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Northwest Passage June 21st, 2001 to June 29th, 2001 Colorado to the Pacific Coast via US 50, up the coast, and back home through Washington, Idaho, Montana Thursday Worked from home Thursday afternoon, and left about 2pm.
Met Ken for a little dinner in Glenwood Springs (no, we parked in the paved lot
next door, and yes, Ken, me and all my gear makes for a pretty overloaded Barco-lounger.
:-) ) Made it to Green River, Utah that night, Wanted to go a little further, but the
next town is another 110 miles, and knew I couldn’t do 110 miles of Utah
desert
that night. 350 miles today Friday Wanted to leave early to beat the heat across the
“Great American Desert”, so I bailed at first light on Friday (while I was
“working from home” ) and was gone. Off
to Salina, up and over to Hwy 50. Yes,
some nutball (me) wanted to do US 50. I
suppose just to say I’ve done it. The
first 100 miles (mostly Utah) just flat sucks. It's straight boring, awful, I’m going to
die kinda thing, who’s crazy idea was this?
(I imagine it’s really bad when the heat comes on). Come into Ely, grab some gas, and gone again, Oh, look, I
gained an hour, cool. Off to Eureka. This
stretch is pretty cool, up and down hills, some curves etc, not too bad.
Saw 3 cops sitting in Eureka. Eureka
can’t have more than 1500 people in it. No idea what they were doing, but glad
they were there and not out on the road. The stretch from Eureka to Austin was getting tough, long straight, boring, and a 30mph head wind that’s hot. I stopped in Austin for lunch, I've done about 500 miles so far, and need a break, big time.
Off to Lake Tahoe. The stretch of Hwy 50 from Austin to Fallon is just
brutal. Almost 200 miles, straight
shot, it's well over 90 degrees, and there is a 30 to 40mph gusting head wind.
The last piece of 20 miles through the dry lake bed was like riding
through a blast furnace. BRUTAL. I’ve
done it, I’ve survived, I’m not doing it again.
I admit it, I’m a wimp, I’m not tough enough to live in Northern
Nevada. ugh. So, there is a big forest fire raging in the Mt Rose area,
it smells like smoke, and
I’m glad I’m not a firefighter, working in these killer winds.
Oh, the road up and down from Virginia City is fun fun fun, too much
traffic, not enough turnouts, but fun. (Thanx
for telling me about that one Don). The slope is some spots is a 15% grade. Talk about steep. So, up through the Mt Rose Ski Area,
over the Sierra’s. Woohoo, what a
hoot, unfortunately it’s rush hour now (5pm), but still a hoot.
What a neat road. Down into Lake Tahoe. Oh
boy, what an ending to the day,
beautiful area. I know now where I want to retire. Lake Tahoe. It's finally
cool, there's no wind, and it's beautiful. I’m
looking for some little Sushi spot that Don saw.
(with the wonderful directions he gave me, "it’s right in here
somewhere"). Believe it
or not, I actually found it. Thank god for
ABS brakes, wham, right turn. I
stayed in the little hotel in the same lot.
What a pit the hotel was. For 30 bucks it
would have been fine. For 65 bucks
(cuz it was a Friday) it was a pit. 738
miles today almost all on two lane and in 12 hours.
Not bad eh? Saturday Up early and off going north to Truckee.
Now, I just read “Nothing like it in the World” by Stephan
Ambrose (highly recommended) about the building of the transcontinental railroad, and of course, the big problem for the Central
Pacific was Donner Pass through the Sierras. So, I had to make a run up Donner
pass Road. It’s 6am, the sun is
rising, the smoke from the forest fire is coming through, and this pass is
insane. It’s about a ¼ mile from
the top of the pass to Donner Lake as the crow flies and about 7 miles of steep
winding road. And about 1500 feet of elevation. amazing road. I
have ZERO idea how they got wagons over it.
And mind you, this is the snowiest spot in the lower 48. You can see the trains, summit tunnel, the snow sheds.
Really neat, well worth the 50 extra miles.
Oh yeah, another possible spot is to either stay at Donner Lake (pretty),
or even stay in Truckee and watch the trains.
Neat.
Off to Lassen NP. Hwy
89 is a neat one, up and down the Sierra foothills, through some valleys, mostly
sweepers, some 30mph turns to keep you awake.
Into Lassen NP. Ok, Lassen,
until Mt St Helens, was the last volcano to erupt in the lower 48 (I didn’t know
this), and you can see the peak from a 100 miles away (nothing grows on the top).
To get there you go up this insane little road, 2nd gear, run down
the Harleys (who are more than a little stressed, not comfortable at all on this
winding little road), zing zing, check out this, check out that, catch up to a
park Ranger truck, and I decide not to pass him.
:-). BTW, Lake Tahoe is like
6k feet, Donner pass is like 8k feet, Truckee is like 5k feet, Lassen is over 8k
feet (the road), and then down to Redding at 1500 feet. Now, down to Redding on a bulldozer road (you know,
STRAIGHT DOWN), lose over 5k feet of elevation. through Redding up onto 299.
Up past all the lakes, and then the road gets fun.
Well, it would, but it’s covered in cars. HELLO, if there is a big line of traffic behind you, you are the slow vehicle the sign is referring to. Pull the F*&K out. Passing lane comes up, everyone stays in the left (passing no one), bang, into the right lane, last second, in. bang, short spot. bang. (man, it’s great to be at lower elevations where your bike makes POWER.) Finally get through this whole mess. (some idiot in a trailer, is trying to pass another idiot in a trailer every time a passing lane comes us, never does it, and thus screws the entire line of traffic. Wham, climb the rest of the hill (what a hoot), and then it’s these wide open sweepers. Oh cool. Off into the first little town (willow springs?). I get gas. As I’m leaving, here come the two trailers. 299 is one neat road, I follow it all the way to the coast. What a hoot. A top 20 for sure. Off to the coast, up 101 through the Redwoods, kinda cool (almost cold), but a nice change from Nevada and beautiful. woo. Traffic is now pretty bad, but right at Brookings, it disappears. Hmmm, 55, 70, same thing. Off we go. This guy in a 500SL catches me, passes me and off we go (rabbit). My golly do those things accelerate hard. Like bang, whoosh, gone hard. Could someone pick one up so I could check it out and take a test ride? So, I make good time along the coast, no traffic, slight mist, very nice. Roll into Gold Beach and it's time to stop. Find a neat hotel, the Sea and Sand, very cool. Highly recommended Walk down to the ocean, hang out there for a while, but it’s about 58 degrees, and I need a longer extension cord for my electric vest. I can hear the ocean in my room. Yes, I love the ocean. 520 miles all two lane. Sunday I'm up early and gone, going to meet Fred today, and it’s
slightly misting, almost rain. Oh well, it is Oregon after all. I come into Coos Bay
and see a donut shop. Ok, it’s raining, and I see donuts.
I flip a U and I eat some donuts. It’s
now raining raining and I'm a long way from Portland.
Oh well, off we go. Well,
it’s not the fact that it’s raining, it’s the fact that I can’t see cuz
the helmet fogs up inside and the water gets inside (no, I cannot figure out
how). So, I have to wipe the inside
of the face shield every 5
minutes or so. So, I’m sure this
is a good road, but I didn’t actually see most of it, so I have no idea.
but I’m pretty sure it was. :-) Up to Tillamook, and over hwy 6 to Portland.
This is a great road. I
figured out the fogging problem (if not the water problem), and I’m up and
going. I notice at 70mph the helmet
stays clear. Well, obviously, you know what this requires.
Me to do 70mph in the pouring rain. I catch a huge line of traffic doing about 35.
You gotta be kidding me (the speed limit is 55), and again with the
pullout problem (no one uses them), so, off we go, 1, 2, 3 cars at a time.
Now, you might think this is bad. But
a. I’m cold, b. it’s raining, and c. this
occupies the time. I finally get
the front POS truck about 2 miles short of the summit (but the downhill is windy
too, so no way do they go that fast). But
to be honest, at this point, I’m cold. The
suit waterproofing is breaking down and I’m wet inside, the helmet is wet inside, and I’m
cold. To the point of even with
full heat, I know I'm shivering. If
I wasn’t meeting someone, I would have stopped 50 miles ago.
7 hours of full pouring rain gets to you after a while.
So, I see a gas station in Beaverton, and go get gas.
I’m so wet, I can’t get my ear plugs back in (can’t grip them, and
I’m shivering. Again, should have stopped, but I’m 25 miles from Fred’s.
Jump on the freeway (still raining, although not as hard), and hammer.
Into Terry Mc mode. Then, we
stop. dead.
On the freeway. At 1pm on a Sunday.
You gotta be fuggin kidding me????????????
Just traffic. stupid town. Go across town through disaster land, or whatever they call
this menagerie mess of freeways. (Portland
needs to start over with some planning this time).
Trying to read the wet directions, figure out where I’m going to Fred's.
Finally, think I've found it, but can’t decide for sure. But I swear
that’s his car, and I’m not walking up this huge a$$ driveway.
So, I drive up. It’s
either Fred and Jessica's, or it’s someone who’s going to shoot me.
It’s Fred’s. 350 miles. All
rain and almost all 2 lane. I’m sure some of the roads
were good, but I honestly couldn’t see most of them. Monday Today off to Mt St Helens and north. Not going to do Neah Bay, sorry, supposed to be raining all day on the Olympic Peninsula, after still being wet from yesterday I think I’ll pass. I’ll do Mt Rainier and then up to hwy 20. So, we decide that Fred and Hannah are going to
drive up in the death-runner and I’ll follow on the bike.
We’ll see Mt St. Helens together and then I'll go north and they’ll go
back home.
We’ll meet up at the beginning of the one way in and ride up together.
So, we’re zipping up the freeway (3 lanes, both directions, trucks not
allowed in left lane YES!!!!) and we pass this one truck and it’s got these
big boxes on it. What the heck is
that? Slow down, look inside, keep
looking. It’s watermelons!!!!!!!
Ok, I don’t’ know why this struck a funny bone, but it was a whole
truck full of watermelons. I thought it was pretty cool. I
would go zip up and wave to Hannah every once in a while, and I’m sure that
entertained her. So, we meet at the
main exit and pile into the death-runner. I
put the gloves up in the sun so maybe they’ll dry.
Yes, they are still wet from yesterday.
And yes, the triple digit rain covers from Areostich do work.
But only if you wear them when it's raining. (duh). So,
what a cool road, and it keeps going up and up and you notice the valley isn’t
really a steep valley anymore, it’s broad on the bottom.
And you notice these huge cuts where floods have wiped it out, and as you
get closer and closer the valley is just filled with basically what used to be
Mt St Helens. The sky is clear, the clouds move off and we get a
wonderful view of the volcano. You
cannot believe the devastation (now what? 20
plus years later), and there is one picture that shows where the mountain used to be
and it’s now 1500 feet lower. It’s
amazing. A must do (and the road is
really neat, although not in the death-runner).
So, we come back down (after listening to Elmo for 3 hours, again, I have
no idea how you parents do it) and have some lunch.
I say good bye and I go north. I
was going to do the coast and Neah Bay, but it’s supposed to be raining there
today (Monday) and then that storm will move inland and basically I would be
rained on for 3 straight days. I
don’t think so. Modify the plan,
improvise, adapt, overcome. Hey, I
think I’ll go see Mt Rainier. Cool, so off I go and I get to Morton WA and it says
south entrance to park. Huh?
Look at the map again. On my
map, there is only a south east entrance. WTF?
Stupid Rand McNally. So, I
ask at the station, and the lady says, oh yeah, take this entrance, much better.
Boy, she is not kidding. Oh
yeah, another great reason to buy a Golden Eagle parks pass? When you pull up to a National Park there are often 2 or more
lines. One (that usually has no one
in it) is for pass holders, the others (with many people in line) are for
admissions. Zip, ride up, show the
pass, off you go. Suckers.
Hahahahaha. So, this road is
labeled at 25mph, it’s like Sierra Nevada’s tight, and you climb and climb,
and well, I’m not doing 25. But
no one will pull out. (amazing
isn’t it?), so after we pass one pull out, and no one pulls out, I just start
passing. I figure that’s fair.
What a great road, and the scenery is just insane.
Just awesome, you get to the top, the clouds have cleared and it’s just
beautiful. Amazing place, up there
with Glacier NP in beauty. After Mt Rainier, I go north on 410 and stop someplace to get some gas, and it’s
the only time of the trip I saw some sport bikes.
The guys were out of Seattle for a day trip (cool).
Then some Harley guys come in and we are all BS’ing and this one guy
has a sportster. It has 60,000 miles
on it!!!!!!!!!! Wow, he said he
bought it new, and it just works for him. Wow.
So, figure I’ll ride down towards Seattle, and then ride north on some back roads and then figure out
where to stay up near Hwy 20 and the coast.
Well, Washington has some great roads, and well maintained (a total
change from Colorado) but their signage is LTO (less than optimum). There were never any take this road TO this road signs.
I got lost a couple times, or went right out of the left hand lane.
Wasn’t too thrilled. A GPS
would be great for Washington. So,
after a while, I’m tired of doing 40mph through this little towns and figure
I’ve seen enough of suburban Seattle and just cut for the Coast and run up the
5. Jump on the 5 about Everett and
wow, do these people hammer. 3
lanes, not a lot of traffic and I’m doing 90 and can’t stay in the left
lane. Sweet.
Get off on hwy 20 and roll into Sedro Wooley (no, I have no idea why the
town is named this, but I wish I had found out. If anyone knows let me
know,).
Found a wonderful little hotel called Three Rivers Inn and had a most enjoyable
stay. I had wanted this to be a
short day, but somehow still ended up doing like 480 miles. Tuesday Tuesday morning, get up and zip on out Hwy 20 through the Northern
Cascades. You keep working your way
up the river and finally come to a town called I think Newhaven.
Maybe Skeggit. It’s not on my map here, but it’s right at the entrance
to North Cascades NP. Neat place.
There are 3 dams in this valley and this is the company town for it, very
neat. Cool little visitor center
etc. I asked how much snow they
get, they said 10 feet. I’m like
that’s all (I mean, obviously this place gets a lot of snow, and Cascades NP
has more glaciers than the rest of the lower 48 combined), and she’s like no,
it's 10 feet high by April or so. Ohhhhhhhhhhhh,
that’s a lot of snow. :-) So, then you go up the pass.
(and get to run across 2 of the 3 dams, really cool, I love riding across
dams) and the road is pretty cool, but not great, but the scenery is blow you
away kind of stuff. Wow, really
great, really beautiful. Then,
I come down into Winthrop. Winthrop
is a neat little town, looks like the old west, all false fronts, no neon, etc.
Really neat, definitely touristy, but neat.
Then I continue down 20, go through the Indian Reservation on 155 which runs over
some mountains, so that’s a good run and then towards the Grand Coulee dam.
So, in Tahoe, this guy
from Washington told me to make sure and do Dry Falls (which is south of Grand
Coulee and Coulee city.). I’m
like what the heck are those? He
says there was this huge flood in the ice age and it came roaring down the
Columbia and then went south down the Grand Coulee (now Banks Lake, a great big
canyon that’s like 500 feet higher than the Columbia river) and then roared
over these falls. Ok, I’m game.
So, I go down the Grand Coulee which is just one big a$$ huge canyon,
it’s just monstrous, must have
been some flood. I grab a
bite to eat in the the Dry Falls Café in Coulee City.
Had the best patty melt I think I’ve ever had in my life.
Yummy. Highly recommended. And go further south
to Dry Falls. Oh wow. Ok, so Niagara Falls is about 1.5 miles wide, by 150 feet tall. Dry Falls is 5 miles wide and 400 feet tall. The water going over this thing must have been amazing. I picked up a book at this visitor center called "Glacial Lake Missoula and it’s Humongous Floods". Great book, and in it, the author talks about the water going over these falls. A. they backed up over 15 miles from where they started (from erosion) and b. the water going over these was about 400 feet tall and doing about 40 to 50mph. Unbelievable. Really amazing. So, I then go west on 28 and end up in Sprague near I-90.
This is a pretty boring road through farm country up on the bluffs rather
than through the coulees (Washington calls them coulees, California calls them
arroyos, we would probably call them a dry wash, you get the idea).
Then south on 23 towards Pullman. 23
is a neat little road, keeps going up and down these coulees and having a good
time. Get into Pullman and am heading for Lewiston/Clarkson because tomorrow
we’re doing Lolo pass. Again!!! So, I see this little tiny road outside of Pullman that
goes down to the Snake river. For
some reason I get it in my mind that this is Hell’s Canyon, it’s not, and I
knew it wasn’t, but it doesn’t matter, cuz this is one cool little little
road. If you haven’t been to
Idaho, it’s really wild, you run across these high rolling plains, and then
you get to one of the big rivers (Snake, Salmon, etc) and you fall 5000 feet to
get down to it. Unreal, makes for
great roads. Get to the bottom (and
it’s now hot, cuz we are 5000 feet lower) and just hanging out and I realize
there is a road down the river. Look
at the map again, no road. Huh? Ahh, what the heck, I’ll take it. Go down the road, it hugs the river and the railroad.
Very cool, and it ends up popping into Clarkson.
Cool. I manage to stay in
the nicest hotel in Clarkson, a Comfort Inn with convention center, etc, right
on the river, river view, paid way too much money but man, what a nice place.
I also blew my whole thing about staying in a different state each night,
but I was only 300 feet short of the border. :-)
This was far and away the best day of the trip.
Amazing scenery, 4 dams, really cool things, and some seriously fun
roads. About 530 miles all on two lane. Wednesday Get up the next morning and it’s raining.
Fiddle. Ok, so this time
I’m putting on my Aerostich rain covers BEFORE my gloves get wet.
I might be dumb, but I do learn. :-) So, I see a sign that says "To Hwy 95". Cool, I'll follow that. Well,
either I missed the other sign, or there was no other sign, but all of a sudden
I’m on this little winding road that’s working it’s way up to the plains.
No way is this the right way, the rain keeps slacking off, but I’m
totally lost. Get to a stop sign,
above the sign it says TO HWY 95. ok. I keep going. So,
anyway, after about 40 miles of this cool little road, I end up on Hwy 95.
I have no idea where I was, but it was a cool little road.
Go south down 95 climbing up to the Camas Prairie.
Very neat road, some neat train track in the same canyon, with some big
trestles still there and the rain is ending.
Get up on the prairie and run down 95 towards Grangeville.
I realize this stretch says not scenic (and I have no idea how they get
that), but I’ve done Hwy 12 (twice), so wanted to make new marks on my map,
and as I get up on the prairie, I can see the big storm over the hills to my
west. Well, cool, maybe I'll
finally get to do Lolo Pass in the dry for a change, but I am going to have to
hurry to keep dry. I'm not messing around but I want to go run down White Bird
Hill and figure out how to get on the old pass, if you still can.
Well, I run down White Bird hill (7% grade for 7 miles, 3 truck runaway
ramps, it’s one insane hill) and I do figure out how to get on the old road (I
think, but the storm catches me faster than I thought it would, so jump back on
95 and go screaming back up the hill. (nothing
like doing ummm, “the speed limit”, when the trucks are doing about 10mph)
because I want to do Lolo in the dry. White
Bird will get caught next year, I figured out how to get on the old road. So, go zipping through Grangeville and then get on 13.
Well, I've been on 13 (going up, towards Grangeville), but had forgotten
about it, neat neat road. Again,
one that falls from the prairie down to the river.
Wheeeeeee, come into Kooskia and get gas.
Kooskia is the last real town (with gas) on Lolo before Lolo MT. That’s a 140 miles of nothing but curves and passes and no towns, no nothing. (oh, it also means you guys with Superhawks need to get something different, cuz that ain’t going to work).
I come into Missoula and grab something to eat at Mean
Gene’s Burgers. Yes, the Mean
Gene from the WWF. I was rolling, their
slogan is “the burgers that say bite me”.
I was dying, too funny, good burgers too.
So, I zip onto I-90 to head for a new road (to me) and the town of well,
I dunno, not on this map, but it’s hwy 1 to head for Anaconda.
This big storm is still chasing me, but hey, I’m going east baby, you
can’t catch me. I’m also
looking for all the signs of the great lake Missoula (see book referenced above) of which there
are many. Very cool.
So I get gas at this little town and now I’m going south.
I’m also going to get wet. No
choice now. So, I put on my
gloves, go through a major thunderstorm but then climb up to Georgetown Lake. Neat road, and next to the road is an old WOODEN water pipe.
How wild is that? So, I putter into Anaconda.
And I do mean putter. The
speed limit goes to 35 like 5 miles before you actually reach town.
Oh, let’s talk about Montana Speed limits.
What a great state. Every
two lane road is 70mph (not in a town). 70mph. Everywhere. There
are some roads that even Don couldn’t do at 70, but that’s the speed limit.
It’s great. That means
that given the speedo error, you can basically putter along at 80, be doing
72mph (10% error) and be basically legal. It’s
so sweet. So, go into Anaconda, grab some water, hang out, big old
mining town. Now, just east of
Anaconda is a road on the map that has no number.
It heads south towards Wisdom. This
is a crazy road, had a sign on it that said “drifting snow, road not
maintained, travel at own risk”. It’s
obviously in the process of being abandoned.
It has no road signs, no nothing and it’s falling apart.
But it’s a fun little road (half because you have no idea where it goes
next). Then get onto 43 into Wisdom. This section of Montana is very much like north park near
Walden. High altitude hayfields, lots of
little beaver dammed streams, billions of mosquitoes and they obviously get a
TON of snow. But it’s pretty and
very wide open. I have to stop
about every 30 minutes and clean the bugs off the windshield, just too many to
even. Run down the hill into Dillon MT and stay the night.
About 530 miles. Thursday Get up early and go off and down some crazy roads and
finally get into West Yellowstone. Montana
is just so big. You see a town
ahead and it’s close enough that you back off (you think) and then a sign
comes up that says “next town 15 miles”. But what about this town I’m
coming into? And 15 miles later you
hit the town you have been looking at. Went
through Virginia City (Montana this time) and it’s a ghost town all restored and
such, the first gold mining in Montana. Pretty
cool. So, figure I'll go through
Yellowstone and go northeast to get to MT 212. Oh
no, can’t do that, that road is being fixed, 5 miles of watered down dirt (not
on my 600lb dirt bike, I don’t think so), so I have to go all the way around the long way. WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYtoomanyfuggingpeople in Yellowstone.
Was no fun at all, just like being in a traffic jam.
And everyone stops in the middle of the road.
“oh look, maw, a deer” Drove
me insane. One time, there was a Buffalo walking down the other side of
the (narrow) road. And everyone
stops. Hello!!! buffalo are mean,
and very big, and I’m not. I
ended up riding down the shoulder to remove myself from the situation. (just
what I want, to get charged by a buffalo), finally, finally get through
Yellowstone. The problem with
Yellowstone is that it’s a 10. But
all the other country I've been riding through is a 8 or a 9.
And none of the 8 or 9 stuff has 8,000,000,000,000 people in it.
Not worth it. I have lunch in Cooke City Mt.
And then head up into Colter pass and then into Beartooth “pass”.
Not only is it
a hoot, but the road is down on both sides for like 10 miles.
It’s a lot like the road through Rocky Mountain National Park. Way above timberline, can see for a 100 miles or more, just
great. A must do.
Although you slow down a lot once you are up on top when you realize they aren’t
ever going to find your body if you fall off.
(think CO141 by the flue) Come
down into Red Lodge and grab some gas and then over to Belfrey.
This is actually a fun little road, and goes by an old coal mining town
(and mine) where they had a horrible fire in the 1940’s that killed over 75
men. Nice little memorial.
Now of course, it’s getting hot as you fall down into the Bighorn River
Valley. Mine you, Beartooth is at
almost 11,000 feet, and the Bighorn river is at about 3000.
It’s now hot. Real hot.
Damned hot. And pretty boring, it’s just big farm and ranch country.
Now it’s just commuting. I’m
heading for Thermopolis, Wyoming for the night.
I almost get there (15 miles to go) and there is construction.
That dammed tar and gravel crap. I
hate that stuff. And they are still
working even at 6:30pm. Ugh. The
stupid pace car leads us through the part that is 4 inches deep.
Oh boy, a 600lb dirt bike in 4 inches of loose gravel on top of hot tar. Joy,
really not happy, but it goes on. Then,
we switch sides (Now the correct side of the road) and this side has been swept.
So it’s like a regular road. I’m
pissed. Why would you make me ride
through that? The pace car and all
the cars in front of me are long gone (it’s like a 5 mile stretch) and man,
now that’s it’s nice I’m gone. Wahhh,shift,
wahhhh, shift, wahhhh, get up to where the pace car is stopped turning around and I’ve go both hands off the
bars flipping off the pace car and thinking “what the hell is that noise in my
ears?” and I turn back around and
I see the 2nd car in line waiting to go north is black. And white. And has little red and blue lights on top. F(*&K!!!!!!!!!!
That noise is my radar detector screaming at me. F(*&K
Pull over. He whips around and pulls up. He’s ummm, not
happy to say the least. He’s going to town, I’m trying to say the pace car is
an idiot. And then he says
“it’s a damn good thing for you this is a pace car area or you would be
paying me a couple hundred bucks.” He got me at 69 in a 65, but because it was
a pace car area, and I didn’t catch the pace car, and the speed limits are
only advisory (to do 30mph) and not regulatory, no ticket. You believe that??????????? Bahahahhahaha I still caught some of the group going into Thermopolis,
I mean how many more cops can there be out here?
Now, it’s hot and I’m exhausted and I see a Super 8.
Fine, cheap, decent etc. “oh,
sorry, we don’t have any singles, all we have is suites”.
Um, ok, how much? 150 dollars Excuse me? 150 dollars for a fuggin Super 8?????????
In the middle of freaking nowhere Wyoming?????
Are you kidding???????? So, I go back into town and find a guy on another
R11RT only blue at the Coach House Inn. Turns
out to be a neat place, all new inside, 42 bucks for the night, really neat
people. Thermopolis is a neat
little town in a valley, one of the few non-windy places in Wyoming, the hot
pools etc. About 550 miles. Friday So, Friday I leave Thermopolis early, off to go home.
It’s a long way home and Wyoming is a big and boring state and it’s
going to be hot. I run south down 20,
almost into Casper (long, boring, quick) then
back track a bit on 220 south to 487 south.
No real reason, just didn’t really want to do all freeway, and have
never been here. There’s a reason
for that. Oh boy. On 487 I was even doing whacking speeds, for long periods of
time. I passed, a grand total of 2
cars, and 12 more going the other way. In
71 miles. At whacking speeds!!!
Desolate doesn’t begin to describe it.
Then south on 287 following the railroad line.
Again, just boring and someplace different. Into
Laramie and grab some gas. That BTW
(Thermopolis to Laramie) is over 300 miles, like I said, deceptively big state.
This time, instead of running down 287 like normal, I want to go east on I-80 and find Ames Monument. This is the highest point for the Union Pacific (the CP’s was Donner Pass) on the transcontinental railway, just to tie the whole trip together. So, I run east on 80 to a big sign that says Ames Monument. I get off. There are only dirt roads. Hmmm, and no more directions or signs. So, I pick a dirt road, I go up a hill, nothing, hmmm, look around, see this big monolith, go back down, find this other dirt road and head towards the monolith. About 5 miles down, I find the monument. It’s in the middle of nowhere.
Then
home down I-25, was too hot and I was tired, I stopped at Johnson’s Corner for
some Cinnamon roll and a big water (2 dollars and 6 cents, what a deal) and then
home by 1:30. Yes, 450 miles and
home by 1:30. Wyoming is big, but
you make good time, nothing to stop and look at. :-) Total miles, 4,381
Days: 9 days
(kinda, half day to leave, half day to return) 9 states (Colorado, Utah, Nevada,
California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming) 6 National Parks ( Lassen, Redwoods, Mt St Helens
(monument), Mt Rainier, North Cascades, Yellowstone) tons of smiles, some great
stuff. New top 10 roads. Montana
212 (Beartooth Pass), the south road across Mt Rainier (no number), Lolo Pass
retains the #1 ranking. Most paid
for gas. 2.37 (premium), don’t
remember where though. Least paid for gas.
1.71 (premium), Wyoming somewhere. Bike
ran perfect, whole time, not a problem, nothing got wet, anything.
Metzler Z4’s, have about a 1000 miles left in them, the last day across
Wyoming pretty much squared them off though. I really, really, really need to make new tapes for the
cassette player though. I’m ready to go again.
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