White Rose Adventures

Yosemite, Golden Gate, the PCH & Through the Redwood Tree

After a relaxing night in Mammoth Lakes where Bert could sit in a jacuzzi for a while, we started north again. We decided that we were going to skip going to Lake Tahoe and ride through Yosemite. On the way up we stopped for gas and Bert sat down on this wooden wall. As soon as his tail end hit the wood, dirt started falling out. I busted out laughing! It looked like Bert was shitting dirt. I grabbed the camera and took several shots and kidded him about still shitting dirt from the bike wreck the day before.

There are parts of this country that I have had to drive by because big trucks are not allowed on the road. I have seen some very beautiful sites in 18 years of driving, but I have also missed a lot of them.

Yosemite is a very beautiful place and was a great ride. Even with snow still on the ground, it was not to cold. If you ever have the chance to ride thought this national park, DO IT! You will not regret it. For the most part the roads were good, but it is summer time so there is construction going on which can cause gravel to be in the road. But as much as you might like to shoot all thee tight curves, this is a place that you will want to just sit back and cruise through. As much as I could describe it in words, pictures are much better. So I will shut up for a few and let you just look at the Gods woderful creation. (Thanks to Bert & Jon for the pictures. The road is to dangerous to be snapping pictures while riding and I was to busy trying to see it all as I rode.)

Oh, please forgive Dad on the face he is making. As you have seen, if you have been folowing the blog, we will take a serious picture and a funny one. Dad thought this was the funny one. Well, I guess it really is the funny one and the joke is on him! LOL!

Once we were through Yosemite, we headed to Frisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. (Above picture is NOT of GGB) The marine layer was settling back in and it was beginning to get a bit foggy as we crossed the bridge into San Francisco. Following the GPS, argh, we got off the main road and wound our way over to the Golden Gate.

By the time we reach this parking area where we could see the bridge, my wrists were hurting like hell and I needed a short break. We stopped, put on some more clothes, (we were getting wet from the marine layer), took a couple of pictures and then headed for the bridge. By the time we got on it and across it, it was dark.

If you look real hard, you can see the bridge in the dark. Once across the Golden Gate we found a hotel, got a room and some dinner. The next day were planned to ride the Pacific Coast Highway, (PCH).

Once again, this is a rode that you fight with yourself about how to ride it…do ya want to shot the curves, or sit back, cruise along and enjoy the view. My brother, Bert, and I have different riding styles. I like to cruise along and enjoy the view, and he likes to shot the curves. Course, when pulling a trailer, you don’t really need to be shooting the curves to hard anyway, so I cruised along and enjoied the ride. Besides, I was still getting over my bike wreck from May and the cruves made me a bit nervous with the trailer jerking me around. Here are a couple of pictures of how the road is.

Now, here are a few pictures of the view! It was a georgous place to ride. One day, I would like to start at one end and ride it all the way to the other end, from Canada to Mexico.

Since I was a kid I, like many of you have seen many pictures of people driving through a giant redwood tree. We all knew that this was something we were going to have to find and do…no matter what! Bert had several of them plotted in his GPS, but on one of our stops a lady told us about one that was not to far away. So off we went!

Not only did was all ride through the tree, but we looked around and talked with several other riders that were there. We helped them get pictures of themselves going through the tree and talked about where we were all riding. It was a cool experience…fulfilling one of those small childhood dreams!

Hoover Dam, Vegas, Bike Wreck, Mammoth Lakes

After getting my bike fixed at the Kingman, AZ Harley shop we rode up to Hoover Dam. We stopped at the gift shop to grab a couple of post cards for Bert and Jon to mail to Taylor and Josh and for me to mail to Danny. The lady in the shop remarked about how hot it was and that we were lucky we had not been there earlier. She said is was 5 degrees hotter just a couple of hours before we got there. It was 120 while we were there.

I have been across Hover Dam twice in a big truck before 9/11 happened. After that, commercial vehicles were not allowed to cross it. They have been working on building a bridge so that big trucks don’t have to go into California and then up to Los Vegas. I can’t wait for them to complete the bridge, it is going to have a great view on the dam when it is done.

There is something about having an A & W Rootbeer Float when the temperatures are soaring above 100 degrees. Bert was in the lead and just had to stop when he saw the place. Of course, brothers and sisters, no matter how old they are will torment each other when given the chance.

As we rode into Los Vegas the traffic started getting heavy. We jumped off the interstate and hit the surface streets. It wasn’t much better there. At a stop light, with my left wrist hurting bad enough I was almost in tears, Bert and I did a switch-a roo again. He took over my bike, Jon took his and I climbed on the back of Dad’s. Hot, hungry and me hurting, we made our way to the Harley Cafe down on the strip!

After grabbing dinner, we asked the parking guy where was a good place to stay. He pointed us to the Gold Strike in North Vegas (Old Vegas) and to the biker bar “Hogs & Heifers.” Jon having turned 18 just a couple of weeks earlier ment that he could not enter the bar. So he and Bert struck out on their own.

Of course I had to check out the biker bar. The guy that told us about it said it was this bar, well the one in NYC, that Coyote Ugly got the idea of dancing on the bar from. Being the great Aunt that I am, I could not let Jon miss out on the experience, so I took pictures of the girls dancing on the bar. Not wanting the girls to think I was some kind of weirdo, I told my waitress about my brother and nephew wandering around Vegas. When I did, she just had to send Jon a message.

(I HAVE A PICTURE OF THE MESSAGE, BUT WILL HAVE TO ADD IT LATER)

We got up the next morning and headed up US95. Then grabbed hwy 266 to hwy 168.

I let Bert take over my bike for a while and the ride was going well and we were all enjoying it, despite the heat. We saw some gravel in several of the curves and Dad and I commented that we hoped Jon and Bert were taking it easy up in front of us. They had been hitting the curves pretty hard even though I didn’t like it with the trailer hooked to the back on my bike.

Then as I watched Bert go around a curve, he disappeared and dust flew! I have to say my heart skipped beat or just stopped for a few seconds as I started yelling to Dad, “Bert is down! Bert is down!” I think I was off the back of Dad’s bike before he got it stopped when we reached him. The fact that Bert was already standing up did not make me feel better. Many times I have seen people seriously injured and not know it. Bert said he was alright and it took a few minuets for that to sink in. An off-duty NV Highway Patrol officer was headed the other way and saw Bert go down and stopped. He helped us pick my bike up.

Not only can you see that the crash bar bent the floorboard straight up as it was bent back, there is a hole in the lid of my saddle bag.

As you can see the rock was not a small one. I had to open the saddle bag to get it out. Yes, I still have it. I think I am going to mount it some way and give it to Bert for Christmas. LOL!

I do have to give Bert credit. After we sat the bike up, bent the crash bar back out and adjusted what we needed to for it to be ridden, he rode it the 6 miles off the mountain to the nearest town, Big Tree, before letting me take it back over.  At the time, he looked like he only had a little road rash on his side and right wrist. But a few days later he had this BIG bruise.

We did what we could to make the bike as comfortable as we could for riding. I called my insurance company, told them we were going on with the trip and they could have someone look at the bike when I got to Arkansas to my boyfriends house.

We rode over to US395 and headed north. The Sierra Nevada Mountains are really pretty. The plan for the day had been to reach Lake Tahoe. With Bert’s wreck and being a bit sore, we decided to stop in Mammoth Lakes for the night.

Catching Things Up

crying after Bert laid my bike down

I know that over the last couple of weeks I have not kept ya’ll up to date on our bike travels around the country. There was a lot happen and I was left without a laptop for several days. Even though the trip is basically over; Dad, Bert and Jon are home in MS and I am at Danny’s place till some time next week; I am going to continue to put up post about the trip in segments. There is just to much to do it all in one post. Then, once I get home, I will write an over view of the whole trip with some of my favorite pictures and places that we rode.

Lexington, Del Rio, Sedona, Kingman

WOW, I am really behind on blogging about our trip. I have been really tired when we stopped for the night. Things have happened on this trip that would make a person pull their hair out. Because of this big lapse of time since I have posted anything, I am going to give ya an all in one post with pictures from Lexington to Los Vegas. I will do Los Vegas in a different post and you will see why when you read it.

We stopped just out side of Helena to see my boys for a few minuets and then went on to DeWitt, where we spent the night. We then rode across the skinny roads down into Louisiana, then into Texas.

As you can see from the picture above, even thought Hurricane Alex was coming in, we had things under control…or so we thought. We were there for almost a week and it rained EVERY day. I changed my oil and rebuilt the starter solenoid between rain storms.

The wind was so bad at time that the bungees we had holding the tarp over the tent would break and we would have to wrestle it back into place. All in all, despite all the rain and wind, it was a good stay in Del Rio. Course, it is always good to see my niece, Taylor.

We even rode out to the US/Mexico border. We couldn’t really cross over and do any riding because Taylor doesn’t have a pass-post. But as you can see, we had fun any way!

While we were packing up, Bert was trying to cut some fishing line out of a reel and got his finger instead. Dad put him on the back of his bike and took him to the hospital. He got 4 stitches on the inside of the cut and nine of the outside.

On our way out of Del Rio we passed the little town where Judge Roy Bean made his name. We stopped to take pictures and write out post cards and then rode on to El Paso where we spent the night.

The next day we rode into New Mexico. The first part was boring; I have been across I10 many times in this part of the world. Then we grabbed NM hwy152. It was an exciting ride with switch back curves and beautiful scenery.

We stopped in the little town of San Larenzo for lunch. The people there were really nice. when we told them what we were doing, they had us sign a ceiling tile.

We rode out and caught US180 then grabbed NM hwy 260, rode to Show Low and spent the night. The next day we rode on to Sedona. We had a great time with Dad’s friend Annie and her grand-daughters. During that day and the day before, my bike had started to run funny.

I called around to several Harley shops in our path and got set up to get it worked on in Kingman, AZ the next day. They said to be there early! So we were up at 0400 and riding by 0500. I have to tell ya…it is COLD in the Sedona area at that time of the morning. But…the ride out to I17 was really beautiful and fun.

Sorry that there are no pictures of the ride out hwy89A from Sedona to I17. The road was so curvy and it was so cold, we just rode! Once we got to Kingman, I put my bike in the shop. There was a broken injector wire and that was what was making my bike sputter. We got it fixed and headed to Hover Dam.

Canada to Detroit to Lexington Pictures

At any time, if you want to see the pictures from this trip, you can go to my Flickr page and see more than what goes in a blog post. For now, here are the pictures that should have gone into the last post.

Bert "Hogging" the shot at Canada HD

Humm....John trying to make it look like we made him run across the bridge...maybe we did!

Rock Band at Mary & Rodney's

What is that in the end of Bert's nose?

Stuck in the trunk

Canada to Detriot to Lexington

Everyone will have to forgive me for there not being any pictures in this post. We are in Del Rio, TX camping at the Laughlin AFB Marina and have no internet here. It has been over a week since I made a post and I am far enough behind on our adventures. I will get another post up with pictures once we leave here and have internet again.

As you all know we road across Canada from Niagara Falls to Port Huron, MI. It was a good trip for the most part. We ran into a bit of a traffic jam due to construction. My left wrist just could not take it. I was just about in tears when Bert hollered at me. In the middle of the stop and go traffic we put both bikes in neutral. Bert jumped off his bike and John moved to the front seat. Then Bert go on mine as I moved to the back seat and we took off again. People looked at us like we were crazy, but we just laughed at them and went on.

Many times I have crossed into and out of Canada in a big truck. I know what a pain in the tail it can be. Many times it can hours just to get to customs and then they want to search your truck. When that happens, they leave everything a mess and you have to put your things back where they were. Being on a motorcycle this time I was in hope that we would not have to endure this. As we got closer to the Port Huron bridge and entry back into the United States, the traffic started backing up. Once we got to the crest of the bridge, Bert and I put our bikes in neutral and turned them off. It was a hot afternoon and the bikes, both Harley’s, were getting hot. We coasted down the other side till we reached the booth. One by one we went through and answered their questions. We got lucky, they didn’t inspect us.

We spent the night at my cousin Connie’s place just north of Detroit. I have not seen her in years so it was great to be staying there and be able to catch up. Connie is a school teacher and very proud of her students. Apparently she has some very remarkable kids in her class that have or are over-coming some tough odds.It was good to see that she loves her work so much!
The next day we rode from north of Detroit to Lexington, KY to my sister’s place. I don’t think I have seen her since she and Rodney got married in June 2008. We went out to dinner, talked about motorcycles and played a little Beatles Rock Band till after mid_night.(Yes, I have pictures!)
Thank you to both Connie and Mary for opening your houses to this crazy bunch of family we have. We had a GREAT time!

Niagara Falls & Canada

Since my nephew is going to be attending this prestigiousmilitary college in Vermont, (Norwich University) in the fall, my brother, Bert and John has a deal. They have to do push-ups every time we fuel. John has to do twice what Bert does with a minimum of 30. When they forget to do a set when we fuel, the make-up set will be done where ever they are when they remember it. that includes at the counter at Burger King!

Needless to say, we get some funny looks and some laughs out of it when this happens.

After everything that has gone on, we finally made it to Niagara Falls just as night was falling. We dropped Bert’s new bike off at the HD shop to get the first 1000 mile service, dumped our stuff in a hotel room and headed to the Falls. As you can see from the picture above, the view was breathtaking.

We knew we had to come back in the morning while we were waiting for the HD shop to call us to pick up Bert’s bike. (It was that morning that Bert & John did the push-ups in the BK!)

Of course, since we had problems in getting the folowing picture the night before, John and I just had to get it right that morning.

While walking around we saw the Cave of the Winds. That would take us below the falls….we just had to do it! They give you shoes and what they call a rain suit and say that you will get DAMP! Damp was not the word for it. We got soaked!

Of course, once we got to the hurricane deck, everyone but Dad had to get in the Falls.

Bert and John decided they were going to do a set of push-ups under the falls. As the got down to do them, there were gasps from the people standing around and then some cheers. One young man even jumped in and did push-ups with them.

So much for just getting damp!

All in all it was a great morning and we had a lot of fun! Now we had to ride the bikes back to the hotel room…and we were wet! It was cold, but we did start to dry out some. But the time we got to the hotel and then to the HD shop we were just about dry.

The trip across Canada was uneventful. Getting across the border was not hard to do. Just answer a few questions, show them our pass ports and off we went! When we got across the border, we grabbed the HD map and looked for a Harley shop. We found one in London. We stopped and got t-shirts and a picture. Course, being the jokers that we are, my brother decided to hog the shot.

We decided that we would get him on the next shot! I think we did a good job in blocking him out!

There was a big back-up at the Port Huron bridge to get back into the U.S. Once we got to the top of the bridge, Bert and I shut our bikes off and let them coast down the to booth. When we got to the bottom, we got John to push us almost all the way up to the booth. He was sweating and looked tired, so I told him to back up and pose like we had made him run all the way across the bridge.

All in all, it was another great day! We made it to our cousin Connie’s place, had a great steak dinner and wonderful company.

Lady Liberty – Bike Stolen

While I was risking my life riding my Harley into NYC, Dad, Bert & John went to the Statue of Liberty. I wish I could say that everything went well for them, but it didn’t. Before I tell ya about that, here are a few pictures from their trip.

After having left Bert’s old Harley in NC, sending someone to get it and fix it, having it brought to us in NY, it started having the same problems on their ride to see Lady Liberty. They parked it in the North Bergen, NJ area and thought they would pick it up on the way back to the hotel at the end of the day. They had a great day at the Statue and then headed back north. When they got to where they had parked the bike….it was gone. Bert called the police to see if they had towed it in…nope they hadn’t. So he reported it stolen. The police came out and took a report. Told them they had to go down to the station. They were told that they had to talk to a detective. He took them back to the scene of the crime. He told them that the bike was probably already chopped and gone. They didn’t get back to the hotel till very later that night.

Ain’t that a heck of an end to such a great day?!

Riding into NYC

OK, call me crazy or as I prefer, adventurous, but I did something that many would probably cringeto do. I rode my Harley INTO New York City! Yes, you read that right. I rode my bike into NYC! Having been a truck driver for 18 years and having gone into the city in a big truck, I really thought that it would be easier for me on a bike then in a big truck. WORNG!!!! My brother and I had talked about me riding into the north side of the city and catching the subway down to the Sirius studios. I plotted sever routes including that one. I wanted to be prepared just in case I did miss something and had to go a different way. Well, I missed them ALL! I missed staying on I287 somehow and ended up on the Palisades Parkway. I was OK with that. It was one of the routes I had looked at. So I figured that I would just ride it down to the GW, cross into the city and catch 9A south. Well, that didn’t happen either. There were signs saying that cash toll had to exit. So I exited the parkway and looked for the signs for the GW Bridge. Some how I also missed that GW and ended up seeing signs for I95 south. I decided that I would grab that, go down to the next exit, do a flip and get back to the GW. Then I saw a sing for the Vince Lombardi service plaza. I pulled in there to take a look at the directions I had written out. A man sitting in a van asked me where I was trying to go. I explained and he said it would be easier for me to go through the Lincoln Tunnel. My dumb-ass decided to take the advice and cross into the city through the tunnel! What a mistake that was!

There was a big traffic jam getting to the toll both for the tunnel. Now I ride a Harley. All Harley’s are air cooled. All the stop and go traffic and sitting and idling for so long made my bike start to over heat! It started running funny. I made my way fro the far left lane to the far right lane in case it shut off on me, or I could find a place to pull off and let it cool! Let me tell ya, there is NO place to safely get out of the way and let a bike cool off. Since I was right at the beginning of the down hill to the toll booth, I shut if off and hope that I hate not over heated it so much that it would not start back up when I needed it to. The guy in the SUV behind me was laughing. He gave me a sympathetic look and laughed when I looked back at him. I just shook my head, shrugged my shoulders and continued to pushed my bike forward as the traffic moved. I pushed it forward and let it coast all the way to the tool booth. Luckily, it started!

I entered the tunnel and hoped that I could make it through without another back up. I knew it would not take much for it to over heat again. Yeah, you guessed it, the traffic slowed and then backed up about half way through. It didn’t take long and the bike was running funny again. I prayed that I could just get through the tunnel and find a place to let it cool off again. I knew I was going to be late getting to the show and I hate being late! I finally made it through the tunnel and started taking right hand exits til I found some place that I could safely park and let it cool off for a bit. I ended up on the corner of Dyer Ave and West 30th St, down by the post office.

I sat there a while, looked at my map and fired up Google Latitude on my phone. I knew where I needed to be, I just had to figure out what was the best way to get there and not over heat again. The Sirius studios are on the Corner of 49th and Avenue of the Americas. I had found a parking garage on 45th that I wanted to park my bike. I plotted the route on my phone and then looked around. I needed to get to 10th St and take a right. Because of where I had stopped, I was going to have to do one of 2 things, go around the block and deal with the traffic lights, or go the wrong way on 30th for half a block. Hummm….can you guess what I did? That’s right, I went the wrong way on 30th, hung a right and headed down 10th St.

As I was slowing at a stop light that had just turned green, a man started yelling, “Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!” I don’t know if he was yelling that becasue I was on a bike, had loud pipes, or becaseu I have my American Flag and PGR flag flying from the saddlebags. I also had on my PGR vest that has “Support the Troops” all over it as well. He could have been yelling at that. I just threw my right arm out and shot him the bird. Yea, it don’t take long to get into the “city” mode and give them their crap back at em!

I continued up 10th St till I got to 46th and found the parking garage that I wanted to park in. I pulled in, got my ticket and walked 2 block to Ave of the Americas, hung a left and walked another 3 blocks to the McGraw Building where the Sirius studio for Freewheelin is. I got through the security, hopped on the elevator to the 36th floor and was finally there!

I was escorted into the Freewheelin studio, got hugs from Chris T and Meredith and settled in for the show. We had lots of old friends from Road Dogs on Hogs call in as well as many other drivers that wanted to say hi or talk about their road trips with their family. (That was the topic of the show today.) It was a great show and I really enjoyed being back in the studio with them. During one break, Chris and I talked about the best way for me to get out of the city without frying my bike. Thanks Chris T, it was great! After the show Meredith walked me down to see Jermey Tepper and I gave all 3 of them Road Dogs on Hogs patches.

I left the Sirius studios and started my walk back to 46th & 8th where I had parked my bike. I made a quck stop in the middle of Time Square to take a look around. There are LOTS of people milling around in a very small area there. I took a couple of pictures and headed on to my bike. When I got to the garage, I went to the cashier to pay for my parking. they charged me $34 for parking there 3 hours. Yes, you read that right. I was told it was $17 for one hour or $34 for all day…there was nothing for the in between length of time. I got on my bike and headed west to 9A, the Hudson PRKWY.

I had a straight shot with NO stop lights all the way to the GW Bridge! As soon as I came off the bridge I hopped on the Palisades PRKWY and headed north to US6 which brought me right back to the hotel. It was a nice ride back up here. I even stopped at one of the overlooks and had a bite of lunch. All in all it was a great day and now I can say that I have not only driven a big truck in NYC, I have now done the CRAZY thing of riding a motorcycle into NYC!

Things Are Getting Better

I do believe that Murphy is on his last leg now. After we left Bert’s bike in NC, we made it to Roanoke, VA. A friend of Dad’s owns a bike shop there.  We got him to fix Dad’s bike and go pick up Bert’s. Then we made our way to CT. My nephew, John was to graduate high school on Saturday and it looked like we WERE going to make it in the night before. YEAH!! When we got there Bert bought a new Harley! The old one was to be part of John’s graduation present, along with this trip.

Saturday I rode down to the Groton Harley shop to get a t-shirt and a cover for Bert’s new bike. I was a great ride! I made it back just in time to grab a show at camp and get ready for John’s graduation. Yea, we all went on the bikes. As you can see from the picture below, he is as big a cut-up as his dad and aunt!

John had told us about a pig roast that was being done by one of his friend’s parents. He told us that they were “rednecks.” Of course, we all laughed. I told him that I didn’t know that there were rednecks this far north, but I guess they could be redneck for CT! We all teased him about it. (Yes, I know there are rednecks all over!) Sunday we went to the “CT redneck’s” house for the pig roast. It was good food and good people! But most of the day was spent repacking the bikes and trailers. Since it rained on us several times during the day we got as much packed as we could that was not wet.

Bert also had John take his new bike out for a ride…by himself! John has been riding dirt bikes for a while, but they are a lot smaller and lighter than this big Ultra Classic that Bert had just bought. He gave him the keys and told him to be back in an hour. As he rode off, Bert turned to me and said, “There goes my baby boy!”

Monday morning, Bert and I wrote out the route for the roads that we would be taking that day. Some how Bert had formatted the GPS and it wasn’t working. Dad was totally lost without it! We finished packing the tents and chairs, loaded up and headed north.

The ride across MA was beautiful. We hit a couple of roads that were back to back curves and then hit a hair-pin curve. I watched John as he maneuvered this on that big bike. He went a little wide, but stayed between the lines. I think he did a great job! We rode on up to VT.

We weren’t in VY for very long but it was a very pretty ride. As we crossed back in to NY near Troy, Dad and Bert thought they could find a Best Buy and get a new GPS. There was a Harley shop on our way in and we stopped to take a look around. The people there were very nice and helpful. They gave Bert directions to the Best Buy and we were off. Some how either the directions we got were wrong, or Bert did follow them right, but we didn’t find the Best Buy. We pulled into the parking lot of a mall and he called them. They did not have the motorcycle model he wanted so we rode on. We got close to Cooperstown and stopped for the night.

Tuesday we spent half the day at the Baseball Hall of Fame and looking around Cooperstown. Wouldn’t ya know it, Murphy had to give us a dieing kick! It started raining as we were getting ready to leave. We put on our rain gear and headed south. It rained on us the rest of the day. By the time we got to where we were going to stop, my wrists were killing me. The cold from the night before, but rain and being tense just took it’s toll on me. I was very happy when Dad and Bert said we were going to get a room rather than try to set up a camp in the rain. A hot bath to soak my wrists was just what I needed.

Today should, but may not be better. Today I am going to ride down to NYC, to where the Sirius studios are, to be on “Freewheelin’.” Driving a big truck in the city is enough to turn your hair grey and I am ahve mixed emotions about it. Bert doesn’t think my wrists will hold up and I am not sure. they are still a little sore from yesterday. I have planed a couple of route down with one of them involving me parking my bike and catching the subway. I will see how my wrists are doing and how the traffic is when I get down there and decide on what I am going to do then. It could be a very adventurous ride