Day 30

Day 30 and the old man is getting a little tired. I almost napped today or I might have napped but don't realize it. There were two first today. One first was we saw Denali, the full mountain. The second first, no so commendable was I dropped the bike on a slow speed maneuver. I don't know what I did but over I went. No physical injury to me, just embarrassed.  The fall did damage the side case and once I got back to the B&B I pounded it back into usable shape with two 2x4s. I will do a better job once I get back home. 

We also saw a moose today, and like most of my wildlife encounters by the time I switch lenses they start to move off. I got a few snap shots of it. We saw the moose on a hike down to Horseshoe Lake.

Denali top image, Horseshoe Lake the image above.

Bullwinkle.

Tomorrow we start our travel leg to Hinton, which will take us six days. There has been some mention of road closures due to wildfires. As far as I can determine the Top of the World Highway which runs from Chicken, AK to Dawson City is open. But I am not sure of the roads out of Dawson City to Whitehorse and beyond.

Day 29

 Day 29 we rode form Anchorage to Talkeetna and then to Healy. We made a few stops to try and see Denali which was partially visible. We did hit a light brief rain on the ride which has been the rule this trip. With the exception of Day 2 there has been very little rain and when there was it has been light and brief. We are staying at a bed and breakfast and so far this has been the nicest accommodations of the trip. There is a gravel road to get here and a gravel driveway but they are manageable.

Photos and Video to come

Day 28

 Day 28 we rode back to Anchorage. I dropped Rene' off at Gregg and Morgan's house and I went to The Motorcycle Shop to have the bike serviced. I spent the entire day there as they had to finish up yesterday's bikes before starting today's bikes. When do I went back to the house and decided to see if the owl was around, and he was. I did not fine the juveniles, but I did find the very sleepy adult.

Tomorrow we head to Healy.

Day 27

 Day 27 we rode from Homer to Seward and discovered our cabin was a dry cabin. Ooops, but it was OK. There was a bath house that was clean and the cabin was actually very nice. We rode around Seward for a while before checking in and after we checked in. The ride was nice, the roads mostly OK, a few construction areas, and a big one just outside of Seward. The weather was cool, but that is to be expected here in Alaska.

We went to a dead end where there was a beach of sorts where I took a few shots of the bay. I spent maybe 15 minutes shooting out into the bay and packed up and Rene' and I left to shoot a waterfall. Rene' commented on a girl in a bikini sunbathing next to me as I took the photos. "What girl" I said, I did not see any girl. Apparently The shapely pretty girl in a bikini was invisible to me. Rene' said she was right there not 10 feet from me, and I never saw her. That is seriously wrong. So instead of a bathing beauty you can look at this:

 Tomorrow we head back to Gregg and Morgan's in Anchorage.

Day 26

 Day 26, 30 days to go if all goes according to plan and schedule. We spent the day in Homer and rode the split and a scenic high road above town. I was looking for photo opportunities but wasn't finding anything. The internet search areas were pretty much void of the bald eagles and the landscape images were not good due to the haze and fog. We did get to see some wind surfers and I took a few photos. 

I was amazed at how long the tether is to the sail. I thought they were much closer based on the images I've seen before. I was using my 200-800 lens and I had to take it down to 200 and wait until they got out a ways to get the sail and surfer in together. The below images are from the road above the town and the haze and fog is evident.

Tomorrow we leave for Seward and I hope to get some bear images there, but I am not holding my breath.

Day 25

 Day 25, We rode from Anchorage to Homer for a few days. The ride was mostly pretty with a few boring areas. We did hit some rain and a little fog and it cleared as we got into Homer. Rene' and I checked in, then rode down the split to the end of the road. We ate at a fish place, yup, I had some fish, Halibut, which was pretty good. 

The ride just outside of Anchorage to Homer.

 

 

 There was a layer of fog over the ocean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 24

 Day 24, no riding today. Gregg, Morgan, Rene' and I went to hike up to a glacier but the trail was closed due to bear activity and the other glacier we could do, you need to take a boat across the water to get to the trail. So we did hike a bit of a trail in the area. Gregg was going to try and surf the Bore Tide, but it was much too windy so we headed back to their house. Morgan prepared a great steak meal, the best so far of this trip. 

We went back out to try and locate the owls. Morgan again spotted the owl, this time the adult. She was in a tree not 30 feet from us. I took some shots. I missed it flying from it's perch. I was looking for the juveniles, but they were no where to be seen. One of the neighbors came out and showed the cell phone images she got of the two juveniles together. They were very good.

Day 23

 Day 23 we rode from Chistochina (escaping the ravenous swarms of skeeters) to our nephew and nieces home in Anchorage. The ride was beautiful and fun until we got behind a tractor trailer in some twisties. The weather has been a bit consistent low to mid 50s in the mornings and getting up to maybe 70 in the afternoon. We have often hit a brief light shower. The scenery is often spectacular. We arrived early afternoon  and after unloading the bike they took us up to flat top. When the weather is good you can see Denali. It wasn't clear enough to see Denali, so I still haven't seen that fictitious mountain.
It is hard to remember all the things I thought of during the ride and put them in writing on this blog. Even harder when there is a few days between the time we rode to the posting on the blog. Another challenge is my cameras are not set to right dates for some reason. But hey, I did get some Pasta for dinner. It was delicious. 

Flat Top recreational area.

We checked out a rarity when the tide rolls in, it comes in a a single wave that you can surf. Our nephew Gregg has surfed this tidal wave. 

Being the days are so long, I mean it doesn't get dark here in the summer. I had time to try to find some Great Horned Owls that are in Gregg and Morgan's neighborhood. There is a mother and two juveniles. Morgan spotted a juvenile on a green house about 80 yards away. 

 

 

Day 22

 Day 22, Today's ride was from Haines Junction to Chistochina, AK, which means we cross back across the border into the US. We stayed in a privately owned camp ground / cabin set up. The ride was good, and the weather clear. We saw  moose and her calf and later a grizzly bear munching on something or someone on the side of the road. Just ahead of him were three bicyclists who had to ridden by the bear just moments before our arrival.

The cabin was old and basic skeeters were outrageous. They swarmed you in seconds and there had to be hundreds of them. We ran between the cabin and the laundry facility swatting and swinging our arms like our hair was on fire. An observation of mine, two maybe, are there did not appear to a lot of road kill on the Yukon and Alaskan roads. The evidence of hits and kills can be seen but the actual road kill often times id missing with the exception of two porcupines. Either the highway department guys are picking them up or pushing them off the road, which might explain the bears apparently eating on the sides of the road. Or it could explain all those Chinese restaurants.

The other observation has to do with bug kills on the windscreen and our visors. Why is there no heart, lungs, liver, stomach, brains, or intestines. Road kill it is obvious, not necessarily identifiable but you can tell there is guts. But the bugs it is just a pasty smear. Butterflies tend to leave a yellow mustard like splat, flies a red smear. Bees usually leave a striped part of their rear end with the goo. Worms sorta have guts, but caterpillars have just a green guacamole in them. 

We ran into a rain storm and rode in the rain for a while before we stopped at Fast Eddy's restaurant in Tok for dinner. Some rider's there asked if we had been caught in the hail, which we had not, thankfully. I had a no meat spaghetti and it was a welcome relief, and tasted mighty good.
 

Day 21

 Day 21,We rode from Watson Lake to Haines Junction. Starting out with clear weather but cool weather and a brief sprinkle. We spotted a moose with her calf along the side of the road. By the time we see them and at the speed we are traveling trying to start my helmet camera is futile. The dash cam might catch these events but getting those files out of the unit and into a windows computer is not easy. In fact I haven't succeeded yet. The other issue is the file transfer form the unit to the tablet requires me to turn on the ignition of the bike and it takes some time to make the transfer. 

The scenery is in places aw inspiring or other places just road travel.  The motel in Haines Junction was nice and well thought out. I went down the road about a quarter mile to take some photos. I did some IR but I think I brought the wrong IR filter and therefore not getting the results I was expecting.

 

Day 20

Day 20 already! Today was a long ride (488 miles) day and our butts know it. The new saddle is better then the old one, but not perfect. But it is hard to sit for hours in the same basic position no matter what you are sitting on. With the exception of saddle sore, what a great ride. Now RT 37 is not the best maintained roads but still better then many in the States. The traffic was extremely light so we could move right along. The scenery was out of this world, tall snow capped mountains, lush forest, beautiful lakes and rivers. We saw, or I saw 5 black bear, Rene' only saw 4 because she fell asleep back there. I was only able to get a brief video of number 5 and it is down below. 

The weather was mildly cool this morning, but really not bad. It was sunny for most of the day until we got closer to Watson Lake where it started to get a little cloudy. We hit a very short sprinkle and that was it for the ride. Rt 37 ran right through an area of a forest fire and the burned out forest went on for miles and from the road as far as you could see. Amazing the scope of these events. Tomorrow we head to Haines Junction and that is only 360 miles on the road. Oh, a few notes about food. Seems like every restaurant is a Chinese restaurant. The last two stops were that was. I am getting tired of cheese burgers. I want some pasta.

Something about the 360 camera. There are two lenses, one in front and one in back. They are both about 1/2 inch in diameter. I clean the front lens often because it seems to be the target of flying insects. If I don't notice it while riding, well that video is basically garbage. I recorded a video and Rene' says there is a black spot on it. So I stopped and cleaned the lens and immediately start to record the above video. It is a short one for obvious reasons.

Helmet cam of a portion of today's ride.

The only video I was able to get of the black bears, this guy was number 5 for the day.

 

Day 19

 Day 19, the days are starting to all blend in together. Today was the leg to New Hazelton. Gorgeous scenery with snow capped mountains. There was a lot more construction on this leg with several stops of 5 minutes or more. The weather was pretty cool the entire day and we went through a number of brief showers. The motel was a small privately owned motel and he had a place where I could wash the motorcycle. So I did was the bike as best I could. We are into day 3 of a 6 day run to Anchorage. Tomorrow will be one of the longer days of the entire trip at 488 miles.

We did see a moose today down below the roadway. It appeared to be a little confused and did not seem to know where to go, so we named him Joe.

Sorry no video on this leg.

Day 18

Day 18 Today was CRW, cold, rainy, and windy. The scenery was very pleasant and the roads very nice. I don't remember the scenery from my trip through there in 2010, but I believe the road was just a two lane road. Now it is 4 lanes in many places, and where it is two lanes, there is often a third passing lane. The road condition was also well maintained. We saw very little construction zones in the 440 plus miles we rode today. 

The temps bounced between 41* to 55* on most of the trip through the mountains. The wind was very strong but not steady, but gusty. I like riding with my face shield up, but I had to close it because the wind was trying to pull my eye glasses off my face. When it rains I obviously need to close my visor.

Tomorrow's ride is to New Hazelton and is about 350 miles away. The next day, New Hazelton to Watson Lake will be one of the longer rides of the trip, 488 expected miles. The carpal tunnel syndrome that until now I only mildly had, is really firing up. Thank God for the cruise control, unfortunately  I can't use it all the time and I don't use it when hitting the curves or near traffic.

Day 17

Day 17 we said good bye to our host, Karen and headed for Omak, WA which is a little under 50 miles from the Canada Border. The day was cool as in temperature, not Fonzi cool. We did see some temps up as high as 63*, most of the time it was in the 50s, which at 70MPH for hours at a time sets a chill into you. We did hit some rain four different times, The first two times just a light sprinkle for about a minute. The next two times a light shower for about two minutes each. There were several rain clouds dropping a good rain all around us. It seemed like our route took us between the active rain clouds. There were some very cool sights but I wasn't able to catch them on the cameras. I should have pulled over and took the shots with my photography camera but I tend to get that "get there itis". We did have a bald eagle fly over of at one point. 

The next few days look like we will be in cool weather and possible rain here and there. Here are a couple of videos of today's ride.

 

Day 16

 Day 16 is a cool windy day. We hung out for a while before getting breakfast and getting fresh fuel and Heat dry gas. I then took the bike for a run to see if I can clear out the sputtering like feeling when I get up to 3800 RPM in gear 6. That is where it is the worse but nothing like my 09 GS was last year on our Newfoundland trip. We went back to rally to confirm we didn't win any door prizes as is our game plan. We did think we had a shot at longest two up award at over 2500 miles but nope, 2nd place (they only award 1st and 2nd places) had over 2600 miles. 

I came across the Hexcode booth with the GS911. I have a GS911 at home, but it will not attach to the newer BMW bikes. There is an adapter but with the GS911 at home, it doesn't do me any good to buy the adapter. So I picked up another GS911 but one that I can plug into the newer bike. I wanted to check to see if there were any faults or indications of motor issues. There were two faults, but they were old and there was no indications of motor issues. So I still am hoping it is just a bad gas issue that will clear up with this tank of gas. That is or can be an issue when you need to use a high test fuel. You don't know how long that fuel, which due to it's cost is not used by many, has been in the tank and how contaminated it might be. I might have to consider a lower grade fuel with an additive of  octane boost.

We start for Alaska tomorrow. The morning temps here will be near freezing and at the destination, Omak, WA about 55 to 60 upon our arrival. Rain is a possibility on this leg of the trip. We will leave a little later in the morning to give things a chance to warm up. If we are lucky (hahaha) we will miss the intermittent showers that will be across our path of travel. After Omak,  day 18 we will enter Canada for our ride up to Alaska.

Day 15

 Day 15 started out with a planned trip to Crater Lake. We stopped for breakfast and another rider advised us he heard some of the rim road was closed. So I checked the USNP website and there was only one mile of the rim trail open and that was on the west side. Not worth the ride there. So I just rode around somewhere in Oregon before making our way back to Redmond. I noticed a (what I thought) vibration and figured it was one of the new tires. We went back to the rally site and I advised the tire people. The pulled the front tire and checked the balance and it was right on, so the put a new tire on. I took it back out for a test drive and still there. I did some testing and coasting it isn't there so it is something with the motor. 

After getting tires I filled up with fuel, so maybe I got some bad gas.

Day 14

 Day 14 was a travel day and a spend like there is no tomorrow day. We said our good byes to Ken, who was a great host and a good friend. These dang rallies are expensive to walk through. First the travel, we started out on the slab for about 25 miles to get to Rt 20/26 from Ontario, OR to Redmond on Rt 26. Rt 26 starts out a little boring and ends a little boring but in the middle it runs through three mountain passes and is full of sweepers. It was a bit cold this morning and that will be the pattern the next few days or at least as far as I have looked. 

One issue I have had with videoing with the 360 camera was it is placed out of my reach and it turns itself off and times out and I have to stop the bike and lean out to start the camera and to start the videoing. I saw there was an Insta360 tent and  asked about a remote, low and behold they have a remote for the camera and actually had one there. Later in the day I installed it and it works so hopefully I will get more 360 footage. Also I mentioned in a previous post that my rear tire was about toast. So I bought new tires, and as luck would have it, which rarely can be associated with me, I snagged the last front tire they had. Apparently the shipping guy has no clue what tires to send to the rally. The tires I got are Dunlop tires and the the same ones I have on my GS which are showing almost no wear after 6000 miles. I hope to get the same out of these. I also ended up buying a new saddle. The Sergeant saddle is just too hard, it is a low saddle and they put very little padding in it. The saddle I got is a custom low saddle. We'll see how it works out these next few days.

We are staying at an AirBnB in a room. The host Karen is very nice and accommodating. She is allowing me to park the bike in the garage which makes me feel better. Tomorrow we will attend the rally at some point but the plan is to ride to Crater Lake for the day. It is a 2 hour ride to I think.

One of the passes we passed through:

 

Day 13

 Day 13 was a rest day, sorta. We did not ride the motorcycle at all today but instead Ken, Rene' and I went to a recreational area and hiked Hulls Trail. There are a number of trails and you can walk or hike for ever, but we did 6 miles. That was about the limit for my ankle. I did some testing with the 360 camera and some not so spectacular footage is attached here. I think the most important part of the test was the voice activation, which if it works while I am riding will be a game changer. Up to now I would have to stop the bike and reach over, balancing the bike with Rene' and all the gear to turn on the camera and to get it to record. I found it much too inconvenient to do, so I didn't. If I can now yell to it "record now" and it start recording then I can include more of it's video footage. The only thing I have to change on it is the auto off from 3 minutes to a much longer time. 

The other thing I would like to solve is the file transfer from a Android tablet to this Windows Laptop. You would think it would be easy and they even make it sound easy with "easy file transfer", but don't let it fool you, I haven't succeeded yet with it. You ever notice the directions on line never match what is happening in front of you. I believe the reason is the directions are from years ago and they screw with the applications every time they need to justify their jobs with another update. The updates screw everything up so they need to do a patch or another update. If I can get the files to transfer I can extract files from my dash cameras and use that footage.

The bike is operating as it should with the exception of the rear tire is going to have to be replaced much sooner than I expected. The bike currently has 4315 miles on it and there is not likely 1000 miles left on the rear tire. The front has maybe 3 to 5000 left. My original plan was to have the tires changed in Alaska with the oil change. Now I will replace both tires at the rally, like I seem to do at each rally. I don't think the tires on the bike are factory tires and I believe the previous owner had them put on. Poor choice on his part. I will go with the Dunlop tires. I have a set on my 09 GS and they still look great after 6000 miles, handle great in the rain and I don't recall any road snake issues. The current tires on this GSA are horrible with road snakes.

We will have the bike fully loaded except for fuel we will get after we leave. The plan is to leave between 0630 and 0700 for the 318 mile trip which will take about 7 hours. We will meet with our AirBnB host at around 1400 and then run over to the rally and see if I can get the tires changed first thing. That way we can do some of the rides I have planned like down to Crater Lake.

Day 12

 Day 12 we did a fun ride to Silver City, ID. This small former mining town is half abandoned and half occupied. The road to it is about 9 miles paved and then 14 miles of dirt road. I am not really a dirt rider and I also had a passenger on board. Rene' rode great and did not upset the bike as it bounced and plowed through the soft gravel.  One of the interesting things about this road into Silver City is the Mormon Crickets. These crickets are huge and all over the road. You will see them in the video at times. Some places they were pretty thick and the road looked like it was moving. These crickets are cannibals. They eat the dead crickets that were run over by the passing vehicles.

Once we arrived at Silver City we walked around and sized up the place. One home looked fairly new, but was all boarded up. Silver City had a population of close to 2500 at one time, but I am not sure how they all fit in the town. Silver City was a mining town for silver and gold. I don't know how much happens now, but I suspect it is small miners claims. It is estimated that they mined 60 million dollars at that period time worth of gold silver. There were over 250 mines and 12 stamping mills. The largest piece of precious metal was a 500 lb silver crystal that was on exhibit at the Paris World's Fair.

Rear view of the largest building in Silver City the old Hotel.

A short video of the ride to Silver City. Tomorrow we may just go for a hike and give ourselves a break from the bike.

Day 11

 Day 11 was a travel day. One of the few times we rode the slab (Highways) and did so through cities, but it was the fastest way to get to Ken's house. Crossing across Idaho on I84 was a bit windy. The highway is posted at 80 MPH and we were going at about 83 MPH with the bike's cruise control activated. A real wrist saver as I appear to have some carpal tunnel syndrome. The wind did buffet the bike and of course us too. I think it also was a killer on my mileage which caused me to loose and average of 4 MPG. Tomorrow we will do a fun ride to Silver City, ID which will mean riding dirt. I am not much of a dirt rider so that will be my challenge.

Day 10

 Day 10 is just a travel day from Kanab to Provo, UT. We arrived a little after  3:00 pm and after showering just hung out. Riding in the heat the last week is starting to drain the old folks.

Tomorrow we head to Ken's house in Merdian, ID for a few days. We will do some fun rides in the area.

Day 09

 Day 09 and you may be wondering why the tracker shows no movement. There was plenty of movement but very little on the motorcycle. While having breakfast I was looking around and saw a poster about White Pockets. I know of White Pockets but have never been there. I have been to Coyote Butts South and North (The Wave 2x). I was able to arrange a sunset photography tour with a local tour company for later in the day. Rene' and I had some time to kill so we hopped on the bike for a quick 30 mile round trip to Sand Cave just outside of Kanab. These caves are high up on the cliffs and you have to find your own way up the relatively  steep cliff face. So we did it and returned to Kanab to prepare for White Pockets.

At White Pockets We will be out in the high desert in 95* pluse temps. So we tried to hydrate and bought plenty of water and Gatorade. The tour guy, Steve, picked us up at the hotel. Thus no tracking to record. The trip out to White Pockets takes 2.5 hours from Kanab. 1 hour on the road to the dirt road and 1.5 hours on the dirt road. When we got there we were the only ones there (for the first few hours) and explored the whole area, I took a lot of photos, nothing that will knock your socks off but good images just the same. I also used the 360 video camera at one place.

 

 

Here are some photos:

After dark we headed back to Kanab and along the way there in the road were 5 cows. They have free ranging there and that is a possibility.  You don't want to hit one of those beasts. Tomorrow we head to Prov, UT.
 

Day 08

 Today we went to Bryce Canyon for half a day. One thing about going to Bryce Canyon is you ride through Red Canyon which has great scenery. Of course I didn't video or photograph anything while riding through Red Canyon. At Bryce Canyon we did a little hiking down into the canyon part way, then back out. Nothing much more then that for the day. Here is a video and some images.

 

 

Day 07

 WE left Kayenta for Kanab, a trip of about 175 miles. It was hot, the motorcycle temp said 97*.  Thank God it was a short trip in the heat. We got to Kanab and were able to check in early. We hung out for about an hour to cool off then went out to Zion National Park.

We rode to the visitors center and back. We left the park for another park, a State Park called Pink Coral Sands State Park. It is basically an area with large sand dunes. Not as big as Great Sand Dunes National Park. There wasn't anything there to photograph, it was more of a play ground for side by sides and dune boarding. Tomorrow I think we will go to Bryce Canyon, and back to Zion the next day.

I don't know what the actual mileage is but we have gone about 2350 miles so far.

Day 06

 Day 06 we rode to Monument Valley and did a tour. They don't allow motorcycles on the loop road, and it is a good thing. There is a lot of sand and the tour vehicles had some challenges with the sand. It was in the middle of the day so it was not idea for photography. I did try some infra-red but I was not happy with the results. The night was going to be clear and the moon was in new moon phase so I thought I would try some astrophotography at Monument Valley. I contacted a guide but he was booked for a private tour, but he gave me two suggested places I could go by myself.These were not in the park but the first one had some of the features of the park. The second one which was only 8 miles form the motel would probably been my best choice. So I decided to check out the other one instead. It was about 35 miles from the motel. I thought I could do both places. Here are a couple of images from the first location.

 I tried to find the second location, which is just off of the road to the motel. But dang it was dark, and with the lights so bright on the motorcycle I could not find this massive volcanic rock feature.

 Day 5 was another great riding day. It was like the reverse ride of one of my favorite rides that I mentioned in yesterday's post. We went back up over Wolf Creek Pass. We also made a few detours to visit or see new places. The first visit was to Mesa Verde National Park where the Cliff dwellers lived. The road to those sites is a nice windy road, fun to ride. The dwellings were cool, but not real close. I guess they do have some type of tours but I don't know if it is right to the dwellings themselves. These places are right in the cliffs, I don't know how the residents got to them.

 

The second detour was to the four corners. We saw and then after  Navajo flat bread we continued on to Kayenta. It is starting to get a little hot, and that might have sapped some of my energy as I lied down, and out were the lights. I am getting ready to head out to try and get some Milky Way shots near Monument Valley. I tried to book a trip, but the guide was already booked with a private tour. The guide did give me some suggestions to locations I could go to myself. So Day 6 will be posted tomorrow.

Day 04

 Great riding day. We headed out of Dodge City with the dark skies in our rear view mirror and clear skies ahead of us. The temps were cool at 60* but I like riding in the mornings with cool temps. One of my all time favorite rides was with my brother in law, Rod and his good friend Big Jim. We left Page, AZ early in the morning headed to Colorado Springs. The scenery was spectacular the morning was so calm and the sunrise stunning. Riding in the morning is my favorite time to ride. We were on RT 10 for a long time. This route is almost laser straight which is major boring, but posted at 65 it helps you cover some miles. This part of Kansas into Colorado is a little hilly, pretty much devoid of trees and fields or pastures for ever. When there were houses, it seems every one of them had some fenced in acreage with either goats, cows, or horses.

While en route we detoured ourselves, no help from the GPS to the great Sand Dunes National Park. Upon driving there the dunes don't look too impressive except for the fact they are there in the first place. But once you get somewhat close you see these little people on these huge piles of sand. The highest dune they say is 750 ft high. They looked higher than that. I looked for a spot to take some photos but there was just too many people all over the dunes. I thought of trying to get some shots on the road to the park. I didn't stop because we talked of returning closer to sunset. The problem with that plan is the park was 36 miles one way, and after sundown it would be a rough ride back. As it turned out the sunset was non existent  with a heavy cover of clouds. Tomorrow we head to Kayenta, AZ. We will stop at the four corners monument. The route there is RT160 and it is suppose to wind through the mountains. 

A small world story is there is a group of Gold Wing Riders here at the hotel who are with the Southern Cruisers Motorcycle Club. Rene' and I rode with some riders from that club in Johnson City, TN. These guys were with that club and are from Johnson City, TN. They are originally from Binghamton, NY.

Day 03

 The ride started out good, but again the GPS was having a ball taking us everywhere except towards where we needed to go. US 400 would take us straight to Dodge City but the GPS had us on it, off it and at one point when I got off US 400 to see if the Yoder's Community was open, it wasn't so I go right back on. This apparently upset the little demon inside the GPS and instead of going another 50 something miles on US 400 as it was before I got off, it had me get off a few miles down the road and do a 45 mile square loop to get right back on US 400. At our next stop, I looked at a real paper map and saw US 400 goes right to Dodge City. So I just ignored all the extra turns it wanted me to do. I will say the GPS started alerting me to a severe thunderstorm and tornado watches, which would have been on our route to Dodge City. Except those would not occur until much later in the day.

Like I mentioned in the last post, we were expected to start out in good weather and head into bad weather. About an hour into the ride the skies started to look a little menacing, and it was getting a little more menacing, then not so menacing. By about 3 to 4 hours into our all over Kansas ride the sky was clear and stayed that way all the way into Dodge City. We got in a little after 5:00 pm, at 8:45 pm no rain or thunderstorm, but we have the warnings of a sever thunderstorm.

Riding the plains is a little boring, straight roads and mostly flat lands with a few hills. Many fields and wind farms. A few oil wells too.

This is the first post on the new laptop. Still trying to get the needed software downloaded to process the media I hope to get.

Day 02

 We started out the day riding in the rain and that lasted a few hours. Things started to clear and the ride became much more enjoyable. The route in the GPS  had us going all over the place. Part of that may have been me resisting to go the way it wanted us to go. I am familiar with the route because we have taken it before. The GPS apparently knew that Route 60 was closed at a certain point. So the GPS appears to have important routing information and using that information to reroute us from our planned route. I still don't trust the GPS.

At one of our stops we met a couple who travel to gold shows. Who knew they actually had gold shows. Brian was his name and he is also a singer. He had some of the gold he and his friends had found, mostly using a metal detector. He had huge nuggets, and this one piece that he valued at $125000.00 which I held in my hand. If you know me you know I have gold fever. Brian offered me the ability  to detect on one of his claims in Arizona.  I would love to take him up on the offer.

We did make it to Springfield, MO and after settling in went to Best Buy. I found a gaming laptop that should work for me. The issue now is to load all the required software. Hotel wifi is metered and one program, "app" for you non old folk, took about 3 hours to load. So it could take me a week to load all the programs. Being these first four or five days is just travel time, there isn't much opportunity for video or photos.

We head to Dodge City, KS tomorrow.  I think around 400 miles. The weather will start out nice. As we approach Dodge City we could run into some thunderstorms. The storms are supposed to start firing up at about 3:00 pm. This part of the trip is long boring straight roads.