Welcome

Welcome to my online journal. This is the log of our motorcycle adventures as well as camping with the Grandkids. If you would like to see more of the country, from the seats of our motorcycles, then check back anytime!

Sunday, May 5, 2013

April 16-25, 2013 Crooked River Ranch (CRR) OR


We arrived at Jerry and Sue’s in the snow, and it took a couple of days before the weather got warm enough to be outside.  This was fine by me, I was still sick and coughing and hacking through the day. Wayne and I went into Bend one day to look at mountain bikes and motorhomes.  Remember Wayne’s bicycle was stolen in Vegas, and we have officially had it with this coach.  Paint it yellow, it’s a lemon.  We’ve been looking at coaches everywhere we’ve been since that trip to Tucson in March.  We feel like we have done all the research and are reasonably sure we now know what we want.  We just have to find it all in one coach and at a price we are willing to pay. We aren’t in a big hurry, but will continue to hunt at every stop in our travels.  At some point we will find ‘the one’; it will jump out and bite us and we’ll buy it.  So for now we continue to hunt.

Bend seemed like a good place to find a used mountain bike for Wayne, so he was on Craig’s list each night, and we went to several bike shops to get educated.  Boy some people really know their stuff. On Thursday Bob and Cindy took us out to a local mtn. bike trail area for an evening ride. 

 Wayne and Bob on the trail
 Wayne borrowed a bike and I rode my white ‘old ladies’ touring bike.  It did ok in the trails until the central Oregon lava rocks bit my tire and it went flat.  Boy it is easier to fix a flat bike tire than it is a motorcycle tire.  Although my bike worked, it was obviously not going to work for anything more strenuous than those few miles.

Friday found Wayne, Bob and I out scouring the bike shops for a bike for Wayne.  As we were going to ride the Deschutes River Trail (15 miles) the next day, we decided to rent bikes.  This would give us a chance to see if we really wanted to put out the big bucks for new bikes.  A new full suspension 29” wheel mountain bike is close to 2 grand.  Ouch.  So we rented and I found out that the right bike does make a difference.  The things I could ride up and over, around and through amazed me.  So yes, Wayne is looking for a used good bike.  Me, I think I’ll wait awhile.  I still need to get a GPS!!

So Saturday morning we took two trucks into Redmond to the car show, on our way to our bike ride.

Jerry and Sue’s entry into the show won second in their class.
From the car show, we went to the shop, picked up our rental bikes and then dropped off our truck at the bottom of the trail.  Then we all hopped into Bob’s truck and drove to Sun River which is south of Bend. 

Here we unloaded at a trail head and started out on single track.
The trail was relatively flat, with only 177 ft. of elevation gain as we went up and over to Benham Falls. 
Our rental bikes with their very fashionable pedals.  I guess it is so no one would want to keep them!
Bob, Patti and Wayne at the Falls
 The rest of the trail went down stream, with us going up and down along the bank of the Deschutes River.
 The Deschutes River
 Wayne, ready to ride!
 Bob at the pond
Cindy and Bob
The scenery was wonderful, a mix of woods, meadows, hill sides and of course the river.  It was a busy day; we met many hikers, joggers and other bikers.  


We stopped for lunch at one of the many picnic areas. 
Then it was off to Dillon Falls. 


Patti and Bob
After that Cindy and I continued to chase the boys down the hill. 
Off we go....
 More beautiful views
The rented bike made climbing any hills much easier and I just rolled right over the rocks.  As we got closer to town, and our truck, we had to climb out of the river bed and up to the level of the highway.  And it was a climb!  On my white bike I might have needed to get off and push, but on the rental I just kept pedaling! Once at the truck (15.21 miles from the start) we loaded my bike and I drove back to the shop.  Wayne, Cindy and Bob chose to ride back down.  Next time we will know that we can just park somewhere near that shop, because even I (the one that is not in shape) could have rode my bike the additional miles back to the shop.  As it was, I drove back (only got a little lost) and had my bike unloaded and turned in by the time they got there.  What a great day!  We finished it off by going to one of the local brew pubs for food and good beer.
 
 
On Sunday Cindy got out all their dual sport camping gear for us to look at.  The four of us, plus our friend Lyon, plan to do the Trans America Trail or TAT during the summer of 2014.  We are looking for more people to come along.  If you are interested let me know.  We will start at Virginia Beach VA and end on a beach in Oregon.  It is 80% dirt, primarily farm roads, jeep roads, Forrest Service roads, washes, two tracks… you get the picture.  Most of the paved stuff is back east where apparently they don’t know what dirt is.  It is about 5800 miles and should take about a month.  We’ll be camping, which is why Cindy got their gear out.  Wayne and I used to tour/camp on our road bike, that was pre-Becca, so 1980 something.  Boy has gear changed.  And bikes!  Before we were two up on either our Honda Gold Wing or one of the BMW’s we had.  This time we will each have our own dual sport bike.  We aren’t sure if we will use our current KTM’s or if we will get a couple of used Suzuki DRZ400’s.  The DRZs are better prepared to handle the camping load, but I really like the light weight of my KTM.  Hmmm… we’ll just have to see what happens.
After the gear check we loaded up the motorcycles to go on a trail ride. 
We unloaded at their friend Ron’s house as the trails start out of his back yard.  Up the hillside, out through the gate and off we went.  I haven’t been on much single track lately, due to various injuries, but this was fun.  Scary, bumpy, lots of rocks, dodging trees, sliding in the silt kind of fun!  But boy was I wore out at the end of the day.  Like I said, it’s been a long time.
 
We also spent some time out at the local ORV park, as it was right there.  This was a mix of single track and quad trails, with some loose silty roads thrown in to keep me on my toes!  Great fun, followed by dinner at a local Italian Restaurant.  Another outstanding day!!!.  
 Info board at the ORV park

Marked trails, easy to find your way around
 
We finished our stay in central Oregon by taking a long road trip with Jerry and Sue.  They have owned something like 13 RV's over the years, so it made sense to ask them to go motorhome shopping with us.  I wanted to make sure that we were looking at the right things, asking the right questions, that sort of thing.  I'm hoping that the next coach we buy keeps us happy for more than 2 years this time. Sue gave us the thumbs up, so I feel more confident.  I know, this will be our 4th coach, but after the luck we've had with this one?  My confidence needed the boost.  We left at 8:30 am and returned at 11 pm.  What a day!  We found one coach we really like, but not only is it out  of our price range, there were one or two things I would rather live without.  So we are still looking!!! But it was a fun way to spend a day with friends.

April 10-15, 2013 -- Minden NV to Crooked River Ranch (CRR) OR


The day after our big adventure while staying at Wilson Canyon, we headed north to Minden, to once again ride with our friends at Dirt Tricks.   As part of the working world, Nate and Greg won’t be available until Saturday, so we stayed in an RV park for a couple of days so we could wash the RV and do laundry, as well as plug into cable TV to catch up on world events (and sports!!)  Once we parked we loaded the KTMs into the truck and found a car wash.  The truck was covered in whatever Nevada uses to de-ice their roads, and the bikes are rolling mud balls from our ride.

Wayne scrubbing my bike, what a guy!

We timed it right for the flowering trees; the town is awash in pink and white blossoms. 

The truck and bikes washed up nicely.  All clean, until we move again…
Once we get back the sun is low enough that we can wash the coach and the trailer.  What a job, I always forget how big they are until we wash them!  And they were filthy!!  They sure looked good when we were done and we were exhausted!  I decided to put off doing that laundry until the next night, just too tired.

We took one day to go find Fernley and the Amazon Distribution Center.  We also found the RV parks and found one that we would fit in without a problem.  Now we are just waiting on the ‘approved park list’ so we can make our reservations for October-December.  Hope all that works out.

On Friday we moved to Dirt Tricks and parked behind the building.  The parking lot backs up to a slice of desert, so the cats were able to go outside as soon as the workers went home for the weekend.  It’s nice to have a place that is level and not 4 miles down a dusty road; after all we had just washed the rigs!

On Saturday morning Nate and Greg come to grab Wayne and they all go off for some single track riding.  I get a day to myself, just me, the cats and classical music.  It was great, except that I felt like I was coming down with something.  Sure enough on Sunday I was running a fever over 100 and felt like crap.  Oh joy, I get to drive all day Monday as we head to Crooked River Ranch for our next stop feeling crummy.

The weather was great while we were in Minden, but a storm has rolled in again as we are leaving.  We head north on Hwy 395 thinking it might take us 2 days to get to Crooked River Ranch. When we pass Susanville I remember that the weather was bad on the way down in October, and here we are in April and it sucks again.  I wonder if it is ever nice here.


 We had rain and snow off and on all day.  We deviated from our previous route at Alturas and went northwest to Klamath Falls. That section of highway was breathtaking.  From K-Falls we headed north to Bend, arriving about 6 pm. 

  After a quick stop to phone Sue and Jerry to let them know we had made it that far, and to get some dinner, we headed to CRR to camp in Sue and Jerry’s driveway.  When we were here in the fall Jerry had shown Wayne a little orange step-through Honda 90 that he could not get to run right.  Staying with them would give Wayne a chance to get it running for Jer.  By the time we left, Jerry was putting around on it and having a ball.