1st October 2007
As it turned out, we just missed yesterday’s thunderstorms. They passed within a few miles of us and we could see the horrendously black clouds a short distance away as we went out to eat last night. This morning dawned bright, sunny & warm so we made the most of it and made our way west on parts of the old Historic Route 66. There wasn’t a great deal to see (just a few signs) but it was pretty much on our route anyway and much better than taking the Interstate. The only disadvantage was that certain parts of the road didn’t appear to have been re-surfaced since the road was first built – it really didn’t make for a comfortable journey at times. The weather forecast for tomorrow is currently looking pretty nasty with potential for strong storms in the morning and maybe into the afternoon – we’ll have to wait and see what the morning brings before deciding where to head for but it will almost certainly be somewhere within the Texas panhandle.
2nd October 2007
It was dry and reasonably bright when we woke this morning but the forecast was still showing the potential for some really nasty storms as the day went on, as a result, we decided to make a move into the Texas panhandle but no to go too far just in case. We pre-booked a motel using some of our vast cache of rewards points (they have promotion on at the moment so for every two nights we pay for, we get a night free – can’t be bad) and made our way 165 miles up the road through some agricultural areas, past some real big cattle ranches and some even bigger natural gas plants – definitely not the prettiest area we’ve been to and although it stayed dry, it was pretty windy in places. As we arrived early we took a trip to the local shopping mall (mall is a bit of an exaggeration really, it’s only a handful of shops) and had another haircut – hooray – a hairdresser who doesn’t use gallons of gel/hairspray. We are now approximately 45 miles north of Amarillo and will be making for New Mexico tomorrow.
3rd October 2007
We’re now well and truly into the fall season and the later sunrise meant that it was pretty chilly when we left this morning, but it did warm up nicely as the day went on. The remainder of the Texas panhandle was filled (if that’s the right word for a lot of open space) with vast areas of arable land and some enormous cattle feeding stations – there were thousands of beasts almost as far as the eye could see. Once we made our way across into New Mexico the land quite quickly became hillier and more like desert with cacti along the roadside. There were also some very long stretches of road with no signs of human life at all. Having collected some visitor information en-route, we’ve discovered that there are a number of scenic byways in the area so will be taking a look to see what we can sensibly take in over the next few days.
4th October 2007
We left this morning in bright sunshine and headed for the Sangre de Christo Mountains. The road up in to the mountains was pretty but also very windy with some very strong gusts from time to time. Once we’d actually got into the mountains the wind calmed and we had a pretty pleasant run through the Carson National Forest before heading a little south to the Bandelier National Monument. We’d stopped at a visitors centre en-route and the very helpful lady there suggested some additional scenic routes for us to follow before and after visiting the monument. One of the routes, she said, would involve passing through a security checkpoint. When we asked why she explained that the road runs right through the Los Alamos National Laboratory where the very first atomic bomb was developed and that the facility is still in use. We visited the monument which included a number of ruins and cliff dwellings from the Pueblo Indian days; we both took the first part of the self-guided tour and then I ventured off on my own for a short while and it’s just as well I did as Graham would have struggled with the number (and width) of the steps involved. From there we took the route the lady had suggested and, sure enough, we passed through (were waved through) a security checkpoint before entering a most bizarre area full of all sorts of apparently high security buildings but with tourist signs pointing out what was what. It was rather like riding through a film set!! As we made our way to our overnight stop, a very, very black cloud started to loom up behind us, by the time we’d reached the 50 miles to go point, it had pretty much caught up with us but somehow, and I really don’t know how, Graham managed to outrun it and we arrived dry.
5th October 2007
Our fist visit this morning was to the Taos Pueblo, a traditional Native American village that is still inhabited. It was a very interesting visit and reminded us in some ways of parts of South America we’ve seen. From there we took a loop road through the mountains ending up more or less where we started out. Next was a very scenic road through more of the National Forest and further into the mountains. Along the way we passed through a huge mountain plateau and it was here that we found that this morning’s weather forecast had been accurate – it said strong winds and by crikey they were! Our route took us further north and west and, eventually, back in to Colorado (because the fall colours are close to their peak in New Mexico accommodation proved impossible to book hence the trip over the state line). The roads were good, the weather cool, bright and breezy and all should have been well with our world but, unfortunately, neither of us was really in the mood to enjoy the day as we’d received word this morning that we’d lost a good friend to a road traffic accident –we’ll be raising a glass to him later this evening.
6th October 2007
The motel we stayed in last night (which we’d pre-booked) was in a small town on the edge of the San Juan Mountains at an elevation of just over 7000 feet. Unbeknown to us when we booked it, it was just across the road from the natural hot springs which meant that there was an all pervading smell of rotten eggs – not very nice. The other thing that wasn’t very nice was the weather forecast; when we booked to stay here we hadn’t realised it was at quite such a high elevation and we certainly hadn’t expected a forecast showing possible snow showers nor had we expected the high wind advisory for the entire area! As it turned out it didn’t snow but it was bloomin’ cold when we left this morning. We had decided to book ahead again for tonight so that we could use up some of our cache of rewards points so we duly booked a motel around 230 miles away (heading south and to lower elevations). All was well until we entered the Navajo reservation and the traffic came to an abrupt stop. It turned out that we had arrived during a parade which had shut one side of the divided highway (dual carriageway) to allow the procession to pass. We sat in a queue of traffic for over an hour before pulling in to a gas station (once we eventually got to it) for a coffee only to discover that it wasn’t only a parade but there was a fair going on actually on the bridge over the San Juan River and our only two choices were to sit in traffic for maybe another hour or to turn back. As, by now, it was blowing an absolute gale, we turned back, checked in to a motel in the nearest big town and cancelled our previously booked motel – thankfully we got a refund of our reward points. Here’s hoping for a better day tomorrow.
7th October 2007
We woke this morning to lovely sunshine but temperatures of 27F (-3C). The readout on the Trike showed 45F by the time we left but as there was a stiff breeze in places it really didn’t feel like it. So as to avoid the fair that was still going on, on the bridge, we took an alternative route on a less well developed (and certainly less well maintained) road which ran due south just west of the Navajo reservation and I’m real glad that we didn’t try this yesterday as it went across and area of open high plains and, even today when the winds weren’t so bad, it was quite uncomfortable and I absolutely froze. We’re now staying in a Navajo owned and operated motel at Window Rock just inside Arizona and we’ll be making our way towards the Grand Canyon tomorrow (to arrive Tuesday) as we’ve treated ourselves to a motel ¼ from the South Rim for two nights.
8th October 2007
There was frost on the Trike when we woke this morning so, before setting off, I put on as many layers of clothes as possible whilst maintaining the ability to move, and I’m glad I did as it was real cold again. Our route today took us right through the middle of the Navajo and Hopi Indian reservations where there was mile after mile of nothing much but two lane black top and rough grassland – it did have a kind of strange, harsh beauty about it though. We’re staying overnight in a fairly drab motel in a large city so nothing much to report here but tomorrow we have only 80 miles or so to cover before we reach the Grand Canyon.
9th October 2007
It was still chilly when we left this morning but not as cold as the last few days (thankfully). The road to the Canyon took us through the Kaibab National Forest which sits at around 7000/7500 feet so it was pretty chilly up there but as we descended towards the Canyon (yes the rim is lower) it warmed considerably. We arrived at the Canyon via the South entrance and stopped at a number of viewpoints en-route to our motel. Whilst we were at the first of the visitors’ centres we heard lots of emergency sirens and saw a number of emergency vehicles (that stopped just 100 yards or so away) which made us think that there’d been some sort of accident. We learned later in the day that we were right and a four-year-old girl had lost her life when she fell from the rim. It’s an absolute tragedy that a fun family day out can end that way but there are lots of warning signs about the dangers and they obviously need to be taken seriously. We first arrived at our motel rather too early to check in so went out on the Desert view scenic drive that takes you along the east rim. The views were great. We were back in time to watch the sunset before getting ourselves cleaned up ready for some food and a swift drink in the bar. Tomorrow will be a little different again as we’ve booked a flight over the Canyon – should be interesting as they’re forecasting gusty winds!!
10th October 2007
It was gusty this morning but it just made for a slightly more interesting flight but it was no more than a bit bumpy. The aircraft we were in was pretty small having room for 5 passengers so we all had a window seat. The views afforded as you fly over the Canyon are terrific; it’s still real hard to appreciate just how big it is, it feels somewhat unreal. In all, the flight lasted just short of an hour so it was almost lunchtime by the time we arrived back at Grand Canyon Village. As the Park entrance fee (which we didn’t have to pay as we’ve got the Annual Parks Pass) includes free shuttle buses to all points of interest around the village as well as out to a number of view points that do not allow private vehicles, we made use of those for the best part of the afternoon and saw more great views. We’re currently having an hours R&R before going to eat and maybe, just maybe, to have a drink in the bar afterwards. Tomorrow we’re moving on and heading south to Sedona, a real nice town we’ve been to before on a previous visit.
11th October 2007
We left the Park this morning in bright, warm sunshine and doubled back on ourselves for the first 70 or so miles (there really isn’t much option but to do so). As we had no accommodation booked and it’s a very popular tourist town, we made sure we’d reached Sedona by around midday and already a number of the motels had ‘no vacancy’ signs showing. We pulled in to one (as it turns out it is the one we stayed in on our previous visit) that was showing a vacancy sign and when we enquired we were told that the only rooms they had on offer were the ‘promotional’ rooms and that, if we wished, we could have one of these, overlooking the red rock canyon Sedona is famous for, for $39.95 – the catch was that you had to agree to sit through a timeshare presentation at their resort just on the edge of town. As the rooms usually go for $139 per night and they actually gave us two nights for the same price we agreed to attend the presentation tomorrow but made it clear that we had no intention of buying a timeshare here or anywhere else. As that didn’t seem to be a problem we checked in, took advantage of the balcony overlooking the canyon sitting out there to have lunch and meandered around the town for the afternoon/evening before retiring at around 21:00 which is when the bar shut – very odd for a tourist town but it apparently none of the bars/restaurants are open after 22:00 as “it’s always quite in the evenings” - not surprising really when everything shuts!
12th October 2007
We had a late, leisurely breakfast this morning before taking another wander around the local galleries/shops. We then went along for our presentation which was conducted by a very pleasant lady who realised fairly early on that she wasn’t going to get a sale and, although obviously a little miffed, continued to show us around what was a very nice 4/5 star resort before giving up and signing off our piece of paper that confirmed our entitlement to the cheap motel rates (if you don’t show for the presentation you pay full price). In a way it was a waste of an hour or two but we had nothing else planned so it was worth it. We then visited a small gallery/boutique shopping village just outside of the resort before heading back in to town on the free shuttle bus. All in all it’s been a fairly lazy and not unpleasant day and one of the very few where we’ve not taken the Trike out.
13th October 2007
It seems that listening to yesterday’s presentation may have been even more worthwhile than we thought as, when Graham went along to check out this morning he was given a check with a zero balance on it!! We may still find that we’re charged but as along as it’s at the lower rate that’ll be fine. Over the past few days people have been telling us that, as we’re in the area, we really should go see a small town called Jerome as it “clings to the side of a mountain”. Well, we went along and it’s a pretty enough town but it’ hardly a Rocamador, it’s just built on a steep slope. From there we headed South East and way up in altitude as we went through the Tonto National Forest and the Tonto basin past a very pretty (if a bit low on water) lake surrounded by mountains and huge Saguaro cacti (like the ones you see on the cowboy films). We finished up the day in a small town called Globe which is on the edge of the Apache reservation and we checked in to a motel with a family restaurant next door and a decidedly dodgy looking saloon on the opposite corner, the sort with few windows and plain, unmarked doors. We ate in the restaurant and then went in to the saloon which turned out to be a real locals bar with a majority Native American clientele (around a 70/30 split) and we had a real good evening talking to a variety of people (including some young ladies who were officers in the local corrections centre) drinking very cheap drinks – not sure how we don’t have hangovers but hoorah, we don’t.
14th October 2007
We left this morning in warm sunshine but, once again, moved to higher altitude so it got really quite chilly but it was worth it. As we’ve managed to get a few days ahead of ourselves (we’re going to a rally in Tuscon next weekend and it’s only 100 miles or so in a straight line) we did some research on the web and identified some good motorcycling roads to spend the next few days exploring. Today, we went north and east through part of the San Carlos Apache reservation and through the Salt River Canyon which was stunning. The roads were great and the views superb. We reached the town of Show Low far too early to check in to the motel we’d booked so took another loop ride further north. Not quite so pretty but still pleasant. Tomorrow we’re heading almost due south on US191 (otherwise known as US666 – the Devil’s highway) which is supposed to be “a real challenge for machine & rider” – should be interesting.
15th October 2007
To get to the Devil’s Highway we had first to ride through the White Mountains, the Apache National Forest and another part of the Apache reservation. The road was great with nice sweeping curves and the mountains were deceivingly high, we reached over 9000 feet and it was positively bitter for a while as we rode across the huge plateau that’s at the top. As there didn’t appear to be much on the 191 we stopped for an early lunch at the ‘Bear Wallow Café’ (excellent pies, apparently !) and then made tracks. At first the road was more nice gentle sweeping bends with some very long, though not steep, inclines. The road did, however, become more challenging with two sections (one of 8 miles and one of 11 miles) being posted with advisory speed limits of 10 miles per hour. In usual US style they were being over-cautious, having said that, you wouldn’t want to take some of the bends too quickly as there are some pretty big drop-offs and the surface had been pretty well chewed up by the snow-plows. The views as we made our way along were absolutely stunning until, that was, we reached a point just north of the town of Morenci when we came around a bend to find an enormous blot on the landscape in the shape of a massive open-cast Copper mine. It went on for miles and totally engulfed the old town and had, apparently, resulted in the building of a very bland new town – it was awful. Thankfully, once we’d got through it, the roads turned to wide-open twisties and mountain views but, this time, they were covered in harsh scrub rather than the earlier lovely forests. The other thing we were surprised to find in such an arid area was field after field of very healthy looking cotton crops – not what we’d expected. Tomorrow were heading to Tombstone (of OK Corral fame) where we’ve booked in to a small, locally run motel for two nights. Should be fun.
16th October 2007
The run across to Tombstone wasn’t a particularly comfortable one as we were heading across open countryside in very strong crosswinds (again), there wasn’t a great deal to see en-route either, unless you count the barriers being built along the border with Mexico (we were within a spit of it). We did stop in one small town on the way where we had lunch, it was an old 1880’s mining town with a few points of interest but there wasn’t a great deal to see. We reached Tombstone fairly early and were lucky enough to be able to check in straight away. Once we’d done so we took a walk across to the old town, had a wander around and a quick drink before getting cleaned up and going back in to town for the evening. When we were here before, the town was fairly busy but this time it is pretty quiet. It’s all the more noticeable because they’ve now closed the main street to everything except horse-drawn traffic. We visited a couple of the saloons during the evening and got in to a very interesting conversation with a guy called Mike who owns another bar/restaurant/gunfight reconstruction business in town and we’re going along to see the show tomorrow.
17th October 2007
After a lie in and a late breakfast, we went across to town and did the tourist bits i.e. visited the original Birdcage theatre (which was actually a bar/casino & house of ill-repute) where a number of famous cowboys were known to have spent their leisure time. We took a trolley bus tour of the town, and as we’d promised, we went along to Mike’s place to watch one of the gunfights. We returned to Mike’s later in the evening to try out the restaurant and the food was very good (and far too much) but, much as the same as the rest of the town, it was real quiet. The only place that had signs of life was the Crystal Palace Saloon which had a Karaoke night that sounded pretty awful so we avoided that one and had a drink in ‘Big nose Kate’s Saloon’ before retiring.
18th October 2007
As I said a few days ago, we’ve managed to get a bit ahead of ourselves and when we left Tombstone this morning we still had no real idea where to head for so we meandered our way south towards the Mexican border and then back up again to a small town called Tubac that we’d been told was worth a visit. It was a pleasant enough place, full of art galleries and boutique shops but there was absolutely nowhere to have stayed if we’d wanted to so we decided that we may as well make a call and try to book in for an extra night in Tucson and spend three nights in one place (not like us at all) so that’s what we’re doing. Tomorrow we’ll probably take a trip either in to the City or to one of the sights on the outskirts. The rally we’re going to is another GWRRA event (yes – I know, but we decided to give it another go) and Brian & Barbara Downing are riding across from San Diego to meet up with us and, I believe, a couple of Brian’s buddies will be here too so it should be better than last time!!
19th October 2007
This morning we visited the Arizona-Sonora desert museum which is a mixture of a zoo, a museum and a desert botanical gardens. To get to the museum you have to drive through part of the Segura National Park which, as you might expect, is chock full of huge Segura Cacti. The ‘museum’ itself makes for an interesting (and hot/dry) visit; the exhibits all represent species from the local deserts and are mostly outdoors. You follow a footpath through the desert landscape and there are a variety of enclosures spread around the area (as with most zoo’s some of them are too small but it’s better than some we’ve been to). Once we’d finished there, we went along to the rally site to sign in and it was fairly obvious even then that this was going to be better than the previous GWRRA event. We were made to feel very welcome and as the afternoon/evening went on we met a lot of very nice people and, much to our embarrassment, were introduced to the whole room during the opening ceremony. During the evening there was a free barbeque where we met even more people before having to dash away to meet up with Brian & Barbara who’d called to say they’d arrived. We met up for a drink or two in our motel lounge and arranged to meet at the rally site tomorrow.
20th October 2007
We met Brian & Barb at the rally site as arranged and spent a pleasant hour or two looking around the vendors (spending more money) and meeting yet more new people before riding along to the local Honda dealers who were hosting the Poker Run; it cost $5 to enter and you could either draw the first card for your poker hand from there and then join the run to a variety of collection points along a pre-prescribed route to collect the other four or, as we did, you could collect all five cards from the dealers. There is a prize for both the best and worst hands – we didn’t win either. We then went back to the site to watch the Arizona drill team – it all sounds very twee but they are a group of very skilled riders who put on a show of precision riding which was great to watch and made a nice change from seeing display riders burning out their back tyres. After we’d eaten at the local (not very good) steakhouse we joined the rest of the crowd to watch the light parade (bikes covered in a variety of LED and/or flashing Christmas lights). This was followed by a free ice-cream social. The evening still finished early, there was still no official bar on site but the whole thing was so much better than the last rally that this group has restored our faith in the GWRRA.
21st October 2007
We were up early this morning as Brian & Barb needed to be away by 08:30 and we wanted to meet for breakfast; they made their deadline but we didn’t get away until around 10:00. As we’re now heading towards Las Vegas and needed to get from the south east of Tucson to the north west of Phoenix there were really only three route options. The first would have taken us on a real big loop around the east side of both cities, the second would have taken us on a westward loop through proper sandy desert and the third took us partly on an Interstate, right through the middle of both cities. As by this time it had started to get extremely windy and it was by far the shortest, we chose the latter option – it still made for a very uncomfortable journey and we were glad to reach our motel. Graham spoke to Brian a few minutes ago and they too had a very uncomfortable journey (twice the distance of ours too) but they arrived home safely, which is what counts. Please be aware that dear old BT internet are in the process of moving our photographs to a different location and we are, as yet, unable to provide a new link so, sorry, the album will not be available for a short while.
22nd October 2007
We didn’t have far to go today (we’re still a bit ahead of ourselves) so didn’t leave until around 10:00. The route took us through a large area of desert, not all sand dunes as you see in films, but vast areas of very dry scrubland with lots of dust blowing around. It was windy again but nothing like yesterday thankfully. We’re now staying for two nights in a resort town called Lake Havasu City which is where the old London Bridge is and we’ll no doubt be going down to take a look at some point. Interestingly, two people have already told us that they really did think that they were buying Tower bridge – sad really don’t you think??
23rd October 2007
So, we went and had a walk over the bridge and we read the plaque that owns up to the fact that they paid $2.46m to purchase it and a further $4.5m to transport and re-build it – all for a fairly ordinary looking bridge, boy they must have been disappointed! Once we’d been to the bridge and the, apparently, world famous London village (a small shopping/eating area) that’s grown up next to it, we could find little else to do in the town so we decided to be real lazy, bought a couple of books and sat by the motel pool reading all afternoon. We’ll soon be on our way out to the brewery/restaurant we’ve spotted just across the road as it only seems fair to give it a try.
24th October 2007
We had a really good run today, it was only around 80 miles but the majority of it was on the Historic Route 66 which wound its way through part of the Mojave desert, some of it flat sandy desert and some mountainous. The scenery was great and the road nice and twisty but in some places the surface was poor and in others it was positively awful. This also took us through a small gold mining town called Oatman that we’d been told about by a couple we met at the Grand Canyon. There are still mines there but very little commercial mining, the town now survives on tourism and most of that results from the fact that a herd of wild Burro (donkeys) live in the surrounding hills and visit the town during daylight hours to be fed carrots that the locals sell to the tourists! Some of the buildings in the town still appear to be the originals but most are now tourist shops or cafes, there is also a staged shootout every day – a bit twee but worth a visit. We’re now only just over 100 miles away from Las Vegas but will be heading straight there tomorrow as we’ve booked a four-day ticket to the NHRA drag racing at the Las Vegas strip and we need to collect the tickets (the racing doesn’t really start until Friday and finishes Sunday). We’re going to have a few busy days too as we decided to push the boat out whilst we’re there and we’ve not only got tickets to the drags but we’re going to see Cirque du Soleil perform ‘Love’ (based on the Beatles songs) on Thursday evening, Elton John on Friday evening and, all being well, on Sunday evening we’ll be meeting up with Steve & Elise (Steve is an ex-colleague of Graham’s) who just happen to be arriving in town on Sunday!!
25th October 2007
As we didn’t have too far to go today we took a few scenic detours, one being along the side of Lake Mead. We also rode through the security checkpoints and over the Hoover Dam. It looks as though, before too long, you won’t have to cross the dam unless you want to as they are in the process of building a hoofing great bridge across the top. We arrived in Vegas from the north and went straight to the drag strip to collect our tickets and to see what was going on. Qualifying races had already started albeit in the (relatively) minor classes so we stayed for a while, checked out our seating for the weekend and then left in plenty of time (Hah!) to get to the hotel and sort ourselves out before tonight’s show. We made one big mistake on the way i.e. to drive down the Las Vegas Strip – the traffic was abysmal and it took us the best part of an hour to travel the 2.5 miles to our hotel and a further ½ hour to check in and get from the motorcycle parking to our room. As a result we didn’t have long to get ready and get to the Mirage theatre. It didn’t help that the taxi we took there chose the route where there’d been an accident – luckily we made it in time but we didn’t have time to eat before the show. The show itself was excellent; probably less spectacular than the other Cirque du Soleil shows we’ve seen but still well worth seeing.
26th October 2007
We woke this morning to grey skies, the wind has changed direction and we’re now getting the smoke from the California wildfires, it didn’t affect things for us though as, although hazy, the sun came through and we had a real hot day at the drag strip. The traffic getting there was really awful again but as we’d left early we still made it by 10:00, in time to watch the competition-altered cars etc. before the main qualifying started at around 11:00. We were really surprised and pleased to find that John Force was at the track albeit on an elaborate set of crutches (for those who don’t know he’s the 14 times Funny Car champion who had a real nasty crash just a few weeks ago) and we thoroughly enjoyed the day watching the majority of the qualifying sessions but, bearing in mind the traffic, we had to leave after the first Nitro qualifying to get to the concert on time. Despite the traffic we made the show in plenty of time and even had time to eat first which was just as well as the show, which was absolutely superb, lasted a full two hours without Elton getting a single note wrong.
27th October 2007
It was back to the drag strip this morning for another excellent days racing. It was qualifying sessions again today and, thankfully, almost all of our favoured drivers/riders made the grid for tomorrows racing. There were some really good times put in and it bodes well for tomorrows racing, it also helps that the facilities here are really good with good (although typically hard) seating, plenty of clean restrooms and a great group of volunteers from nearby Nellis airforce base managing the crowds and stopping people from standing at the fencing in front of the paid for seating – excellent. The racing didn’t finish until around 17:30 so it was dark by the time we made it back to the hotel (the 18 mile journey took us over an hour again) so apart from eating at one of the hotel restaurants we had a lazy evening.
28th October 2007
Finals day at the drag strip. It was real hot & sunny again today which isn’t always a good thing for the race track but, as it was, there were some excellent times put in again today and one small piece of history was made as one of our favourites, Ashley Force, became the first woman to make it to the final of a Nitro funny car race, unfortunately, she lost in the final but only by 100th of a second!!! Once again, it took us an hour to get back to the hotel (not bad really as there were thousands of people leaving the circuit at the same time) and we arrived to a message telling us that Steve & Elise had just arrived in town so, after a quick shower, we met for a meal and a drink, all very pleasant.
29th October 2007
We left Vegas this morning under overcast skies and made our way across in to California and through Death Valley. Whilst we were at the visitors centre we noticed that our chosen route included an area marked as ‘rough road’ which had a number of weight/length restrictions on it so we checked with one of the Rangers to see exactly what lay ahead. He confirmed that the rough part included areas of dirt followed by tarmac, followed by dirt etc. etc. He also warned that, in places, the tarmac sections were worse than the dirt and that we would have to be real careful making our way through. He was right, the road was pretty bad and we did have to weave our way around the potholes but this only lasted for 4 or 5 miles and the scenery meant it was worth it. We’re now staying in a small town on the edge of the Mojave desert and we’ll be making along day of it tomorrow in an attempt to get to Monterey, on the coast, so that we can ride some more of the Pacific Coat highway before we have to ship the Trike back home.
30th October 2007
It’s been an interesting day; we’ve travelled through a real mix of countryside and weather. It was bright and sunny but cool when we left the Mojave Desert behind this morning and it was cold with complete cloud cover by the time we rode through the Kern Canyon, the views were still real good but I’m sure they would have been even better on a clear day. Once we’d cleared the mountainous terrain of the Canyon there were signs that there had been a few showers (although we managed to stay dry) and we passed through a huge agricultural area with some of the biggest vineyards we’ve ever seen, orange groves plus almond and pistachio farms. There was also an area that was rather like a massive salad bowl, full of various types of lettuce, lollo rosso, celery and tomatoes, all of which were being harvested. By the time we reached the coast, yes that does mean we’ve completed our third coast to coast, it was bright and sunny again but still pretty cold. We’re now staying in Carmel (where Clint Eastwood is/was mayor) which is one of the areas with huge celebrity houses along the coast. Just to top off the day we experienced what is being described as ‘ a significant earthquake of approx. 5.6 on the Richter scale’ whilst we were eating dinner!!!!! (It lasted around a minute or so and was rather like sitting on airbed someone was walking along it – very odd). Tomorrow we’ll be heading down the coast road towards Santa Barbara so that we can be at Brian & Barbara’s in San Diego by Thursday.
31st October 2007
Happy Halloween!! We’ve spent the day travelling the Pacific Coast Highway which was great except that there was a coastal fog that prevented us from seeing a fair bit of the coastline, it also made it real cold in places. Never mind, we’ve generally been very lucky with the weather so we can’t really complain. It was noticeable that the further south (and nearer to LA) we got the busier the roads became, we’ve got so used to empty roads it was a bit of a shock to the system. We’re now just south of Santa Barbara in a motel that’s apparently run by an Angel and a Gypsy (it could, of course, have something to do with Halloween) so we’re expecting to get to Brian & Barbara’s in time to join a GWRRA chapter dinner run tomorrow evening –should be interesting.