To Napa Valley Then North on Highway 1

9/21/10 Here we are at Don Pedro Lake in California. We had just come down a huge grade of highway 120 through the hills. It was an unexpected treat for riding- at least for the passenger! The Lewiston grade in E. Wash. has nothing on this one! We are heading for the Napa Valley on Highway 12 - ask Mark about that experience if you are a motorcyclist!

9/22/10 Here we are at Bothe-Napa State Park. This is a gem of a find for serenity in the busy wine country. This "somewhat rustic" campground had huge sites nestled in the madrona and oak trees. We had our first night in a shaded area and then moved to a more open site for some sunshine. The squirrels, blue jays, woodpeckers and lizards shared the campsite with us. We were over washing dishes at the cleaning area one morning and came back to our pack of bagels busted into and I saw the squirrel culprit running with that huge bagel in his mouth!
We camped here for 4 nights. It was so nice to stay put and be able to ride into St. Helena or Calistoga for the afternoons. The State Park was in between the 2 towns. We enjoyed the ambiance of Calistoga and had a late lunch there 2 of the days. The weather got hotter as the week progressed. It was 80's-90's for the high and in the 40's at night.

9/24/10 Kyle came over on his motorcycle to join us for our last night of camping. We had such a wonderful visit and got caught up on their San Francisco life while giving him the highlights of our USA adventure. He slept on his sleeping pads on top of the picnic table!

9/25/10 Kyle has his 1979 BMW 650 loaded with his camp gear and ready to lead the way into Napa. It was delightful riding together through the wine country on Silverado Trail. We didn't do the "wine tasting" journey on this trip- different focus this time! (Sorry Vonda and Barb!)

9/25/10 Well, maybe not wine tasting but we did do some beer tasting! Mark and Kyle enjoying a 97 degree afternoon in the backyard of the Hobaugh's. This is Stephanie's grandparents home in Napa where Kyle and Stephanie hosted an Oktoberfest party this evening. They had about 25 (mainly family) at the big event. It was quite the German festivity completed with Kyle's homemade beer that he had made from hops he had grown over the past 16 months. Stephanie made apple tarts, apple strudel, & homemade pretzels to compliment all the German sausages, potato soup, salads, pork loin, sauerkraut and all the fixins'! It was a fun extravaganza and chance for us to visit with both sides of Stephanie's family that we hadn't seen since their wedding last year. We spent the night there and we were thrilled to have a "bed and shower"!

Thank you Sandy and Dave!

Herr Hans and Frau Heidi Larson AKA Kyle and Stephanie! They get the award for theme parties with their authentic Bavarian outfits. Kyle filled his Grandpa Larson's German stein with his homebrew Hefeweizen to add to the authenticity. We all laughed and visited well into the night.

9/26/10 Before we left town we went over to the other side of Napa to visit with Stephanie's Grandpa Ray Brown. Here he is with his 2 son's, Steve and Jim, and Stephanie and Kyle. We had to get back into the swing of socializing with people we know again! Other than seeing my cousin Barney we hadn't been around anyone we knew since visiting the Bulawa's in Wyoming over 6 weeks ago. We may need to slowly acclimate back into society when we get back!

9/26/10 The Pacific Ocean! We made it to the coast via Highway 12 then up Highway 1 from Bodega Bay. There was a huge fire along the roadway and up into residential area in Bodega yesterday and they were still cleaning up and reinstalling power to the area. We had an hour delay getting on the coast highway. We opted to come to the coast also because of the heat wave that was coming into the central area- temperatures of over 100 for a few days. We figured a little marine air would do us good and the view is unrivaled. Here we are at Carmet Beach. Our first "vista stop" on the coast. We feel like we are almost home! Well, about 900 miles away!

A view from the driver's perspective along Highway 1. Mark likes the road pictures so he can remember how many curves, grades, hills, and valley's he went through. It was a beautiful day and a 20 degree drop from where we had just come in through Santa Rosa.
Our "colds" are starting to get much better in the lower elevation, too!

9/26/10 We happened upon this Ocean Cove Campground in Fort Ross! What a great name! Mark wanted openness and the ocean and we got both right here. There were hardly any other tent campers and we staked our spot next to the few trees to block a little of the ocean breeze. We were facing the ocean and the smashing waves were as loud as traffic on I-5. We set up camp, made sandwiches with the tomatoes Kyle had grown, poured a glass of California wine, and sat on the ocean cliff to watch the sunset. This was one of the best 24 hours of the trip.

A million dollar view of the sunset right in front of our campground. We had this private sandy area where we could park our camp chairs for the sunset and sunrise! Location, location, location because there were no other amenities at the campground besides a picnic table and portapotty.

The love of my life silhouetted by the sunset.

Here I am about as happy as I can be. Salt water, crashing waves, warm weather, camping and with that special guy featured above!

9/27/10 Sunrise over our campground that you can see in the background. It was very spiritual watching the sun rays pour in through these trees over us as we watched from the waters edge.
We sat on the "private" cliff beach and watched waves crash for almost 3 hours in the morning before Mark had to drag me away at the noon "checkout" time!

We travelled north to the town of Elk and had lunch in the local cafe before weaving the coastline north. We checked out some other campgrounds but the driver opted for a motel in Fort Bragg.

9/27/10 We walked across the street from our motel to Glass Beach at Fort Bragg to watch the sunset. It's so mesmerizing to watch that huge hydrogen mass fall into the ocean! Glass Beach is a small sandy beach that is inundated with small pieces of polished (by the sea) colored glass. They are the only remnants of what is left of an old "dump" that was cleaned up 40 years ago. The sea continues to uncover more glass and keep it polished! Mother Nature at work again.

We will continue on our Highway 1 journey in the morning with no set plans on our next stop!

California Dreamin'

9/16/10 Leavin' Las Vegas! 12 hours in the Sin City and time to head out. Here I am with my cousin, Barney Robertson. We rode together until Barstow, CA and then he headed to the LA area and we travelled north. We had a great few days together in the Utah and Nevada area.

The world's largest thermometer close to the Nevada/Calif. border. Another one of the highlights of scenery pictures!

9/16/10 Some more of the scenery along the byways of the High Sierra's! As you can tell there isn't a lot of "living" things along the way. It was extremely HOT and not much of anything along Old Hiway 58. In fact someone stopped to help direct us when we were looking at maps to get us hooked up to Hiway 395. I told you lots of nice people on this adventure.

As I had mentioned before we made the next stop in Ridgecrest, California. This is China Lake where the Naval Weapons Testing is done. Because of my "cold bug" we holed up for 2 days to get the energy to get back on the road. Nice people at the Best Western here!

9/18/10 Stopped for lunch at this local joint close to Big Pine, California. We tried to dine at the local places when we weren't just wingin' it with grocery store supplies!

9/18/10 Mark, the happy camper! He was thrilled he had a hose at his campsite and could try and get the massive dirt and dust off the bike and trailer. We decided to camp when we could because the outside air worked better for breathing at night with our colds vs. the stale air conditioning in a hotel. This was Brown's Town Campground in Bishop, California. A great find with a lot of "fishermen" campers around us. Only downside was one of them found a baby rattlesnake on the path to the office. Luckily it was dead or I would be getting a trailer! We decided to move our boots and other items up off the ground as suggested..... No other sightings.
Tonight was be inventive night for dinner- Mark went to the office "deli" and bought a loaf of bread off them and we made PB and honey sandwiches! Sometimes you just have to do it.

9/19/10 To YOSEMITE! We decided to go over Hiway 120 AKA Tioga Pass from the east entrance. It was a nice day but cloud cover coming in with a possible prediction of a storm so we opted to reserve a room on the west side once we got out. We had a gourmet lunch at the "Mobil Station" which had a renowned chef. You'd never guess but again, a motorcycle rider in Ridgecrest had told us about this place and he was spot on. The fish taco's with mango salsa were superb! Luckily it gave the driver some energy for the pull up the pass. We didn't know how steep and graded the road was. This was probably the most strenuous pull we've had for the trailer and with the new intercom working again I heard the comments! Still, for the passenger it was beautiful and I got lots of priceless pictures. Good job on the driving, Mark!

Yes, the pass got up to almost 10,000 feet. We were up and down 7000 feet swings and temperature changes of 70 degrees from what it was in our Nevada adventure with Barney. No wonder our sinuses won't clear! Into Yosemite we go.

On top of the pass with the glacial views and gorgeous scenery. We had fun visiting with some tourists from Blythe, Ca here. They wanted to know if we had seen any bears yet! NO. The temperature was down to about 55-60 at this point.

They had these signs all over with the posted speed limit. We were thinking that lumbering bears could do a number on motorcyclists and that we wouldn't hurt them too much. But, no bear sightings on this trip. Did see a 4 point mule deer, lots of squirrels, birds and people!

This reminded me of a postcard view. It was awesome to see El Capitan and Half Dome in one shot. We got a lot closer but again, you'll have to see my "slide show" later!

The sheer granite sides of El Capitan in Yosemite. I was amazed at the variety of scenery in the Park. It is surely a natural wonder and testimony to why we wanted to see "what was in our back yard" in the USA.

The weather got warmer and the trees got thicker in the actual Yosemite Valley. The sequoia's dwarfed the pines. The little roadways weaved in and out of the trees, streams, rivers and sunshine streamed in between. Truly a marvel.
We came out on the west side about 6 pm and found our hotel- along with hundreds of other tourists! We visited in the parking lot with about 8 Harley riders from Germany. They had started in Las Vegas and were working their way to San Francisco over a couple days.

We were glad to rest our heads for the night and make another pass into Yosemite tomorrow.
Happy 1st Anniversary Kyle and Stephanie!

9/20/10 Mark was ready to go again since he didn't have to go over the Tioga again! We came back to Yosemite Valley and went into Bridalveil Falls for the picture opportunity. It was fun to watch the waterfall change as the wind did. The weather was perfect and we got some lunch goodies at the Yosemite Village and picnicked.

9/20/10 Powerade Ad Man! At Stanislaus National Park - this area known as the "Rim of the World". We are so glad we opted to come to Yosemite. It kind of makes up for not getting to Yellowstone on this trip! We came out on Hiway 120 to Groveland, California and got a campsite at Yellowstone Pines Campground. The weather has been perfect in the 70's-80 during the day and 40's at night. Since we heard there was rain at home we aren't in a hurry to get back!

We are going to work our way to the Napa Valley region next..... more later!

It was a year ago we were here for Kyle and Stephanie's wedding! Hard to believe that much time has passed. We are saying that about this trip, too.

We are in our 18th state and have about 7,200 miles logged in over the past 7 weeks! We say we need to pinch each other just to make sure this is real!

Hello to everyone and hope all is well.

Grand Staircase, Bryce, Zion & Adventures With Cousin Barney

9/12/10 Torrey, Utah- The Sandcreek Campground. This was the chicken coop next to our place! We had chickens, horses, and a ranch on this couple owned place. We got a "camping cabin" which was the first of 3 nights of staying at these type. They are 10 x 12 log cabins with a bed or bunk, mattress, nightstand, lamp and heater. Since I had come down with the "cold virus" and the prediction of lows in the 30's this was a good option! This area was the "Robber's Roost" where the outlaws used to hide out- Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid! Mark visited with the other motorcyclists that were there. Two of the guys were from Port Townsend! The one next to us had a sister that had lived in Mt. Vernon. Talk about a small world. Again, we got more hints of places to go tomorrow.

9/13/10 Sunrise on the hills behind our campground. The colors of the sky and hills are exquisite.

9/13/10 The Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. A vast area of land that is southeast of Bryce Canyon and encompasses more land than the other National Forests. The hills just "stair stepped" along the landscape and amongst the farms.

More of the Grand Staircase- there were some hay and alfalfa fields, cattle, horse and mostly sagebrush. Warm days continue and cold evenings at this altitude. The Dixie National Forest borders this area, too. We had fun traversing some of the curvy, non guarded roadways!

9/13/10 Ruby's RV Camp Cabins at Bryce Canyon City. Stirring up some gourmet scrambled eggs and cheese to make breakfast burritos for dinner! You have to improvise when there is just a "campstore" to buy your groceries at. We even had a chance to swim in the pool here and get a good nights sleep "inside" before enjoying Bryce Canyon tomorrow.

9/14/10 The entrance to Bryce Canyon. As you can see there was a fire and the firefighters were all around. I wasn't sure if we should head in but come to find out it was a "prescribed burn" to get rid of the underbrush. The smoke got really thick in the town we had been in at the base so were glad we weren't staying another night.

The Bryce Amphitheatre area. The unique red rock spires formed a grand view. We picnicked at one of the lookouts and visited with other tourists. We have noticed that so many of the visitors are from other countries- especially European ones. Some of them had come over and rented motorcycles and a lot were in the "Cruise America" RV's!

60 million years of geology showing off the formations of Bryce Canyon. These magnificent limestone, sandstone, and other rock went on for miles. There were some temples, pillars, domes and spires all at 8000-9300 feet. The spires are called hoodoos and the color changes are from the iron oxides and manganese oxides. We really enjoyed this canyon.

A good example of the color changes in Bryce. We didn't do much hiking around because of the heat, time and our "health". I did manage to go out on a few viewing rocks but not down with the donkey led excursions!

Top of the world! Mark taking in the sites of Bryce Canyon. This was probably the most populated canyon we visited this week.

Leaving Bryce Canyon and going though Red Rock Canyon. Just a jewel that we "happened" upon. Didn't even know that we would be going through this. There was more of the Grand Staircase along the route, too. We were heading to Glendale, Utah where my cousin Barney was hoping to meet up with us and do some touring. We had been talking about the possibility of meeting up somewhere along the journey.

9/14/10 We pulled into a KOA campground and coming around the corner from the office door was my cousin, Barney! I had told him where we would be that night and he rode his motorcycle all the way from the Los Angeles area that day- almost 700 miles. He has more of an iron butt than we do! We settled into our little cabin, he set up his tent, and I cooked us up some "Kathy helper" dinner. A one coffee pot meal of macaroni, chili and cheese. Again, a small campstore limits your menu! We visited around a little fire that night and marveled at our "meeting up" on motorcycles in Utah for a visit. We give credit to Grandpa Cranmer for introducing us to motorcycles when we were little and he taught us to ride his Honda 55.

9/15/10 Zion National Park. This park was more of a "drive by" tour. You can only get into the deep canyon by shuttle bus. There was a lot of road construction going on so it took a little more "concentration" on the driver's part! It didn't slow down the photographer though. We went through miles of massive stone formations like this monolith. There were pear cactus, trees and wildflowers dotting the sandstone, too.

More impressive Zion views. In Bryce you looked down and in Zion you looked up! It reminded me of Manhattan taking in the skyline with your eyes upward. After visiting the 5 canyons, and all the scenery in between I was glad to have pictures and the blog to clarify where we were! We keep pinching ourselves into reality and when we wake up Mark says, "Where are we today Waldo?"

Mark, Kathy and Barney finishing up the Zion tour. We saw our "stimulus money" at work today with road construction on almost every different roadway we took. I was just glad I wasn't the asphalt worker in temperatures around 100 in the desert areas.

After Zion we went into Washington, UT to the Harley shop. They were able to replace Mark's intercom cord that had broken last week. He could only hear me and for some reason didn't like the one way conversation! We traveled on Hiway 15 through a portion of Arizona and then dropped into Nevada. Nothing like 3 states in one day! We thought we'd head out towards Lake Mead on Hiway 169 and maybe look for a campsite for the night. Well, we hit more road construction, gravel, a very HOT afternoon and a dead end when it came to campgrounds. It was kind of funny because we went to Echo Bay resort area and it was basically closed down. We felt like we were in a ghost town. Barney found us a water hose and we doused ourselves and regrouped and decided to head into Las Vegas to get a hotel for the night. I think that this was one of the hottest days we've traveled and in the middle of nowhere! It was amazing to see all the washout gulches and dry rivers and try to imagine that sometimes they are flooded in this area.

Barney leading the way with his southern Californian enthusiasm and great attitude. We enjoyed every moment we got to spend with him and to "reconnect" as adult cousins. We hope to do another trip again and get Stacey in on it the next time!

Viva Las Vegas! After an internet search at Starbucks with some help from a local we found a place to stay on Sahara and rode into town with all the glittery lights! We were just glad to have a place to take a shower and lay our heads down. We left Vegas the same as it was when we got there! No shows, no gambling, just a dinner, breakfast and a bed!

9/16/10 After breakfast we traveled as far as Barstow, California together and Barney rode the rest of the way back to Tustin and we went on Old Highway 58 to 395 and up to Ridgecrest, CA (China Lake area where the Naval Weapon Testing is done). My "cold" got the best of me over the past day and we opted for a hotel, laundry and a pool. It was close to 100 degrees. We are southwest of Death Valley and glad we didn't go there like we thought we might! I have no idea why someone would want to live in these small desert towns that we went through.

9/17/10 Well, things didn't get better over the night so we booked the room for another night and I holed up in bed all day. I used the ziplock bag of pharmaceuticals I had brought and Mark went to the drug store and got a travel humidifier and more cold meds. Last night it was a makeshift vaporizer with Vicks, hot water out of the coffee pot and a towel over my head! It looks like a Walgreen's in our hotel room. Mark is feeling better but not 100% so we just decided to just take it easy. It was the first day I didn't put on boots, helmet, jeans or see the light of day! Since it was 100 degrees again that was ok. Tomorrow has to be better and we will head towards Bishop on our way to Yosemite. Mark doesn't need the intercom now since I've lost my voice! As we said at the beginning- it is going to be an adventure and some days will be better than others! Life is good when we are together.....

Mesa Verde, CO; The Arches, Canyonlands, & Capitol Reef National Parks, UT

9/8/10 Pagosa Springs, CO. After a morning dip in the mineral hot springs in the rain, and a brunch of yummy green chile huevos rancheros, we geared up and headed towards Durango. Our rain gear is getting another workout!

The rain stopped before we got into Durango and no, Mark isn't leaving me. He has the Harley in the shop getting his 5000 mile oil change! We are walking down the road to a BBQ joint to wait out the 2 hr. service. That was the last time I sent the blog! There just isn't enough time, internet connection or energy left very often!! We went into Durango and encountered another thunderstorm but had a fun time walking around the old town and eating dinner. We spent the night outside of town at a P.E.O. bed and breakfast. It was nice to have a "home" for the night.

9/9/10 Day 33. We are at Mesa Verde National Park- almost to the Colorado/Utah border. We are standing at Park Point at 8571 feet. The park is about 20 miles in off the main road and is an absolute breathtaking landscape of canyons, cliff dwellings, mesas and juniper covered hills. It is in the heart of the Four Corners and you can see 161 miles from up here.

Mesa Verde- The Squirrel Tree House. This was the dwelling of the ancestral Puebloan culture from about AD400-1200. There were numerous of these cliff dwellings and this one we could hike down to and explore. They weren't discovered until the late 1800's by ranchers looking for roaming cattle. It was an unbelievable experience to see these and the kiva's and pithouses.

Getting a view of how hidden these dwellings are. The Puebloans would plant their gardens(mainly corn and beans) on the top of the mesas and hunt game and turkey for food.
The museum that was there had many artifacts from that time period- so interesting.

After touring Mesa Verde for the day we pulled into Cortez, CO and stayed at this motor motel with a great view of the mesa behind Mark. The sunsets and starry nights around here are awesome. Such open, clear skies we've had most nights since New Mexico.

9/10/10 Leaving Cortez, CO and crossing over into Utah. All along the roadways, since Illinois, we've seen wild sunflowers. Here was the first full field of "sleeping" sunflowers we saw this morning. They were waiting for that wake up call of the sun.

We made it! One our "big destinations" that we had planned. Off to discover the canyonlands of America.

9/10/10 The Arches National Park. The weather was high 70's to high 80's all week here. Great for touring around. It is amazing what weather, water and rocks can do over time. The rocks here are miles thick and each layer represents a different environment that existed in the past. There are layers of sandstones, mudstones, shales, salts and limestones all stacked up. There are different "arches" such as The Windows, The Double Arch, The Delicate Arch , The Skyline Arch, etc. You could take hikes in numerous areas. We stuck with the "short scenic" ones!

This reminded me of the 3 wisemen but I think they call it the 3 gossips!

The Balanced Rock. It was cool to see these formations from different angles. It was about about 30-40 miles roundtrip of windy roads through this "natural art". This would be the first of many times we were awestruck over the canyon venture.

You can see the "Delicate Arch" behind us. We hiked up to the upper viewpoint but didn't attempt the 3 mile RT to get right under it. Mark's cold, the heat, the time and the altitude were deciding factors! There were always nice people who would take out pictures and were always up for a conversation! The couple who took this picture were from Bothell, WA!

9/11/10 Moab, UT. This was the sunrise from our campsite at the local KOA! We had a good nights sleep especially since I got a new sleeping bag yesterday that is warmer. The temperatures up here are dropping onto the 30's at night already.

Camper Mark making coffee for us for breakfast! We even had 2 jack rabbits hanging out with the occassional lizard. We bought steaks last night at the "Old Geezer Meat Market" and cooked them up on our little fry pan. The woman that owned the market even gave us a couple of her own tomatoes and a cucumber so we could have some vegtables! I told you we have run in to nice people.

9/11/10 Canyonlands National Park. Best view from the restaurant when you are eating your PB & J sandwich! This was the Green River Overlook. The Colorado and Green River confluence runs through Canyonlands

Best friends on their journey! This area is 527 square miles and has hundreds of canyons, mesas, buttes, arches and spires. It reminded us a little of the Grand Canyon but just went forever.
The couple that took this picture were Harley riders from Austin, TX.

More of the expansive view of the Canyonlands, The other 80 pictures are in my "library"!

Kathy on "top of the world" at Panorama Point. You can tell Mark had the camera this day....

When we were at the Canyonlands we visited with a Gold Wing rider and he suggested we take the Potash road on our way back to Moab for some more scenery. It was amazing. A narrow road that followed the river with these sheer cliffs the whole way. It was a haven for rock climbing. I tried to talk Mark in to that idea but to no avail! the sun was in the right spots to get perfect shadowing on the little venture.

9/12/10 Good morning sunshine at our campground again. We stayed a second night which was nice so we could get laundry done and not have to set up and tear down camp each day. What a view to wake up to. Off to the Capitol Reef National Park today. We had fun visiting with other motorcycle riders in the laundry room. Everyone has a story about bikes breaking down, going on roads that aren't meant for street roads, and getting tips on the next destination. I even watched a video a guy had shot from mounting his small camera on the blinker of his bike when he went off the main roads. Yes, he had a cross over BMW!

9/12/10 Look carefully on the cliff and you can see prehistoric petroglyphs on the wall of the cliff. This was on the way into the Capitol Reef. There were fields of orchards, the Fruita Schoolhouse, and the Gifford Farmhouse- all remenants from early Mormon settlers.

Captitol Reef is also called the Waterpocket Fold and the Land of the Sleeping Rainbow. There is a 100 mile long fold in the earth's surface that holds rainwater and snowmelt. there is a 1,000 foot high stone barrier that has been sculpted into astonishing views. This park was more remote and at times we wondered if we were on the moon with the landscape!

Fun riding on these more narrow roads. Lots of off road trails but they were all gravel and just not doable with our bike. You can really see the changes in color of the rock and the "reef like cliffs. They said there is almost 10,000 feet of sedimentary strata in the Capitol Reef areas with 200 million years of history.

The white domes of Navajo Sandstone that resembles the capitol dome of Washington D.C. hence the name of the park! We continue to be awestruck at nature and what is in "our own backyard" to explore.

We are off to Torrey, Utah then on our way to Bryce Canyon. More updates later and hello to everyone back home!

The National Geographic Adventure continues.......