Not much can be said that the pictures don’t already tell you, oh wait, I guess there is more.  Viv grew up in “The City” and was an enchanting tour guide as she gave us what she described as the “Three Bridges Tour.”  I couldn’t believe how much we saw in a day.  We began with a trip into the city where I made the mistake of referring to San Francisco as, “Frisco”.  Don’t do that.  Locals hate it and relish in letting you know how inappropriate it is.  Actually I knew that and have taken every opportunity to get reactions from as many Californians as possible.  Viv won the prize because she was actually disgusted, dismayed and disgruntled about the whole thing, for a bit.  I almost have as much fun calling San Francisco, “Frisco” as I do asking wait staff for an ash tray.  California is far to PC to allow smoking indoors or on the beach for that matter.  It’s just my way of letting them know that I ain’t from around these parts. 

          We did the Warf and Castro in the city and then drove around taking in sights like city hall, the Church from the movie Sister Act, the Drive In from American Graffiti, China Town and more.  Next it was over the Golden Gate Bridge.  Crazy but crossing the bridge was emotional for me.  I haven’t figured out why yet but it was a very cool experience.  Sometimes even tough old Harley guys just have to take a moment to be in awe of the things experienced in life.  From there we made our way to Muir Woods to see the Redwoods and then to Stinson Beach for a dip in the Pacific Ocean.  I kept saying “Wow” a lot because the scenery along the coast just took my breath away.  

          Enjoy the pics.  Tomorrow is the Napa Valley and then I am going to see if I can talk the girls into going for a short Harley ride.  For some reason they have been hesitant to do that so far.  Happy Saturday.

          Monarchs WIN!  I went to my first WNBA game today and I have to admit that I wasn’t sure what to expect.  What I saw was a classic basketball game that was notable by outstanding individual effort and solid team play at both ends of the floor.  The Sacramento Monarchs held off a late rally for their sixth consecutive win against the New York Liberty.  The Monarchs are the WNBA’s reining World Champions and played like a repeat is a possibility in 2006.  The game was played at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.  A raucous crowd and a commitment by the franchise to make the event entertaining made for a great experience.  If you are in a city that has WNBA during any travels this summer I think you ought to go!  http://www.wnba.com

          Today was a day to tour Sacramento while the Harley had a visit to the mechanics bench at Sacramento Harley Davidson for a fluid transplant.  The dealership exceeded the expected exemplary service by not only getting my bike in, in spite of their two week out service schedule, but when I picked it up it had been detailed and looked almost as good as it does when I finish giving it a 3 hour bathing.  While waiting for the bike to be finished Lori and I made our way to the Capital and did a little shopping.  I went to visit the Choices Gift Shop on J Street in Sacramento that sells the famous, “You don’t speak for God” stickers.  I bought a few extra and have scanned one in so you can see it.  If you are interested in obtaining one, email me and I will hook you up. 

          While downtown we took time to visit the state capital.  Arnold may have been in, maybe not.  We asked the State Trooper guarding the Governor’s office if “The Governor” was in and he gave a well rehearsed and pat answer of, “I wouldn’t know.”  Uh-huh.  Sure.  The guy had a job to do and it seemed a boring one at that and he was armed so I didn’t push the issue much further.  I wasn’t in much of a mood to be conspicuous anyway because upon entering the capital you have to pass through security.  It raised some eyebrows when I tossed my fingernail cleaner into the bucket that passes through the metal detector.  The security team gasped an, “Oh MY!” when they pushed the button on my nail cleaner and out popped the 4 inch serrated blade.  It’s a Harley guy thing I suppose.  Maybe the next time I go visit a Government building I ought to leave that at home.  We posted a picture so you can see the hallowed gateway and the stoic State Trooper of the Governor’s digs. 

          If you get the opportunity to visit Sacramento in the near future I might recommend BJ’s in Natomas, a new micro brewery that doubles as a very fine eatery.  Angie, Lori’s sister, and a Lieutenant Commander in the Naval Reserve, had recently visited the establishment and recommended it and she was driving us.  When a Lieutenant Commander is driving you don’t argue! The chow was supreme, the home made brews were delightful and the pricing was very reasonable.  Our sever, Talitha M tolerated my obnoxious tourist behavior in stride so I’m figuring she would be delighted to see you. 

          Tomorrow we are leaving early to visit San Francisco.  Catch you later!

Our friend Lori from www.hahnathome.com warned us that traffic would be interesting in the Sacramento to San Francisco corridor if we didn’t time things just right so we heeded her advice and slept in this morning.  I hated that!  We left South Lake Tahoe at about 7 AM Pacific time which to my Central Standard Time biological clock seemed like mid day.  It all worked out well because the temperature earlier was in the upper 50’s and by the time we got on the road it was a balmy 65 degrees.  Ahhh.  I had forgotten what it was like to ride in more moderate weather. 

          Again the ride out of Lake Tahoe was a leg that surpassed all of the others.  We were finally into some serious switchback riding and had sheer mountain walls on one side of the road and certain death drop offs, were you to screw up, on the other.  Making our way down the west side of the El Dorado National Forest our pipes cackled and popped as we used the motor to regulate our speed.  The sweet smell of pine filled our nostrils while the sights of a babbling mountain stream lined the roadway.  Panoramic views from roadside turnouts offered majestic views of the tree laden valleys below.  I can’t recall seeing more beautiful scenery. 

          For all that we have heard about being careful of crazy California drivers I have to admit that they behaved rather well around us today.  There was an occasional idiot driving a Lexus or Beemer but for the most part traffic moved fairly smoothly and without incident.  The traffic was heavy however.  We had trouble keeping together once we neared Sacramento on HWY 50 and we lost Rick for the better part of an hour.  Eventually we all hooked back up and discussed the plans of trying to do the Golden Gate bridge today and then making it back to Sacramento.  We opted to forego the bridge for today and Rick and Steve decided they wanted to make tracks for Washington to hook up with their friend John.  We have temporarily parted ways and I will hook back up with the G-men on Sunday.

          Taking the bike in for service tomorrow and then we are going to a Sacramento Monarchs basketball game and site seeing in Sacramento.  Friday Lori and Val and I will head for San Francisco and hopefully I can order a big plate of Rice-a-Roni and get a pick taken while I eat it on a street car or something like that. 

          My baby sister has a birthday coming up Saturday and I made sure to send her a little something from the Sacramento HD shop today.  I’m not sure how old she is because she has lied about it for so many years.  Okay, I know, but I am smart enough not to tell you guys.  Cat Woman, my sister, reported that her boss, Steen, is a Harley guy and is planning a trip to Tahoe in the coming weeks.  Steen, you will love it.  What ever you do, be sure to take Route 6 from Utah and then catch US 50 across Nevada.  The ride is the stuff that real cowboys are made of.  “I’m a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride, I’m wanted, dead or alive….  Somebody ought to write a song about that! 

          Greetings to new reader Tami, who came across the Red Hog Diary recently.  She just completed a 5000 mile ride on her Beautiful Blue Goldwing and wrote about it on her blog, check it out: http://girlsonblue.blogdrive.com There are a lot of cool pics. 

MY GOD!  Every day gets better and better!  My favorite part of this trip is the Canyons, no wait, the summits, or is it the valleys?  HWY 50 across Nevada is three hundred and fifty miles of heaven.  The elevation averaged over 7,000 feet and the vegetation was much greener than we had witnessed in Utah.  Each summit pass was a curvy dream of reduced speed curves and switchbacks with canyons running up each side.  After coming out of the pass we would be treated to valleys that averaged about 20 miles across.  Each Valley would be marked with a straight as an arrow shot across the valley floor.  The perception was that the next mountain range was maybe five miles or so but that deception was facilitated by the massive nature of the massive mountain ranges. 

          Rick shot some video as we rolled across one of the valley floors.  The footage was taken at 88 miles an hour.  The video links are above, please be patient they take a few minutes to download.  Across many of the valley floors we couldn’t help but open up the Harleys and make extended runs at speeds in excess of 100 mph.  Those speeds, while maybe not advisable, seemed appropriate as we met on coming traffic maybe only two or three times per hour.  One of the more novel events on this leg occurred while Steve took the lead and I tucked in behind him.  We were rolling along at a high rate of speed as we made our way to the valley floor.  Our V-twin motors were harmonically balanced and the sensation was that we were flying down the mountain.  Ya just have to experience something like that to understand how wonderful of a sensation that is. 

          One of the things our Harley friend in Provo told us to be sure to see was a solo Joshua tree along HWY 50 which has become famous as a collector of shoes.  It was the craziest thing I had ever seen.  A pic is available here for your amazement.  There are literally thousands of pairs of shoes thrown into this tree.  Crazy.  Another crazy thing along the salt flats of HWY 50 is a collection of names written in piled stones for a stretch of about 10 miles.  Somehow someone got it in their mind to stack stones to write their name along the highway and now there are literally thousands of messages adorning the shoulders of the road. 

          While we were stopped at the shoe tree we met some real riders.  We, so called G-men are just pretenders compared to the family we met from Fairbanks, Alaska.  Their picture is posted here, notice how heavily loaded their bikes are.  They left home June 20^th on a 13,000 mile ride and don’t expect to be home until August 30^th.  I need to figure out how to do something like that.  Jim and Nancy with their son Jeremy get a Red Hog Salute for their iron butt tenacity. 

          You know, if I hadn’t mentioned it before it is hot out west.  Our brains were about fried as we rolled into Carson City, Nevada but we were able to carry on because we knew that just over the mountain range to the west lay an air conditioned room with our name on it.  Coming out of Carson City we began the climb over the mountain where we rode up over 3000 feet in a distance of around 11 miles.  With each passing mile maker the temperature seemed to drop about 5 degrees and the cool mountain air was very welcome.  Our first glimpse of Lake Tahoe could be described as nothing short of spiritual.  I would have to say that the HWY 50 view of Lake Tahoe is quite possibly the most spectacular panoramic scene I have ever witnessed. 

          Every year that I have managed to take a Harley trip at one point or another I get to thinking about my family.  This year, with my family living in DC and my trip ending in a return to an empty house I didn’t figure that missing them would come into play.  Yet, I found myself longing for their company as I witnessed some of nature’s most beautiful sights.  I’m not sure how we could swing that.  I may need to buy the twins each a Harley and put a side car on mine to bring along Carter.  I’m fairly confident that “She Who Must Be Obeyed” would be more comfortable on the back of my bike than riding her own.  I miss you guys and wish you were here.  

           Hey Doug!  Rick wanted me to throw you a shout out.  Rick claims your Anniversary Edition Harley needs to make one of these trips.  We hope you can join us some time.  Tomorrow, the Golden Gate Bridge!

Chris is nowhere to be found, but is rumored to be somewhere in the land of endless slot machines and go-go dancers in the State of Nevada.  He apologizes he is unable to blog tonight due to Internetless state at the luxurious Motel 6 high atop the hill in the city of Ely, Nevada.  Please check back tomorrow for the further Harley adventures of the Harley guy.

 

Posted by www.hahnathome.com (check out my blog while you wait)

 

 

 

          Day Two, Salt Lake City, Utah.  We made great time today, arriving in Salt Lake City at about 4:30 Mountain Time.  We hit the road Sunday morning as the sun crested the high plains to the East.  It was a welcome relief to leave the motel with temperatures in the upper sixties as opposed to the 105 degrees of the previous day.

So we hammered, hammered down interstate 80 about as fast as we dared to cover as much ground as we could before the day’s heat would catch up with us.  It did, catch up with us, eventually but not before we had knocked out about two thirds of our day’s journey.  Western Nebraska was rather beautiful as the topography made its metamorphosis from flat land to the ever increasing mountainous plains.  Before we knew it we had reached an elevation of 7000 feet after crossing into Wyoming.  The occasional craggy rock outcropping from the scrub grass plains let us know that we were moving further and further into more rugged country.

          The West is the land of the big sky and there is just no getting over it's beauty while sensing you are on top of the world.  Parts of Interstate 80 run along a ridge through Wyoming and you can see for miles and miles in all directions.  The spotty shadows that dot the countryside from the few clouds that were in the sky appeared to float across the land.  As the day warmed those little cloud spots would provide a soothing refuge from the ever warming sun.

          A unique experience when riding a Harley as you make your way to an elevation of 7000 feet is the effortless manner in which the big twin motor accomplishes the feat.  You would almost be unaware that you were climbing a steep grade were it not for the powerful diesel tractor trailer trucks laboring at a snails pace in the right lanes.  Crawling up the mountainside the big Internationals and Peterbuilts would climb steadily with their four way flashers warning those who might come upon them too quickly from the rear.  Okay, one other key to the severity of the grade may have been that in those times when you wanted to accelerate to move around a line of cars there just wasn’t a whole lot of throttle left to play with.  So it goes.

          On our last stop of the journey out we pulled in for fuel in a border town between Wyoming and Utah and ran into a group of bikers from New Mexico.  They had been on the road a couple days as well and were touring the mountains for the next week.  One of them was having a little trouble and inquired to what tools we might have along.  I had what they needed and one of their group commented how accessible my tools were and for some reason I lied.  I suppose it was to save face for the rider with a problem but I said, “Yeah, I have to keep em (my tools) handy cuz my crap is always falling off too.”  That isn’t the case at all.  I have just traveled a lot and know that you need to keep things organized and accessible that you might need quickly on the road.  I must have been within earshot of my trusty ride, however, and I think I hurt his feelings. 

          We got their guy on the road, I repacked my tools and we made our way west for the last leg of our journey.  At this point we were full into the beautiful mountainous area outside of Park City, Utah where the Winter Olympics had recently been held.  The mountains around Salt Lake City are rugged and covered with scrub grass.  It is almost a desert quality but there is a lot of low growing vegetation that clings to the mountainside with what ever toe-hold it may be able to find.  As I was taking in all of this beautiful scenery I became aware of some rattling on my left floorboard and looked down to see my entire heel-toe shift linkage mechanism jittering on the floorboard.  Still doing 88 mph, I reached down to rescue the nearly $200 worth of chrome parts.  I missed!  The linkage almost slid off the floorboard, in heavy traffic but miraculously snagged it with my pinky.  I was able to then grasp it tightly and tucked it under my leg and continue on but now I had a new problem. 

          I was unsure of what type of grade we would need to pull as we continued into Salt Lake and were I to need to down shift I would be in a world of trouble.  Beyond the problem of needing to adjust gears over the last 50 miles I knew that once we entered Salt Lake I would need to do some off ramps and merge into some city traffic.  My Harley is always pretty good to me but I knew that there was no way I would be able to do stop and go traffic in 5^th gear.  Anything much below 40 mph in 5^th gear is just not a doable option.  So, if I could manage to continue to do at least 40 miles per hour until pulling to a stop of a motel which had vacancy everything would be okay.  It didn’t work out quite that well but I came close.  I was able to take a couple of risks by running a few stop lights and merging into some horn honking on coming traffic and pull into a parking lot and out of traffic.  Once stopped I pulled back out the trusty tools and Steve was good enough to crawl around on the ground and get my linkage hooked back up.  Thanks Steve. 

          Tomorrow we are not quite sure what we are going to do but that is what makes a vacation a vacation.  We have options.  First I am going to try to do a more permanent repair on the Road King and then depending on my success we will either go directly to the local HD shop or make our way to CUSA Technologies to see my friends who work there.  Then we will either go white water rafting or take a ride up some canyons to ski country where there is a fabulous view to be had from the apex of a Gondola ride.  It all sounds good.

          Dinner tonight was remarkable.  Joey and Bob laid out a wonderful feed and another friend of ours, Roger, joined us and we were fortunate enough to meet Danny who is neighbors of Joey and Bob.  We had a great time talking and throwing a five pound leather chew toy around the back yard for Bob and Joeys beautiful German Shepard.  By the time we left it was a ¼ pound chew toy but that is another matter.  We were treated to a grilled specialty that Bob likes to make when he and his buddies go snowboarding in the mountains around Salt Lake.  It was marinated veggies and Italian Sausages served over grill toasted buns and was served with a wonderful fresh salad and some pretty good potato salad and okay, maybe a few beers.  It was all good Bob and Joey.  The home cookin’ would have been welcome enough but the stories that went with it and the attention that went into the preparation made it all that much better.  Consider yourself hugged by the big guy.

          It was 105 degrees in Nebraska today.  105 degrees is even hot at 85 mph or maybe 105 degrees is especially hot at 85 mph.  It did have a kind of blast furnace quality about it all day.  The Big Twin Cam 88 motor between my legs was putting out a lot of heat and the super slab we rode on was radiating a lot of heat.  There was just no getting away from it.  But ya know what?  I’d do it again tomorrow.   Oh wait!  I am gonna do it again tomorrow.  Although today was 655 miles and tomorrow will be a mere 538, piece of cake.  And we are particularly excited about our destination tomorrow because Joey and Bob along with Rockin’ Roger, friends of mine in Salt Lake, will be gearing up for a barbeque as we near the city.  I have heard mention that an adult beverage may be waiting for us.  Bohahaha.

          I would personally like to take this time to thank the van load of girls from Colorado who “went wild” for us as we passed them near Kearny, Nebraska.  I’m not sure what would prompt seemingly nice young ladies to demonstrate their assets in such a way but it was greatly appreciated.  Honey, if you are reading this you should know that I absolutely did not kick off my cruise control to take in more of what was being shown.  A glance is all it was and as soon as I realized what I was seeing I looked away.  Okay well I had too cuz the semi behind us scared the crap out of me when he started laying on his air horn.

          An observation.  My right pant leg was pretty well covered with dead bugs by the time we finished our ride for the day.  My left leg was virtually spotless.  It puzzled me for a moment then I paid attention to ditch and fields on the right, median and oncoming traffic on the left.  I suppose there is some ecological significant statistic that could be pondered about all that, Nah. 

          I didn’t score any free pumpkin pie on this first day out but then again, we didn’t stop at Alice’s Restaurant.  We were at a gas stop, however, when a young man came out of the store sporting a huge bag of red licorice.  As I am prone to do, I asked if he planned on sharing that but was then rather embarrassed when he spun and made is way to us opening the bag.  I assured him I was kidding, he insisted he bought too much; I thanked him and enjoyed a piece.  Nice kid.  Watching this all happen was a couple we were talking with who were on a BMW on a trip from their home in Jefferson, Iowa to Yellowstone.  She said, I bettcha that young man is a Midwesterner because he was so friendly and quick to share.  Being Midwesterners ourselves we had no problem agreeing with her observations of this benevolent trait that is not a unique quality of Midwesterners but indeed a consistent trait of the region.  About that time the young man pulled his car up to the front door of the gas station where two older passengers were allowed to get in the car while it was parked in the shade of the canopy.  The car had Iowa plates, Story County and an Iowa State Cyclone sticker on it.  So it goes.

So we check into the Motel 6 in Sidney, Nebraska and asked the front clerk if he had wireless internet.  He says, “Yes, I have wireless internet.” and gave us a sheepish grin.  We didn’t bite right away but then caught on.  “Is wireless internet available in the rooms?” we more accurately inquired.  “Why yes it is, enjoy your stay.” replied the clerk as he smiled and handed us our keys.  Ya gotta wonder how many times a day the guy gets to use that.

          Hey, if your name is Rod and you live in California and you have a brother named Gizmo, formerly known as Rick, he says hi!  The G-Men think it is time that you bought yourself a Harley and join us on these adventures.

          So that’s the news from Day One.  All interstate 80 all the time.  I’ve had better rides but few with the anticipation that this first leg holds.  See ya tomorrow.