SLOVFR Coast to Coast

It sounds like the trip was akin to the T-Mobile motorcycle commercial except with a dude.

 

O
h my lord I'd like to know how he flew under the radar. epic... what? not even a go pro video? my my..

 

Day one and 600 miles till I can rest my head....Lompoc Ca to Beryl Utah

Ok so Ill start before I forget. Needed to get out and have not seen my brothers in awhile and wanted to do something before I got too old. I really loved the trip Reg and I took to Washington but that was several years ago and needed to hit the road. I had no real plan where I was going to stay but had a general idea. First leg from Lompoc Ca to Beryl Utah. As usual I don't leave at the crack of dawn and think it was closer to 10 am before I pulled out. First 200 feet and took my hands off the bar for whatever reason and some serious head steering shake. I then thought maybe I should leave the kitchen sink at home. I didn't want to wasted any more time rethinking what I was taking so to the gas station for my first fill up. Off for 17 days.




A few stops for gas and one at State Line where I found out what they did with the Old Enterprises Shuttle Pods:




Not much but some traffic thru Vegas and getting in that mess of stop and go traffic. So much for the "EXPRESS LANES"

I made it to the top of the grade in Utah just before St George as night fell. I pulled off the freeway to change out my tinted Visor. Before I left I mounted so driving lights to the lower forks and was hoping to see how they worked on the real road. Well not much for extra lighting to see by and it sure put a toll on the charging system dropping it about 1-1.5 volts. So not much light running. After turning them off it seemed it took awhile for the system to recover. I had two extra R/R's with me so I figured Id check it at dads one day.










Got to dads after dark and I think around 9:30pm. Stayed there Saturday and helped diagnose a broken dishwasher and we took a car trip to Cedar City Walmart and to eat. I bought a better tent at wal mart and left the smaller tent in one of his many piles for him to deal with . We looked at his old MBZ that was having charging issues and shot some firearms of course. Dad decided I needed a traving companion and I found a nice place for it. Two shot Darringer, nice. But I did have the hunting knife in the tank bag for back up. I had weather radar maps on phone and tab and saw a storm was coming across eastern Utah so I decided I better hit the Road Sunday.



Some of Dads collection, now I know where it come from....OK I always knew.
last we talked he is clearing out some...just wondering what is taking there place. Last time it was full of snow mobiles!










Ill continue with the next leg From Beryl Utah to Denver CO. in the next post soon!

 

Well! So there is a story that goes with this. Looks like the old man has lots of neat stuff there. Keep us posted.

 

I still laugh when I read your guys comments while I was away.



Ok Second leg, Beryl Utah to Denver Co about 640+ miles. Started out from dads and navigate the 2 miles of dirt road to get to the asphalt. Take off through Cedar City and hit the 15 to the 70 and head east.

First rest stop and some photos. I took a lot of one 190 photos, for you that don't know that's one hand at 90 miles and hour..



Re arrange some luggage before I left dads to get some aero dynamics going



Shortly after getting on 70 my GPS decided to try and commit suicide and leap off the windscreen. While fumbling with it at speed the suction mount popped off and to the road it went. So now Im thinking "Crap, Do I go back and find it or keep going and hope I can buy another somewhere... If I stop will it be in one piece when I find it? Will some one run over it before I get there? Crap Im stopping..." So about 1/4 mile after that playing in my head I pull over. No good place to turn around so I unmount and take a walk back to see if I can find it. YES! On the side of the road un harmed, luck was with me. back to bike and I was off.





You can see a lot of nothing out there and my fuel was getting low. There was 3 Harley riders I past a ways back then they passed me as I walked for GPS part and I caught up and passed again before going right to Denver on 70 and them going Left on the 15. I go towards Denver then GPS has me make an Exit to a Place I was a few years back when Tori and I went to Moab to wheel our Blazers. An old Fort called Cove Fort that sits on the 161. Well unknown to me at the time it links back to the 15 and the gas station to whom do I see...My 3 Harley buddies . We talk for a bit and I told them I was headed to Denver as weather showed rain for the 15 to Wyoming...I don't think they believed me cause off they went. I was relieved to find the station and this was the first of two times I was starting to wonder if I would make it to a station. I gassed up and went back the way I came to get back to the 70.













One of the most BEAUTIFUL roads I went on was through Gypsum CO. Just awesome. I have some video but will have to edit those in at a latter time. There was an Idiot Tanker truck doing 80mph on this curvy road with dust flying everywhere! I got the end of him on Video too.

A must ride toad for sure.











Some pics east of Gypsom




Shots of people I don't know





Was going up a big pass I just didn't know how big it really was!

7 Thousand!


8900 WOW!



10k! ... then I looked up and noticed antennas on the trunk of the car I was fast approaching ... yep trooper I came up behind, one handed, camera in hand...tourist. Slowed down put the camera away and all was ok. It was getting COLD though!



Beautiful colors on the trees



Just over the top a stop at Copper Mountain and time for more gas and put on the freeze out over the heat out and bundle up for the dark cold ride to Denver.





No pics after this but I do have some night video of a rare Colorado lane splitting program I enacted while trying to get to Denver....At least I know drivers in CO have good working horns, jealous...

Got to Denver and popped up a campsite I thought. It was around 9:00 I think and driving by the camp site was nothing more than a broke down trailer park in what looked like East LA and I was back in the hood!. Stopped in front of a MC Donalds to eat my subway I had purchased at Copper Mountain and come up with a plan. Got to watch all the squid and squidettes riding around in shorts, tee shirts and no helmets and me shaking my head as I must have looked like an astronaut to them with all the gear I had on. Not able to get a hold of a person at a campsite and risk it being a dive again I opted for the Marriott Hey I just rode over 640 miles a hot shower sounded better than a sleeping bag in a tent. Found the Hotel and got to unwind for the night.

Next stop, Pleasanthill Mo. another 640 miles+

 

Looks like you found some rain. And cold too! You rode in that shit?

 

No real rain till the trip back. Was cold in Vail though.

 

See. There you go. This only goes to prove that I am not alone in this world with a few loose screws. Some time soon, I got to get myself a furlow and take a trip out east on the bike. But that will be about a 2 month trip. Maybe I will still be married when I get back....maybe not!

 

Maybe this year we should head up your way. Whens a good time?

 

I will be on the road camping last week May into two or three weeks of June. Otherwise any time would be fantastic. If you only come part way, I will come down for a meet, possibly with one or go others in tow.

 

Well with at least Randy is reading the thread. I'll plug on. Nest stop Pleasant Hill Mo. 640+ miels



Pulled out of the Marriot east Denver and first stop was gas, of course. Then plotted the GPS to head me to Mo. Found the freeway and went Warp 5. I then put starship in auto pilot mode and went into my cryo sleep chamber. If you ever drove through this part of Denver you know why - nothing much to see. I did manage to take a few shots with the fast action setting on the camera.



The ground...





The Mirror, no looking back now..



Something's must have seemed more interesting than the surroundings. Tank Bag zipper



Some of these may have been Kansas. In fact I was trying to collect hat pins from every state to put on my tank bag and after riding for what seemed like two days I stopped thinking I was in Kansas but nope, Still Colorado. Was told another 20 miles down the road.






Stopped in a little town to try and find my pin but now luck. Stopped for a snack and drink and rode through down a bit and thought the old building was a nice back drop.




There was also a lot of visor cleaning at every stop



They have a toll road that goes straight into Kansas. If you don't want to pay then you take an extra hour detour. I never been on a toll road really and its was weird. All lanes had un-person, PC, booths that you pull up, hit the button a ticket pops out and the gate opens. Off I went and now getting dark thirty. Im flying a some unknown speed and then I start thinking, What if I get there really fast and the time stamp on the ticket will show that I was obviously speeding? Do they site people for that? Is there cameras that would take the plate number if you get to your end toll too fast? I slowed down to contemplate this and a few cars were whizzing past. So I said screw it and hammer down.

I don't know if you been on a toll road like this but there are NO offramps once your in the toll road. The have pull offs in the center divider for gas and food ect.. I guess its a long wait for a tow to take you to some town at the end of the toll. Seemed very odd to me. Got to the end, paid my 2.50 and no mention of time I got there.

Slight wrong turn in MO. but needed gas anyways and then headed to my Brothers house. I had not eaten anything since the small town in Kansas but that was probably 6 hours ago or more. It was around ten at night I think and saw a Taco Bell close by my brothers place so stopped in for a to go order not knowing when I got to bothers house the had some left overs waiting.

We talked and yaked and laughed and off to bed I went.

Too be continued...

 

READ! I just look at the pictures.

Kansas looks remarkably like southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan. Manitoba is flat as a pee on a plate with the foam blowed off but it is green there most the time. When it isn't green, it is white. Good question about the timing, speeding and toll booth though. I have heard that commercial truckers have been ticketed at weigh scales because they made it from one scale to the other faster than what they should have. Difference here though is that at the scales, it is manned by a human being (well I guess that is arguable) But you said the toll booth was un-manned. I would think the time stamp on the toll ticket would not stand the test in court so tickets would not be issued based on that time stamp. But who knows. Stranger things have happened.

I understand the bug guts all too well. I am aching for a road trip of considerable distance.

BTW. Did you get a chance to meet Dorothy and Toto while there?

 

Cool story. Makes me want to travel even across barren lands.

 

Great story and photos. We have many tollways in Illinois. Never a ticket for arriving too soon. The Illinois state troopers would have nothing to do if you were ticketed by time stamp. Sometimes it is safer to stay with the flow of traffic even if it is going over the speed limit. They like to give tickets the old fashioned way.

 

Can you tell by his handle (SLOVFR) Hello.............

 

OK guiz. Leave Buddy alone. He has words of wisdom I am relying on to live my life in as normal a manner as we can muster.

This write-up is my inspiration to go for another long trip next spring. This time border to border coast to coast I think. I want to head out for a couple months next year. What Randy wants, Randy gets........often.........sometimes..... occasionally..........Well damit, once in a long while.

 

Hey Randy, love the new avatar......looks like retirement is doing you some good!!!

 

Thanks. I am trying a new shaving cream. Cuts down on razor burn and makes your face smooth as a baby's bum. Cept it tends to crease a bit here and there.