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!!

More National Parks Stamps

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

I have to take the freeway80 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)

I have a deadline I need to meet,  so 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.

The DCT has some good points and some not so good points ...if I had to buy another bike right  now I would pass on it in favor of the clutch and gear lever.

 

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