EMO's Diary

We started out as early as we could on Monday, June 15 and headed northwest to our first stop at the Biltmore House. If you’ve never been to a castle, this house is as close to one as you’ll get in the United States. The largest privately owned home in the US (178,926 sq. ft.), you have to see it to believe it. Go to Biltmore.com to get the facts on the house and the Vanderbilt Family. Very interesting stuff. By the time we left the Biltmore, it was pretty hot. I made note of the weather forecast and decided to hang out in the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina a day or two to see if the expected heat wave would pass. As it turned out, it didn’t! Our next stop was the Andrew Johnson National Historical Site in Greeneville, TN. Since it was SO close and we probably would not be as close to Tennessee on our way back west, we decided to tag this site AND Tennessee for our Tour. Though the visitor’s center was a bit small, it was very informative. Also, it was a timely visit because in the book on General Sherman I am reading, he has lots to say about President Johnson and Reconstruction. The day was getting late and warm so it was good we had just a little bit of driving to get to our camp at Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park. Yup, that’s right, there is a park where Davy Crockett was born. Even a marker that read, “On this spot, Davy Crockett was born”. How exact is that?! Nice Park and a great site right on the river. We continue our water front camping!

On Tuesday June 16 we were off early in the hopes of beating the heat by getting to our camp before it got too late in the day. We only had about 200 miles to do and there were no stops planned. The road out of east Tennessee was a really nice ride. We took US 321 into Boone, NC and picked up the Blue Ridge Parkway for about 50 miles. We couldn’t resist the chance to ride at least a bit of one of THE best motorcycling roads in the US! By the time we got to Pilot Mountain State Park, it was pretty hot. It was the first time we noticed that North Carolina was getting heat warnings for the central and coastal areas. GREAT, just where we are going! The upside to staying at Pilot Mountain was that it was in the woods (so a bit cooler than the 98 degrees in the sun) and it is also a Natural Historical Landmark. Used by the Native Americans and later those settling North Carolina in the early 1800’s, Pilot Mountain can be seen from 100 miles away on clear days (though for some reason I needed GPS to find it…).

Since June 17 was forecasted to be an exceptionally hot day, we made a slight change to our plans and stopped at only two spots (both pretty much right along I-40) - Guilford Courthouse National Military Park and Bentonville National Historical Site (also a NC Historical Site). By the time we got to Guilford Courthouse, it was already 94 degrees at 10:00. We didn’t tour the battlefield since it was so hot but the heat made the film inside the air conditioned auditorium that much better! Guilford Courthouse NMP is part of the series of Revolutionary War sites that kept General Cornwallis busy till he moved north and eventually surrendered at Yorktown. At the visitor center I finally pick up a copy of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. I have always wanted to read it. And how current is it! Part of the introduction reads, “…a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.” Those words apply just as true now as then! After our visit we made a beeline onto I-40 and headed further east and into even hotter temps by the time we got to Bentonville. Bentonville, NC was the site of what was probably the last major battle of the Civil War and was between General Sherman and Confederate General Joe Johnston. A victory for the Union, it did come at a heavy price for the South. We had a pretty good visit there and turning our sites to our campground at Cliffs of the Neuse State Park (pronounced ‘noose’), we sort of wished for rain since it was SO hot. We found our spot and just like the campground before, it was pretty well empty. We set up quick and TRIED to stay cool. It was oppressive heat, no wind and plenty of biting insects of all description. By early evening, it started to storm and we got rain alright…all night long! Trying to sleep in a hot, humid and damp tent is not a lot of fun. Everything was damp inside and straight up wet outside by morning (none of the important stuff though). Cliffs was also the beginning of my battle with mosquitoes. For some reason, it is my year for mosquitoes…(and other flying, biting pests).

We were up and packed in record time Thursday, June 18. We were trying to get it all packed BEFORE the next downpour! Even though we packed the tent and other related stuff wet, we hoped the blast to the ocean would dry it out or at least it be dry on the coast when we set up again. We headed east on US70 towards Morehead City. By 50 miles, the skies cleared off and so did our rain gear! Having rain gear on when it is hot and humid, raining or threatening, is just too uncomfortable but necessary. Our first stop on the Carolina coast was Cape Lookout National Seashore. This finished our blast across North Carolina effectively slicing the state in half, west to east. The visitor center is on Harkers Island and this part of North Carolina is WAY pretty! Water, seafood and great ocean views are at every milepost. Oh, and did I mention it was hot…? Once back on US70 east, we were soon on NC 12 headed north to Cedar Island and a highlight of our coastal North Carolina adventure. In order to get to Cape Hatteras and points north, you have to get on the Cedar Island-Ocracoke ferry. About a 2 ½ hour cruise of the Pamlico Sound on the ferry boat, the total $10.00 cost seemed like the best deal of the summer! Once off the ferry, we headed straight to our camp at Ocracoke Campground, only a few miles from the town. We set up quick and since the heat had not subsided at all, we decided to go back into town and find a restaurant to hang out in and get dinner. The Ocracoke Oyster Company was just the place! By the time we got back, it was off to the beach! The beach here is GREAT! No one on it but just a handful of folks for as far north and south as you can see.

After another really hot, mosquito and biting fly filled night, we packed and hit the road early Friday morning. The drive up NC 12 is really nice. You are on just a strip of sand between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pamlico Sound. I think we could live there! Once more we had to ‘ferry it’ from Ocracoke Island to Hatteras but this trip was only 40 minutes on the boat and was FREE! Our first stop was the Hatteras Island Visitor Center in the National Seashore by the same name and home of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse National Historical Landmark. Just southeast of this area is also where the USS Monitor sank (one of the two Ironclads from the Civil War) and is a National Marine Sanctuary. We were going to go up in the lighthouse but since there was a heat advisory for the lighthouse (it is painted black and has no windows), we opted not to go. We continued on NC 12 along Hatteras Island and really enjoyed the ride. No traffic, beautiful scenery and the constant smell of salt air just made us feel real good and forgetful of just how hot it had become. We stopped at Pea River National Wildlife Refuge and that is when it hit us- 99 degrees but the heat index was 103. It felt every bit of it too! We got a chance to explore the visitor center and Alligator River NWR too (which is just across the Sound) and shares the visitor center. There is a lot of interesting wildlife along the coastal regions and we saw more turtles than we could count. This year since being in Arkansas, we have seen innumerable turtles. They have been all over the road (mostly alive…!). Last year it was bears, this year it’s turtles. Our final destination for the day was Oregon Inlet Campground and we weren’t too excited to see it while on our way to a couple of other sites. It was just like Ocracoke Campground- NO shade. Our plan was to stay two nights but I had my doubts. We picked our site and just left to go visit Fort Raleigh National Historical Site on Roanoke Island hoping it would cool off a bit later in the day (it didn’t) and explore a bit waiting for the sun to go down (and eventually it did…). Most folks know about the Lost Colony. Those 117 colonists disappeared from here and no trace has ever been found. Fort Raleigh is the site of this action which took place beginning in 1584. Pretty interesting story. We exited Roanoke Island the way we came in and headed north to Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brothers National Memorial. What an inspirational place! Just for starters, the Wright Brothers never finished high school and neither had any formal training, they learned all they knew from books. They managed to solve what is considered to be a milestone physics problem- the proper pitch and angle of propellers. Combined with only their own money and determination, it all culminated in what at the time was considered impossible- the Wright Brothers made four flights December 17, 1903, the longest being 852 feet and launching what almost all of us take for granted, powered human flight. From that first flight, it was only 66 years till a man was on the moon. AMAZING…! You got to get out here to see this stuff!

I decided that after the past three days and nights being so hot, and the campsites filled with mosquitoes and biting flies, I had had enough! I was just wore out. Cynthia was fairing a lot better than me but agreed it was time to motel it and besides, we needed to catch up on writing and a host of other things we had not been able to get to since we were in some fairly remote areas. We camped only one night at Oregon Inlet and planned to stop in Hampton, VA after a visit to Fort Monroe National Monument.

Stay tuned, the trip to the coast is coming up! (…and much more!) Greg & Cynthia

On our way to Gainesville, we stopped along US 27 for a break and remove some rain gear. Cynthia took her glasses off and after pulling off to continue, she realized they were still on the trailer! Well, no they weren’t. We went about a 1/10 of a mile and do you think we could find them? Nope, they just vanished. We walked the road and they were nowhere to be found. It is a bummer when you lose important things. Lesson learned. Next time bring extra of the important things if you have them…just in case! Fortunately for us, we had ordered them from Zenni and all we had to do was order them again and send them straight to Baltimore. No real harm done. However, if you are the driver and have to have them, be sure you do! We had a good night in Gainesville and the next morning was beautiful! Monday, June 1 saw us heading south on I-75 to eat up more miles to our next stop in Bonita Springs. The day ended with the obligatory afternoon thunder storm but by then, we were inside.

Tuesday June 2 we were up early and after a brief stop at Walmart, we were motoring down the Tamiami Trail aka, US 41. This was to be our route across Florida to the east coast. Our first stop was the Big Cypress National Preserve. The Preserve was created to protect the fresh water’s natural flow into the Everglades and the Ten Thousand Islands. Consisting of 729,000 acres, the Preserve is vital to southwest Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. It really is a beautiful area and not a swamp of backwater either. The water within the park is really clear since it is constantly flowing from Lake Okeechobee!

We left the Preserve and within a few miles, were at the Everglades National Park. We stopped at the Shark Valley Visitor’s Center to check out the film but was told they did not have one at that location. We were quite disappointed because the film at Big Cypress was so good, as are most park films. In addition, to get to the observation tower not far into the park, you had to take a tram that was $20 per person. We opted not to do that. There are 4 visitor’s centers around the park since the Everglades are so big. Created in 1947 to protect the Glades, the demand for fresh water from nearby Miami and other cities are stressing the environment. Any of the park visitor centers have additional information about the area.

After leaving the Everglades, we continued on US 41 to FL 997 to Homestead and then to the Atlantic coast to visit Biscayne National Park within sight of Miami and right on the Biscayne Bay. Florida 997 is a nice short cut but a really bad two lane road. Apparently, they are widening the road to four lanes so you might want to give that route a few years yet! Once at the Biscayne NP visitor’s center, we were pretty disappointed. Though the film was good, the rest of the displays etc. weren’t all that nice. I guess since the park is mainly a boater’s park, we didn’t find it all that interesting. I am sure other’s do though. Not staying too long, it was a short hop to US 1 south and our destination for the day at Marathon, in the Florida Keys. We got chased by rain the whole 50 miles or so to Marathon, arriving just as the heavens opened up! We continued to have good luck in that the hotel was right in front of a really nice restaurant called Tarpon Creek. We took our time settling in and sat at the Tiki Bar to enjoy the view, watch the rain and enjoy two of the best Cuban sandwiches we’ve ever had. The mojitos I had were pretty good too and quite fitting for the occasion!

Over the past few days our reservations to Dry Tortugas National Park had been fooled up one way or the other. I first made ferry reservations to go there from Key West on Tuesday, June 3 but thinking it through, the boat ride would have taken up too much of our day. The other option, though twice as expensive, was to take the floatplane. We’ve never been on a floatplane so we decided to go for it! Cancelling the ferry, we THOUGHT we had reservations on the plane for Tuesday (today) but found out we didn’t. Since I didn’t confirm with them soon enough, the best we could do was at noon on Wednesday. One things’ for sure- you have to stay flexible! Since we had all day Tuesday free now, we went on into Key West to visit Fort Zachary Taylor and the Coast Guard Cutter Ingham, both being National Historical Landmarks. In the meantime, we made an appointment at BMW Motorcycles of Miami to service the bike on Friday morning, giving us Thursday afternoon after our flight back to go the 150 miles or so to Miami. It has been 6,000 miles since we left Las Vegas, and here I thought the country was only about 3,000 miles across!

The drive down US 1 can be tricky. There are LOTS of dangerous intersections and the opportunities for a car to take a left in front of you abound…and they do! If you are coming this way, take your time and be extra vigilant! Staying at the 45 mph speed limit (that is most of the way) is a good idea. Be ready for anything. We did not think the scenery got really nice until after Islamadora, which is about 40 miles down. However, once past Marathon, along the way the views of the ocean on both sides of the road are really nice. The remnants of the railroad that used to run down along the Keys is still evident. I believe that was mostly destroyed by Hurricane Irene in the 20’s or 30’s. Not sure but it was a MAJOR hurricane! It is pretty cool to realize that anywhere along the road, you are actually WAY out in the ocean!

The visit to Fort Taylor was similar to any of the coastal forts built by the US in the mid-1800. Though smallish in size, it did afford pretty nice views of the ocean! Just around the corner is docked the Ingham. However, at $20 per person to do a self-guided tour, we decided against that and toured around Key West a bit instead. Key West will definitely be a future destination for us! It is a really quant city and I can see why folks like it so much! We headed back to Marathon and hit some strong rain just before our hotel. We relaxed the afternoon away and caught up on writing and organizing. It’s off to Key West again tomorrow and our first seaplane ride!

We got an early start on June 4 to be sure we would make it to the airport in time for our flight. We were SO early I decided to eat up some time and find the marker for the southern-most point in the continental US. It was pretty easy to find, follow South Street to the water! We met three guys from Ontario on motorcycles while there and had a nice chat with them. We got to the airport about an hour ahead so we had lots of time to visit the main terminal and get some drinks before we left. It was pretty exciting taking off in a small plane (it uses the runway just like other planes). I happened to look at the manufacture’s plate and took notice that the plane was about a month older than me! Born on September 18, 1957, this de Havilland DHC 3 Otter felt a little like me too! No worries though, it does land on water! Before you knew it, we were flying low (about 500 feet) above the water so we could spot turtles and/or sharks in the shallow water. I didn’t see any but Cynthia did. I did get to see a ship wreck though. The landing on the water was quite a thrill and I must say much smoother than a few Air Canada flights I have been on. The view of Fort Jefferson (Dry Tortugas NP) was pretty nice. We taxied in and somehow went into reverse to anchor the plane to the beach. We had a full 2 ½ hours to roam the fort and surrounds. It was a beautiful day in a great location! The trip back seemed short but don’t they always? We got on the bike and made our way back up the Overseas Highway arriving in Miami close to the airport by around 7:00. Checking twice, I noted we were just across the road from BMW Motorcycles of Miami. How convenient!

We were up early as usual even though our trip to BMW would last all of three minutes. Waiting for the folks to open at 9:00 we planned to be in Winter Haven by evening. That was not to be. Besides the Friday traffic late in the day, we spent our day at the dealer till 2:30. Got lots done though! New software update, they replaced the turn signal switch (even though I told them it had been replaced already by my favorite dealer, BMW Motorcycles of Las Vegas). Not sure why but they also replaced the starter switch. All free of charge which meant all we spent was the time waiting for it. We did get 8,500 miles out of the rear tire and had more to go. I suspect we could have seen 10,000 out of the Pilot Road 4 GT. With another one on, we may push this one to see. With the change in oil and a rear fluid change, we ALL felt much better and headed north up US 27. By the time we put 175 miles on, we were approaching thunder storms around Sebring so we decided to bail out for the night.

Saturday, June 6 we decided to put in a relatively short day and find a campsite early. We really miss camping when we get away from it for too long (this being about three nights).Little did we know but we would get the very last site! Its all too familiar- Friday and Saturday nights really require a reservation! Anyway, off onto US 27 again and hooking up with I-75 North just around Leesburg, we quickly ran into a back-up. The the ‘go’ extremely slow and it being 92 out in the sun, we prayed for the rain that never came. After losing about an hour, we got back up to speed but we were pretty spent after sitting in the sun without any wind to cool us. I had planned on a campsite at Stephen Foster SP but the attendant told us upon arrival they were sold out. She did call the next nearest park and found they had one site left and they would hold it for us. The 25 miles to Suwannee State Park seemed to take forever! Needless to say, the last spot was the least desirable but we didn’t care. We met a fellow biker that was traveling in his RV and towing the bike and got into a long conversation about each of our travels. Seems he is doing the same thing we are albeit only for this summer AND in an RV. Ken invited us over for some air conditioning in his rig and we could hardly refuse! We had a great visit, good conversation and made a new friend! We left soon after dark and after battling the gnats for a short time, we turned in.

Sunday June 7 started out good and stayed that way! We got an early start and headed north again on I-75 to Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon, GA. We weren’t sure what to expect but the site is an excellent example of a Mississippian Native American settlement. From about 1,000 years ago till the infamous Trail of Tears, the Creek Indians’ ancestors built a very extensive settlement along the Ocmulgee River. Visible today are many of the mounds used as burial, temple and other unexplained facilities. It was a nice visit with the customary good film and we were off again in the Georgia heat to find our way to FDR State Park. It ended up being a really nice park on a manmade lake (CCC project) and we got a spot right on the water.

We will pick up again in the next chapter of our 2015 National Parks Tour. Stay tuned, much more to come! Greg & Cynthia

Our summer odyssey began May 10 after our Mother’s Day calls to our moms. We planned on a short 260 mile trip to the Grand Canyon as our first stop and believe it or not, was one of the parks we never got to last year during our National Parks Tour (for some reason!), even though it is so close. Before we left, I did receive the new windshield just in time to see how it functioned and I am pretty happy. I ordered the tall GT screen for the GTL and found the wind protection, particularly the additional deflection of air over my head, to be very good. The downside is I think the side wind has increased though not objectionably so. Aeroflow told me they are beta testing a GT screen that is slightly wider and I think that would provide a bigger still air pocket for the pilot of GTL’s. Cynthia says she likes the passenger protection the one we have now provides.

We had reservations at Mather Campground so there was no need to rush and we took our time even though it was highway practically the whole way. We had great weather for camping albeit cold at night (low 30’s). Besides the park itself, there are seven national historical landmarks (six on the south rim) at the Grand Canyon. One was really hard to find and the other no one heard of! The six are the railway depot, the El Tovar (hotel), the park operations building (that was a hard one to find), the power house, the Grand Canyon Village as a whole and a place called the 1956 Grand Canyon TWA-United Airlines Aviation Accident Site. That one we could not locate. Pictures will have to suffice for the rest.

We stayed two nights with plans to visit our friends in Tucson on Tuesday for a few days. On the way, I scoped out Tonto National Monument as a possible stop with AZ 87, 188 and AZ 77 thrown in as a ride attraction. Both AZ 87 and 188 are roads that have the telltale dots along them in the Rand-McNally book and they did not disappoint. All were low traffic-high fun rides in the high desert of east-central Arizona. Besides Payson and Globe, there are few towns. Places like Strawberry and Pine looked particularly interesting though we did not have time to stop and explore.

Good thing we didn’t! Our day ended up being 387 miles, a bit more than I really wanted to ride AND have time to explore places. Our visit to Tonto NM was pretty nice, no one there and we had the place to ourselves. They have a great film that tells you just about all you need to know about the cliff dwelling and the Tonto Basin, Salt River in general. The only thing the film did not tell us about but the Ranger did was the giant bee hive that has closed access to the dwelling. You can’t get any closer than 50 yards. Not wanting to tempt fate, we enjoyed the wonderful view from the observation deck above the visitor’s center. By about 5:30, we were in Tucson for our multi-day visit and stock up on a few things that we overlooked.

Sunday, May 17 we left early with a short trip to Gila Cliff Dwelling NM in New Mexico. We were going to stop by Fort Bowie along the way (just south of I-10) but with 16 miles of dirt road, we opted not to. We got to Gila just in time before the visitor’s center closed. The drive up NM 15 from Silver City is grueling when you are in a hurry! Very curvy road and not one that is conducive to carving the curves when pulling a trailer! Nonetheless, we were happy not to have to drive back down NM 25 (it is one way in about 44 miles) to find camping because they did have free camping in the monument. The evening was cold and VERY clear. The skies were alive with stars!

We packed early hoping to make a few stops along our way to the Texas border just past Clovis, NM but our plans got changed by the day’s circumstances. We spent a fair amount of time trying to find the Prehistoric Trackways National Monument just outside Las Cruces and never did have success. My GPS had us going down dirt roads, on private property and backtracking all over the place! Since the website did not have an address (other than Las Cruces, NM) we had to use the coordinates. Hence the problem. We decided to just move on with a quick stop at McGinn’s pistachio ranch to load up on green chili pistachios in Alamogordo. Since we were so far form Clovis, it being pretty hot and so late in the day, we decided to camp at Valley of Fires National Recreational Area just outside of Carrizozo, NM. With a storm front moving in as we were setting up the tent, it was tough to hold the tent (and everything else) while setting up. Everything wanted to blow out onto the malpias (lava field bad lands). The wind blew pretty strong all night with ample lightning but hardly any rain.

Tuesday, May 19 brought a really fine day and we decided to stay another day since we weren’t in a hurry and it would be nice to just relax after the more than 360 miles from Gila. Besides, we had a great site (at $7.00 a night!) and the campground had showers too (a real plus….). Since we had a whole day, we back-tracked to Three Rivers Petroglyph NM just a little south of our camp. Three Rivers Petroglyph NM is about two miles off US 54. It has a self-guided trail that takes you to hundreds of petroglyphs mostly done about 700 years ago. An easy place to get to, we recommend a visit. We spent the rest of the day journaling and organizing the trailer.

Our plan for Wednesday was to get to Lake Meredith NRA just north of Amarillo, TX with a stop at Alibates Flint Quarries NM. However, our plans got fooled up again. Little did we know a pretty big weather bomb was setting up for the whole southwest. Headed out US 380, we did get to stop at Lincoln, NM which is a national historic landmark on our way to Roswell. Turning northeast, we started to hit cool (felt cold really) weather as we traveled towards Clovis on a pretty lonely road, US 70. By the time we got to Clovis, it was clear we weren’t going to make Lake Meredith AND camp out in the damp cold. I think I saw more cows on this leg of our trip than I have ever seen in my entire life! It should have come as no surprise when we saw that Hereford, TX is the cattle capital of the world! I never saw so many feed lots ever! However, it was a good sign for dinner later that night! It was an astonishing 49 degrees by the time we checked in at the Holiday Inn in Amarillo. A few minutes on the Weather Channel made it all clear. We had to change our plans.

We decided to make a run for Russellville, AR where we had planned to visit one of Cynthia’s cousins, but later than it was working out to be. We hit the road early trying to get out ahead of the front. By the time we got to Oklahoma, the skies were much clearer (albeit not completely without clouds) so we decided to side track about 25 miles and visit Washita Battlefield NHS and Black Kettle National Grassland. Washita was the site of an Indian massacre perpetrated by none other than, you guess it, General Custer in 1868. After traveling out that way, I got a new appreciation for the Oklahoma countryside that stayed with me all day as we passed farm after farm. The Washita River is a beautiful area although cloaked in tragedy. We got back on I-40 headed east, set the cruise control for 75 and ground away the 552 miles to Russellville, eventually out-running the weather, at least for Thursday! Our gas mileage suffered quite a bit at 75 mph while fighting a head wind though. No matter, beats riding in the rain! We arrived safe and sound at Cynthia’s cousins and we had a grand time catching up. We plan a few days here visiting and waiting till the weather passes and then we’ll back track a bit and explore northeast Arkansas before continuing east into Mississippi.

Stay tuned!

We started out our 2015 tour with a quick trip to Manzanar National Historical Site just a little north of Lone Pine, California on US 395. We opted to take the scenic route through Death Valley and as usual, the ride and scenery did not disappoint. We had never been in the park as far east as Stovepipe Wells before. With a brief stop at the Visitor’s Center (long enough to drop the bike in the parking lot on a slow speed turn…) we had great weather all the way to Manzanar.

Manzanar NHS is the site for one of the 10 Japanese internment camps in the west built at the beginning of WWII to house Japanese-Americans for most of the war with Japan. Though not much remains of the camp, the history behind the decision to intern Japanese-Americans, build the camp and how the folks made it their home for many years is a fascinating story. There is a first class visitor’s center complete with a museum, gift shop and a truly great film outlining the events surrounding Manzanar. Easy to get to, it is well worth a visit to understand a bit of US history not widely known. After our visit, we drove back down US 395 for an overnight stay in Lone Pine. Not much was happening in Lone Pine and we made it an early night. The whole round trip was 486 miles and was a great opener for our 2015 quest.

With some fine winter riding in Nevada in between, fast forward to February 6. This day we left on another trip to bag an additional site in CA with our first trip to San Diego. Cabillo National Monument is a monument to Juan Rodriguez Cabillo who was the first European to set foot on what is now the western United States in 1542. Positioned high on the mountain peninsula separating the Pacific Ocean from the San Diego Bay, the views were pretty nice, albeit chilly! We had great weather for our visit and hiked around the visitor’s center for a while, taking in all the sights and ambiance of the place. There are lots of trails to explore and worth a visit is to see the tidal pools, the Point Loma Light House and stop by the Kelp Forest and Whale Overlook. We stayed north of the city to avoid the downtown traffic and did not get into San Diego at all. We will probably re-visit San Diego when we are on a different kind of quest. This round trip was 685 miles and it is an easy one day-one way trip.

Our next outing was a local run on February 9 with a quick visit to Hoover Dam (can you believe it we didn’t get here last year even though it is only about 30 miles away?!). We parked on the Arizona side and walked back across the dam to get a few pictures. I couldn’t believe how expensive the dam tours were! I thought by now the dam had been paid for! Not long visiting there, we headed south on US 95 into Kingman, AZ to ride the Oatman Highway, also known as part of US 66. This is my favorite part of US 66 in that it has plenty of flat straight road but the stretch up through the mountains towards Oatman (from the east) will challenge your corning skills. Though the road surface isn’t the greatest, it will still take you back in time. Watch out for those loose donkeys in Oatman! We were able to get a picture of the sign designating the US 66 National Backcountry Byway to satisfy another point in out tour. Back home it was a short 250 or so mile round trip for the day.

So far we’ve rode 4,207 (since January 1) and clocked 3 states and 4 parks in our National Parks Tour. Stay tuned, much more to come! Greg & Cynthia