Justin says he does not have time to read my fine, informative and occasionally amusing posts because they are too long.
Therefore, consider the following my post for today:
Watch this space. We leave for a 4 day training trip tomorrow and will have a computer with us.
Susan
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Pack Light, Pack Right
That's the title of our most recently purchased motorcycle book and I think we will need its advice as we pack for the upcoming training trip.
The hunt for ultra lightweight items is ongoing and occasionally successful. Seems to me that nobody much thinks short, old, fat women are out there riding motorcycles or doing anything the remotest bit athletic, anything that might require wicking clothing or longjohns. What do the clothing manufacturers think we all do? I know, sit in our rockers and knit and feed our cats, watch tv and eat bon-bons.
Well, not this old lady.
Although we'll only be gone 4 days, we're packing as if we were making our big trip. We want to see if we can actually squeeze everything we need into our motorcycle luggage. The funny thing is the difference between what Susan thinks is "needed and necessary" and what Ray thinks is "needed and necessary". How 2 people who are going the same places on similar transportation can find such different necessaries is a puzzle to me. I do take comfort in knowing that should anything go wrong, Ray will surely have whatever tool or part is needed to fix whatever goes wrong. I just hope he has room for clothing in amongst all the tools as I think he'll get an awful sunburn otherwise.
Last night we got the static cling paint protector plastered on Wrex's sides and while it doesn't look all that elegant, most of it will be hidden by the saddlebags which would otherwise rub the paint. Hanging bags off Wrex's hips is no easy proposition, but we think we've got them mounted securely. I reckon we will find out soon enough.
The hunt for ultra lightweight items is ongoing and occasionally successful. Seems to me that nobody much thinks short, old, fat women are out there riding motorcycles or doing anything the remotest bit athletic, anything that might require wicking clothing or longjohns. What do the clothing manufacturers think we all do? I know, sit in our rockers and knit and feed our cats, watch tv and eat bon-bons.
Well, not this old lady.
Although we'll only be gone 4 days, we're packing as if we were making our big trip. We want to see if we can actually squeeze everything we need into our motorcycle luggage. The funny thing is the difference between what Susan thinks is "needed and necessary" and what Ray thinks is "needed and necessary". How 2 people who are going the same places on similar transportation can find such different necessaries is a puzzle to me. I do take comfort in knowing that should anything go wrong, Ray will surely have whatever tool or part is needed to fix whatever goes wrong. I just hope he has room for clothing in amongst all the tools as I think he'll get an awful sunburn otherwise.
Last night we got the static cling paint protector plastered on Wrex's sides and while it doesn't look all that elegant, most of it will be hidden by the saddlebags which would otherwise rub the paint. Hanging bags off Wrex's hips is no easy proposition, but we think we've got them mounted securely. I reckon we will find out soon enough.
Monday, July 28, 2008
A Lesson For You (And Us)
Do not think that you will be able to decide to visit the Oregon Coast on a weekend in the summertime on the spur of the moment. Or a week in advance either. Do not think you can find a room anywhere along highway 30 between Portland and Astoria, either. Or anywhere south of Seaside on Highway 101.
The primary reason for this lack of lodging is that there ARE no rooms available. Someone beat you to them, or at least to all the ones that cost less than $250.00 a night, and to a good many of the ones that cost considerably more than that. Oh, yes, they rapidly go up from there.
The lodging in Summertime Seaside is very, very expensive. Most of the motels and B&Bs in Seaside in the summer are very pricey indeed. I am sure the Shilo Inn on the beach in Seaside is a very nice Inn indeed. I am sure the Holiday Inn, the Comfort Inn and every other Inn and romantic B&B are very nice indeed, and in some cases, very romantic indeed. They like their rooms way much more than we are willing to pay. The more reasonable ones (under $125 a night) are full and they want you to pay for 2 nights even if you only want to stay one night.
In this year when no one is supposed to be able to afford to travel by car, by train, by airplane, by motorcycle, by moped, by thumb, there are no rooms at the Inns. Or any other place that rents lodging by anything other than the hour.
Now, where do you suppose all those people came from who are filling up the rooms at Seaside? Is it Seasideinians who are tired of having their fine little town overrun by summer tourists and thus rented all the rooms? Smug Prius owners who glided there silently, electrically? Is it Portlanders who walked the entire way? Is it all rented by out of town relatives in Seaside for weddings? Who?
Who knows! All I know is, should you wish to visit Seaside in the Summer, you better be making your reservations for next year, or possibly for the year after that. If you can stand the rain and the clouds, go in the winter. Oh, my, much less expensive and the weather can be much more interesting. http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/weather/12/04/northwest.storms/index.html
After spending 2 hours on the internet, I was able to hunt down (Oh, mighty huntress!) a room in Astoria. Actually, I found 3 rooms in Astoria that were under $125.oo. This price is an egregious affront to my pecuniary instincts, but unless I wished to sleep under the Cannery Pier, I had to bite the Visa Card and make my reservation. So I did.
No rooms in Seaside, no rooms in Gearhart, no rooms in Warrenton, no rooms in whatever dinky little towns inhabit Highway 30 in Western Oregon. 3 affordable rooms in Astoria, and many more rooms that we considered unaffordable.
Perhaps we are just cheap or living in the past. But I still think upwards of $125 to spend an exhausted night asleep in an ordinary motel is simply outrageous, especially when the same room in the winter is 60 bucks.
So we are staying in Astoria instead of Seaside. At a Red Lion Inn. It better be one fine Inn for the $123 plus tax that it's going to cost us. We had better get the sleep of our lives. And the included Continental Breakfast Bar had better ROCK.
No, wait, Ray said he wants to go to Herb's Burgers and Beers for breakfast. In that case, those beds had better be even better than the ones on the cruise we took 3 years ago. We'll go down to Seaside for dinner at McKeown's if it's not too late when we get there and we aren't too tired. After all, dinner at McKeown's was the reason for this leg of the trip!
The primary reason for this lack of lodging is that there ARE no rooms available. Someone beat you to them, or at least to all the ones that cost less than $250.00 a night, and to a good many of the ones that cost considerably more than that. Oh, yes, they rapidly go up from there.
The lodging in Summertime Seaside is very, very expensive. Most of the motels and B&Bs in Seaside in the summer are very pricey indeed. I am sure the Shilo Inn on the beach in Seaside is a very nice Inn indeed. I am sure the Holiday Inn, the Comfort Inn and every other Inn and romantic B&B are very nice indeed, and in some cases, very romantic indeed. They like their rooms way much more than we are willing to pay. The more reasonable ones (under $125 a night) are full and they want you to pay for 2 nights even if you only want to stay one night.
In this year when no one is supposed to be able to afford to travel by car, by train, by airplane, by motorcycle, by moped, by thumb, there are no rooms at the Inns. Or any other place that rents lodging by anything other than the hour.
Now, where do you suppose all those people came from who are filling up the rooms at Seaside? Is it Seasideinians who are tired of having their fine little town overrun by summer tourists and thus rented all the rooms? Smug Prius owners who glided there silently, electrically? Is it Portlanders who walked the entire way? Is it all rented by out of town relatives in Seaside for weddings? Who?
Who knows! All I know is, should you wish to visit Seaside in the Summer, you better be making your reservations for next year, or possibly for the year after that. If you can stand the rain and the clouds, go in the winter. Oh, my, much less expensive and the weather can be much more interesting. http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/weather/12/04/northwest.storms/index.html
After spending 2 hours on the internet, I was able to hunt down (Oh, mighty huntress!) a room in Astoria. Actually, I found 3 rooms in Astoria that were under $125.oo. This price is an egregious affront to my pecuniary instincts, but unless I wished to sleep under the Cannery Pier, I had to bite the Visa Card and make my reservation. So I did.
No rooms in Seaside, no rooms in Gearhart, no rooms in Warrenton, no rooms in whatever dinky little towns inhabit Highway 30 in Western Oregon. 3 affordable rooms in Astoria, and many more rooms that we considered unaffordable.
Perhaps we are just cheap or living in the past. But I still think upwards of $125 to spend an exhausted night asleep in an ordinary motel is simply outrageous, especially when the same room in the winter is 60 bucks.
So we are staying in Astoria instead of Seaside. At a Red Lion Inn. It better be one fine Inn for the $123 plus tax that it's going to cost us. We had better get the sleep of our lives. And the included Continental Breakfast Bar had better ROCK.
No, wait, Ray said he wants to go to Herb's Burgers and Beers for breakfast. In that case, those beds had better be even better than the ones on the cruise we took 3 years ago. We'll go down to Seaside for dinner at McKeown's if it's not too late when we get there and we aren't too tired. After all, dinner at McKeown's was the reason for this leg of the trip!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Always Plotting
We're plotting our next multi-day assault on the highways of the Pacific Northwest. We'll be going from Sea to Mountains over some very squiggly roads and it should be fun.
So far, we know we're going to end up in Seaside, Oregon the first night. We'll have dinner at McKeown's or Bigfoot Pub and Grub and breakfast at Herb's Burgers and Beer. No, we won't be having burgers and beer for breakfast.
It's Bend, Oregon for the second day....now, don't you wish you were going too?
And Pendleton, Oregon for the 3rd day. Sheep! Wool! Shopping! This will be the squiggliest day.
Home again the 4th day....freeways, rush hour, scary!
I'd like to take the computer this time, see how daily updates are compared to a 3 day recap. I'm sure there's so much more I'd have to say if I do it a day at a time rather than in a giant chunk.
I suppose there is the remote possibility you do not particularly want me to say more....if so, skim.
Here's a bonus pic of Diablo Lake from our last ride.
Yes, it IS that color!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
3 Day Training Trip
Take one Retread and one Newbie, 2 loaded bikes, add one freeway and cool cloudy weather and you've got the start of our 3 day training trip.
We wore windbreakers and long sleeved t's under our mesh jackets and that helped some. It was still plenty cold and my thighs, as usual, froze almost solid. Well, ok, it wasn't really cold enough to freeze my thighs, but it felt that way.
Even at 8 am there was more traffic on I-5 than I was really comfortable with and having to go 60 with that short windshield isn't much fun. We were able to merge onto the freeway without trouble and never got tailgated. That's something on I-5.
The first adventure of the day happened when we stopped at the Smokey Point Rest Area. We pulled in and saw a group of motorcyclists all parked together on one side of the lot. We park on the other side of the lot, a little north of the group. Before I could get my gloves off, I was surrounded by the excited members of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club. They loved my scoot! They thought my scoot was so very cool! They thought I was so very cool! I was astonished that such hard core v-twin bikers would be ga-ga over my little trike scooter. But they were and wished us well on our journey before they roared off. They were polite, well spoken, sober and a lot less threatening than I thought a group of 1 percenters would be. It gave me a lift to be well-regarded by an authentic biker gang and not laughed off the road. Easy Rider me.
We went over the mountain on Highway 20. The road was decent and the curves mostly fun. The scenery was wonderful, the traffic fairly light. There were many bikes out on Saturday on the way up the mountains. We didn't see so many going east down the mountains, unless they were coming up. We stopped several times to take pictures at overlooks and rest areas. Everywhere we stopped people were attracted to my bike, everyone from other bikers to little old men and women who looked like the thought of riding a bike had never crossed their minds until that very moment and young men who think it's cool looking. Lunch was found at Marblemount, at the Buffalo Run Restaurant, where Ray had an elkburger. He reported it tasted like a beefburger, but cost more. We sat outside on their back patio in a forest garden and it was a beautiful spot.
We took off our windbreakers after lunch and feeding bikes, as the cloud cover was breaking up and the sun was getting warm. The road headed upwards into the mountains. Morphous Wrex doesn't do speed at altitude, but he gets my butt up the hill eventually. We pulled over to let cling-ons pass, but luckily had no aggressive tailgaters.
Those mountain roads are so curvy and you have to slow down to get around the curve. Sometimes the State is very conservative in posting the curve speed limits and sometimes they seem to be pushing the stability envelope. I wish I could tell beforehand which was which. We did so many curves these 3 days that I have lost my fear of curves. We rode curves of all radii, speeds, cambers, elevations and combinations. It was a total hoot!
When everyone is going around that curve at more or less the same speed, it doesn't matter much whether you have a 250 cc bike or a 1100 cc bike, except the 1100 2 wheeler can get a good lean on, where a trike of any size requires arm and shoulder strength on the part of the rider. I was astonished that my arms, shoulders and upper back muscles were not screaming at the end of the curvy days. I'll get faster on those curves with practice. Ray followed me for a time and he said that I only went over the yellow lines once.
Where Morphous Wrex's lack of oomph matters is when you are having to go up a hill at elevation. Ray could have been there an hour or two earlier if he hadn't had to wait for Wrex to plod doggedly up the hill. Still, I got up the hills faster than RVs and faster than the nuts on their bicycles.
A good stop was had at Diablo Lake where we took several pictures. It really is that impossible color! Talked to several people about my bike and even found an elegant pit toilet, the fanciest pit potties I've ever seen.
Once out of the mountains, we were still at a fairly high elevation, and the road straightened out some. We passed through the town of Winthrop, which was hot and overrun with bikes. We rode all the way to Tonasket only to find both motels were full. So, road weary and grumpy to the max, we rode 28 miles back down the road to Omak. There we stayed at the Omak Inn, the quietest motel I've ever stayed in and got the second to last room there. What all these people are doing in Tonasket and Omak, I surely do not know. We learned this day that in the heat we absolutely MUST stay hydrated and get off the bikes every hour. By late afternoon, I was headachy and cranky and felt much better after drinking 3 large glasses of light lemonade and soda...no not mixed! Our first day's mileage was 271 and we hit 5591 feet in elevation at Washington Pass.
On Sunday, we started out from Omak in a relatively cool 71 degree temp, but the day quickly warmed. The 28 miles to Tonasket passed quickly which is a good thing since it was the 3rd time we'd seen that road. About 2 blocks from the main intersection in Tonasket, we passed by a large doe, who was wanting to cross the road, but changed her mind when Ray's bike got close to her. She was so beautiful and I wish we had a picture.
There was almost no traffic on this bit of Highway 20 and I do not know why. It is one fine motorcycle road! Thousands of bikers are missing this, mostly because they decide to stop in Winthrop. It is a shame more people don't know about this road. For the first several hours of our day we were all alone on this highway with beautiful scenery and lovely curves. The curves on this part of 20 were challenging, but with the absence of traffic seemed much easier to drive. We went over Louploup Pass at 4018 feet and Sherman Pass at 5576 feet and Wauconda Pass at 4010 feet.
At the "bottom" of the road we met Highway 395, toured a little museum, quickly ate rapidly melting ice cream bars (97 degrees) and rode on to Colville, where we had a gourmet lunch at a nicely air conditioned Mickey D's. The scenery around Colville is spectacular and we quite liked the little town. We're going to be watching Colville weather to see if we can live there.
Back on Highway 20 we continued on to Spokane, where we entered the city on the north east and travelled through town to I-90 and went west to Fairchild Air Base. The trip through Spokane was brutal, very hot and very slow and as usual, the roads were not exactly smooth. It was a total shake-and-bake. Luckily, the closer we got to downtown the lighter the traffic got and I was truly surprised by the lightness of traffic on the stretch of I-90 that we were on. By this time, we'd been on the road 9 hours and traveled 251 miles.
Incredibly, Fairchild temporary quarters were full also. Groan. It is such a huge base and their signs are so tasteful and uninformative and unobtrusive that you can't see them. It seemed to take a very, very long time of wandering around the base at 15 mph and 97 degrees to find the proper office for check in. Or not check in. Back out to Highway 2, where we drove back toward Spokane and found a Days Inn with a bonanza of 4 restaurants within walking distance. A lovely, quiet (once the ankle biter down the hall quit yapping and went to sleep) air-conditioned night was spent there. We did better on hydration the second day.
Monday morning, we headed west on Highway 2. Immediately we were in the country, wheat land. Miles and miles of rolling, wheat-clad, golden hills. It really was amber waves of grain. At times the cross winds were bad. They went from Oh, the wind really wants my helmet to the wind really wants my bike to yikes! the wind really wants my face!! We encountered many bugs here and I got many closer looks at bug guts than I ever wanted to have. Ray ended up with them on his windscreen, I got them on the face. Ugh. It was hot again....eastern Washington seems to like 97 degrees. I do not. Frozen thighs on Saturday morning and baked thighs until Monday afternoon.
The curves on 2 were easier, lots easier, but on this road there is much construction and repair and so we had to stop several times to wait for the one lane road to be cleared of oncoming traffic. Bake at 97 degrees for 15 minutes in motorcycle gear and you get steamed buns. We found out that a bit of cold water on your head can help keep you cooler as you go down the road.
We stopped a little outside of Wenatchee for lunch...I wish I could tell you the name of the place, it seemed to be called "Darn Good Burgers" or maybe that was just a large brag instead of a name sign. We had chili dogs and onion rings...both darn good. (Ray reports the place was called "Tom, Dick, and Harry's")
We drove right past a place where a wildfire had been burning last week...it burned right down to the edge of highway 2 along the Columbia River and we could still smell the stink of the burn. When we rode past that into unscorched orchards it smelled heavenly, all that ripening fruit!
The road goes through the charming town of Leavenworth, but we didn't have time to stop. Too bad for the local merchants! We wanted to save our stop time for butt rests and rehydration. We encountered several more one lane sections between Leavenworth and Gold Bar.
Once we hit Stevens Pass (4018 feet), the temperature dropped to 71 degrees and from then on the temps were bearable except for the times we had to stop for lane closures or when we did the shake and bake in heavy traffic.
It was time for a break when we reached Monroe. Traffic suddenly picked up 100 fold! From here on into home, the traffic was heavy. We spent the rest of our trip on multi-lane highways/streets. I think we did well with hydration on the 3rd day too. Ray had packed a small cooler into his top box and we were glad we had it and the cold water it contained. Our highest elevation on the third day was at Stevens Pass and our mileage was 281.
We arrived home after 811 mostly hot miles, many elevation changes and many, many curves. We had a great time and learned many things. We also learned that we can do it, even if I was exhausted after 3 days on my bike.
The worst things were the heat and the seats. The best things were the curves and scenery. Overall, the Wrex got 67 mpg and the Guzzi got 58 mpg. We know that will go up when we're not going through the mountains.
We wore windbreakers and long sleeved t's under our mesh jackets and that helped some. It was still plenty cold and my thighs, as usual, froze almost solid. Well, ok, it wasn't really cold enough to freeze my thighs, but it felt that way.
Even at 8 am there was more traffic on I-5 than I was really comfortable with and having to go 60 with that short windshield isn't much fun. We were able to merge onto the freeway without trouble and never got tailgated. That's something on I-5.
The first adventure of the day happened when we stopped at the Smokey Point Rest Area. We pulled in and saw a group of motorcyclists all parked together on one side of the lot. We park on the other side of the lot, a little north of the group. Before I could get my gloves off, I was surrounded by the excited members of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club. They loved my scoot! They thought my scoot was so very cool! They thought I was so very cool! I was astonished that such hard core v-twin bikers would be ga-ga over my little trike scooter. But they were and wished us well on our journey before they roared off. They were polite, well spoken, sober and a lot less threatening than I thought a group of 1 percenters would be. It gave me a lift to be well-regarded by an authentic biker gang and not laughed off the road. Easy Rider me.
We went over the mountain on Highway 20. The road was decent and the curves mostly fun. The scenery was wonderful, the traffic fairly light. There were many bikes out on Saturday on the way up the mountains. We didn't see so many going east down the mountains, unless they were coming up. We stopped several times to take pictures at overlooks and rest areas. Everywhere we stopped people were attracted to my bike, everyone from other bikers to little old men and women who looked like the thought of riding a bike had never crossed their minds until that very moment and young men who think it's cool looking. Lunch was found at Marblemount, at the Buffalo Run Restaurant, where Ray had an elkburger. He reported it tasted like a beefburger, but cost more. We sat outside on their back patio in a forest garden and it was a beautiful spot.
We took off our windbreakers after lunch and feeding bikes, as the cloud cover was breaking up and the sun was getting warm. The road headed upwards into the mountains. Morphous Wrex doesn't do speed at altitude, but he gets my butt up the hill eventually. We pulled over to let cling-ons pass, but luckily had no aggressive tailgaters.
Those mountain roads are so curvy and you have to slow down to get around the curve. Sometimes the State is very conservative in posting the curve speed limits and sometimes they seem to be pushing the stability envelope. I wish I could tell beforehand which was which. We did so many curves these 3 days that I have lost my fear of curves. We rode curves of all radii, speeds, cambers, elevations and combinations. It was a total hoot!
When everyone is going around that curve at more or less the same speed, it doesn't matter much whether you have a 250 cc bike or a 1100 cc bike, except the 1100 2 wheeler can get a good lean on, where a trike of any size requires arm and shoulder strength on the part of the rider. I was astonished that my arms, shoulders and upper back muscles were not screaming at the end of the curvy days. I'll get faster on those curves with practice. Ray followed me for a time and he said that I only went over the yellow lines once.
Where Morphous Wrex's lack of oomph matters is when you are having to go up a hill at elevation. Ray could have been there an hour or two earlier if he hadn't had to wait for Wrex to plod doggedly up the hill. Still, I got up the hills faster than RVs and faster than the nuts on their bicycles.
A good stop was had at Diablo Lake where we took several pictures. It really is that impossible color! Talked to several people about my bike and even found an elegant pit toilet, the fanciest pit potties I've ever seen.
Once out of the mountains, we were still at a fairly high elevation, and the road straightened out some. We passed through the town of Winthrop, which was hot and overrun with bikes. We rode all the way to Tonasket only to find both motels were full. So, road weary and grumpy to the max, we rode 28 miles back down the road to Omak. There we stayed at the Omak Inn, the quietest motel I've ever stayed in and got the second to last room there. What all these people are doing in Tonasket and Omak, I surely do not know. We learned this day that in the heat we absolutely MUST stay hydrated and get off the bikes every hour. By late afternoon, I was headachy and cranky and felt much better after drinking 3 large glasses of light lemonade and soda...no not mixed! Our first day's mileage was 271 and we hit 5591 feet in elevation at Washington Pass.
On Sunday, we started out from Omak in a relatively cool 71 degree temp, but the day quickly warmed. The 28 miles to Tonasket passed quickly which is a good thing since it was the 3rd time we'd seen that road. About 2 blocks from the main intersection in Tonasket, we passed by a large doe, who was wanting to cross the road, but changed her mind when Ray's bike got close to her. She was so beautiful and I wish we had a picture.
There was almost no traffic on this bit of Highway 20 and I do not know why. It is one fine motorcycle road! Thousands of bikers are missing this, mostly because they decide to stop in Winthrop. It is a shame more people don't know about this road. For the first several hours of our day we were all alone on this highway with beautiful scenery and lovely curves. The curves on this part of 20 were challenging, but with the absence of traffic seemed much easier to drive. We went over Louploup Pass at 4018 feet and Sherman Pass at 5576 feet and Wauconda Pass at 4010 feet.
At the "bottom" of the road we met Highway 395, toured a little museum, quickly ate rapidly melting ice cream bars (97 degrees) and rode on to Colville, where we had a gourmet lunch at a nicely air conditioned Mickey D's. The scenery around Colville is spectacular and we quite liked the little town. We're going to be watching Colville weather to see if we can live there.
Back on Highway 20 we continued on to Spokane, where we entered the city on the north east and travelled through town to I-90 and went west to Fairchild Air Base. The trip through Spokane was brutal, very hot and very slow and as usual, the roads were not exactly smooth. It was a total shake-and-bake. Luckily, the closer we got to downtown the lighter the traffic got and I was truly surprised by the lightness of traffic on the stretch of I-90 that we were on. By this time, we'd been on the road 9 hours and traveled 251 miles.
Incredibly, Fairchild temporary quarters were full also. Groan. It is such a huge base and their signs are so tasteful and uninformative and unobtrusive that you can't see them. It seemed to take a very, very long time of wandering around the base at 15 mph and 97 degrees to find the proper office for check in. Or not check in. Back out to Highway 2, where we drove back toward Spokane and found a Days Inn with a bonanza of 4 restaurants within walking distance. A lovely, quiet (once the ankle biter down the hall quit yapping and went to sleep) air-conditioned night was spent there. We did better on hydration the second day.
Monday morning, we headed west on Highway 2. Immediately we were in the country, wheat land. Miles and miles of rolling, wheat-clad, golden hills. It really was amber waves of grain. At times the cross winds were bad. They went from Oh, the wind really wants my helmet to the wind really wants my bike to yikes! the wind really wants my face!! We encountered many bugs here and I got many closer looks at bug guts than I ever wanted to have. Ray ended up with them on his windscreen, I got them on the face. Ugh. It was hot again....eastern Washington seems to like 97 degrees. I do not. Frozen thighs on Saturday morning and baked thighs until Monday afternoon.
The curves on 2 were easier, lots easier, but on this road there is much construction and repair and so we had to stop several times to wait for the one lane road to be cleared of oncoming traffic. Bake at 97 degrees for 15 minutes in motorcycle gear and you get steamed buns. We found out that a bit of cold water on your head can help keep you cooler as you go down the road.
We stopped a little outside of Wenatchee for lunch...I wish I could tell you the name of the place, it seemed to be called "Darn Good Burgers" or maybe that was just a large brag instead of a name sign. We had chili dogs and onion rings...both darn good. (Ray reports the place was called "Tom, Dick, and Harry's")
We drove right past a place where a wildfire had been burning last week...it burned right down to the edge of highway 2 along the Columbia River and we could still smell the stink of the burn. When we rode past that into unscorched orchards it smelled heavenly, all that ripening fruit!
The road goes through the charming town of Leavenworth, but we didn't have time to stop. Too bad for the local merchants! We wanted to save our stop time for butt rests and rehydration. We encountered several more one lane sections between Leavenworth and Gold Bar.
Once we hit Stevens Pass (4018 feet), the temperature dropped to 71 degrees and from then on the temps were bearable except for the times we had to stop for lane closures or when we did the shake and bake in heavy traffic.
It was time for a break when we reached Monroe. Traffic suddenly picked up 100 fold! From here on into home, the traffic was heavy. We spent the rest of our trip on multi-lane highways/streets. I think we did well with hydration on the 3rd day too. Ray had packed a small cooler into his top box and we were glad we had it and the cold water it contained. Our highest elevation on the third day was at Stevens Pass and our mileage was 281.
We arrived home after 811 mostly hot miles, many elevation changes and many, many curves. We had a great time and learned many things. We also learned that we can do it, even if I was exhausted after 3 days on my bike.
The worst things were the heat and the seats. The best things were the curves and scenery. Overall, the Wrex got 67 mpg and the Guzzi got 58 mpg. We know that will go up when we're not going through the mountains.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Over the Mountains and Back Again
We made it! 811 miles in 3 days, over the mountains twice, and we survived.
We learned a few things, or at least here are 20 things I learned this trip, not necessarily in order of importance:
1. 97 degrees is darn hot, even if it's "a dry heat". It is 97 degrees everywhere in this state but over here.
2. Even if you're going somewhere that you think no one else is going to go, make motel reservations because it turns out EVERYONE also wants to go there and all the rooms are taken.
3. Find me a motel with a restaurant within walking distance, because I don't want to get back on that bike.
4. Braided hair works better than hair blowing in the wind although it doesn't look as "cool".
5. I need a different mesh jacket as this one really doesn't fit.
6. Sometime in the afternoon of each day, suddenly nothing fit right. Not jeans, not boots, not gloves, not helmet, not jacket, not the seat of the bike.
7. Stop every hour, get off the bike, drink something cold and wet, or bad things happen later in the day.
8. I suffer major melt-down after about 9-10 hours on the road and get REAL cranky REAL fast.
9. Morphous Wrex is a lovely lowland/flatland/small hill bike.
10. Morphous Wrex can go up a mountain if he's got a good running start and even then, it's uphill at 45 mph, full throttle.
11. Morphous Wrex can go up a mountain faster than a speeding RV. Yay! Not the slowest thing on the road.
12. Even when you're driving at or slightly over the speed limit, someone always wants to go faster.
13. If you're in heavy, slow traffic doing the shake-and-bake, Morphous Wrex is the bike to be on.
14. I'll never be a Knee-Dragger. I love 60 mph sweepers and 50 mph curves and even 40 mph switchbacks. 30 mph tight curves and 15 mph hairpins? Not so much.
15. Turn off your communications system at every break. When the manufacturer says the batteries last 8 hours, he's not kidding.
16. Savor the moments when everything is perfect: seat of the bike, temperature of the air, angle of the sun, scent of the air, scenery. They don't happen all that often.
17. I know where all the old unused washboards went....they obviously are the layer just under the pavement on most Washington highways. Kudos to the State of Washington for keeping these things out of landfills and antique shops.
18. It takes way longer to get anywhere than you think it will and it's exhausting.
19. Bikers in this state are missing a fun road.
20. Every time we stopped, wherever we stopped, people wanted to talk about my bike. Parking that bike is like drawing flies to honey.
Susan
We learned a few things, or at least here are 20 things I learned this trip, not necessarily in order of importance:
1. 97 degrees is darn hot, even if it's "a dry heat". It is 97 degrees everywhere in this state but over here.
2. Even if you're going somewhere that you think no one else is going to go, make motel reservations because it turns out EVERYONE also wants to go there and all the rooms are taken.
3. Find me a motel with a restaurant within walking distance, because I don't want to get back on that bike.
4. Braided hair works better than hair blowing in the wind although it doesn't look as "cool".
5. I need a different mesh jacket as this one really doesn't fit.
6. Sometime in the afternoon of each day, suddenly nothing fit right. Not jeans, not boots, not gloves, not helmet, not jacket, not the seat of the bike.
7. Stop every hour, get off the bike, drink something cold and wet, or bad things happen later in the day.
8. I suffer major melt-down after about 9-10 hours on the road and get REAL cranky REAL fast.
9. Morphous Wrex is a lovely lowland/flatland/small hill bike.
10. Morphous Wrex can go up a mountain if he's got a good running start and even then, it's uphill at 45 mph, full throttle.
11. Morphous Wrex can go up a mountain faster than a speeding RV. Yay! Not the slowest thing on the road.
12. Even when you're driving at or slightly over the speed limit, someone always wants to go faster.
13. If you're in heavy, slow traffic doing the shake-and-bake, Morphous Wrex is the bike to be on.
14. I'll never be a Knee-Dragger. I love 60 mph sweepers and 50 mph curves and even 40 mph switchbacks. 30 mph tight curves and 15 mph hairpins? Not so much.
15. Turn off your communications system at every break. When the manufacturer says the batteries last 8 hours, he's not kidding.
16. Savor the moments when everything is perfect: seat of the bike, temperature of the air, angle of the sun, scent of the air, scenery. They don't happen all that often.
17. I know where all the old unused washboards went....they obviously are the layer just under the pavement on most Washington highways. Kudos to the State of Washington for keeping these things out of landfills and antique shops.
18. It takes way longer to get anywhere than you think it will and it's exhausting.
19. Bikers in this state are missing a fun road.
20. Every time we stopped, wherever we stopped, people wanted to talk about my bike. Parking that bike is like drawing flies to honey.
Susan
Friday, July 18, 2008
Morphous Morphs Into Morphous Wrex
Ray says I have to tell Morphous Wrex's story, which also is mine. It all started with our sons giving Ray a motorcycle. It's their fault, this whole thing.
Eventually I got tired of waving good-bye as a small pack of motorcycles left our house on lovely sunny days. They all made it look so easy, especially our nephew, TJ KneeDragger. I figured if they could all do it, so could I. Forget that Ray had ridden motorcycles when he was a teenager and that the sons and the nephew are waaay younger than I am, that the last time I rode a bicycle I ended up on crutches for weeks (badly sprained ankle) and that I have never ridden a motorcycle. I had to have one too.
I did some research and consulted my resident experts. Quickly I decided that I didn't want to bother with clutches and such (I really don't like driving a stickshift car around here) and that a scooter was just the ticket. So off to test sit scooters. Hmmm. These are all too tall! I've got a 28" inseam and these scooter seats are at 35". Hmmm. Good thing this has a center stand or I'd fall over. Hmmm. Back to the internet for more research.
Ah-HA! Look at this! Yamaha Morphous. Seat height 25 inches. Ooh! Let's go look at that one! On the 8th of April 2007 I saw, fell in love with, and bought the Morphous. It really was love at first sight and adoration at first sit. The Morphous fits me perfectly and I love it's sleek ultramodern looks. My sons think it looks like a Star Wars Moon of Endor Speeder, but I think it's beauty on wheels. As you can see in the pictures, my Morphous is shiny Midnight Black. Yes, it came with only 2 wheels. Ray gave it a short test drive in the dealer's lot and declared it suitable for me. So Morphous came home with us and kicked my mini-van out of the garage. (Sorry, Blue)
I was lucky and got a spot in an MSF class later in April. Ray took me out to practice in a parking lot a couple of times and declared I was doing well. I didn't want to show up for class never having driven my own bike. So on a cloudy and cool Friday, April 13, I got way brave and took Morphous out for some practice in our neighborhood all by myself. Wow! Look at me, I'm going 7 miles per hour! AAAACK! That truck behind me is HUUUUGE! Turn into the cul-de-sac and get away from that giant grill that's about to eat us! Ahh, that's better.
Oops. What's that doing there? There's another huge truck parked right in the narrow part of the street. Now, how do I get around that truck after I circle around the cul-de-sac? Hmmm. Think about this. So far, so good, but while thinking and visualizing, I let the scooter coast. I found out two-wheeled vehicles don't coast so good at 2 mph. At that speed, they don't stand up on their own.
Wham! Flat on my back under some juniper bushes in someone's front yard. Hmmm. Scoot is still running, I better turn it off. There. Hmm. My right leg's under that scoot between the curbing and the floorboard and I better get it out. Ooo, that leg hurts. Man, 400 pounds is very heavy when it's laying on you. Shriek! That hurt worse, but the leg is now on top of the scooter instead of underneath. Oh, no! It feels broken.
Now what? Hmmm. Call for help. Oops, can't reach the phone which is in the glove box on the far side of the scooter. Well, you could crawl the 3 blocks home. Ah, no. Not. Ok, yell. So I yelled and after some minutes nothing. So I turned the scooter back on and with my right foot, pushed the horn button until the man who owned the bushes I was in came out to see what the noise was. He was so startled to find me there. He called 911 for me and had a hard time convincing the dispatcher that he didn't run me over.
EMS came, picked me up and stuffed me in an ambulance. Off to the hospital, x-rays and oh, yes, your leg's broken into four pieces, have a cast. Nearly one very painful week later, I had surgery to fix the break....one steel plate and 7 screws. A brand new cast. And I had to miss my MSF class too. A long recovery ensued. The cast came off the last week of June. Physical therapy took weeks. By fall I was cleared to get back on the scooter but then the rains set in. In January 2008 I had the screws and plate removed. More recovery ensued, but I was finally ready to try again.
And that's how Morphous became Morphous Wrex.
The wheels are another story.
Eventually I got tired of waving good-bye as a small pack of motorcycles left our house on lovely sunny days. They all made it look so easy, especially our nephew, TJ KneeDragger. I figured if they could all do it, so could I. Forget that Ray had ridden motorcycles when he was a teenager and that the sons and the nephew are waaay younger than I am, that the last time I rode a bicycle I ended up on crutches for weeks (badly sprained ankle) and that I have never ridden a motorcycle. I had to have one too.
I did some research and consulted my resident experts. Quickly I decided that I didn't want to bother with clutches and such (I really don't like driving a stickshift car around here) and that a scooter was just the ticket. So off to test sit scooters. Hmmm. These are all too tall! I've got a 28" inseam and these scooter seats are at 35". Hmmm. Good thing this has a center stand or I'd fall over. Hmmm. Back to the internet for more research.
Ah-HA! Look at this! Yamaha Morphous. Seat height 25 inches. Ooh! Let's go look at that one! On the 8th of April 2007 I saw, fell in love with, and bought the Morphous. It really was love at first sight and adoration at first sit. The Morphous fits me perfectly and I love it's sleek ultramodern looks. My sons think it looks like a Star Wars Moon of Endor Speeder, but I think it's beauty on wheels. As you can see in the pictures, my Morphous is shiny Midnight Black. Yes, it came with only 2 wheels. Ray gave it a short test drive in the dealer's lot and declared it suitable for me. So Morphous came home with us and kicked my mini-van out of the garage. (Sorry, Blue)
I was lucky and got a spot in an MSF class later in April. Ray took me out to practice in a parking lot a couple of times and declared I was doing well. I didn't want to show up for class never having driven my own bike. So on a cloudy and cool Friday, April 13, I got way brave and took Morphous out for some practice in our neighborhood all by myself. Wow! Look at me, I'm going 7 miles per hour! AAAACK! That truck behind me is HUUUUGE! Turn into the cul-de-sac and get away from that giant grill that's about to eat us! Ahh, that's better.
Oops. What's that doing there? There's another huge truck parked right in the narrow part of the street. Now, how do I get around that truck after I circle around the cul-de-sac? Hmmm. Think about this. So far, so good, but while thinking and visualizing, I let the scooter coast. I found out two-wheeled vehicles don't coast so good at 2 mph. At that speed, they don't stand up on their own.
Wham! Flat on my back under some juniper bushes in someone's front yard. Hmmm. Scoot is still running, I better turn it off. There. Hmm. My right leg's under that scoot between the curbing and the floorboard and I better get it out. Ooo, that leg hurts. Man, 400 pounds is very heavy when it's laying on you. Shriek! That hurt worse, but the leg is now on top of the scooter instead of underneath. Oh, no! It feels broken.
Now what? Hmmm. Call for help. Oops, can't reach the phone which is in the glove box on the far side of the scooter. Well, you could crawl the 3 blocks home. Ah, no. Not. Ok, yell. So I yelled and after some minutes nothing. So I turned the scooter back on and with my right foot, pushed the horn button until the man who owned the bushes I was in came out to see what the noise was. He was so startled to find me there. He called 911 for me and had a hard time convincing the dispatcher that he didn't run me over.
EMS came, picked me up and stuffed me in an ambulance. Off to the hospital, x-rays and oh, yes, your leg's broken into four pieces, have a cast. Nearly one very painful week later, I had surgery to fix the break....one steel plate and 7 screws. A brand new cast. And I had to miss my MSF class too. A long recovery ensued. The cast came off the last week of June. Physical therapy took weeks. By fall I was cleared to get back on the scooter but then the rains set in. In January 2008 I had the screws and plate removed. More recovery ensued, but I was finally ready to try again.
And that's how Morphous became Morphous Wrex.
The wheels are another story.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Well here are our bikes, a small stable of rides. The one on the left is a 1974 Honda 350Four, a four cylinder 350cc. They were only made from about 72-74. It’s a fun bike to ride, but with four carbs and an anemic charging system it can be a challenge to keep running well. It took me the better part of the first year to get the electrical system so that it would keep the battery charged. There were old rusty light sockets and to clean up or replace as well as other issues. But it's doing well now. My son Jason has it at his shop to balance the carbs and tune up between the paying jobs.
The one in the center is my wife’s Yamaha Morphous with a “Tow-Pac” trike kit. The Morphous is a 250cc scooter. The kit added the outrigger wheels and makes it handle like a trike. It’s a great rig to ride in heavy traffic. In the state of Washington you have to have a special endorsement to ride a three wheeled motorcycle. We both now have that endorsement. I will let her tell the story of how the Morphous became Morphous Wrex.
On the right is Silver, an 05 Moto Guzzi Nevada Classic 750, a nice riding bike that cruises easily at 70 on the freeway but doesn’t like 25-30.
We are heading out for an 800+ mile, 3 day ride this weekend. We're going to make an extended loop over the Cascades. We'll go out Highway 20 through Tonasket, Colville and Tiger then south to Spokane and back to Seattle via Highway 2. The route takes us over some of the best motorcycling roads in the state and this weekend, some of the warmest.
Here are better views of the bikes.
Monday, July 14, 2008
In the Begining
It's all our sons' fault. It all started a couple years ago when, sitting around discussing motorcycles with my sons, I mentioned that it would be nice to have a small 250-350 cc motorcycle to ride around when the weather is nice, which doesn't happen a lot between October and June here in the northwest. Well, I came home from a business trip in August of '06 and there in the garage was a 1974 Honda 350Four. My sons had found a good deal. I heard later that someone sold the 350 for rent money. Poor guy! Any way, Jason being a good mechanic, it was tuned up and running just fine. It needed some, well...maybe a lot, of cosmetic work. But it ran nice and has been a lot of fun. I've spent the winters working on it and some of the good weather riding it.
Our sons, who both have bikes, and my nephew who lives across the lake and I started going on day rides. I was also doing a lot of evening and day rides on my own. Soon my wife got tired of waving good-bye and decided she needed a bike also. But that's another story. After we got her bike, discussions with her brother and brother-in-law who also ride and live near Chicago got us thinking about a road trip back there. We may be in a little over our heads, but with a lot of research, planning and some help from our Guardian Angels, I think we'll make it and have a lot of fun doing it.
The ratio of maintenance verses road time on the Honda just didn't seem to support the idea of such a long ride. I like a little adventure but I don't think I want to have the kind of adventure that riding a 34 year old bike nearly 6000 miles could be. So of course the only answer was a NEW BIKE. After much looking and sitting on many bikes I got a new '05 Moto Guzzi Nevada 750 Classic. I got a good deal from a great dealer here in Seattle, Moto International. Dave Richardson, the owner, literally wrote the book on Moto Guzzi's "Guzziology". It's a book well worth the money if you have or are interested in Moto Guzzi's.
We've spent most of the winter, spring and now the summer getting ready for the trip. However, the cost of gas and other things (the cost of getting outfitted for the trip and the cost of "practice" trips) has us thinking of postponing it till next summer. We'll see. We have been doing some "training" rides, trying to work up to multiple long days on the road. We did a trip to Pacific Beach and back in one day. That was nice but a little long, 330 miles for one day. We have some 3 & 4 day trips planned. We really don't know how far is too far or far enough for one day on non-interstate roads but we'll figure it out.
One thing I have learned in the last two years is that motorcycling is not a cheap hobby. From our research it seems we needed many things, none of which is inexpensive.
That's it for now.
Ray
Our sons, who both have bikes, and my nephew who lives across the lake and I started going on day rides. I was also doing a lot of evening and day rides on my own. Soon my wife got tired of waving good-bye and decided she needed a bike also. But that's another story. After we got her bike, discussions with her brother and brother-in-law who also ride and live near Chicago got us thinking about a road trip back there. We may be in a little over our heads, but with a lot of research, planning and some help from our Guardian Angels, I think we'll make it and have a lot of fun doing it.
The ratio of maintenance verses road time on the Honda just didn't seem to support the idea of such a long ride. I like a little adventure but I don't think I want to have the kind of adventure that riding a 34 year old bike nearly 6000 miles could be. So of course the only answer was a NEW BIKE. After much looking and sitting on many bikes I got a new '05 Moto Guzzi Nevada 750 Classic. I got a good deal from a great dealer here in Seattle, Moto International. Dave Richardson, the owner, literally wrote the book on Moto Guzzi's "Guzziology". It's a book well worth the money if you have or are interested in Moto Guzzi's.
We've spent most of the winter, spring and now the summer getting ready for the trip. However, the cost of gas and other things (the cost of getting outfitted for the trip and the cost of "practice" trips) has us thinking of postponing it till next summer. We'll see. We have been doing some "training" rides, trying to work up to multiple long days on the road. We did a trip to Pacific Beach and back in one day. That was nice but a little long, 330 miles for one day. We have some 3 & 4 day trips planned. We really don't know how far is too far or far enough for one day on non-interstate roads but we'll figure it out.
One thing I have learned in the last two years is that motorcycling is not a cheap hobby. From our research it seems we needed many things, none of which is inexpensive.
That's it for now.
Ray
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