Nelson, B .C. 516 km

Got a 7:15 start out of Walla Walla this morning under cloudy (!) skies. The morning’s ride to Spokane started out with an enjoyable ride through the Palouse area of SE Washington. The sweeping curves around the grain covered mound-like hills are made for motorcycling and we enjoy this area very much. There are also rows of power generating windmills as far as the eye can see. We were disappointed to see the Central Ferry Crossing campground is now closed. It is one we had visited in the past and enjoyed in spite of the rattlesnake warnings.
It has been a noticeable transition from the desert to what apparently has been a month of heavy precipitation so far, judging by the lushness of the vegetation (including mushrooms – see photo!). To think we were in 38+ degree weather a few days ago – not cold today but requiring full gear.

After a short sojourn at the Spokane Valley Mall to do some last minute purchases, we bypassed the city to the east using Argonne Road through farmland– this works very well (mental note taken).

Three bear sightings today - one just before the border (big black) and then a brown and black bear together in the field at Stagleap Ranch just at the base of the Kootenay Pass. Also two small coyotes at various places and many hawks again, looking for a feast in the fields.

Customs clearance was easy and we arrived home at around 3:30, just in time to mow the lawn and tend the garden before it started to rain. Perfect timing (I guess we used up our rain quota for the trip in Idaho last week).

All in all this has been a very enjoyable couple of weeks of travel (3944 km in total) and has whetted our appetite for further motorcycling plans. One of the highlights was the wonderful aroma of wild roses and just one of the many things you miss when confined in vehicles (cages as they are referred to by motorcyclists). We have vowed to take in a rally in the next year or so and have started discussing and looking at our options.

Walla Walla, Washington 392 km

Another great riding day. Left Burns around 0800 and proceeded north on HWY 395. This route through Oregon is a motorcyclist’s joy, lots of curves, good pavement, great scenery and rest stops just when you need one. Saw many other bikes today including lots of BMWs as the Oregon club is having their annual rally near John Day this weekend.  Had a chat with a rally goer on his K sport bike yesterday who was missing his wife on this trip (she won’t ride on the sport bike). But he does have an LT like ours for them to tour 2 up. He said his wife is a “head bonker” just like Norma.

Norma, what is a “head bonker”? Well that is what happens when you fall asleep and your helmet “bonks” into the rider in front of you – a not very desirable situation but often unavoidable if you are too warm, bored, forced to get up too early or just plain tired of waving at the cows!

After yesterday’s incident with the poor bird we seemed to find all sorts of birds coming our way and seemed to be ducking quite often. Doug says he now thinks he is a chick magnet but Norma burst his bubble by telling him he is just attracting all the old birds around! In addition, he even has his own new business enterprise (see attached  photo).

The other photos included in today’s blog are from Virginia City: local architecture and a couple of shots from inside the B and B. Note on the table is a picture of Paul, our host, who rode a camel to second place in last year’s Virginia City camel race. He is a certified camel jockey! Apparently there is a certification process.

We will get a semi-early start tomorrow for the last leg home as we are going to stop briefly in the Spokane Valley Mall to shop.

Burns, Oregon 625 km

After yesterday’s exhausting day we enjoyed a very quiet good night’s sleep. The Cobb Mansion B and B continued to amaze us this morning. It is so tastefully decorated and the antiques are boundless.

Breakfast started with fresh fruit and home baked cinnamon rolls and German buns (baked by Paul – he has promised the recipe to Norma – just need to email him to remind him) followed by eggs Florentine. Paul and Jeff joined us for breakfast. We then were given a motor tour of the historic mining town of Virginia City by Paul, the co-owner of the mansion and Tasha (the dog) in his 1948 Chrysler woody convertible (one of three of his antique vehicles). We had just barely finished our lovely breakfast when Tasha started poking at Paul’s leg as she knew it was the routine and time. She loves to go on these tours and insists on riding balanced on the back of the seat and the edge of the window as you will see in the photo. We were required to wear appropriate hats, of course. Attached are some pictures of the B and B (the Canadian flag was in our honour- they have a wide variety of flags which they change to match the guests origins) as well as some pictures of the tour.

We were very impressed and have vowed to return to spend some more time there. Apparently the mansion has so many repeat visitors (we can understand why) that the owners are considering closing it to the general public and only taking repeat business. We consider ourselves lucky to now be on “the list”.

We hit the road late this morning on another beautiful cloudless day. Around lunch as were travelling through a small town in California, out of the corner of my eye I spied an object coming rapidly toward us! Bird! Just missed me but. . .here’s Norma:

All I saw was a big black blob then felt a massive thump against my helmet and shoulder. I often have my face shield open when going through towns and at a slower speed and had thankfully just put it down or may have had an injured cheek bone at the least. That was the end of that poor thing’s life – I killed a bird today!!! We went back to the scene and found out the bird was a  full grown northern flicker!

We were in the middle of nowhere around lunch but went past a small market with a sign outside saying deli sandwiches so we stopped there and purchased a wonderful lunch, which the shop owner put together for us and which we enjoyed under a shade tree at one of the rest stops. Our little cooler bag sure comes in handy for that sort of thing.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful except for lots of conversations at the various rest stops with other bikers out enjoying the day.

Virginia City, Nevada 701 km plus!

It’s been a very interesting, long and expensive day but we will get to that later.
First to last night. Norma loved the Celine Dion concert. The musicians were excellent, her dresses were amazing – she changed 6 times – and she sang a lot of the old favourites. Doug said it was just OK but although he isn’t a real fan did acknowkedge her singing expertise and her very genuine way with the audience. After the concert we gambled a bit more then settled in for the night as we had an early start planned.

Got up and on the road by 6 am to beat the heat (was already getting pretty hot) and traffic. We made great time and found ourselves back into the Nevada desert – lots of straight road and sage brush. Coming into Yerington, NV an oncoming car pulled out from behind a right turning oncoming jeep directly into our lane to make a U turn if you can believe it. If we were a second earlier we would not be writing this tonight.

We drove into the Fort Churchill Park but didn’t stop and we barely made it back onto the road to find we had a flat tire – only the second one in all of Doug’s riding history. Of course, we are pretty well in the middle of nowhere near a little town called Silver Springs. After a bit of “what next” Doug walked to a house near the road and they were kind enough to let him use the phone. He spoke to the BMW dealer in Sparks, where we had our servicing last week and they gave him a number for a tow truck company so about an hour later up comes this flat deck tow truck (hence the mileage above with the plus for kms travel on the back of the truck). During the wait we sat in these very nice people’s (Juanita and Ian) house and drank ice water as they insisted it was “too hot out there”. The BMW dealer luckily doesn’t close until 6 pm and they were waiting for us so we – after paying over $260 for the tow truck and another $300+ for another installed tire we were back on the road by just after 6 pm to make our way to Virginia City.

We are at the Cobb Mansion B and B, which is amazing as you will see from the photos. Both the bedroom and sitting room are our part of the house. It is owned and operated by Jeff and Paul, two very colouful fellows,  who invited us out to dinner with them and another friend of theirs (Maggie) so we had a wonderful Mexican dinner.

Las Vegas, Nevada - Lots of km on foot in the desert heat

Tonight is the big night –the Celine Dion concert. We have just found out the doors open at 6:30 so we will probably be there at that time to try to get settled and people watch before the rush. Norma has purchased a special Celine T-shirt for the event.

We had a bit of a sleep in (actually only Norma did) then after a leisurely get up and get ready we went for a loooooong walk to try to see the fountains at the Bellagio where the golf ball ads have the pros hitting balls over the water and into one of the fountains. We, of course, walked right by it but on the upper level so after much walking realized we were several casinos down the boulevard so made our way back. The casinos all link to each other so you can’t really tell when you have left one and gone into another. Doug has decided this is a young person’s town though these two old fogies are doing OK and enjoying taking in the sights.

Doug took a bit of a walk before Norma got up and managed to catch a few shots around the hotel complex with no people around. Later we both walked it and again today it is wall to wall people. We also took in the free “Atlantis” show in the middle of the mall.

We have tried our hand at the machines and Doug is still up over $200 after two days of gambling. Not sure if we will hit the machines again after the concert or not.

We have decided to go back to the same Chinese restaurant for dinner again tonight as it was so good and is very handy to our room, right at the base of the elevators. We have also already taken some items to the bike as we plan to check out by 6 am in the morning to get on the road to try to avoid the heat a little. It is supposed to be over 100 again tomorrow.

Las Vegas, Nevada 365 km

Had a great in-room deli dinner: ribs and all the fixins at the Best Western in Tonopah last night then went for a bit of a walk. The more time we spent in Tonopah, the more it reminded us of Coober Pedy in Australia. We especially enjoyed a bit of an impromptu tour through the Mizpah Hotel, a turn of the century operating landmark in Tonopah, furnished with appropriate period furniture. It was like stepping back in time. (built in 1907 to accommodate the influx of silver miners).
Today was another day of blue sky riding, albeit a bit warmer than the past few. We took a bit of a break midday to check out the largest ghost town in Nevada – Rhyolite. The only building left sort of standing was the Casino, all the rest are in varying degrees of dilapidation (see photos). We did not find any rattlers., just saw one large lizard. We also stopped in the museum in Beatty for a short sojourn.  Nevada certainly has a rich mining history.

We arrived at the outskirts of Las Vegas around 2:00 in 36-39C temps (yes, we did have our cooling vests on which work very well as long as you are moving). Heavy freeway traffic was followed by gridlock on Las Vegas Blvd as soon as we exited interstate 15. Caesar’s place was similarly gridlocked at check –in. We finally got in our room with our luggage around 4:00. Now for a cool drink and change into summer clothes before we go exploring. We were supposed to be going to a ball game tonight but neither of us want to venture out into that traffic again so will just do some walking and site seeing.

Tonopah, Nevada 405 km

What a wonderful riding day we have had. It was another of those beautiful sunny cloudless days. It was a bit cool at the start out from Lake Tahoe and as we were going through numerous mountainous passes all the gear was on to start.

Headed up out of Lake Tahoe via Daggett Pass  (7334 ft). The view from up there was astounding.

  The highest passes we went through were Conway Pass at 8,128 ft and Sage Hen Pass at 8147 ft. You can see the snow on the peaks of the mountains behind the sign and tree. 

We did our usual trying to stay off the main roads so did spend quite some time in the back cowboy country. We knew we were in great motorcycling country by the number of motorcyclists we saw out enjoying this sunny Sunday in the middle of nowhere: deserted country made to ride! An example is HWY 120 which is closed in the winter so you can imagine how desolate it was. Volcanic landscape predominates (Mono Crater area) and along with the arid climate makes some landscapes almost artificial looking! This isn't snow though it sure looks like it in the picture! All that was growing in it was the ponderosa pines and pretty purple desert lupines.

Lots of watch for cattle signs but no signs of a single cow, just lots of sage brush and cactus. Must take a lot of land to support a cow.  We did cross over into California for part of the ride then back into Nevada.  Just as well: check the gas prices where we stopped for lunch in Lee Vining, Ca.

Tonopah is a unique little old mining town. Silver was discovered here in 1900, which sparked one of the biggest mining booms in Nevada. Just behind the motel is evidence of past mining.

Tomorrow we head into the Las Vegas heat! Just a reminder, if you click on the pictures it will make them bigger to view.

Lake Tahoe, Nevada/California 108 km

Woke to another beautiful sunny day, though a bit windy and cool. Connected with the Bermuda kids for a while via Skype. It was nice to see Ciaran doing so well after his tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy and insertion of grommets. We then taxied our way to the BMW shop to pick up Raindancer after his servicing then headed to the Automobile Museum.  We both really enjoyed looking through the over 200 cars. They are all so perfectly restored. Take a look at the dapper dude driving around in his neat old car!

We were impressed with the fabulous artwork including the painting of a movie site, cowboy, dog and damsel  in distress included!

We enjoyed reading about the 1908 New York to Paris Automobile race and seeing the winning “Thomas Flyer”.

Doug was a bit disappointed that the car he most remembers, the Bugatti Royale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugatti_Royale) , was not one of the units that survived the demise of Harrah’s collection. Of the six in the world apparently that unit is now owned by Volkswagen.

Stopped in Carson City for some lunch on our way to Lake Tahoe. Then proceeded to be amazed once again as we crested Spooner Summit and Lake Tahoe came into view. Perhaps Mark Twain said it best: "...at last the Lake burst upon us—a noble sheet of blue water lifted six thousand three hundred feet above the level of the sea, and walled in by a rim of snow-clad mountain peaks that towered aloft full three thousand feet higher still! ... As it lay there with the shadows of the mountains brilliantly photographed upon its still surface I thought it must surely be the fairest picture the whole earth affords."

We are staying in California but will go into Nevada for dinner and the evening. That sounds more impressive than it really is – if you check a map it is actually a walk.

Sparks, Nevada 0 km

Todays was Raindancer’s day for the annual service, new tires, a look at the cooling system and so we found out this afternoon, some new brake pads. We could have picked it up this afternoon but decided that tomorrow would be better as there is “safe housing” at the shop tonight.
This morning we visited one of the local coin laundries – hopefully enough clean clothes to last for another week now.

Also this morning Doug was remembering the “Old Days” in Sparks and visiting Harrah’s famous automobile museum. Too bad it was dismantled and sold. . .(or was it, Norma suggested)?  With baited breath we learned that yes, many years ago it had been sold to a large company along with the rest of Harrah’s properties (casino, etc.). BUT, the citizens of Nevada raised such a stink that the Nevada government stepped in and “persuaded” the big company to donate the cars to a proposed new “National Automobile Museum” in Reno. And that is where we are going tomorrow morning!

This rest of the day was spent gambling a bit and eating a lot. Tonight is the Nugget’s seafood buffet. When we presented our "John" club cards we found dinner was on the casino so an added bonus! Need we (card carrying seafood aficionados) say more? But then 3 pictures are worth 3 thousand words. We plan to be in Lake Tahoe tomorrow evening.

Sparks, Nevada 261 km

Had a good deli meal in the room after our long ride yesterday to Winnemucca and left this morning at 0930 for Sparks. We woke to a beautiful sunny day, not too warm to start but certainly perfect as the day progressed. A much shorter, uneventful ride on the interstate 80 saw us at the Sparks BMW dealer where we dropped Raindancer for new tires and servicing. A short taxi ride brought us to the Nugget where we have a room booked for two nights.

The room is ½ the cost of last night’s and immeasurably more comfortable (see below).

In the plaza adjoining the hotel there is an outdoor farmer’s market today which runs from 3-8 pm complete with cooking demonstrations, etc.

We decided that would be our destination for dinner. We had an indian taco, a pig pop and a huge ice cream swirl cone for dessert.  This was all enjoyed while sitting outside in the park, a perfect ending to the afternoon.  We even managed to buy a pound of California bing cherries for later.
Now to try our luck or non luck in the casino! We did get $5 free gambling cash when we signed in so wish us luck!

Winnemucca, Nevada 699 km

It rained all evening and most of the night thus we awoke to a scuddy, drizzly, dreary day with fresh snow on all high points around Grangeville. We geared up to the hilt and that was a good thing as the temperature dropped to 3.5 C on Whitebird pass.  After a few showers the weather improved dramatically and most of the day was spend riding in coolish, but sunny weather allowing us to make up for ground lost yesterday.

Check out the interesting sign at one of the Idaho rest stops.  Several different interpretations could be formulated here. Poor Fido. . .

We managed to inadvertently attend a comedy show this afternoon. Part of Idaho HWY 95 is being repaved (both lanes simultaneously – so already you may detect a problem). Here's Norma who had a better view as I was occupied piloting:

After waiting about 20 minutes the traffic finally started coming from the other direction. Only problem was the stretch a few cars behind us was one lane so you guessed it – two semi -trailer trucks met at the same point trying to go in opposite directions. After a bit of panic from the flag people and pilot car driver they got our lane moving to try to allow the bottle neck to clear. Only thing was we had nowhere to go either! The result is shown in the attached picture. 45 minutes to go 10 km! I think they could use some lessons from the BC road pavers.

Much of today`s ride was a long stretches of sage brush covered rolling hills. One sign said: ``Pardner You`re in Cattle Country``. We did see a cowboy on an ATV trying to herd one cow from the wrong side of the fence to the right and another more conventional horse equipped cowboy herding a group of cows with his dog.

Grangeville, Idaho 260 km

No-one told us that central Idaho has a monsoon season! The attached picture, taken at 1:15 in the afternoon says it all. Beside a very wet couple two-up from Boise on the 1300 Suzuki, the pair of Gold Wings belong to a husband and wife from Kamloops . The motel clerk was scrambling to find some ready rooms as we were not alone in seeking refuge from the deluge! Our very wet ride started and ended at 5.5 degrees C which meant all gear on and plugged in. Norma had SEVEN layers.  To make the ride extra miserable there was even a good whack of construction tossed in. This would not have been an acceptable day even in Alaska.

Then there was the mother mallard with her dozen ducklings crossing the road at the wrong time. Raindancer missed the family but we are not so sure about oncoming and following vehicles.

Here`s hoping for better weather tomorrow as we have a bit of ground to make up.

Worley, Idaho 311 km

The first day of our journey south to address one of Norma’s bucket list items (see Celine Dion live) actually turned into a very nice riding day. The weather man had predicted rain and to our surprise for the first time in several years we managed to have a dry ride at the start of our journey.

We got ourselves organized and left home after an early lunch. Today was a short 4 1 /2 hour ride to Worley, Idaho, where we checked into the Coeur d’Alene casino and found we were entitled to a free night with our club card. Spend some frivolous time in the casino – no luck for either of us.

The Coeur d’Alene tribe has done a nice job with this casino resort including historical photos, an ethnobotanical walk and paintings/sculptures revolving around the history of the tribe. Apparently the casino is the largest employer in Northern Idaho.

The rain has started in earnest now. We at least missed it all for our ride but may not be so lucky tomorrow.

Nelson, B.C.

This is a sample blog entry as we prepare this weekend for our annual motorcycle tour this year to Las Vegas, Nevada. We have concert tickets for a Celene Dion performance (Norma's bucketlist item) and to appease Doug (whose favourite artist is Stompin' Tom Connors) we will take in a Las Vegas 51s ball game. The 51s are the Toronto Blue Jays AAA affiliate. See you on the road June 4th!