Day 22 – 6/12 – On the road at 7 AM for the long ride to the house, 599 miles from Raton, NM to Glen Rose, our longest ride in one day ever. Temperatures at the start were in the low 60ies but decreased steadily as we headed east with a strong cold wind from the south. At one point as we past over some high plains the temperature got down into the forties and the clouds almost touched the ground, awesome. As we got into Texas the sky's cleared and the temps gradually went up into the 90ies. Hot, hot, hot, we probably drank a gallon of Gatorade each! Dalhart, Amarillo, Childress, Wichita Falls, Jacksboro flew by and each town was a little bit hotter. We got to the house about 8:30PM, fourteen hours – we're ready for a Saddle Sore 1000 (See IronButt.com).
Twentytwo days without rain or any problems with the bikes, we really were blessed. The Honda GL 1800 Goldwing is a great machine. My bike shows 4752 mile for our trip while Carol's is showing 4604, 148 miles difference, not sure why that is. I do know that my speedometer indicates about 8% higher speed then what is shown on the GPS. I believe the GPS to be accurate and that's what I used to judge my speed.
It was fun practicing being retired, I think I like it! May take it up full time soon. We saw some great natural wonders, shared our experience with some great friends and family and I had the best riding companion any one could ask for, it definitely was a great adventure. We are starting to plan our next adventure, maybe to the east coast, can hardly wait!

PS – What 22 days on the road will do - The first night at home I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, while there I thought to myself, “ Look at that, they have the same bath mat here as we do at home”.... maybe 22 days IS too long.

Steve failed to mention the wind as we left Raton, it was so strong that my cigarette case just flew right out of my bag and he had to stop and take his glasses off because they were trying to leave his face.
When we got to Texas, I had to start wondering why we live here, it was sooooo hot!! I did have a great time and now I am beginning to think that I really could do an Iron Butt. We'll see. It is good to be back home – except for the cooking, and laundry and all that domestic stuff that I'll have to start doing again, UGH! Carol

Day 21 – 6/11 – We had planned to stay in Cuchara, CO today but could get a room because of a golf tournament so we hung out on the deck of the Dog Bar and Grill and checked out the shops. Neat little place with wooden sidewalks and gravel streets.




We decided to ride down to New Mexico so that we'll have less miles to ride on the way home tomorrow. We didn't get too far from Cuchara when we got pelted with some big slushy hail. It didn't last long but I caught a few big ones in the face. We got as far a Raton, NM and called it a day. We should be home late tomorrow night, get to sleep in our own bed for a change, wooohooo!

Talk about hail,, it felt like someone was rapping my fingers with a ruler, thank God it only lasted about 5 min., seemed like forever though! Steve was lucky he escaped with all of his teeth intact!!
Tomorrow we'll be home. I was just getting used to life on the road. Back to the same old grind :(. Carol

Day 20 – 6/10 – OK, our math is pretty poor! We are actually on day 20 of our adventure. Discovered our first bike problem last night. The trike is leaking fluid passed the right front fork seal. Not serious, we can wait until we get home to fix it. Also noticed that the new Bridgestone tires I put on my bike before we started this adventure do not like road snakes. (tar used to seal cracks in the road) Bike seems to slide from side to side over the snakes. I'll be going back to Mitzler 880's on the next set of tires. We spent today going thru the Pueblo cave houses at Mesa Verde National Park.





I have been here before but didn't remember having to drive the 30 miles in the park to get to the ruins. 30 miles of bad, teeth jarring, bike breaking, pot holed road. You can see for a hundred miles from the top of the mesa, no one was going to sneak up on these guys! Easy 60 mile ride over to Pagosa Springs, CO. We had the best king crab we have had in a long time at JJ's Riverwalk restaurant, right here in Colorado, who would have thunk it! We also had some excellent fajitus in Durango for lunch, life on the road is good!











At least I don't have leaky brakes! Carol

Day 16 – 6/7 – Green River, UT to Durango, CO, more great Utah scenery in the morning which quickly flatened out in west Colorado and got really hot from Grand Juction down to just a few miles north of Ouray, old timey mining town with one paved main street. The rest of the town had gravel street. We checked out the White Eagle Saloon for a cool one after all the morning heat.
Had a nice conversation with a deputy sheriff just south of Delta. Seems riding 55 in a 45 zone is not acceptable, even for foreigners from Texas. He was very nice, no ticket. He was also nice enough to tell me where all the state hwy patrol were on the road ahead and where to watch out for elk and deer. We did see some beaver but no elk or deer.
The road from Ouray to Silverton though the San Juan Mountains is called the Million Dollar Hwy, maybe that's what it cost to build. The thing is, it's only twenty miles long. The elevation is over ten thousand feet and there are mountains towering over us. The road is curved into the side of the mountain a few hundred feet above a river. In most places where the black top ends is a straight drop to the river. There is no room for guard rails, scariest road ever!

It was so hot coming into Colorado that I swear I saw a lizard crossing the road in tennis shoes! When we stopped in Durango I found out that I have a brake fluid leak. Good to\ know after I had been cruising that scary mountain pass. Steve asked me if I had been using my brakes much, well, Duh, yeah, I used them a LOT! We still have to go thru Wolf Creek pass, which I hear is even scarier! Since I'm afraid of heights, I'm really looking forward to that one!! Carol

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Day 11 – I've found that the farther North you go in Ca. the friendlier the people are. Rode the Pacific Coast Hwy, and it's a beautiful drive, lots of twisting turning roads overlooking the ocean. Saw some sea loins and great scenery.

In fact, by the end of it my arms were beginning to feel like rubber. Stayed in Monterey, got up the next morning and went to the aquarium there. It was a pretty cool place. From there, we're leaving for San Ramon, which is just outside of San Francisco, to see Kathy, Steve's niece. Carol

Day 12 thru 13 – 6/2,3,4 – San Ramon, CA – Steve and I had so much fun visiting with family at Kathy's place. Enjoyed seeing Jane, Dominick, Antoinette, Mallory, Cassidy and of course Kathy. She is a wonderful host and a great tour guide only 2 or 3 u-turns! She took us to Alice's Restaurant (yep, the same one that Arlo Guthrie sings about) the roads were great. Kathy was riding with Steve on his bike – he only scared her a couple of times. The next day Kathy took us on a tour of San Francisco. Pretty cool place, at first I wanted to take the bikes, but was glad we didn't, the traffic was sooooo bad!! The hilly streets were pretty bad ass!! Thanks Kathy!!!! Carol

Day 14 – 6/5 – Groveland, CA – Short drive up to Yosemite National Park. The Priest drive portion of Hwy 120 was a pretty good ride, lots of twisties and up hill all the way with huge drop offs and few guard rails. Day 15 - We made a reservation with the Charlotte Hotel in Groveland, CA across from the famous Iron Door saloon so we could just stumble home at night but they put us in a condo out of town. Not such a great stay. The park on the other hand was great! We took a two mile hike to see the sequoia trees and some cool water falls and a lot of snow.
We cruised some nice roads and some spectacular scenery but didn't get to the valley, just ran out of time, the place is huge. You really need to stay in the park for several days to see it all.



Day 15 – 6/6 – Left Groveland for Ely, NV which meant riding thru the park from west side to east side. Yosemite is just so incredible, there was just so much to see, we spent so much time stopping here and there we had another long day, eleven hours.


We did get to see 2 bears a brown bear and a black bear, the black bear we saw really close up, about 50 feet away.
We also found that there are a lot of towns shown on the map of Nevada that really don't exist, we only ran out of gas once! But we're still having too much fun... most of the time! Tried the casino's in Ely without much luck.

Day 16 – 6/7 – Ely, NV to Green River, UT was about 400 miles and some really spectacular scenery. We normally try to avoid the interstates but the ride on I-70 from Salina to Green River is something not to be missed, just one awesome canyon, mesa and mountain pass after another.

Day 9/10 - Pismo Beach, CA – 6/1 – We rode by all the beautiful people in Hollywood, Beaverly Hills, /Bel-Aire, Malibu but didn't see anyone we knew. Did see a lot of BMW's, Mercedes, and a few Bentleys. We checked into the Best Western in Pismo Beach, a really great place. The motel sits on the cliffs right on the ocean, great views and rolling surf all night long. I made a run for some cokes after checking in and got stopped by the hwy patrol. Seems I forgot my helmet. He asked if I had had anything to drink today and like a dumb ass I said yes I had a drink earlier. He gave me the whole sobriaty routine. No problem and no ticket for the helmet but he made me park the bike and walk about a mile back to the motel to get the helmet. I guess this is a big party town, seems like there is a cop behind every tree!

The drive from LA was nice, not many friendly bikers in that neck of the woods. We passed at least 300 bikers and only got 8 waves from them – yep I started to count, just to see how many friendly people I could find. People around there seem a bit snobby! Carol