That sounds great, 3 weeks riding around the West Coast of the USA, said Kathy as she read through the BMW Journal.

          Well that was it, the seeds were sown and contact was made with Roger Yetton who was organizing the trip. Soon letters and cheques were exchanged and the itinerary was printed.

          The basic scope of the trip was to ship our bikes from London to Los Angeles early and we meet up with them. Then we all ride off on our own or in a group discovering the area, then we all meet up at the same hotels each night.

          After the bike was serviced and new tyres fitted, we rode it to London, and it was crated up and loaded on a ship for the sea crossing. Whilst we were there, we met Eric who had a R1100RT, Malcolm, who owned a K1200LT and Rod that owned a R1100GS. We all had a few words and discussed how much we were looking forward to the trip of a lifetime.

ITINERARY

Sat 16 + Sun 17 September              Los Angeles                   Hacienda Hotel

Mon 18 Sep                                    San Luis Obispo             Econo Lodge

Tues 19 Sep                                   Monterey                      Monterey Beach Hotel

Weds 21+Thur21 Sep                      San Francisco                 Holiday Inn                                                                                       Loading in London

Fri 22 Sep                                     Fort Bragg                      The Surrey Inn

Sat 23 Sep                                     Eureka                           Travelodge                                                                            Our RT at Mammoth Mountain

Sun 24 Sep                                    Susanville                       Trailside Inn

Mon25+Tues26 Sep                         Lake Tahoe                     Horizon Hotel

Weds27                                        El Portal Yosemite           Cedar Lodge

Thurs 28 September                       Mammoth Lakes              Alpenhof Lodge

Fri29+Sat 30September                   Death Valley                   Furnace Creek

Sun1 Mon2 Oct (stayed 1 night)        Las Vegas                        Sahara Hotel

Mon 2 Oct (Stayed on own)             Tuba City                        Travelodge

Tues3+Wed4 Oct                          Valle Grand Canyon           Grand Canyon Inn

Thurs 5 Oct                                   Palm Springs                     Doral Hotel

Fri 6 Oct                                     Las Angeles                       Hacienda Hotel

      We flew out from London and arrived in Los Angeles 11 hours later, totally knackered, grabbed our luggage and off to the hotel. We had two rest days and then we went to meet up with our bikes. We gave them a quick check and all seemed ok. Bikes packed and fuelled up, we headed north to our first stop of the trip at San Luis Obispo. The Econo Lodge certainly lived up to it's name, ah well, it was a bed for the night, looking back, I can't remember the meals, must have been good!!

We headed north at first on the 101 then when we stopped for fuel I looked at the map and found a nice twisty road that headed inland on the 198 to a town called Coalinga. We stopped for fuel, which was so cheap, and we had a light meal there. We then picked up the I5 North, which followed the California Aqueduct, then peeled off east on the 152 to Hollister. We stopped at a large fruit sellers, and we had an amazing fruit salad for tea, It was so hot by now that Kathy’s knee protectors in her trousers had stuck to her knee, and as she got off the bike it ripped the skin off her@@@ OUCH!!!!

 The weather was real warm, having come from a wet UK, to a Californian heat wave was great, however it was getting really warm, and sitting behind a fairing made it a lot warmer, but it was bloody nice.

Most of the hotels we stayed at were motels, that were quite basic, but we also stayed at some up market places. Kathy’s best place was Monterey, where we stayed at the Monterey Beach Hotel. The room was right on the beach and the sea view was gorgeous, however we later found out we were above the kitchen and there was a lot of noise that night.

       Unloading         Monterey               San Francisco           Kath & Cops       Avenue of the Giants         Lake Tahoe     Ghost Town  Friendly Locals  Getting Hot

The next morning Paul and Margaret, Kathy and I went to the harbour and had a look around and watched some of the sea otters, seal lions and pelicans. Did a little shopping, then loaded up the bikes for the days run to San Francisco, we would be there for two days. We ran straight up the 101, into Brisbane, we arrived at Cary’s house where we fitted the Piaa lamps and ezy-mount to the RT. Chris called in later and we had a chill out. Soon we were off to our hotel in downtown, we had to pay for parking in the hotel, but at least the bikes would be safe. On our rest day in San Francisco, we did a little shopping and got some Levis for our daughter, had a nice lasagne at Cioppino's near Fisherman's Wharf and a ride on a trolley car, steep hills or what?

          Off heading north the next morning we stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge for a few photo’s, the mist was rolling in off the sea, and it got a little cooler. We headed into the Napa Valley, as the route suggested to our next stop, Fort Bragg, was straight and boring. We stopped for lunch in Napa, and also posted Laura’s jeans home. We would like to have taken the steam train buffet car but we had just missed it.

  Heading out on the road again we stopped at Clear Lake, and we were joined by 10 CHP cops on bikes. We found out from them that it is one of the roads where they train the rookies up, and we were soon to find out why as it was a great road. That evening we stayed at the Surrey Inn in Fort Bragg and had dinner which was very pleasant. In the morning we had breakfast with Paul and Margaret, then all four of us headed south to call in to Bodega, a small village where Alfred Hitchcock made the film The Birds, quite spooky. Running north we stopped for a light bite at a fuel stop. before calling into Humboldt  Redwoods State Park. We took some pictures of us going through the Chandelier Tree, then followed the avenue of the giants north. We all met up for lunch in the north of the park, then set off for Eureka.

Eureka was the furthest north we went, as we now headed east, inland. We picked up the CA299 which was a real fast road, which follows the Trinity river, up we climbed over Lord Ellis 2262 ft, and Berry 2859 ft, summits. We stopped at Whiskeytown Lake to take a few pictures Lassen Volcanic Park, where we saw the remains of a large mountain that had blown it's top millions of years ago. We arrived in Susanville, where the motel was very basic, the fridge even had a can of frozen cola in the freezer which had expanded out of the can.  There was a nice bar and grill locally, and we all met up there for our evening meal.  We ran straight down the 395 into Reno the next day, I was after some parts from Sierra BMW, we found it alright, and it was closed!, so we made our way to Lake Tahoe. The roads up to here were great, nice and twisty, a little like the Alps. When we got to our hotel it looked impressive however the room was disappointing, we were facing the backside of the hotel, with a nice view of the back of the casino. I complained and we were moved to a room with a lovely view over the lake and in the sun. We were told we would have to pay for the "upgrade", however when we booked out, because the room was booked via an agent they said they could not bill us, which was nice. We went for a scenic ride around the lake and we stopped for a rather large sandwich, which we eat on the lakeside, in the midday sun. On our free day we went on a paddle boat, The Tahoe Queen, for a gorgeous 3 hour trip to Emerald bay and back. It was so interesting, listening to the captains commentary about how the lake was formed by glaciers and the Truckee river. It was funny on the state line as you had large casino hotels on one side, and the other was like a small row of shops. The next day we called into Sierra BMW and got some parts for the bike including a Moto-Techniques torque arm and a gel battery, also some reflective decals for the panniers.

Leaving Sierra BMW in Sparks, we headed south on the 395, through Carson City along Mono Lake to Lee Vining, here we fuelled up and headed into Yosemite on the 120, paying our $20 entrance fee. At 5.40 pm we were going over the Tioga Pass 9941 ft, the views were great, it was getting dark now and a lot cooler, the speed limit in the park of 45 MPH was not helping us pass quickly to tonight's bed at El Portal. We turned off onto the 140 and I think we were a little confused as to our correct path as the road signs at on point seem to contradict each other, we later found out it was a large loop, with various routes all leading the same in the end. We got to the Cedar Lodge in El Portal, I think we were 2nd from last. Showered and hungry we went to book a meal but the wait was 2 hours, fortunately for us, Paul and Margaret had got in earlier and asked us to join them in the restaurant.  Next morning we fuelled up down at South Fork, and rode up the scenic drive, stopping at the tunnel view, then up Summit Meadow to the great viewing point at Glacier Point 3,200 ft. We enjoyed the most spectacular views of half dome and the Yosemite Valley. We left Yosemite and made our way to the Alpenhof Lodge, in Mammoth Lakes, we were really tired and the restaurant looked really crowded, so we had a few beers and ordered a pizza in, and eat in our room, it was really good food, I think we were so tired, it was just what we wanted. In the morning we left early as I wanted to go north again, up to Bridgeport, where we turned off the road onto a dirt track that lead to Bodie Ghost Town. It has been empty since around 1880 and it is all intact, and it looks amazing, and is quite eerie.

  Bad Water         Nevada          Death Valley      Coyote         Dante's Peak    Grand  Canyon             Route 66                            Yuma

Leaving Bodie we took the 395 south and turned east on the 120 to follow the mono craters and mono lake scenic drive, which had some great views, we come across Benton hot springs. We stopped in Benton at an old fuel stop, and were greeted by a 6'5 Indian who, when he heard we were British,  asked us how the queen was. "Very rich " we answered, and it was funny as his voice was very effeminate. South on the 6 again we came across large fields of sweet smelling peppers growing out of the dry sandy earth, they looked like large red dots on the golden earth. The road was virtually straight for around 33 miles, and when I hit a corner, I was not sure what to do.

 Again on the 395, we went past Fort Independence to Lone Pine, where we turned off on to the 190 toward Stovepipe Wells. The  190 takes you over the Panamint Range, and our onboard temperature gauge went up to 50 degrees Celsius as we rode  down to Stovepipe Wells, here we passed a few of our gang having deserved drinks, we decided to push on. Passing numerous borax mines and going through the Devil's cornfield we pulled into Furnace Creek, absolutely red hot, boiling and so thirsty. We checked into our room, stripped off our sweat-soaked gear, and jumped in the shower, making sure the air conditioning was cranked to max. Kathy went to sit out in the sun for a while and she was soon back inside as it was just so hot, so we went to the shop and café, had some food and topped up on our liquids. You know that you are hot when you are riding, however the sweat is just dried off you, so you are losing liquid without knowing it, so we had to drink as much Gatorade as we could. This is a iso-tonic drink that is full of nutrients and from our experience, you can notice the difference after you have topped up after an hours riding.

In the morning we had a free day so we rode to Badwater, 17 miles south of Furnace Creek. At 279.8 ft below sea level, this is the lowest point in Death Valley that is accessible by vehicle. Two spots in the salt flats 3 1/3  and 4 2/3 miles north west of Badwater are the lowest elevations in the western hemisphere: -282 feet. The permanent spring-fed pool is not poisonous, although it contains very large amounts of chloride, sodium and sulphate. A soft-bodied saltwater snail, found only in the valley, shares the water with beetles and soldier fly larvae. The surrounding area may be the hottest place in the world during the summer months, when temperatures over 120 degrees are typical. We carried south on the 178 to Shoshone, where we fuelled up and got some more liquids to drink, then on to Death Valley Junction, stopping later at Franklin Well on the Nevada border for a picture and to finish off our drinks. Proceeding along at a nice steady pace, we got to Lathrop Wells, just south of Nellis Air Force Base, Alien Ville. Another 30 miles and we stopped for lunch at the Rio Rancho truck park, in Beatty, where we had a lovely lunch in the cool air-conditioned restaurant , we also got some goofy alien post cards. After lunch we headed north past Bailey's hot springs, following the border of the air base, I am sure when we went through Springdale there was a small brothel, very tacky looking, and trucks outside. 35 miles from Beatty we got to Scotty's junction and turned south west toward Scotty's Castle, it was getting extremely hot now as we rode down the canyon past Bonnie Claire lake, dried up of course. When we entered Grapevine Canyon we got into some great shade, where we had to stop to cool off and get liquids, Kathy said she was feeling quite sick with the heat, so we decided to miss Scotty's Castle and head for Furnace Creek. When we entered the park again we had to pay this time, strange as we had not paid before, it may have been because we were coming from Nevada into California. It was 52 miles to Furnace Creek, and as we made our way along the road that followed Death Valley Wash, I noticed a small dog in the distance, so I killed the engine and we rolled down to the bush he was in, and it was a small Coyote. We were about 3 feet away from it, and he just sat there panting, as he was also very hot. Every time a car went by he would cower into the bushes, and venture out when it was clear. We think he had probably been fed and was after a handout, as he was not afraid of us at all. We soon rolled into our room and Kathy was very ill now, I think she was dehydrated, so Kathy cooled off and had lots of liquids, and was soon feeling better. We got some presents for home that evening and again we had a great meal.

Cary had told us about Dante's View, and said we should visit it. So in the morning we checked out at 5am, as it was 23 miles away, and headed into the pitch black morning, after a while we were freezing, and it got colder as we rose to the summit at 5475ft. We were joined by a car, but that was it, and it was so quiet, we set the video camera up on the bike, and we filmed the glorious sun rise. When the sun was up it lit the valley and presented us with a panoramic view of the entire valley, we took loads of pictures.

Dante's Peak

Tonight we would be in Las Vegas, so we left Death Valley into Shoshone then over into Nevada into the Pahrump Valley and Spring Mountains Park, to Mountain Springs. We stopped for fuel and caught some of the gang that were going to Red Rock Canyon, we carried on into Vegas and headed for the Hoover dam. We parked up and had a rest at the dam on the east side, it was real cool as the place had small diffusers that were spraying a fine mist to keep people cool, I sat right underneath one for half an hour. The dam was truly amazing, the size of it, and trying to comprehend the amount of concrete that was used, mind blowing. Back on the hot bike we headed for Lake Mead, paid to get in and rode to the shore line, stripped off and jumped in, the relief was great, and the water was lovely and clear and a pleasure to swim in. At about 4 o'clock we left and made our way to The Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas, I waited outside whilst Kathy got the room sorted, up the multi-storeyed car park, we were soon in the room on the 22nd floor. We had our evening meal in the casino downstairs, during an hour on the slots, Kathy normally likes slot machines, but I think she was becoming board with them. We left the hotel, and took a bus ride up along the strip, looking at all the massive hotels and casino's trying to out do each other, Treasure Island, with it's huge water display, got my vote. When we got back to the room that night we discussed leaving the next morning, even though we were booked in for another night. In the morning we made tracks and headed north east on the I15, turning off to Hurricane on the 59, this was our brief encounter with Utah, which was very hot, and there seemed to be a lot of police around, stopping cars, probably for speeding. We stopped for fuel in Hildale, and a cop went passed us twice, giving us a real long look, ah well, whatever floats his boat. We were really hot by now and were drinking so much liquid to keep ourselves topped up, as the sweat was just being sucked off us both by the dry wind. Crossing back into Arizona on the 389, we turned off at Fredona and headed for Jacob Lake, and turning south on the 67 to head for the north rim of the Grand Canyon. As this was not a planned route, we were not surprised when the Grand Canyon Lodge at the north rim was full, so a quick drink and a look of the map and we called ahead to a hotel in Tuba City, and reserved a room. It was getting late now and we were 144 miles from Tuba, I was a little apprehensive about going too far over the speed limit, as I had seen a lot of cops that day, and I also wanted to take in some of the wonderful sights around, even though by now it was getting dark. We pulled into the Quality Inn, in Tuba City at 6.30, that evening, and after a lovely long shower each we made our way down to the restaurant and had our evening meal. Around 10.30 in the morning, after breakfast we got a few tee-shirts from the Indian shop and after paying for the room, which included $7.60 in Navajo Tax, we rode past the numerous dinosaur fossil sites, and Indian markets and on into the Grand Canyon from the east on the East Rim Drive.

Grand  Canyon. East Rim Drive.

We paid our entrance fee and stopped for our first view of this awe inspiring natural phenomenon at The Watchtower near Desert View, there was an awful lot of people around, truly  an impressive place. To the east we could see the Painted Desert, the 1000ft high Vermillion Cliffs off to the north and the Colorado River down in the valley below. Eyeballs full of the view we headed straight through the Grand Canyon Village to Tusayan, where we booked ourselves on a four o'clock flight around the canyon, as you book in you stand on very discreet scales, which are hidden in the mats, cool. We rode to Valle, and booked into our hotel. Showered and now changed into tee-shirts and shorts, we rode the short distance back to the airport where we boarded our own helicopter, great or what? When we booked the flight we thought as it was a once in a lifetime trip, we would book the full hour tour, it did cost $318, and no one else had booked, so there were only the three of us in the helicopter. I cannot describe the views, they were outstanding, especially as we both had window seats, but the Painted Desert was amazing, and when you fly off the rim of the Canyon, the whole world drops away from you. When we got back on the ground, we bought a few things from their gift shop, and rode slowly back to Valle. When we arrived at Valle, quite a few of the party had turned up, and they were all asking where we had been, as they had missed us on the second night in Las Vegas.

Next morning we found out that Mick's  K75 had, had the rear tyre slashed, turned out a local yob had done it. The hotel manager drove Mick into Flagstaff, where he had a new tyre fitted, the sheriff had been informed and had got the yob in custody. Valle doesn't get a good write up though, according to arizonahandbook.com  Valle  is described as this:

So as you can see we did not really hang around, next morning most of the crew went to do the canyon flights, we headed off to find Route 66. We took the 51 south west to Flagstaff and headed east on the I40 to Holbrook, where we saw the blackest sky ahead of us, so we turned around and followed Route 66 adjacent to the freeway, stopping at Seligman. Here we bought a few tee-shirts and trinkets, had a drink then continued another 80 miles to Kingman. We had to laugh as the road was that quiet, and the gofers were sunning themselves in the fields, and as soon as they heard our bike, they would scuttle into their burrows, their little fat behinds a' wobbling. As we rode along on stretch of the road the bike started making a loud clicking noise, and it took we a while to realize, that the noise was locusts being crushed by the tyres, when we got back the underside of the bike was covered in a yellow goo!! We got to bed early that night as in the morning we had to get to Palm Springs, 450 miles away, and to make it worse (or better) we knew we would go the longer way around.

We left relatively early and headed south to pick up the I40 west, turning south on the 89 we headed toward Chino Valley and Prescott and got on the 89 to Congress and onto Aguila. South west on the 60 through Wendon we were on the I10, and we could have followed this all the way into Palm Springs. However being the mileage junkies we are, we turned off the freeway onto the 95, which took us south toward Yuma and the Mexico border. The road went through the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge and along the boundary of the Yuma Military proving ground, so it was extremely quiet, in fact desolate. We saw a lot of wild life, which was great, and we saw no military which was better, as the road soon took us through the proving ground, but again it was very quiet. We stopped at a truck stop in Yuma for some food and drinks and decided we would follow the border west and see if we could call into Mexico. At the border we thought we would have to explain to the guards that we just wanted to call in for a short while, but there was no check going south. So into Mexico we rode, and down to Mexicali, which wasn’t much at all, in fact we could not see anywhere we wanted to stop at, so we turned around and headed north. We were stopped at the border and asked our business, we explained we were touring, the guard checked his regulations and said they did not cover UK vehicles, but happy with our passports and visa stamps he waved us through. We decided to head north now, as it was getting on and we still had a way to go, up the 86 to Brawley, then to a quiet road that went around the Salton Sea, through Niland. The lake was very popular and, with the back drop of the Chocolate Mountains it looked very picturesque. It was getting very hot now and we soon picked up the main road toward Palm Springs, the 86. The I10 was the most direct route, again however we decided to carry on along the small roads as the free way is so boring. We passed numerous fruit sellers along the way and many fruit farms, all smelling lovely, wafting their fruit odours across the still hot roads. Some of the bus stops had cooling sprays on them, and as we passed, we would get a nice cool breeze from them. We could tell we were nearing Palm Springs as the scenery and housing changed, from Mexico the buildings were a little run down, but here they were getting very expensive. Even though we had directions to the hotel, we had a job actually relaying them to what was on the ground, so it took us a while to get there but we did. When we got to the hotel, well, we thought we were hot and bothered, but it was nothing to how Malcolm, the LT rider was feeling. He pulled up, and I could not believe it, he had a balaclava on and his face was red raw with heat and sweat and he had a few choice words to say about the directions, and all this was made worse by the heat wave that was still gripping the area. When we got to San Francisco, weeks earlier, we were warned that they were in a heat wave, and we learned later that there was power “outages” in the area due to the high demand of air-conditioning units. Today had been a long day, we had covered some 650 miles in some of the hottest temperatures ever endured by us both, but it was great, the bike had performed perfectly and our BMW Air-Flow suits had kept us cool and safe. We checked into our room, turned up the air-con, to help with the temperature and had a shower and plenty of drinks. We later sat outside for a while to try and enjoy the scenery and sunshine, as we knew we would soon be missing it, when back in Blighty. I don’t think anyone ventured of site that night, as we all seemed to be in the restaurant that evening. We had some luck, as when we went to the ATM, there was a twenty dollar bill, that had been left in it, very nice. We chatted about the days riding and got the low down on what time we had to be at Inglewood, in LA, to load the bikes.

Next morning, after a lovely breakfast in bed, we took the direct route to LA, northwest on 111, west on I-10, San Bernardino Freeway, Hollywood Freeway, and Harbour Freeway, boring and bland was the route, and scary as we hit LA, especially this overtaking in any lane, didn’t like that much, at least in the UK, you know where the fools are coming from.

At the warehouse, we packed our bikes up, disconnected the batteries, took our luggage and said a fond farewell to our trusty RT, we were herded into a mini-bus and whisked off to the Hacienda Hotel in El Segundo, the place where we stayed when we landed three weeks earlier. We checked in and decided to do a lot of shopping that afternoon, in fact we did so much we had to buy two suitcases to carry it home in. This was in our plan though, when we arrived in the US, we only had a small bag of clothes, and sandals, we spent our first day in LA shopping for boots that we would wear on our journey, and as we have visited places, we have bought more tee-shirts and clothes as we went along. We got back to the hotel around 7 that evening and we had a meal with Paul and Margaret down the road at a small bar and grill. Next day after breakfast we got a taxi to TRS Racing, where we ordered some Piaa 1100X lamps to take back to the UK, we had to wait whilst he drove off and got some for us. In the mean time we went to an IHOP, which we had been told about, and had some lovely pancakes for lunch. We returned to the shop and collected the lamps then we asked him to call us a taxi. Well he did and whilst we were waiting for it outside, we were accosted by an old women that was muttering and on about nothing. Then when the taxi arrived the silly cow claimed it was hers and tried to get in it with us, I had too give her a bit of direction, and we left her crying and babbling by the road, nutter!

We collected our bikes about three weeks later, I remember it well as it was very mild in England, as I wore my open face helmet on the bike. The bike was fine, a slight mark on the top box, but nothing considering the 4657 miles it had done on our trip of our lifetime.