[lizrdbrth]

We just got back from our visiting/buisiness/mental health break/ put everything else on "hold" vacation roadtrip.



Reader's Digest version below:

This is the spot near the Cali coast where James Dean bit the big one. Porsche Spyder/ stoopit speeds/ fog/ innocent victims/ dead:

Really BEEG trees. Redwoods near Ukiah. I even hugged a couple just to see if there was anything to it:

Gas Station carved out of a redwood trunk. Very near another major tourist stop known as "Mike's House of Madness

:

We spent several hours helping this feller get back on the road after breaking a throttle cable. One of the locals scrounged up a Jap clutch cable and we filed, scraped and Mickeymoused it til it fit into his tired old Amal and throttle tube. It had no front brake, an oil-soaked rear brake, leaked about a quart an hour from the looks of it, had open pipes and a single Amal with stock jetting. The guy had no munny, a handful of worn out tools and a screwdriver. He was determined to get to Georgia from northern Cali on it. Brought a tear to me one good eye for a couple of reasons. A. He won't make it. B. Trying to will give him stories for life. Don't tell anyone, but I ran around on a nearly identical deathtrap back in the '70's. Good thing his had the single carb Thunderbird motor and not the Bonneville version:

This courthouse in Lovelock, Nevada has the distinction of being the only round courthouse currently in service in the U.S. None of the locals we spoke to had ever even noticed that the building was round. I guess if you have occasion to be in a courthouse in this neck of the woods the architecture is the least of your concerns:

Woke at dawn and headed for Bonneville all excited and stuff. Found it under water. Really wanted some fake "World's fastest KLR" pics

:

Old train depot in Evanston, Wyoming:

Sign on the Bear River side of the Wasatch, Hwy. 150 north of Kamas, Utah. Awesome country here:

Pony Express relay station site near Echo, Utah:

 

[PalmStateCrawler]

Really neat trip. Lots of cool places to check out on the west coast. I would love to see some of those huge trees. The gas station is awesome. That would make a nice little "tree house". That is an interesting courthouse too.

 

[evan]

LOL, you had me laughing at helping the broken down biker. Looking at your map you went right around me. (near Sacramento) and might have been in right in MR.Gizmos backyard. What route did you cross 5 up north? And there is something about riding thru the Cali redwoods that is quite amazing for you that have not done it yet.

 

[lizrdbrth]

Echo, Utah. Working backwards in terms of white man's history the area was first used by fur trappers and explorers during the years of the fur trade, later became strategically important to the Mormon's defense against the Union army, was one of the most difficult and expensive sections of the Transcontinental Railroad. Located near one of the few remaining stretches of the original Lincoln Highway out west. Subsequently rerouted and designated Hwy. 50, most of it later paved over by Interstate 80. All the streets in Echo are named for Brigham Young's wives. Oddly in the old cemetary we found an inordinate number of graves from small children from different families who all died on the same day in September of 1897. Gotta wonder what calamity might have caused that:

The Mormons built low stone walls just high enough to protect marksmen from return fire on the sides of these canyon walls. Easy ambush spot against invaders. Long term plans were to dam the river below, forcing potential adversaries to be funneled against the canyon walls. Fortunately the "war" was short lived:

This kinda hurt my widdle feelings a bit. It's a 1942 Harley XA being used as a wall ornament at the Noname Bar in Park City, Utah. Blasphemy. For those who don't know the history of the XA it was the U.S. military's attempt to reverse-engineer and clone the German's far superior BMW WW2 bikes from captured examples. The Russians did the same thing, resulting in the extremely inferior Urals and Dnepr's still produced today. Slow learners, them Harley folks. They had decent technology free for the taking and went right back to cast iron V-twins

:

The Social Director and Domestic Love Goddess, somewhere near Kamas, Utah:

Attempted alien abduction. Somehow I thought their methods would be more sophisticated:

Wasn't that hard to escape. Ran into a couple of their homies later....:

...trying to steal THIS (World's Tallest Thermometer)....

So I gave them the names and addresses of these dudes. I figgered they had to be kin and at the very least might have better stuff to steal:

2,239 miles. As an aside, note the KLR's mileage. My last one had twice the mileage when I sold it and the only oil it used was on its chain. I've owned four since '86 (or 5 if you count my first one, which was the KLR600), all with the same longevity. I'll be danged if I can understand why the rumor of oil burning persists. I'd take off around the world on it tomorrow. Just sayin'.

THE END

 

[jbfla]

Thanks for sharing your trip. ... and kudos for helping the stranded rider.



Jb

 

[joeband]

those continental divides always get me in the mood to add to both oceans with alternating wags..... great ride!

 

[lizrdbrth]

LOL, you had me laughing at helping the broken down biker. Looking at your map you went right around me. (near Sacramento) and might have been in right in MR.Gizmos backyard. What route did you cross 5 up north? And there is something about riding thru the Cali redwoods that is quite amazing for you that have not done it yet.

We took 20 out of Ukiah through the lakes, Nevada City, etc.



Note to self: Never do the Golden Gate Bridge on a long weekend. In fact, never do the Golden Gate Bridge again til yer dead.



Yeah, we had tentative plans to meet with Gizmow, Mike, Loppy, Flingwing, B-Dub and others. All got blown out for various reasons. I bought a burn phone for the ride that only worked in about 3 places the entire trip and in some cases we couldn't contact folks once we got there, etc.



We consider such missed opportunities to be justification for do-overs. Kind of a win/win.

 

[Gerry]

Good to have you and Purple back. The couple next door have a couple of big bikes. When I had been working in the shop, and they had visitors, I thought oh damn, I will need to pull my head out of the sand...

When I have been on the road and had a destination, I found it VERY hard to stop for visits. Gas, food and lodging were easy. Points of interest had to really peek my interest. Visits, very, very hard for me. There is always tomorrow

. Enjoyed the history. Gerry

 

[B-dub]

Cool, I was hoping we would get to see some pictures from your awesome trip. Please excuse my ignorance, but what is Purple riding, I can't quite make it out? Looks like a nice bike. That was some interesting history about the early Harleys that I never knew. Glad you escaped from the aliens! Great pictures and history, thanks for sharing with us.

 

[retmotor]

That was very enjoyable to read. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Purple People Eater]

Cool, I was hoping we would get to see some pictures from your awesome trip. Please excuse my ignorance, but what is Purple riding, I can't quite make it out? Looks like a nice bike. That was some interesting history about the early Harleys that I never knew. Glad you escaped from the aliens! Great pictures and history, thanks for sharing with us.

Hey B-dub, I was riding a '93 Kawasaki Vulcan 500 which I scored for a low price and a low mileage (it only had 3,500 miles on it). Someday I'll change the paint job but Lizrdbrth want me to keep since it match more closely to his coloring

 

[Purple People Eater]

Opps...I hit 'Reply' twice and now it a duplicate post....sorry

 

[lower al]

Thank yall so much for the pictures an write up.

 

[elime]

Nice ride report. I really enjoyed reading it.

 

[admiral]

I always enjoy your ride reports. You travel to some neat places, and inject a nice amount of historical information to them.



And I love the humor!





"I even hugged a couple just to see if there was anything to it:", "The Social Director and Domestic Love Goddess"



Looked like you and purple had a good time. Thanks for sharing

 

[Bullspit]

Very cool stuff! I'm a little worried about the aliens though... pretty soon they will be seen abandoning flying saucers and riding TW's if you had your usual influence!

 

[B-dub]

Hey B-dub, I was riding a '93 Kawasaki Vulcan 500 which I scored for a low price and a low mileage (it only had 3,500 miles on it). Someday I'll change the paint job but Lizrdbrth want me to keep since it match more closely to his coloring

Wow, it looks brand new. Great buy! That's a lot of miles. I'm interested in doing a similar trip. How many days did you take, if you don't mind my asking?

 

[lizrdbrth]

We had places to be on particular days, but on the days we rode we averaged around 300 miles per day. About twice as many as we'd prefer on a true "vacation" but we were kinda incorporating buisiness and pleasure. 38:57 total seat time.



Don't get me wrong, we had a blast, but under normal circumsrances 5 miles is a good day to us if those 5 miles are packed with interest. 300 amounts to rubbernecking interspersed with pee stops. These days if I didn't hate cars so much I wouldn't own anything over 500cc's



I submit that you could have a more meaningful "vacation" on a TW than than you could ever have on a Goldwing, but both are worth doing.

 

[mhomadness]

Howdy from the Boont region!! Glad you & Purple had a safe & fun trip That “Rusty Gate Bridge” can try anyone’s nerves, even in a cage!



My wife Karen was on the "Redwood Tree Service Station" bowling team last year! They did pretty good!



The redwoods are nice, I have hugged many different trees around Mendo county, although usually because I had to climb the thing for one reason or another, & being scared of highs...



I'll PM you a couple of pic's of what I've been up to the last couple of days, you should like this thumper, but it's only six horse power.



Have a bahl dee!

m.

 

[lizrdbrth]

I always enjoy your ride reports. You travel to some neat places, and inject a nice amount of historical information to them.



And I love the humor!





"I even hugged a couple just to see if there was anything to it:", "The Social Director and Domestic Love Goddess"



Looked like you and purple had a good time. Thanks for sharing

You were part of this trip in spirit. lol.



We were at a Flying J fueling up somewhere around Cedar City. There was a Harley at the pump, but the bike was facing us and we hadda pee, so we went inside without exchanging pleasantries with the rider.



When we came back out the Harley was leaving. Across his trunk bag was writ the word "Admiral".



We looked at each other and said "No way!". lol. But we sure wondered.