WCCR - The Trip Home

By John R. Holt

9-16-07

Garberville, CA

29,795

After John headed back north from Ft. Bragg, Forrest and I followed CA-1 for a bit more but by this time, on a Sunday, on a perfect sunny day, it was obvious that the traffic was going to be heavy. I got my last glimpse of the Pacific at 10:55 A.M., as we turned east on highway 128 to head for home. 128 is an interesting road as it turned out. First through more redwoods, though none as big as those at Stout Grove or Avenue of the Giants. Then it turned into wine country. There is something very romantic about seeing huge vineyards heavily laden with grapes waiting to be harvested and turned into a most pleasurable substance. Here I am, riding a motorcycle through Alexander, Sonoma and Napa valleys. Way cool, but on a Sunday afternoon, in this weather, the yuppie wine-tasters were also out in force as we got on 29, the "main street" of CA wine country. We stopped in Helena and got out the map and found a less-traveled road that would get us over to Sacramento. Much better! We made it to east of Sacramento and got on U.S. route 50 before stopping for the night. The plan was now to more-or-less follow Rt. 50 all the way to Winchester, VA. This day, a transition from WCCR to head-for-home, both physically and mentally, was a very long and eventful and exhausting day. Just thinking about the fact that after all this, we are still in CA and still have a continent to cross makes me tired.

9-17-07

Cameron Park, CA

30,092

Today was all about route 50. After leaving Cameron Park and getting clear of the incoming commuter traffic, Rt. 50 turns into a 2-lane beauty, winding through the Sierra Nevada foothills with beautiful green pines contrasted with the light-colored boulders and the pale yellow aspens and birch trees. There were passing lanes every 4 or 5 miles on many of the uphill sections. This section was a joy to ride on another cool morning of another perfect day.

Up the west side of the Sierra Nevada

Then we went up and over the S.N. culminating in a spectacular panorama of the mountains, the roads climbing down the abrupt edge of the mountains, with lake Tahoe and the resort town of Lake Tahoe beside the lake way, way below us. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a picture of this sight. We were pretty busy and there was never a very good place to pull over. A picture wouldn't do it justice anyway. You can easily tell where the CA/NV line is in L.T. because a huge Harrahs casino sits just over the line. After we got out of Lake Tahoe we were suddenly in the desert.

Forrest called this part of 50 "enchanting" In some places the sand was as white and fine as any beach. In one place there was an entire mountain of it at "Sand Mountain Recreation Area". The road itself alternated between straight stretches that went on for miles without a curve, and twisty ascents and descents over the mountain passes. The fact that there was not much on the road itself and almost nothing even near the road, including gas stations and trees to take a pee behind, is what made it enchanting, I guess. But then, if there's nobody out there, why do you need a tree? I think Forrest got a picture of me after I came to that conclusion. I think it was Steve Martin who said, "I'm so happy to be a man. The whole world is your urinal!"

Why is there a fence?

From the picture you can see that I still have my "Cold Wave" on. It may look like hot desert, but it's still pretty cool at mid-day. We had planned to spend the night in Eureka, NV, the only town of any size around here, but we found that every motel in town was booked. Where did these people come from?? They certainly weren't on the road, and half those we did see were in RVs. Forrest got on his GPS and got some phone numbers in the next town, Ely, NV - 77 miles away. We did finally book a room in the Motel-6, but it was getting late and we had had experience with wild animals migrating to the roads after sundown back in '84. From a dead stop in downtown Eureka, I went these 77 miles over this road dubbed "the loneliest road" in 57 minutes and got to Ely before sundown. Forrest was only about 3 minutes behind. This turned out to be the longest day, in terms of how many miles we went - 427. I don't want to do that again!

9-18-07

Ely, NV

30,519

We had a few more miles of Rt. 50 to take but finally turned south on Rt. 93. The plan was to leave 50 long enough to explore the canyon-lands of south Utah. 93 was more of the same - straight stretches followed by curvy roads over the mountain passes. Finally we turned east on 319 which turned into Utah 56 at the border. We stopped for lunch at Cedar City, UT and then headed east on 14. Wow! Just like that the landscape changed from desert to mountainous terrain with Aspen, Birch and Fir trees. The road peaked at 9,910 feet and it got so cool I had to stop and put on a warmer jacket. The Aspen and white-barked Birch leaves were turning a pale yellow, and it made a nice contrast with the green fir and the red and black rocks and canyons. Rt. 14 was more than I expected! Who needs Bryce canyon and Zion N.P. with all this scenery for free! But we did plan to see them tomorrow.

Route 14

9-19-07

Mt. Carmel Junction, UT

30,790

Forrest said it would be a shame to be this close (13 miles) to Zion National Park and not go see it, even though it meant doubling back, we went. The temperature was in the 30s when we left but we were getting another sunny day. Zion was astounding! I did not expect the solid rock mountains to be so huge or so colorful. There is no way a mere camera can capture the astounding sights, but here are a couple of attempts. We then visited Bryce Canyon N.P. Not as astounding as Zion but still very impressive.

Zion National Park

The rest of the day we followed Rt. 12 through the canyon-lands of Utah.

Rt. 12 snaking through the canyon-lands of Utah

I will just say that 12 is a great motorcycle road! And, it is 121 miles long ending in Torrey, UT where we were lucky enough to get the last room at the Wonderland Inn. It's about time we got some luck on these motel stops! This part of Utah truly is a wonderland. Huge canyons bordered by high abrupt cliffs, rocks and mountains the color of blood mixed with almost white rock formations mixed with dense forests of white barked Birch. We were told that hwy 12 is the highest paved road in America without guardrails. I suppose it could be scary for some people but it's the most fun road I've ridden on this trip since CA-1 and FR-23 in Oregon. We did encounter a new hazard however. They have something around here called, "free range" They used to have it in rural Arkansas when I was a kid. It allows ranchers & farmers to let their livestock graze on public land, including road right-of-ways. This is done in a lot of places out here, but this is the only road where I came barreling around a curve and found a cow standing in the middle of the road. There are other hazards associated with Free Range. We had to keep an eye out for that greenish brown slime spread all across the pavement by passing cars and trucks. What a way to go. Low-siding in cow poop. Talk about a bad road rash…

9-20-07

Torrey, UT

31,009

Morning view from our room at the Wonderland Inn (Below) Route 24

After route 12 I didn't expect much, but soon after we headed east on hwy 24 we were in another national park - Capitol Reef N.P. The rock canyons and reefs would compete with Zion N.P. for pure natural beauty, and nobody had to pay to get in. Rt. 24 ended at Hanksville and we headed south on hwy 95. A biker we talked to at lunch told us 95 was pure "eye candy". At first it wasn't that great but the eye candy started soon enough. In fact, it was so good that we slowed down some so we could take it all in.

It's a good thing we did. On 95 there is plenty of eye candy, but the biker guy didn't tell us there were no gas stations. My low fuel light had been glowing for at least the last 10 miles when we stopped at an intersection where we planned to turn right, and I hoped there would be gas. There was nothing. We decided our best bet was to stay on 95 and hope that someone would stop and give or sell us some gas. It was 30 miles to the next town. We loped along in 5^th gear going between 40 & 50 mph as cars whizzed past us. The K-bike just chugged right on up those hills. Torque is a good thing. At the first gas station, Forrest put 4.8 gallons in his 5 gallon tank, and I put 4.6 in my 5 gal. tank. An interesting aside: I consistently got better gas mileage than Forrest, even though I had a bigger engine, a heavier bike and a way heavier load. I calculated the gas mileage from that tank and it was over 51 mpg! After lunch we took a little side trip to Four Corners, where one can stand on the point where CO, NM, UT and AZ come together. It is an obvious "tourist trap" but what the Hey. We did it.

Lessee, my left leg is in New Mexico, my right leg in Utah, my belly in Arizona and my arse in Colorado.

Then we pushed on to Durango, CO. As we passed through Cortez, I recognized the motorcycle dealer, still in business, where in 1984 I got a new battery for my GPZ1100 and where cousin Jerry dumped his Yamaha XS11 in the parking lot. We again got the last room in a motel. Considering that, the gas crisis, and the weather, something or somebody must be watching over us.

9-21-07

Durango, CO

31,345

Today we are following route 160 from Durango which goes across southern CO to the Kansas border. 160 has a bit of everything. When we left the motel we could clearly see the high Rockies. This part of 160 is a commuter hwy for Durango so we were going against the traffic. It alternated between long high speed sweepers and uphill climbs which usually had a passing lane. When we started up the west side of the continental divide the fun got even better. I was sweeping past struggling cars and trucks like they were standing still. Great fun! Note to Jeff: Reminded me of Thorton Gap but 10 times higher and longer. We stopped at the top for a picture. I guess it's all downhill from here.

At the Continental Divide

Going down was almost as much fun as going up. Going through the foothills east of the divide was also great fun of a different kind because the road got very narrow, tight and squiggly. Eventually 160 intersects with I-25 and shares it for about 35 miles. We had no choice but to take it. When we got off I-25 and headed east, the landscape in eastern CO was completely opposite to what we just crossed: Flat terrain, and 160 would go for miles without a curve or any traffic. We kept seeing signs that read, "This land is not for sale to the U.S. Army!" We never did find out what that was all about but as Forrest said, "If the Government really wanted it, there is nothing they could do to stop them." We started getting low on gas again, but finally found some in a tiny village called Kim. They had regular gas only and the pump ran so slow that it took 10 minutes to fill my tank. Lesson learned: never pass up an opportunity to fill the tank or empty the bladder. They also had a restaurant! The population of Kim had to be less than 100 and we could see no other dwellings anywhere near there. Where did their customers come from? We made it to a fairly large town called Springfield (every state has a Springfield). We celebrated with a great steak dinner at the Trail's End Cowboy Cafe, recommended by the gal at the motel. I believe we were the only non-locals in the joint and there were real cowboys. We even saw one guy who was wearing spurs on his boots dining there. Tomorrow, we face more straight highways in western Kansas.

9-22-07

Springfield, CO

31,728

I almost had a catastrophe. I left my cell phone and charger in the motel. Luckily, we had stopped for breakfast at a truck stop just down the road so I didn't have to go back too far to get it. Forrest accused me of doing it deliberately so I could get one more look at the babe we called, "blue eyes" that ran the motel. No, but it was a good idea. When I saw "blue eyes" I found out that she had been wearing contacts the day before. Her eyes weren't that blue. Today was spent getting across a substantial part of western Kansas. Not exactly ideal motorcycle roads, but not entirely without it's charm. One time I almost hit a coyote. A few miles south of Dodge City, I saw something amazing: Feed lots along the east side of the highway that went on for mile after mile. It was by far the largest concentration of cattle I've ever seen. The smell was terrifying! I know some people who would have probably up-chucked riding by here. You know who you are. We didn't have steak for dinner that night. The roads here could be ridden safely at pretty high speeds, and that's probably what made Forrest's rear tire wear faster than anticipated. I still believe it was due to some sort of flaw in the tire. (A Metzler Z6) After we checked in to a motel it was obvious that he needed a new tire. Unfortunately, it was late Saturday afternoon and all the bike shops here were closed and they didn't open until Tuesday. I started making some calls and finally reached my nephew, Greg Tolleson, who lives in KC, KS. We figured we would have more luck finding a motorcycle shop open on Monday in Kansas City than here. It would also give me an excuse to visit with my nephew. Greg and his wife Susan invited us to spend the night with them, so we decided to ease on up to KC tomorrow and search for a tire Monday morning.

9-23-07

Hutchison, KS

32,007

We did make the painful ride to Greg & Susan's. Painful because it was over 200 miles and we didn't want to go very fast to minimize more wear on the tire. Also, I almost had another catastrophe. When we stopped for lunch at a small local Mexican restaurant, it was hot and I shucked all my outer wear quickly and draped it over the bike. We went inside and had a nice lunch in air conditioned comfort. We were tired and lingered awhile. We were almost the last customers to leave. Seemed a little strange to see Mexican cuties in the middle of Kansas. When we went to the bikes and started suiting up, Forrest pointed to the ground beside my bike and said, "Is that your wallet?" It was, and it had been lying on the ground in plain view the whole time we were in the restaurant. The eastern part of Kansas is not without its charm. We stopped at one place where they have preserved the "Tall grass prairie" as it must have been when the settlers first came here. It is not so flat here as it is in eastern CO and western KS.

The tall grass prairie and a nearby ranch

I was feeling bad for a long time because we were actually holding up traffic in places, especially on the Interstate coming into KC. Then I got to thinking, hey, this is payback for all those times cars & trucks have held me up on the fun mountain roads. Then I didn't feel so bad about it, and we did make it to Greg & Susan's house in one piece.

Yep, those are chords showing through the rubber

Tomorrow we try to find a tire for Forrest on a Monday when most of the motorcycle shops are closed. But in the meantime, Greg & Susan and their 4-year-old, Olivia served us a nice dinner on the back deck of their brand new home that they just settled on in July.

9-24-07

Shawnee, KS

32,240

Hooray! We did find one motorcycle shop open on Monday! And though it was a Suzuki dealer, they did have a tire the right size for the Honda. Thank you Greg & Susan for putting us up for the night, and the dinner in the nice weather. Especially to Greg for taking the morning off from work to drive us to the shop, wait for the tire to be mounted, drive us back and wait while we remounted the wheel/tire back on the bike. We didn't get going until after 11:00 A.M. but we did manage to cover about 200 miles before we stopped for the day. After all that we only lost maybe a half a day and I had a nice visit with Greg and his family.

Thank you Greg!

Today's actual riding, which involved getting on the east side of Kansas City and free of the metropolitan area was uneventful, boring and it was hot and humid. Rain is predicted for tomorrow in KC but maybe we can outrun it. But after 20 straight days of dry weather, I almost welcome some rain. I need to test the new Aeropants and maybe it will wash off a layer of bug goo from the front of my bike.

9-25-07

Linn, MO

32,434

I'm going to declare another rain-free day. We got an early start and had a good ride on route 50 in eastern MO. After breakfast we got on the Interstate to get through St. Louis. One misleading or bad sign in a large construction area dumped us into a very seedy section of East St. Louis, Ill. It took awhile to find our way out. When we stopped for lunch the clouds looked threatening. We decided we better put on our rain gear, but the further east we got the more patches of blue sky we saw. We were actually out-running the front! By the time we got to the Indiana border, however, the clouds suddenly thickened and we saw some violent lightning. We made an early stop at the next motel. While we were unloading the bikes we got a pretty good shower, but we weren't riding! So, the streak is still alive! 21 straight days riding without rain! We are quickly getting east. IL is the first state we have crossed in which we have not spent the night. States are getting smaller, but we'll likely spend tomorrow night in Ohio.

9-26-07

Vencenne, IN

32,709

As far as we are concerned, Indiana is the rain state! So OK, the record is 21 days. It did not rain from September 5 to September 26. 4,863 miles on the road without rain, across 2/3 of the continent. Gotta be a record! But it ended with a vengeance. It rained all day and it rained hard. Both Forrest and I got thoroughly soaked. The Aero-pants was the only thing that worked, but it didn't matter because my T-shirt which was tucked into my jeans got soaked which then wicked the water down into my jeans bypassing the aeropants. My boots leaked so the only dry place was the legs of my jeans around the knees. At lunchtime I changed into a dry T-shirt in a Subway men's room, but after we got back on the road it soon got soaked again. We had planned to get east of Cincinnati today, but by about 3:00 we had had enough. We didn't make it to Ohio.

9-27-07

Lawrenceville, IN

32,878

We didn't make it to Ohio today either. After watching the weather channel for awhile it was obvious that we would ride most of today in the rain. It was also obvious that if we stayed where we were for 24 hours, we could ride on home in good weather over some great roads in eastern Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia. We chose the latter. It was our first non-riding day since we left cousin Jerry's place, with the exception of riding to a supermarket to get some wine and cheese. Even then, it rained while we were in the supermarket. We spent the day doing some laundry, working a couple of crosswords, catching up on this journal and watching the weather channel.

9-28-07

Lawrenceville, IN

32,881

We got an early start. We wanted to be sure we got over half way home today. I was so happy to be back in the saddle crossing the Ohio river into Kentucky I started to sing a song I learned during the folk music craze days of the early 60s.

I held a knife

Against her breast

While into my arms

She pressed

She cried, "Oh Willy,

Don't murder me

I'm not prepared

For eternity"

Then only say

That you'll be mine

And in no other's

Arms entwine

Down beside

Where the waters flow

Down by the banks

Of the Ohio

What a difference! The biggest problem was the bright sun in our face as we headed east on I-275, the beltway around Cincinnati, but a good problem to have. We finally found route 50 again and headed east. Across the south Ohio landscape we went. Once we made a wrong turn and went a good ways south before I figured out that we weren't where I thought we were. We stopped and looked at the map. I figured we could get back on course by taking a back road northeast to route 50. What a discovery! Route 181 in eastern Ohio is one of those roads you dream about discovering. Narrow and squiggly to the max with absolutely perfect surface and no traffic. A "farm-to-market" road which just follows the landscape. As we got back on 50 we saw where route 555 intersects 50. Ohio 555 is a well-known motorcycle road. So we turned onto 555 for awhile - maybe 10 miles and turned around. Too much traffic on this section. You can have 555. I'll take 181! I guess you could take both. They're in the same neighborhood. When we crossed the bridge into Parkersburg, West Virginia it almost felt like we were finally back home. We finally stopped at Clarksburg, WV, which is only 130 miles or so from Winchester, VA. To celebrate our last night on the road, we went to dinner at a huge Chinese restaurant next door that the lady behind the desk of the Sutton Inn raved about. This place was huge! There were about 15 all-you-can-eat large steam tables containing every type of Chinese food you can imagine. Each buffet table had at least 20 pans and there were no duplicates. No way one could sample everything. You want frog legs? They got 'em. Chicken cooked 20 different ways? They got it. The downer was that the patrons consisted of a larger than average percentage of morbidly obese people. It kinda killed my appetite. And the real kicker was the price - $10 including tea and your choice of at least 30 kinds of dessert. Tomorrow, one day short of October, we will be home.

9-29-07

Clarksburg, WV

33,190

This is the coldest morning since we rode to Zion N.P. in Utah. The electrics went on. But the problem was fog. We managed to make it to Grafton, WV where we stopped, topped up the tanks and hung out while we waited for the sun to come up over the mountain and burn off the fog.

Waiting for the fog to burn off in Grafton

The fog finally did burn off enough to get back on what I think is one of the best motorcycle roads I have ever ridden. Problem is, this section of route 50 (between Grafton and Romney, WV) usually has a lot of traffic - at least the times I've ridden it. But early on a Saturday morning, traffic was not a problem. I have ridden this stretch many times, but this is the first time I have ever had a clean run all the way up the west side of Cheat mountain! Wow! What a ride!

We stopped at the Romney MacDonalds for a senior coffee and apple pie break where another guy roughly our age said he was gonna go on a cross country trip some day. And we replied what we usually do, "What's stopping you?" He had no real answer, and his wife just sat there smiling the whole time. We had our answer. We stopped at our last overlook, or "viewpoint" as they call it out west, and kinda declared the end of the adventure. Now it was just a matter of getting home.

The last viewpoint and end of the adventure

When we got to Winchester, Forrest and I separated. He went north to get on route 7 and I took the south bypass to get on I-81 and then I-66. I don't know if he saw me or not, but I just waved, as if we had just been out on a Saturday morning outing. After I got on 66 I stopped and topped up the tank. From there on home I really took it easy. I kept thinking it would be a shame to get this close to home and have a mishap or get a speeding ticket. I was in a kind of melancholy funk anyway. I'm glad to get home for sure, but a little sad that the adventure is over. At the viewpoint I asked Forrest if he would do it again five years from now. "Sure", he said, "if I'm able. Yeah, if I'm able."

9-30-07

Reston, VA

33,415

Well, that's it. 5,569 miles in 25 days. 2 rainy days, 18 states (WA, ID, OR, CA, NV, UT, CO, AZ, NM, KS, MO, IN, KY, OH, WV, MD & VA) in that order.

Thank you! To John Lyons for setting up and leading the way on the WCCR section and boarding me and Forrest for a couple days. To Carol Lyons who let him do it. To Niel Ayers for being persistent and finally catching up with us for awhile. To cousin Jerry Miller who gave us a break and some well-needed rest. To the guy at the auto parts store who searched and found a nut and lock washer so I could fix my clutch lever. To countless people who gave us encouragement along the way. To my nephew Greg in Kansas City that provided a port in a storm. To Forrest for being such a compatible friend for the last 45 years. And to my wife Petra who let me do it in good cheer.