Go West! Tour - Trimming the Fat Off the Route

Now that we are back on US soil, it's time to finalize the plans for the Go West! Tour. 

To refresh, we had planned a trailer/ride excursion where we would visit our daughter and her family in Colorado Springs, then head over to Southern Oregon to visit with SIL/BIL. From there, we would jump on the bike and do the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) from mid-Oregon down to the Avenue of the Giants (big redwoods), then back to Southern Oregon. Then we would trailer down to Lake Tahoe and use that as a base to tour the old Gold Rush towns for 3-4 days on the bike. Then trailer down to Yosemite for some more saddle time, though the crowds may be unbearable.

My original routing had us on the road for 26 days. Liz is expressing some reluctance - though not yet rejection - to being out that long. We may cut the NorCal/Yosemite portion, which would bring us down to 18-19 days.

I will be consulting Evil Willie and my Dominican advisers for wisdom. Feel free to share yours as well.

Go West! Tour - Ride Evolution

This trip is morphing as we speak. I need to run a piece of heirloom furniture up to my SIL/BIL in Oregon and pick-up a custom dart board cabinet that he has built for me. So we will likely bring the bike along in the trailer and stay for a while in a few places. I have the individual rides already planned out, just need to work through the logistics.

But that can wait for a rainy day. Today, it's perfect riding weather and so that is what I'm going to do!

Go West! Tour - Ride Ideas

I think Liz and I are going to head west for this year’s big Fall trip. We hit Southern Utah and the Grand Canyon last Spring and are thirsting for more.

Current thinking is to spend a week or so playing in the mountains west of Denver, then head up to the Black Hills for a week (just before or after Sturgis), then across to the South Lake Tahoe area for a couple of weeks of exploring the old gold rush trail and Yosemite National Park. When in a particular locale for 5-14 days, we like to rent a vacation rental home to use as a base camp.

Any “must ride” roads that you have taken?

GST Day 16 - Comanche, TX to Tyler, TX - 238 miles

After an early start, we completed the last leg of the trip today. No muss. No fuss. No problems other than high temps (91*) in the last two hours.

What a trip. 16 days. 4,323 miles. Five states. Six National Parks and Monuments. And the most amazing roads and natural wonders I’ve ever seen. Dusty is a dirty girl, but that can wait a day or so.

GST Day 15 - Lubbock, TX to Comanche, TX - 258 miles

Energy is big business in Texas. While known for our oil and gas, another big energy play that’s been underway over the last 10-15 years is wind energy. Today, we rode through the two largest onshore wind farm projects in the world.

The Roscoe Wind Farm (RWF), the largest onshore wind farm in the world. It is situated 45 miles northwest of Abilene. RWF is owned and operated by Germany-based E.ON Climate and Renewables (EC&R). With an installed capacity of 781.5MW, RWF exceeds the capacity of the previously largest Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center (735.5MW) located in Taylor and Nolan counties southwest of Abilene. The RWF plant is situated on 100,000 acres of land, primarily used for cotton farming, stretching into the three counties of Mitchell, Nolan and Scurry. The site is leased from dryland cotton farmers. (Background information sourced from power-technology.com). I’ve seen these blades being trucked down I-20 for years. They are 116’ long!

Quite impressive, though the wind turbines do tend to ruin the skyline of the area. Another large wind farm is near Amarillo and I’ve seen signs there protesting the expansion of wind farms.

I’ve done pretty good on eating right while on the trip. But today, I fell for the locally raised and hand-prepared, chicken fried steak at Buck’s Steak and BBQ in Sweetwater. I opted for the petite portion and was thankful I did, as it was a little difficult to stay awake for the ride afterwards! The wife was not impressed that I selected steamed broccoli and a salad as the sides.

We had to ride a little of the slab today, approximately 40 miles between Sweetwater and Abilene. I think that brings the total slab miles to ~80 out of ~4,200 miles total. I think we took the right roads along the way...

Tomorrow, we make the last leg to our home, Camp Run-a-Muk. I’m already plotting the next adventure.

GST Day 14 - Santa Fe, NM to Lubbock, TX - 325 miles

Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by the sights seen along the way...a taste of the very best this great country has to offer. But this is all I saw today as we crossed New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle.

The. Entire. Way.

But it ended well...

GST Day 13 - Bluff, UT to Santa Fe, NM - 309 miles

The road out of Bluff followed the San Juan River, showcasing the desert terrain at it’s best. We made the obligatory stop at Four Corners, paying our final stipend to the Navajo Nation.

Just outside of Cuba, NM, we headed into the Jemez Mountains towards Los Alamos Labs, in hopes of touring the Bradbury Science Museum before it closed. Unfortunately, we ran late and weren’t able to make it before they closed. But we did ride through Los Alamos Labs...looks like something cool happens there, so it will be on the mulligan list next time I’m in the area.

We found a great (affordable) boutique hotel in Old Town Santa Fe and were able to walk the streets before dinner. Cool place. We had originally planned a day of respite in Santa Fe, but decided to point towards East Texas in the morning. Sadly, it was the splitting point for Scott and Karen, as they were flying home out of Albuquerque (shipping the bike back to Charlotte due to schedule conflicts). The official end to the F&%k It, Let’s Ride mancation.

 But Liz and I still have miles to go...