CA to Oshkosh for the big airshow -- father & son share the open road

[foobert]

Continuing west through Montana on US-12. The cold front was passing through well behind us and, save the wind, the weather was fantastic; warm when we stopped, slightly cool down the road.

And more long straight roads...

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/2500sec, 34mm focal L. @75 MPH, ~25mi from prev photo, map

Prior to this trip, I hadn't spent any significant time traveling through Montana. I couldn't get enough of the scenery.

Gorgeous countryside

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/1250sec, 70mm focal L. @78 MPH, ~8.8mi from prev photo, map

I think they get some snow here -- and wind, too.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/2000sec, 65mm focal L. @68 MPH, ~14mi from prev photo, map

My favorite sign -- Now, if only there wasn't a truck just ahead in the corner.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/1600sec, 18mm focal L. @67 MPH, ~20mi from prev photo, map

Hardly a knee dragging corner.  Gonna have to get a fixed camera mount one of these times to get some better action shots.

Foolishness -- 2 hands on the bars...

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/2000sec, 18mm focal L. @67 MPH, ~397ft from prev photo, map

Gett'n bored heading in to Townsend.  Took a while to get the camera angle just right.

More bugs -- Mmmm, they'd be tasty treats with an open face helmet.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/9.0, 1/400sec, 70mm focal L. @67 MPH, ~12mi from prev photo, map

A left at Townsend onto MT-287 and a quick stop for petrol to make it into to Butte.

I-90 -- Through Cottonwood Canyon into Boulder Valley towards Whitehall.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/8.0, 1/1000sec, 44mm focal L. @79 MPH, ~46mi from prev photo, map

This absolutely cracked me up. My first thought was that they were saving themselves some work not actually putting the rooftop bag, ya know, on the *roof*.  But, turns out it's legit and that's the way it's supposed to be!

I dunno, seems awfully sketch to me. Especially since they didn't bother using the bottom straps to keep it from swinging side-to-side around corners.

Fanny pack -- Ya know, for cars!

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/8.0, 1/800sec, 18mm focal L. @80 MPH, ~2.8mi from prev photo, map

[foobert]

Such a lovely name for a strip mine: Golden Sunlight.  But, golden it most definitely is -- let's see 500K ounces of gold reserves times $1k/oz minus extraction costs of $392/oz is a nice cool $300 million in profit. Yeah, that'd qualify as Golden Sunlight to me!

Interestingly enough, in looking up some info on this mine, I learned that Montana is the only state that has banned open pit, cyanide leach mining to extract minerals from ore. Of course, it's probably also one of the few states that actually has gold reserves sufficient to have a problem with OPCLM.  What with gold at $1K/oz, clearly they can afford to use more modern (and costly) methods that do a better job of containing the cyanide.

Click the map link under the photo and go to satellite view to see the extent of the mine.

Golden Sunlight Mine -- Formerly one of the largest open pit cyanide leach gold mines before the ban.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/8.0, 1/640sec, 70mm focal L. @79 MPH, ~1.6mi from prev photo, map

Crazy rock formations -- Didn't get a good picture, but, you get the idea...

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/8.0, 1/500sec, 40mm focal L. @76 MPH, ~21mi from prev photo, map

Heading along I-90, there some awesome rock formations that I just wasn't able to get pictures of while on the move. Anyway, you can sorta get a small glimpse from the above/below pics.  Love the vertical points.

Spires of rock -- knife edge vertical slabs.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/8.0, 1/1000sec, 31mm focal L. @70 MPH, ~4.1mi from prev photo, map

Down we go -- Almost into Butte

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/8.0, 1/1000sec, 24mm focal L. @66 MPH, ~5.4mi from prev photo, map

We checked into yet another Motel 8 and I asked the nice lady at the desk where I might go to get a looksee at the Berkeley Pit. She looked at me like I must have been blind and gave me a good jovial rib'n:

"How could you possibly miss it!?!"

Silly me, that's a darned good point; it's supposedly ginormous. "There must be a decent place to look down over it"

"I don't know what all the fuss is, it's just a big hole in the ground"

"Yes, but, it's not everyday you get to see a Superfund site in person. What else is there to do in town?"

At which point she concedes that's about all there is and whips out a map and points to the Pit visitor's center then runs her pen down the best roads to take there.

If you haven't guessed by now, I have a thing for mining. Back in my younger and dumber days, we used to go spelunking into abandoned or inactive mine shafts just to see how far back they'd go.

Visitor's entrance to a Superfund site

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/8.0, 1/250sec, 18mm focal L. ~8.2mi from prev photo, map

Panorama -- 1.25 miles across, 1780 feet deep, over 1000 ft of which has filled in with water.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/13.0, 1/320sec, 18mm focal L. Panorama merge of 5 images.

Quite literally, this mountain supplied the copper that electrified America: 22 billion pounds of copper (22,000,000,000)have been recovered since the first mines started in 1880 through 2000 -- enough to pave a 4" thick 2-lane road 900 miles long!

The PH of the water is 2.5 and there is so much copper in solution that they are mining the pit *water* for the copper it holds!

The water level is currently below the water table, leaving the local ground water uncontaminated.  When it rises another 130 ft, (estimated to reach that around 2023), they'll have to bring the water treatment plant (shown below) to full capacity in order to keep the water level below the critical height that would contaminate the aquifer. Lots more info here.

Mining the water for copper

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/13.0, 1/320sec, 70mm focal L. map

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/40sec, 22mm focal L., map

The other interesting factoid is the amount of shaft mining that went on prior to the strip mining operation. Anaconda Copper Mining Company claims there were 42 miles of vertical shafts, and 10,000 miles of horizontal shafts in the Butte Hill!

Note below that the pit is 1780 ft deep and that's barely scratching at the surface compared to the shaft mines.

The dark blue lines at the bottom are over a mile underground!

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/30sec, 40mm focal L. ~0ft from prev photo, map

Back from dinner and sight seeing, the parking lot for the hotel had filled with bikes heading to Sturgis.  However, this is the guy that got my attention.  

My local Yamaha shop that I visited as a teenager had a poster of Vmax boiling the rear tire (pretty sure this was it) that forever cemented the bike as totally bad ass in my mind -- no matter how impractical it may or may not be when the first corner comes around.

I got to chatting with the guy and he'd hauled that trailer West across Canada and was making his way back east. Note the gas can in the back. What does a Vmax have, a 4 gallon tank? And gets mid 30's MPG?  Crappy range -- even without the trailer!

Ballsy

iPhone, map

Another day down. The battery in Dad's Goldwing was holding up fine and hadn't given us any trouble from the reduced charge it was getting.  

Tomorrow: tire troubles in the middle of nowhere Idaho.

[foobert]

Day 12: Butte, MT to Weiser, ID  -- 470 miles

[ Click to go interactive ]

I wandered down to the continental breakfast at the motel and had a terrible cup of coffee and some snacks while sharing a table with a cook. I didn't quite catch the relationship, but, he was working for a rancher that's found a clever way to increase the revenue of his cattle operation by operating a mobile B-B-Q rig selling the finished product directly to the consumer at fairs and other large events.  Smart folk out there doing better'n than just scratch'n a living off of the land...

Leaving Butte -- A chilly 48˙F at 7:20.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/320sec, 18mm focal L. @63 MPH, ~0.6mi from prev photo, map

We made a quick run up I-90, and then cut off on some back roads heading for MT-43. This smokestack really had me guessing.  Check out out the satellite map image.  Clearly, it's had some use over the years.

But, to the west, and slightly south of the stack in the red hills, note the "small" mounds of dirt that form concentric rings and lines.  You can actually make out the divots where a dozer dug down to pushed up the mounds.  What the heck are those all about?  

Or, maybe that's not a smokestack. Maybe it's an alien docking tower and the mounds are where they dumped their supplies? Or the bodies after running their experiments? Inquiring minds want to know!

Turns out the stack is the last remains of the Anaconda Smelter. Built in 1919, it's 585 ft of brick wall; one of the tallest free standing masonry structures in the world.

Bizarre smokestack

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/7.1, 1/800sec, 55mm focal L. @54 MPH, ~26mi from prev photo, map

The smokestack quickly faded away heading down this picturesque tree-lined road.

Mill Creek Road

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/7.1, 1/800sec, 18mm focal L. @64 MPH, ~6.0mi from prev photo, map

Gorgeous valley -- Love the free-standing fence.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/7.1, 1/640sec, 35mm focal L. @61 MPH, ~8.5mi from prev photo, map

But, all that scenery wasn't doing anything for the temperature. Forty minutes after leaving Butte, chilly gave way to downright cold as the temperature dropped to 42˙F. Yet again, I had put my rain gear on over my mesh riding pants/jacket just to keep the wind out and some of the warmth in.  Except for the burn across the Nevada desert, I'd have been better off without the mesh gear for most of the trip thus far.  Completely unexpected for a July/August trip across the Midwest.

It's supposed to be getting WARMER -- Down to 42˙F

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/7.1, 1/320sec, 18mm focal L. @60 MPH, ~6.5mi from prev photo, map

But, I did have the heated grips going, occasionally even (intentionally) bumping them up to the high setting.

Barn by the river

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/7.1, 1/1000sec, 18mm focal L. @71 MPH, ~7.2mi from prev photo, map

MT-43 -- don't get too excited, it was only 2 bends.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/7.1, 1/1000sec, 18mm focal L. @70 MPH, ~3.6mi from prev photo, map

Chilly or not, it was a perfect day with totally still air.  The temperature could only go up as the morning ebbed.

Mirror Pond

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/7.1, 1/800sec, 22mm focal L. @64 MPH, ~11mi from prev photo, map

We stopped in the tiny town of Wisdom to warm up and grab some breakfast. The coffee was tasty and hot, warming the inside while the sun beamed its warmth on us through the window, as if it were apologizing for not getting the job down earlier.

More Sturgis traffic -- Can't imagine those tires do anything for the handling...`

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/7.1, 1/800sec, 70mm focal L. ~11mi from prev photo, map

By the time we'd finished reading the paper over breakfast, the morning air had soaked up some heat.  The day had shaped up nicely and there were many good roads expected ahead.

[foobert]

There was little choice in what to do about the tire situation -- just take it easy and keep going down the road. It was Saturday, the earliest I could have gotten a new tire in would be Monday.

Quarter Earth -- halfway between Middle Earth and "End" Earth?

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/5.0, 1/1600sec, 34mm focal L. @60 MPH, ~13mi from prev photo, map

   

Bluffs over the Salmon River

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/5.6, 1/2000sec, 18mm focal L. @61 MPH, ~3.5mi from prev photo, map

The tire situation weighed heavily on me. Thankfully the scenery gave plenty of reasons to let it slide to the back of my mind.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/1000sec, 46mm focal L. @59 MPH, ~4.1mi from prev photo, map

Contrast -- red rocks against gray

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/1600sec, 18mm focal L. @46 MPH, ~8.2mi from prev photo, map

Following the Salmon River up US-93 was very enjoyable. Traffic in our direction was light, to nonexistent, and we still made fairly good time, even taking it easy around the corners.

Carved Canyon

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/1250sec, 18mm focal L. @52 MPH, ~3.8mi from prev photo, map

More Bluffs

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/1600sec, 25mm focal L. @57 MPH, ~23mi from prev photo, map

The Three Rivers Quarry is the source of some rather unique purple and yellow striped flagstone.

Three Rivers Stone Quarry

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/1250sec, 25mm focal L. @60 MPH, ~15mi from prev photo, map

Chutes and Slides

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/1250sec, 24mm focal L. @50 MPH, ~6.5mi from prev photo, map

Columns

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/800sec, 40mm focal L. @57 MPH, ~2.8mi from prev photo, map

[foobert]

The kid in me wants to sit at the top of these hills and throw large stones down the slide to see how much of a chain-reaction can be formed knocking other rocks down the slide.  But, I suspect it's more stable than it looks based on the formation of what appears to be paths making diagonal cuts up the side.

Note the trails -- Looks like the mountain goats and deer have formed a few paths.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/1250sec, 35mm focal L. @58 MPH, ~3.8mi from prev photo, map

Sawtooth Mountains -- Williams Peak  ~10500'

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/1600sec, 25mm focal L. @49 MPH, ~31mi from prev photo, map

ID-21 -- through the Challis National Forest.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/2000sec, 18mm focal L. @65 MPH, ~20mi from prev photo, map

Along the way, we stopped and checked on the tire at various times. By now, one spot had visible metal exposed. The good news was the metal would wear slower than the rubber and since the rest of the tire was better than that spot, I'd be OK, right? Yeah, suuuuurrre! Logic wasn't giving me significant confidence...

To add insult to injury we were on one of the best twisty roads of the entire trip, and I was taking the corners like I was riding a dressed out Harley.

Heading up the pass from Lowman -- this was heartbreaking.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/1000sec, 18mm focal L. @45 MPH, ~38mi from prev photo, map

Volcanic layers

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/800sec, 18mm focal L. @50 MPH, ~33mi from prev photo, map

By now, we were almost to Boise and I was just feeling like I might actually make it!

Lucky Peak Reservoir -- The basalt flow that filled the valley is what forms the bluffs.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/1000sec, 18mm focal L. @55 MPH, ~7.0mi from prev photo, map

Lucky Peak Dam -- Note the 2 colors of rock showing the different quarry sources.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/1600sec, 18mm focal L. @45 MPH, ~6.9mi from prev photo, map

The volcanic signature is all over this area. Once upon a time it must have been quite the fiery cauldron...

More basalt flows

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/6.3, 1/1250sec, 18mm focal L. @59 MPH, ~1.0mi from prev photo, map

My wife and kids had arrived at my folk's house the day before and, unfortunately, they carried a nasty, incapacitating stomach bug with them. It started with one of the twins and then moved on to the other twin a day later. By this day, my wife had come down with it.  

So, if there was going to be a time to see my new nephew, this potentially could be the only time depending on how long the sickness took to work through.  

He's quite the angel, especially with the newborn sleepies.

Visiting Henry -- all of 2 days old.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/1.8, 1/100sec, 50mm focal L. ~8.9mi from prev photo

My folk's place is in Weiser, about 70 miles northwest of Boise.  The tire had about 1/10 circumference with the steel belts fully exposed.  A wise man would have left the bike at my sister's house and jumped on with Dad to get home to Weiser. But, there were several reason to just push on: there's a shop full of all the right tools in Weiser; All the stuff packed on the bike. And, then there's the possibility of getting sick and then having to deal with getting the tire fixed without infecting my sister's family....

I just pushed on to Weiser and watched the tire pressure monitor like a hawk.  320 miles later after noticing the first evidence of chords back in Salmon, I had definitely borrowed a few more miles than I should have.  Needless to say, didn't put a Metzler Z6 on as a replacement; it's just too ambiguous determining when it's worn out.

Pushed my luck

NIKON D70, ISO 200, ƒ/9.0, 1/25sec, 34mm focal L.

After 12 days on the road, I finally got to see my family, half of whom were completely ill. My oldest (three year old) daughter, Maia, was so excited see Grandpa Jack. Me? I got an, "ohh, hi dad".  Gee, it's so nice to see you too, Maia!

My poor wife, Valerie, gave me a look of such mixed happiness and crappiness and "I'd love to kiss you, but I'm not going to infect you". 12 days with the three kids, including several days of road-tripping to meet me in Idaho, and she gets thanked with a nasty virus.  Talk about making a guy feel completely worthless for abandoning his family.

Ohh well, it'll be easier next year for her since the kids will be older...

[Orson]

Nice report. Beautiful photography  

Needless to say, didn't put a Metzler Z6 on as a replacement; it's just too ambiguous determining when it's worn out.

My last few tires seem to go from fine to cord showing in the blink of an eye. It seems like you used to be able to judge fairly accurately how many miles you had left in a tire. Now they seem to go all of a sudden. I wonder if it has something to do with how modern tires are made?

[foobert]

Day 13-17: Hang'n around Weiser, ID, visiting family



Dad and I got home to Weiser on a Saturday evening.  The stomach bug was working its way through my family at a rate of one person per day, starting with one of the twins. I was the last person to come down with it in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. It'd knock you down for 24 hours and then you'd be back to normal.  Well, normal minus all your energy since you weren't able to keep anything down for the previous day.

As nice as it was to be back home visiting my folks, it was mostly an exercise in disinfecting the house in hopes of keeping others from getting sick.  It sort-of worked since Mom and Dad, thankfully, managed to avoid it and we also managed to avoid re-infections of those that already had it (which, sounds odd, but we'd heard anecdotal evidence that this was happening with this particular bug).

Living in the SF Bay area, it's easy to forget about severe weather -- it just happens so rarely there.  This particular week, there were all sorts of evening storms that rolled through western Idaho.  I could do without the fires they cause, but, I'm fascinated by lightning storms. I tried to capture it for the first time and I found it to be rather difficult to get the shot. Between the wind and the rain, I wasn't well situated to get the best view of the most likely places it was striking. Below was from Monday night (8/3/09):

Sparks -- Don't see these often in San Jose.

NIKON D70, ISO 200, ƒ/25.0, 30sec, 27mm focal L.

And Tuesday night:

Sunset sparks -- that's an onion field in the foreground

NIKON D70, ISO 200, ƒ/22.0, 30sec, 22mm focal L.

Finally on Thursday, we decreed the bug had run its course; 2-full days without anyone heaving!  We all descended upon the new parents for a visit with my newborn nephew.

Baby Henry

NIKON D70, ISO 200, ƒ/2.5, 1/100sec, 50mm focal L.

My wife, Valerie, gets a turn holding the wee one.  No worries about baby fever -- three is plenty for us!

Everybody wants to hold Henry

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/2.5, 1/50sec, 50mm focal L.

My oldest daughter, Maia (3), smacks her chops after digging into some strawberries. Apparently they were so good, she had to wear them  

More strawberries please

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/2.8, 1/60sec, 50mm focal L.

[foobert]

Day 18: Weiser, ID to Alturas, CA -- 342 miles



My wife had driven up to Idaho so the whole family could share in the visit and we'd be "caravanning" back to CA. Good bye Dad as my road partner; hello wife and family!  

It's about a 12-hour drive in "go-mode" making minimal stops for gas and little else. But, traveling with 3 kids that are 3 years and under does not make for a "go-mode" trip; it would take us 2 full days to get home, especially since we were taking the more scenic route.

[ Click to go interactive ]

Unfortunately, a cold-front had moved into the area and promised rain for much of the day. It never outright poured, but, it was a steady rain all morning long.  It was also 42˙F at the higher elevations along US-20 through eastern Oregon and combined with the rain it made for a very chilly ride.  We made it to Burns in a single 4-hour stretch and we all needed a break; me to warm up and the kids to release some energy -- all whilst eating brunch.

Youngest daughter Elise (by 5 minutes to her twin sister Stella), had enough pent up energy to pull up on the table and stand on two feet for the very first time.  For the parents out there, you know how exciting that is. Back to the ride report for the rest of you ...

Standing up! -- A new milestone for Elise

DMC-ZS3, ISO 500, ƒ/3.3, 1/60sec, 4.1 mm focal L., map

The First Gear rain suit worked as advertised and kept me dry the whole time. I had some waterproof gloves, but, my fingers would have gone totally numb if it hadn't been for the heated grips.

Due to the rain, I put my camera in the car (along with most of my other junk just to unload the weight). This didn't bother me until the rain let up and I was stuck using my telephone's camera.

Finally around 2:30, it stopped raining.

A break in the rain

iPhone @64 MPH, ~31mi from prev photo, map

Following the family

iPhone, @66 MPH, ~42mi from prev photo, map

Somewhere along the way, the roads had dried up and I was getting bored following Valerie in the car. I passed her and played around on the empty roads. I'd settled into a decent speed and I knew she'd catch up if I stopped along the way. About 20 minutes later, I see a blue car in my rear view that sorta looks like our Jetta and I'm thinking that she must have also gotten bored and stepped it up a notch. So, in turn, I bumped it up more when the coast was clear and the blue car continued to follow, keeping up quite nicely.

After about 5-10 miles of this, I figured it out that the blue car was not the Jetta as we were consistently doing 80 and up, even when the coast wasn't clear -- too fast for me (Oregon 2-lane highways are posted at 55MPH).

Lake Abert

iPhone, ~41mi from prev photo, map

I stopped to checkout the sights of the Abert Rim and wait up for the family.

Roadside geology

iPhone, map

Just for giggles, I took 3 shots with the intention of stitching them together -- the results were rather terrible since you have no control over what processing it does (differently) to each shot.

Abert Rim -- A stitch of 3 phone pictures.

iPhone, ~5.3mi from prev photo, map

I don't recall every driving US-395 through this area and Lake Abert kept my interest very nicely. Pardon the phone pictures -- it just doesn't do justice to the cliffs of this area.

We stopped in Alturas, CA, for the night and went on a walk in search of some place to eat. We chose the Thai joint as it was more interesting than diner food, but we got the stink-eye from the waitress the moment we walked in with the double stroller. We should have just turned around and found some other place.  The food was OK, but, the service ruined the meal. We thanked the waitress for her cold shoulder by letting her clean up the mess created by two 11-month-old babies that were still learning how to feed themselves (as an aside, Valerie spent many a year waitressing. We tip well and have the respect to clean up our kids' messes if the servers do their job and make even a minimal effort to be hospitable. But, cross that line into being rude...).  You reap what you sow.

The travel day worked out well with the bike/car combo.  I had it worked out that Valerie could call me on the cell phone and I could hear her, but, not (intelligibly) talk back to her.  She didn't seam to mind me running off ahead and I sure enjoyed having the family around when we stopped.

[foobert]

Day 19: The last push home -- 406 miles



Sadly, this trip came to an end on this last day of travel.

The day started with a happy toddler that awoke in her giant "hooo tell" sized bed, as she likes to call it. After packing up the baby cribs and toys and other stuff you can't live without when traveling with kids, we made a quick stop into the motel breakfast to get some food in the tiny grumbly tummies.  

Maia (oldest at 3) saw the cereal bin full "multi-colored Ohhs" (ala Fruit Loops), and she was very excited and wanted to try them. She doesn't get sugar-bomb cereal at home, and she most certainly doesn't get it just prior to being cooped up in a car all day.  Bad parent that I am, I lied to her and said it was yucky and we couldn't eat it, but the flake cereal was OK.  

With a long, dejected look of disappointed, she proffered that maybe we should try and see if it really was yucky.  To which, I assured her it was yucky and prepared a bowl of corn flakes for her.

Later, Maia keenly observed someone getting a bowl of Fruit Loops and she was very concerned that other people were eating the "yucky" cereal and maybe we should throw it away to keep even more people from getting the yucky cereal.  Hmmm, this is why you don't tell "little" white lies to your kids...

[ Click to go interactive ]

Unfortunately, my camera/memory card flaked out on me and about half of the pictures I took were corrupted.  A few of them I recovered the thumbnail image just to save an important memory.  I'm afraid my camera didn't much like bouncing along in tank-bag for the last 5K miles.

The morning trip was a fairly quick leg south on US-395.  I was humm'n along at 10-15 over the limit through rolling hills on a fairly vacant stretch of the highway when I was literally startled by a CHP cruiser that blew by me with lights a flash'n but no siren.  Twas the third encounter with the Man that I thought I was busted, but, only because I'm a worry wart about that sort of thing.

CA-32 was a very fun road

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/4.5, 1/640sec, 18mm focal L. @54 MPH, ~170mi from prev photo, map

In my quest to take lesser traveled 2-lane roads, CA-32 was just what I was looking for.  I took off ahead of the family around about here and figured we'd catch up some place later.  

Traffic

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/4.5, 1/500sec, 29mm focal L. @45 MPH, ~7.4mi from prev photo, map

The best part of CA-32 is that it's posted at 55 MPH, even through all the twisties -- you'd have to really be tearing up the road to get into trouble with speeding and, frankly, there are too many blind corners to get that crazy (for me).

Good pavement + twistie + 55MPH = legal fun -- never you mind the speed when this pic was captured  

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/4.5, 1/500sec, 35mm focal L. @64 MPH, ~6.5mi from prev photo, map

 
And, all good things must come to an end. Buh bye twisties, hello Central Valley.

Welcome to the central valley -- Hot, hazy, and flat is the norm here.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/4.5, 1/2500sec, 22mm focal L. @68 MPH, ~25mi from prev photo, map

[DredheadV2.0]

 

[foobert]

Heading to port? -- Any bet those are empties?

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/4.5, 1/2500sec, 70mm focal L. @75 MPH, ~15mi from prev photo, map

The Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys (aka Central Valley) is a hugely agrarian area with the top 4 counties for agricultural sales in all of the US.  

Miles of orchards

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/4.5, 1/2500sec, 18mm focal L. @57 MPH, ~24mi from prev photo, map

The projects of Marysville?

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/4.5, 1/1250sec, 22mm focal L. ~4.9mi from prev photo, map

There's just no really good way to get back to the Bay area. We ended up taking CA-99 and CA-70 south through the middle of the valley. Looking at the map, I see there were many more imaginative ways I could have covered the distance. Ohh well, more roads to explore next time I'm in the area.

Buzz kill -- fortunately, he only stayed on the road for ~6 miles or so.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/4.5, 1/800sec, 65mm focal L. @64 MPH, ~2.6mi from prev photo, map

The Sacramento area has seen a terrible decline in real estate (Sacramento Flippers in Trouble is a favorite, almost comical site illustrating just how bad it is).  But, really, what did they expect? There's nothing but land out there to build upon. There is nearly a limitless supply for the house shitter to come around and plop down more tracts of McMansion developments were your neighbor's house is only 10 ft from yours.  Classic over supply scenario.

Why real estate is worthless out here

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/4.5, 1/2500sec, 18mm focal L. @76 MPH, ~30mi from prev photo, map

[foobert]

It'd been a long time since breakfast, and the natives were getting restless riding in the car. I get a call on the one-way cell phone link to stop and grab a nibble with the family.

First fast food of the trip

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/4.5, 1/320sec, 24mm focal L. ~4.6mi from prev photo, map

Maia was very happy to get some french fries. The babies just wanted to be out of their car seats.

At least there was good company

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/4.5, 1/30sec, 29mm focal L. ~0ft from prev photo, map

After food, Maia was promised that she could go to the "play land", but, it was closed and all the equipment was gone. Going for a walk with dad was not an acceptable alternative.

Road weary toddler -- She was promised play equipment, but it was broken.

, ISO , ƒ/, sec,  focal L. ~0ft from prev photo, map

After "lunch", Valerie took the kids the fast way home, just to get it over with for them.  I the took the opportunity to go exploring and ride the levees that form the shipping lanes into the central valley.

Riding the levee on CA-84 -- The land on the left appears to be below sea level.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/5.6, 1/1000sec, 18mm focal L. @49 MPH, ~26mi from prev photo, map

The Merluccius -- Gee, you think they fish(ed) for cod?

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/5.6, 1/1250sec, 29mm focal L. ~1.2mi from prev photo, map

This levee keeps Ryer Island dry. Although it may not be obvious in the photo, the land behind the levee is below sea level.  There was a giant pumping station that kept this section from flooding.

The levee roads were fun, although the ground had settled leaving rolling, bumpy pavement for much of it.  But, there was practically no other traffic and I just motored along at my own pace.  I wasn't so lucky to see any heavy ships making their way. Maybe another time when I explore more of this area...

More land under water

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/5.6, 1/800sec, 18mm focal L. @54 MPH, ~2.2mi from prev photo, map

For miles and miles, the GPS had been recommending I make a U-turn and head back. But, the map looked like the road connected, so I just kept on going.  Little did I know, the GPS was just doing as it was told to avoid ferry crossings in it's routing selection.  CA-84 is linked by a ferry across the canal into Rio Vista.

Just in time for the ferry

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/5.6, 1/640sec, 34mm focal L. ~1.2mi from prev photo, map

I pulled on board, and asked how much the trip across the canal was and the operator chuckled and ask if I paid my taxes...

Cheaper than a bridge? -- A publicly operated ferry.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/5.6, 1/125sec, 18mm focal L. ~272ft from prev photo, map

And, no sooner than I was on the west side of the canal, the road would take me immediately back to the east side.

Back over the river -- CA-12 out of Rio Vista

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/5.6, 1/640sec, 18mm focal L. @34 MPH, ~2.3mi from prev photo, map

Out of Rio Vista, it was obvious I was approaching "civilization".

Antioch Bridge and Shell Refinery -- One of the least traveled toll bridges in the bay area.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/5.6, 1/800sec, 55mm focal L. @66 MPH, ~8.6mi from prev photo, map

Vasco Rd out of Byron

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/5.6, 1/640sec, 70mm focal L. @61 MPH, ~16mi from prev photo, map

I had the GPS routing configured for "shortest route", as I am wont to do because it usually takes me a path I've not taken before.  First time I'd ever been to downtown Livermore -- weirdest place in the bay area full of scientists and cowboys.  Well, maybe less so on both counts these days, but, back in the day...

Old town Livermore

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/5.6, 1/640sec, 29mm focal L. ~12mi from prev photo, map

Back on CA-84, it heads past the Vallecitos Nuclear Center. More places that the scientists worked, although, not affiliated with Livermore Labs as I had always thought.

Small nucs -- Used for power until '63, now just a small research reactor is active.

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/5.6, 1/800sec, 60mm focal L. @52 MPH, ~6.4mi from prev photo, map

Just a few miles from home now. It only takes 7 lanes to handle the traffic...

Buh bye 2 lane roads -- I-880 heading into San Jose

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/5.6, 1/320sec, 18mm focal L. @73 MPH, ~13mi from prev photo, map

Home sweet home

NIKON D70, ISO 500, ƒ/10.0, 1/30sec, 18mm focal L.

Back where it all started from.

For the record

NIKON D70, ISO 1000, ƒ/4.5, 0.6sec, 18mm focal L.

[foobert]

[ Click to go interactive ]

Some trip facts

• Mileage: 5230 on the odometer (GPS was almost always on, but, not quite)
• Stops for gas: 39, or ~134 miles per tank. (F800 range: ~230 miles, Goldwing range: ~150-160 miles).
• Gallons used: 95.25 gallons which makes for 54.9 MPG average for the trip -- not shabby at all.
• Fuel cost: $262.03, or an average price of $2.84 per gallon for mid-grade fuel.
• States covered:  13
• State line signs successfully captured for the ride report: 3 -- and it wasn't for lack of trying. But, I wasn't going to stop, just to snap a photo of a sign...
• Family feuds: about 4 minor ones over stupid trivial crap like: being too hungry to function and not stopping soon enough when I knew better (sorry Dad); or wondering: what's the next highway number? How far till that? How far till we get to such and such? What time will we get there?  Where will we stop next for gas? ("I don't know, look at the map. I don't know, here's the map" .... *long pause of indignant silence* .... "Feel free to lead if you'd like" -- It's OK Dad, pay-backs are a bitch and I'm glad you didn't give me the indignant silence when I'd ask you a bazillion questions about things as a kid ); or pulling away from intersections too quickly and without waiting (Really?  OK, sorry Dad), or staying up too late/getting up too early (I always knew that'd be an issue!).

(Hi Dad! -- Don't let me get away without you telling your side of the story! I love you too!)


Gear that rocked

• The Airhawk seat cushion was the best money spent on comfort mods.
• The silly o-ring cruise control. Just engage by rolling into the crack between the bar-end weight and the throttle grip and relax the right hand! I left it "engaged" for most of the highway miles, even with both hands on the bars.
• Mesh pants/jacket -- great in the heat. Although the trip was *much* colder than I ever would have anticipated, the ability to layer a wind-proof shell outside, and warmth inside worked out very well to stay comfy.
• My home-brew GPS setup. It's a Garmin car GPS inside of a RAM Aquabox with a homemade bracket mounting it to the homemade "dash". I've got it hard-wired into ship's power and an audio jack by the seat to plug into headphones to listen to music as well as the turn-by-turn directions. The best part about the mounting location is that it's in front of the bars which make a perfect arm rest to steady the hand when working the interface.

What I'd do different

• Skip the 6K service on the road. I'd have changed the oil prior to leaving, and then had the bike serviced some place I knew I'd be stopping at for a while (like the Boise area).  That half-a-day in the Nebraska dealership could have been spent doing much more interesting things.
• The tire situation certainly could have been planned better. While I'll never buy another tire with no tread in the middle, I'll also be more proactive once the tire has squared off.
• I'd pack food/snacks and stop at some roadside places to eat a snack, rather than stopping for sit-down lunch every day.  Anything to make the stops more flexible is a bonus as the majority of the stops are at the least comfortable/interesting places: gas stations.

Final thoughts

This was my third multi-day trip (first, & second) on the cycle, and by far the most ambitious.  The first two were definitely helpful to get things dialed in and this trip worked out amazingly well in part because of already having 5 long days in the saddle to figure things out (BTW -- Thanks, Mark, for helping make both of those other trips happen!)

I'd like to have left a day earlier and taken my time along some of the route, but, the cookie didn't crumble that way.  Although, it seams that we didn't spend any time checking the sights along the way, the reality is we spent our sight seeing time on slower roads, seeing things that wouldn't have been possible rolling the super slab. After all, the trip was all about getting some place, seeing the sights there (airplanes!), and then getting back. The only way to really do it more leisurely is to take more time -- the miles still have to be covered one way or another.  

Someday I'd like to do an open ended trip with no particular time to be at no particular destination. Probably spend several days touring the Rockies, amongst other places. Definitely do some camping along the way.

All joking aside about family feuds and such, I had a great time traveling with my father. We seamed to work well as travel buddies going down the road and our mutual love of the aviation made the destination all the more enjoyable to share with one another. This trip was too long in the making, and now I'm regretting not having purchased a bike sooner that was capable of doing the distance and joining in on past trips.  Thanks, Dad, for asking if I'd like to go, year after year.  It wouldn't have happened otherwise.

Which, leads me to my lovely bride -- a big thanks to her for taking care of our three kiddos for the ~2 weeks that I was gone prior to meeting in Idaho. And then having the courage to take the 3 kids on a road-trip to Idaho all by yourself -- I'm just in awe of how patient you are.

To the readers that have made it this far, thank you too! I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I have putting it together. All thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated

-- Fin --

[Scoop]

John, it was a great ride report.  I have enjoyed following it along.  I appreciated the extras, like links to interesting points and the camera setting details.  I have travelled a lot of those roads, and there were lots where I have not been.  Now I have more places for the list.  I think I may try for Oshkosh next year or the year after.  It is actually fairly close to me, but we have just never gone.
Thanks again.

[doylejj]

Very interesting trip report.  I'd like to hear more of your observations on photography on the trip.   Ever discover why some files were corrupted?  How many lenses did you take and how did you carry them?  How did you manage the on-bike shots?

Thanks for sharing with us.

[foobert]

Thanks for the comments!

I think the file corruption was from bad contacts on compact flash card interface in the camera.  I've been having progressively worse problems with the camera giving an error reading the card; ejecting and re-inserting the card fixes it until the next time. I suspect the problem is on the camera side and it's probably time for for a new camera body.  Bouncing along in the tank bag for the last 7K miles or so probably didn't do it any good     It's 5+ years old and has about 15K exposures logged. Considering the last year's worth of abuse riding in the unpadded tank bag, I don't really think it owes me anything. I'll definitely NOT be putting a new camera in the tank bag like that  

I carried 2 lenses with me:

• Nikkor AFS DX 18-70mm, ƒ3.5-4.5
• Tamron 28-300mm, ƒ3.5-6.3

Not exactly high-end glass, by anyone's standards.  I regularly use a polarized filter on sunny days because I like what it does for the sky.

My Dad asked me how I manage to take pictures while wearing gloves without dropping the camera: simple, I don't let go of it!  

There's 3 "tricks", if you will, that I've figured out:

   1. I have a strap-mounted Cortech super-mini tank bag that the camera lived in. I take the camera strap and lash it through the rear strap of the tank bag as my safety line to keep the camera off the pavement if I should every happen to drop it (hasn't happened yet).
   2. I have a simple friction throttle lock (o-ring between the bar end weight and the grip) and I use it almost all the time on the highway, hand on throttle or not. Not only does this keep my hand/wrist from getting sore, it gives me total freedom to grab the camera without thinking about setting the lock and wondering if it will it be at the right speed or not after taking my hand off the throttle.
   3. When the weather is good, I push the top-flap of the tank bag down inside the bag, and just let the camera sit in the "bowl" on top of the flap. This is just one less impediment to deal with and lets me grab the camera without even looking down.

All shots were hand-held, mostly single handed. All photos were "shot from the hip" -- no viewfinder framing what-so-ever. Yes, there's a judicious amount of photo-rotation fixes to correct framing anomalies (thank God Lightroom makes doing that a total cinch).  When shooting toward the left, I'd often steady the camera on my left arm like you saw in this photo:


The only real problem I had was that the wind resistance would push the lens's zoom back to wide-angle. So, any zoomed shot while in motion and looking forward was most likely a 2-handed shot. Fortunately the F800ST is a totally stable hands-off platform, so, there's really no "excitement" doing so. Hell, I often rode hands free just to change up the seating position on the long stretches.

I tried to get a camera mount bolted to the bars, but, it didn't work out right. Frankly, the only shots I'm missing from not having a mount are those when leaned over deep into a corner. Maybe next trip.

[EricJ]

I really try  hard to not comment till the ride report is over. This was really difficult because I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of your hard work put into this ride report. Simply put, epic! Thanks so much for taking us all along and your photography was stellar.

Well done!

Eric