Harley Ride 2008

2008-08-29T22:37:00.000-07:00

2008-08-28T21:48:00.000-07:00

We're filling up on the complimentary breakfast in Klamath Falls, getting ready to head north to Sisters, Oregon. Only about 200 miles today. We're getting to be old-pros at this.

It was only 50 miles to Crater Lake and the road took us through lots of cattle and horse country. It seems that's what they grow most around here. Very pretty country.

Once we were inside the Crater Lake National Park, we stopped at a viewpoint to see a spectacular deep gorge. That's Susie and Mary sitting on the ledge.

Then, of course, it was time to stop for coffee. Can you believe we found a restaurant and espresso bar on top of this mountain!

Ron and Murray getting friendly with a local gold miner.

Then we arrived at the most beautiful lake we've ever seen. The pictures can't possibly do justice to the brilliant blue of the water. Crater Lake is an average of over 1,100 feet deep. We were at about 6,000 foot elevation.

Ron and Debbie with Crater Lake in the background.

Our next stop was the local Harley dealership in Bend, Oregon, then on to lunch at Applebee's.

After lunch we began the last 15 miles to our destination, Sisters, Oregon. That's the Sisters Mountains in the background. The town of Sisters is themed after an old western town. It's really a lovely town, lots of hanging flower baskets and quaint buildings. It's quite a destination place, with lots and lots of tourists around, including us.

Here we are at the Ponderosa Best Western. A beautiful hotel, they even had Llamas in a pasture in front of the hotel.

After checking in, we headed back the mile or so to town. Unfortunately, it pretty much closed up at 5 p.m. so the girls just walked through while the guys were washing the bikes. Here they are coming by to pick us up.

Ron's brother, Larry, and friend, Mike, met us in Sisters today. They rode their bikes over from Coos Bay and will ride back home with us all tomorrow. Tomorrow will be our last entry into this blog. Our part of the trip will, sadly, be over. After the Labor Day weekend, Murray, Nancy, Chuck, Mary, Dave, Susie and George will be riding back to Crestline in Southern California, leaving Ron and Debbie all alone, and lonely, and alone, oh well. Next year.

2008-08-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

We're in the lobby of the Casino, having our morning Starbucks fix and waiting to get on the road again. By the way, the road song for the day, "Born to be Wild".

This beautiful bronze statue of Wild Horses stands in front of the Casino in Reno.

Taking the last pictures of the Casino and getting ready to ride.

That's Ron under there. He got a new "mean" look mask, just like Murray and Nancy.

We traveled for 170 miles without stopping today. Long, straight, boring roads. This is one of the guys going over 90 miles an hour. You'll have to guess who it is.

Scenery didn't change much for almost 200 miles. It's pretty dramatic, though. Weather was very mild in the desert, we even wore our jackets for most of the day.

After the 170 miles non-stop trek, we stopped in Alturas, Oregon for gas and then to a little donut shop for, of course, donuts and breakfast sandwiches. That's our new friend, Ken, behind the register. He was quite a character. We even met a lady there that lives in Reedsport, which is just 30 miles north of Coos Bay. Quite a friendly lot.

Isn't that the biggest apple fritter you've ever seen in your life!

We all gathered around the table (notice the purple crocheted doily in the center) and had a good time together before heading out for the last 100 miles to Klamath Falls, Oregon. The scenery improved dramatically. It became farm land, lots of horses and cattle and alphafa fields, etc. Very pretty.

We arrived in Klamath Falls at about 1:30 p.m. and checked into a beautiful Best Western. The lobby is filled with stuffed wild animals, it's very "woodsy" feeling, like you're in a lodge in the mountains.

Ron and George in front of the hotel.

Debbie and George in the lobby.

The dining room at the hotel. First time we've ever been to a hotel that offers not only a free breakfast, but also a free dinner and fresh, hot cookies in the evening.

The last thing we did was hit the pool and cool off from the trip. That's Ron, Chuck and Mary in the hot tub, making bubbles. Tomorrow we're off to Crater Lake and Sisters, Oregon.

2008-08-26T21:18:00.000-07:00

We've begun a little tradition: Our road song for the day is, "Hit the Road, Jack!" courtesy of Murray.

We left Bishop this morning at about 7 and the weather was nice and cool. We even had to put on jackets. A great change from yesterday heat. It took about 30 minutes to get to the mountains and trees, and the ride was very pretty today. Our first stop was in a little town called Lee Vining. We found a little cafe with a beautiful garden and had a nice relaxing time.

This photo op was also in Lee Vining in front of a general store. That's Ron and Debbie posing with the grizzly bear statue.

We lined up the bikes in front of the cafe. Looks pretty nice, doesn't it?

George's head in the forefront, then Ron, Murray and Chuck placing their coffee order.

The garden was filled with old fashioned flowers, hollyhocks of all colors and several different types of Sunflowers. It was beautiful and so relaxing.

We followed this mountain stream for several miles. There were people pulled off alongside the road fishing.

The scenery was beautiful. Very dramatic mountains.

We arrived in Reno about noon. Had lunch and checked into the Grand Sierra Resort & Casino. A great place! It has a bowling alley, a cinema, an amusement park with mini golf and bungee jumping. You would never have to leave this place!

We had barely checked in and we were off to the local Harley Dealership. They must have enjoyed our group coming in, we all left several dollars lighter.

There was a Nevada Sheriff at the dealership. They must make good on the casinos, their sheriffs drive Harley's.

We all had a nice dinner at the Casino and then off to our respective rooms for a good night's sleep. We're off early tomorrow for the longest day yet, about 275 miles. We'll be in Klamath Fall, Oregon tomorrow night.

2008-08-25T20:29:00.000-07:00

And we're off, again! This time heading north toward Oregon. We all met at Chuck's house: Murray & Nancy, Ron and Debbie, Chuck and Mary, Dave and Susie and George, at 7 a.m. We're trying to beat the heat in the desert by leaving early and being able to stop in the early afternoon.
It took about 40 minutes to come down on the backside of the mountain. Nice curvy, winding roads. Fun. It was still cool on the mountain.

A beautiful sunrise over Lake Silverwood. It looks like an oasis in the desert. This is at the bottom of the mountain on the north side.

We stopped about an hour out for breakfast. When we left we had 180 miles to go to Bishop.

It's a long, long straight highway. One time we went over 21 miles without even a curve in the road. It's getting hot, too. Even this early in the morning.

Chuck and Mary

Dave and Susie

This is a picture of what we saw for over seven hours today. Beautiful landscape, isn't it?!

George

More of the "view". It seemed the road went on forever.

Just a sampling of the lovely real estate available at dirt cheap prices in this neighborhood.

We stopped for a cold drink at this little place in Independence. It was run by a Frenchman. Imagine, I wonder why he stopped here to set up a business. Anyway, it was very nice. The guys "bellied up to the bar" for a photo op.

This alphalfa field was out in the middle of nowhere and there must have been a herd of 100 or so elk there. Fantastic.

We arrived in Bishop at about 2:30 and stayed at the Ramada Inn. The first thing we all did was jump into the pool to cool off. It was 99 degrees when we arrived, so the water felt so good.

Dinner down the street at a local Mexican Restaurant. Very good. Had a great time with everyone. Lots of laughs.

The last thing on the docket was, of course, coffee at a nice local place. Nancy was relaxing in the corner. We're off to the motel now for the night. Early morning again tomorrow and heading to Reno, Nevada.

2008-08-24T19:48:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday morning and guess what. . .we're at the local coffee shop, no Starbucks in sight. We met Dave (who with his wife Susie are riding back to Oregon with us) and after a latte, headed for church.

It was fun to see the guys ride in to church together, all geared up. There was special parking for bikes right in front. The Crestline Celebration Centre people are always warm and welcoming, excited to see us all.

The church was filled to capacity today, the worship team did a great job and Murray preached an anointed message. Ministry time was powerful. A great day, however Ron and Debbie being with their own church and can't wait for next weekend when Chuck, Mary, Murray, Nancy, Dave, Susie and George will all be in North Bend for service.

After service we all drove the few miles over to Lake Arrowhead for lunch on the lake.

Yesterday, there were three. . .today we've added another Harley to the garage. George Olmos arrived this afternoon to join the ride. So along with Dave and Susie, that makes five Harley's in our wild gang.

Last thing we did Sunday night was to lay out the plans for the week over Pizza and leftovers. The plan is to leave at 7 am to get the ride over before the heat of the day presses in. We're off to the Mojave Desert and the little town of Bishop. So the adventure continues. . . . .

2008-08-23T15:07:00.000-07:00

This is Chuck and Mary's home in the wilderness. Nobody could find this place, it's miles off the beaten path, but once you finally get here it's beautiful, quiet and serene. Just what we needed after 5 days on the bikes. It's been beautiful since we arrived yesterday, very warm and sunny.

This is looking down toward the horse arena from the house. It's kind of nice to have the animals around, but they've warned us about a big black bear roaming around here, sometimes even coming up on the front porch. We've been "bear hunting" ever since we arrived. Murray won't go out after dark, he's sure he's attractive to the bear!

The boys with their toys. With all the bikes and animal heads in Chuck's garage, there's no room for a car. The guys spent the day getting the bikes ready for the trip, while Nancy and Debbie went shopping and Mary went to work.

This is a short video of Murray's bike, sounds good but it doesn't really capture the true sound of the new pipes!

Nancy and Debbie strolled through Lake Arrowhead Village all morning and into the afternoon. The lake was beautiful and blue and the shopping was great. Poor Mary, she had to be up at 3 am to get ready for an all day scrapbooking event at her shop. She worked until 5 pm and then we all went to dinner.

The loot!

Chuck and Mary treated us to dinner at the local Chinese Restaurant. We had a lot of fun together, as you can tell by the smiles. Food was good, too.

Tomorrow is Sunday, and Murray is speaking. All the guys are riding their bikes to coffee in the morning and then on to church. Talk to you all later.

2008-08-22T15:49:00.000-07:00

We left Bakersfield today, the weather was still cool, which was nice for a change. After Starbucks coffee, we headed south toward Los Angeles.

That's Murray and Nancy, they had mean motorcycle looks on under those masks. You can see we have gone to shirt sleeves because of the heat.

Went over the Grapevine without incident, except a truck was going down the grade and his tires caught on fire. Murray and Nancy were driving along beside him and tried to get his attention, but when we pulled off he was still going on, smoking and smelling.

By noon we had reached Magic Mountain, just north of the San Fernando Valley, and had lunch.

Then we started toward the 210 Freeway toward San Bernardino. Except for a few slow mergers, the traffic was light and we were able to go pretty fast in the car pool lane. Made good time. This is proof that Ron drove at 80 miles per hour on the freeway.

We stopped for a drink, at Starbucks of course, just before heading up the hill to Crestline. Only 1/2 hour to go.

That was fun, lots of corners. We arrived at Chuck and Mary's at about 3:30, unpacked and the guys began washing their bikes, which we had not done for the whole trip. We wanted the grit and grime as proof of the trip. 1070 miles total from Coos Bay! We made it. Now, rest for two days and we're off again.

By the way, a very Happy Birthday from all of us to Debbie's mom, Ernestine. She's 79 years young today! Love you, Mom.

2008-08-21T20:44:00.000-07:00

We left Santa Cruz this morning about 9. It was cool and foggy and we headed toward Watsonville where we stopped at. . . you guessed it, Starbucks! After Chicken Terragon Sandwiches for breakfast, we headed toward Fresno.

It was a beautiful drive over the hills, we went through miles and miles of strawberry fields, corn, chili peppers, etc. Saw lots of horses and cattle, it was a very nice ride.

This was a little odd, we drove through a stand of Sycamore tree (we think), just out in the middle of nowhere.

The field were pretty and green, except for a few red ones like this. Don't know what was growing here.

Near Los Banos, is this resevoir and dam that Ron's grandfather worked on over 40 years ago.

We just happened upon a Harley Dealership in Los Banos, really. We were stopping for something cold to drink and there it was! Debbie got a great deal on a coat, which will be shipped home because it is sooo hot here. This was where all coats were removed. From here to Fresno it went from nice, cool low 70's to near 100. Too hot for man or beast.

We made it to Fresno for lunch at In and Out Burger, yummm, and then decided after another Harley shop visit to head for Bakersfield, another 100 miles south. That was rough in the hottest part of the afternoon, but we made it around 5 p.m. and got checked into our hotel. Murray, Ron and Debbie decided to cool off in the pool, who would have thought that the pool would be like ice water in this heat! It took our breath away, so into the "hot" tub we went. It was only slightly less frigid than the pool. We were cooled off quickly.

Had a nice dinner and we're in for the evening. See ya tomorrow!

2008-08-20T21:27:00.000-07:00

Last night, after we had written our blog, we went out to dinner at Murray's favorite place, Coscto. We dined on Roasted Chicken, Sushi and Shrimp, yummmo. Ron doesn't eat chicken, so he ordered a Kosher Hot Dog.

Today our day started at. . . .Starbucks, of course. Then we were off to Santa Cruz. The ride was good, except for some miles of really heavy traffic before we headed around San Francisco Bay toward San Jose and Santa Cruz. We traveled about 2 hours without stopping, because there's no good place to stop on the freeway! We went across this extremely high bridge, it was very windy up there. We could see the Golden Gate off to the right, but it was covered in heavy fog.

We arrived in Santa Cruz at our hotel at about 1 pm. After checking in we headed down to the Boardwalk, which was only about 3 blocks away, for some lunch.

The Boardwalk was an exciting, fun place, loaded with summer tourists. We all kept thinking that we needed our children or grandchildren with us so we would have an excuse to ride the rides and play the games.
Then it was back to the room to rest up for the next meal. We tried to find the Harley Dealership, but got a little lost. When we finally found it they were about to close the doors for the night, so we'll try again tomorrow maybe.Dinner was on the Wharf just past the Boardwalk. Nice place, fresh fish, view of the surfers, great!It was dark when we left dinner and this was the view of the Boardwalk as we left the restaurant. Beautiful! Weather was still warm as we walked the 6 blocks or so back to the room. Tomorrow it's off to hot, hot, Fresno, possibly Bakersfield depending on how soon we get away from here. It's going to be hard to leave here, it's really a beautiful area.

2008-08-19T16:37:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Santa Rosa about 4 p.m. Weather cleared up as soon as we left Eureka this morning, it's been sunny and blue skies ever since. A little too warm for us Oregonians, Ron's announced that he was "too hot!", Debbie agreed but Murray said he didn't think he was that hot. Murray's enjoying the ride and how fast he can take the corners and Ron's whining about going any faster than 75.

The Redwoods were awesome, and we would have a picture of us there, but we couldn't catch Murray to have him stop! Instead, he chose a quaint little spot at an abandoned shack alongside the road without a Redwood tree in sight, or a bathroom. Ron did find an old chair to relax in. We guilted Murray into sightseeing just a bit, and we almost got to drive through the Redwood Tree, but we missed the exit. Murray doesn't really like to use signals.

We ate lunch in Willits at a hippy coffee house, which Nancy and Debbie really enjoyed. Ron and Murray on the other hand had to look hard to find anything with meat in it.

Traffic coming into Santa Rosa was scary. We actually lost each other for a while, got off the freeway and back on and then somehow found each other again.

We're at the only hotel in this city without a pool or a hot tub. It's almost 80 but feels hotter. We're having a great time, laughing a lot. Murray said we started this trip as "wild hogs", now we're sweaty pigs!

We're going to dinner soon, so we'll write again tomorrow.

2008-08-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally got on our way for the big ride!

We left North Bend during a severe summer storm (lightning, thunder, rain) and basically rode in fog and rain all the way to Eureka, finally arriving at 7 p.m.

The ride was beautiful, even though it was cold. We saw the sun for about 10 minutes through Gold Beach. The Redwoods were amazing, riding through on a bike was a new experience. You can see so much more, feel closer to the huge trees, everything is better on a bike.

Tomorrow, it's the Harley Shop here in Eureka, then on to Santa Rosa which is about 220 miles south. Hope the weather is better there.