Monday, October 24, 2011
Day 8 - Road Trip 2011
Up early on Day 8, we take route 299 out of Redding, CA heading for the west coast. We stumble upon this neat town, rich in history.
 |
| Oh Hell Yea! Pacific Coast Hwy |
 |
| I have a better one somewhere.......but you get the jist |
 |
| Read to rock on down the road. |
Day 7 - Road Trip 2011
We head out of Reno Bright and early, remember all the snow that fell just days before our arrival? Well, now we are heading up and over the Sierra mountains, the same place that was all over the weather channel causing havoc on traffic. The word is that the road is clear. That might sound good, but is that clear for cars/trucks? does that mean it's just passable? but might run into spots of snow/ice? yea, well, only one way to find out I guess. We did run into a agricultural check point, which I had never seen before, and even tho the fella waived us on by, I stopped to inquire about the road conditions ahead. He says, all good, move along. The road conditions were all good, but once you peaked out up high, it was apparent, they received a lot of snow just days before. Either way, out of the mountains and the temperatures warmed up to mid 80's or so. Time to shed all the gear, we have reached sunny cali.
Welcome centers are usually right after the state line and off an exit out here in the east, but in Cali, many miles in, and you exit into a town. Not only that, they are all over Cali, in some odd places. Just seemed odd. This train was right behind the welcome center.
After George collected his Cali Map, we headed to Sacramento, CA . It's Friday and like any good Pastor, I expected Pastor Doug to be working on his sermon for the week. So we Stopped in to see if we could visit for a min. No luck, he decided to work from home this day. Shucks, but they let us in for a look see. I have a good picture from inside, I will have to hunt down and add later.
Next it was off to the famous Folsom Prison. Not much to see, cos I didn't want to pay the $2 for entry to the museum, I had heard that the old guards make you feel as you are bothering them and they have better things to do, so just a quick glance around the yard would do. I asked if we could bring the bikes in to take a shot of the bikes in front of the guard tower, they said NO! Not really the best place to test your luck against the man. In this photo, I'm already several feet past were it says, Visitors strictly prohibited beyond this point. So I tested it a little :-)
Friday, October 21, 2011
Day 6 Road Trip 2011
There are no pics of day 6 just a story.
Story goes like this, when we left West Yellowstone yesterday, we learned about heavy snow fall in the California Mountains and a cold front moving across the country. We felt this AM Day 5 and all day 6. The big plan was to just head south as quick as possible, interstates and skipping whatever between there and Reno. What this meant was The Bonneville Salt flats would be missed along with the Loneliest Hwy in America. Sad, but needed to be done. We were looking at a day or two of lost travel time if we didn't make some good choices quick. Heading south seemed to be the best bet, looking back, I think heading due west would have been better cos the snow/ice never went above Nevada or Cali. so Oregon might have been a better choice, however, anytime you think snow, ice, and freezing temps, you just think, head south.
So we decided to find a decent size town somewhere in Nevada in case we were stranded for a day or so. We choose Elko, NV Pretty decent town, and we stayed at a casino so we knew there would be plenty to do. Next morning we wake up and the temps are below freezing, so we make a quick call to wait till the sun comes up. We start packing up around 10am or so and by 10:30 or so we are trying to head west, thinking me may have to enter Cali via death valley since we know there will not be snow or ice there.
Well, we certainly didn't have luck on our side, as we left Elko we start up this mountain pass, and as we are up some what, it starts to snow, then more snow, it's a freakin blizzard I say, where do i turn around, yea, good luck with that, then the sleet starts.... OMG! We are gonna crash and these big trucks are gonna run over us killing us for sure. I start to think, I could pull over, but will george see me? what about brakes? will i slide and crash? This isn't good... more and more snow, I'm wiping my visor every 10 seconds or so cos the sleet build up and can't see thru it. we are down to 30mph, trucks are passing us about 35mph, we are gonna die, I thought Nevada was flat and desert like, WTH! we gonna die... This is it....hope it's quick. I had been very vocal with God the whole way on this trip, seems I talk to God everytime I'm on my bike. I resisted the urge to bargain with God. I didn't want to say, "if you get me thru this I will....whatever" Just asked for guidance thru this mess and whatever happened, would happen...
well, since your reading this and i'm writing it, you know we made it, we just pushed on, cos it didn't seem any worse and idea than anything else, all choices seemed to be about equal. But as soon as we got off that mountain, we pulled into a rest stop to calm me down. Ice built up all over the bike, I wrote my name on the wind shield. I told George, If we see any thing else, Ice or snow, I will stop in my tracks at the first flake and I meant that.
We stop in at a town called Battle Mountain, NV for some lunch and to discuss our options, we decide that the safe bet to enter Cali is going to be death valley and so we head south. About 30 miles south, Snow/Sleet again. I stop and although George thought it would be over quick, there was no way I would be going any further in that direction. So we turned around, back to Battle Mountain and hit the interstate headed for Reno. Again, if we get stranded for a day or so, it best be in a good size city. The rest of this day went off without a hitch and we arrived in Reno and Stayed at the Nugget that the San Jose Hells Angels president was killed, shot in the back 4 times just a few weeks prior.
While we are sitting in the Casino, I ask the bartender where the shooting took place, he came from behind the bar and walked me to the end of the bar and started telling me blow for blow of what took place, he was working that day and had first hand knowledge. In short, this is the bar "Trader Dicks" where he was killed.
This is the Hotel Casino we stayed at
Story goes like this, when we left West Yellowstone yesterday, we learned about heavy snow fall in the California Mountains and a cold front moving across the country. We felt this AM Day 5 and all day 6. The big plan was to just head south as quick as possible, interstates and skipping whatever between there and Reno. What this meant was The Bonneville Salt flats would be missed along with the Loneliest Hwy in America. Sad, but needed to be done. We were looking at a day or two of lost travel time if we didn't make some good choices quick. Heading south seemed to be the best bet, looking back, I think heading due west would have been better cos the snow/ice never went above Nevada or Cali. so Oregon might have been a better choice, however, anytime you think snow, ice, and freezing temps, you just think, head south.
So we decided to find a decent size town somewhere in Nevada in case we were stranded for a day or so. We choose Elko, NV Pretty decent town, and we stayed at a casino so we knew there would be plenty to do. Next morning we wake up and the temps are below freezing, so we make a quick call to wait till the sun comes up. We start packing up around 10am or so and by 10:30 or so we are trying to head west, thinking me may have to enter Cali via death valley since we know there will not be snow or ice there.
Well, we certainly didn't have luck on our side, as we left Elko we start up this mountain pass, and as we are up some what, it starts to snow, then more snow, it's a freakin blizzard I say, where do i turn around, yea, good luck with that, then the sleet starts.... OMG! We are gonna crash and these big trucks are gonna run over us killing us for sure. I start to think, I could pull over, but will george see me? what about brakes? will i slide and crash? This isn't good... more and more snow, I'm wiping my visor every 10 seconds or so cos the sleet build up and can't see thru it. we are down to 30mph, trucks are passing us about 35mph, we are gonna die, I thought Nevada was flat and desert like, WTH! we gonna die... This is it....hope it's quick. I had been very vocal with God the whole way on this trip, seems I talk to God everytime I'm on my bike. I resisted the urge to bargain with God. I didn't want to say, "if you get me thru this I will....whatever" Just asked for guidance thru this mess and whatever happened, would happen...
well, since your reading this and i'm writing it, you know we made it, we just pushed on, cos it didn't seem any worse and idea than anything else, all choices seemed to be about equal. But as soon as we got off that mountain, we pulled into a rest stop to calm me down. Ice built up all over the bike, I wrote my name on the wind shield. I told George, If we see any thing else, Ice or snow, I will stop in my tracks at the first flake and I meant that.
We stop in at a town called Battle Mountain, NV for some lunch and to discuss our options, we decide that the safe bet to enter Cali is going to be death valley and so we head south. About 30 miles south, Snow/Sleet again. I stop and although George thought it would be over quick, there was no way I would be going any further in that direction. So we turned around, back to Battle Mountain and hit the interstate headed for Reno. Again, if we get stranded for a day or so, it best be in a good size city. The rest of this day went off without a hitch and we arrived in Reno and Stayed at the Nugget that the San Jose Hells Angels president was killed, shot in the back 4 times just a few weeks prior.
While we are sitting in the Casino, I ask the bartender where the shooting took place, he came from behind the bar and walked me to the end of the bar and started telling me blow for blow of what took place, he was working that day and had first hand knowledge. In short, this is the bar "Trader Dicks" where he was killed.
Day 5 Road Trip 2011
So, not much to say about day 5, we left west yellowstone with it raining and 37 degrees, we didn't stop much and certainly not much to take pics of.
Elko, NV
We learned that Steve Jobs finally died and the whole iSad movement.
We learned that Steve Jobs finally died and the whole iSad movement.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
