Day Twelve

It has been a very interesting day – you will find out why later in this post. This morning we slept in – 6:30 for me, 7:30 for Graham. We made the 20 mile trip north to San Francisco. Our destination was Haight Street and Ashbury Street. For those of you out there that experienced the hippie era you will recall this famous district in S.F., it was the most famous intersection in the world in the mid 60’s. Graham did a research paper his senior year on this time period – the drugs, music, culture, etc. When he found out we were passing through San Francisco he wanted to put this intersection on our must do list. Haight – Ashbury District is close to S.F. University and Golden Gate Park. There are several neat shops, coffee places, cafes, homeless people and modern hippies. An inebriated homeless person struck up a conversation with me about the motorcycles and out of the blue mentioned that Greg Allman was coming to town – not sure if he knew what he was talking about but we did share one thing in common – we liked the Allman Brothers. Graham posed while I took this picture.



We walked a couple of blocks on Haight Street and I was surprised at how many people (old hippies I suppose) took pictures of this street sign.





We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge in DENSE fog – very typical of the San Francisco Bay in the morning. From the East observation area I took this picture of the bridge shrouded in fog.



We decided to stop at Golden Gate Harley Davidson just 7 miles north of the bridge. Great little store, and the people were so friendly. We liked their selection of t-shirts and picked up a couple of gifts. They advised us to make the quick trip back to the bridge and observe from the west. Usually by 11 or 11:30 the fog lifts. Well we went back to find the fog as thick as before but took some more pictures anyway.



We picked up the famous Hwy 1 about 30 miles north of San Francisco. We tried to get on earlier but the beach traffic was terrible. For the next four hours we rode the coast - turning, twisting roads, and beautiful vistas of the beaches, rocks and ocean. We started out in t-shirts and ended up in full leathers and coats. Just several miles inland we were told the temps were in the low 100’s. Along the coast we had to be riding in temps in the low 60’s. I took this picture when we stopped for a quick lunch at Bodega Bay.



As we got closer to our overnight destination (Ft. Bragg, CA) the weather really changed – much colder and a 30 – 40 mph head wind. We stopped just north of Ft. Bragg at a State Park for a camp site – full. The attendant suggested a private campground just up the road at a little town called Cleone – full. This is where it gets interesting. There was also a small grocery/convenient store there, so we bought some groceries for dinner and breakfast and decided to drive up the road and find a camp site. My motorcycle would not start. I immediately suspected the battery. We took all of our gear off the bikes so we could get to the batteries to jump my bike. No luck. By this time we started to draw a crowd from the grocery and the nearby campground – all very helpful. We learned from the locals that there is a motorcycle shop just a couple of miles down the road that specializes in Harley Davidson’s. What are the chances that at 6 p.m. on Saturday evening that the owner would still be at his shop? Not very good – but he was! Rob, the son of the camp caretakers drove me to the shop and I purchased a battery (did I mention the locals were helpful), drove back, installed it and …….no luck. Now we were in crises mode. Before I left, I purchased road side protection package which included towing and some overnight accommodations. I placed the call and they began to make arrangements for pick up. While on this was going on the crowd continued to gather and one man (fellow biker) took it upon himself to drive back to the previously mentioned shop and tell the owner that the battery was not the problem and I needed help (very helpful). Well, the owner was just closing shop and after talking with me agreed to come and pick up the bike and get it to his shop and see if he could find the problem. Around 8 p.m. he determined it was the starter. He checked his inventory had a starter that he thinks will fit. He agreed to come in on Sunday morning and replace it (extremely helpful). If everything goes well we could be back on the road by noon. If not, we’re here until Mon. or Tues.

Although it sounds like we were in an unfortunate situation, it could not have turned out better – so far. The camp caretaker,Guy,came to us during this ordeal and offered us a campsite that was only accessible by walking, but really close to the showers, restroom, laundry, etc. Graham set up camp while I dealt with the bike problem.. Everyone has been great (have I mentioned helpful)! We even had a fellow camper(last name, Richter - no relation that he knew of the Freelandville Richters) bring us a pan of fresh baked monkey bread last night. After hamburgers, baked beans, potato salad and a shower, we were off to bed.

Day Eleven

It was cold last night! I’m not sure how cold – but our sleeping bags are rated 40 degrees and that wasn’t enough. We broke camp early. This is a picture of our camp site in Tuolumne Meadows Campground:



Breakfast was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We retraced our previous journey down Tioga Road to the West side of Yosemite. Graham took this picture of me all bundled up on the trip down.



We wound our way to the Bay Area passing just north of Modesto. The riding was varied as we passed out of the Sierra Nevada Mountains into the hot, dry valley then back into the cool temps of the Bay Area. As we approached the Bay Area the traffic was terrible – construction delays and I suppose typical big city traffic. I decided to go straight to one of the spots that I wanted to visit – Alice’s Restaurant near Woodside, CA. You might remember the 1969 song titled “Alice’s Restaurant” by Arlo Guthrie. It was actually a song about an “incident” in Stockbridge, MA. There is no real tie to the song except there was an Alice that did buy this store/restaurant and she adopted some of the lyrics from the song as her theme – “you can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant – except Alice”. It is a popular biker, hiker and local hangout. Graham and I had lunch – he had a Harley Burger and I had a metric bike burger of some kind – only because I wanted the mushrooms, onions and Swiss cheese. This is a picture of Alice’s Restaurant.



After two nights camping and no shower, we decided that a motel was in order. We drove to nearby Redwood City and found a Days Inn. I took a long cold shower, caught up on my postings, charged my phone, made phone calls and will do laundry later. Tomorrow will be in and around San Francisco then we will head up the coast. Total miles traveled to date: 3,148.

This was our day for Yosemite National Park. We decided to break camp early and try to get a campsite inside the Park. While I fixed breakfast (scrambled eggs and sausage links) Graham slept in. Our camp (the picture below from the pass road) was 15 miles from the Park.



It was cool during the night – no thermometer but it had to be in the low 40’s. We decided on Tuolumne Meadows Campground, just 10 miles inside the East entrance. In retrospect, we should have gone further down Tioga Road and been closer to Yosemite Valley. The reservation station opened at 8:00 a.m. and we were there by 8:05 and there was a long line – an indication of things to come – crowds. This is the peak tourist season. We set camp and unhitched the trailer – the first time I have been able to ride my motorcycle without the trailer.

I hadn’t realized how big Yosemite was. We decided to make the trek to Glacier Point, a must see according everything we read and people we talked to. We’re glad we did it, but construction delays, a managed lightening strike forest fire and heavy traffic made this 75 mile, 2.5 hour trip a very long ride. We stopped and took several pictures along the way. The following is a picture of Yosemite Valley.



At Glacier Point a nice European family took this picture of Graham and me.



Other pictures at Glacier Point:









By this time we were tired of the traffic and delays and decided to forgo the heart of Yosemite Valley. All told we traveled 160 miles inside the Park.

The last two nights we have been in bear country, which means protected food storage. In Yosemite it is 24 hour food and toiletry storage in a container like this one in our campsite. We haven’t seen any signs of bears – and don’t want to!





Dinner tonight was simple – out of the can or box – ravioli, macaroni, green beans, peaches. We packed up everything we could so that we could get an early morning start.

Day Nine

We stayed up to watch the All Star Game last night, too bad the N.L. lost. The nice thing about being on Pacific Coast Time is that the game ended long before we went to bed. So now we are 3 hours different than you folks back home. My appointment at Carson City Harley Davidson was at 9 a.m. We rode 65 miles and I prayed several times that the tire would hold out until we got there. Prayers were answered and it did. In less than 2 hours we were back on the road. Carson City H.D. is a big new store. Graham slobbered all over a Street Glide they had on the floor. We decided to eat an early lunch and picked a unique restaurant in Carson City named Red’s Old 395 Grill. If you’re ever in Carson City stop and eat there, the food is good and the atmosphere is tremendous – lots of antiques throughout including a steam engine in the middle of the place. They have 101 beers with 50 on tap. They even have a separate beer menu. If it wasn’t noon, we weren’t on motorcycles and we weren’t 200 miles away from our destination – I probably would have sampled a couple like Moose Drool Brown Ale or Rogue Dead Guy Ale.

The ride on U.S. 50 from Carson City to South Lake Tahoe was four lane with lots of sweeping curves – a great motorcycle road. I have seen pictures of Lake Tahoe but they don’t compare to seeing it in person. The water is bright blue with mixtures of green. We stopped for a few minutes at one of the beaches, but other that that we passed right on through – too much tourism, shops and casinos.

We entered California at noon in downtown South Tahoe and left U.S. 50 just west of there to head south to Yosemite. We rode over Ebbetts Pass, elevation 8730 and Monitor Pass and took Hwy 395 to Lee Vining, CA. Ebbetts Pass was the most challenging pass we have ridden so far – sharp turns, great vistas, and very little traffic.

Graham took this picture of me at the top of Monitor Pass



Lee Vining is a few miles from the East entrance to Yosemite. Just outside of Lee Vining, we stopped at the National Park Service Info. Station to inquire about camping sites. We were strongly encouraged not to go into the park for camping since it was late afternoon and everything would be full. We were lucky to find a nearby National Forest Service Campground along the Tioga Road between Lee Vining and the East entrance. The dinner menu was steak on the open fire, baked beans and potato salad – quite a feast. We spent some time by the campfire and retired early. Tomorrow will be a big day – we’ll try to get as much of Yosemite in as possible, should be lots of pictures.

Day Eight

Day 8 began early. We woke up to very cool and windy morning, temps in the high 40’s. We put on our chaps and heavy coats for the first time. We rode a couple of miles down the road to Bicknell (Utah) for gas. Our route headed north to catch U.S 50 just north of Aurora, UT.




We left U.S. 50 in Colorado on Sunday to ride in the canyons of Utah. Now we are back on this highway and will stay on it until we swing down to Yosemite N.P.

U.S. 50 through Nevada is known as “The Loneliest Road in America”, but 50 through West Utah was lonelier. At one time we rode 25 miles before we saw another vehicle. Initially our plans were to ride to Eureka, NV and spend the night, but with 70 mph speed limits and nothing but open road ahead, we decided to keep going.

Here are a couple of pictures of Graham cruising down 50 in central Nevada at 70+ mph.





U.S. 50 through Nevada has nine mountain summits and passes through canyons and vast stretches of desert basins including sand dunes, salt flats and one of the world’s largest copper pits near Ely. It travels much the same general route as the early Pony Express Riders that rode to Sacramento, CA.


We needed to keep track of our gas and distances to major towns because there were stretches of 120 miles to the next gas station. We finished the day riding 565 miles, arriving at Fallon, NV at 5:15 p.m. I had decided long ago that we would be spending the night in a hotel so that we could watch the MLB All Star Game. Dinner was Arby’s.

In Eureka, NV, I checked the tire pressures on both bikes and found that my rear tire was wearing unusually fast. I had them checked before we left and was assured that it might have to be replaced before we got home but never thought it would wear so fast. I made a call to Carson City Harley Davidson (nearest H.D. dealer) and made an appointment for Wed. morning. We’ll be there when they open up and should be on the road again before noon.

We’re not sure what the next few days hold. We will spend some time in Lake Tahoe area and head to Yosemite N.P. We don’t have reservations, but hope that we can get a campsite. Not sure when the next posting will be – stay tuned. Ride safe and so will we.

Day Seven

Even though it was very hot when we went to bed, it did cool down enough for us to get a “decent” night’s sleep. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, sausages and apple juice. The mosquitoes were unbearable. As we were breaking camp, a young man, named Eden, from a few campsites away came over to visit and admire our motorcycles. He is from Australia and is taking a year to travel the U.S. We had a nice visit and I gave him our Blog site. He is doing something very similar and promised to send me his site – hope he does.

We had everything packed by 7:15 a.m. and decided to ride the La Sal Loop. All the reading and research I did about the Moab area suggested this was a must ride – and they were right. It was a 60 mile ride that took almost 2 hours. This is a picture of Graham overlooking Castle Valley.



Next, was Arches National Park. Although we didn’t stay long, we took in enough from a ride through the Park and a long, hot hike to Delicate Arch (both pictures below)







We had intended to make more stops in Arches NP and make stops in Canyonlands NP, but quite honestly we had seen enough canyons, rocks, gorges for awhile and decided to head south then west to get into central Utah. Our ride took us by Canyonlands, through White Canyon, across the northern portion of Glen Canyon Res. and through Capital Reef N.P. Although we only covered 360 miles, it was a hard day. Graham said it was the most difficult day of riding yet – I tend to agree. We made the decision early in the day to get a motel room for the night – it was a good choice. We stopped for the night just west of Capital Reef. Graham headed straight for the pool to cool off, while I spent a l o n g time in the cool shower. We had dinner at the motel, did some laundry, updated the Blog and watched the All Star Home Run Derby on TV.

Day Six

Pat fixed us a great send off breakfast and we reluctantly departed the cabin around 9 a.m. We posed as Pat took this picture as we left.



We stopped in Gunnison for groceries and ice (a daily necessity) and found out the grocery's deli had wireless service. While Graham packed the cooler and trailer with our groceries, I was able to download the postings for the past 3 days.

The entire day we had fantastic riding. It began by riding along the Blue Mesa and then on the North Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison to the towns of Crawford and Hotchkiss. This route was a little out of our way but the scenery was spectacular! We continued on through Delta and down to Montrose where we stopped in to visit J.D. and Rosie Herman, good friends of Brooks. I became acquainted with J.D. and Rosie many years ago. They owned and operated the Boat House in Taylor Park. We could have stayed and talked for hours but we still had 4 hours of riding to get to Moab, UT. We continued south out of Montrose to Ridgeway and over Dallas Divide, to Naturita and through the La Sal Mountains into Utah. We arrived in Moab at 6:00 p.m. after covering 350 miles and immediately drove to a camp site on the Colorado River. This is our first night camping and it was a unique experience. It was HOT when we arrived and sat up tent. The campsite is in a beautiful canyon with the Colorado River just a few feet from our campsite - but no running water or electricity. We were roughing it on this night – primitive camping.

Dinner on the Grill



We took a splash bath, fixed supper on the grill and went to bed early because the tent was the only safe haven from the mosquitoes. For dinner we had grilled brook trout that we brought from Taylor Park, a can of pork and beans and canned fruit, an excellent meal. There wasn't cell phone coverage in the canyon, so we rode into town and made calls and packed the cooler with ice. This should be an interesting night for sleeping.