Thursday
And we are in the swing of things packing wise, so before you knew it we were on the freeway exiting to Napa Valley. Pretty chilly it was too – just 57F which was one of the first times we’ve felt cold in the USA.
It’s funny but I still can’t get my head around the freeway thing – don’t get me wrong, it work’s great, it’s just that if you exit a motorway in NZ, you are immediately on a 2 lane road driving past a dairy. In the US, you exit on to another freeway, on to another.
Although the Napa and Sonoma valleys are both beautiful, attractive wine valleys, freeways are always close by.
We drove past “The Mighty Quinn” and in to Napa Village, found a huge café in an old style shopping centre and enjoyed breakfast. Then off to Sonoma after a quick scoot around Napa.
(A friendly localconfirmed my recollection that "Slow-noma"is less commercial and more real than Napa)
Sonoma is a beautifully quaint town with a lovely tree lined town square with people picnicking on the grass and gleaming restored buildings lining the outer rim. We were keen to stay at one of the nice hotels on the square but after checking tariffs and even working outwards from there hotels were still in the $250-$350 bracket.
So we called a Motel in Santa Rosa which had an advert in one of the many free tourist magazines and copped a great deal, nice room, wifi pool breakfast etc (std deal here) for around $63 + tax. Funnily enough if you rang and booked it would cost heaps more – one couple without the coupon paid over $100, but if you “walked in” with the coupon, Bingo!
Too late by now for a wine tour, which started much earlier than we realised - so we planned a nice dinner with what we had saved, then Jude hit the pool, while I toured some bike shops, as ya do.
Later we caught a cab to “Old Santa Rosa” for some pre dinner drinks at a corner tavern, then a nice dinner in an ivy covered Syrah Restaurant across the road, with some nice local wines.
Friday
And up early was Pete, raising the windscreen on the ST, partook of the free brekky by the pool, and once again riding in mid 50’s temps we rode past Lake Tahoe over some bridges and then thru mountain passes amongst a busy flowing stream of traffic of all sizes and shapes, flowing nicely at US freeway speeds, namely 80 mph min, - we even followed a Highway Patrol car for 10 miles at 85!
It was funny watching the Cop enter the freeway, everyone slowly reducing their speed discreetly, Moi included, then the Patrol Car worked its way to the fast lane and booted it, by which time everyone was back at their original speed again. Loving the US Police by now.
The scenery was top rate, rocky mountains, with clean rivers gushing along the road side, trees everywhere.
We were crunching miles today – part of a 2 day plan to carve up Nevada. Soon enough we were approaching the desert looking city of Reno with its huge Casino Billboards and buildings “99c domestic beers “”RV and Truck Parking “etc etc Hmmm about those beers….
After achieving the required miles before our first stop (100 miles +) we had breakfast at Jakes Restaurant and Casino in Fernley. Its incredible how many people are sitting in front of slot machines at this time of day – surely not for recreation? Anyway, gassed up here and hit the road again – through some amazing desert.
Once again our timing with Highway Patrols/Sherriffs was impeccable, arriving in small towns twice, at a nice respectable speed having just decelerated from a different league, as the Patrol is heading outta town toward us.
Soon enough we’d chomped 380 miles (miles are a bit longer than kilometres remember) to Hawthorne a smallish desert town just past an amazing Lake, Lake Walker.
There is a humungous US Military Facility on the outskirts of town, with untold super large buildings. An ammunition plant amongst them, Marine training facilities etc. The local paper showed a mockup building the Army allegedly built as a replica of Bin Ladens place before the successful raid in Pakistan recently. (Well done Boys)
There was an annual Baja off roader (Think VW Buggies and Polaris type side by sides) convention which looked fun – and would be good for the small town obviously struggling with the economy showing its signs thru many closed shops and run down Motels.
We chose a large motel called America’s Best, in gaudy yellow and teal colours owned by an Indian Family, which turned out to be brilliant. ($83 + tax but after a long day in the saddle, we were grateful) .After freshening up, I headed off to wash the bike. Dinner was Chilly at Maggies on Main Street, YUM.
Saturday 13 Aug and a beautiful sunrise welcomed us to the road thru the desert – stage 2 of mile munching today, so breakfast was planned for 103 miles away in Tanoopa, which came around soon enough. Desert riding with u l t r a long straights – the type you see on LP covers – so speeds of 80-90 mph are the norm.
Tanoopa has a rugged exterior suggesting mining as a history, but with Motels and McDonalds and of course a Casino or 2 which is where we stopped for Oatmeal and coffee after gassing up.
Had a quick chat with a Harley Rider from Utah while gassing up, - nice Guy, he was most impressed with the ST’s gas capacity – as I have been for years. No use putting it off, so saddled up and into the distance we headed.
We would just exit one 30 or 40 mile straight, around a bend or over the brow of a hill and there was a longer one. It was quite exciting when I had to make a right hand turn 50 miles later to head toward Rachel, home of the Alie-Inn (Alien Inn) near where “Area 51 “of Alien fame is.
The sign said “No gas for 111 miles “- no sweat to the Pan Euro but some Riders would be doing frantic math, - the sign was also quite a bit out of town already.
Rachel came along, and time for some water and a loo break. A bunch of trailer homes house the odd ball locals who choose (?) to live in the desert with nothing around, or can’t afford to leave, as well as some trailer homes for nightly rent. There is a bar/diner with some amusing signs and souvenirs. Quirky.
As Willie Nelson would say “On the Road again “and 1 minute after taking my jacket off, rain drops start so pull over put it back on and it stops, whatever. A re run of the mornings long straights, very little traffic, until we reach Caliente a mandatory stop for benzene.
There was a Sherriff with all his Patrol Cars lights ablaze on the forecourt bailing up a Roger Bruce look a like, poor sod, but a good decoy once again, so gassed and gone we were, just 80 MILES to go til we’ve done our 400 for the day.
After dodging some green hay bales which hit the road off a Kenworth, we reached Wendy’s in Cedar City with the Tripmeter reading exactly 400.0 miles from departure. Phew. Another good effort all round and only 2pm, with the mercury rising.
Where we popped in to Cedar City courtesy of the Gps Lady, food and motel options were plentiful, so we chose America’s Best Value Inn for just $51 + tax with free blah blah. Showered, e-mailed, then in to the Jacuzzi outside, nice.
We had a big walk before a Dennys dinner then beers in the room. Another fab day.
Sunday 14th
….and a leisurely start to the day especially losing an hour in Utah. Navigating out of town was easy and 20 minutes later we were in Zion Park’s Kolob Canyon. We bought an annual Nat Park Pass for $80, and used it right away to ride the 5 mile roadway at this end of the park - $24 saved.
Kolob was beautiful, photo opportunities abound, and a Park Ranger, Rendall was on hand to answer any questions. A very cool place.
Pressing on we headed toward Zion Park proper, even approaching the area was spectacular with towering cliffs of differing colours, red and yellow hues dotted with green trees, - people actually enjoy these views from their homes – wow.
Getting closer and some pretty period buildings and villages competed for our – and other Tourist’s attention.
Plenty of gift shopping, activities and dining options near the entrance to the park and we chose the allure of a pretty courtyard café which lived up to its promise. We also fed the bike some fuel then pootled the 100 metres, oops, yards sorry, to the queue to enter the park. Using our NatPark to save another $25 we were then waved over by a an armed Park Ranger for a “spot check “uh oh............. you may remember that my International License was laundered, and not lookin pretty......
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Originally Posted by Jane Omorogbe from UK MSN on the KTM990SM
Karma ... Justice catches up eventually !! 
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