Go West. Day 60 (5615 miles)

The last National Park we visited in Utah was Zion, we were looking for accommodation and stumbled across the Clear Creek Ranch. We drove up a long drive and went into this large house via several different entrances (all the doors were unlocked) but no one was about. After driving around the land for a while we found the owners who were not at all bothered that we had been in the house, it seems like not a lot of doors get locked round here! John and I were the only guests in the ranch house which had 13 bedrooms! It was nice to be in a place where we could cook for ourselves and lounge around on the sofas in the evening.

Jane after a 15 mile hike in Zion, (OK it was actually more like 2 miles).

It’s so nice when the wildlife are happy to pose for photo’s.

After Utah we headed into Nevada, the plan was always just to travel through but we needed an overnight stay so stopped in a place called Primm which is around 80 miles south of Vegas. Having experienced the adult theme park that is Las Vegas on a previous trip we purposely did not stop there but is seems the whole of Nevada is the same, Primm was just like Vegas on a much smaller scale! Rows and rows of slot machines and gaming tables and no natural light to distract the gamblers, quite surreal. The only plus side was the hotel rooms are incredibly cheap ($25 for a huge room), unfortunately for the casino they didn’t make any money out of us as we only stopped long enough to take this photo we didn’t gamble at all. This place was in the middle of nowhere and we met a security guard with a broad Yorkshire accent who had lived there for 6 years.

Jane was very relieved to see this sign for Santa Monica, John had done a fantastic job of battling through the mad traffic that surrounds LA, basically for those who know the M25 it was like 3pm on a Friday with double the amount of lanes. From the first LA exit to when we exited for Santa Monica which is still part of LA there were over 40 junctions and we travelled about 55 miles. It’s huge.

We spent most of a day cleaning the bike and all our riding gear and luggage in preparation for shipping to Australia, fingers crossed it is good enough for Australian Customs. Other women in this fashion conscious city carry designer handbags, however, Jane had spent 2 days on the back of the bike clutching a blue plastic bucket as we travelled around town to buy cleaning materials and find somewhere to do the cleaning.

This kind of sums it up for the Tenere‘s US trip, today we took it to the shippers for crating and shipping to Oz. For the next 12 days we are using a hire car to explore this part of California. After a couple of days in the hire car we are both missing the bike!

Opposite our motel in Santa Monica was a music shop called McCabes, it’s been there years and has quite a reputation with both amateur and professional musicians in California. It’s a big shop and several nights each week they have live music. The night before this photo was taken we went to watch a singer called Eliza Gilkyson in this room, the dark area at the back is the stage and the floor area was all seating. 12 hours later it looks like a music shop again.

As soon as John stepped onto Muscle Beach all the bodybuilders left, they were just too intimidated!

An example of John’s strict training diet, roast beef and a few pints in an Irish bar!

Sunrise at Jalama beach near Lompoc in California, we are camping about 50 yards from this beach. Going to sleep listening to the waves crashing on the beach, it’s pretty special.

Red Rocks of Utah. Day 53. (4,750 miles)

We started this week at Jane’s sister Lizzie’s house preparing to continue our trip, including trying to get information from the laid back guy at the LA shippers who will be transporting the bike to Brisbane for us. Fingers crossed it will be as smooth a process as he says!

Above we headed off through Western Colorado towards Utah.

Huge valleys, as you can see the traffic was a nightmare.

Our first stop in Utah was the town of Moab, very popular for outdoor pursuits. We were so focussed on finding a campsite that we forgot to take any pictures of the town! This is the view from our campsite.

Close to Moab is the Arches National Park, Utah is famous for the red rocks and canyons in various parts of the State and this is the first park we visited. We rode through at sunset which was nice as the rocks become even redder at this time and also many of the coach size RV’s (motor homes) have left for the day.

There had to be a sunset shot.

The North Window rock. Flipping enormous!

Both of us (still talking) at the South Window rock.

Our next stop was Capital Reef National Park, very pretty and less dry than Arches more a mix of rock cliffs and green areas. This picture was taken on John’s Blackberry as we had used up both camera batteries snapping away.

This road is called the Hogs Back, a slighter better view than the one between Guildford and Farnham.



A couple of pictures to prove that camping did take place! According to the campsite office the temperature dropped to -5c and our sleeping bags are not 4 season so it was a little chilly. In the middle of the night we added an extra layer and jumped into some foil survival bags John had bought. We may have looked like a couple of turkeys ready for roasting but at least we were a bit warmer!
John’s techie bit - for those who are interested, I bought the bags because they were recommended by the Duke of Edinburgh award organisers and of course paid more than you would for a normal foil survival bag/. However, they really did the job turning our summer sleeping bags into winter bags. The only problem is that they condensate.



This is Bryce Canyon, amazing rock formations just two of about 100 pictures taken.


I leave John alone for 2 minutes and come back to find him surrounded by Harley riders, I was a bit worried he had said shiny Harleys are girls bikes and was about to suffer the consequences! Turns out they had spotted the UK number plate and asked about our trip, phew!
John’s techie bit - The Tenere is the star wherever we go. Most riders that we meet who are familiar with the bike really want Yamaha to release this model in the USA and not the 1200 which they will soon be getting. Can’t help thinking that Yam are missing a trick here.

The Rocky Mountains. Day 46. (4,060 miles)

We decided to modify the XT for the mountains, oh yes, and paint it orange while we where at it! Only kidding, this is the new KTM ski bike that their hoping will do well for the winter here.

This is Roger and Mary, very good friends of Jane’s sister Lizzie who were kind enough to take us Salmon fishing on the Blue Mesa lake, it was a great experience, we caught fish and had them for dinner, just the best. Thanks guy’s.

John with one of the salmon he caught which we enjoyed later that evening.

Roger and Mary had warned us that it can get fairly crowded on the lake close to where the salmon are. This picture doesn’t really do the scene justice but if you imagine twice as many boats to the side out of shot you will be somewhere near.

Labour Day Weekend. A surprise belated Birthday for Jane arranged by Lizzie. Lovely cake and even lovelier company! Thank you to the friends and family who came along, we had a great time.(L to R: Roger, Sarah, Mick, Mary, Lizzie, John, Jane, Gina. Elva, Willy and Russ.)

This is Crested Butte, a mountain area close to Gunnison where there are some old mountain style buildings and new builds for the wealthy city folk who come here in the winter to ski. The scenery is stunning and looks breathtaking in the winter months, but is no place for the XT, so we may have to return one day and see how the KTM does!

This is ‘Ohio Pass’ which is a mountain road that cuts through the San Juan Mountains (part of the Rocky Mountain Range) from Crested Butte to Ohio Creek Road. We think the elevation is around 9,800 ft ASL, again the picture does not do the scenery justice but you can imagine riding along this road as the only vehicle with only the mountain lions and bears for company. The trees are called Aspen Trees, local to Colorado.

One of the many open grazing areas high in the mountains where the local ranchers have cattle. The elevation here was again close to 9,500 ft ASL so you can imagine the impact the mountain peaks in the background have rising so high above this point. Absolutely stunning.

Onward and Upwards. Day 39. (3991 Miles)

We started this week in Taos, New Mexico a lovely little town that again held too many shopping opportunities for a woman with such limited carrying capacity.

There is a route of 83 miles known as the Enchanted Circle that follows some lovely roads at high altitude. The photo above is Wheeler Peak the highest peak in New Mexico. Note the stormy sky, we saw some spectacular fork lightening that day.

Also on this route at a place called Angel Fire is the New Mexico Vietnam War Memorial, a very moving tribute to those who served in that war. It was founded by a father who lost his son, a 28 year old platoon leader.

The El Pueblo Lodge in Taos, quainter than your average motel.

Ranches everywhere, this one's for you Donna.

It would be impossible to take a pet on a trip like this but note the new seat cover. It's very comfortable and has eliminated the shock of getting on a vinyl seat that has been in direct sunlight for a while.

We stopped in a place called Chama, a Chevrolet club were holding a rally in the town. This was John's favourite, a Bel Air. (What do you think of this one Mark C?)

The mountain scenery got more dramatic as we headed towards Silverton in Colorado, at times we climbed to above 11,100 feet.

Silverton was an old mining town and is now a favourite with tourists for it's fantastic location in the mountains.

We were there for a Horizons Unlimited meeting, a 3 day event of non-stop presentations by motorcyclists who have travelled in USA, Central and South America, Asia, Russia, Mongolia, Europe, Africa, Australia so most of this planet was covered by somebody! Not all attendees have travelled, some like us are just starting and some have plans for the future. A great bunch of people, we really enjoyed their company.

A misty mountain morning, could almost be an August day in Scotland!

Susan and Grant Johnson the team that make Horizons Unlimited what it is with Dr Greg Frazier who gave a very entertaining presentation recounting highlights of his 5 round the world trips.

John with 'Coop', we have promised to introduce him to the delights of the Hogs Back Brewery when we get together in the UK.

Us with Dennis, Delle and Mark. We look forward to seeing you all again sometime. Look after those pearls Delle!








Editors note: when in Tennessee we rode the Dragons Tail (Deal's Gap) and were told that there were 318 bends in 30 miles, we are reliably corrected that it is more like 300 bends in 11 miles! That's why the front brakes were hot!

TexMex

Day 34. 3677 miles travelled todate.

We were surprised just how much you could smell the Texas oilfields, there were mile after mile of wells nodding away. At one point there was a large windfarm on the opposite side of the road to the wells, good to see the Texans are looking at alternative energy! With the amount of sky and sun they have they could generate heaps of power with solar panels.








The grave of Buddy Holly in his home town of Lubbock, Texas, it was very modest. Note the spelling of Holley, the change in his stage name came about because of a spelling error in a recording contract he signed











There was also an interesting museum, he certainly wrote and recorded a huge amount of material considering he died at 22.













We were in Lubbock for 3 days (2 longer than we planned) as a couple of miles before we arrived John suspected we had a rear puncture but when we pulled over there was a large bulge in the tyre wall. As we have mentioned before the temperatures we had been travelling in were causing pretty bad cracking and the tyre had now delaminated. By sticking a knife in the tyre and getting it back to a normal shape we were able to limp into Lubbock at 30 miles an hour. We ordered a new tyre through the local Yamaha dealer and when it arrived we went along with shower gel from the hotel and the tools John had packed to change a tyre and expected to have to do the job outside the dealers premises.

As it turned out the team at Watts Yamaha could not have been more helpful, John was able to use their workshop facilites to do the job. So no struggling to get the old tyre off and the new one on outside in the heat! They were fantastic guys, we highly recommend them. A big thank you from us to Ken Matlock, Dennis, Tom, Bobby, Matt and Drew.

An example of how big everything in Texas is, this train had 4 engines and was 2 miles long!

Our first stop in New Mexico was an overnight stop in a very small place called Fort Sumner, we stayed at the Billy the Kid County Motel and visited the Billy the Kid museum and Billy the Kid's grave. No prizes for guessing what the place is famous for.

By chance we arrived in the beautiful town of Sante Fe on their busiest weekend of the year when a huge Indian market takes place. Way too many shopping opportunities, it was torture! We camped outside the town and spent a great evening chatting and drinking beer with Ralph and Lisa. John found a kindred spirit in Ralph, another man who needs to know how things work, has good taste in music and rides motorcycles.

Recuerdo de le Mision in Abiquiu, this tiny little village is famous as the final home of American artist Georgia O'Keefe. A lot of artists love this part of New Mexico for the quality of the natural light.

FOR SALE some modernisation required, quiet neighbourhood.

A view of the wild west but no cowboys or Indians, not a bad photo as it was taken from the bike at about 50 mph.

The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, this picture does not do it justice it's another one of those places you have to go yourself!

We had a great chat with this guy, his name is Jim Morrison (yes really) he has clocked up over 125,000 miles on trips all round the US on his Heritage Soft Tail Harley. The location was the Old Timer's cafe in Red River a quaint little ski resort that was on a route known as the Enchanted Circle, 80 plus miles of beautiful mountain passes around Taos NM. The highest elevation we rode at was 9820 feet, it' was lovely to ride in the cooler mountain air after the oven that is Texas!

We have now arrived in Taos, it has a great live music scene, more tales to come next week.