Our Honeymoon Trip -- The Story! (No photos yet)

[Spikes_Wife]

I don't have photos yet... we're going to send our film off sometime this week. But, here's the narrative, copied directly from our website. Enjoy!!

 

--patti

 

 

For our honeymoon, we took a cross-country tour on our motorcycle. Ocean City, MD to Sacramento, CA on Route 50. The trip was 23 days, and 5319 miles. Sure, we could have gotten there in a week, but we'd never see anything along the way if we did.

 

July 12, 2002 -- 134 miles

 

We got a bit of a late start. John had to finish paying bills, I had to pack some last minute things, and then we had to drop off a video at Blockbuster on the way out of town. At about 3:30, we were finally on our way.... until the intercom started acting up about 3/4 of a mile from home. We headed back to the townhouse to fix it, but we couldn't seem to locate the problem and suddenly it was working again. At 4:00pm, we dropped off the movie, and were on our way with 27444 miles on the odometer. We were across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge at 5pm and the intercom stopped working again. When we stopped in Denton for gas, it mysteriously started working again and didn't give us any further problems that day. We arrived at Aunt Ruby & Uncle Dave's house close to 7pm in time for hamburgers and a couple rounds of Dominoes before bed.

 

July 13, 2002 -- 410 miles

 

We started off the day with breakfast at The Lighthouse in Lewes, DE. (Thanks Mom & Dad!) After having a couple of pictures taken with Mom, Dad, Aunt Ruby and Uncle Dave we were off. About halfway down to Ocean City the batteries in our CD player died so we stopped off to swap them out. Traffic in Ocean City was pretty bad. I was surprised at the number of people that were headed in our direction .. I thought they'd all be north-bound. At 11am and 27608 miles, we got onto Route 50 West and passed under the "Sacramento" sign. Traffic in Easton was horrible. John had to turn the bike off for part of the way to keep it from overheating. We stopped for lunch and fuel around 2pm on the other side of the bridge. Arrived in Washington, DC near 3:15pm. Traffic was bad again in DC. There had been a high speed chase in which an SUV rolled over and was leaning up against a lightpost ... Route 50 (New York Ave) was closed and we were diverted a bit. Once we were through Arlington, we encountered rain. It rained for the next six hours. By the time we arrived at the hotel in Bridgeport, WV (10:30pm) we were cold, wet, tired and sore. The hotel had provided a basket of snacks and sodas in our room, and a neat little rubber ducky that we named Carlos.

 

July 14, 2002 -- 290 miles

 

Our CD player finally died as we were leaving the hotel, so we stopped at Kmart to buy a new one. This one has an AM/FM tuner.. way cool! We stopped in Parkersburg, WV for a break and a snack. I spotted an old Coca-Cola plant sign and wanted to head over for closer inspection and photos. I got a couple pics of the sign, and the motorcycle in front of the plant w/ Carlos. It was about this time that we decided to play a little game. We'd feed clues to our friends and family via Kris (on the spicer2002 email list) and the first person to guess what Carlos was would get a special souvenier. We spent the rest of the day coming up with some clues. We passed a BMW Motorcycle dealership (Holt) that we didn't even know was there near Athens, so we stopped for a couple of photos and to talk to the owner. After that, we stopped by the Ohio State Univ airport for photos and to check out the facilities. Route 50 diverted off of the highway, and became a two-lane road....a very bumpy twisty one. We passed a sign that said that it would be closed on July 15 for complete reconstruction..... wow, are we lucky. By 3pm we were starving, and the bike needed fuel so we had lunch at Red Lobster in Chilicolathe and fueled up. We finally arrived at our hotel in Xenia, OH around 7pm. After unpacking the bike we took a dip in the pool and then walked down the street for dinner. Dessert was wonderful! Best who-knows-how-old cheesecake John's ever had!

 

July 15, 2002 -- 259 miles

 

We started our day at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to see the US AFB Museum. We saw too much to describe here, so you'll just have to take a look at the photos. We had lunch at the museum cafe, filled our water bottles, and headed out around 2pm. We arrived at our hotel in Washington, IN around 7pm after an uneventful trip and went to check out the local GA airport. After that, we had a great dinner at the local Amish buffet. Once we were back at the hotel, we took a dip in the pool and did some laundry.

 

July 16, 2002 -- 362 miles

 

Route 50 at the Illinois border was closed so we had to take a detour. The detour took us back to Vienncenes, IN where we found the George Clark Memorial Park. We stopped so that I could take some pictures and then looked around for gasoline. The stations in town only had 87 octane, so we headed back towards Route 50 and stopped at another down the road. Illinois (er.. southern) is ugly. Even the license plates are ugly. The roads are flat and bumpy. The three main crops of southern Illinois are tractor-trailers, bad roads, and large insects. We did most of this state at a 45-degree angle. We were doing 95MPH, passing tractor-trailers headed in the opposite direction also doing 95MPH... very windy. The bike was 1/4 quart low on oil, so we stopped at the BMW dealer in St. Louis, MO to buy a quart. On the way into town, we got to see the arch, and I took some pictures of the bike in front of the dealer's sign. We encountered some rain as we were crossing the Mississippi river. Missiouri is beautiful. Lots of mountains and 60MPH twisties. We encountered a real downpour for the last hour before we got to Jefferson City, MO. Our hotel room was beautiful -- cathedral ceilings, and we had sodas in the fridge and microwave popcorn waiting for us. After dinner, we headed down to check out the pool, but neither of us even wanted to think about getting in... the water was nasty.

 

July 17, 2002 -- 351 miles

 

We had lunch at Sonic today. John had never been there before, and he loved it. For you east-coasters, Sonic is a modern day drive-in fast food restaurant. You pull into a parking space, place your order into the speakerbox, and then someone brings your food out. I love their Strawberry Limeade. About 50 miles into Kansas, we stopped at a rest area to take a break from the intense heat and refill our water bottles. While we were there we met an older couple who were touring the US on their Goldwing. We arrived in Independence, KS around 4pm. After checking into the hotel we decided to see where the Cessna plant was located so we wouldn't have any problems finding it the next day. I wasn't feeling so great at dinner time....several days of being slightly dehydrated had finally caught up with me. We had a light dinner at Eggberts. John tried to fix the intercom (which had started acting up again) and then we headed to Walmart for icecream.

 

July 18, 2002 -- 23 miles

 

We slept in until 10am. Our day started out at the Ralph Mitchell Zoo. "Miss Able", the first monkey in space, was born there in 1957. It's a small community zoo, but they've got some neat animals there. We got to see an old steam locomotive. There's also a neat little mini-golf course there. The various holes represent buildings in Independence. After lunch at Sonic (again), we headed to the Cessna plant. Like the AFB museum, there is just too much to describe here. We toured the plant floor from an upper walkway and got to watch 172's, 182's, and 206's being built. Afterward we headed outside to check out some of the planes that were waiting for interior furnature and paint. It was a really neat tour! We headed back to the hotel and took a nap, then had dinner at "The Woods" and saw "Mr. Deeds" at the movie theatre across the street. Tickets were only $6.50!

 

July 19, 2002 -- 423 miles

 

We baked today. That's the only way to describe it. We started early, but when it warmed up, it really warmed up. We were doing 100MPH+ across the completely straight, flat Route 50 in an effort to get across quickly. Once we got to Dodge City, we only had 46 miles to go but we were honestly not sure if we could make it. We sat in a Golden Corral and drank lots of water... cooled off for about an hour and decided to press on. Temperatures were around 101 with a heat index of 110, and humidity very similar to Baltimore. We got to our hotel in Garden City, KS around 4pm and took a nice long nap. We rode "naked" (with helmets and gloves, no suits) to Golden Corral for dinner and then played a round of putt-putt before heading back to the hotel for a swim and more laundry. Kansas could drop off the map and we really wouldn't give a hoot.

 

July 20, 2002 -- 257 miles

 

We learned from the previous day's mistake and decided to leave early today. At 6am, while John was packing the bike, I padded across the parking lot in my socks to get some pictures of the sunrise... it was beautiful. We arrived in Lamar, CO around 8:30am to visit the Welcome Center. They had a steam locomotive there that John spent some time looking at while I was taking pictures. We had some doughnuts at Daylight Doughnuts. Not quite the same as Krispy Kreme, but yummy just the same. We got to Pueblo, CO around noon and the hotel not only upgraded our room for free, but they also let us check in early. There was a B-24 museum in town so we decided to go see it before having lunch, and ran into Recourses (from the BMWRT.COM site) on the way. He and his friends were going to stay in the next town over -- they had decided to get as much riding done as possible while the weather was nice. The museum was pretty neat. We had our own personal guided tour, given by a WWII pilot. After the tour, we had lunch at the airport and then headed into downtown Pueblo to visit the Riverwalk. Naptime at the hotel, and then we walked a bit for dinner at 3 Margaritas. Excellent mexican place. When we got back from dinner, we bumped into a newlywed couple (still in gown and tux) and offered them our congrats, told them that we were honeymooning, etc.

 

July 21, 2002 -- 241 miles

 

When we packed the bike this morning, we discovered that the newlyweds had taken some of the decorations from their car and stuck them on our motorcycle. I took a few pictures before we left. Unfortunately, the decorations only lasted about 1/4 mile before they fell off. The weather was great, and the Rocky Mountains are beautiful! As we headed up over them, the temperature was dropping, and by the time we got to Monarch Pass (the Continental Divide), I was wishing I had been wearing my fleece liner. We got to Gunnison around 11:30am and stopped into the KOA to say "hi" then off to Sonic for lunch (again!). The weather was pretty nice, and we sat in the parking lot watching all of the bikes pull into town. BMWRT.COM just happened to choose the same week for their rally that the Hells Angels had chosen, so we watched the Harleys coming in too. The first big group of *'s Angels was led by, of all things, a BMW 1200 LT!! We checked into the hotel around 2pm, and met a few of the *'s Angels. They were surprisingly friendly. Then off to the KOA to check in and meet some of our fellow BMWRT.COM members. Cary (founder of BMWRT) recommended that we go to Garlic Mike's for dinner, so we did with patallaire, fasterpill, Marty Hill, Paul Mihalka, and others who's names I can't remember. Then back to the KOA for some more meet 'n greet.

 

July 22, 2002 -- 180 miles

 

We got to the KOA around 7am for danishes and juice. We decided to ride up to the Mad Dog Cafe (Joe Cocker's Restaurant) with Kris and the "Chi-Town Crew" for lunch. It was a beautiful ride through the mountains and we stopped at most of the scenic overlooks for photo ops. The food was great.... the best Balsamic Vinigrette dressing I've ever had. The waitress was nice enough to give me the recipe before we left. After lunch we headed over to the gift shop to collect our free gifts. (They had pins and bandanas for anyone who arrives at the restaurant on a motorcycle... Joe Cocker is big on motorcycle rights) We took the scenic way back to the KOA, that included about 30 miles on a gravel road. About 3/4 of the way down that road, we encountered some cows. We had seen the signs that said "Free Range", but we didn't realize that really meant that the cows were running loose! I got a few pictures of them up close before we continued on. Just as we came to the end of the gravel road and arrived at Kebbler Pass, we got poured on!! The hardest rain we had run into yet! BMWRT.COM had arranged a group dinner of pizza back at the KOA. We ate, hung out a bit, and then headed back to the hotel for some sleep.

 

July 23, 2002 -- 231 miles for John, none for me!

 

I revolted on this particular morning. I slept in until 7am and then took a nice long shower. It was 8am by the time we got to the KOA and ate what remained of the danishes and juice. We had been on the road for 12 days and I was tired. I wasn't interested in riding, and John didn't want to go anywhere without me. I finally convinced him that I really wanted him to go out and have a good time. While John was listening to Dick Frantz (rdfrantz) give a discussion on PACE riding, I arranged for a ride back to the hotel. I walked down Main Street to Route 50 (1 mile each way) and did our souvenier shopping, and mailed it all back to the townhouse. Lunch was spaghetti at the place that brought the pizzas the previous night. I spent the remainder of my day in the hotel lobby cross-stitching, checking on my laundry, and watching the *'s Angels. There were a lot more of them, and the alchohol started flowing around 1pm. As each hour went by, they were getting a little more rowdy. John got back around 5pm with a smile on his face that I would have needed a belt-sander to remove. We went up to the hotel room so that he could freshen up and then we headed back to the KOA for our last group dinner. Dinner was BBQ. There was an Amish family at the campground that were stranded after hitting a deer with their van. We had seen them quite a bit, so someone invited them to share dinner with the BMWRT.COM group. Their insurance was covering the cost to repair their van, but not their rental car or the fee to stay at the campground. Fernando decided to "pass the hat" to help them out. We raised over $600.00 in a very short time. After dinner we said our goodbyes, and headed back to the hotel with the warm fuzzy feelings that come with a good deed done. The "Gunnison Times" published an article about our rally..

 

July 24, 2002 -- 202 miles

 

We changed our plans a bit. The bike was running great so we didn't need to go down to Las Vegas. Our fellow BMWRT.COM members said that they would never forgive us if we didn't see Torrey, UT while we were in the area, so we decided to head there. We left early in order to avoid the *'s Angels. They were already messing up the hotel -- smoking in the swimming pool, trampling the flower beds, cigars in the bushes, Cheetos in the carpets. They even blocked off access to the parking lot so that only HA's could enter. The hotel manager canceled all non-HA reservations for everyone's safety. We rode the Million Dollar Highway (Route 550) south. Around Silverton, John finally figured out what that strange smell was. It wasn't Kris motorcycle (that distinctive "K Bike" smell), or the cow poo that we had run through two days ago.... our headlight bulb socket had totally melted. At that point, we lost our headlight and the auxilliary lights that John installed before we left. We got to Durango around 1pm and John got a haircut while the bike was cooling off. The socket was completely FRIED... we're lucky it didn't catch fire. John bought a spare at the local auto parts store and installed it while I walked down the street to get lunch. Guess we're staying here tonight! I took some pictures of the connector for the website when I got back. Napped at the hotel, and then had dinner at Pizza Hut.

 

July 25, 2002 -- 344 miles

 

We got started around 8am and had breakfast at McDonald's. Just after crossing the Utah border, we encountered a massive accident. Two cars had collided head on, killing all four occupants, and then were hit by a tractor-trailer that was behind one of the cars. Although the fire was out, the tractor-trailer had obviously been burning for a while. Both cars were completely doused in blood. We heard on the news that night that one of the drivers had a heart attack and swerved into the oncoming lane. From Montecello, UT we headed south and picked up Route 95. 95 runs through the desert. We stopped to see Natural Bridges National park, and bought a Passport while we were there. It was about 107 degrees, but felt like the lower 90's. We fueled the bike at Hite's Crossing (a lake resort area), and then stopped in Hanksville for a buffalo burger. As we were passing through Capitol Reef National Park, we were hit with a major storm. Lightning everywhere, and lots of hail. I was trying to catch it in my gloves, but was unsuccessful. The bike did great! We stopped and took some pictures once the storm moved on. Gleno told us that when you go to Torrey, UT you must stay at the Chuck Wagon, but there were no rooms left, so we ended up at the Holiday In Express instead. We had dinner at the Wonderland Inn, and then set up my camera in front of our hotel to try to capture some lightning on film.

 

July 26, 2002 -- 304 miles

 

We left around 9am and headed down Route 12 through the Dixie National Forest. Passed through Glen Canyon and the Grand Staircase. Stopped for lunch at Hoo-Doo's in Tropic. As we headed toward Bryce Canyon National Park we were a bit worried about the dark clouds and lightning overhead, but it took a turn toward the north. The entry fee for the park was $20, so we decided to buy a National Parks Pass for $24 (they are $50, but the entry fee for this park and the previous ones counted towards the $50). Bryce Canyon is beautiful!! At the top of the canyon, I found some oil dripping. It was fresh, and had stopped by the time we got back to the bottom, so we assumed it was coming from the air box (ie: normal for a BMW motorcycle). Our next stop was Cedar Breaks National Park. With an entry fee of $6.00, we only needed $18.00 in entry fees to break even on our Parks Pass. Cedar Breaks was a lot like Bryce Canyon. We stayed at the Crystal Inn in Cedar City, UT and had dinner at the local chineese buffet. Our hotel room was the size of Alaska! After dinner, we checked our email in the hotel lobby, and then got some sleep.

 

July 27, 2002 -- 449 miles

 

We left the hotel early and headed south. Since we were so close, it would be a shame not to visit Zion National Park while we were in the area. The entry fee was $20.00, so in 3 days we had paid for our Parks Pass plus $2.00.. woo hoo!! At Zion, we took the shuttle bus to see the park -- the only way to (no vehicles allowed). The park was beautiful, but we liked Bryce Canyon better. We had lunch at the lodge and then started north around 12:40pm. We stopped at McDonald's in Beaver for a snack, gas, oil and to check the maps. Our rear tire was getting pretty bald, so we called Cary (owner of Marin BMW and founder of BMWRT.COM) to order a tire. We set an appointment up to have the tire installed when we arrived in Marin on Wednesday. 60 miles later, we hopped back on Route 50. Route 50 through Utah is straight and flat. We were doing 90MPH+ the entire way. Got hit by dust devils (mini tornados that pick up dust) a couple of times. It was like getting hit like a brick wall. Route 50 is a desert. Once we crossed the line into Nevada, we stopped for gas again. Since Great Basin National Park was on our way, we stopped to check it out and get another stamp in our Passport. From there to Ely, NV, Route 50 was very mountainous and forested. Arriving in Ely, NV put us back on our original schedule. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant and then went to bed.

 

July 28, 2002 -- 379 miles

 

Cary called us back the previous night.. he should have the tires in for us on Wednesday. Shannon also called to tell us that they've broken ground for our new townhouse and that we'd have a foundation installed by the time we get back. Woo hoo!!! I let John sleep in today. We tried to get the Route 50 Survival Kit before we left Ely, but no one had one. We settled for breakfast at one of the casinos (.99 biscuit & gravy!) instead. There are four towns on Route 50 in Nevad. Ely is one of them. We passed through Eureka, and decided to get gas in Austin. One of the stores there had the Survival Kit, and were nice enough to validate it for Ely, Eureka and Austin for us. The Pony Express Race had just finished and the racers were all in town for lunch. We had some sodas and onion rings, filled up the tank and were outta there. We had a hard time finding a place that validated our Survival Kit in Fallon, but finally got it done on the other side of town. Then we were off to Fenly to have it validated there. So, you're probably wondering what this kit is... It's a map of Route 50. You have it validated in the 4 towns along Route 50, plus Fenley (on Alt 50), and then mail it to the state tourism center. In return, you get a certificate that says you survived the "Loneliest Road in America", and a nifty decal. We finally arrived in South Lake Tahoe, CA around 7pm. We checked in, dropped off our stuff, and headed back to the office to catch a casino shuttle (for dinner!). While we were waiting, the hotel clerk discounted our rate for us. We had the seafood buffet at Harveys.. it was pretty good.

 

July 29, 2002 -- 0 miles

 

I got up early to do laundry and let John sleep in. We decided to head out around 10:30am and walked down to the Ski Run Marina to pick up our dinner cruise tickets. When we got there, we discovered that they had canceled the cruise without telling us. I called the M.S. Dixie II and made reservations there instead. We got back to the hotel around 1pm with sore, tired feet. After a brief nap, we walked to the Tahoe Pub for lunch, and then took a ride on the brand new gondola to get some pictures of Lake Tahoe. We also bought my sister's special prize for guessing that Carlos was indeed a rubber ducky. The shuttle bus for the dinner cruise arrived 10 minutes early, but luckily we were already on our way to the bus stop. The cruise departed around 7:45pm -- just in time to see the beautiful sunset. We hung out by the paddle wheel until dinner was served. The cruise turned out to be a dinner and dancing cruise, which was about 40 minutes too long for us. By this time, we were starting to get tired from our trip. We didn't get back to the hotel until 11:30pm.

 

July 30, 2002 (John's Birthday!) -- 221 miles

 

We slept in, and left around 10:30am. About 15 miles outside of South Lake Tahoe, we had to stop at an inspection stand.. they were looking for fruit. Luckily, we had none. Route 50 had just re-opened the previous morning, it had been closed for almost a week due to wild fires. We passed through the wild fire area where crews were still cleaning up. We got to Marin BMW around 3:30pm. The tire had already arrived, so Cary had it installed right away. While that was being done, the service guys discovered that we had a final drive (differential) leak, and that we had blown the seal on our brand new rear shock. Aaaah.. so that's that the oil was that I saw last week! We had the final drive fixed under warranty, and called the place that John bought the shocks from. Once the bike gets back to our dealer, we'll be sending the defective shock in for a replacement. Since we'd be staying at Cary's house, we waited until he left the dealership. I think we ended up having dinner around 9pm, and Jonathan had bought a birthday cake for John.

 

July 31, 2002 -- who knows?

 

We rode with Kris down to Santa Cruz for lunch and then back up the coast today. He even took us for a mini-tour through the San Francisco airport where we watched some planes take off. We all had pizza for dinner back at Cary's place... that was pretty much it!

 

August 1, 2002 -- who knows?

 

We slept in this morning and headed out around 11am. We took the 101 across San Francisco and stopped for photos on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. The on to the Marin Headlands for a nice view. We had lunch in Marin City and then took Route 1 up to Muir Woods National Park.. that's another $6.00 we saved thanks to our Parks Pass. After walking the woods (2 miles), we rode down to see Muir Beach, and then up the coast to Stinson Beach. Stopped for lemonade, and then took Panorama Highway back to Route 1, and then back down the 101 to Cary's house. I cooked dinner for our hosts.

 

August 2, 2002 -- who knows?

 

We left around 11 this morning and headed to Fisherman's Wharf to pick up the rental car. I followed John up to Marin BMW to drop off the bike and our gear for shipment back to Bob's BMW. From Marin, we went to Pier 39 for lunch and sightseeing. It was about 6pm before we headed back to Sacramento where we would be staying that night. We drove about 40 miles out of our way looking for the "Ocean City 3073" sign, but alas it's been stolen. I almost fell asleep in my dinner plate. The bike has 32763 miles on it... that makes this trip 5319 miles!!

 

August 3, 2002 -- too many miles

 

We flew home.. that's about it.

 

[SageRider]

Wow. Neat trip. Thanks for sharing. Can't wait for the photos...

[90%angel]

Sounds like a really fun honeymoon trip! Glad you guys had a good time. It was great to meet you in Gunnison!

 

--Lisa

[JB80120]

Nice story. I love happy endings too! Glad we could meet at Gunnison and thanks for sharing the story!