Cross Country to California 07

Cross Country to California 07/08

I'd been thinking about riding out to California pretty much all year, and as the end of May rolled around I made final plans to do it... take off from July 7th thru the 22nd, trailer the motorcycle to Colorado, where I would leave one of my daughters to stay the whole month (her sister and Mother lived in Crestone) and the youngest daughter and I would ride the bike out to California, along the coast, and then back to Colorado. As the trip approached my youngest decided she didn't want to go, so I'd be doing the motorcycle riding by my self.

07/07/08 Day 1

Well, Monday morning we were ready to go...

What's a teenager that doesn't give you dirty looks for waking her up so early?

Just for future contrast, here's the scenery just out on the main street near my house.

Well, got out to I-80 and started sucking down the looooooooong boring miles. This guy and I played tag for a while.

Had some excitement in Iowa... guess it was mowing time... so they shut off an entire lane of traffic for miles just so they could mow the grass on the median.. :? I was also glad that they occasionally had signs saying to "stay off the median"... good thing too... cause I kept thinking, I really want to drive my car in the ditch... or maybe that was in Nebraska... don't know... it all looks the same...

Well, then the real excitement started... I heard a pop and then a strange noise... so I pulled over... I'm thinking my cheapass Harbor Freight trailer blew a tire. No, both looked fine... what the...? I turn around and the car tire was flat... So, I got to unload all my stuff in the trunk to get to the jack and spare...

And of course it wasn't a full size spare, just a doughnut... and of course I couldn't drive all the way to Colorado on a doughnut... so used the GPS to locate the nearest tire service place and get a new tire... Only lost about an hour with the whole deal, so not bad... and we ate dinner while we waited. The tire had a puncture, but it couldn't be saved because the high speed had ripped up the insides. Maybe this was an omen...

Drove as long as I could and we ended up in North Platt Nebraska; just about a hundred miles or so short of the Colorado border...

Yeah, I know... it's a real nail-biter at this point... Man I hate all that I-80 open space stuff... I-80 is why we need teleportation to be developed...

The scenery starts getting better on day two...

07/08/08 Day 2

Day 2 started with breakfast at Sonic, and of course while we're waiting, my daughter takes the opportunity to catch up on her text messages. Actually she was catching up on her text messages pretty much the whole trip, and was not very happy when we were in an area that had no reception...

Judging from the grass on the right in the photo below, Eastern Colorado was having some brush fire problems.

Getting closer.... this is somewhere on I-76 just East of Denver

Ahhhhhhh.... first sighting of those beautiful Rockies

The day would end in Crestone at my daughters place. The quickest way there is I-70 West of Denver, to highway 91, to 24, to 285, to 17, and than T...

(Map courtesy of Google)

If you have to travel an interstate, I-70 West of Denver is the one to travel. Even though it's a six laner part of the time, it's got great elevation changes, and the mountains are beautiful. 91 and 24 are also fantastic... mostly two laners with sweeping curves and beautiful scenery...

And enjoying that scenery were a couple Sweeds... (that's the Sweedish flag they are flying, right?) matching helmets, bikes, clothes, including the shorts they were wearing...

I think at this point I had been driving for so long I couldn't see straight any more... what does that sign say...?

I believe this was taken in Leadville, where 91 meets 24... (click on it for full image)

Click on this one for full image...

Yup, that's rain over to the left in that photo.

This is looking East of route 17 in the San Louis Valley

And county road T approaching Crestone in the foothills of the mountains...

Parked in front of my daughters place...

Someone is tired...

My oldest daughter and I talked and compared schedules, and I decided I would take off for California the next day, then on the way back spend a couple days at her place before continuing home. Anyway, that was the plan.

07/09/08 Day 3, Fist Day on the BMW

So, here is day three of the trip... day one on the motorcycle. The plan was to go from Creston to Monticello Utah. Plans ended up changing slightly and this was the final route that I ended up taking. Still same start and end point, but with a major detour.

I got up early, before everyone else, and unloaded the bike and geared it up... My daughters dog Annie was keeping watch...

Everyone got up while I was getting ready to go, my daughter left for work, and I continued to get ready. I drove into town to top of the tank with gas and I was on my way.

Reference mileage and time... clock still on central time so actually 8:26 Colorado time.

I had the GPS programmed for scenic route and I was getting the occasional request to turn onto a gravel road even on my way back out to route 17, but my tires were starting to wear down, I wasn't sure they were going to make the whole trip anyway, so I wasn't going to do any unnecessary off road excursions and get my second flat of the trip.

By the time I drove the half hour out to route 17, I was already cold, so I stopped to put on my rain suite top to cut the wind. Here's the view back to Crestone:

285 is straight as an arrow for the most part, but 114 is a beautiful piece of road; kind of open for the first 15 miles or so but then very twisty. I would say if you're in the area this road is a must. Here's as shot of the road just a bit after getting off 285:

Click the above for full image...

And then some of the twisty parts:

That took me out to route 50. I'd been on route 50 East of Salida but had never been on it this far West. It's a little more open here, but still very twisty in areas, and going by the Blue Mesa Reservoir is such a contrast compared to the dry land that surrounds the area. I would stop, take some photos, and a few miles down the road there was something even better. So many times I almost felt guilty for not stopping and taking more photos, but there were so many beautiful scenes I just couldn't stop for all of them.

Click the above for full image...

Click the above for full image...

I stopped for lunch in Montrose and continued on.

Click the above for full image...

Click the above for full image...

Route 62 and 145 wonder through a valley and everything about that route is just amazing... the twisty road, the rock formations and cliffs, and the river running along the road... When it comes to touring on a motorcycle, does it get better than this?

Click on the above image to get another view of this area...

It was real easy to take a photo here, cause no matter where I pointed my camera it came out amazing.

I eventually came across a sign saying "San Miguel River", so I'm not sure if that's the river that ran along this road, or if the road just happened to cross that river on one point. Again, if you're in this area, don't miss these roads.

The road then started climbing up and out of the valley, producing more fantastic views.

Click the above for the full image...

I made my way into Coventry where I stopped for gas. As I was filling up, a guy in a beat up station wagon gassed up behind me and then came over and started talking to me about where I was from and where I was going, and he insisted that I needed to take a certain route out here because it was one of the best roads he'd been on.. he whipped out a piece of paper and a pen and started drawing me a map.. I followed what he was saying. We needed to clear the pumps and he asked me if I had 10 minutes, he lived just outside of town and had maps he could explain it better. Up to this point I had learned his mother was Croatian, he was currently working on a BMW for a friend of his, and his reward was a six pack which he was going to buy right after the gas stop. So, what the heck, I followed him. He stopped at a liquor store, asked me if a dark beer would be fine, I said sure, and he was back in a couple minutes, and we were off into the gravel roads. Five minutes later we pull up to his place. His name was Bill Leenheer and he also gave me the name of a contact in CA who could show me around some of the roads when I got there.

Had a couple old BMW in the yard, barely a frame of one, and an Aprilia.

The house was a total disaster with stuff, including motorcycle parts, everywhere, but he managed to dig up some maps, and over a cold beer we discussed his ideas. Bottom line, no matter what I did, I needed to go up route 141 at least as far as Gateway. Once I got there I could either turn around or continue north until the Interstate and take it West. It was a couple hours out of my way, but he said the road was just amazing, and he'd been all over the west in his 30+ years of riding... Done. I thanked him for the hospitality and the advice and off I went.

As he said, the first sections of 141 were kind of barren, but it started getting twisty. I pulled over in this shady spot next to the road to take my shirt of and wet it in the river. Basically that's how I had been staying cool.

And here is the heart of the 141 going to Gateway... A serpentine piece of asphalt hugging the huge red rock cliffs...

Click the above for the full image...

As I got close to Gateway I came upon this place... which had a gas station and a restaurant...

Although this place had a beautiful air conditioned restaurant, I decided to eat out on the deck... so I could take off my boots and let the wind blow through my sweaty socks... They also had a very nice restroom where I again soaked my shirt with water before I left. The technique proved to be invaluable over the next couple days also, because the heat did not let up until I was on the coast of California. I also carried a gallon of water in my tank bag.

The waitress spoke in a French accent, the water was cold, and the food was really good, and after a full day of riding tasted better than it probably had any right to; worthy of a photo.

This is a view of the restaurant area...

And when I was thoroughly stuffed and hydrated, I got to go back in the other direction... here's just one of the many amazing views...

Click the above for the full image...

Well, I eventually made my way back to 90 and continued on my way to Utah, where I ended my day in Monticello...

Click the above for the full image...

07/10/2008 Day 4, Second Day on the BMW

I woke up early, showered, and took a walk down main street Monticello looking for someplace to eat. Came on a little cafe that served breakfast. So, had a Denver omelet while sitting on the deck under a shade tree talking to the proprietor about nothing in particular. The food hit the spot and I was ready for the day. Went back to the Motel, packed up, gassed up, and it went like this. 191 out of Monticello to 95 to Lake Powell (Glen Canyon Rec Area), back to 261, 163, 160, 89, and 64 through the Grand Canyon and into Tusayan (closest town with accommodations) just South of the Grand Canyon.

Utah is definitely different kind of scenery... definitely a little more barren.

But, wasn't too long before I came upon a valley area and spied some gravel roads that went down into it, so went adventuring for a little bit...

For the most part the road was just too rough and it was really slow going. There were deep ruts across the road and even at very low speeds the suspension was bottoming out, and the road was heading in the wrong direction, so when I got to this wider section I turned around and and went back to the asphalt... I could see coming to these areas with a dirt bike and just spending days bashing these roads...

These photos are in the same spot, one looking back the other looking forward...

The photo above was the first sighting of these huge plateaus (mesas?) that were my company for hundreds of miles...

The following are photos from Route 95. It was hot. The morning had been relatively cool, but the temperatures were really going up in this desert area and I had to pull over and pour water on my shirt and jacket lining to keep my body temperature down...

Here's a close-up of that road going off into the cliffs...

Over those cliffs is Lake Powell, where I gassed, watered up, and took in the site. It's such a contrast... you come through 100 miles of desert and end up at this lake. You have to wonder how long it's taken this lake to get this small. Certainly the whole area must have at one time been a lake and it's just shrinking with time? You begin to wonder about the timeframes involved to carve out these kinds of sights... And it sure is an awfully long way to come to plunk your boat down in some water.

I took my boots and socks off, sat on the edge of the lake, with my legs in the water noteing that there was no wading area... at least in the particular area I was in, it was the rock I was sitting on and a drop into the abys. I wet my pants up to mid thigh, soaked my shirt again, and after some food I had in my tank bag, and replenishing my water supply, I turned around to go back down 95. The cliffs are amazing...

Click on the above for a full image.

I got to 261 and headed south. The road was nice, but nothing spectacular...

But then I came on this...

I'm thinking, yeah, right, 5 mph, pfffffttttt...

What greeted me when I came over the ridge, not long after that sign, was absolutely amazing. Here's what this next piece of road looks like on a map...

Yes, that's a 1000 ft vertical drop, and most of it within 1000 ft horizontally. The bottom line is that I was coming over the edge of one of these plateaus that I'd been looking at for the last 200 miles. I got off the motorcycle, looked over the edge, and was awe struck... tears welled up in my eyes.

And yes, 5 mph was probably too fast down that road...

On the other side of that vast expanse, as I approached the town of Mexican Hat, are these rock formations...

Click on the above for a full image.

Mexican Hat had a gas station and a couple places to eat. I just gassed up, got more water, wet my shirt again, got some power bars, juice, and a fruit pie, and continued. People kind of looked at me like I was some kind of nut in full gear on a motorcycle, in the desert, where it was 93 in the shade... Speaking of that I don't think I saw another motorcycle all day...

Quite often along 163 there would be these shacks... Native Americans selling jewelry...

It was getting to be about 2:00 pm and I needed to stop to eat and rewet my shirt. But where do you stop in this wasteland..? My answer came at Mounumant Valley just North of the Arizona border... in the middle of this desert there was some sort of complex, that actually had shade trees... they were planted in the sand, and water was piped directly to each one of them... they were a welcome site where I sat, relaxed, and ate my lunch.

You have to love those fruit pies... they have like lard in them and like 52% of your daily saturated fat content in them... Yeah, I was going for the dense energy food.

I went roaming around some and found the main entrance to this complex, no one around, but it was air conditioned and had a huge restroom... time to wet the shirt again...

I'm really glad I stopped when I did, because when I got back on the road and into Arizona it really was just wasteland. Strong side winds were blowing across the road along with sand. It was a sight, but to attempt to take a photo would probably have ruined the camera... if I managed to hang on to the thing and keep from getting blown over...

Well, I left the wind behind and started making my way into the foothills approaching the Grand Canyon.

More of those jewelry places could be found along the road... basically anywhere where there was and interesting view, and they knew people would stop, there was a jewelry stand... I pulled over at one to get a closer look at a small canyon...

Click the above for a full image.

And before I knew it I was into Grand Canyon Park.. 64 through the park is a very nice piece of road, though the speed limit is kind of low, probably due to the Caribou, Deer, and Mountain Lion crossing signs.. I caught glimpses of the canyon as I rode along, but I only stopped quickly because I knew I'd be back the next day to take it all in. It was getting late and I wanted to get some lodging set up. Again, it had been a long day, and I was looking forward to comfy motel room... but Tusayan is a tourist town and the hotels are really expensive. I met a guy in a parking lot, his bike was one of three BMW's parked in a space, and he told me that they paid $160 for a Hotel room. So, I took the option and went to a camping site in town. Not exactly the best kind of camping...sharing it with campers and being just across the wall from the main strip.

The photo is blurry because it was already getting dark and I took this without a flash. But I was set up and more than ready to go to sleep... I had a couple Granola bars and hit the sack... It was a cool night and good sleeping.

07/11/2008 Day 5, Third Day on the BMW

I woke up before 5:00 and started considering what to do about breakfast. I took a walk down main street and came upon a McDonalds... why not, a couple Egg McMuffins should do the trick. Sign on the door said they open at 5:00, I saw people in the store, but it wasn't open. I knocked on the drive through window and the guy told me they will be open at 6:00... but the sign says 5:00... he says 6:00... Oh, well.

There was nothing else open, so I went back to camp and started eating my Granola bars.

As I sat there a guy came over and struck up a conversation. Turns out his son-in-law runs the Helicopter tours of the Grand Canyon. Also turns out him and his wife were basically living in this camp site, in one of those big campers with the slideout section, because his daughter, in her late 20's, died of a blood clot after an operation, and now they were helping his son-in-law take care of their two grand daughters. A sad story, but nice to see the way they were working together to overcome such a great loss in the family. We talked for quite a while, and then another guy came over and joined us. This guy was on his way from California headed
East, and he was into computers, so turned out he know the Panduit name.

Eventually conversation broke up, I packed up my stuff, and was on my way back into the Grand Canyon.

The furthest point on the above images is over 43 miles away...

Click the above for a full image.

Here's a story that goes along with the Grand View location...

Click the above for a full image.

As I was getting ready to leave this location a guy came over and started asking questions about the motorcycle. Turns out he and his wife were from Germany. He was also a BMW owner, but they were doing the cross country trip from IL to CA in car. We talked quite a while before we finally parted ways. I know there was much more to see of the Grand Canyon, but one could spend days here, and that wasn't my plan, so I moved on south... It went something like this

When I left the Grand Canyon it was overcast and stayed like that for most of the day. I actually had to put my raingear on to break the chill from the wind.

I was originally planning on staying in Boulder City. 150 miles or so from Hover Dam the heat started getting just ridiculous. If I opened the shield on my helmet the air that came in was hotter than the air in the helmet. I checked later and the temperature that day was 100 degrees. Felt hotter than that. I'm sure part of that was the fact that there was absolutely no shade anywhere, and most of the time I was on the main highway. The desolation of most of that route is just staggering.

Hover Dam was under construction. Apparently they were putting in a new four lane highway/bridge and so all the traffic was routed to the two lanes through the dam. For me, it was brutal.. the heat, the heat from the cars, and no wind because traffic was moving so slow.

I stopped in Boulder to eat and drink. After studying the map and my GPS for a while I decided there was no reason to stop here for the night, so I prepped for the rest of the trip. This time I also took a sweat shirt, drenched with water, and put it on over my shirt. It was clear that I needed a lot more water content than my thin shirt could hold. I'm glad I did that, because when I got to Vegas it was the most brutal heat on my trip so far. The concrete streets reflecting the heat, waiting at stop lights, and heat from the surrounding cars all added up to grueling conditions. I kept wondering, why would anyone want to build a city out in the middle of the desert like this. Course I'm sure everyone in the air conditioned cars didn't mind. Did I mention I did not see any other motorcycles there... wonder why?

I didn't take any photos of most of that route because there just wasn't anything to take photos of. I can see why they have call boxes on the side of the highway every mile or so. Cause if you get stuck out here, you're stuck.

My day ended in Baker California, on the edge of the Mojave National Preserve... read that as "Desert". The joke of the day was the motel I found to stay at... The Royal Hawaiian. Royal mess is more like it, but I wasn't going to get picky cause this was a two camel town, and one of the camels is probably dead from the heat. So, I was thankful to get what I could. Yeah, it did occur to me to camp, but that thought quickly got rejected.

So, I had to take a few shots of the area and my Motel room. When was the last time you saw colors like that in a home... aside from your grandparents place? Do the motels look like that in Hawaii?

Course it had a working shower and also a pool...

I did take a swim, and although the water was warm, it felt pretty good.

The other perk was that there was a 24 hour Denny's across the street, so breakfast was taken care of.

Day 4 on the Bike 12/12/08 (My Birthday)

Got up early and got breakfast at Denny's... Three egg omelet with sides and a bowl of Oatmeal. I wasn't planning on eating a heavy lunch so this was going to hold me over for a while.

Main reason I got up so early was because I wanted to go through the Mojave Preserve and I wanted to do it while it was still relatively cool. Actually I was surprised that it didn't cool off over night. When I got up it had to be about 80 degrees at least. Didn't bode well for the rest of the day.

Anyway, here's the route I finally ended up with. That little triangle consisted of Caliante/Budfish Road North and then 178 South from Isabella Lake.

Here's a series of shots of 127 headed south through the Mojave National Preserve... miles and miles of sand, rock and brown bushes...

Click above for a full image.

What can you say about it... desert wasteland. I occasionally got the request from my GPS to take a gravel road going off into some of those mountains, but I thought not. Going down some God forsaken gravel road to get to some God forsaken rock in some God forsaken desert just didn't seem like a good idea. As it was I saw only one car the whole time I was on these roads in the Mojave. The road is also pretty bad in some place; I suspect from the intense heat just baking the asphalt and causing it to break up. The Ohlins really got a workout.

I made my way out to Route 66 which follows I-40. That wasn't the greatest road in some spots either. Again the road was really cracked up in some places and very rough. Here's an interesting piece of it.

It was really amazing just how many run down shacks and businesses there were along route 66. Just fields of junk... junk cars, junk homes, junk businesses... human wasteland to go along with the natural wasteland.

I stopped at a gas station on the corner of 395 and 58 to see what I could grab for lunch before continuing on 58. So far I was not impressed by California.

It was hot as hell and there was no question as to why they were having brush fires...

But things got better. I was making good time so I switched the GPS to scenic mode which took me down into some valley with a beautiful twisty road (not even sure where I was) and then to Caliente-Budfish road headed north to Lake Isabelle. Now there's a road... There were some first and second gear corners and not much room for error... But it wound up and down through the hills and I hardly saw any cars while on it...

In fact, the majority of what I saw were fire fighting vehicles and then I came upon this...

Looks like I was headed for a brush fire on the side of some mountain. The fire fighters that I did see weren't telling me to turn back, so I figured I was safe to continue, though it became clear that this wasn't just some little brush fire. It was the side of a mountain burning up.

My route took me just west of this smoldering mess, up into the mountains onto route 178. More curves, but this time accompanied by some stunning river scenes. Officially that was a part of the Sequoia National Forest, but I never got far enough to see the huge Sequoias. Definitely would want to spend some more time in this area on these and nearby roads if I was to come back.

It was hot in the mountains, and when I got out of them it was even hotter. The next gas station I stopped at I asked one guy if he knew the temperature and he said it was about 106.. Yeah, I believed it.

I took 99 down to 166 West, which was just more wasteland. What was interesting is that in the middle of this desert I is an agricultural area where there were endless fields of green... grapes and oranges at least... and they were planted in sand with irrigation hose running past every plant. Amazing, in an area where barely a tumbleweed could grow, all sorts of pumps were pumping water to transform it into almost a tropical area...

It was hot, and I had to take a break. Off in the distance I spotted some shade trees. Turned out they belonged to the Wheeler Ridge - Maricopa Water Storage district building. I took the opportunity to eat some food, pour some water on my shirt, and just rest before tackling the remainder of the day.

Another curiosity, as I got closer to the coast several miles of route 166 literally sparkled. They must use some sort of crystal in the asphalt. I've never seen anything like it. You can see some of the sparkle in the photos below.

Along this section of road ran a dry river. You can tell that the water was not far from the surface because the entire river bed was unusually green with trees and grass, in an area that was relatively barren.

Luckily I was starting to get closer to the coast and into the mountains again and the temperature was dropping quite a bit. It was a welcome change.

I arrived in Santa Maria 8:16 pm and found a room in a Motel that wasn't worth the price, but there weren't too many choices. Ate dinner at a local restaurant, bought some fruit and granola bars at a local store, went back to the Motel and slept. No need for air conditioning that night, it was in the low 70's.

Day 5 on the Bike 12/13/08

I got up early (yeah, guess I was still stuck on Central time) and had breakfast; consisting of some of the fruit I bought the previous night and, you guessed it, some Granola bars. Got my stuff packed up on the bike and took off.

I started off with a sweatshirt under my jacket, but it was very chilly, so pulled over to put the rain gear on before continuing. The plan was simple, go up the coast on route 1, cut inland around Santa Cruz, take some of the mountain roads to Half Moon Bay, and then go South again to find a camp site in one of the state parks in the area. I ended up making it only as far as Santa Cruz.. actually, a nowhere town named Pajaro.

First Ocean sighting... about 1780 miles into the trip... Yes, that surprised even me. Guess I took enough detours that the mileage added up to a bit more than the 1300 miles it was suppose to be from Crestone CO to Santa Maria CA.

Yes, it was very foggy and chilly. I kept my rain gear on almost all day.

Made a touristy stop at this spot where the Elephant seals were hanging out. You could hear them occassionally, and they would come to the surface of the water but they would dive back down right away, so didn't really get any good photos. I moved on. Also drove past the Hurst Castle, but it was overcrowded with people so I opted to not stop.

Click above for a full image... Here's a challenge... what's not right in that photo...

It wasn't long before I found myself going up into the cliffs along the shore. The road along there is amazing, as are the views. At some points I was was literally in the clouds coming and other places I could see for quite a distance.

Unfortunately one of the things I saw while on this road was some some kid on a crotch-rocket that had wrapped himself around a guard rail. I came around a corner that had a small restaurant along the side of the road and the people in the parking lot were giving me the slow down signal. As I came around I saw the bike and kid up against the guard rail. He wasn't moving. The police stopped me and asked if I knew him, I indicated not and went on as the ambulance sped toward the scene. I didn't see a helmet anywhere.

I started my route inland, made it past Laguna Seca, and then in Pajaro it happened. While stopped behind a pickup truck, waiting for a light to change, my trip was ended by this:

It's funny how the mind works... trying to process something that happened so quickly... I remember it fairly clearly... All of a sudden, without any warning, the bike just lurches forward with a force I've never felt, the bars got ripped out of my hands. Fragmented thoughts went through my head as it was happening... did I let out the clutch in gear?... I can't believe this is happening in CA... Honestly at first I thought I had made some sort of mistake... but as I'm then thrown forward and hit the tank bag full force, the bike continues to get ripped from me and the noise continues, I fly into and almost under the truck in front of me and then fall to the ground... I sit up and put my head between my knees... breathing heavy, I'm still disorientated... I hear voices... "are you alright?"... don't move, I saw your head hit my truck... don't get up... As I gain my senses I realize what's happened... I feel like I can stand... I stand up... My stomach feels like I got punched but the pain is going away... my bike is on the ground, pushed out to the center turning lane... I'm between a car and a truck with several feet of space to spare... and I start to walk it off...

When I feel like I have my strength back I ask the guy in the pickup truck in front of me to help me pick up the motorcycle...

Like the cop said... "You take a hit better than your motorcycle."... Course if the motorcycle didn't take the hit as well as it did, I probably wouldn't be here today to talk about it... Or I would be in a hospital somewhere... Other than a bruise on my hip, and some tenderness on my tail bone, I'm absolutely fine, and that's lucky. Course I was nearly 3000 miles away from home now with no transportation, so it doesn't end there...

What to do now. I got the bike towed to Santa Cruz BMW which was in Watsonville just a few miles away. The CHP on the scene said that Santa Cruz BMW services all their bikes. The tow truck driver was nice enough to drop me off at the Holiday Inn Express across the street from the dealer. After some negotiations I decided I would stay there, but I really didn't have many options. I had to stay there until Monday when the dealer opened and I could contact my insurance agent and decide what to do. The woman who hit me had no insurance.

I got into a room and iced my hip since that was really the only spot that was obviously bruised. I then went over to SC BMW and although they were closed I ended up running into a guy who worked there and had just stopped in to pick something up. He said they don't open until Tuesday but assured me that when they open they would look at my bike. I took some additional pictures of the bike and went back to the Hotel room to take a swim in the pool; figured it was a good way to see if anything else on me was hurting. I had the pool all to myself and I could swim freely with no pain, which was a good sign.

I got some advice from the hotel clerk about decent places to eat, had dinner, and went back to the hotel for a well deserved sleep. Unfortunately I didn't really sleep well... too much stuff rattling around in my head.

The hotel served a full complimentary breakfast at 6:00 which worked out well for me. After breakfast I basically spent the rest of the morning on the phone talking to the insurance company and various other people trying to figure out what I was going to do. Gradually I came to the conclusion that there was just no point in staying any longer. SC BMW wouldn't open until the next day, but even if the bike was repairable it would take days to get parts and then more days to do the repairs. In the mean time I would just be racking up more expenses. I considered flying but decided to rent a car and drive. I arranged with my daughter to come and get me in Denver at the rental car drop-off point. So, I got a cab to take me to the nearest car rental place that did national rentals, in Santa Cruz, and took off about noon California time.

I basically drove all day and night, taking a three hour rest at a rest stop, and got to Denver before noon the next day. My daughter picked me up in the afternoon and then we did the long drive to her place in Crestone... To add insult to injury we ran out of gas on the way because she didn't check to see if the car had gas in it, and I was napping in the passenger seat, too tired to even think about it. So, I sat on the side of the road while she and her boyfriend hitch hiked to the nearest gas station and back.

I dropped them of at home, I said my goodbye's to her and my other daughter, who was staying the rest of the month, and I started the drive home to Illinois; this was about 10:00 pm.

To add more insult to injury, I got pulled over by the police about 11:00 pm. Apparently I was spending too much time in the passing lane. Now, you have to understand, it's a twisting two lane road going through the mountains, it's dark, and I'm just sticking to the double yellow line making sure I'm staying on the road and away from the edges where a deer or something might jump out at me, and there was no one else out on the road... except apparently for the police... occasionally you get these passing lanes where you're suppose to move over to the right. Anyway, he pulled me over, asked me some questions, asked for all my information and went to his car. A few minutes later he came back, gave me his business card, gave me my documents back and wished me a safe trip. Whew... that would just be the perfect end to this week, get a ticket too... glad I didn't.

I pulled over at a rest stop about 1:00 am... slept for about five hours... and continued. I managed to make it all the way to Iowa before the tiredness set in and I had to take another one hour nap. That did the trick, and I drove the rest of the way, making it back home by 10:30 pm... Ended up driving over 2700 miles in 58 hours. But, I was home, where I could deal with the repercussions of the accident.

As the days passed I stayed in contact with SB BMW and my insurance company. The call came Monday from SC that they considered the bike totaled. They basically started estimating repairs for the major components and stopped when the total got above the value of the machine. Major parts damaged included Rear wheel, drive shaft, rear subframe, gas tank, one cylinder and exhaust pipe, front frame, front suspension, instrument cluster... well, you get the idea.

The trip didn't go quite how I planned, but it was still a great trip. So, now it's over a week after the collision and I'm waiting for my insurance company to give me a settlement. Of course they will be suing the lady that hit me, and Of course I'm already looking for my next bike.

The last 100 miles of my drive back to IL I just kept playing Willie Nelson's song... it just seemed so appropriate (words slightly altered).

On the road again
Can't wait to get on the road again.
The life I love is riding with my family and friends.
I can't wait to get on the road again.

On the road again
Going places that I've never been
Seeing things that I may never see again.
I can't wait to get on the road again.

On the road again
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway.
We're the best of friends,
insisting that the world keep turning our way.
And our way, is on the road again.

I can't wait to get on... the road... again