Recap - Stephanie

This was a fantastic trip!  My favorite part of it all was spending the 3 weeks with Kevin.  It's amazing how much fun and enjoyment he and I get from each other and how perfectly compatible we are.  He asked if I would ever do something like this again - Heck Yes!!  Only I would prefer to go somewhere and spend a couple to three days at that location and then move on to another location and stay a while.  We found so many places on this trip that we wished we'd stayed longer and not just busted through.  Next trip!!

The Victory Motorcycles never missed a lick either.  What wonderful machines they are - powerful and comfortable, couldn't ask for more!  Kevin's didn't like some of the gas out West, but that was the only issue we had and was easily remedied by a small bottle of fuel additive.  My bike didn't have an issue with the gas which is odd, since they are the same bike, just different body styles.  Strange.

My only misgivings on this trip was not stopping for 3 photo opportunities - one was of a group of wild horses in tall grasses with mountains in the background and a beautiful blue sky with nice white fluffy clouds, another was of fence posts with a boot on top of each post upside down (the post was "wearing" the boot).  I'm guessing this went over for at least a mile.  And the third one was of a dead cedar tree with hundreds of pairs of shoes, tied into pairs with the shoe laces, hanging in it.  I am still kicking myself for not taking the time to stop and get those shots.  Oh well, live and learn and by golly, next time I will take the time to stop!

Again, this was by far the best vacation I've ever taken, and I owe that to Kevin - his companionship  on this trip was the icing on the cake. 

I've finally had a little time to go through some of the videos and am posting a couple more.  Pacific Highway again along with Port Hole and one of the Utah Canyons.   

Thank you all for joining us on this trip via our Boo and Rat's Big Adventure blog.  It was great to be able to share our adventures with you and hope you enjoyed them as much as we did.  Until next time! Oh, official miles for this trip was 7,029.  Kevin is the big winner of our contest we started before the trip "Guess How Many Miles We'll Do".  He guessed 7,000, I guessed 10,000.  Glad he won!  Congrats honey!  Doug, you were a very close 2nd!

Stephanie

Sunset

Pacific Highway video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORxSxw0kXpE

Utah Canyons (not sure what happened to the quality of the video, but it disappeared)  :(

Port Hole
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYEKYiC6BEs

Day 22-23 Colby, KS to Lawrenceburg, KY - Kevin

One last ride.

Not much to say about the ride. It was nothing but fuel stops and grabbing snacks and 5 hour energys for 14+ hours and nearly 1,000 miles.
Summary of the trip:

1- 3 great weeks 24/7 with my wonderful wife.

2- Thousands of miles of back roads seeing America. I want to do this again when I retire with more time. We tried to travel the old US Highways, they are easy to recognize by being a posted number on a shield. These old roads were the original transit routes. They contain all the old stores, motels, gas stations, homes, churches and what I really liked was the old theaters. I could spend some serious time stopping and photographing all of these.

3- The people, we met amazing amount of friendly people. Except for the rude people in Great Falls, MT Walmart, then we realized we were at Walmart what did we expect. People seem to gravitate to a couple riding on loaded down motorcycles for some reason. It was rare for us to stop anywhere and not for someone or more to approach us and start chatting.

4- The National Parks. Glacier we want to return to spend some real quality time there. Beartooth Hwy would like to see in better weather, a thunderstorm and heavy rain would have been better than the conditions we went through. Poor timing on going through Yellowstone, Labor Day weekend. The waterfalls of Columbia River Gorge are plentiful and huge.

Lessons learned:

1- Pack warmer clothes and wear my leather jacket no the summer mesh jacket... dope!

2- Buy that heel toe shifter, top of my foot still hurting after 3 weeks of shifting.

3- Pack the small pocket camera. So many photos I wanted but on a motorcycle its a job to stop get off the bike, remove helmet, dig slr camera from saddle bag and then back again. I passed on so many shots because of this.

4- Don't plan a trip with a holiday in the middle.

5- Skip on the camping. I did enjoy the few nights we camped but after a day of riding its much easier to find a hotel than find a campground and then set up camp. Not to mention the shear bulk of the equipment. The price of cheap motel isn't a lot more than a campsite.

Day 22 - Stephanie

14 hours, 10 minutes, and 957 miles later, WE ARE HOME!!!!  Can you say Iron Butt?!?  Yeah, I know, Iron Butt status is 1,000 miles, but we are claiming it anyway.  Now to find an Iron Butt patch. 

It's 3:20 am right now.  More later, need some sleep right now. 

Day 21 - Stephanie

Well, the countdown to the end is well on it's way.  Only one more day of riding (hopefully), but knowing us, we will be pulling in Sunday some time.  Kevin mentioned that he was doing fantasy math in his mind and said that if we were on the road at 6 am and we rode hard, we could be home by midnight Saturday.  Again, fantasy math. 

493 miles today.  Kevin told me to go ride up and down the road for another 7 miles to hit the 500, I won't post my reply. 

We were both chilled to the bone by the time we rolled into Colby, KS.  We started the day out in the low 40's at the campsite from...............  fill in the blank yourself, I didn't want to offend anyone, next to the Colorado River.  The one good thing I got from that campsite was a star shot over the river (so when you see it and you're wondering what is on the side, that's the bank with the tall grasses).  Temps climbed up into the low 60's and then boom!  We went over the edge into Denver.  It was like traveling into another world!  From 64 degrees and sunny, to 35 degrees and snow on the trees.  We never hit it above 47 after that and the temps just kept dropping.  Heated/electric gear time!  Actually, we had that gear on before we went over into Denver, just to be on the safe side.  Sometimes we our dumb luck pays out.

We almost had a huge mishap at the exit before Strausborg, CO (where my sister just moved back to Louisville, KY from).  Some ingenious people hauling an over-sized load, stopped before an overpass and just beyond a curve on I-70.  Apparently they were out of their vehicles and on the road to see if the load would fit.  Kevin and I nearly, and literally, slammed into stopped traffic just around the curve going at a 75 mph lick.  He started yelling "Whoa whoa whoa!!" on our intercoms and I just said "Oh crap!" (not really the word I used).  He went one way to avoid cars and I went up a convenient exit ramp the other way to avoid my line of cars.  We were separated for a bit, but finally joined up again at Strausborg.  We congratulated each other for our quick reflexes, and, rubbery legs in tow, started down the Interstate again.  So glad my honey is quick brained

We rode into Kansas looking for Dorothy and Toto.  Even they were smart enough to stay in!  Dreary and overcast and cold! 

Just after getting into Kansas we saw a pink car up in the air and a diner behind it.  What the heck!  Off we went.  We consoled ourselves with Elvis Fries (french fries with a creamy gravy and cheese on top), not bad, but not great.  I splurged and had chicken fried steak while he had the Adkins Revenge omelet.  My chicken was topped with green salsa, which saved the meal.  Poor Kevin, alas, again, got the short end of the stick.  

So, to end today, we are in Colby, KS, NOT at a mom and pop's motel.  We were busted earlier today for eating at a Burger King (won't mention any names LM!  LOL) so Kevin has called off the pursuit of real America.  Now it's all about comfort and heat. 

Not many pics taken today, also uploading a big video I took with our Polaroid helmet cam while going some beautiful UT canyons!  (You tube is telling me it still has 467 minutes remaining.  Sooooo, hopefully by morning it will be ready to upload). 

Wish us luck tomorrow to fulfill Kevin's fantasy math!  And I hope this has been the trip he dreamed it would be to celebrate his 50th year on this earth.  Happy birthday again Love!

Rest area in CO - No Name Rest Area

Star spiral taken over Colorado River

Day 21 Fruita, Co to Colby, KS - Kevin

All Interstate-70 All the Time

Our day started comically. Whoever came up with the "Round about traffic Control" idea was a dement individual and I hope they spend eternity chasing their imaginary tail in a warm place. We entered the circle from hades and made the first right onto what we thought was I-70 there were 2 rights on this 5 exit round about???? We wound up in a rest area with a cool helicopter mounted on a pole. Second attempt a truck pulled from the first of 2 right turns blocking Stephanie from exiting onto I-70. This was an omen that we needed caffeine and abandoned the circle from hades and drove straight ahead to the Burger King for a caffeine fix. No sooner did we sit down to start our caffeine injections one of our SPOT followers busted Stephanie via text saying Burger King wasn't the breakfast of champions. That made our day and almost made us forget about that stupid round about. Caffeine levels stable we attempted the circle again and the third time was a charm we were on the interstate!!!
The next 3 hours to Denver were beautiful. The interstate followed the Colorado River most of the way to the Rockies. The engineers designing this highway should have won some kind of award. The westbound lanes on pillars towering above the eastbound lanes in places, it's really hard to describe most roads you travel and never notice the structure. This road grabs your attention almost as much as the scenery around you. Then there are the ski towns Vail, Copper, Arrowhead, Breckenridge and others awesome to see from the road. Several old mining towns reinvented as tourist traps are along the way one of which we stopped for the rest area. While getting ready to leave a gentleman stopped to chat bikes with us and told us of the snow ahead towards Denver.... NO!!! We had been driving in comfortable low 60's all morning, surely he was wrong. As we started the last few summits towards Denver the temp started dropping, all the way down to 35... yea above freezing!!! On the final summit we could see white pine trees up high, pine trees don't come from the factory in a white color.... not good. There was a dense white fog veiling the summit but no snow! Then it seemed like the fog was freezing to the grass, trees and shrubs but the not road, the road was clear. Made it through the Denver combat driving course unscathed only to come to an incident on the "should be an open road" about 30 miles east of town. Stephanie and I got separated being expelled off the interstate on different exits but thankfully in the only area we actually knew. We met up about a half hour later found a safe spot to get off the interstate and pulled the cork on a bourbon bottle and looked at each other and said WOW!  Too close to give details but it was close enough for me to take a drink and drive afterwards( this even amazed Steph something I don't do ).
The temp from the final pass before Denver never got above 44 and by the time we got to a hotel I was shivering. Took the longest hot shower I've ever had and calling it a night.
We have bout 950 miles to go to get home. We lost another hour in a time zone today and hopefully will lose another tomorrow because that means we are almost home.
Great day of riding and I love that my honey has great reflexes a cool head in a tight situations. Great job baby!!
Oh yeah enjoy the only pic I took today... LOL

Day 20 Ely, NV to Fruita, CO - Kevin

Doing "The Ton"

Left Ely, NV and head out again eastward on Hwy 50. After the second summit and about halfway across a huge basin came the realization that I haven't done "The Ton" on this bike. The road ahead and the road in the rear view was deserted. A long straight ribbon of asphalt that faded into a the horizon ahead. Already traveling 70 mph I dropped down into 5th gear and the big Vic started to rumble, cracked the throttle and it roared. Heavily weighted down with camping gear it began to start buffering and I looked at the speedo and we were at 105 mph, good enough we made "The Ton" in moments flat.
All total we travel another 222 miles of the loneliest highway. The sections in Nevada were beautiful as before, unless you like buildings, side roads, anything manmade because they are not there. The Utah section started pretty but quickly became arid and unattractive. We also lost a hour when crossing the time zone at the Nevada/Utah line, that hurts when trying to get back quickly. But once on I-70 Utah became beautiful. How Stephanie kept her bike on the road is a mystery. The landscape was stunning with huge bizarre rock formations to canyons on both sides of the interstate. Not a straight road either as it twisted around, climbed summits and dropped down just as quick. After a while we had to stop so she could get her camera and put on the helmet cam.
Made it through Utah safely and into Colorado where we found a campground and chilling for the night.
Still have 1,400 miles to get home and once we go another 220 miles we will be on the eastern side of the Rockies.... :-(   The Great Plains await us with about 1,100 miles of boredom until we see our beloved hills back home.
Great Day With My Honey!!!!

View from a summit on Hwy 50 in Nevada

One owner low miles make offer

View looking into a basin of Hwy 50 Nevada

Seen lots of old gas stations but this one still had its pumps!!

Utah, this is a plain looking rock formation compared to the others

Day 20 - Stephanie

Miles today 446, were again short of the 500 needed, and we once again said "We'll make it up tomorrow".  Do you know how difficult it is to NOT stop in canyons beautiful beyond belief, with rock coloration's impossible to describe?  Not doable!  I finally put on "Polly" our helmet cam and captured videos (I hope because I haven't seen them yet), and pics.  I also strapped on my camera, putting it in sports mode, and snapped pics as we rode at 80 mph through the Utah canyons.

I can tell you the part of UT coming out of NV is zzzzzz, boring.  We finally hit some "hills" and then went through zzzzz boring again.  Flat, dry, and just nothing to write about.

But before all of that, we left our jail cell in Ely, NV at the Jailhouse Saloon and Motel, still following Hwy 50, the Loneliest Hwy.  We may have made it 20 miles before stopping to photograph the distant mountains and for me, some beautiful yellow flowers growing alongside the road. 


We then made it to Visitor's Center for the Great Basin National Park in Baker, NV.  En route I saw a few birds of pray on telephone lines and told Kevin I wanted to photograph them if they were still there on the way out.  After getting our "geek" books stamped and buying a few patches to have sewn on our vests (or chaps) and some stickers for the trunks of our bikes and our helmets, Kevin spotted an old rusted piece of a vehicle and went off to photograph that.  Coming back from that he said he had seen the biggest rabbits in his life and they were too fast for him to get a pic of.

Off we left to see if the birds were still up on their perches.  The first one was, and I was skeptical that he was just a vulture.  But after getting some "OK" shots of him and using my Merlin app to to identify him, we realized we got several shots of a Golden Eagle!  The app advised they were uncommon so we were thrilled to have seen one.  Kevin actually saw a young one in flight and was able to identify it, but I missed it.

We played several "guess the number" games today to occupy ourselves (have I said we are easily entertained)?  One game Kevin invented 2 days ago was to guess the day and time when we would see CORN (or in our lingo "Kern!" LOL) again.  I said Thursday at 1:30 pm local time.  He said Friday some time.  We saw a big field of it today at 12:05 pm local time.  Ding ding, I win.  Yesterday he won most of the our "guess it" games.

We are now at a campground in CO alongside a river.  It was not at all what we thought it would be.  We should have gone another 47 miles to the next camping sight.  This one is right next to I70 and is mosquito infested.  I'm actually sitting next to the river shooting star shots (milky-way hopefully) with a mosquito net over my head.  Kevin is back in the safety of our tent.

Well, trying to think of something exciting to write about, but failing miserably.  In lieu, here's some pics.  Videos will have to wait until we are on real WiFi.  We are using our phones as a hotspot for pics.

About 20 Miles from Ely, NV on Hwy 50

Somewhere about 50 miles inside UT line on Hwy 50

Add caption

At Visitor's Center of Great Basin National Park

On Hwy 50 In UT

Somewhere in Hwy 50

Taken while riding

Taken while riding

Taken while riding

Taken while riding

Taken while riding

Yep, taken while riding

NOT taken while riding.  Devil's Canyon

Campsite at sunset

Lizard at Visitor's Center for Great Basin National Park

Golden Eagle!

Red Tailed Hawk

Day 19 Chico, CA to Ely, NV - Kevin

"Oh Dear God Honey the Hell's Angels are coming after us!"

Okay whoever thought I could stick to a plan was mistaken. The plan was to start making haste towards home via the interstate system. Except maybe taking Hwy 20 over the Sierra Nevada's then picking up I-80 into Reno and points beyond. Hwy 20 through Tahoe National Forest was beautiful with towering pines lining the road with occasional scenic overlooks to the valleys below. Besides Hwy 20 eventually dumps you onto I-80, so we considered it an alternative on ramp to the interstate system. I-80 winding along the Nevada border was beautiful too, crossing the Donner Pass, I hear you can get great Indian food there ( I crack myself up) beautiful until the Nevada line. Nevada thought it a good idea to grind the highway smooth except for all the grooves it left behind which is a motorcyclist nightmare. The traffic was crazy from the tourist and we gleefully exited on the main strip and pulled into the first big casino, Circus Circus. While eating a cheap buffet I pondered over the map. Hwy 50 goes straight across the state with few towns and we could make about the same time traveling Hwy 50. SOLD!

Highway 50 is known by many names here. The first people using this route was the Overland Express followed by the Pony Express. Dotted along the trip across the state were many old out posts and historical markers. It is later known as the Lincoln Highway, a route built 1913 connecting New York City to San Francisco. Then in 1986 Life magazine named it The Loneliest Road in America because of the large expanse of nothing. When we started in Fallon, NV we filled our tanks and ask the attendant how far to the next town. 2 hours at 70 mph to the next town of Austin, then another hour to Eureka and then another hour to Ely. A lot of open area and was it beautiful to boot. Not much vegetation just these little round bushes everywhere. Most of the riding was in  flat "basins" surrounded by mountains, drive for a while go over a mountain pass and back into another desolate basin. All of which was 6,000 to 8,000 feet which made for comfortable riding in the mid to low 80 degrees and sunshine.... gorgeous! Made it into Eureka at sunset with another 77 miles to Ely, not crazy about riding  in the dark where the cautions signs alternate from Open Range Cattle to Deer to Elk. About 50 miles from Ely pitch black we are catching up to the taillights of a truck, perfect a blocker we can  follow. About a half mile before catching him I see him tap his brakes, to tired to register why I kept going, then to my right just beside the road.... ELK!!!! I start yelling over the radio to Steph ...ELK ELK ELK.... but she didn't see it until she passed it on the right. Hearts pounding and wide awake as ever, we were happy to be following this truck closely..... then he TURNED!!!  POOH! Alone again in the dark. After a while Steph saw headlights in her mirror, we pulled over and waited... and waited... and waited, you can see stuff a long way off out here. A little white car passed us sitting off to the side of the road and we quickly pulled out to follow them as our shield. Now the car wasn't going very fast on this 70 mph road when they passed but something changed after we pulled out. The little car sped up and was flying I was easily able to keep up but when I reached 75 and they were pulling away I backed down. Even with a blocker car I'm not going that fast in the dark here. Then Steph and started laughing, these poor people probably thought we were some motorcycle gang waiting in the dark looking for victims. We laughed and laughed joking how they were probably in the next town telling the cops of their peril. Close. When we pulled into Ely there was the little white car with a police cruiser parked behind them with lights flashing. Opps, we kind of feel guilty about them getting pulled over, but we saw no benefit of apologizing for it would have probably ended poorly.
Staying here in Ely and hoping our tires are not flat in the morning.
Another Great day and I'm not making any statements on what route we are taking next... who knows!

Sierra Nevada overlook

The Loneliest road in America

Eureka, NV

Heck its dark we can stop its not going to get darker

Ely, NV

Staying here

Day 19 - Stephanie

491 miles today - just 9 shy of the 500 mark.  Thought about riding up and down the road for another 9 miles but opted not to. 

Up at 6 am to shower, pack, and find laundromat.  Then panic of me misplacing my key, Kevin has a  spare so fear not, I will ride.  After tearing up the room, searching the parking lot, and bugging the front desk guys looking for the key, Kevin asked if I had looked in my shorts pocket - bingo!  All is good in my universe again.  Thanks honey!  

Laundry done, food in Kevin, and coffee in me, on the road again.  Hold on Casper, mom and dad are coming home!

We left Chico, CA in search of the Loneliest Highway, Hwy 50.  So far this trip we have been on Historic Route 66, 99 and 30.  After navigating through Marysville, CA and passing Beale Airforce Base (where my brother was stationed and his two children, Jon and Catherine, were born, we made it as far as Reno.  First we passed through the Donner Pass and by Donner Lake.  It's a shame the Donner Party had things of that beauty named after them.

By the time we made it to Reno, hunger had set in again and we thought, hey, while in Reno may as well hit a casino.  We went to Circus Circus (we have now hit both Vegas and Reno ones - wonder if there are more out there for us?).  We passed on donating any money to the slot machines and opted for an all-you-can-eat buffet.  Once bellies were full, we jumped on Interstate 80 for a short while and reclaimed our sanity on Hwy 50.  I see why this is called the loneliest road in America!  Desolate but beautiful and so peaceful!  We didn't have to contend with 18 wheelers and the speed limit most of the way was 70 mph, so we were able to made good time.  

On that road we were able to follow part of the Pony Express route, travel along the Earthquake Fault Lines, travel Lincoln Highway, ands pass by the Naval Air Station in Fallon, hoping a low flying aircraft would buzz us.  All of this on that one road.  We traveled hairpin curves, experienced dust bowls, and rode in the Great Basin.  We didn't see any wildlife until dark when a Jackrabbit ran in front of Kevin and he barely missed the big bunny, and then we both just missed a horrible crash with a huge Elk that was just on the shoulder of the road.  This incident gave us both the needed adrenaline to make it the rest of the way to Ely.   After the scary Elk episode, we realized there was a car several miles behind us (amazing the distance you can see out on that road!).  We pulled over into a chain up area and waited, hoping to use that car as a "deer and elk block".  They passed us at a normal speed.  We pulled out behind them, lo and behold, they must have thought a biker gang was after them because they hit the gas pedal and never looked back.  We let them go, shame two KY people scared them that way.  LOL.  We jokingly said to each other that they were probably getting into town as quickly as possible to warn the police of us.  As we finally topped the last hill and around the final curve to get into town, we did see police lights ahead of us and wondered if the police were waiting on us.  Nope.  The car we had pulled out behind had been pulled over.  Oops. 

We tried to stop and pics things, but time is not on our side at this point.  We are going to try to continue with roads like we were on today since neither of us is excited about riding on Interstates with the semi's.  

Rita Turner the first pic is for you.  

Tomorrow we should be able to get our miles in before dark since laundry is done until we get back home.  And I still want to upload some videos of the Pacific Coast Highway from our helmet cam, but every night am too tired to fool with it.  Soon, I promise, because I want everyone to see how beautiful it is. 

Night for now.