebraska was as flat as a pancake and our previous brief visit had suggested that was the case. However, we had a very pleasant ride across the Pawnee Grasslands and onto the Gold Rush Byway both of which proved to be nice roads through undulating countryside and which passed through some really rather quaint old towns. One amusing thing we saw en-route was a large railroad repair team with a variety of tracked vehicles including a completely separate ‘train’ with a thunder box (portable toilet) mounted on it – well, we thought it was funny! We’ve stopped quite early again today as the scenic byway (the Sandhills scenic byway) that we intend to take tomorrow is around 285 miles and doesn’t appear to have any accommodation along the way so we need to be able to go from end to end in one hit.
29th August 2007
It was really grey & overcast when we left this morning but the byway we took was still a very pleasant ride with mile after mile of easy, gently curving roads surrounded by sandhills that are now covered in rough grass (it reminded me of a much larger version of the South Downs back in England). Although it was a nice ride I’d have to disagree with the poll that put this road amongst the top 10 most scenic routes in the USA. There were numerous really nice small towns along the way, most with populations of less than 200. We stopped at a couple of them for refreshments and found the locals to be real friendly and very interested to find out about us and our tour. We also lost another hour on the way as we’re now back in Central Time so 6 hours behind the UK.
30th August 2007
Ever since we arrived in the US we’ve been seeing advertisements for a company called Cabelas who claim to be the biggest supplier of outdoor gear in the country, as we’d discovered that there was a store not too far from last nights stop we decided to go take a look this morning. The store was certainly big and had more guns, ammo, crossbows etc than I’ve ever seen (and would really care to see again) but had little in the way of camping equipment or clothing that would be of use to us. From there, we headed south and in to Kansas, another state that had been described to us as dead flat but which turned out to be covered in very pleasant undulating agricultural land. The one thing I think we will particularly remember it for is the amount of enormous bugs we encountered – the Trike looks as though it’s been used in a paintball battle and we didn’t fair much better, it was pretty horrid really! We’ve stopped for the night in Abilene a town famous as an 1880’s cowboy town and we’ve just been to the first restaurant we can remember that only has one choice on the menu, the country style chicken dinner (it really is a case of have it or don’t – there’s nothing else served) and it turned out to be very good. Tomorrow, we’ll be making our way across to Olathe, just south west of Kansas City, as we’ve arranged to meet up (and stay) with Johan & Lena and their family which we’re really looking forward to (the FIM goers amongst you may well remember them, they are part of the Kils MCC contingent from Sweden who now live over here).
31st August 2007
As usual, we took a circuitous route this morning and followed scenic roads heading first south and then east across more rolling countryside and the only remaining preserved area of tall-grass prairie. We were doing really well until we found that the road we’d chosen to take us to Olathe had been closed by road works; this meant taking quite a convoluted detour so we didn’t arrive at the Ekstrom household until late in the afternoon when we were met and admirably looked after by Nicklas (14) and Sheila the family dog. As the evening wore on, we gradually met the rest of the family (Johan & Lena, of course, but also Michael (18), Jochiem (16) and Jessica (12)) and spent a really great evening chatting and eating home cooked Swedish food – excellent.