Sunday, August 23, 2015

The Motorcycle Diaries 2015 (Part 6) The Finale

A bit late, as was Part 5, since I have been home for a week and a half but it's been a busy week and a half.  Customers piling up, a memorial service, plus just settling back in.  Getting ready to refinish the master bedroom floors tomorrow so stand by for an update on that.

Meanwhile, I posted the ride from Cortez to San Diego a few minutes ago, I put up some pics of the new surfboard and Los Angeles beaches while I was there, but haven't updated the trip home.

Planned on taking five days or so to get home so hit the road on Monday.  Didn't make it much more than a couple hours and realized that I was tired and wanted to be home.  I had been on the road for almost a month at that point.  I was headed up the Eastern Sierras through Mohave and had planned to cut across through Napa Valley, one of my two favorite riding places in California, but decided to stay east of the Sierras, which would take me through Bishop, Reno, Susanville, and up into eastern Oregon.

Mohave.  Not too bad.  Rode by the air park which used to have old Douglas and Convairs, now has only a few 747s.  I assume that the rest were cut up for scrap at some point.  Doesn't make much sense to keep old airplanes sitting once you don't need them for spare parts but what a shame.

The Eastern Sierras are pretty spectacular in their own way.  Very dry on that side but the mountains sort of jut.  Not a ton of erosion so they are very raw.



Stopped at Jenny's for breakfast lunch.  Jenny wasn't a very friendly person.  I found out that they weren't serving breakfast when she informed me that the breakfast menu ended at 11.  Trying to be sociable I mentioned that I had been riding since early that morning and had lost track of time.  Her response was "It's the middle of the day now".

OK.  Thanks for the update.

Food was OK but expensive.  I paid $14 for a grilled ham and cheese sandwich (good) and a small bowl of lettuce (optimistically labeled "salad").   I won't go back.


Practiced taking "selfies" for a while.  Aack!  I look retarded in every one of them except for the ones where the helmet strap cutting into my chin makes me look hugely fat.  Rolls.  Sorry, you don't get to see those.  Maybe I'm just not cut out for taking pictures of my self.  A friend suggested that I needed a "selfie stick" on my bike.  Ha ha.



Anyway, north to Reno and through to Susanville.  Not a bad day's ride.  About 565 miles (per Google maps) and I was in time to settle in and get some dinner.  Warning, Susanville is pretty much closed on Monday.  BBQ restaurant that was recommended?  Closed.  Chinese restaurant that was recommended?  Closed.  Ate at an OK Chinese place.  Better than Cortez but not spectacular.

From Susanville I forgot to take pictures.  Part of it is that I've been through there so often and part of it is that I am getting ready to be home and am focused on that instead of the scenery.  I did see these.






Made the mistake of cutting across to I-5 around Eugene.  Well, sort of a mistake.  It was a great ride.  Highway 58 is a spectacular motorcycle road, but leaving Susanville Tuesday morning got me into the Portland area around three o'clock.   Just in time for rush hour.  Hit the 205 cutoff that takes me around the city and came to a screeching halt.  Plus it was hot.  I do split lanes even when I am not in California but it is a bit stressful when you have to constantly watch out for the rozzers.  I split whenever traffic came to a complete halt and, as hot as it was, figured I'd try to fast talk my way out of it by pointing out my air cooled motorcycle.  That is, after all, one of the main reasons that it is still legal in California.  Plus the fact that it isn't particularly dangerous.  Seriously.  Scientific fact.  I'll post on that later so stay tuned.

Anyway, evening at Mule's, tried to go out for dinner to Buffalo Wild Wings (closed for renovations), Famous Dave's BBQ (sat there for twenty  minutes while two servers (neither of them ours, apparently) walked back and forth four times each and completely ignored us, not even stopping to ask if our server had been out yet), then to Red Robin where we actually got served burgers and beer.

Then home.

Aaahhh!

I left on July 16th and returned on August 12th.  And that after two weeks on Maui earlier in the summer.  I'm almost looking forward to school starting.  Either that or winning the Powerball lottery because then...

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