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These were uneventful travel days.  Wednesday from Albuqueque, NM to Lubbock, TX.  Thursday from Lubbock, TX to Dallas.  It was hot, hot, hot and boring as all get out.  We always knew that the ride home would be this way; so we decided early that we would just drive 300 miles per day and rest in the evenings.  There was really nothing to see but desert and wide vistas with very few trees, no people, and no sight seeing opportunities.  Sorry.  That’s just the way it was.

Tomorrow should be different.  We are in a motel not far from Southern Methodist University (SMU) and the George W. Bush Library.  That is our destination tomorrow.  We have extended an invitation to all Bryan Alumni and all my Facebook friends to come see it with us at 9:30 in the morning.  It will be interesting to see if anyone shows up; I expect not.

There are no pix; you have seen enough big sky.  Just picture in your mind a vast horizon with nothing on it but scrub pine–a horizon on which you can see the curviture of the earth.

We left the casino hotel in which we stayed in Boulder City (not one cent lost with any gambling) to head to Grand Canyon.  Andy had been to the canyon previously, but Bob had not.  We both said, “Wow!”  What else can be said.  It was a perfect day ranging in temp from 95 in the valley to 81 at altitude.  We ended up in Flagstaff, AZ which is at about 7,000 feet; so it is cool enough.  After the canyon, the highlight of the day was to be in a laundromat ( for me a first; Andy used them way back in the 70’s in Chicago).  We were definitely the minority not being hispanic in this place!  Everyone was very friendly and gave us good instruction and help.

Tonight we can watch the US Open tennis and sleep well.  Enjoy the pix.

Today was an interstate day starting in Bakersfield, CA and ending at Hoover Dam.  It was a hot 300 miles except near the end when the temp dropped from 100 to 89 as we drove up a ten-mile long incline from about 200 feet above seal level to over 4,000 feet; never thought 89 would feel cool.

We skirted Vegas on I-15, I-215, and I-515 to get to Boulder City (cute little place) and the Dam.  Again the pix tell the story; you will know when you get to the ‘end’ of it.

Today was partly scenic in the early hours and largely boring the rest of the day with a mix of terror and white knuckles driving through Oakland and Berkley, CA on the way South and East.  Our destination is Hoover Dam.  We enjoyed the PCH, but it got wearisome after several hours of twisting up and down over and around.  So we headed inland towards San Francisco; we could not go into the city because the Bay bridge is closed–we would have been trapped and had to go around.

The two pix tell the story of the beach and the interstate in middle California heading towards Nevada.  We stopped for the night in a nice Sleep Inn in Bakersfield, CA, home of Merle Haggard, the Nashville of the West and incidently an oil town at the lower end of the San Joaquin valley.

We are glad to be cool (it was 100 degrees on the interstate) and rested.

The day started looking out the motel restaurant’s window in downtown Brookings, OR to see an Elk with a full rack of antlers trotting down the middle of US 101.  Beautiful, but no pix–sorry.  The day was spotlessly clear at about 68 degrees; it became 90 later, and then cooled back into the 60’s as we got to the coastal Hwy in California.

Just across the CA border we drove through Redwoods National Park taking pix of big trees.  That was special; we drove through many such Redwood stands along the way including ‘Avenue of the Giants’ further South on US 101.  That highway became very warm and was an expressway a bit inland most of the way until Legget where we veared off on CA 1 to get back to the Pacific coast.  This was 22 miles that rivals the ‘Tail of the Dragon’ in NC.  Andy hated it (he is from Indiana after all).  Bob even got tired of it, but it broke out into the PCH above Ft. Bragg and was spectacular ( a word I may have overused in these posts).  The pix say it all.  We did 301 miles and landed in Gaulala, CA on the coast.

Rain. Rain. Rain. Cold. Wet. Frustrated. Impatient.  That was our day today starting from Lincoln City, OR.  We stopped in Florence to dry out and use the library.  I took about 1.5 hrs to grade my MBA weekly assignments online.  It was a very well used, pretty library.  We ate lunch then hoping the weather would clear.  But, alas, the rain followed us down the coast until past 1:00 PM.  

We had about 45 minutes of clear weather and dry roads.  Then we just had semi-wet roads and some mist.  Our goal was Brookings, OR because it is near the California border and the Redwoods National Park.  Our bags leaked some–mine because I left one side pocket unzipped, and Andy’s because his rain cover for some reason does not fit over everything.  We visited a laundramat and dried it all out in a few minutes.

Now we are tired and ready for a good day in Northern California tomorrow.  The dinasauer pix are for Bjorg, Joshua, and Brycie; so Stacy and  Heidi take note.  Uncly Bob stopped in the rain to take a pix for his grand-nephews.

Today the guys got me up before 6:00 AM.  Ugh.  Travis led the way with his monster 2300 cc Triumph Rocket III (see many pix because he customized it himself; a friend did the graphic design with a sharpie; he put clear coat over it).

It was spitting rain and the streets were wet; not a fun ride South on I-5.  For me it was white knuckle time.  We made it safely down to US 101 (the Pacific Coast Hwy) at the mouth of the mighty Columbia River in Astoria, OR.  Lunch there with Travis was fun (he’s the tall young guy); then he rode back 200 miles to Seattle and we headed South on the PCH.  The mile-long bridge is over the Columbia into Astoria.  The pix of the three bikes is before we crossed.  The rest of the pix are self-explanatory.

Our thanks to Travis for his great hospitality; we had a ball in Seattle. 

We started the day in Spokane, WA and left the hotel a little after 7:00 AM (Andy is the early riser; I would leave around 11:00 and never get anywhere).  We rode Hwy 2 all day.  It was spectacular.  With a little detour we went to see Great Coulee Dam.  It was worth the effort; I come from TVA county, but this dam system is up and down the Columbia River.  This is the largest power producing dam in the country (not the biggest dam; just producing power for the whole West).  See the pix.

Then we drove down the Columbia River on 155 to link up with Hwy 2 again.  This was a spectacular ride!  I took another pix of Andy ahead of me on the rode along the river.

Steven’s Pass through the northern Cascades was as good a ride as any on the trip, and you can imagine that all the rides have been like this.  Andy said it all, “This is living a dream; we are seeing places we have only read about!”

Started a little late today because it was cold (50) and we were going up into Glacier; so we left Browning,MT for St. Mary and the park at 8:00 AM.  Both of us agreed that this ride was the highlight of the trip so far.  What spectacular sights!  It reminded me of my visits with Roddy Miller in Switzerland–every bit as pretty.  The pix will tell the tale.

Left the park and drove South and West to Spokane, WA.  Here we spend the night; tomorrow we head to Seattle to be with my nephew, Travis Seera, whom many of you know.  Enjoy the pix.