So, I have been nominated by my fellow travellers to write the ride report for this trip, and it will be from a slightly different perspective to the usual ride(r) reports … the back seat. I like to think it was thought I’d have more pictures than they did as I was just sat there enjoying the views, whilst they were having such a hard time riding their bikes, but it’s more likely that I was just more organised than them & other than Chris, actually knew where we were going most of the time!! From my perspective, writing this report saves me having to spend hours with Bill (Timaloy), telling him all about the trip….
It all began in late 2014 as we collected our bikes after the fantastic Pacific North West trip (which was our first ever trip to the US – our once in a lifetime trip for Paul’s 50th birthday ) and I was suffering post-holiday blues …. I had been perusing the USA map and reading my guide books reminiscing on where we’d been and looking at all the other places I’d like to go to one day, if we could afford it…maybe I could persuade Paul to go again for my 50th birthday? (in four years’ time he might have forgotten how much he hates long haul flying??).
Anyway, as folks were sorting out their bikes, I mentioned to Chris I’d been looking at the map and I thought there were a lot of great places and National Parks to visit in a relatively small area (for the US anyway) around the Canyonlands of Utah. He agreed and said that he’d had thoughts of doing a trip in that area one day…. Anyway, I thought no more of it until sometime in 2015 when I saw a plug for an upcoming Unchained event - the ‘Moab Canyon’ trip. ‘Great!’ I thought, and I could use my air miles from the PNW trip! However, Paul had not forgotten how much he hates long haul flying and was less than enthusiastic…
I’m sure it must be something of a rarity for a pillion having to bully her ‘driver’ in to take her on a mega bike trip? Anyway, I thought I’d get assistance and enlisted Bill’s help, but unfortunately he couldn’t come on this trip as he already had plans for 2016 as it was his wife’s big birthday that year, and that would not involve a bike trip…but he did offer to lend me his bike to go on (I can ride, but prefer to relax and look at the scenery when on holiday). So once I presented this option to Paul & said I’d go without him, it did stir him into agreeing to go (albeit with much whinging about how much he hated long haul flying …)
And so, fast forward to June 2016 and our bike looked like this, just days before it was due to be shipped!
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The pre-trip service included a few unexpected items to say the least (a shaft drive rebuild for one…) anyway, Mikeyboy worked his magic and the bike was ready to roll just hours before he went to Spain and 2 days before we were due to deliver it down to Chris in Pershore ready for shipping. Nothing like a bit of pre-trip testing before a big trip
Anyway, we made Pershore without any drama and our bike was loaded into the container along with those belonging to Keith, Dermot & Amanda (everyone else that was going on the trip were doing the Alaska trip first and so their bikes were already en-route to Anchorage).
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So, fast forward 6 weeks and it is Thursday 11th August we are ready to set off to join the bike and Paul is looking forward to several hours on the train/ underground to get to Heathrow followed by the 11hour flight to San Francisco….. I booked First Class tickets on the train (for a huge £15 each), so that he could console himself with free food & drink and be happy (for the first hour at least…)
We were travelling out on one of Virgin’s new Dreamliners which are billed as being more spacious and as our Airmiles had contributed to a Premium Economy flight, we’d have access to the new ‘wander wall’ which has an endless supply of snacks & drinks , which again I hoped would help ease the ‘long haul’ pain. (In reality it was more like a shelf than a wall)
The flight went relatively smoothly, the one exception being when Paul managed to fling his glass of red wine over my lap….and so my Dreamliner turned in to Pantyliner as I was forced to sit under my quality Virgin blankie in my only pair of clean pants for 2 days! (we were only travelling with hand luggage and weren’t due to be reunited with the bike and luggage and hence any change of clothes until Saturday) I was not happy to say the least I’d planned for us to spend the next day seeing the highlights of San Francisco, whilst we were in the vicinity, and then catch the bus to Santa Rosa on Friday evening. Whilst sitting trouser-less under my blanket, hoping my trousers would dry out in the 5 hours before we landed, we had some great views of Greenland…
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We finally landed at SFO around 7pm (my trousers were almost dry, although sporting a distinct Shiraz odour) and after spending an hour getting through security courtesy of Homeland’s most cheerful employees, caught the BART train into the city. The only thing of note about the journey was that a guy boarded with a shoe box full of weed so strong that it sedated the whole carriage. … as it was about 3am UK time, we were now in danger of sleeping through our stop! Anyway, a tortuous 30mins later, we arrived at Powell Street station, where I immediately felt at home stinking of wine and weed…….in a slightly detached state, we staggered to our hotel a couple of blocks away arriving about 10.30pm. Paul went straight to bed whilst I rinsed my trousers out…..
It all began in late 2014 as we collected our bikes after the fantastic Pacific North West trip (which was our first ever trip to the US – our once in a lifetime trip for Paul’s 50th birthday ) and I was suffering post-holiday blues …. I had been perusing the USA map and reading my guide books reminiscing on where we’d been and looking at all the other places I’d like to go to one day, if we could afford it…maybe I could persuade Paul to go again for my 50th birthday? (in four years’ time he might have forgotten how much he hates long haul flying??).
Anyway, as folks were sorting out their bikes, I mentioned to Chris I’d been looking at the map and I thought there were a lot of great places and National Parks to visit in a relatively small area (for the US anyway) around the Canyonlands of Utah. He agreed and said that he’d had thoughts of doing a trip in that area one day…. Anyway, I thought no more of it until sometime in 2015 when I saw a plug for an upcoming Unchained event - the ‘Moab Canyon’ trip. ‘Great!’ I thought, and I could use my air miles from the PNW trip! However, Paul had not forgotten how much he hates long haul flying and was less than enthusiastic…
I’m sure it must be something of a rarity for a pillion having to bully her ‘driver’ in to take her on a mega bike trip? Anyway, I thought I’d get assistance and enlisted Bill’s help, but unfortunately he couldn’t come on this trip as he already had plans for 2016 as it was his wife’s big birthday that year, and that would not involve a bike trip…but he did offer to lend me his bike to go on (I can ride, but prefer to relax and look at the scenery when on holiday). So once I presented this option to Paul & said I’d go without him, it did stir him into agreeing to go (albeit with much whinging about how much he hated long haul flying …)
And so, fast forward to June 2016 and our bike looked like this, just days before it was due to be shipped!
The pre-trip service included a few unexpected items to say the least (a shaft drive rebuild for one…) anyway, Mikeyboy worked his magic and the bike was ready to roll just hours before he went to Spain and 2 days before we were due to deliver it down to Chris in Pershore ready for shipping. Nothing like a bit of pre-trip testing before a big trip
Anyway, we made Pershore without any drama and our bike was loaded into the container along with those belonging to Keith, Dermot & Amanda (everyone else that was going on the trip were doing the Alaska trip first and so their bikes were already en-route to Anchorage).
So, fast forward 6 weeks and it is Thursday 11th August we are ready to set off to join the bike and Paul is looking forward to several hours on the train/ underground to get to Heathrow followed by the 11hour flight to San Francisco….. I booked First Class tickets on the train (for a huge £15 each), so that he could console himself with free food & drink and be happy (for the first hour at least…)
We were travelling out on one of Virgin’s new Dreamliners which are billed as being more spacious and as our Airmiles had contributed to a Premium Economy flight, we’d have access to the new ‘wander wall’ which has an endless supply of snacks & drinks , which again I hoped would help ease the ‘long haul’ pain. (In reality it was more like a shelf than a wall)
The flight went relatively smoothly, the one exception being when Paul managed to fling his glass of red wine over my lap….and so my Dreamliner turned in to Pantyliner as I was forced to sit under my quality Virgin blankie in my only pair of clean pants for 2 days! (we were only travelling with hand luggage and weren’t due to be reunited with the bike and luggage and hence any change of clothes until Saturday) I was not happy to say the least
I’d planned for us to spend the next day seeing the highlights of San Francisco, whilst we were in the vicinity, and then catch the bus to Santa Rosa on Friday evening. Whilst sitting trouser-less under my blanket, hoping my trousers would dry out in the 5 hours before we landed, we had some great views of Greenland…
We finally landed at SFO around 7pm (my trousers were almost dry, although sporting a distinct Shiraz odour) and after spending an hour getting through security courtesy of Homeland’s most cheerful employees, caught the BART train into the city. The only thing of note about the journey was that a guy boarded with a shoe box full of weed so strong that it sedated the whole carriage. … as it was about 3am UK time, we were now in danger of sleeping through our stop! Anyway, a tortuous 30mins later, we arrived at Powell Street station, where I immediately felt at home stinking of wine and weed…….in a slightly detached state, we staggered to our hotel a couple of blocks away arriving about 10.30pm. Paul went straight to bed whilst I rinsed my trousers out…..
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