[ST] End of trip report(was mid-trip report)(long)

["Beckie J Dunlap" <wisbyb@xxxxxxxx>]

The rest of the story:

Made it back to Oregon after 3 weeks on the road, it was really tough going
to work last Monday morning.

So, picking up the trip in Tonopah NV:  We headed from Tonopah over to
Rachel on hwy 375, then to hwy 93 towards Las Vegas.  We turned off on hwy
168 going towards Overton, because we wanted to go through the Valley of
Fire on the way to Vegas.  As we rode through Overton, we spotted a car wash
so decided we would wash off some of the bugs and get a drink of water from
the Chevron station next door. Of course, the chevron station was closed,
which I discovered after I was out of my 'stich and had all my stuff off the
bike.  We managed to scrounge 5 quarters and get the bugs off the fronts of
the bikes before heading out. (Let me just say, I normally don't care if I
wash the bugs off or not, but my partner was on his new Honda ST 1300.....)

We enjoyed the Valley of the Fire, but it was so hot by that time, I just
wanted to get to Vegas and cool off.  Did not win enough to pay for the new
back rim I had to buy in Phoenix, in fact, did not win anything!!

Stayed in Vegas 2 days, that was enough, then headed North on Hwy 93, up
through Caliente towards Ely.  The area around Caliente was nice, opposite
of the flat desert further South.  We were going to stay in Wells, NV, but
decided when we got to Wells that it was early in the day and we would push
on to Twin Falls ID.
We sort of took a wrong turn in Twin Falls, but managed to find a motel
anyway.  That is a tough city to navigate if you don't know what you're
doing.

The next day we headed for Murphy ID to pick up a checkpoint.  Every year we
do the Grand Tour, put on through the Rose City Motorcycle Club in Portland
OR. There are 19 checkpoints and you have from April to September to finish.
It's a fun way to visit places you normally wouldn't visit.
Hwy 78 goes out through Murphy, and several other little towns, was a fun
ride. After another wrong turn in Marsing ID, we finally got headed in the
right direction.

For whatever reason, my bike started using oil on this trip.  Discovered a
few nights back that I did not see any oil in the sight glass, so at that
point I ended up putting in a whole quart.  On this day, I noticed it looked
low, so we rode into Ontario to try and find a shop that had the Mobil 1 syn
MX4T that I use. We got lucky and found a shop within 15 minutes, put in
half a quart, and were on our way to Burns OR. 

Hwy 20 between Ontario and Burns is a fun road, no cops (or very few) and
lots of fast sweepers.  We were having a great time until we rounded a
corner and all the traffic was stopped ahead.  An 18 wheeler had flipped on
it's side and plugged up the road. We sat there for about 15 minutes, with
no hope, then a few cars came from the opposite direction.  One guy stopped
and told me that we should be able to get through, apparently they were
letting cars that were small enough squeeze by the wreck.  No in our line
was going, so we pulled out, rode to the front and they waved us through, to
the amazement of the poor guy sitting in the front of the line. Oh, well!

We stayed in Burns, and had a really good Italian dinner from Antonio's.
Burns is a small town, with not too many choices for dinner.

The next day we rode South on 395, down through Alturas and took hwy 299
through Fall River Mills.  We've made this trip several times, fun roads,
good scenery.  We turned onto hwy 89 and within 15 miles, fell in behind a
couple cars who were following a vehicle with a light bar and looked like a
cop.  Since we cannot afford to get tickets right now, we tried to be
patient.  After going the absolute speed limit or a mile or two under for
about 20 miles, we hit a passing opportunity and Butch decides he cannot
take it any longer.  We pull out to pass, and discover it is not a cop after
all. 

The weather ahead was not looking promising, so instead of stopping in Yreka
as planned, we decide to push on and ride home.  By the time we reached
Roseburg OR, it was pouring on us and continued all the way home.  We pulled
into the driveway at 10pm, just over 650 miles for the day.

Our whole trip was just over 7000.  Most expensive gas was in Ludlow CA at
$2.48/ gal and cheapest was in Junction TX at $1.77/gal.  Best roads were,
let me see, everywhere.  

Sorry we missed you in Hill Country, Steve.

Take care all and ride safe,
Beckie in Oregon
'01 Sprint ST brg, about to hit 40,000 








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