Over the Hill and Far Away……….

Ho hum, another dreary day spent trying to persuade Mark that it is not conducive to our welbeing to tell large, bearded men with tattoos that riding a Harley makes them sad, cliched old farts.

That aside, the day started bright and early in Klamath and we headed of down Route 97 towards California. We were quite surprised to go through an inspection as we crossed the border between the states but were waved on with a cheery “You have a nice day now”! Following the 97 through Dorris we eventually reached Weed. However seeing that there was none on offer we moved on and blasted down the Interstate (you have no idea how much I enjoyed typing those words!) stopping only for a nice cup of tea at a rest area (well actually it was a particularly nasty cup of hot chocolate and a mediocre coffee).

A slight anxiety about fuel lights flashing caused us to drop down to just below the speed limit for a while, This turned out to be fortuitous as a State Trooper cruised past soon afterwards. Otherwise I could be writing this from the County Jail rather than a hotel room.

The high spot of the journey was undoubtedly being overtaken by an elderly couple who were sitting in what appeared to be armchairs, mounted on what can only be described as the three wheeled, bastard offspring of an unholy tryst between a motorcycle and a Honda Civic.

After 217 miles, which went from freezing cold, 5000 feet up Mount Something-or-Other and baking hot as we cruised through the peach orchards and palm trees on Route 99, we reached Chico. Instead of failing to find our hotel in the midst of a thunderstorm, today we failed to find our hotel in the midst of 30 degree heat.

However after a large meal and a stroll through the Thursday night street market we are now refreshed and ready to do it all again tomorrow! Next stop Merced.

PS. Did I mention there were pine trees along the way?

This is actually Mark’s bike. The Yam is being driven by his manservant who carries his luggage.

In the highly unlikely event that the rightful owner of the Harley reads this – err I was only joking dude, loved the tatts …………..

More pictures of bikes (and two random old blokes)

An interesting day. A slightly surreal start, with the local tv news featuring a stand-up row between Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli on the American version of “Strictly”. We thought we had fallen through a rift in the fabric of space and time into some sort of alternate universe.

We picked up the bikes, were seriously interrogated before being allowed to join the AAA (like our AA but with an extra A), packed the panniers and set off with the words “It’ll be awesome dudes” still ringing in our ears.

The high spot of the journey was passing a roadside store which in huge letters advertised the availability of “Guns, Ammo, Liquor, Beer and Wine”. Now that’s my idea of the five major food groups!

A somewhat lower point was passing a bemused trucker who was trying to work out what to do with the carcase of  a large deer that he had just hit and left lying in the middle of the road!

After a couple of rain showers on the way we arrived in Klamath in the middle if a torrential thunderstorm. Riding in zero visibility, on the “wrong” side of the road in a strange city can be mildly stressful we found. However all in all it was a pleasant 140 miles. Oh, did I mention, there were pine trees in abundance?

Fortunately the Microtel is fine, We’re warming up and drying out now and we have the promise of Red’s BBQ still to come. We plan to make an early start tomorrow on the next leg which should take us about 200 miles to Chico in California. As I write this I am sitting in the window of our room watching lightning flashes in the sky outside. Let’s hope it’s gone by the morning.

A leisurely start to the day with a dip in the pool and a stroll into town. We found the downtown area of Bend with buildings dating back as far as 1910! We spent a very pleasant couple of hours drinking beer by the river. Got into conversation with the current earthly incarnation of Zeus and learned much about Trolls and the aura of our second sun as reflected on the surface of a DVDR, By the way, if you are trying this at home it has to be an R, the other DVDs don’t work as well.

We’ve just had a great meal at one of the downtown restaurants and picked up some very useful travel tips from the waiter who sat down with us and talked us through his maps of the state. Rounded off the evening with a beer in a bar that was probably Moe’s Tavern but without Homer. 

After a 22 hour trip involving 2 taxis, 3 planes, a lot of walking through huge airports and a significant quantity of complimentary Heineken, we arrived in Bend at about 4pm local time. After a rather uninspiring meal in a dreary cellar bar we retired to bed.

Leapt up this morning shouting “Has he been yet?” but so far our bikes have not yet arrived!

The weather here is sunny and very hot although there were thunder storms last night. It will get hotter as we move south! Round here we can still see the snow-capped mountains in the distance.

So it’s time now to sit by the pool while we wait for the bikes!

We will be over the Atlantic somewhere or have just landed in Portland – depending on which time zone you are using! Other than that there is nothing of interest to report at this stage unless you are fascinated by the intricacies of packing.