Oklahoma to Glendora for coffee

[Shawnee Bill]

Several weeks ago I found out I needed to be at Edwards AFB in California for a "meeting", that's work ok.

So of course there was never any doubt I would ride out for that. And I thought it would be nice to meet up with some board members while out there. So Steves1150 set up a meet for coffee, read about that here.

 

I decided to try something different for me, just slab it most of the way. Since it was the last of June I figured it would be a hot ride across the desert, I filled up my camelback, soaked my cooling vest and left Shawnee about 8:30 Saturday morning, headed west on I-40.

Stopped at the Route 66 midpoint cafe in Adrian, Texas, about 50 miles west of Amarillo and met this guy, name of Dean "Crazy Legs" Walker, check out his feet, he did that for real

 

 

 

Made it to Winslow, Arizona that night, 877 miles the first day. And it was a fairly cool ride.

Rode to Kingman and then headed north through Vegas, found the heat in Kingman but the cooling vest and the camelback made it an easy ride, even though it was something over 110 degrees through Vegas and north, I think that is what this reading is:

 

Beautiful road between Vegas and Tonopah:

 

 

From Tonopah I headed west to Lee Vining, stopped on a rise east of Mono Lake when the mountains came into view, this is impressive after a day and a half of desert riding

 

My reason for riding north was because I wanted to ride over Tioga Pass again. I say again because the last time I did Tioga pass was in my college days, I drove my old Chevy down Tioga in 1962. Scariest "road" I was ever on, poor gravel, dirt, barely wide enough for one car and caving in several places, I'll never forget that.

 

But things change, now it is just a beautiful climb up a nice wide paved road.

 

 

From the east gate of Yosemite there is about a 30 mile drive though Tuolumne Meadows, beautiful.

 

Along the way there was this warning, not sure how they were thinking someone would contaminate the water??

After all I hadn't been over using my camelback since I reached the mountains.

 

 

 

Finally got to the valley and took this picture, probably the most photographed scene in America.

 

 

And THE waterfall, another most photoed place.

 

I rode on through the park, then south, after dark, to find a Motel 6 in Coarsegold to spend the night, that's a couple of towns south of the park.

865 mile day.

 

Next morning I headed south, took a little detour and rode up the mountain into Sequoia Nat'l Park, turned around and rode back down. Fun ride!

 

From there I took Yokohl Dr south and east, that is a little road that starts at the "Y" just east of Visalia. Rode that down to the "town" of Springville, from there I headed east on 190 toward Camp Nelson, then continued on to the junction of 190 and Sherman Pass road. Took this picture somewhere along the way. 190 and Sherman Pass road go through I think about 90 miles of this.

Check out that sky!

 

It is just continuous twisties with a pile of sand at the apex of about every third curve. This particular pile of sand was out of place and I hit just as I was sitting up for what looked to be a clean curve, rear ead stepped out a bit, first thought was "Hey, that's sorta fun", second thought was "I think I don't need any more of that kind of fun!"

Fun ride, beautiful ride but the road conditions forced me to take it very cautious, I averaged about 40 mph through there.

 

And then it started raining, then hail, it was soft and small so wasn't too bad, but I could feel it hit me. However, the worst of it was moving ahead of me so I was in a way happy I missed this falling, about 9,000 feet elevation here I think.

 

 

A little farther through the mountains they changed, became more desert like as I came down the east side, beautiful but in a very different kind of way, this was a fun road.

 

 

Finally reached Edwards AFB where I found this sitting out in the desert, awesome aircraft, maybe the most awesome aircraft ever built.

 

Long day, 495 looong miles.

 

Spent a couple of days there "working", then rode on down to Glendora. Learned what fun it is to split lanes on the way to coffee in Glendora.

Really enjoyed meeting up with Steves1150, Gelsta, and BillAllenR1150RT, but then I had to head home.

Spent the night in Barstow, Thursday I had an easy ride to Moriarty, New Mexico, spent the night.

 

Rode on in to Oklahoma City about 3:30 PM Friday. Just in time to meet my wife as she finished the MSF Basic rider course on her Yamaha 125 scooter. She did good and will probably move up to a Burgman 400 in a few months.

 

All in all a fun ride, the 800+ mile days on I-40 were not bad at all, just take it one (or two) trucks at a time

[Les is more]

What a great tale, Bill.

 

Sorry that we couldn't make it up there for coffee!

 

That photo of Half Dome . . .WOW!

[Francois_Dumas]

Fantastic ride and wonderful photos Bill ! Thank you so much for sharing. Good to see you have some mountain roads over yonder too after all !!! I was made to believe you've only got highways cutting through the mountains

[Limecreek]

Looks like a fine time you had there Bill. I need to make it a point to head to the left coast on my bike sometime soon and your pictures and tale pushed that tenative plan a little further up the list of things I need to do to feed my soul.

[GelStra]

When I pulled in for coffee, there was only one bike there...with Oklahoma plates. I knew "he" had made it. Great introduction and then he immediately starts showing me pictures. The Yosemite Valley shot was the wallpaper on his laptop. I loved Bill's enthusiasm for the ride and his wanting to share it. He made 800+ miles days seem like a trip to the store for milk!

Bill, it was great meeting you and I thank you again for your love of the ride.

[Firefight911]

Awesome tale! Well done.

 

How he do that (the feet thing)? Eeeewwwww.

[StretchMark]

Excellent Tale!

[Shawnee Bill]

Lesli, (and Jamie) I would NOT have been at all surprised to see you in Glendora, after all, it's a long ride.

I was surprised at that Yosimite valley picture, it looks more like a painting than a photo, I sometimes think digital cameras kinda do their own thing.

 

 

Francois, thanks for saying that, means something coming from the guy that takes all the fabulous photos, wish I would have taken some pics of the road going up the mountain into Sequoia Nat'l Park, it climbs several 1000 feet in not many miles, plenty of switchbacks, no cut throughs.

 

 

Greg, you really need to ride the California mountains, lots of desert between Austin and there, but that is riding also.

But don't you have a 100,000 foot ride to finish first?

 

 

Paul, it was fun talking to you, you also have a love for the ride, keep it up.

And about the milk run, yesterday I took my wifes 125cc scooter to the store for milk, 12 miles each way, made those 800+ mile days seem like nothing

 

 

Phil, the foot thing looked even worse in person, ouch! He said he's been doing that since he was a little kid.

 

 

Mark, it was an Excellent week

[ericfoerster]

Awesome pictures and a ride I need to take

 

Thanks for sharing!

[AdventurePoser]

Bill,

 

It was great meeting you, and I loved the pictures. Plenty of snow up on the passes, and YNP's waterfalls are still pumping strong!

 

Thanks for sharing your words and pix.

 

Steve in So Cal

[OlGeezer]

Terrific photo essay, Bill. It was probably anticlimactic having coffee with the three of us.

 

Regards,

 

Bill Allen