Finally, eh?
This is the story of the R65 and the R100T on their trip to the National Rally. 8-)
We were off to Redmond on Sunday, July 11. I walked out my back door and realized that the water leak to the house (my side of the meter, but before the house turn off) that I thought I had fixed was leaking again. Aaarrgghh. Okay, so get the bike loaded up, but then have to drive the car to the hardware store 3 times to get the right pipes and stuff to fix the leak. Finally, about 3 pm, we get it done and head on out. We ARE going to get on the road no matter what.
Stop at Mary's Pizza, a local restaurant, for dinner and we are finally on the road for real about 4:00.
Lucky for us it's summer and we've still got lots of light. Are we going to make it to Eureka as planned? Who knows. We stop about every 45 minutes to an hour to stretch, get gas, drink something, eat a bite, and/or just look around. Stopped in Ukiah for gas. It was HOT up that way - probably about 95 or so.
From here on it is mostly freeway with short strips of 2 lane highway where they haven't widened the road becausse of the Redwoods. The next stop is at a little store in the Redwoods along Hwy 101 somewhere where there was a few "other" bikes and a BMW that looked like he was headed our way.
At this point we were leap-frogging with a couple of guys on some kind dual sport bikes.
As we went past Patrick's Point State Park I was keeping a look out for the famous elk herd that lives around there. We turn a corner and there they are in the front yard of a house right at the side of the road. Thought about turning around and taking a picture, but we were running late and needed to keep going. Oh well. Next time. The closer we get to the coast the cooler it gets. Finally the fog is right there in front of us and it is getting downright cold. So we stop and put in the jacket liners and change to cold weather gloves. This proves to be not quite enough, but it keeps us awake.
We are so close to Eureka now, and with no other place to stop at this point, that we push on. The sun has gone down, I think - can't tall because of the fog, but there is still a lightness to the sky. The fog is so thick as we get to the ocean that I didn't at first realize that we had gotten there. The helmet shields are full of gnats that are now getting hydrated with the mist from the fog. What do I do now? Wipe it off and smear all those gnats all over my shield?
We take an offramp that proves to go nowhere but this gives us time to regroup and decide to go all the way to Eureka, which is only about 10 more miles. The gnats are brushed right off with the water. Whew, now I can almost see. It really is getting dark now, and I finally get to see how my headlight really works. I don't ride in the dark on purpose, you see.
But the headlight is nice and bright. We get to Eureka, finally, after moving along rather briskly, and I finally see the Motel 6 (not one I would stay in again though). It's 9:30 when we check in. Not bad at all. Miles covered - 213. Ride Time - 3 hrs 50 min. Max Speed 80.3 (I said we were moving briskly.
)
Luckily there is a 24 hour restaurant right next door. As we are finishing up, the 2 guys that just came on asked me if we were the folks on the BMW's. Yep! I turn around and realize it's probably the 2 guys were leap-frogging with along the highway. I asked them if they were the guys in the red riding jackets. Yep! They were riding from Santa Barbara and on their way up to Alaska. I forgot what kind of bikes though - Honda dualsport bikes maybe?
After a bit of breakfast the next morning, we remember how cold it was the day before and so layer up. The fog is higher though so it's not so wet and cold. We head on up Hwy 101 along the coast to Crescent City. It's pretty, but very foggy. Then head on up the Smith River, which is a really nice road. We stop a ways up there to take off the layers as it did start getting quite warm. What a trip! Hot to cold to hot again. We stop again in Cave Junction for a bite to eat and head on down the road to Grants Pass. Before we start heading down Larry makes me aware that he needs gas. Oh great. Well, it's downhill from here. The road down is good, but the weather is getting hotter. We make it to Grants Pass and pull into the first gas station, no matter what it is.
Whew! Just made it. My gas was fine, but it was definitely time to fill up.
Grants Pass has changed dramatically since I lived there in 1979, 1980. I didn't recognize anything. We had trouble even finding the hotels. Finally, just before we got to I-5, there was a Best Western. A bit pricey, but it was a very nice comfy room, and the shower was
great!
Miles for the day: 179. Ride time: 3 hrs 50 mins. Max speed 75.8
More in the next section. I'm running out of room!
