Day 16 - Road Trip 2011 Over

Arrival home around 5pm on day 16 of the Greatest Road Trip I've ever had.  I plotted, I planned,  I replanned and went and saw what this country had to offer.  Some spot were better than others.  Some surprised me, some didn't.

The prize was California and the Goal was to make it home safe,  so the trip was a huge success.

Thoughts?  Would I do it again.?   Oh hell yea....  would I change it?  only because of what I now know.

Final mileage ? 8165 miles
Trip Cost?  I have no plans on figuring that out. :-)  but not bad, I dare anyone to take a 16 day vacation for less.

Any regrets?  Not really,  I hate we missed a couple things, but that gives us a reason to take another road trip :-)  already in the works :-)

Next Trip?  Florida 2012 Bike week with a few other stops, George already is schedule to drive a train south of Tampa :-)

Any other trips?  of course.  2012 part 2:  Michigan-Wisconsin-Iowa and everything in between.

jeez! any others?  Of course 2013 another two weeker around the country, maybe even Canada

Day 15 - Road Trip 2011

No pictures from this day,  as I have two days to arrive safe back in South Carolina.  I am just under 1400 miles from home and I will be solo the rest of the way, I am looking to get south of Memphis before end of this day.   



Success !

Day 14 - Road Trip 2011

Ok, say what you will, but we took the train up to the top.  For one, I couldn't possibly ride that road that goes to the top,  my fear of fall to my death from high elevations would keep me from that.  2nd, when we got to the COG Railway, it was 23 degrees up top.  When we arrived, it was 32, and with the windchill it felt like 9 degrees.   George woulda had no problems had it been a warmer day, but he is a train guy, so, no problems taking the train.  

Before this trip I had ever been above about 6k feet, and many times on this trip I was well above that, and now going up to 14k feet, it just did something to me, I felt funny after about 11k feet and didn't feel right till we were outta town.  This was an ok stop for me, nothing too special other than saying, been there done that.  Time to hit the road.

i was not feeling well at all........

After Pikes Peak, it was time to roll,  I wanted a warmer route than a quicker route,  so we headed due south.  I liked New Mexico, I know I'll be back, there is a lot of old west stuff here I need to see.  But not this trip....

Love me sum Texas.......   One day, I shall live here.......

Day 13 - Road Trip 2011

Arches National Park:  Much like the trek from Mexican Hat to Moab,  this place was one of the highlights for me.  These formation are just incredible.  I would trade 10 "grand" Canyons for Utah.

 

Enter Colorado.......  It was ok......big mountains and passes......bla bla bla......   Maybe in winter with snow would make it more worth seeing, but then, i wouldn't be here on a bike.

The Royal Gorge Bridge:   Something like 1000 feet high,  worlds highest bridge or something.  What stuck me odd here was the $15 just to see the bridge,  which, once we were told that included being able to ride across the bridge,  George was one happy camper.   Me?    I took a stroll across first,  just to see how I would handle this thing.  I wasn't doing so well, and the bridge you could feel moving beneath you.  Well, I told myself that this is probably the only time in my life, that I'll be here at this bridge with my motorcycle, and I just needed to Man my ass up and roll across or I would forever regret it.   So I did just that,  I put all my gear on,  told George to wait with the camera.  There is a 10mph limit on this bridge,  once I started on the bridge I pulled the throttle... Good thing there were no park police,  cos I flew over that thing.  And once you go over,  you guessed it, you gotta come back across.  I never looked over the edge.

not my pic, did a google image search and found it.

Headed to Colorado Springs..........Tomorrow Pikes Peak

Day 12 - Road Trip 2011

 Good thing we got into this park on the National Park pass,  cos I would have not been happy about paying the high fees to see this park.  Maybe my opinion would be different had I been at the bottom, looking up, but from the top down,  yea, I wasn't impressed at all.  But, been there, done that. That's about all I can say.

I guess this is an ELK since they had signs everywhere saying, "this is elk country" It wasn't locked up, those fence are there to keep these animals out, not working to well I don't think

A Few shot of this "grand" canyon

 bla bla bla.......boring (below) some watch tower thing that woulda been neat i bet had it not been a gift shop.

On to the good stuff......and For me,  Utah blew away just about everything else... Simply Awesome

Not quite to Utah yet, but this is a Bridge next to the Glen Canyon Dam,  crossed that bitch twice

 Just some Proof of my crossing :-)   it's a big bridge, high I mean

This is just a few miles away from the Glen Canyon Bridge,  It's called Horeshoe Bend....  Besides the silly hike down to this spot,  WOW!    this was well worth the hike......  very cool deal here, a must stop.

On to Utah

 Below is where Forrest Gump quite Running in the movie....  This whole area is something else, never seen anything like these formation before.  This area for me was 1000 times better than the "grand" canyon.

(above)  These guys I met back at the Utah Sign, we took each others pics with the welcome sign

Hole 'n the Rock..... Only open 9am to 5pm  WTH ?  So we just went on by,  headed to Moab...  I'm sure it's a tourist trap, but I wanted to go inside.   End of day in spent in Moab.   Neat Town for the Adventurist.