Swag

Some swag, epic travel story coming

Dang I hate teasers......but you did have a pic so can't get too upset

Yeah, he defeated the "pics or it didn't happen " thing right away.

Story man tell us a story!

Story or it didn't happen

Well, deep subject here, I do know 4 of the patches are for real. Why, I was with him. All the rest he was on his own!



Pikes Peak





Million Dollar Highway - Silverton



Hells Canyon Rally



He earned a Palo Duro Canyon patch also, but as ugly as he is, the concession lady at the Texas musical just would not sell him one. She did not want to ruin the beauty of the Canyon.

OCR you killed the messenger !

Shouldn't there also be a patch for helping pick up OCR's bike?

West coast trip

OCR and I left for Abilene our 1st stop, stayed in Abilene state park, nice camp ground.



Next off to Palo Duro Canyon the grand canyon of Texas, my first taste of the desert heat that will follow me for the rest of my trip. Excellent stage show sorry couldn't take pics during the performance.












Now off to Colorado, Pikes peak.

Nice little campground just downhill from the peak



Start of the ride was pretty tense, rain and fog was told we may be turned rounded up the mountain-we went anyway.



Glad we did, 8 miles up we rode through the clouds to the mid way checkpoint











and on to the top, BTW (lol) hands hurt from squeezing the grips so hard, lots of pucker factor.



Now off to Million dollar Highway. Crossing through this part of Colorado was amazing, stayed in a little campground about an hour from Ouray the start of the uphill Million dollar highway run.





And ended up in Silverton for lunch and off across the Continental Divide through Durango toward Utah the start of the Hwy 84 run to Oregon, one of the toughest rides I had made yet the fun was ending.







The forests of Colorado ended as we latched on to Hwy 191 through the Moab desert of Utah- OH !! think we saw Silver Hound out in the middle of no where Utah the only saving grace of this run. Blistering heat and mind numbing bland scenery, then replaced by fierce crosswinds stinging ice cold rain as we headed through Price, no where to stay we pressed on. Soon we were up in the mountains again Provo started appearing on the road signs we had a target to shoot for. At last we made Provo, after 15 hours of hard riding we comando camped behind the dumpster at a KOA. Next morning I was pissed, KOA charged full price for our "campsite"!







Catching 84 in Salt Lake city we headed to Idaho, people talk about the beautiful mountains of Idaho, that ain't what I saw, flat rolling hills of desert, 108 degree heat, blistering hot head winds that had us in 4th gear to cross the hill tops, bugs so big that one broke the face shield of OCR, they were redoing one lane of 84 so we were single file at 30 mph with the slaughter house trucks for hours, but we did have a nice lunch in somewhere Idaho. We stayed the night in Mountain Home. Not many pictures.





Finally to Oregon, just about out of gas we pulled off to refuel, turns out there's a biker rally in Baker Oregon!! OCR is in patch heaven.



I think it goes the other way Jim








Off to meet up with those Washington boys so we continue on 84, did you know that the Columbia river gorge is like the windiest place on earth? I do now, we camped across the river from Stevenson our meeting place.





So we meet up, one word of warning in Washington state they have this beer called IPA-beware, this is no ordinary beer, I enjoyed a few with my fresh salmon grilled to perfection and when I got to the motel I fell in a bush and passed out in bed.

(Columbia river gorge)


(dude who grilled my salmon)


Those Washington boys were demons, I never saw guys ride as fast as they did over the trails through the forest, I was awestruck.

(Allen-Nortwestrider, organizer)








Facing the fact that I was way over matched by this trail (there's a reason only a few make the whole trail every year) and I needed my motorcycle to go home on, OCR got hurt and needed some recuperating time before Alaska we did the honorable thing and pulled out. Those Washington boys were gracious and would have looked after us the whole way (they must have some Texas blood in them) but we were really holding them back too. It was the right thing to do. There will be times for lazy day rides later, but not now. OCR and I separated and I headed for the coast, looking on the map for a small line (small hwy, OCR trick) I picked Hwy 6 out of Portland, turned out to be one of my favorite rides this outing, it went through the Tillamook forest, going downhill through sweeping high speed turns was just what the doctor ordered 101 was a beautiful landing spot. Then I turned left, down the coast I go.









Lots of wineries in Oregon, what goes good with rice and beans?













Down the coast I go, slow, slow slow, next time I'll cut over sooner, did I say 101 was slow?

















(coffee time)


Finally to Cali, did I say 101 is slow? And the Redwoods, if you ever walked into a cathedral and just started to whisper for no reason it was the same feelings I got in the forest, they called them "groves" I took a route called the "Avenue of the Giants" which went through many of these groves, each grove had a particular name. Even stopped at the Chandler tree.













(yes that's a fire truck)






















Time to head to moms, visit some family, some nice riding up at Donner pass during a day ride.







That box looking thing on the mountainside is the original transcontinental railroad. The rock is such a hard granite that often the black powder would only flash and not crack the rock, they only made 6 inches a day.







Time to go, will try to make home in 4 days. Did not want to take I-10, would have to have gone through LA adding untold hours to my already long trip, I-40 it is. Left Rocklin CA at 3 am to beat the rush hour traffic in Sacramento took 99 to 58 and caught 40 in Barstow to Kingman AZ, hardest leg of the trip, temp through Needles 110, I guess during a ride you reach a point where you have to reach deep with in yourself to finish, this was it for me, my refuge was some Taco Bell in the Desert where I cooled off and drank from the soda bar, got my mind right and made it to Kingman.

My reward, I stayed in a motel and had some beer




Yes that's a bag of ice, tried to fill the camelback with ice before each leg.


http://nc700-forum.com/forum/attach...d1407099650-swag-wp_20140725_19_54_24_pro.jpg



I was a boiler operator in the Navy, just love old locomotives


This was the place they tried to use camels instead of horses, guess it didn't work right.


They also had a great Vietnam memorial, nice place to visit if it wasn't summer, very biker friendly.


Not too many more pictures, rode to Albuquerque the next day, the KOA was horrible the worse I stayed in, the ride brutal. I was going back to Abilene to stay the night but made good time, so I continued on, rode from Albuquerque all the way to League City in 18hrs, I was dead tired and that was my trip!

My kitchen


Tool kit


Wardrobe


Tires after 5685 miles



One last thing I will never ever do a ride like this on knobbies again.