Nick and Kerry's Most Excellent Adventure; Two travellers pitted their wits against Harley Davidsons and the South West of the United States, Travelling through mountains, deserts, forests and along stunning coasts, they had the time of their lives! Covering over 2700 miles in 14 days, diverting from the planned route to miss huge storms we met some amazing people and saw some amazing sites. The essence of the trip is captured here but the reality will ony exist in the minds of Nick and Kerry.
A closed face book group was setup for the "Captains Log" of our trip at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1779126029029251/ (for those members of the group).
A photo album of the trip is available here.
National and State Parks Visited on this trip
Did you know that for a fixed and not very large price you can get a pass to all state parks for 2 motorcycles for just $80. Got to be the bargain of the year.
For me the outstanding parks were the Joshua Tree National Park and Zion Park.
The Route
From the track above you can see we covered 2700 miles in 14days.
Also you can see a couple of re-routes, mainly caused by a large storm comin in from the Pacific.
We had originally planned to go up to Tahoe for a night, but the storms became sufficiently wild that we though that we might not be able to get to Tahoe, or if we did we would get stuck there for a couple of days. So we headed down I80 to Sacremento. A wise move.
The Blog
Oct 03 2016
Eagle Rider to Santa Cruz
Hotel: Beachview Inn, 50 Front Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USA
Time to pickup the bikes! Amazed to see contents of Nick's case disappear into the bike storage. Shocked as we got used to the bikes before hitting the freeway - not impressed! Took PCH1 to Santa Cruz. A lovely place Santa Cruz.
First of many excellent meals this trip! Lucky find on the way to Santa Cruz down PCH. Lunches formed an important pat of our trip!
Motel had a very steep parking area (not really visible on the photograph) that had my heat pounding in the morning as we started to pull away but everything went well. Possibly the steepest car park in the US! Beachview Inn was our first hotel
Drinks on the pier, route march through Santa Cruz downtown, great find in Hindquarter restaurant for dinner then drinks at Surfrider Cafe. Quiet start then!
Oct 4 2016
Santa Cruz to Morro Bay
An excellent day for a very scenic drive down the PCH1.
Lunch in Big Sur and a coffee further down the coast. Great scenery on the Pacific Highway
Stayed at the Breakers Motel in Morro Bay.
Morro Bay has some excellent bars and restauraunts. Some weird beers too as well as some excellent ones. Food very good.
Night out at Libertines for drinks and xx for dinner
Oct 5 2016
Morrow Bay to Redondo Beach
Hotel:
Oct 6 2016
Redondo Beach to Palm Springs
Hotel: Knights Inn, 1450 South Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, CA 92264, USA
Great journey through Angeles Forest and San Bernardino Mountains on the way to Palm Springs. Unfortunately video lost but memories linger on.
Palm Springs was in party mood with the Desert Trip Festival happening that weekend.
Oct 7 2016
Palm Springs to Laughlin
Hotel: Tropicana, 2121 S Casino Dr, Laughlin, NV 89029, USA
Visit to Joshua Tree National Park - must be brilliant when in flower, but impressive anyway. Followed by trip through Mohave desert which was a garden wilderness that went on for miles.
Brief stop at Najah's Desert Oasis on Route 66
Hotel Tropicana.
The Tropicana was a great place to stay.
A Casino Hotel so very liively with all amenities.
Real casino town - good catering, cheap rooms and smoky noisy casino rooms!
Also across the road a brew pub with good ales on tap.
And some great steaks that were not too expensive (although the USA is more expensive than it used to be).
Oct 8 2016
Laughlin to Flagstaff
Hotel: Baymont Suites, Flagstaff
Travelling down Route 66 with a stop off in Seligman for cherry pie and a damn fine cup of coffee!
October 9 2016
Flagstaff to Page
Hotel: Best Western Plus at Lake Powell
Quite an amazing place Lake Powell. On the edge of a huge poer generating facility; a lake with very scenic views.
Very nice hotel.
Plenty of places to eat and the one we selected had a good selection of brews created locally.
October 10 2016
Page to St. George
Hotel: Econo Lodge, St. George
The Econolodge was the low point of the trip. Not the best of motels!
The local Mexican bar had great food but no liquor license so any alcohol was a few bloacks away. Too tired by now to make that walk.
St. George is a place best forgotten I think.
October 11 2016
St George to Las Vegas
Hotel: Downtown Grand, 206 North 3rd Street , Las Vegas, NV 89101, USA
The hotel was fantastic. The location (Fremont Street) was fantastic. A great place to get a couple of days rest!
October 12 2016
Viva Las Vegas!!
October 13 2016
Las Vegas to Beatty
Hotel: El Portal Hotel, 420 West Main Street, Beatty, NV 89003, USA
This journey took us along Death Valley. What a weird place that is. The road is twisty and the view glaringingly white from the salt refelecting the sun that burns down on you at 101F. Glad the tide didn't come in as we are way below sea level here.
Riding through Death Valley and then n up to Beatty was real desert riding with long roads, winding through the desert and then up through mountains.
As you come into Beatty there is a huge mountain to the left - it looks just like someone has blown half of it away. And they have as it is a mining town of old and this mountain was a part of a mine.
Another relic of the mining activity are the donkeys that are everywhere - or rather theri dung piles are everywhere, but very few donkeys are actually seen. Apparenty they come out at night! It is a sad tale as they were let go wild when the minig stopeed and they have thrived. There are very fe spings in the desrt where they can get water and apparently they all crowd and pack themseves around the small amounts of water that they find. I guess that is why they come out at night, becuase it is cooler for them!
The motel was uninspiring from the outside but clean and comfortable inside so perfect for two weary travellers.
What a great litttle place Beatty was. You wouldn't have thought so at first glance situated on the edge of Death Valley and a one time mining town that had been better time.
We soon settle into the Crazy Burro bar run by Ana who just kept the beer coming. Great little place. Would definitely go back there.
October 14 2016
Beatty to Mammoth Lakes
Hotel: Sierra Lodge, 3540 Main Street, Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546, USA
Again we started on our second stab at Death Valley. There had been some bad weather recently that had closed one of the roads so we took an alternative route (or rahter were back on our original route - whatever).
More desert roads, more mountains, more big skies. Wonderful!!
Unfortunately the weather was turning and we were heading to the highest place we had been so far - Mammoth Lakes aover 8000ft.
When we arrived at the hotel I was pleased to see that parking was under cover as the wind was blowing so strongly tat I would have been afraid of finding the bike lying on it's side in the morning.
Also I noted the sign warning that bears were wandering about too!
October 15 2016
Mammoth Lakes to Lake Tahoe (we never arrived here)
Hotel: Blue Lake Inn, Tahoe.
Final Destination: ... Hotel. Sacremento
As we started our trip up to Tahoe it became clear to me that th weather was getting bad. If we made it to Tahoe we would be stranded there for a couple of days at best - at worse we would be stuck in the middle of the mountains on bikes that could not make the trip.
So Plan B was engaged and we headed over Highway 80 to Sacremento after Kerry hastily booked a hotel there.
We landed at the ... in Sacremento in a torrent of rain. Still th ehotel was good, it had food and beer. Woo hoo!!
Reports of fires near Tahoe are here.
This is our video of the trip through the storm
October 16 2016
Lake Tahoe to San Rafael
Hotel: Marin Suites Hotel
The ride from sacremento to San Rafael was mostly wet and mostly on freeway unfortuanately. Except for one small stretch as we went a long a levee and then by ferry across the levee. The road quality was attrocious on the levee and avoiding the huge gashes in the surface as well as a few oncoming vehicles took your mind off the heavy rain. The road just finished at the bank of the river, and continued by ferry (free) to the other side.
Here is a video of the ferry crossing.
Found a great BBQ bar with a great selection of ciders in San Rafael.
October 17 2016
San Rafael to Eagle Rider
Hotel Coastview Inn, Santa Cruz