East coast/G-kids/NP stamps

We have grandkids in Missouri, Connecticut, and one graduating from Army bootcamp in South Carolina.

That sounds like an excellent excuse for a long ride! Plus there are national parks stamps to collect!

But when it was time to go - mother nature refused to cooperate. So the ride started out with the bike in a trailer 

Snow A-plenty! Lucky for me we loaded the bike into our enclosed trailer - and it rode along tied down and I rode along warm, and comfy 

Our first stop/grandkids visit is in Missouri. The week flew by way to fast, the next thing we knew it was time to drive over to Connecticut for our second stop/grandkids visit.

While in Connecticut we visit the PEZ factory, and the visitor center.

Then we spent a couple hours in the Yale Peabody museum.

Did the triceratops drop 2 year old Grant or is Dad tossing him up to the dino? :)

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Another week quickly spent on an awesome visit and then we were on our way to North Carolina to visit my brother.

There are a plethora of covered bridges in the north-east, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get an image of this one. The train bridge just added to the charm.

I've been keeping an eye on our trailers tires...they seem to be wearing out way to fast.

And they continued to wear out incredible fast. We had them mounted just before we left on this trip. Less than 2000 miles later and ..

We stop at a rest area and rotate the two hoping to extend them for at least a day - when we will have more time to get them  fixed!

But...in the end I didn't want Bev driving home alone with lousy tires.

So we  decide to bite the bullet and purchase some new tires right away

This tire store was the second one we stopped at and start the ball rolling for a new pair.

They got us in and out in less than 1  1/2 hour. Amazing!

We also called the store back home that installed the disappointing tires and were reassured that they would make this right when we got home. 

No surprise there, they are good people.

Speaking of good people, here are two..... Beverly and ....

 Another good person!

She was sitting on a picnic table near us as we rotated the tires. As we finished she approached us and commented that,  'she had never seen anyone  "fixing a flat and smiling as much as we were."

I pointed at Beverly and said, "when you marry a woman like her it's easy to smile all the time!

And that is part one .. thanks for reading.

Check in in a week or so for more .

Expect;

Florida 

Tennessee,

Et.al.

Numerous National Parks

More fun!

..

Side by side in Moab

No motorcyle content 

It's probably time for me to change my lens protector....but here is a cloudy selfie of my brother Keith and your's truly. 

Keith has purchased a side by side so we go on its maiden voyage to Moab.

We stopped in Green River to see the Golden Ratio Sculpture.

Placed in 2013 this Andrew Rogers creation has its share of haters and lovers.

I come down on the lovers side. But then I think the "Tree of Utah", on the other side of the state is also art.

IMHO art is simply an expression. It might be beautiful or it might not. However, it is still art.

But I digress.

Soon after leaving Green River we find our selves in Moab...to early to check in - we find a little sandwich shop (I wish I had written the name down) where we both ordered a sandwich from the young, cute woman behind the counter.

By the time we each had finiched half we were sated. They gave us to go boxes, we secured each sandwich in a box and off we went to find a trail to ride.

And that trail happened to be The poisen spider trail. (I hope that is  the correct name).

We noticed the large crack in that cliff and wondered when it would break the rest of the way and be coming down....

Since we had arrived in Moab at mid day and started late on the trail, we didn't get to the end, combined with some gnarly obstacles the going was slow.

All that riding and heavy thinking about the rock cliff....  made us hungry. We were both looking forward to our waiting sandwiches but.......when we returned to the take out boxes (left "hidden" in the open trailer) they were completely empty!

Birds? Crows? Likely.....damn those birds!

Despite remaining hungry until we fixed dinner, we got a good laugh about the sandwich thieving birds.

My oldest son's name is William....

The next day we ride "Hurrah Pass" that turns into "Chicken corner"

I believe this 'lake' is manmade and the result of potash mining....

Incredible rock formations abound!

We even saw a couple of Whetstones!

One of the highlights of this very fun trip was taking a side track and stopping at the Wind caves. 

I'm not a fan of caves or tight spaces, but I stayed in the light enough that I didn't sweat it to much.  That is until I thought Keith was going to climb through a small passage into another chamber.....oh yes....and when I exited but Keith took another 20 minutes or so to come out of the caves. Before he did appear and me still not knowing our sandwiches had been stolen - I was trying to figure out how long a time it would be proper to wait before I took the Rzr down to the trailer, ate my sandwich and then called for a rescue....

There are NUMEROUS openings and chambers to explore or ignore if one is claustrophbic.

And soon it is time to turn around.

Chicken corner is an easy in and back out trail, but I for one thoroughly enjoyed the day. The incredible scenery was breath taking to say the least.

So having spent two days in a side by side will I be trading in the motorcycle any time soon?

Nooooo.....as fun as it was, and as much as I enjoy spending time with my brother.....no. I liked our time in Moab, but I LOVE riding two wheels!

Final two stamps west of the Mississippi

I still  have two National Park stamps to get west of the Mississippi.

Both are in California, Channel Isle NP and Joshua Tree NP.

O K...so off we go. Well, off I go...I will meet Beverly in St George where we will spend the night and then Indio, Ca will be our next stop.

But first, on my way I stop at what is likely the most photographed building in Utah.

A man living in Eureka has restored this building at his own expense and placed these interesting things around it.  This is a popular place for weekend rides so it get photo'ed a LOT.

I arrive at St George first and while checking in jokingly say something about an upgrade....so they did. We got this spacious place with a private hot tub on the deck.  It was really too bad we were only staying for one night!

And all to soon it is time for us to get back on the road. We'll super slab it until we pass Vegas when we will come to the road that goes to Kelso Jct.

And....there it is, closed as usual.

Pushing on we soon arrive at Route 66 and even though we plan to ride the 66 in its entirety this summer we stop for photos. We are at Amboy for this photo.

I miscalculate and we end up riding through Joshua Tree NP in the dark....whew, that was not a whole lot of fun! We then arrive at Indio for a relaxing couple of days, the we move on to Solvang for the next stamp.

The next stamp is at Channel Isle NP, and I get a picture of Beverly in the walking path at Channel Isle.

I just had to get a picture of the ocean!

Mission accomplished - Two more stamps in my NP book.

While we were gone a storm had dumped snow around the country.

I was nervous and geared up as much as I could, but it really wasn't that bad...just another awesome ride home  to close out, 'just another ride' and that means it was a GRAND OLE TIME!!!

Life is sooooooooooo good!

And now it is the east of the Mississippi parks that I need.

 

Big Mo. (big rain too)

It was the best of trip's -  It was the worst of trips.

It was a meticulously planned trip -It was a nearly total failure of those plans.

It was beyond belief curvy roads - It was....crossing Kansas...nuff said.

It was, as always, safety first - It was a trip plagued with an inordinate number of close calls.

But when all was said and done, even with all the negatives,  it was another typical time spent with family and that means an incredibly wonderful visit...and that...made everything else entirely insignificant.

It was in fact one of my best of trips ever! 

(Equaled only by other cross country, cross state, cross city  family visits)

Let me expain;

We have a son who is putting down some deep roots in Missouri.

The plan is: I'll leave a day before Beverly then we meet up in Colorado and continue together.

We take the insanely curvy 36 across Kansas - my arms grow weary, and the chicken strips shrink from the constant Kansas corners,..... ahem...yea right...

And we pass Lebonon

We didn't actually go to the town, but stopped on the 36 for this;

I thought this was kind of cool but I can't for the life of me remember where I saw it....

And then we finally arrived in Gallaten 

In time to see grand-daughter pitch and another grand-daughter play. And grand-son's football games (two).

There were two injuries during the game - Moments after the final bell, both teams spontaniously met in the middle of the field for a prayer on behalf of the injured players.

An action by the players that I found extremely heartwarming!

And another softball player that I failed to get a pic of while playing.

And the 'little house on the prairie"

Back at our hotel there was a tour of riders. I can only assume they continued to ride the bikes once the weather became more favorable.

My bike, Honda NT 1100

Sunday we attended meetings....I slept through them.

During the second part of the meetings Beverly suggested I go for a ride rather than sleep through more meetings... Good advice that I wisely took.

Ordinarily I will ride a long time and many miles without a close call with other vehicles in other words close calls are a rarity for me...usually...but not so this time!

A short recap of close calls on this trip;

* A mattress flying out of a truckbed on the superslab, doing a couple flips then landing in front of me...I was able to miss it.

* Rain, coming down so hard that on a 60 mph speed limit cars were only going 40ish, and I was happy to follow them at that speed.

* On a long 55 mph sweeper, right for me, left for the dump truck coming toward me- his passenger side tires left the road, he skidded very briefly then regained his sense's and got the truck back on the road before we passed each other...he was only 2 or 3 feet on my side of the yellow line.

    

* Going to Hot Springs National Park, on three different occasions, 3 poorly trained dogs tried to ruin my day.

* This was after my GPS led me to 4 1/2 miles of dirt road...nicely graded dirt but, really?

* Speaking of the Park, while there I was motoring on main street (25mph) and as approaching a cross walk some knucklehead guy RAN to the crosswalk, which I was close enough I couldn't stop - but luckily, I was not even close to the guy -

But that didn't matter to him, he commenced to yelling at me how he was going to kick my "grass!".. Haha...I didn't even have any grass with me! Anyway, I ignored him and motored on.

Eureka Springs is a beautiful town! The varied and spectacular architecture is eye catching and at times, breathtaking.

After Hot Springs NP I made my way back to Missouri and was able to watch my grandson play in another football game. They won again!

But then, sadly my time for visiting was over. I had decided to cut my trip short due to the weather. I really didn't want to follow a storm across country. So it was west bound for me.

As I was riding home. I backtracked to the Kansas 36.  Passing through tiny St Francis I saw a small sign "Motorcycle Museum". I thought to myself, this must be a "sign".   (ahem)_ So I followed the signs and ended up at the museum. 

It is a very well run museum and the selection of bikes was a real treat.

I had an enjoyable couple hours looking at the beautiful machines they had on display.

Billy Bike and Capt America (replicas of course)

Then back on the road - two more days and I was home.

This really was a super trip, about 3400 miles of good weather and bad weather....its all part of the fun. 

Life is still good!!