Will try to post some pics over the next few days. Griff
I see you're well into CA today - how has the ride been so far? Pics?
Kasey
Sorry haven't been posting up... and I forgot the cable to cross-load the pics from the camera.
Made it to Mexicali this afternoon, the parking lot is beginning to fill with bikes. It was $%^%^&* 48 degrees C in Calexico when I stopped to buy my Mex insurance... apparently it can get into the low 50's here in August, which is hot enough to bake a cake I think...
SO... updates, lemme see....
I bivouacked in Cutbank after separating from my escort, then meandered my way south, trying to stay off the Interstate but finding that is actually quite difficult in Montana. Seems all the roads end at the interstate...
Anyway, cut across Idaho through the territory of the Idaho National Lab (which I think is where they process the fuel for nukes) and then past craters of the moon national monument... quite an impressive old lava field, all jumbles of black rock and talus. Of course, it can't really be like the moon, didn't see any green cheese anywhere....
Continued south through Idaho and pulled into Jackpot NV for the night. Nothing to report, and nothing to recommend it really. But rooms are cheap - $35!
Up the next morning and south on US93... the "Great Basin Highway". Spent about 30 mins stopped for road construction, they are resurfacing this section of the highway, which is something to consider for the return trip north in a few days. Once back on the road, made good time down to Wells NV. You can REALLY haul ass out here in America's outback.
Gassed in Wells, and then continued south on 93 to ELy for lunch at the "Jail House Coffee Shop"... I was expecting it was an actual jailhouse, but was disappointed to learn that the building is fairly recent. Apparently the jail was across the street and long since burned down... they still have one of the cell doors standing out in the parking lot, but that's it... the coffeeshop was more like 70's vintage Dennys than wild west saloon... but the grub was good, and plentiful.
Back onto the bike to brave the afternoon sun ... I was unsure on direction, so flipped a coin and it landed on US6 to Bishop CA. Like most desert roads, it is pretty much straight with a few twists and turns, and some decent vistas, although I guess by this time I was getting desert vista'd out. Rolled in Tonopah for gas, and then back out on 6 for the final leg into California. Saw a really odd road sign: instead of the usual yellow placard warning of various sizes and species of forest rats, this one had a horse on it... and sure enough, around the next bend, i came across a small herd of mustangs. Very cool, and the first "old west" thing I'd seen that wasn't faked.
Crossed into California and down to Bishop. It was hot, dry, and I was tired, so pulled in there for the night. Ran into another fella on a springer Harley, very nice custom bike, and for once it wasn't on a trailer or sitting in a driveway: this guy rode it from Wells that morning, and had gone from Fort Collins to Wells the day before. The real deal. We shared a few jugs of ale at a local pizza joint and told lies for awhile, then it was time to get some sleep for the "sure-to-be-bloody-hot" ride down to Mexicali.
Up at 5 am, shower, quick breaky, repack and hit the trail at 6. Watching the sun come up over the White Mountains and light up the Sierras to my west was spectacular. Lone Pine (gateway to Mt Whitney) has sure grown up since the last time I was through here back in 1999. Has a McDonalds and everything now. Not sure the "progress" is really making it better though.
And on I go, down the 395 toward the Mojave. Some vaguely familiar places, but it has been 10 years or more since I was in the area, and it is all new. And everywhere, what used to be mom and pops is now chains...
Cut across the Mojave on 395 and stop at the junction of 395 and California 58 for some gas. Once again progress assaults my memories. Last time through here, on a Nighthawk coming from Joshua Tree, this cross roads was a gas station and a burger joint and that was about it. The burger joint is still there, but closed, and there's a Burger King and a Subway and the little gas bar is now a Pilot travel centre and there's a solar electric generating field to the north.
The road south from there to Adelanto is reminiscent of my previous trips across the Mojave: narrow, pavement a bit rough, and lots of wind. On a whim, I decided not to take I-15 down to Riverside and instead cut across through Landers, Yucca Valley et al and join the I-10 near Palm Springs. Driving through this area, I finally get some flashbacks from the past: Old Rte 66 used to come through here at Victorville, and there are still a few vestiges left. The rock formations are different too: if it wasn't for the grafitti painted on them, you'd half expect to see Captain Kirk and Spock fighting off a bunch of Klingons from behind them... but I digress...
Ran into some other 3 Flaggers (is that the term?) at a gas stop near Indio, and then started south into the Imperial Valley for the last leg of the trip. ANd it got HOT. And then it got HOTTER. And my cooling vest was neatly folded away in my Givi box. Oh well... gut it out and get down to Mexicali and get it over with...
Crossing the border into Mexico is dirt simple... you just drive across. I suspect it might be different on the way back on Friday. Driving in Mexico is different from driving in the States, although I have to admit that the drivers seemed better in Mexicali than they did when I was in Tijuana. Pedestrians are still a hazard though, and one wonders if they aren't deliberately flinging themselves in front of a gringo to get a fat insurance settlement...
Finally got across town and into the host hotel. Nice place, will be a good place to go to ground to rest up before Friday's launch.
I will try to find a cable for the damned camera, and barring that, will update the posts when I get back to Calgary.
Thanks for watching, we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.....
Griff
Maybe a B2B? :dribble: 
