Pictures of our trip

The photo album below is not in traveling order since I had 815 pictures to sort through. Don't worry I didn't post all of them but there is a lot if you are interested.

Miles Traveled

Back to work, sharing photos and already talking about the next big trip in a few years. I like spreadsheets and tracking my miles traveled. Below is the list I kept each night when we stopped.

10-Jun - 397 miles - Parkersburg, WV
11-Jun - 322 miles - Bedford, IN
12-Jun - 385 miles - Tipton, MO
13-Jun - 500 miles - Garden City, KS
14-Jun - 222 miles - Pueblo, CO
15-Jun - 109 miles - Canon City, CO
16-Jun - 358 miles - Moab, UT
17-Jun - 251 miles - Green River, UT
18-Jun - 335 miles - Ely, NV
19-Jun - 335 miles - Carson City, NV
20-Jun - 347 miles - Garberville, CA
21-Jun - 319 miles - riding in the Redwoods
22-Jun - 301 miles - Placerville, CA
23-Jun - 288 miles - Bishop, CA
24-Jun - 284 miles - Las Vegas, NV
25-Jun - 114 miles - Kingman, AZ
26-Jun - 220 miles - Winslow, AZ
27-Jun - 321 miles - Albuquerque, NM
28-Jun - 279 miles - Amarillo, TX
29-Jun - 266 miles - Oklahoma City, OK
30-Jun - 336 miles - Little Rock, AR
1-Jul - 371 miles - Lebanon, TN
2-Jul - 337 miles - Wytheville, VA
3-Jul - 247 miles - Fredericksburg, VA
4-Jul - 153 miles - home

A Wrap Up

Well the trip of a life time has ended after more than 10 years of dreaming and 2 years of planning. We covered 7397 miles in all. I had no idea the major part of our country across the middle and the south is desert or semi-desert and empty. I’m sure I studied this in school (many many years ago) but to actually be a part of it is amazing. You ride for over 100 miles without putting your feet down unless you just stop in the road for a butt break. Watch the gas in the Midwest. The regular is 85 octane and the mid grade is 88. They also have some gas with more than 10% ethanol. Make sure you get the right fuel for your vehicle.

There are large cities and this trip reinforced the fact that I don’t really like large cities. But there are many more small towns or cross roads and while the location is different, the accent or language is different the people are the same.

The highest price we paid for gas was in Death Valley at $4.14 a gal. There is only one gas station in the center of Death Valley so you pay the asking price if you want to get out of that burning inferno. Would I ever do Death Valley again? Probably not unless it was in the winter but I am so glad I did it once and I recommend anyone interested go for it. I’ll never forget the experience.

Route 50 is well marked and you really don’t even need maps (except in Winchester VA). The loneliest road is not lonely because of no traffic - you do see a car every 10 or 15 minutes but it is lonely because there is nothing but sand and tumbleweeds. I could feel the emptiness or lack of life around me. I am so glad I had this opportunity and I would recommend this trip to anyone.

Do I have any regrets? Yes – that I didn’t have time to stop at all the small towns along route 66 and visit the various historical places and museums. I could have added another 3 weeks by staying off the Interstate highway and meandering along but that can be another trip because this is not over. And I still have all the northern states to cover yet in my second cross country trip in a few years.

Did we have problems?
Don lost his jacket liner going around the Washington beltway; Ginny dropped her video camera out of her jacket pocket while riding the bike but Bernie picked it up and it was still working; I lost my cell phone (was this a problem?); my bike had problems starting one day. I think this was because I had put 85 octane gas in it instead of the 87 but it also might have been because of the high altitude but I think it was the gas thing. Roger’s bike refused to start and he had to replace the battery but we were at a service station between two auto parts stores. How many auto part stores carry batteries for motorcycles and the exact one he needed?

Would I make changes if I knew then what I know now?
I would not have packed as much; we had one bag we didn’t even open. I would not take the bike covers we used them the first and second day and then stopped. I would allow more time if possible – but doing this trip while working made that impossible.

We Are Home!

Day 25 – July 4, 2009
We are home! Leaving Fredericksburg VA around 6:30 AM we traveled the 158 miles over very familiar roads heading home. I had always thought Delaware was flat land but today I see it through different eyes. The fields actually have slight rises and the abundance of trees shortens the horizon. The corn is now beginning to tassel and the oats, barley and wheat has been harvested and the late season crop of corn or soybeans has been planted. We pulled in the yard around 1PM and began unloading the assortment of luggage as you can see in this picture. If anyone told me this all came off our bikes (except for the kid in the middle) I wouldn’t believe it if I had not been the one pulling it all off. We will spend the next couple of days printing pictures, writing a wrap up for this blog and weeding through almost 2000 business emails. I will need to run to the AT&T store and get a new cell phone and the Honda store for a new CB cord for Don. But for now – at 8PM I’m heading for my own bed for a good night’s sleep and to dream of the next trip because the journey never ends for me.

The Beautiful Blue Ridge

Day 24 – July 3, 2009
Tonight will be our last night on the road – last time to unpack and repack all this stuff. We have got it down to about 20 minutes in the morning to load the bikes. But I’m thinking it might be a good idea to shop for a small trailer. The plan was to leave the Interstate and head for Charlottesville then Fredericksburg, VA for the night and then tomorrow morning we will head north on 301; only 150 miles from Fredericksburg to home. The traffic on the bridge should not be bad on the 4th of July. All day we were traveling in the Blue Ridge Mountain range with the gentle foothills and mountain stacked on mountain all covered with fertile soil. The Rocky Mountains are majestic with their high, sheer rock spikes towering above everything in sight but the Blue Ridge appears soft, relaxing and inviting dressed in deep green. Homes or farms are scattered about and the slopes are strip farmed; a strip of corn, a strip of wheat, and another strip of corn or tobacco so everything is not harvested at the same time to avoid erosion of the soil. We stopped for lunch in Gordonsville and decided to purchase a large hanging basket of flowers from the shop across the street and place them on Don’s grandmother’s grave. The graveyard is only about 4 miles down the road so he unloaded the ice chest from the back seat of the trike and I climbed on holding this huge basket of flowers off to the right in the palm of my hand like a pie (it was too large to fit between us) and supporting it with the other hand. One lady and man in the parking lot were laughing and said they wished they had a camera because we certainly made quite a sight. They even offered to take the flowers to the grave for us but it just doesn’t mean as much unless you place them yourself. Traffic around Fredericksburg is awful! I have been coming to this area for over 40 years and remember when it was a small town and didn’t even have a shopping center; now there are several malls and multi-lane roads leading people where they want to go.

Never a dull moment!

Seems like all the streets in this town (Wytheville) meet at one point or at least 10 roads in the vicinity of our hotel. Everything started when we tried to find the Super 8 or Sleep Inn; we took the exit indicated by the GPS but didn’t see any signs for either. I did see a Motel 6 but getting to it was a real trick with turn on this road, climb this hill and then turn on a second street. Only to find they didn’t have any refrigerators. We decided to try for the Super 8 but after turning on two or three roads, making a U turn in the middle of the road twice and the GPS saying you have arrived and still not seeing any hotel we headed for the Red Carpet Inn which was within eyesight. Then dinner was to Shoney’s right across the street. Well that was a real trick! Don started leading but ended up going way down the street and by the time we had turned around Bernie was leading. After crossing one street we were at the bottom of the hill and lost sight of the restaurant. Bernie turned left on what we all thought was the right road when suddenly both hands flew up in the air and we realized he was heading down the ramp for the Interstate! No turning back now so we all rode about 10 miles or more to the next exit; made a right and another right onto the service road (where we wanted to be in the first place) and back another 10 miles to Shoney’s. Now we could see our hotel but the big question was – could we get to it?

Back in Virginia

Day 23 – July 2, 2009
We have stayed at several America’s Best Value motels on this trip but the one we were at last night was the best so far. They had a great hot breakfast and an indoor pool and the rate was less than $50 including tax. Needed our jackets this morning and it remained cool most of the day – another great riding day. Riding through eastern Tennessee brings us into the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains and then into the rolling hills of western Virginia. Cattle grazing on the slopes, corn and tobacco fields growing and the constant rocking and rolling remind me why I love Virginia. We pulled off at Wytheville for the night after 337 miles of great riding. A few more hours tomorrow on the Interstate and then we will head cross country on some sweet country roads in Virginia. I will be so glad to get away from the ever present tractor-trailers. I’m certainly glad for the truckers and the job they do but I really do get tired of riding with them day after day on the highway. We have gone through all the time zones going west and today we entered the last of the time zones on our way home; a real sign this trip is coming to an end.

Tennessee is close to home

Day 22 – July 1, 2009
Around 4 AM this morning I heard someone knocking on our hotel door. I thought it was Bernie but couldn’t figure why that early. Don opened the door to find a young black boy standing there asking for money. He said his wife and 5-day-old baby were in the car and they were heading home to Conway AR about 20 miles west of Little Rock and they were out of gas and out of money. I had noticed when we went to dinner earlier in the evening the area seemed very poor and the young man in the KFC seemed almost afraid to talk to us. We covered 371 miles today and have stopped in Lebanon, TN just east of Nashville. The weather was really nice today – temps in the low 90’s and low humidity; perfect for riding. We passed corn fields in various stages of maturity from full tassel to only 3 or 4 inches tall; soy bean fields and rice fields. As we approached Nashville we began to climb mountains again. Bernie said who would have thought we would say Tennessee is close to home? I think he is ready to get home too. Just had a great meal; did some laundry and ready to settle down for the night so we can get an early start in the morning. We have had so many people come up to us and ask if we are really from Delaware after they check the tags on the bikes. Then they want to know where we are headed and what it is like to travel on a motorcycle.

Wonderful Thunder storm and first rain in 18 days

Day 21 – June 30, 2009
This morning was the first time we had dew on the bike seats since leaving the east 21 days ago. Today was the first time we saw a lake since leaving California; I was surprised to see so much water in one place when we came upon it and the creeks actually have water in them. In most of the western states I would see a ‘creek’ and it was a dry river bed waiting for the infrequent flash flood. As we move east closer to Arkansas I begin to see mountains in the distance and the forest is dense with tall trees and underbrush; something apparently only found in the east. I really don’t like traveling an Interstate HWY but it does serve the purpose of getting you where you want to be quickly and we are getting close to the ‘return to work day’. I don’t mind riding around big cities but I’m really a small town America type person and much prefer the path less traveled. I see signs for museums or historical markers in almost every little town along the way and wish I had time to stop but the plan for this trip was stop on the way out at several places and then boggy back on 40. I did notice we traveled through Cherokee Territory where the tribe ended their Trail of Tears walk years ago when driven from their homeland in North Carolina. One ‘small town’ we found was Mulberry, Arkansas. We needed gas and the exit sign said gas so I pulled off even though I didn’t see a gas station – first mistake. After riding 2 miles on a country road we came to a cross roads with a gas station on two corners but when we pulled into the first one the pumps had bags over the hoses. Pulled to the second station – same situation. Don went into the store and they told him a station was about a half mile further and when we got there it was straight out of history! The pumps stated the price of 695 and I stopped dead in my tracks but the owner said he didn’t have a place to put the $2 because they were old pumps. They had a little building about 25 X 40 across the street with a sign stating it was the “Mulberry Mall”. We have met some very nice people also traveling by motorcycle and today we met a couple ‘newlyweds’ traveling to Wing Ding on a nice Gold Wing trike; he is 78 and she is probably close to that age. There are lots of bikes on the highway; some traveling alone and others in small groups. We have traveled 335 miles today and landed in Little Rock Arkansas. Just in time too because the sky has opened and we are having a wonderful thunder storm; first real rain we have seen since our second day on the road.

Oklahoma What a great state

Day 20 – June 29, 2009
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Dinner last night was very good at Calico County on Paramount Ave., Amarillo Texas. Service was great and the atmosphere is western as you would expect in Texas, but I was impressed to see signed pictures of George Strait and other country singers as well as President George Bush all making comments about the great food and service.

Again the sky was overcast when we left at 6:30 AM and we had a few sprinkles until about 8 when the sun appeared. Riding through the panhandle of Texas was pretty much more of the same – a few oil rigs and herds of cattle on green pastures. But Oklahoma took my heart when we crossed the state line even though there are no mountains, not even in the distance. Everything is green grass, DOT workers were actually mowing grass along the highway and the smell of fresh cut grass was so sweet. Large herds of cattle grazing in the fields, corn growing and hay being mowed and there are lots of trees. However, all the trees bend toward the north like huge fingers pointing or servants bowing to a king because of the constant southerly winds that blow. And there are lots of birds; we have not seen birds since we arrived in the Midwest way back on route 50 other than the occasional very large black crow. But now there are birds flying everywhere and the sweet smell of flowers mixed with the farm smells of the cattle. We stopped at a Cherokee Trading Post for lunch and I had a buffalo burger; tastes like beef but a little drier and less fat. We have stopped around 3 PM in Midwest – Oklahoma City for the night. With the heat in this part of the country we have found it best to ride early and stop early when possible. Getting around Oklahoma City is about like getting around Washington DC on the beltway or any other large city; move left then move right then left again. Having a GPS is really handy in situations like this. Don’s CB cord broke a few days ago and he can hear through the external speakers but he cannot communicate with us so we have a system where he keys the mic 3 times for yes and 1 for no to my questions.