ponyfool
Well-known member
Since my family doesn't frequent this site, I put my ride report on my web page, here:
ponyfool's ride so far
But for your convenience, I have put everything from above (plus a few added features) here:
DAY 1- Tuesday, July 22 - Portland, OR to Twin Falls, ID:
On Tuesday, July 22, 2008, I met about 10 other FJR owners in Clackamas, Oregon for our trip to Golden, Colorado for the first ever North American FJR Owners (NAFO) meeting.
Marty (SockMonkey) organized the gathering for the ride out there and set up the routes. Jason (FJR_pig) had an extra Scala rider, so he and I were able to talk via intercom most of the way there. Instead of a single group of people riding together, we broke up into several smaller groups, meeting up for gas and lunch (sometimes lunch and gas).
We took Hwy 26 east all the way through Eastern Oregon into Idaho, and then took the interstate into Twin Falls. I had never been farther east on Hwy 26 than Madras and never realized how beautiful Eastern Oregon is. I suppose the only bad thing about it is, you have to go through Central Oregon to get there. The one thing I wasn't prepared for was going over Mt Hood. I was dressed for hot weather, and it got down to 46 degrees with light drizzle while going through Government Camp on Mt Hood. It took at least 45 minutes for my hands to thaw.
Here, from front to back, Jon (Taff), Jim (jaffjrae) and Jason (FJR_pig) and I stop in Central Oregon for a view of the Sisters mountains.
(Click Images to Enlarge)
When we got into John Day, we got our first taste of a different culture. We were riding trough town when out of nowhere, a deer jumped from the south side of the street about 15 yards in front of us and ran at roughly 30mph down the street in front of us. Two ladies on the sidewalk were talking as the deer ran past them less than 3 feet away and they took one look at the deer and continued their conversation. Jason and I were both laughing at how this must be a common occurence in downtown John Day so as to not phase either of them.
A few pictures of Eastern Oregon:
Here's a view of a gorge just outside of Twin Falls at sundown:
DAY 2- Wednesday, July 23 - Twin Falls, ID to Steamboat Springs, CO:
From Twin Falls, we took the interstate into Pocatello, then branched off on to two lane highways east and south.
I pulled along side Jason and got a couple shots of him on his bike:
When we got to a small town called Montpelier, we had to stop because one of the riders from the Seattle area had a rear tire that simply wasn't going to make it all the way to Golden. It took us about 20 minutes to find a dealership nearby that had a tire in stock that would install it. Here's a couple pictures of the group (and tire) as we waited (left picture from left to right: SockMonkey, BFehklar, dcarver and bikerskier) center picture is BFehklar's tire, right picture is FJR_pig:
The ride from Twin Falls south was beautiful. We had lunch at Bear Lake and continued south into Utah, then east into Wyoming. Just a few miles inside of Wyoming, we saw an SUV pulled to the side of the road. We all slowed down when we saw a Wyoming State Patrol car had it pulled over. We joked about it later, but collectively, we all thought the same thing, "Well, way out here in the middle of nowhere, how many state troopers can there be?" Our pace picked up a bit immediately after seeing him. Low and behold, less than 5 miles later, there was another trooper. Thankfully, he had another vehicle pulled over. He looked none too pleased when he saw our collective group's speed decrease by a third! We cut south through the east side of Flaming Gorge back into Utah and then cut east on Hwy 40 past Dinosaur National Monument into Colorado. Once we got into Colorado, the highway was relatively flat and straight. Not nearly as pretty as what we had just come through. But, this was a good place to open it up a bit and really feel and hear what the FJR was capable of. SockMonkey, bikerskier and I had alternating high speed runs. After each run, we met back up and even with full face helmets on, you could still see the grin on our faces. Here are some of the sights we had along the way (the train in the left picture was going about 45mph. The timing was perfect for this shot:
As we started to enter the more fun roads again, I stopped to take a picture of the road ahead. If you look carefully, you can see the rest of our small group on the road. Didn't take me long to catch up though. These roads were well maintained, and a lot of fun.
We had a great stay in Steamboat Springs. Sockmonkey had arranged some dinner plans for our entire group at the Slopeside Grill on the slopes. We were supposed to be there by 8pm, but most of our group didn't get there until 10pm. Jason and I were sharing a room a couple miles from the restaurant so we picked up a cab. The cabbie apparently picked up a couple other of our group earlier and took them to the same restaurant. I knew FJRay was going to be joining us there so I asked if one of them looked like a big lumberjack. The cabbie said, "They both did." When we got to the restaurant, we found FJRay and mooseonagoose. That quickly answered who the person sharing the cab with Ray was. On the way up the hill, we found a very tired bikerskier. Jason described him as looking like he just came out of Death Valley. We picked him and SockMonkey up and continued on to the restaurant. The waitress at the restaurant was pretty funny. We asked her what her first thought was when she heard someone refer to themselves as "SockMonkey" and she replied, "Well, I have a pretty dirty mind." Marty instantly fell in love!
DAY 3- Thursday, July 24- Steamboat Springs, CO to Golden, CO:
The next morning, Julie was flying in to Denver and driving a rental car to the hotel. I wanted to meet her there, so I took off in front of the group at my own pace and made good time. The route Marty planned was incredibly fun. Hwy 125 into the mountains was one of my favorite rides.
Once at the rally hotel, I took a picture of my bike. Unlike SockMonkey who washed and detailed his bike at every gas station, I decided not to wash it until we got there. This picture doesn't do it justice, but I think my bike killed more bugs on the way to Colorado than an Orkin man does in a lifetime! The other pictures are of the parking lot with all the FJRs lined up. I heard that the highest count of FJRs in the parking lot was 212, but there were 256 total bikes registered (including a few traitors- I saw a few BMWs, a couple Suzuki V-Stroms, a new Kawasaki Concours, a couple Goldwings and one Hyabusa).
Thursday night, the only official function at NAFO was registration, so a group of us went to the Keg Restaurant near the hotel. We used to have several Keg restaurants in the Portland metro area, but they closed about 6 years ago so it was a treat to be able to go to one again. We walked in and were told we'd have an hour and a half to two hour wait. That's when Jon (Taff) turned on the charm. Using his incredible sense of humor and natural British accent, he was able to get our wait time down to a a little less than an hour. The wait was worth it, it was a great dinner. From left to right: my wife Julie, me, Jason (FJR_pig), Ralph (bikerskier), Jon (Taff), Joe (Joe) <--no, really, that's his name AND his forum name, Marty (SockMonkey) and Marty's wife, Ivon (pronounced Yvonne).
DAY 4- Friday, July 25 - Golden, CO:
Julie and I set out for a loop around the Rocky Mountain National Park through Estes Park, but less than halfway there, we pulled over at a scenic viewpoint to stretch. When we got off, we both expressed how we weren't really into it for a variety of reasons. My ears were really hurting from having two headsets on the ride out, one for my normal set up to listen to satellite radio, cell phone and GPS and the other set was the com set up to talk with Jason. Julie recently had surgery on her foot and it started to swell causing her some pain. We both decided to cut the ride short and head back to the hotel. We ended up with about a 110 mile loop. Once at the hotel, we decided to do one of our favorite activities. We went to the movies and saw Stepbrothers.
Friday night we had our first event dinner. It was a Western BBQ, and it was quite delicious.
CONTINUED LATER IN THE THREAD DUE TO IMAGE RESTRICTIONS.......
ponyfool's ride so far
But for your convenience, I have put everything from above (plus a few added features) here:
DAY 1- Tuesday, July 22 - Portland, OR to Twin Falls, ID:
On Tuesday, July 22, 2008, I met about 10 other FJR owners in Clackamas, Oregon for our trip to Golden, Colorado for the first ever North American FJR Owners (NAFO) meeting.
Marty (SockMonkey) organized the gathering for the ride out there and set up the routes. Jason (FJR_pig) had an extra Scala rider, so he and I were able to talk via intercom most of the way there. Instead of a single group of people riding together, we broke up into several smaller groups, meeting up for gas and lunch (sometimes lunch and gas).
We took Hwy 26 east all the way through Eastern Oregon into Idaho, and then took the interstate into Twin Falls. I had never been farther east on Hwy 26 than Madras and never realized how beautiful Eastern Oregon is. I suppose the only bad thing about it is, you have to go through Central Oregon to get there. The one thing I wasn't prepared for was going over Mt Hood. I was dressed for hot weather, and it got down to 46 degrees with light drizzle while going through Government Camp on Mt Hood. It took at least 45 minutes for my hands to thaw.
Here, from front to back, Jon (Taff), Jim (jaffjrae) and Jason (FJR_pig) and I stop in Central Oregon for a view of the Sisters mountains.
(Click Images to Enlarge)
When we got into John Day, we got our first taste of a different culture. We were riding trough town when out of nowhere, a deer jumped from the south side of the street about 15 yards in front of us and ran at roughly 30mph down the street in front of us. Two ladies on the sidewalk were talking as the deer ran past them less than 3 feet away and they took one look at the deer and continued their conversation. Jason and I were both laughing at how this must be a common occurence in downtown John Day so as to not phase either of them.
A few pictures of Eastern Oregon:
Here's a view of a gorge just outside of Twin Falls at sundown:
DAY 2- Wednesday, July 23 - Twin Falls, ID to Steamboat Springs, CO:
From Twin Falls, we took the interstate into Pocatello, then branched off on to two lane highways east and south.
I pulled along side Jason and got a couple shots of him on his bike:
When we got to a small town called Montpelier, we had to stop because one of the riders from the Seattle area had a rear tire that simply wasn't going to make it all the way to Golden. It took us about 20 minutes to find a dealership nearby that had a tire in stock that would install it. Here's a couple pictures of the group (and tire) as we waited (left picture from left to right: SockMonkey, BFehklar, dcarver and bikerskier) center picture is BFehklar's tire, right picture is FJR_pig:
The ride from Twin Falls south was beautiful. We had lunch at Bear Lake and continued south into Utah, then east into Wyoming. Just a few miles inside of Wyoming, we saw an SUV pulled to the side of the road. We all slowed down when we saw a Wyoming State Patrol car had it pulled over. We joked about it later, but collectively, we all thought the same thing, "Well, way out here in the middle of nowhere, how many state troopers can there be?" Our pace picked up a bit immediately after seeing him. Low and behold, less than 5 miles later, there was another trooper. Thankfully, he had another vehicle pulled over. He looked none too pleased when he saw our collective group's speed decrease by a third! We cut south through the east side of Flaming Gorge back into Utah and then cut east on Hwy 40 past Dinosaur National Monument into Colorado. Once we got into Colorado, the highway was relatively flat and straight. Not nearly as pretty as what we had just come through. But, this was a good place to open it up a bit and really feel and hear what the FJR was capable of. SockMonkey, bikerskier and I had alternating high speed runs. After each run, we met back up and even with full face helmets on, you could still see the grin on our faces. Here are some of the sights we had along the way (the train in the left picture was going about 45mph. The timing was perfect for this shot:
As we started to enter the more fun roads again, I stopped to take a picture of the road ahead. If you look carefully, you can see the rest of our small group on the road. Didn't take me long to catch up though. These roads were well maintained, and a lot of fun.
We had a great stay in Steamboat Springs. Sockmonkey had arranged some dinner plans for our entire group at the Slopeside Grill on the slopes. We were supposed to be there by 8pm, but most of our group didn't get there until 10pm. Jason and I were sharing a room a couple miles from the restaurant so we picked up a cab. The cabbie apparently picked up a couple other of our group earlier and took them to the same restaurant. I knew FJRay was going to be joining us there so I asked if one of them looked like a big lumberjack. The cabbie said, "They both did." When we got to the restaurant, we found FJRay and mooseonagoose. That quickly answered who the person sharing the cab with Ray was. On the way up the hill, we found a very tired bikerskier. Jason described him as looking like he just came out of Death Valley. We picked him and SockMonkey up and continued on to the restaurant. The waitress at the restaurant was pretty funny. We asked her what her first thought was when she heard someone refer to themselves as "SockMonkey" and she replied, "Well, I have a pretty dirty mind." Marty instantly fell in love!
DAY 3- Thursday, July 24- Steamboat Springs, CO to Golden, CO:
The next morning, Julie was flying in to Denver and driving a rental car to the hotel. I wanted to meet her there, so I took off in front of the group at my own pace and made good time. The route Marty planned was incredibly fun. Hwy 125 into the mountains was one of my favorite rides.
Once at the rally hotel, I took a picture of my bike. Unlike SockMonkey who washed and detailed his bike at every gas station, I decided not to wash it until we got there. This picture doesn't do it justice, but I think my bike killed more bugs on the way to Colorado than an Orkin man does in a lifetime! The other pictures are of the parking lot with all the FJRs lined up. I heard that the highest count of FJRs in the parking lot was 212, but there were 256 total bikes registered (including a few traitors- I saw a few BMWs, a couple Suzuki V-Stroms, a new Kawasaki Concours, a couple Goldwings and one Hyabusa).
Thursday night, the only official function at NAFO was registration, so a group of us went to the Keg Restaurant near the hotel. We used to have several Keg restaurants in the Portland metro area, but they closed about 6 years ago so it was a treat to be able to go to one again. We walked in and were told we'd have an hour and a half to two hour wait. That's when Jon (Taff) turned on the charm. Using his incredible sense of humor and natural British accent, he was able to get our wait time down to a a little less than an hour. The wait was worth it, it was a great dinner. From left to right: my wife Julie, me, Jason (FJR_pig), Ralph (bikerskier), Jon (Taff), Joe (Joe) <--no, really, that's his name AND his forum name, Marty (SockMonkey) and Marty's wife, Ivon (pronounced Yvonne).
DAY 4- Friday, July 25 - Golden, CO:
Julie and I set out for a loop around the Rocky Mountain National Park through Estes Park, but less than halfway there, we pulled over at a scenic viewpoint to stretch. When we got off, we both expressed how we weren't really into it for a variety of reasons. My ears were really hurting from having two headsets on the ride out, one for my normal set up to listen to satellite radio, cell phone and GPS and the other set was the com set up to talk with Jason. Julie recently had surgery on her foot and it started to swell causing her some pain. We both decided to cut the ride short and head back to the hotel. We ended up with about a 110 mile loop. Once at the hotel, we decided to do one of our favorite activities. We went to the movies and saw Stepbrothers.
Friday night we had our first event dinner. It was a Western BBQ, and it was quite delicious.
CONTINUED LATER IN THE THREAD DUE TO IMAGE RESTRICTIONS.......
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