New Member Cheshire Cat - Marilyn Elmore Bragg

Thanks.
Oh you can find my riding stories and photos at http://chessiestales.blogspot.com/ and...starting in Jan. 2011 my rides will be be in every issue of Iron Works Magazine for the 2011 year.

Thanks again for accepting my request. I look forward to enjoying the website!
Chessie

Lane Splitting - Legal or not

Traffic Q & A: Bikers need to keep to the lanes
Question: Lisa Jones of Tacoma wrote in about motorcyclists who ride in the space between lanes. She heard it is legal in California, but she’s wondering about Washington.

JOHN HENRIKSON; Staff writer,Tacoma News Tribune
Published: 09/06/1012:05 am | Updated: 09/06/10 9:15 am
“I’ve almost hit a few motorcycle riders due to this type of driving behavior, and while it seems stupidly dangerous, I was told it was OK for them to do this.”
Answer: Sgt. Freddy Williams of the Washington State Patrol looked into the issue and reports that so-called “land splitting” is allowed under certain conditions in California. “Specifically the motorcycles have to be doing less than 15 mph and it can only be done when other vehicle traffic is doing less than 15 mph,” he said.
Here in Washington, though, it’s strictly forbidden. RCW 46.61.608 states that “No person shall operate a motorcycle between lanes of traffic or between adjacent lines or rows of vehicles.”
Williams wouldn’t recommend lane-splitting anywhere.
“Your reader was very accurate when she states this type of driving behavior is stupidly dangerous,” he observes. “There are so many bad things that could happen when this type of driving is done.”
Got a question about traffic congestion, construction, spending or other transportation issues? Send it to traffic@thenewstribune.com. Include your name, hometown and daytime telephone number. We’ll answer as many as we can.

A Ride to the Hood Canal in Washington State - Union, Washington - Something for everyone!

2 Margaritas Restaurant and Bar with View of Hood Canal

Sunday - always good for a ride to one of Joyce and my favorite destinations.  The Hood Canal is in Washington State and runs straight south off of the Strait of Juan De Fuca (separating the United States from the Vancouver Island, British Columbia)

It has a fish hook like shape with the hook at the south end of the Hood Canal.  By the way; it's not actually a canal, as it does not have an way in and out, but is actually dead-ended, and is more like a huge long narrow bay.

Along the bottom (or hook) portion of the Hood Canal is some extremely beautiful scenery and some great places to stop for some food or drink.

This restaurant (above - called '2 Margaritas') just opened up a few weeks ago.  It's a very good traditional Mexican restaurant with a large bar and 'decks' on each end of the building that allow a beautiful view of the Hood Canal.  We both really enjoyed what we ordered.  I got a 'fajita burrito' and Joyce got a single enchilada.  The sauces were great, the food hot, and service fast and friendly.

Just a bit farther up the road is 'The Alderbrook Inn', one of the nicest lodge type resorts you'll find with its frontage along the canal.  As an example of how pretty the view is there; Bill Gates parents (the second richest man  in the world, with rich parents to boot), live in this area.

The Alderbrook has a great restaurant and bar, including a deck that is open in the summer months.  The food served there is as good as you can get in the restaurant, but the bar food is my place!  They have a huge burger there that is the best ever.....and easily enough for two people to split and still have a hard time finishing.  It would be hard to find a more beautiful setting than the Alderbrook!  Combined with great food and drink, and it is a wonderful upscale place to enjoy the views of the Hood Canal from.

There's a great long 't' shaped dock on the canal behind the Alderbrook, and all of this is open to visitors.  You don't have to be a guest at the lodge to eat or visit.

You'll find many the biker riding the roads up and down and around the Hood Canal any time of year.  The eateries will often be 'with bikes' out front as you pull up.  I've never felt any unease at all going into all of these places to eat in my motorcycle gear, including at the Alderbrook.

I hope you'll all find the time someday to take a ride up the Hood Canal.  Please consider sending some photos and a ride story of your own for inclusion here on our club website.

Ride Safe brothers and sisters!

The WMA is near 550 members worldwide. The latest two members are from Brazil.

This photo of an old bike with sidecar is from around 1930 and is of my great grandfather and his brother Emile Grawet and Oscar Grawet. 

If you want, you can click on the picture and it will explode to a larger size.

My family has riding bikes in its blood.  This site is about riding motorcycles.  It's about sharing your ride via sending us a post that you write about your ride.  It's about sharing photos of your bike or of any bike related photos.

Please send us your favorite motorcycle themed shots and we'll post them for the Worldwide Motorcycle Association members (and anyone else) to see!

Ride safe brothers and sisters!

Whether you ride a Harley Davidson Scooter, a 'Snortin' Norton, a BMW, or a Harley Road King, the WMA is for you!

You can now purchase LOGO gear from the WMA!

You can now order embroidered WMA logo gear directly from Corporate Casuals at this website:
http://stores.corporatecasuals.com/s/wmaclub/

This is done thru an arrangement the club has with Corporate Casuals.  You place the order directly with them and they handle everything.

The vest that Gretchen is wearing was ordered a few weeks ago and is a sample of the high quality logo and clothing available. This particular item is made by Patagonia.

Enjoy and Ride Safe!

Heart of the Country; backroads - good riding on a summer day.

IF YOU DOUBLE CLICK ON THE PICTURE IT WILL EXPLODE TO FULL SIZE.

Yesterday was one of those absolutely gorgeous summer Saturdays where you just plain 'have' to get on the bike and go for a ride.

My Honda VTX1300S was quite dusty and had a few things that needed attention. I cleaned it up and put on some new mirrors and a new air filter Friday night.  Saturday morning by 9:00 AM I was ready for a car wash on 'Ruby'.

By the time I finished washing her and drying her with the hand towels, she began to take on a totally new appearance.  I hadn't given her a good bath in months.  I was shocked to see her begin to look almost like the new bike I purchased 3 years ago.

Ruby is now officially the longest I've ever owned and ridden the same bike.  In my years of riding I've always enjoyed trying out many different types of bikes.  I've owned:  Yamaha x2, Honda x 5, Harley Davidson Road King, BMW R1150rt, many scooters from Honda and Yamaha, a Kawasaki Concour, and I probably have missed one or two.

Well, here she was....nice and clean, and ready to ride!  We took off by 10AM and headed out to the coast toward a town called Ocean Shores.  Unfortunately we hit the morning fog bank about 45 minutes east of the coast.  Luckily, we know the back roads well enough that we didn't miss a second and immediately turned northeast and rode back away from the cloud bank toward Shelton, Washington on Hwy 3.

Going north from Shelton on 3, you travel about another 25 miles and come to a small town on the water called Allyn.  There is an awesome restaurant (Lennard K's) with a deck overlooking Puget Sound, and we love to eat there.   The menu was new, (bummer), we normally liked to order some sandwiches which were no longer on the menu.  However, the 'poppers' were awesome, and my blue cheese burger tasted great.  Joyce had a BLT (normally one of my first choices).

While we had lunch, the two couples next to us (who also had ridden their bikes to the restaurant), began to discuss an old Arlo Guthrie song about riding his motorcycle.  (you'll find it on the play list here).  I was able to help them remember a few lines of the song.  "I don't want a pickle; I just want to ride my motorcycle" - Arlo Guthrie - circa 1968.

After lunch, we proceeded north on 3 to Belfair, WA.  At Belfair we turned onto State Highway 106 that runs along the bottom of the Hood Canal thru Alderbrook...this is one of favorite rides anywhere.  Bill Gates ('the' Bill Gates, spent lots of summer days here where his parents still own a house on the water and where you can see them from time to time).  Normally there are very few cars and many motorcycles on this route.

The ride was almost perfect....sun shining, water glistening as we rode along its shore for miles....finally we stopped at the little store in Union, WA and had an ice cream cone (about 2:00 PM).  They have some locally made ice cream that is out of this world.

After riding back over to meet with hwy 101, we decided to continue on side roads up the Skokomish Valley.  This ride is only about 20 miles to its end at the foot of the snow capped Olympic Mountains, but its so beautiful we take it once or twice a year.  There is almost no traffic at all on this road, as it is a long way to a dead end.  It's a pity for those who turn around at the 'dead end' signs early on the road, as the valley runs thru some of the prettiest farm and ranch country you will ever see; with all of it surrounded by high mountains.

We often ride this road very slow so we can drink in the views and the smells....flowers here, cows there (I love the smell of cows, having spent my earliest years living in Nebraska)...the sky was so blue....the mountains so majestic...and the valley just perfect in its early summer attire.

We finished our ride about 5 hours after we began, returning home in time for a Saturday bbq with family.

What a way to spend a Saturday!  What did you do?

Welcome Member 532 - and please remember to send us some photos or ride stories to post to the club website.

New WMA Member Marlene Steele and 'her ride'..(another Canadian member)

Please find my motorcycle  photo attached – 2002 Heritage Springer Softail (Harley FLSTSi) Regards, Marlene Steele (“Sporty”) President – Zen Riders Motorcycle Club Vice-President, Finance, Ontario Road Riders Association Founding Board Member of Motorcycle Confederation of Canada Iron Butt Rider

First Club Discount Offer is Posted Below for South African Bike Tours

We would love to help you grow your business and make the club more fun for all, by offering a discount of your company's products and/or services to the membership of the WMA.  The first such offer is below- an amazing tour on bikes in Africa.

Please send your offers to me for posting to the website. Send them to:  bobbyg@wmaclub.com

Thank you,

Bobby G

From: Alex Jackson
To: bobbyg@wmaclub.com
Sent: Sat, June 19, 2010 1:34:44 PM
Subject: Discount and one off offer.

Hi Robert

I would like to offer all members of the group a 5% discount on any of our tours into South Africa.

As one one time offer on a first come first served basis I will also do 6 places on a tour for the price of 5 if any of your members would like to put a group together. All T's and C's on the website apply and all places must be on the same tour for the coming season. 31st Oct 2010 - 17th April 2011.

If you have any questions then please ask away.

regards

AJ

Alex J Jackson
Kaapstad Motorcycle Adventure Tours Ltd
UK Office +44 (0) 1525 377520 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              +44 (0) 1525 377520      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
UK Cell +44 (0) 7930 200798 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              +44 (0) 7930 200798      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
SA Cell +27(0) 7644 83844 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              +27(0) 7644 83844      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
www.kaapstadmat.com

There are now 525 Members in The Worldwide Motorcycle Association!

We are a true worldwide organization with members in more than 26 countries.  There is a very active discussion area on Linkedin.com where new and ongoing discussions can be found.

We are searching now to find deals that we can provide to the members as a whole as an additional benefit for joining.

Just yesterday I ordered a WMA logo jacket to see the quality of this company's work.  If it turns out well, I'll make WMA Logo goods available for you to order directly from this company. They have some really great items from jackets, to liners, to shirts and hats that can all come with the WMA logo.  So...I'll hope this trial run is a good one.

Let's ride!

Day 3 - Home from Infocomm - Rogue River, OR to Olympia, WA - my home and the end of my ride!

It was time once again to make the final leg of my trip home.  Rogue River, Oregon to Olympia, Washington is about an 8 hour ride.  It's fairly pretty as you ride up and over Grant's Pass and then eventually into the river valleys around Eugene, Salem and then Portland Oregon.

We hit our first really bad traffic jam just north of Portland as you are heading toward the bridge over the Columbia River into Washington State.  Although we never did see what the problem was ahead, we decided that this jam was so bad, that they must have had the bridge raised for a ship.  That's all we could figure that would cause such an awful miles long mess on I-5, a major 5 lane freeway.

It was nearly 80 degrees in Portland, and we had heavy gear on still as a result of leaving Rogue River in temps of the low 60's.  After sitting and cooking for about 15 minutes, we decided to do something that you 'can' do on a motorcycle.  We rode up the side of the road past lots of cars and trucks.  When it's 80 degrees and you're stopped....any kind of movement is welcome relief.

The traffic opened up again as we got onto the bridge and never slowed down again.  We stopped for one last gas fill and coffee at Starbucks just north of Portland in Woodland, Washington.

After this stop, it was a mere 90 minute ride for me to reach my home.  Peter spent the night one last time.  We took my wife Joyce out to dinner and then called it an early night.

Peter left about 9 am on Sunday morning (June13th) for his 4 hour ride back to North Vancouver, British Columbia.  He arrived safe and sound around 1 PM.

So ended our 5th 'long ride' together.  We've now done 3 roundtrips to Las Vegas for Infocomm; one to Los Angeles for this same tradeshow, and one up to Calgary, Alberta.  We've done many shorter rides together.  Peter is an awesome ride companion.  He's a lifetime rider with tremendous riding knowledge, he's very mechanically proficient and is also a multiple black belt holder in mixed martial arts, having owned his own martial arts club. Peter's all black 1999 Harley Davidson Dyna Sport is tuned to perfection and sounds just plain awesome!  My favorite bike sound.  You see very few older bikes on the open road.  His bike is truly special; it has cachet.  Since he's also much uglier than me, you could hardly want a better riding partner....

Addendum:  Peter just wrote to tell me he is not the ugly one....He says he's the handsome one, and I'm the 'wise' one.....OK...guess we'll go with that.

Day 2 - Our ride back home from Infocomm - A special little city - Rogue River, Oregon and a wonderful treat - Karen's Kitchen!

Something about the way the river and mountains around Rogue River are makes it truly an oasis like place in the mountains.   The River is powerful as it goes thru the middle of this small town.  We've now stayed at the Best Western Inn on the Rogue twice.

It is one of the most clean and restful motels I've ever stayed in anywhere. You just become overwhelmingly relaxed as you pull up and it stays with you until you get back on the highway.

Directly across the street from the BW Hotel is a spectacular bridge that crosses the Rogue and takes you into this quaint little downtown area.  For such a small place, there are several really good looking and upscale restaurants, although we've never taken the time to have tried them.

The reason for not trying other restaurants is that right across the parking lot from the hotel and little grocery store is one of our most favorite places on the road.  Karen's Kitchen is small but the atmosphere inside from the folks who work there to the incredible food are quite special..

On our first visit to RR in 2008 (due to my flat tire), we spent Sunday afternoon thru Tuesday morning here waiting for the Tuesday morning opening of the closest motorcycle shop in Grant's Pass. We ate something like 6 straight meals at Karen's on that first trip, so we were excited to have another chance to experience Karen's.

We almost always sit at the counter of these diners as its much more fun to be able to observe everything from the best seats in the house.  From the counter we got to know the waitress and the chef and prep staff.  The chef, as it turns out, spent lots of time cooking for the rich and famous in Los Angeles, including a stint at the Peninsula Hotel there.  His brother invited him to visit RR where he lived at the time, and that was all it took for the chef to decide this was the place he should live.  I'm sorry folks....I am terrible remembering names, and only have Marie's name cause I wrote it down.

So...from the Peninsula to Karen's Kitchen....and he brought his great skills along to blend with the diner's menu and make some truly amazing food!

The waitress had tried living in the big city of Portland but had returned home to RR herself a few years earlier.

Peter ordered his favorite Karen's dish; southern fried chicken.  I had my favorite BLT.

During our meal, an 83 year old woman came in and sat at the counter to my left.  I didn't take note of her except to see that she seemed to know everyone in the restaurant and had a favorite place at the counter to sit. 

I had asked the waitress about fishing locally, and she immediately suggested I just ask this same lady because she grew up in this area and knows the area intimately well.  The waitress explained that she is a Southern Oregon born Native American.

What followed was a special treat for both Peter and I.  Hulda (that's correct spelling, she had Swiss father and Native American mother), but her middle name of Marie is what she goes by.  You can see Marie in the photo below with the waitress, chef and prep man and Peter.  Marie is seated in front of Peter.

She answered my question by launching into a series of jokes with the ease of a woman firmly comfortable with herself and quite at home.  We knew we'd found something special in Marie.

I don't want to short change the other folks there, everyone is awesome, and we hope to be back many times to visit and enjoy the food and especially the atmosphere.

Turns out that Marie had been born in an Native American village near Brookings, Oregon on the coast.  She grew up in a very remote area that required her and her siblings and parents to have to swim the river often just to get to the other side.  As she explained, there was only one boat in the family, and school and stores were on the far side of the river, so if the boat was gone; the only choice was to swim it.

She had eventually married and moved with her husband to this area.  She had stories of worldclass sized tomatoes from her garden and reported that she was currently tending 500 tomato plants in her yard.

All the while that she was talking about the area and her experiences here, she would throw in these jokes that would completely catch you off balance and bring on smile after smile as we listened to her.

There are very few people that I could just sit and chat with for very long, and Marie would certainly be near the top of that list.

We decided to take a walk after dinner to work off some of the food, making note that we 'had' to come back prior to closing time so we could get some of the great looking deserts that they have in display cases near our seats.

So we walked across the street to the wonderful little park that The City of Rogue River maintains.  It's on both sides of the bridge that crosses the river and goes into town.  The bridge itself is a work of art.  It has a viewing platform about half way out that allows a great view into the rushing river waters below.

Our previous visit had us get some of the fried chicken from Karen's and then have a picnic across the street at this park.

You can imagine the fishing here would be spectacular, and you'd have a really hard time finding a more serene setting.

We returned about 8:15 in time for desert.  Of course, this is Karen's Kitchen....and when we left after dinner, they had told us to be back prior to closing at 8:30, but then telling us that we could call them even after closing, and they'd let us in for our desert if we wanted (and if they were still there).

Wow....warm apple pie ala mode.....yum...........So many times when you order this; it is 'not quite' warm, or maybe the pie is slightly warm but the ice cream overpowers that.....at Karen's it was 'perfect'.  Peter had some of the strawberry pie that had been staring us in the face during dinner.  Awesome!

The BW Hotel includes a buffet style breakfast that is quite good.  However, both Peter and I felt like we just plain had to make one more stop at Karen's Kitchen for breakfast before we rode out of town that morning.

As we walked in the door; we were blown away by finding Marie and her morning breakfast club sitting at the counter having breakfast.  It was soooooooo nice to hear Marie say to her friends; "Here are those  young guys I was telling you about."  ('young' is not a word I hear often to describe me these days).

She had come prepared in case we had breakfast there.  She brought her photos of the huge tomatoes from her garden, and also the shot of her 12 year old granddaughter and the 120 lb halibut she had caught up in Alaska.  Here's Marie's crew that morning ..

With Marie in the center, Peter behind, the others are the morning breakfast crew at Karen's counter.

You just don't find this kind of place every day and we're both truly hoping to get back there again soon.

After breakfast, we headed back to the hotel, loaded up our bikes, and began the ride to my home in Olympia and my final day on the road on this trip.

Carson City, NV to Rogue River, Oregon - 'the ride home from Infocomm'

As you head north from Carson City, NV you continue on US 395 as far as Susanville, California.  It's interesting that along this stretch of highway you go into and out of California/Nevada several times as it winds its way north.  Just west of Susanville you turn onto Hwy 44 and eventually onto Hwy 89.  It's an awesome ride with views of Mt. Lassen (above), and Mt. Shasta farther west.  It's truly hard to beat this area for beauty.  The route is about 150 miles to Weed, California (395 to Susanville, Hwy 36 out of Susanville to the turn at Highway 44 and then to 89 as you wind northwest toward Weed). There are only a couple of gas stations and only one or two restaurants on this entire stretch, so once again; plan ahead.


You need to be constantly vigilant for deer and other critters crossing the road on this road.  I had narrowly missed squishing two chipmunks on my way down this road.  I saw 5 deer alongside the road, and two dead dear that were freshly killed by cars in recent days.  So...watch out!  


It's so pretty along here.  High mountain plateaus, streams, huge green grassy water filled meadows, snow occasionally (in June), and spectacular mountain vistas.


As we cruised along, ever vigilant; we were totally freaked when from out of the brush on the left side of the road an animal burst onto the road.  After the initial shock, it was almost laughable that it turned out to be a wayward chihuahua.  Some folks on the right side of the road were stopped at a rest area and their dog had evidently crossed the highway in search of 'big game'.  You just never know what you'll see.


We always stop in Weed, California (Weed is the name of an early settler/politician).  There's a great restaurant and motel there.  It's called the Hi-Lo Motel and Restaurant.  The motel is spartan, but quite adequate.  The restaurant is awesome!  Great homestyle comfort foods and the kind of waitress that you only get in this kind of place; friendly and with the kind of experience in their job that everything goes just about perfect.  We stayed in the motel on one of our trips, and we've eaten here several times.  Weed has lots of great gas stations and motels and many fast food restaurants along with the local ones.

It's just south of Weed that you return to the Interstate Highway finally as you head north toward our homes in Olympia/Vancouver BC.

This stretch of I-5 is filled with wonderful views and wide open riding. The traffic has never been anything close to heavy from Weed north into Oregon.  You can zoom along and feel relatively safe as this road is well maintained and has wide open views.

Peter and I always say the same thing as we ride up thru Southern Oregon.  'I love Southern Oregon.'  It's a magical area.  The mountains and meadows are green and the hills and valleys are often with a beautiful farm and horses or cows strolling about contentedly.

You follow or pass over lots of streams and rivers heading north; often following a river valley for miles.  So pleasant....and a relief to be on a major highway with much less stress about deer and other things on the road. (obviously deer can be a problem even on the highway, but the visibility is so much more open here that it is much easier to keep aware of them)


Ashland, Oregon (where they have the annual Shakepeare Festival) is a place I could see myself living in somewhere down the road.  Medford, Oregon (just north of Ashland) is another place where I could easily live.  


Along the way on this day; we decided that we should make Rogue River, Oregon our destination for this night.  On our ride to Infocomm in 2008, I had a flat tire on the rear of my bike on a Sunday afternoon.  As motorcyclists know; it's nearly impossible to change a rear tire 'on the road' these days.  As a result, I ended up stuck in Rogue River that day.  When we finally realized that no amount of phone calls would bring help, we decided to make it to the closest motel in that very small town, and stay there until Tuesday.  Most motorcycle shops are closed on Sunday and Monday....don't know why...but it's the way it is almost everywhere.


The good news about the realization that you can do nothing about the problem, is you can then just relax and enjoy what the day brings you.  In the case of Rogue River, it was a special treat to discover this town.


Situated on the raging Rogue River (it's name fits perfectly).  We learned from a waitress at Karen's Kitchen - next to our favorite Best Western Hotel that lots of famous people have made this place their destination for the kind of amazing fishing that you can find in the rivers of Southern Oregon.  Clark Gable and many more came here to float the river from Grant's Pass out to the ocean near Brookings.  


Our stop at Rogue River this time yielded a huge cache of interesting people and once again we fell completely in love with RR.


I'm going to take the next post to describe our amazing afternoon and evening there.  See you there.

Las Vegas to Carson City ride - on the way home!

Peter Galea (top photo) and Robert Grawet (bottom) in Beatty.  You can click on either photo to make them expand to full size.

Thursday, June 10, 2010 - We made it out of Las Vegas very quickly as we got on the highway at 6:30 AM on a Thursday morning.  It was only in the 60's when we left, so it made for a pleasant ride out into the desert.

 A little over 100 miles north of Las Vegas on US 95 is the Oasis town of Beatty, NV.   On a motorcycle with their smallish gas tanks, it's pretty hard to go by Beatty without gassing up.  There is nothing but open desert for a hundred miles in either direction.

On our 5th trip thru Beatty (3 x to the south, 2 x to the north), we've come to know the town and it's amenities well.

The complex where we gas up has:  gas station with about 20 pumps, store with tourist/travel type goodies (candy, nuts, ice cream, gum, etc.) that is quite large.  They have 100's of bins of goodies that allow you to buy the amount you want of whatever delight you find too hard to pass.

Peter often gets an ice cream here, as have I a few times also.  When it's hot in the desert, this is THE place to take a break.

From Beatty, you continue north on US 95 for about 30 miles to the turn off toward Bishop, California and Highway 266.Below is a photo of me pointing at an old house (that is now shuttered) that is the only thing located at this desert intersection.  (formerly a brothel and now for sale).  Peter is checking his load on the bottom photo.

The next part of the ride takes you back across 100 miles of open desert with no gas stations or stores of any kind.  It's an awesome ride thru wide open desert that travels up and down three mountain passes that take you from the desert floor up eventually to Bishop.  If you want to get a feel of how desolate this area is; you can click on this link and be taken to the Mapquest interactive map.  Mapquest Interactive Map US95 and Hwy 266 area.  You can follow the road thru the desert all the way to Bishop.

You finally come up over a hill and see what lies ahead at the end of this desert road.  Off in the distance are the mountains that make up the eastern side of Yosemite National Park.  Snow capped rugged and very beautiful, they are in your view often as you wind your way toward Big Pine, California and then on to Bishop.

A reminder:  It's roughly 150 miles from Beatty to Bishop, so be sure you have gas, sunscreen applied, and won't need anything along this route, as there is NOTHING at all available.

As always, we stop in Bishop at 'The Petite Pantry' for some great food, service, and shade from the sun on their deck in front of the restaurant.   You can see Peter at the table out front getting ready to have some of their great iced tea and his favorite sandwich, while I await my usual BLT.

From Bishop, you're up in the high country quite soon and the ride is spectacular as you travel for miles along the back side of Yosemite National Park.  I've described this trip a few times in earlier posts, so I'll just mention that we highly recommend this section of US 395 from Bishop to Carson City Nevada as one of the nicest and most beautiful rides you can find anywhere.  You need to be prepared though as it can throw some of nature's finest elements at you if you aren't.  We hit some very strong winds at Mammoth Lakes, CA - about 30 - 45 minutes north from Bishop. We had to stop at Mammoth Lakes and add clothes and the wind was cold and blowing at about 40 mph.

Be sure to take an eat or coffee break at the Bridgeport Inn just another hour up the road from Mammoth.  The proprietor is an awesome man who is full of baseball stories. The Inn has motel rooms (OK, but spartan rooms), a great restaurant (a bit pricey), and bar (fantastic decor).

You will pass the iconic Mono Lake and later Topaz Lake just south of Carson City on this segment of the ride.  Very beautiful.  It took us from 6:30 AM in Las Vegas til approximately 5PM to arrive at the Holiday Inn Express on the far north end of Carson City.  Nothing beats the free HI Express breakfasts when you're on the road.  We don't spend a lot of time getting pretty in the morning as we'll be wearing helmets and lots of other gear all day, so we like the idea of slipping down the hall for a quick bite and then hitting the road as soon as possible.  (a photo of the Mammoth Lakes area below)

In the next post I'll describe our ride from Carson City to one of our all time favorite night time stop destinations - Rogue River, Oregon.

The Ride Home from Infocomm - Las Vegas to Carson City, NV - Old friends like Alan Mackelprang and more!

One of the next best things about going on a motorcycle trip (after the actual ride itself), is that you tend to talk to a lot more people when you're on a bike.

IE:  In our car; we would have never spoken to this jolly guy standing in the hot sun just north of Bridgeport, CA all day.

We learned a lot about him in the 15 minutes that we stood and waited for the road to open up again.

There is also a special kind of bond that exists between those riding two wheels motorized vehicles; no matter what they are riding, when you meet up on the road at a gas station, rest stop, or anywhere else, you immediately have something to share and talk about.  Often you share the road conditions each direction and favorite stops and sites.

You might say that riders are the brothers and sisters of the road...cause it truly feels like that.

One of my dearest and oldest friends is a guy named Alan Mackelprang.  We grew up across the street from one another in Lakewood, Colorado.  We lived far from town, and in those days, you could have a 50cc and under motorcycle license at age 14.  We each owned bikes at that age, and spent many hours riding around the back roads and off road trails surrounding our homes in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

Alan lives in Las Vegas now.  He's a pilot with United Airlines. If I were to pick the man I wanted to be flying my plane, it would always be Alan. He's always on top of making sure the trip will be safe and fun and there is no one I'd trust more with my life in his hands miles up in the air.

He's also a super avid bike rider as well and owns two bikes now.  He has the Honda Rune and also a Honda Goldwing.  As we approached Las Vegas on the way down, and once again as we left Las Vegas, we had a constant text chat going as Alan advised us of weather and other conditions on the road ahead of us.

Thanks Alan. It was great to have dinner with you and catch up while in Vegas.

Another thing I have to admit is that on a long ride it becomes easier and easier to be happy about a chance to 'stand up' for a moment...if you know what I mean.

We decided we had finally learned our lesson about riding in the Nevada summer by arriving in the early morning.  From that experience, we decided we wanted to leave Las Vegas in the early morning also; and especially on a Thursday morning vs. a Friday or Saturday morning.  Las Vegas city traffic is as bad as I've been in, and I never want to take it on when it's a full tilt again.  So...easy to get up early and leave town.

We were totally packed by 10:00 PM and hit the sack early.  We got up around 5:30 AM and each grabbed as much of our gear as possible and headed out to get the bikes from the garage in back of Treasure Island Hotel where we had been staying the last three nights.  We knew it would take two trips as you have a lot of gear when you travel 2750 miles roundtrip that may include every type of weather known to man.

We had the bikes ready with the first load for each and started them up!  It was great to hear them running again.  We hadn't so much as started them during the 3 1/2 days we were in town.  We rode around to the valet parking area in front and parked.  The Parking guys are quite aggressive there and do their best to keep the driveway clear so traffic can flow.  So, we knew we needed to be efficient and move quickly to get out of dodge.  We hauled up to our room and picked up the rest of each of our gear and headed for the front desk to check out.  There were no others in line to check out at 6:15 am, so we got thru it quite fast and headed out the door.

Load up the final things, get on the bikes, and start em up!  Let's Ride!  More to come on our ride from Las Vegas to Carson City eventually ending back at our respective homes in Olympia and Vancouver.

Infocomm Trade Show - Las Vegas, NV - The 'excuse' for our ride to Las Vegas.

Among other things; Infocomm is the largest gathering of people involved in the audio/visual communications business in North America.  Every other year, it is held in Las Vegas, Nv in June.

My riding partner on the three rides we have made from Seattle to Las Vegas has always been Peter Galea.  One year, his wife Francis also rode her bike down with us.

Peter 'literally' grew up in the audio/visual industry as his dad was the founder and owner of Premier Audio Visual in Toronto, Canada.  He informed me that this Infocomm was the 42nd that he had attended since he was in his teens.  He also told several of us that this would be his last......we'll see....I'm kind of doubting it.

Over the years we've come to know a lot of people in this industry.  I've worked for a couple of the best companies in the business - (Da-Lite, and SMART Technologies); one of the oldest members (DL) and 'possibly' the 'most' successful of the later generations of companies (SMART) involved with Infocomm.

Peter has run the gamut as well.  After working with his dad, he moved out west to Vancouver, BC and eventually ended up at Sharp's AV as Manager of the Vancouver, BC office when I first met him in 89 or so.  He worked later as President of Califone and traveled the world for them.  For the latest years he has run Future Image Systems, Inc. a rep firm for all of Canada.  He just sold that to Andy and Ed and has opened up another company now to distribute products in Canada.

So, between us; we know a lot of people that attend this show.  Many of them we may only see once per year; while at this show.  It's always great to see old friends and get into the hummmm of excitement that surrounds Infocomm each year.

You want to connect with as many friends and associates as possible as networking is awesome AND its a great way to keep your knowledge about what's really going on.

So...next I'll get back to the road as I start to write about our ride back to Seattle (and Vancouver, BC) for Peter and I.

Sorry for my departure from telling you about our ride from Las Vegas back to Seattle/Vancouver BC; but I thought it might make sense to some of you if I explained a major component of the trip.

Next post; back on the road again!

Day Four - Ride from Bishop, CA to Las Vegas, NV - thru the desert!

We arose about 5:30 AM in Bishop, excited for the next portion of our ride.  Highway 168 out of Big Pine, Ca, is a special kind of motorcycle ride.  We learned from our previous rides that to 'do the desert' you need to travel in the coolest part of the day, if you want to enjoy the ride. You wouldn't want to ride it in the dark.  You don't need massive speed.  You better have a tank full of gas!  Once you leave Big Pine, there's not alot between it and Beatty, NV. 

Highway 168 starts to climb immediately and you get from desert floor to 4000 feet quite rapidly.  At the top and for miles following this is a forest of Bristlecone Pines that is the largest in the world.  It's dry, and 'warm', but its far from the heat of the desert floor up here.

As I said; you wouldn't want to take this trip at night...cause you need to be able to see very clearly or you'll miss one of the huge number of twists and turns you'll go thru.  You don't need speed; cause you rarely get above 30 or 40 mph while in the turns.

What you would like to have for a perfect ride.....is a temp in the 60's....some clear morning sunlight...a full tank of gas, and an almost completely open road.  This is exactly what we had that morning.  Maybe one of the top 20 riding experiences I've ever had...and Peter felt quite the same.

Because this was our third roundtrip to Las Vegas, we made sure it would be the most pleasant one it could be from our previous learnings.  The temperature remained less than 80 degrees as we completed the long and joyful ride across the desert mountain tops up and down three separate times....thru the open range...where cattle often are using the same road you're on...(and we saw them every time).  Along the way; we came to the junction of Hwy 168 and the start of our journey on Hwy 266.

It was at this very junction during our last ride to Vegas, that we encountered one very large, very mean looking bull just standing in the road right at the intersection.  I remember it clearly, cause for a brief moment, I wondered if that bull was going to let me go by or just charge me and throw me and my bike into the desert...broken and battered.  You have to slow way down in order to make that corner when you go onto 266, and it was as if the bull knew that and was just waiting for the rider he wished to smash the most.  Here I was; the only one of the three of us on that ride with a 'red' motorcycle.  I made that turn almost without looking at the bull...hoping he wouldn't get pissed off at me, and then gunned it to full throttle immediately after I completed the turn...getting up to 100 mph quite quickly.

The ride on Hwy 266 is quite fast.  There are stretches where you can see 10 miles ahead and the road is 100 percent straight where you can go very fast.  I got over 110 mph on one long stretch.  With sand on both sides and trees nowhere near the road, you can have the safest possible place to gun your bike and see what its got in it.

The ride across this stretch finally comes to an end when you meet up with US 95 - one of two North to South highways that run the entire stretch of Nevada.

DOWN US 95 thru Beatty, NV (the oasis)

It's roughly 130 miles from Big Pine, CA to Beatty, NV.  When you take this route, the ONLY gas is at Big Pine at the beginning of your ride and Beatty.  Your bike's tank better be able to handle that mileage, as the only other choice is a looooooooooonnnnngggg walk.

After you make it to US 95, it's a right turn down US 95 to the town of Beatty.  It's about 40 miles from point to point.  Beatty is an oasis in the desert.  It has several gas stations and hotel/motels. It has a couple of casinos, and it also food and ice cream!  Ummmm ice cream is good at this point of riding in the desert!  Here's a photo of our favorite Beatty place. 

After the Beatty rest and gas stop its another 120 miles to Las Vegas.  Between the two are a few small places and then Indian Springs.  Its in the middle of nowhere, but only 40 miles more to Las Vegas.  There's two gas stations there; PLUS....on the east side of the highway is Creech Air Force Base.  Its at Creech that they are doing lots of development of the pilot-less drone aircraft that are being used more in the war each day.  While riding by, we saw two drones flying around the area. Interesting!

After Indian Springs it is a short ride to Vegas.  It gets quite intense as you get close to the city, with cars zooming in and out from all directions.  Best thing to do is get there during a non-rush hour time frame, and know where you are going.  Last minute lane changes in 5 lanes of traffic with locals, tourists, and new residents all trying to find their own way makes for very dangerous conditions.  Also, make sure you get there before the heat of the day starting around noon time.

Next - I'm going to write about the return trip, which has its own set of highlights.

Day Three - Ride to Las Vegas Infocomm Show - Carson City, NV to Bishop, CA

After a restless night of little sleep in Carson City, NV the night before; one thing was clear from now on.  We won't stay in cheap motels anymore.  You need your sleep and you need to have a comfortable room with airconditioning and decent pillows to get that sleep, so need to stay in a place that will offer that plus good security.

We filled up at the Shell Gas Station on the south end of the Carson City/Gardnerville area and headed out with full tanks to ride the awesome stretch of road called US395.

This road takes you along the eastern side of Yosemite National Park.  Not as pretty as the main park, the ride is incredible in its own way.  From Carson City, you start seeing amazing sites almost immediately.

Topaz Lake gets its name because the waters look like topaz.  You ride along this lake and then on to more lakes, all beautiful in their own way.  After a very long climb up many thousands of feet in altitude, you get to the high plains.  Here you will ride for another 150 miles to Bishop.

After Topaz Lake you begin the climb up to Bridgeport.

Soon you reach the high long plateau that will lead you into that spectacularly beautiful little town, Bridgeport.  Now don't get me wrong; the town itself is not that special, although the historic Bridgeport Inn, built in 1877, has a fantastic dining room and bar.  Do yourself a favor and spend a few minutes in the bar talking with the proprietor.  His moustache echos Earl Flynn or Clark Cable, and he grew up in Los Angeles around many pro baseball players from the era of Don Drysdale and the great Dodgers of the 50's and 60's.  He has some great insider stories about baseball players that he met along the way.

Where was I...oh yeah...the town of Bridgeport isn't that special, but the view in all directions is quite special.  Super high plains with very green pastures for miles in every direction.  It is surrounded by very high mountains on all sides with the snow capped peaks of the Eastern Sierra Mountains making the frame around the entire west view.  Cattle and horses graze in what seems like miles of green pastures with shallow creeks running everywhere thru-out the valley.  Last time thru this area we stayed at the Bridgeport Inn.  This time we just stopped for coffee and 'amazing' apple pie ala mode about 2PM one afternoon.

 South on 95 you will eventually come to a long steep downgrade.  At the top of the descent, you get your first view of Mono Lake.  It is stunning!  So big, so majestic!  Coming down the hill to Mono Lake, you begin to hit some high crosswinds that seem to be omnipresent.This lake is huge and is a main water supply for San Francisco and Reno.  You travel along its banks for many miles. 

Riding with crosswinds is hairy at times, and  you must stay focused and hold on as sometimes the winds can make you feel like they will blow you down if you aren't holding on tight.All the while, there are a constant stream of tremendous views of the mountains to your right (back side of Yosemite) and the lakes and dry mountains/desert to your left. (as you head south).

After Mono Lake, you slowly climb up again til you hit the higher elevations that are around Mammoth Lakes (Mammoth Ski Area is in this area).  Its so pretty in this area....very green due to the high elevation and plenty of sun and water; yet trees are widespread....giving you an open view of the mountains with snow caps and the beautiful hills and valleys all along this section.  Amazing ski lodge type housing can be seen several places in this area also.

After Mammoth Lakes (where the winds can really howl at times) you begin another long slow descent getting closer and closer to 'the desert', which waits below.  After many miles you come down a very long slope that starts in green trees and ends in low elevations with desert sands beginning to appear in the distance.  The town of Bishop, California is awesome!  There is still lots of water coming down from the high mountains that make up the entire western view from Bishop.  There is a stream and lake surrounding a park that is right in the center of town.  The town deserves accolades for the way it keeps up this park.   A lake that was well stocked (trout and more), a stream, a well designed and nice baseball stadium, a skateboard park, picnic tables and more all fit into the town park.

Having learned our lesson about sleeping in bad hotels, we wisely chose to call our day over early and stay at the Best Western Hotel in the center of Bishop, and directly across the street from this great park.

This is a nice hotel.  Great new rooms, with wonderul pillows, fantastic airconditioning, a great pool, fresh cookies at 4PM, and a very tasty breakfast buffet all made this one of the most comfortable nights of our trip.

We had decided that one of the biggest considerations on the ride would be how we approached the hot desert surrounding and including Las Vegas.  Last time we arrived at 3:00 PM or so and the temperature gage on my bike said it was 126 degrees on the blacktop.  That's NOT fun!

So, we thought that we'd make an early night in Bishop and then leave as early as 6 am in the morning so we could finish the last few hundred miles to Vegas while the day was young and relatively cool.

There's a restaurant in Bishop called 'Petite Pantry'.  I'm sitting in their outside eating area in the photo.  There's a fly shop on the north side of the restaurant.  This is in the north end of Bishop before you hit the main part of town where we stayed in the hotel.  We've now eaten here 4 times (two times coming and two going home), and each time has been spectacular!  Great fresh Mexican and American 'sandwich' style food, awesome service, the deck under its massive tree with lots of shade.....wow.  It's the only place I'd have lunch in Bishop, California.

Day Two - Ride to Las Vegas - Roseburg, OR to Carson City, NV

We had a very relaxing stay in Roseburg along the river and awoke early on this day to continue our trip.  Once more, we had no goal as far as our destination for the day.  We decided early that we should take this ride much more slowly than our previous trips.  Each of the other two times we've rode this ride, we did it in 2.5 days.  We decided to take up to four days this time.

The skies were mostly blue and the temp around 60 degrees as we loaded up the bikes once more.

I have some really nice storage for my bike, but instead of using the saddle bags and a specially made leather box for carrying my goods, I elected to take my regular roll-around suitcase and its attachable bag instead.  With my saddlebags, you have to lift up the back of the seat each time you put them on or take them off.  Since we always strip the bikes down each night I was not looking forward to dealing with that each night.  In the end, my plan worked well, including the awesome ability to pull my suitcase along on its wheels when we arrived and departed from the Treasure Island Hotel in Las Vegas. (vs. carrying them).  So, you'll see photos of my bike....it looks strange without bags and with the suitcase strapped on...but at this point of my riding career I was not out to impress anyone other than myself.

Peter had his great zip off saddle bags (there's a zipper that releases the bags from the bike).

We both really enjoy this part of the ride thru Southern Oregon. It is normally very green in June and much more dry than all things north of there.  You ride mostly in a valley, but go up over several big passes (elevation up to 3000 feet) as you head south to California.  There are lots of winding roads going up and then back down each of these passes, and you can travel 70 - 80 mph very safely as the roads are exceptional interstate highway with great maintenance on them, and the traffic is relatively light.

As the day progressed we began to focus on Carson City Nevada as our place to stop for the night.  You leave I-5 at Mt. Shasta and head mostly east on US 89 from Weed, CA to Susanville, CA.  It's an awesome beautiful ride going thru the high country that runs to the south of the majestic Mt. Shasta.  The road from I-5 to Susanville is approximately 140 miles.  You are surrounded by nature's best, with mountains, valleys, streams, and lots of trees along the way.  Often you have trees immediately surrounding the road on both sides for miles at a time.  The downside is that you need to remain very focused and always on the lookout for movement from the sides of the road.  A deer crossing in front of you going 70 mph has potential for making your ride much less pleasant.  I usually take the lead on this part of the ride.  I'm all about safety.  I have a white helmet because studies show you are much more visible and much more likely to be seen by motorists.  I also have special running lights added to my Honda VTX 1300 to add to my visibility with a total of three forward lights always on.  Since this portion of the road is almost entirely two lanes, you have to wary of motorists making ill-advised moves coming from the other direction and watch for animals on the road.

This drive could not be more beautiful on a warm sunny summer day, and it was just that as we headed toward Susanville.  We stopped a few times to enjoy the surrounding views and were always glad when we did.

My Honda has been a great bike and has taken me on two Las Vegas roundtrips and one to Los Angeles.  I love how it handles and how it rides and looks.  However, it has a total range of just about 200 miles due to gas consumption, before you are out of gas.  We normally stop and get gassed up at Yreka, CA. as it is the first city in California coming from the north.  Oregon has strict laws at their gas stations; ie:  the attendant has to handle the transaction (even tho you are sitting on your bike right next to the credit card swiper).  They have those devices on the end of the pump that catch escaping gas vapors.  These are really hard to use on a bike.  If you want to fill your tank completely up, you have to stand your bike up straight while filling (they normally lean on their kickstands), and you have to grab the vapor trap and push it up to simulate that it's being pushed up by how its inserted into the gas tank.  This is the only way to get your tank totally full.  For the 140 miles across Hwy 89 plus the ride from Yreka to the turn off...it's getting close to 175 miles from gas to gas in Susanville.  I usually run out of my main tank at about 150 miles.  So...both of us were on reserve as we rode into Susanville.

Susanville is a working class town with nothing special other than its great location to take notice of.  We gassed up and then stopped at the Starbucks on the south end of town where you finally hit Hwy 395 south.  Starbucks became a normal stop on our ride this time.  A little cappucino in the afternoon really helped make the late afternoon ride better.

This ride is as pretty as it gets with every type of scenery you can imagine in the high mountain plateaus.  I do highly recommend taking extra precaution for fuel consumption and for the many deer and other animals that may decide to cross the road in front of you at any time.

Drive safe, stay focused, do not consume any alcohol or other things that would cause you to be less than 100% on this stretch.  You don't want to miss the beauty of have an accident.

We decided to make Carson City, NV our stop for this night.  It would allow us to get south of the Reno traffic in the morning so that we can start our next days ride without that hassle.  HWY 395 comes from Susanville and goes all the way down behind Yosemite National Park.  However, you have to go right thru downtown Reno, NV, and it is always scary and crazy as the many visitors to Reno add their lack of knowledge of the area to the huge onslaught of normal traffic....all trying to find your way to the next place.  I hate this part of the ride, and we decided to take it on at the end of our day so it was not in our minds for the next days ride.  Carson City is about 30 minutes south of Reno and is much quieter, so it worked for the end of ride on day two.  We stayed at an in-town old motel cause it was close to the restaurants and all.  We wanted to be able to walk to dinner.  BIG MISTAKE.  Lousy  air conditioning, bad pillows, and  more caused us both to have a bad sleepless night.  All of that factored into our ride on day three.

We stopped for about 30 minutes for roadwork along Hwy 89 (below photo)