Starting Out - Maritimes 2013

The entries for the Nova Scotia trip were originally emails sent to family and friends. After the first email (below) went out on July 30, 2013 daughter Vanya responded: "Dad, you HAVE heard of blogs, haven't you?" So, I've created a blog and posted the emails from the trip, along with a few photos. In the future I'll use this same blog to keep a running account of my motorcycle travels.

A few of you (well, one anyway - you know who you are) have expressed an interest in keeping track of me on this year's long ride to Nova Scotia, probably so that if I disappear into a canyon somewhere you can scratch me off your Christmas card list.

Monday morning, July 29, we fought the usual Bay Area traffic, which stayed heavy across the central valley until the Yosemite turnoff. We had a very nice ride with clear roads over Sonora pass and into Nevada, marred only by a smelly haze of forest fires and a brief late afternoon thunderstorm in Nevada (it's monsoon season in the southwest). We spent the night in Tonopah at the Clown motel, which, as its name implies, features pictures of clowns, statues of clowns, and indeed all things clown in its decor.

On Tuesday we were up early and rode down the Extraterrestrail Highway (NV 375) to Rachel where we had breakfast at the Little A'Le'Inn. The day didn't get hot until Caliente (figures), NV, and then it was in the 90's the rest of the day. I've been through this part of the country a lot over the years, so I tried to find a different route, and we went down to St. George, UT before going through Zion from the west to east. Tonight we are in Kanab, UT and we'll ride to Chama in New Mexico tomorrow. The bikes are running fine, the weather is good, and the scenery is spectacular. The highlight of Zion Park today was a small herd of mountain goats. John P. has expressed an interest in maybe an extra stop or two during the day besides  the gas and food stops. I suppose he wants to stretch, or drink water, or take pictures, or something We'll see.

Picnic area at the Little A'Le'Inn in Rachel, Nevada

BMWMOA - 2013: Atomic energy, another car museum, an air and space museum, the rally, and home

We left Jackson on July 11th and rode west over 8400 foot Teton Pass on WY 22 into Idaho, where the road becomes ID 33. This is a very scenic road through the Teton Range and at Victor we turned on ID 31 over 6700 foot Pine Creek Pass and descended into a beautiful valley.

In Swan Valley we continued west on US 26 to Idaho Falls where we went west on US 20 across the Snake River Plain with strange lava rock formations on either side of the road.

We made a stop at the first nuclear power plant in Arco and went on a tour of the facility.

 
After our tour we continues on US 20 past Craters of the Moon National Monument (all three of us had been there before) and went north on ID 75 through Ketchum and into the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. We stopped at a campground on a lake south of Stanley and set up camp, managing to fit all three tents on one campsite.

This is a popular vacation area and in the morning I went for a walk through the campground and down to the lake. The morning fog was just lifting over the lake, which gave me the opportunity for several scenic photographs.

We stopped in Stanley for breakfast and rode on ID 21 through the mountains. At Lowman we went west on ID 24 where we were delayed for road construction and blasting.

The road follows a river that is popular with rafters. At Banks we went north on ID 55 through McCall and when the road ended we rode north on scenic US 95 through Riggins, Grangeville and into Lewiston then across the river to Clarkston, Washington where we spent the night at the rather decrepit El Rancho motel.

In the morning we rode across Highway 12 to Mac's Cycle where John P and I had new tires installed on our bikes. We had breakfast nearby at Hazel's, a favorite restaurant of ours. All went well with the service and we continued on US 12 through the treeless, agricultural Palouse area with its rolling hills and endless wheat fields. Before we reached Walla Walla we turned on WA 124 to Pasco and after a few miles on I-182 went on backroads WA 240 and WA 24 to Yakima. We picked up US 12 again and then WA 7 towards Tacoma.

The next day we rode into Tacoma for our visit to the LeMay Collection - America's Car Museum. This is a new museum that opened in June, 2012 and it contains over 350 automobiles and motorcycles. We spent a happy few hours there taking pictures and wandering around.

Every museum should have a Flying Merkel

The Popemobile - a 1964 Lincoln

I've always liked the lines of the Kaiser from the early 1950's

A brass era Cadillac

The Tucker Torpedo - production ceased after about 50 cars were made.

 The luxury cars of the 1920's and 30's often had very elegant radiator cap ornaments.

A Lincoln greyhound

A Pierce Arrow archer

The 1956 Pontiac Safari station wagon was similar to the Chevrolet Nomad

 I learned to drive on a 1956 Pontiac Station wagon, although our four-door family wagon was less flashy than the two-door Safari in the picture above.  The post WWII Rolls and Bentley automobiles had what came to be called razor edge styling. You can see why from the picture below of the boot on a Bentley.

A Hudson Custom 8 convertible has art deco styling.

British icons of the 1950's - a BSA Gold Star and an Austin Mini

The MG-TC popularized sports cars in the USA in the early 1950's.

Mrs. Peel in The Avengers drove a Lotus Elan

Scooters and mini-cars - cheap transportation

I almost prefer the Cord sedans over the roadsters.

There is a section devoted to electric cars with many examples from the early days of automobile production. Back in the nineteen teens and 20's electric cars could go 40-60 miles on a single charge, not that much less than today's pure electric vehicles.

The French 2CV is a post-WWII icon that was produced in great numbers and like the Volkswagen bug kept being made long after it became technologically obsolete.

There was a special exhibit of Ferraris, including an example of the very first Ferrari model sold to the public, the 1947 Type 166 Spyder Corsa.

We finally left the museum and rode out of Tacoma on I-5 and then north on US 101 along the east side of the Olympic Peninsula. After spending the night in a motel we continued on US 101 through small towns along the water with vacation cottages and recreation areas. We rode through Port Angeles and by Lake Crescent, and then on Highway 112 to Neah Bay, where we stopped for a quick visit at the Makah Museum before riding out to Cape Flattery, the northwest corner of the lower 48 states. We parked and walked for 20 minutes to the view area at the tip of the cape.

John C takes a picture of the island. You can see the lighthouse if you look closely.

We rode back to US 101 and south to Forks, famous as the setting for the Twilight novels. The Twilight craze appears to have abated, and the town wasn't nearly as crowded as it had been three years previously when we rode through there on our way to Alaska. We spent the night at the somewhat funky Town Motel, and the next morning we continued south on US 101 all the way into Oregon and camped near the coast.

The next day we rode inland towards Salem, but stopped first in McMinnville at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. This is a huge place with the collection spread over three buildings. There is everything from replicas of the very first airplanes to the latest jet fighters, including an SR-71 Blackbird. I hadn't thought that I'd be very interested in the building devoted to space exploration, but I found it quite fascinating.

A double wasp radial engine

The crankshaft is fixed on this Rhone radial - the propeller rotates with the engine around the crank.

The first jet fighter - a WWII Messerschmidt ME-262

The Spruce Goose is so big that I couldn't get a picture of the whole thing. The tail section give you an idea.

John and John finally dragged me away from the museum and we rode into Salem, checked in at the BMWMOA rally headquarters, and set up our tents.

Later a lot of the spaces between the tents filled up with more tents

We spent the time at the rally surveying the vendors (and even buying several items), attending seminars, looking at vintage bikes on display, and wandering around the fairgrounds looking at other people's bikes.

This 1929 R-11 had a perfect score in the 2012 coast to coast Cannonball Run.

I suppose it could be handy to have a spare bike behind your sidecar.

There were various field events and rides, and this GS must have been on a special off-road event.

Phil Funnell's bike tows a little pod trailer in which he sleeps.

I first met Phil Funnell in 1975 or thereabouts when Carol and I attended a BMW 49er rally in Angels Camp, CA. At the time he owned a shop in Vancouver, BC and he came down with one of his employees. His homemade, fiberglass trailer rides on a single bicycle wheel. Below is a picture of the BMW F650GS on which Benka Pulko rode around the world. I saw the bike last year at a BMW dealership in Pensacola, Florida. Benka may no longer ride the bike, but it still gets around.

Benka Pulko's F650GS - world traveler

We left the fairgrounds in Salem on Sunday morning July 21 and rode down I-5 to Grants Pass, where John P and I rode US 199 to connect with US 101 in Crescent City and spend the night at a motel in Eureka, and John C headed for the coast and another night of camping.

John P had his R1200GS Adventure serviced before we left, and at the time he asked them to check the rear drive and universal joint, because he thought he detected a clicking sound. The shop couldn't find anything amiss. He asked again at the BMW shop in Fort Collins, and also at the shop in Salem. The next day we were riding down US 101 and just north of Willits I looked in the mirror and didn't see John P. I pulled off the road and waited a bit, and then turned around to see what had happened. After a few miles I saw his bike parked on the shoulder and John was on the phone. He said that the bike had started making a real racket from the driveline, and also began vibrating and smoking. The smoke was coming from the front universal joint, and it had heated up so badly that the paint was blistered.

After a lot of phoning around we got a tow truck to come out from Willits and take the bike to a parking lot in Ukiah. I rode to John's house in Corte Madera and hooked up his bike trailer to his SUV and drove back to Ukiah where we loaded the bike and drove back to John's house. I rode home, arriving just a little after midnight - 20 days, 4700 miles.

Update: Fortunately, John had an extended warranty on his bike which covered new universal joints and driveshaft housing. While they had everything torn apart, he had them put in a new clutch, which only cost him the parts.

The BMWMOA rally for 2014 is in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the three of us will probably ride out there. Watch this space.

BMWMOA 2013 - Scenic Route

The BMW Motorcycle Owners Association has an international rally every year in mid-July, and in 2013 it was in Salem, Oregon, just a few hundred miles up US 101 from my home in San Francisco. Since riding directly to the rally wouldn't be much of a long distance ride, two friends and I decided to take the scenic route to Oregon via Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Washington.

I left San Francisco on July 3rd and rode on I-80 through the Sierra over Donner Summit and into Nevada. I picked up US 50 in Fernley and rode on "the loneliest highway" to the Tom Scott campground in the mountains a few miles east of Austin, NV. There I met John C and John P, friends of mine with whom I've shared several other motorcycle trips. They had been there for a couple of hours and I quickly set up my tent as the twilight faded into darkness.

The next morning we broke camp and rode to Eureka, where we had breakfast at the Owl Club cafe. This has been a regular breakfast stop for 30 years, going back to when my wife and I used to take cross-country motorcycle trips. Since it was the 4th of July I knew from prior experience that Eureka would close off Main St., which in this case is US 50, for a Fourth of July parade. We parked east of downtown on a side street so we could get out of town if the parade was still ongoing when we finished breakfast. As it was we saw part of the parade and were able exit town without trouble.

We stayed on US 50 to just before the Utah border, where we went south on UT 21 - every bit as lonely as US 50 - to Milford and into Beaver at I-15, where we spent the night at a motel. The next morning we rode 20 miles south on I-15 over Fremont Pass and exited onto UT 20 to US 89 to Panguich and US 12. This is one of the most beautiful parts of Utah and we rode on US 12 past Bryce Canyon through Escalante and over a 9200 foot pass to Torrey on UT 24, where we stopped for coffee. We stayed on 24 to Hanksville where we went south on UT 95 through scenic red rock canyons, by Glen Canyon, and stopped at Natural Bridges National Monument. John C is a big proponent of ATGATT - all the gear all the time - but I managed to capture a picture of him riding his motorcycle with his Aerostich suit on the back of the bike and not on his back. Granted, it was about 95 degrees out, the park loop has a speed limit of 25 mph, and we were stopping at a scenic overlook every mile.

Although there was a private campground in Blanding, UT on US 191, it was sprinkling and windy, so we spent the night in a motel. The next morning we continued north on 191 towards Moab through more scenic country.

Wilson Arch

We turned east on UT 46, which became Colorado 90 a few miles later when we crossed the border. We climbed over a pass and began a long descent down towards a valley which followed a river, stopping along the way to take pictures of the sights.

There was no traffic, the weather was good, and the road wasn't in bad shape, so we enjoyed ourselves on the hills and turns. We went off our route for a few miles to visit the small town of Paradox because, well, how can you not stop in a town called Paradox?

John C found a shortcut from CO 90 to CO 141 and soon we were on a dirt and gravel road that followed a river past old mines.

After 15 miles of slow and dusty riding we joined CO 141 and rode into Gateway, CO home of the Gateway Automobile Museum. Part of the Gateway Canyons Resort, the museum was created by John Hendrix, founder of the Discovery Channel. The museum is a manageable size, and features an excellent selection of cars ranging from the brass era to the 1960's. Although there are several European models, most of the cars are American.

The Kaiser Darin featured a sliding door that goes into the front fender.

A coffin-nosed Cord

A Hupmobile and an Indian board track racer

Frank Lloyd Wright's L-29 Cord is painted in Taliesen orange

This Oldsmobile Fiesta is all about 50's style.

As is this Cadillac

This Oldsmobile show car was acquired by the museum and restored at great expense.

To me the star of the museum is this Hudson Terraplane with a one-off convertible body.

We had a late lunch at the resort restaurant, and continued on 141 to US 50, and then at Delta rode east on CO 92. The day was beginning to cloud up and we had a few sprinkles as we rode through Crawford (Joe Cocker has a ranch there) and gradually descended to ride along the Gunnison River.

We joined US 50 and rode east for a few miles before we found a campground on a lake and stopped for the night.

 

Hard to believe that Carol and I used to travel across the country on my R75/5 with all our camping gear. Now I have all that gear just for me, with no room for a passenger.

The next morning we rode into Gunnison where we had breakfast and walked around a bit downtown. It's a picturesque old town and there's a college there, so there are plenty of coffee shops and music stores. We continued on US 50 over Monarch Pass (11,300 feet) to Poncha Springs and went north on US 285, a major route from the mountain vacation lands to Denver. We hit several hard rain showers and went over more high passes before we connected with the Denver freeway system. John C exited in Denver to visit a friend, John P rode up to Fort Collins to visit his sister, and I rode into Boulder to visit my daughter, who is in Law School at the University of Colorado. My daughter and I visited my wife's niece in nearby Louisville, and outside their house they have a Little Free Library. This is an international movement and later in 2013 I saw a similar library in Sarlat, a small town in France.

John C met me in Boulder, and he and I rode to Fort Collins where we met John P at a BMW shop there. I was a little concerned about my rear tire, but they said it was good for at least another 1000 miles, and anyway they couldn't replace since they were booked up. We went west on scenic CO 14 over Cameron Pass (10,300 feet) and stopped in Walden at CO 126 for dinner at the Moose Creek Cafe. We rode north on CO 126 and spent the night at a private campground near the Wyoming border.

 

The next day we rode north on WY 230 through the mountains to I-80 where we went west into Rawlins and stopped for gas. A new BMW R1200R had passed me on the Interstate, and when I stopped next to the gas station pump I noticed that the same BMW was on the other side. The rider said, "Hey, I used to have a bike just like that." I saw that the rider was a woman, we looked at each other, and then we both realized that we'd met three years ago at a gas station in Austin, Nevada. At that time I was on the same R1150R and she was on a new R1150GS, but she said that she'd sold her R1150R like mine to buy the GS, and she was sorry she had because the GS was just too heavy and tall. She said that she was on her way back home in the east and that she would probably sell the GS and buy a new R. True to her word, she bought the R and this year she was on her way to Washington to visit a friend. We all agreed that it was indeed a small world.

John and Leslie show off their Aerostich suits.

We left Rawlins and rode on US 287 through the Rockies and around the Great Divide Basin towards Yellowstone. At Moran Junction we went south on US 89/191 to Jackson, WY with a nice view of the Grand Teton Mountains on the right.

Jackson had the usual mid-Summer traffic and crowds, but we managed to find rooms at a motel just south of town.