On the road again....
The Rally ended last night and this year we did not win any door prizes or grand prizes. But I did find a few more farkles for the GS. Both were in the lighting department and both utilize LEDs so I can reduce my alternator load while hopefully increasing my conspicuity and night time visibility.
We got up this morning, packed up the bikes, visited with some folks and left the Best Western by 7:30am local time. The plan was simple, follow hwy 26 east to I-84 and then follow it to Twin Falls, Idaho. And the plan worked fine, mostly.
Riding along Hwy 26 was great as there were several sections of twisties along the way. As we passed through one "town" we saw several BMWs parked outside a little cafe so we decided to turn around and eat breakfast there. What a great choice, they served Peanut Butter French Toast. Just think a peanut butter sandwich made with hot slices of french toast. It was delicious.
We continued our route along Hwy 26 stopping for gas 2x while still in Oregon. At one stop out in the country, they didn't really care about the Oregon law regarding gas pump attendants so we had to opperate the pumps ourselves. I was worried that I wasn't up to the task but managed to fill up both bikes without injury to myself, the gas station or anything else near by.
Along the way, we stopped at a gas station for some water and a break to get out of the sun. While there we talked with a fella from Florida who has been riding for a long time. He was telling us a story about an old run down hotel across from a gas station out by Big Bend National Park and I asked, are you talking about Sanderson? And indeed he was. It was quite fun to sit around and trade stories for a while.
When we started our ride, temps were down in the 60's and fell to 55 through some of the twisties. But by the time we reached I-84 it was pushing 100 degrees. So once on I-84 we just toughed it out until we were about 80 miles west of Twin Falls. There we stopped for gas and some fluids. While at the stop we talked with a few other riders. One rider had gotten a $500 speeding ticket in Oregon, I believe his speed was 87 in a 65. Ouch! He had a co-rider from Paris, France. She we nice and it was neat to get a foreigner's perspective of touring the US. But since the temps weren't falling and we still had 80 miles to go it was time to get a move on.
Slowly but surely the mile markers increased as we were patiently waiting for exit 173. That meant we had reached Twin Falls and only had a few miles of riding left to get into town and check in at the Super 8. Just after 6, we made it there and got checked in.
Total mileage today was 429 miles over 9.5 hours. Plus we lost an hour as we passed into the Mountain time zone. The heat was our biggest problem today, at one point my ambient temp guage read 109. That's pretty darn hot, even if it is a "dry" heat. Tomorrow we are supposed to go to Vernal, Utah where we have reservations. The plan is to get up earlier and get on the road quicker. Doing so, should help to get us off the road earlier and thus out of the heat sooner. We'll see how it goes.
The Rally ended last night and this year we did not win any door prizes or grand prizes. But I did find a few more farkles for the GS. Both were in the lighting department and both utilize LEDs so I can reduce my alternator load while hopefully increasing my conspicuity and night time visibility.
We got up this morning, packed up the bikes, visited with some folks and left the Best Western by 7:30am local time. The plan was simple, follow hwy 26 east to I-84 and then follow it to Twin Falls, Idaho. And the plan worked fine, mostly.
Riding along Hwy 26 was great as there were several sections of twisties along the way. As we passed through one "town" we saw several BMWs parked outside a little cafe so we decided to turn around and eat breakfast there. What a great choice, they served Peanut Butter French Toast. Just think a peanut butter sandwich made with hot slices of french toast. It was delicious.
We continued our route along Hwy 26 stopping for gas 2x while still in Oregon. At one stop out in the country, they didn't really care about the Oregon law regarding gas pump attendants so we had to opperate the pumps ourselves. I was worried that I wasn't up to the task but managed to fill up both bikes without injury to myself, the gas station or anything else near by.
Along the way, we stopped at a gas station for some water and a break to get out of the sun. While there we talked with a fella from Florida who has been riding for a long time. He was telling us a story about an old run down hotel across from a gas station out by Big Bend National Park and I asked, are you talking about Sanderson? And indeed he was. It was quite fun to sit around and trade stories for a while.
When we started our ride, temps were down in the 60's and fell to 55 through some of the twisties. But by the time we reached I-84 it was pushing 100 degrees. So once on I-84 we just toughed it out until we were about 80 miles west of Twin Falls. There we stopped for gas and some fluids. While at the stop we talked with a few other riders. One rider had gotten a $500 speeding ticket in Oregon, I believe his speed was 87 in a 65. Ouch! He had a co-rider from Paris, France. She we nice and it was neat to get a foreigner's perspective of touring the US. But since the temps weren't falling and we still had 80 miles to go it was time to get a move on.
Slowly but surely the mile markers increased as we were patiently waiting for exit 173. That meant we had reached Twin Falls and only had a few miles of riding left to get into town and check in at the Super 8. Just after 6, we made it there and got checked in.
Total mileage today was 429 miles over 9.5 hours. Plus we lost an hour as we passed into the Mountain time zone. The heat was our biggest problem today, at one point my ambient temp guage read 109. That's pretty darn hot, even if it is a "dry" heat. Tomorrow we are supposed to go to Vernal, Utah where we have reservations. The plan is to get up earlier and get on the road quicker. Doing so, should help to get us off the road earlier and thus out of the heat sooner. We'll see how it goes.
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