Florida to West Coast-Wash St-Montana-back home

[fljab]

There have been a couple of posts or so about GBU Rally. Mine isn't so much about that as the trip along the way. I'm not a prolific picture taker and as a result don't have that many that are great quality, but I've gleaned a few if you're interested in looking.

At GBU, I did finish - 31st overall and I think 8th in the new class. It was a great first rally experience and I saw some outstanding landscape along the way. No good pics of the rally, but plenty are available on Steve Hobarts site as well as Tobie's.

I had left my house in Central Florida mid morning July 8th (last shuttle launch date); no 50CC getting there. I made a stop to see someone along the way, got there in 56hrs. Stayed 2 days n San Diego at my brothers place in El Cajon-had my Carne Asada burrito, then moved on eventually heading up 395 then over to Nevada to Gerlach.

Desert getting to Gerlach:

IBA Rock Garden:

Obligatory visit to Brunos for homemade raviolis:

I stayed the night in Burns, OR, then headed up 395 for a ways, then over on some back roads (through Kimberly):

My GPS routed me though some real backroads along scenes like this:

I got to Tri-Cities, WA for a visit to my brother/sister's house in Richland. No visit to that area is complete without a visit to the mayor of Pasco's place for some service work:

Next was through Idaho on US12 and Lolo pass:

I got to Montana a few days early, and one of the things I wanted to do was visit the Custer battlefield:

I visited an old Navy submarine shipmate I hadn't seen in 33 yrs, and did a few other things before going to Big Sky. Did the rally, then pounded it home, left Monday morning, got home Wednesday night. Man, the 100 deg heat across Missouri and surrounding area was brutal! I left early from St. Louis and did ~1100 miles home by midnite.

My bike was trashed from the trip, but today the Orlando Navy Chief Selects were having a car wash, so took it over there for a good clean up job - an old Chief still has some special treatment!

Hope you enjoyed it!

My dealer called about the recall, so getting that done this week, plus have some other maintenance to do before I'll be ready again for a road trip. Thinking about a quick Michigan + NC/TN mountain run in a couple of weeks.

 

[trimmantom]

Hey, very nice report with good pics.

Quite a trip into some nice areas. A real change from riding around in Fla. right.

What was your total mileage on that trip?

 

[101stpathfinder]

Nice report Jim .

Thanks for taking the time. Looks like a great road trip with a happy ending.

Congrats on the rally ! See you soon for some work on the bikes. SWFOG on

the horizon in Sept.

 

[fljab]

A real change from riding around in Fla. right.

What was your total mileage on that trip?

You're right, it was quite different than Florida! I lived in Ca for some 10 yrs in San Diego and up in the Vallejo area, but have been in Florida for over 20 now. I don't get back like I used to. The areas I went to this time were places I hadn't been when I lived there aka inland. I had been on US395 up to Reno yrs back, but the rest was all new territory.

I did ~9400 miles on this trip in almost 3 weeks. Made a good mix of pounding out the mile days mixed with some that I had the bike parked & covered relaxin' with a cocktail or two...

Tony - yes, get your bike up here, we'll do the splines and whatever you need. SWFOG is looking good, we need to iron that out.

 

[Good2Go]

Thanks for the report fljab, and congrats on your GBU finish. That pic of Matt's garage brings back memories. Nice to (briefly) meet you at the JAX checkpoint.

 

[fljab]

Thanks for the report fljab, and congrats on your GBU finish. That pic of Matt's garage brings back memories. Nice to (briefly) meet you at the JAX checkpoint.

Good to meet you as well; I was doing my best @ the Jax CP to not be "in the way" of the riders except where needed. Hope to meet you again sometime in a more relaxed setting...