More National Parks Stamps

So I plan a trip north to pick up a couple more stamps.

I have to take the freeway until Malad, Idaho. I've found a back road shortcut from Malad to   up around Pocatello that is fun to ride and
only adds on a 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour or maybe a bit more. Nice shortcut eh?!

I keep working my way north and then stop in Arco and stay at this colorful motel.

The Lost River Inn - has some unusual and fun decor.

Outside my room

Inside my room

The neighbors

The owners are bike friendly.....in fact they are everyone friendly...just some real good people!

So, I stay in the colorful Lost River Motel the night then the next am I'm up and riding south west to get the Craters of the Moon stamp

Whew...One more stamp for the book.

Then I make a U turn and go north. I make it to Missoula and get a room. Because I'm so close, the next day, I made it to Glacier NP way before noon...waited in line and finally got my stamp. I've been to Glacier NP probably 3 times before so I'm not to disappointed that I'm not riding through the park. Besides going on roads outside of the park are incredible by themselves. Once again the scenery is incredible!

These photos are from Bonners Ferry area off of the deck of where I stayed.

In the morning I plan to stop to get gas at a station on the edge of town  There at the station they have two islands with two pumps on each island. As I pull in I observe two domestic cruisers and owners sitting astride their bikes but they had already fueled and were just casually chatting while they effectively shut down half of the stores pumping ability.

I stopped at the other island because the two bikes were blocking anyone from using 'their' island. Still the two owners continued their convo.

Finished fueling and moved my bike from the pump and over to the building and parked in a designated spot.

  Meanwhile the two cruiser dudes kept chatting.  Into the store I went, and bought a large soda and breakfast sandwich. Paid for and heated I went out by the bike and enjoyed my meal.

.

Just as I finished my food I noticed the cruiser dudes preparing to leave, then they fired up their machines and I found myself hoping we were going in opposite directions.....but no such luck, they pulled out in ahead of me and those bikes were LOUD.

Down the road we go, they are about 100 yards in front of me while I decide whether to pass them or slow down and get more room between us. Then I notice an object lying across the lane - at first I thought it was a tire alligator - the two bikers continued to think only of themselves, and rode around the object continuing on there self focused way.

When I got to the object it turned out to be a bumper jack, the kind 4wheel drives carry with them. Obviously this would cause considerable damage to a car or truck, but if a bike hit it the result would most likely be catastrophic. So I did what any responsible adult would do, stopped and moved the jack off the road. I leaned it against the fence hoping the owner would see it.

It took me mmmmmaybe 3 minutes, but I"m glad I did it and likely saved someone a big headache!

After I got my Glacier stamp, I turned south west riding over to Spokane Valley to see good buddy Don. 

(far left on this file picture)

After a good chat it was south bound down to Oregon's excellent 12 to Orofino, Idaho.

Then two more easy days and I was home.

About 1850 miles and I now have 33 NP stamps 30 to go!

 We've had the NT for about 2 months now and it has 9600 miles on it. Do I 'love' it yet.....the jury is still out.

 

Hwy 50 & CA NPs

Bright and early Friday morning well actually 8:00 am we met up with the other tra members at Walmart in the South part of the valley. 

There were 18 bikes at the Walmart and that number would soon grow to  38 bikes before the end of the trip. We had people meeting us in different cities and people leaving at different times. 

We left the Salt Lake Valley momentarily jumping on the freeway, then exiting a few miles later and we rode along the west side of Utah Lake from there we turned right at Elberta and made our way to Delta.

Next on the itinerary was lunch in Baker Nevada. Several of the riders went to Lehman caves, many didn't, including Bev and I and we continued on to Eureka Nevada where we checked into our hotels.

When we left Eureka the next morning we rode to Austin Nevada, then about 2 mi after Austin there's a back road that adds a couple miles to a trip but  it's very twisty if compared with the highway 50. So we took that and that brings you back to highway 50 near middlegate. 

Shortly after getting back on 50 we saw the shoe tree and stopped to get some photos, and some other people pulled in and we're actually throwing shoes up onto the shoe tree so we saw them adding shoes.

After the shoe tree Beverly and I left the group and rode into Fallon where we bought some donuts. We took the donuts to Fernley to the Motorcycle Mania motorcycle shop and gave him to the owner there who had treated me so well the last time I came through here. I appreciated what he did for me  and the donuts are just a small token of that appreciation.

Our second night was spent in Reno Nevada. The next day some of the riders went through Virginia City, most of the group attended church meetings then the group headed toward Mariposa, California.

That night the group meant for dinner and had pizza. Then the next day we all rode to Yosemite national Park. While there Beverly was fortunate enough to see a mama bear and her two Cubs very very close to Bev's car she was able to get a good picture. 

We could see this steeple from our hotel, so Bev and I went over to get a picture. The caretaker said, 'yes of course you can take pictures'

Leaving Mariposa after 2 days we rode to Fowler California. Where we made day rides up to Kings canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park. 

While at Fowler several of our group had a rousing game of Up the River....

It was at that point of the trip that Beverly and I left the group. We had planned on going up the Coast to visit with Fenton and his family. But before we turned northward, we stopped and visited the Corbin custom seat factory and had them build a seat for the NT 1100. 

Some eye candy at the Corbini facility

We had to return the next morning to get the finished seat, it looks great, and it works great, we put it on the bike and headed to Windsor California. 

We spent two nights in Windsor then went up the coast on the 101,  to Fenton's place and stayed there for a few days.

Leaving Windsor we made it to Eureka California and checked into a Best Western for the night. On our way there we drove through a tree tunnel! 

At some point as we passed San Francisico we crossed this bridge.

And our hotel that night had dinner in the pond...haha.

 

Then we continued north on 101 to Fenton's

More in part II

Hwy 50 & CA NPs II

And more pictures we took along the way...

While at Fenton's and Lauries we were lucky enough to visit with the grand-kids.

 

After about three weeks it was time to head for the barn. 

I left first as Bev was watching the grand kids for a couple of days

I stopped in Prineville to over night and next day burned 700 miles getting in the garage at just before midnight.

Beverly arrived home a few days later....

I'm not certain how many miles this trip was....somewhere around 3500

The NT1100 is growing on me.

Life is Excellent!

NT1100

One of the big reasons I enjoy blogging is posting the pics that I've taken...but I keep forgetting to take my pocket camera which is what I take most pictures with as I can get it out of my pocket and snap a pic in seconds...and with the lanyard I don't have to worry about dropping it.

I need to mend my ways and get back in the habit of carrying the little red camera, instead of relying on the cumbersome smart phone.

Anyway, back to the blog, we picked up a new bike. 

A Honda NT1100.  The Super Tenere, which has performed flawlessly for 7 years and has 170,000 miles on the clock and still runs great but.....well in my advanced years, I was ready for a lighter, lower bike and the NT seemed to fit the bill.

So the plan.... I would motor across the loneliest highway (50) then pick up the Lassen National Park stamp then ride along the coast north to meet Beverly in Seaside, Oregon.

And the plan worked...pretty good.

My first night I stayed here;

And the lights outside reflected to the inside and this is what my ceiling looked like all.....night.....long.

Actually is was not to bad, I found that watching it was more potent than counting sheep!

Not long after leaving Ely I notice that the bike is smoking...a little. Long story short, I had changed the oil and oil filter before I left home and also the DCT filter. Apparently the filter housing is extremely touchy as to how it is reinstalled. And I wasn't careful enough so I had a tiny bit very hard to see oil leaking down on the headers. Of course I didn't know this yet and wasn't quite sure what the problem was.

I called Bev to see if she could see a bike shop along my route. She came up with a couple but only one, Motorcycle Mania on Main Street in Fernley, Nv was willing to look at the bike. I made the short ride to Fernley and talked to Scott, the owner of Motorcycle Mania and he agreed to make the fix. Price wasn't discussed and I was just happy to have the problem fixed.

Scott waited until the bike cooled down so he could work on it then he moved my bike to the front of the line and had it fixed in short order. 

When he rang up the charge, I didn't look at the receipt, I just signed it happy that I could get back on the road with very little delay. Later when I looked at the receipt I was shocked at how little he had charged me, especially since he had made my repair a priority! On top of this more than fair price, and fixing the bike quickly Scott also tried to make me feel better for making such a bonehead mistake! What a guy!!

So if your motoring on highway 50 when you go through Fernley stop in and tell Scott "Hello" for Ken.  If you need anything I have total confidence that Scott will treat you as good as he did me!

Bike back in good order I made my way to Lassen NP and got that stamp. Then pointed the bike North in order to meet up with Beverly in Seaside.

Later on we both arrived in Seaside and spent a few days with son Fenton and his family. It is always hard to leave there as they make us feel so welcome!

Laurie told me about these falls and the cool road leading to them.....both were very well worth the ride - but I forgot the name of both the falls and road.

Good grief, it seems like the older I get......the......hmm ... what was I going to say? I can't remember now.

 

While wandering around Seaside we saw this spiffy HD trike, and couldn't resist taking a picture.

Very nice!

Then we finally departed for home, in a round about way,  and visited Mt St Helens visitors center and took the Mt Rainier road up to Paradise and visitor center.

We then stayed overnight in Yakima. While there we met the two guys riding these Wings.

It was decided I would tag along with them to Lewiston, while Beverly would head straight for home.

(again with the little red camera and getting more pictures)

It was fun meeting both of them and riding a day together.

When we got to Lewiston they continued east and I headed south, ending up overnighting in Grangeville.

From Grangeville to home was 570 miles, a full days ride.

The new NT did very well. Its not a love affair yet, but most likely will be soon.  Haha....

Thanks for reading!

Life is Grand!!!

So....what do I like and not like about the NT1100?

Like:

DCT - It took very little time to appreciate the DCT

Ease of handling - smaller, lighter bike...very good!

MPG - this trip was somewhere between 2500 and 3000 miles. I averaged 49 mpg.

Don't like;

DCT - while it was easy to get used to this nice feature, the shifting is 'clunky' its a little un-nerving teh first few times I heard it, I thought something had broken. .And  it is slow to respond when the throttle is twisted. But when it does finally respond, it has plenty of get up and go! Or you can use your finger to shift down faster.

Horn button - Horn button? Yep! It is in the wrong spot and very easy to hit by mistake. Extremely annoying!

 And a few other things, but I'm guessing I'll get used to them as time goes by.