Big Jets
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Enjoying this keep it coming
Denver to San Fran via 2 Potatoes
- Thread starter Nemo
- Start date
Thanks Big Jets but if I spend any longer on this today my wife will kill meEnjoying this keep it coming
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Loneliest Road?
I set off from West Wendover to Ely and then on to Highway 50 "The Loneliest Road". I worked out that to get to Fallon, my destination, I'd cover about 377 miles and would have to change direction at 2 Junctions. Like I said before there were long straights followed by mild twisties as the road worked its way from one vally over the hills and into the next valley. This was also the route of the old Pony Express and there were a few roadside memorials and information points - so I didn't get bored.
Also a few towns that had seen better days with interesting old buildings.
When I got to Fallon I ate in the most down-market casino I'd ever been in, and the waitress (who was overjoyed to speak to a foreigner) summed the place up by asking "..why would anybody want to stop in Fallon?". I told her it was so I could chat to the waitresses but she wasn't impressed!
I set off from West Wendover to Ely and then on to Highway 50 "The Loneliest Road". I worked out that to get to Fallon, my destination, I'd cover about 377 miles and would have to change direction at 2 Junctions. Like I said before there were long straights followed by mild twisties as the road worked its way from one vally over the hills and into the next valley. This was also the route of the old Pony Express and there were a few roadside memorials and information points - so I didn't get bored.
Also a few towns that had seen better days with interesting old buildings.
When I got to Fallon I ate in the most down-market casino I'd ever been in, and the waitress (who was overjoyed to speak to a foreigner) summed the place up by asking "..why would anybody want to stop in Fallon?". I told her it was so I could chat to the waitresses but she wasn't impressed!
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Out of the desert & into the hills
Fallon, was forgotten as I rode on the Interstate to get past Reno. The Sunday morning drivers were somewhat casual in their ability to change lanes at the last minute, and the road surface challenged anything that anyone who has been to Belgium will have experienced. I turned North at Truckee and it was LOVELY. A nice curving road through forests and lots of expensive looking little villages with coffee shops and tourist tat. As the altitude increased the temperature reduced and eventually as I approached my hotel in Chester it was just perfect.
Fallon, was forgotten as I rode on the Interstate to get past Reno. The Sunday morning drivers were somewhat casual in their ability to change lanes at the last minute, and the road surface challenged anything that anyone who has been to Belgium will have experienced. I turned North at Truckee and it was LOVELY. A nice curving road through forests and lots of expensive looking little villages with coffee shops and tourist tat. As the altitude increased the temperature reduced and eventually as I approached my hotel in Chester it was just perfect.
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Lassen Peak
If you have stuck with me this far you will realise that I'm not a great photographer and I'm not a wordsmith. But please take it from me that my afternoon spent going from Chester to Lassen Peak and back was fantastic. Great roads, amazing views and the warm forest smell along with ending up in the snow again was sensational. I will do another tour in the USA at some stage and I will make sure that I visit Lassen Peak again (NB: out of tourist season!). Others in UKGSer have visited here and their photos are so much better than mine. Have a search. Also - Bumpass was someone's name - I had to stop and ask a Ranger because my imagination was running riot!
If you have stuck with me this far you will realise that I'm not a great photographer and I'm not a wordsmith. But please take it from me that my afternoon spent going from Chester to Lassen Peak and back was fantastic. Great roads, amazing views and the warm forest smell along with ending up in the snow again was sensational. I will do another tour in the USA at some stage and I will make sure that I visit Lassen Peak again (NB: out of tourist season!). Others in UKGSer have visited here and their photos are so much better than mine. Have a search. Also - Bumpass was someone's name - I had to stop and ask a Ranger because my imagination was running riot!
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Stop knocking yourself, they encapsulate with words and pictures, a tour of an area few of us would normally see or visit.
Thank you.
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Thank you.
Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk
To Eureka
I set off from Chester early enough to miss the traffic but hopefully late enough to miss the wildlife - and I still had a near miss with a deer. But it was one of those days where I just swung through the bends and enjoyed life on a bike. I planned to join Route 36 at Red Bluff (as recommended by Sgt Bilco - many thanks are due!!) and so I stopped there for a coffee. 1 mile from the coffee shop I joined 36 to be met by a sign saying that apart from one hour in the middle of the day the road was shut 80 mile away. Mental arithmetic and a realistic assessment of my progress, on what I expected to be a challenging road, meant that I went for the "gap". There are no photos as I only stopped once twice (to have some water). And I got to the roadworks just in time. If you are in this area - this road is ACE!
Onwards then to Eureka. A town with a great art-deco centre and some amazing murals. It was also my first experience of the opioid crisis in the USA and in particular California. Panhandlers and peope who appeared to have mental health issues were in evidence. But don't let this put you off - I never felt threatened.
If the cinema had been showing "Cattle Queen of Montana" it would have been perfect.
I set off from Chester early enough to miss the traffic but hopefully late enough to miss the wildlife - and I still had a near miss with a deer. But it was one of those days where I just swung through the bends and enjoyed life on a bike. I planned to join Route 36 at Red Bluff (as recommended by Sgt Bilco - many thanks are due!!) and so I stopped there for a coffee. 1 mile from the coffee shop I joined 36 to be met by a sign saying that apart from one hour in the middle of the day the road was shut 80 mile away. Mental arithmetic and a realistic assessment of my progress, on what I expected to be a challenging road, meant that I went for the "gap". There are no photos as I only stopped once twice (to have some water). And I got to the roadworks just in time. If you are in this area - this road is ACE!
Onwards then to Eureka. A town with a great art-deco centre and some amazing murals. It was also my first experience of the opioid crisis in the USA and in particular California. Panhandlers and peope who appeared to have mental health issues were in evidence. But don't let this put you off - I never felt threatened.
If the cinema had been showing "Cattle Queen of Montana" it would have been perfect.
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Eureka South
Again - many thanks to Sgt Bilco. From his recommendation I went South via the Avenue of the Giants. Sunlight coming through giant trees and a good road surface. I cruised along in amazement.
After a stop for coffee and a chat to a lorry driver who wanted to know if a 1200 GS would be too heavy for him to learn on as he was 70 years old, I took another Sgt Bilco recommendation. Route 1 from Leggett to Fort Bragg.
Holy crap! the first 14 miles of this were a rollercoaster with extra twists and turns. Not good if you were on a sportsbike looking for smooth sweepers, but wow on a GS. The logging trucks coming the other way and using all the road on hairpins were also a challenge
Eventually I turned inland and the amount of wealth of the population was increasing, Porsche much in evidence. But by now in the 33 degC heat I was knackered and after hitting the Interstate I was glad to get to Santa Rosa. The next potato was waiting for me!
Again - many thanks to Sgt Bilco. From his recommendation I went South via the Avenue of the Giants. Sunlight coming through giant trees and a good road surface. I cruised along in amazement.
After a stop for coffee and a chat to a lorry driver who wanted to know if a 1200 GS would be too heavy for him to learn on as he was 70 years old, I took another Sgt Bilco recommendation. Route 1 from Leggett to Fort Bragg.
Holy crap! the first 14 miles of this were a rollercoaster with extra twists and turns. Not good if you were on a sportsbike looking for smooth sweepers, but wow on a GS. The logging trucks coming the other way and using all the road on hairpins were also a challenge
Eventually I turned inland and the amount of wealth of the population was increasing, Porsche much in evidence. But by now in the 33 degC heat I was knackered and after hitting the Interstate I was glad to get to Santa Rosa. The next potato was waiting for me!
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BigIdahoPotato
I spent the night in the Astro motel - the most expensive place I'd stayed but worth it for the very "Californian" Californians that I met. It was here that a youg lady accosted me as I got off my bike and told me I was an instrument of Satan as the hydrogen from my atomic engine was hastening the end of days. I thanked her and moved rapidly in the other direction
Look this up https://bigidahopotato.com
I loved this. Primarily because the 2 young ladies who were doing the promotion, and the lady who was the driver, did all of this without any sarcasm or cynicism. It was refreshing. The kids who turned up were amazed by the size of the potato and, depending on age, really didn't know if it was real. Jessica and Kaylee (The "Tater Twins") were young, lively, attractive, and no-bodys fools. The driver, Melissa, was ace, and when pressed she did admit that the rig would do just over 85mph on the Interstate. I had made contact with them before, and so not only were they very welcoming, I got a guided tour of the spud and I got a mention in the local newspaper. It was a fitting (nearly) end to the holiday.
I spent the night in the Astro motel - the most expensive place I'd stayed but worth it for the very "Californian" Californians that I met. It was here that a youg lady accosted me as I got off my bike and told me I was an instrument of Satan as the hydrogen from my atomic engine was hastening the end of days. I thanked her and moved rapidly in the other direction
Look this up https://bigidahopotato.com
I loved this. Primarily because the 2 young ladies who were doing the promotion, and the lady who was the driver, did all of this without any sarcasm or cynicism. It was refreshing. The kids who turned up were amazed by the size of the potato and, depending on age, really didn't know if it was real. Jessica and Kaylee (The "Tater Twins") were young, lively, attractive, and no-bodys fools. The driver, Melissa, was ace, and when pressed she did admit that the rig would do just over 85mph on the Interstate. I had made contact with them before, and so not only were they very welcoming, I got a guided tour of the spud and I got a mention in the local newspaper. It was a fitting (nearly) end to the holiday.
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Politics, Religion and Cricket
They say that if you dont want to cause offence never mention politics or religion. I had it forced on me. I thought I'd describe what happened but only to show that idiocy exists everywhere.
I left Santa Rosa feeling great and even the rain and cloud that I hit (and expected) didn't dampen my spirits. I gave the Golden Gate viewpoint a miss as I had seen the inside of a rain cloud already and made my way south. High point was being in the right hand lane of six lanes solid traffic, and my GPS telling me I had 0.25 mile to get in to the left hand lane.
I wanted to stay in Fremont to drop off my bike the next morning and have time to explore San Francisco city centre afterwards. When I arrrived at my hotel the receptionist started ranting that I hadn't returned his text and he was about to cancel my room. I explained that I had been on a bike on the freeway, but he wasn't too reasonable. He was of an Asian background and I could see that the Cricket World Cup was on the TV. So without assuming where he was from I asked who had won the India/Pakistan game. Big Mistake! He moved straight in to extreme rant mode about how India was always superior to the "terrorists of Pakistan". This continued until he asked for my passport, and upon seeing that I was from the UK he launched again, parroting Trump and saying what a shame that a once great empire had been brought to its knees by Sharia Law!!! FFS. I was dumbfounded. He kept going until I literally grabbed the keycards from his hand, thanked him for his time, and departed rapidly to my room.
I had been in some Trump heartland (eg Wyoming) and had a few conversations about Trump (never started by me) and they were all pretty reasonable. But this guy......
Anyway. I dropped the bike off the next day after sharing the breakfast room with 3 Mexican labourers who were trying to understand cricket. I kept my mouth shut in case I sparked another rant-fest!
Then in to San Francisco. Where the streets are paved with down and outs. Wandered about and got the train to the airport the next day. Tired and happy.
I'll put a few thoughts in the "Americas" section; thanks for reading to the end - hope you enjoyed it.
They say that if you dont want to cause offence never mention politics or religion. I had it forced on me. I thought I'd describe what happened but only to show that idiocy exists everywhere.
I left Santa Rosa feeling great and even the rain and cloud that I hit (and expected) didn't dampen my spirits. I gave the Golden Gate viewpoint a miss as I had seen the inside of a rain cloud already and made my way south. High point was being in the right hand lane of six lanes solid traffic, and my GPS telling me I had 0.25 mile to get in to the left hand lane.
I wanted to stay in Fremont to drop off my bike the next morning and have time to explore San Francisco city centre afterwards. When I arrrived at my hotel the receptionist started ranting that I hadn't returned his text and he was about to cancel my room. I explained that I had been on a bike on the freeway, but he wasn't too reasonable. He was of an Asian background and I could see that the Cricket World Cup was on the TV. So without assuming where he was from I asked who had won the India/Pakistan game. Big Mistake! He moved straight in to extreme rant mode about how India was always superior to the "terrorists of Pakistan". This continued until he asked for my passport, and upon seeing that I was from the UK he launched again, parroting Trump and saying what a shame that a once great empire had been brought to its knees by Sharia Law!!! FFS. I was dumbfounded. He kept going until I literally grabbed the keycards from his hand, thanked him for his time, and departed rapidly to my room.
I had been in some Trump heartland (eg Wyoming) and had a few conversations about Trump (never started by me) and they were all pretty reasonable. But this guy......
Anyway. I dropped the bike off the next day after sharing the breakfast room with 3 Mexican labourers who were trying to understand cricket. I kept my mouth shut in case I sparked another rant-fest!
Then in to San Francisco. Where the streets are paved with down and outs. Wandered about and got the train to the airport the next day. Tired and happy.
I'll put a few thoughts in the "Americas" section; thanks for reading to the end - hope you enjoyed it.
Attachments
Nice report, thanks for taking the time to write it.
Thank you!
Cracking ride report, thank for sharing.
Nice trip !
Can I ask you how much it cost to ship your bike to Denver ?
Can I ask you how much it cost to ship your bike to Denver ?
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Great report! I've never felt any urge to go to USA but your ride is making me at least think about it.
Flying out about £1200, but because of bizarre US customs it would be twice that to fly it back. Ship it back is less. Talk to Motofreight!
It was definitely a great road-trip. Glad you enjoyed the report.
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