cheapbastard

Day 1(6/26)
Well, for starters, I have to throw out a huge thanks to legman and dano(ts3.com guys) for helping me out with this, if it wasn't for those 2, it wouldn't have been possible. So let's get to the nitty gritty, here's the bike all loaded up and ready to roll out on Friday(6/26)...

the mileage for the start of my journey

only person I met up with on the east coast was good ol' windpipe crusher bobw. Not only did he take time out of his day to meet me, he bought me lunch, and gave me a tire repair kit which I didn't need until the last day, and didn't have with me(you'll see later) Thanks for lunch Bob, and just for putting in the effort of riding out and meeting up with me.


other than that, not much went on my first day. Didn't leave 'til around noon anyway, but made some decent time after lunch with Bob. Only ran into one huge downpour my entire trip, and it was just east of Nashville where I met these cool cats on Harleys from St Louis

They were returning from their week long trip. Had been to Deals Gap, down to the southern tip of FL, and came back thru the Gap. They had already done right at 3700 miles when I met them I believe. I was making good time, so good, I decided to give up a free place to stay in Crossville, TN that dano had gotten for me. But it was important for me to cut some miles out of the next day if I could. So I made it just to the outer parts of Nashville where I stayed my 1st night at my 2nd cheapest motel room, yet the nicest one other than the room in Vegas(see later)



total mileage that day - 423 miles, not bad for a late start

cheapbastard

Day 2(6/27)
This day was pure hell. Well, the 1st half wasn't bad. I got started early in the morning, I was on the road by 6:30am. I knew it was gonna be a scorcher, so I decided to travel as much as I could in the cooler part of the morning. Well, come lunch time I had finally made it thru that long *** state of TN, and had made my way to some small town in AR. I'm pretty sure I had covered right at 400 miles by 12:30. ;D So I take a breather for lunch, get some food in me and back on that stretch of I-40 that's already been haunting me for hundreds of miles. Well, this is the part of the day that killed me, I was travelling at temps just over 100 deg, and even with the camelbak I had purchased, I was dying from the heat. My goal this day was Oklahoma City, but by the time I reached my original goal city, Henryetta, I had had enough. So I stop, find me a place to stay, grab some grub, and crash... literally. My head was killing me from the heat and sun glare on the highway, anymore miles this day in the heat, and I think I would've over done it. Sorry about the pics this day, time was limited, and I had to cover some ground, only snapped a few pics at the end of the day. Motel room was a dump, but so was the town, so I couldn't complain.

I gave this place a thumbs down rating. ;D

the hawk outside in the blazing sun in Henryetta, OK.

total mileage that day was 627, could have done more if it wasn't for the heat.

cheapbastard

Day 3(6/28 )
Started bright and early again, I thought another scorcher of a day was ahead of me. Luckily, the skies were overcast and I ran in and out of rain the rest of the way thru OK. Never thought I'd be happy to ride in rain, but after the heat the day before, and since it wasn't a downpour of rain, I was jumping with joy over riding in the rain since it kept the temps down. This is about the coolest thing I saw in OK, so I stopped to get a pic.



Finally made it to Texas... yeeeeeeeehaw! ;D Stopped at the famous place Dano had told me about, and had me a good ol' Texan steak. This place is located right in the heart of Amarillo.

just a cool spot in TX I thought...

Lunch took forever here, but I wasn't too worried as I had made great time again by lunch time, and the temps were nowhere near what they were the day before. So I took about a 2 hour lunch break, felt good and refreshed, jumped on the bike and was in New Mexico in no time. I stopped in Tucumcari for gas, and while I was talk'n to Dano on the phone, he found a different road for me to take to Las Vegas, NM. So finally, after 1500+ miles I'm leaving the interstate. Travelled the 104 all the way from Tucumcari to Las Vegas. So I got in about 120 miles of back road riding on that day. This was the best day yet, finally off the interstate, and starting to see some good scenery.


look! a curve!


this guy wouldn't take his eye off me!

it was good to see sumt'n besides interstate.



So I finally make it into Las Vegas, NM. Cool little town, not too much going on, just a cool place to sleep for the night.


room wasn't great, but not horrible either, I believe it was my 3rd cheapest room.


total miles this day - 571. Sweeeet, my days will be easy from here on out.

cheapbastard

Day 4(6/29)
Slept in a little this day, atleast compared to the others, I didn't get on the road until a few minutes after 8am. Took the 518 out of Las Vegas up to the 68/64 down into Taos.





Took the 64 to Chama and had lunch at a cool little burger joint, then off on the 84 up to Pagosa Springs, CO. Wasn't far out of Chama where I crossed the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. Pics don't do this place justice, believe me, it was a long ways down!





the Gorge is a beautiful area, but things just got more beautiful the closer I got to CO.



I met this really cool guy, Jim Allen I believe his name was, from Arkansas, we talked motorcycles for about 30 minutes and places we've been. He showed me a few pics of the area I was hitting the next day, as he had just came from there, and told me there is nothing more beautiful in this world than the stretch of road I was hitting the next day! Here's Jim riding off on his Victory Vision!

great views up here...







made it into Pagosa Springs and hit the 160 over to Durango.



now don't get me wrong, Durango was a cool little town, but they can take they overpriced tourist prices and shove it. Here, I paid $117 with tax for a freak'n Super 8 Motel Room. Yes, it was the cheapest I could find. The girl at the counter jokingly said, "atleast you got a complinetary bag of popcorn and a recliner in your room!" Oh yeah, well how about buy'n me a pepsi too then?!? Which she did.
I give you my $117 recliner, popcorn, and pepsi...

what a treat for that price. :rollseyes:


So I decided to go check out this town a bit, and it was pretty cool, just not $117 cool.

cheapbastard

total miles this day was 290 miles.

cheapbastard

Day 5(6/30)
Best day yet, and prolly the best day of the entire trip. Perfect weather, perfect roads, and beyond perfect scenery. This is motorcycle heaven here boys and girls. I followed the 550(Million Dollar Highway) out of Durango on into Silverton. Let me warn ya, these pictures absolutely do no justice for this masterpiece God's painted. This was without a doubt, the most beautiful part of my trip. Let me say no more, and try to justify it with some pics.
I ran into this hot spring following the 550 out of Durango



then the mountains just started getting bigger,



and bigger,




and bigger!










the view coming down into Silverton.


from Silverton to Ouray(Little Switzerland) was prolly my absolute favorite. Only problem thru here is you must have your game face on, the tightest section of the 550 is thru here, and there are no guardrails, just huge drop offs directly off the road with no run off. 8) It's also considered the Red Mountain Pass as the views of Red Mountain are spectacular.

cheapbastard

I told you it had some tight sections...




purdy good size waterfall directly beneath the road.





look'n down on "Little Switzerland"



from Ouray, I followed the 550 on into Ridgway where I stopped for lunch. Talk about a nice relaxin lunch with temps in the mid 70's and views like this...

cheapbastard

from there I hit the 62 over to the 145. These were some nice vacant roads with long sweepers and great views yet again.
Heading out on the 62...

once you hit the 145, the views change, but still awesome!




At some point thru here, around Naturita, the 145 changes to the 141, and the scenerey still never ceases to amaze me. :cheers2:







so there's nothing for miles and miles out here, I mean nothing but a few stray cattle here and there. All of a sudden, I come up on this little community of Gateway just out in the middle of nowhere.



almost to Grand Junction!



I finally make it into Grand Junction for another dump of a motel that was priced rather high yet again. :blackeye:


geez, I wonder what they do with all their money they make on this dump? :rollseyes:

total miles this day was only 260 miles, but man, it took me just as long as much as I stopped for pics. lol

cheapbastard

Day 6(7/01)
This day I get to experience the great state of Utah.

Holy smokes, does Utah have some great views to offer too. Some of the things you see are just undescribable. Again, it's hard to tell how big this stuff is from the pictures, but let's just say Utah is a beautiful state. I even enjoyed myself on the Interstate, as I travelled I-70 it actually has a few twists and turns and breath-taking views...
yes, this is the interstate. 8)












I followed I-70 for just over 100 miles to the 72 near Fremont Junction, UT. This was a great stretch of road. Let me tell ya though, if ya have a bike with not such a great fuel range out in Utah, ya better carry some spare fuel somewhere, there are some areas that are few and far between for fuel. Talk about having the road to yourself, I followed the 72 for quite a ways and could prolly count the other cars I saw on one hand.





So I followed the 72 all the way into Loa where I stopped for a sugar break. Talked to Dano again, and he couldn't believe how good of time I had already made. I had already been about 200 miles by 10 am. ;D So I jump on the 24 over to Torrey where I hit the 12, and let me tell ya, this road was freak'n awesome. The 12 is over 120 miles of twists and turns and more fantastic views along the way.





Stopped in Boulder to take a small break, get me a drink and a snack, ya know I gots to eat. I found this nice shade tree for the hawk.

cheapbastard

alright, back on the road if I'm gonna make Cedar City tonight.









what rock? 8)

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So I finally make it to the end of the 12. The skies are really look'n dark westward, the direction I'm headed. So I stop right down the road on 89 and give ol' Dano a call. Come to find out, I'm less than 50 miles from Cedar City at this point, and Dano looks up the rain report and says everything looks fine. So I jump on the 14 which looks to be awesome just from the beginning.

oh yeah, good call on that weather dano. :rollseyes:

if you look closely you can see the black lava rock across the road. This was a cool area to ride thru seeing that it used to be a volcano.













and I finally made it to Cedar City! :wave3:
my cheapest stay yet, and not that bad of a place.



so I was kinda tired at the end of the day, so I walk to get me some dinner, about 3/4 mile down the road. And along comes the real rain while I'm eating. :blackeye:


so even after killing time for a bit after I ate, the rain still didn't stop, so I had to run back to my room in the rain. Yeah, I got drenched. Oh well, bike is definitely look'n the part of a x-country bike at this point. Sorry leggy. lol





Total miles this day was right at 429 miles.


oh yeah, remember I said ya might wanna carry some extra gas? Well, luckily I didn't need mine, so I put my spare gas in at the motel, and got a few strange looks.

cheapbastard

Day 7(7/02)
The dreaded dano meetup day. :rollseyes:
So yeah, dano tells me that him and nimec are gonna meet up with me outside of Las Vegas so we can hit the Valley of Fire on the way to the Hoover Dam. Well... let's just say this is what the meetup spot looked like for hours... :blackeye:




well, finally, 4 hrs later, the ambiguously gay duo show up. No time for chit chat ladies, let's hit the road.
the Hoover Dam pics didn't turn out good at all. The traffic was awful, and the temps and sun were ridiculous, especially after riding the Valley of Fire(dano's off road tour :rollseyes: )




alright, the original plan was to head back to dano's place this day, but since the dummy duo was 4 hrs late, we decided to stay in Vegas. Vegas baby! Yeah, I was happy with the $28 room that Dirt had texted me, but noooooo, that wasn't good enough for the Cali boys. So they talked me into splitting one of the most expensive places on the strip.
We were rollin deep at the Venetian.


dano acted like he had a rough day.

wait, nimec thinks he's tired too.

this is what I think of both of 'em.

the room was craaaaazy nice.



well, it was nice until nimec decided to dry his boots out. uke:

I thought the drapes remote was cool.

time to hit the strip, here's our place from the outside...










so that purdy much sums up day 7, I didn't keep up with the miles that day because I spent more time waiting on dano than I did riding. :udown:

cheapbastard

Day 8(7/30)
I finally make it into Cali, and dano has gathered up a welcoming committee to meet up with us. ;D We had already done around 200 miles when we met up with Biff, GlennC, and Dirty Yamaha. Was nice meet'n ya Dirty, and of course, Biff and Glenn, good see'n you guys again. I don't recall all the roads we rode that day, maybe Biff can help me out since they are more 'round his area. I wanna say some of it was around the Lake Arrowhead area. At any rate, it was good to hit some serious twisties after being on a road trip, and good see'n some of the Cali crew again. Thanks Glenn for pick'n up lunch, I really 'preciate it.
The crew...




and leeds, we were think'n about you that day.

that's basically it, had a great day of riding that day, got to ride Nimec and Dirty's triples for a bit, and even rode that couch of a Sprint for a little while. And I was bad about keeping up with my daily mileage after I met up with the gang, so I didn't get a pic, but I believe we were somewhere in the 350-400 mile range that day.

cheapbastard

Day 9(7/04)
What better way to celebrate the 4th of July than on the ACH(Angeles Crest Highway) in Cali? That's right, after being shut down for years because of an avalanche, they finally have re-opened the ACH just a few months before I got there. ;D GlennC met up with us that day for a nice cruise up the ACH. For those of you that have ridden the Cherohala Skyway, the ACH is similiar, except I'd say better. I loved this ride, it was a great ride, with fresh pavement, cool weather, and great views.


dano in his natural habitat

GlennC in his natural habitat lol







GlennC wanted to take this road, but I finally convinced him he wasn't on the CR500. :slap:

So we stopped for lunch(late breakfast, whatever) at Newcomb's Ranch, what a wast of time and money. :curse: I think Glenn wanted to tip the waitress more than she even stole. lol



After that, we headed the rest of the way down the ACH and we were plannin on doing Glendora's Ridge but it was shutdown. :*( We were guessing due to a fire or the possibility of and it being the 4th of July. So we went our separate ways with Glenn, headed back to Dano's place, and got our groove on for the 4th. Nimec and his girl came over to celebrate with us, along with Dano's girl.
the chef

mmmmmmmmmmmm

I thought he was supposed to be cook'n, not eat'n?!? :slap:

whachu goin for there nimec?

chillin'

cheapbastard

time to climb the hill and watch some fireworks

Moreno Valley just after sunset



and they say the NC hills are full of rednecks?!? 8)


I thought the fireworks would've been bigger in Cali. :rollseyes:





back down the hill

and over the fence?

or thru the fence? :blackeye:

alright, let's make that over. lol

let's try thru this next one. :surrender:

showoff. :rollseyes:

atleast I didn't spill my beer.


after that, we hit the hot tub for a short while, then crashed out to meet up with the crew the next morning. Don't ask me 'bout no mileage, I have no idea.

cheapbastard

Day 10(7/05)
The Final Day
So we had planned to meet up with a few of the guys up near Malibu. I missed the Rock Store on my last visit, and I wanted to check it out, along with the infamous roads in the area. I think Biff, Dirty, and Night Train were all on Dano's time from the other day, as here was the meeting spot about 15 minutes after the meeting time. :rollseyes:

Oh wait a minute, dano calls and figures out that he's at the wrong place... dummy. :blackeye: So the boys tell us to hang tight and head our way. As we are waiting, this nice machine pulled up, this guy has some work in this thing.



I catch the crew rollin in follow'n the head *****. :fro:

what's that biff? 8)

It was nice to finally meet the Night Train. :fro:

He's got one blingin triple. :fro:



It was really great meeting NT, I don't see how he puts up with our crap, but he truly is a great guy. Thanks for lunch and a ride on the bling machine Ken.
The Rock Store, we met Sonnyboy here on his Valkryie(long story about the triple)





So after NT picks up everyone's lunch, we start tear'n down one of the back roads out there. I notice the Hawk ain't handling worth a damn, but I ain't stop'n, I gotta show these Cali boys I can hang. :wak: When Biff and Dirty finally pull over, I get off the bike and immediately check the back tire, sure enogh, it's flat as hell. :yar: So I didn't have my tire repair kit with me, but luckily NT came to the rescue yet again and had one with him. Him and Dano go to work on the bike and find the culprit, a huge screw.



And we found out while NT's tool may be much bigger, it was Sonnyboy's smaller tool that got the job done.

But anyways, thanks for helping me plug her up guys, as you saw, she held up well.
Sonnyboy on the beast.


well, it was finally time to split ways, so we finally headed back to dano's place after a few action shots thru Decker Canyon Rd, I think. I'll get some of those pics up later, it was only me and NT and some of dano.
So... total miles for the trip...

3710 miles, and the tires don't look too shabby, even with a plugged rear.


So until next time homies... peace out. :fro: :wave3:

:workit:

cheapbastard

hope you guys enjoy, and no I'm not editing the code for the smilies.

nekkid