June 12 - Ely, NV to Ontario, OR - Just Racking Up the Miles to our Destination!

Well, we actually got up at a decent hour, maybe 6:30 or so.  Got showered, packed, bikes loaded and ready to roll.  I have to have my coffee in the morning to feel awake and ready to face the day and fortunately our room had a coffee service.  So I made a little pot.  Unfortunately, it was full strength caffeine and I don't do caffeine.  Haven't done caffeine since about 1976.  Nope, no caffeine sodas, coffee or anything.  Silly me, I had decaf packets in my cooler but figured, heck, a cup or two won't hurt.  WRONG!!!  We finished loading the bikes, geared up and headed out.  I had cotton mouth and the shakes immediately.  Yikes!!  Not good.  I kept drinking water as we rode which I'm sure helped subdue the caffeine. Okay, I learned my lesson - NO CAFFEINE for Cletha :-)

I'd like to say today was an incredibly exciting, wild, crazy day...but it wasn't.  We opted to ride for 100 miles or so before we stopped for a meal.  We headed out from the Four Sevens going north through Ely, NV to Hiway 93 (the same one that took us to Ely).  The weather was calm and not much traffic at that hour.  However, it became quite evident that this portion of Hiway 93 was well traveled with a LOTS of Semi Trucks and other traffic.  Much busier than yesterday.  We had ample opportunity to make passes safely, which we did.  We ran about 3 miles over the posted limited and got passed plenty ourselves.

We rode about 100 miles from Ely and stopped in Wells, NV for a meal at this place.

 It looks like a dive and frankly, it is :-)  However the food was delish.  It was clean and the service was very good.  We ordered a breakfast that we shared.  Folks, $20 + for 2 pieces of french toast, 3 pieces of bacon, two eggs split between two people?  Oh, yeah, we ordered a side of bacon for $5.70.  I drank water and Eric had a small coke.  The bacon was lovely as was the entire meal.  But, hey, $20+ for a single meal shared between two people......  Okay, rant over.  It was good.

It was here that I looked over the bike, making sure all was good and tight.  And then I noticed my gas cap was missing!!!!  Yikes!!! Missing....  Now, to be up front about this, I have a race cap for a gas cap.  The original keyed gas cap is something that breaks almost immediately and costs a lot to replace.  I opted for a race cap, no key, just a threaded cap.  It makes all my gas stops much quicker and no problem.  In the past few years, two have gone missing.  Hahaha, I have to tell you, both times Eric was riding my bike when they went missing :-)

But, this time it was ME.  Dang...well, I had a spare taped to the inside of my top box so I pulled that out of its packaging and twisted it on the opening.  I told Eric and we both agreed that maybe the combination of the new Heidenau knobby tires and the speeds we were riding might contribute to a vibration that could cause the gas cap to become loose.  Okay...I'd be watching that baby really close from now on.  No more spares and only about 20 something more days to ride!

We left Wells with full tummies and headed north on Hiway 93.  I'd like to say it was a crazy, interesting ride, but it wasn't.  We just slogged along.   We hit a construction zone that said maybe a 30 minute wait.  Ick.  It was getting HOT and the wind was starting to blow.  Fortunately it was only about 15 minutes.  Hey, after a few minutes of waiting, Eric ran up to the front and politely asked if we could move our bikes to the front.  The flagger said no problem, however by the time Eric ran back to the bike, the oncoming traffic was visible, so we couldn't.

NOTE:  If you're in this situation, politely ask the flagger if you can move your bikes to the front of the line.  Eric told the flagger that we would pass the folks (semi trucks) anyway and it would be nice if we could just move up.  The flagger was good with this but see above.  We were too slow :-)  It all worked out anyway.  But just a tip.

After we followed the pilot car we were able to make some nice passes around two semi trucks and some slow drivers and get up to a reasonable speed.  We motored on....through not so scenic scenery :-) Then the wind picked up and we had not so nice side winds from Wells to Jackpot.

We finally, finally, finally, got to Jackpot, Nevada and said Goodbye Nevada, Hello Idaho!

 My hand got really tired holding up this building in Nevada.

 So I dropped that darn building so I could wave goodbye to Nevada!

 We motored on, still on Hiway 93, all the way to Twin Falls, ID.  Finally, we stopped for a gas and smoky treats break in Twin Falls.  It was HOT.  The temps were pushing 95 degrees. I had all my vents open and was fine as long as we were moving.  But stopped, oh my heck, HOT. (Such a Utah saying, "oh my heck" and I'm actually from Washington).

While at the gas stop, we had a nice visit with a fellow dressed for success complete with tie.  He wanted to know where we were from and where we were going.  This is a common theme for Long Distance Riders :-)  We told him and had a nice chat.  For all his professional looking get up, he is actually a rider with a Concours for street and a KLR for off road.  We had a nice visit while we stood in the shade cooling down.  I love to meet new folks on the road, especially those that understand the wanderlust and long distance riding desire.

From Twin Falls, ID we hopped on Interstate 84 heading west for a couple of hours.  Drone, drone, drone.  Well, but for the heat, it climbed up to 96 tops (our low today was 68 in Ely).  Man it got hot and then the wind begin to blow again in earnest from the side.  Yeah, you all know what that's about.  Fight the wind to keep your bike going in a straight line and wipe the sweat from your brow.  Nice.

We stopped in Mountain Home, ID where it was HOT and WINDY.  This is where Eric told me his CB lost power and his GPS could no longer talk to him.  Fun huh?

Oh well, we knew where we were going and it wasn't that much further.  Maybe another 100 miles or so.

My little, sweet F650GS HATES the heat.  Some of you might remember it overheating multiple times until the last time which was fatal resulting in a new engine.  I was thinking about this as the temperature climbed higher and higher and the wind blew stronger and stronger.  I kept a close eye on the outside temperature, the bike temperature and all the gauges on the bike.  I was kind of concerned, no, I was really concerned.  Here we are only two days into our adventure and I'm worried about the damn gas filler cap coming off and my bike overheating and dying.  Well, it keeps one engaged anyway!

So, nothing seemed to break or pop or die and I just kept motoring along.  We finally got here:

And waved goodbye to Idaho.  Only another mile or two to our destination.

Ontario, Oregon.  We were headed to the Ontario Inn which Eric had checked out on Trip Advisor.  Great...I just followed him off the freeway and through town and on and on and on.  Hot, hot, hot.  We finally arrived and got checked in.  Yay!  We unloaded the bikes and Eric took off looking for a hardware store to get what he needed to fix my gas cap and his CB/electrical issue.

I, on the other hand, took a nice cold shower and put on clean clothes.  Then I made a cocktail and enjoyed myself (selfish bitch, aren't I?).  Eric returned with what he needed and very kindly took to fixing a tether for my gas cap (hey, I no longer had a spare and really didn't want to lose this one!).

Here is the result.

Thank you my most wonderful husband!!!   We'll probably order another spare to pick up somewhere in Alaska or the Yukon  But, for now, I'm tethered and don't think I'll lose it.  What a relief!

After repairing my bike, he moved on to his.  No I didn't take pictures, whose blog is this anyway?  Fortunately, he was able to locate the problem regarding the CB and make appropriate repairs.  Finally, he got his cold shower and cold cocktail and had a moment to relax.

All tucked in for the night.  Notice that Eric parked under the awning and Cletha is parked in an open air space.  Hope it doesn't rain tonight :-)

We ordered pizza delivered to the room.  Neither of us wanted to go anywhere and that made life easy.

Tomorrow we're headed for another 425 miles or so to Omak, Washington.  Mostly small roads.  The weather forecast is for decent weather and not particularly hot.  Should be a great ride.

Take care my friends and I'll blog again tomorrow of our adventure!

Cheers,
Cletha

And...We're Officially on Vacation!!

This morning brought sunshine and HOT.  Eric had to work until 2:30 pm so while I waited for him to get home, I finished packing up my bike and waited and waited and waited.  Yippee!  Eric's got home, took a quick shower and finished loading his bike.  We were out the door at 3:20 pm in 100 degree temperatures.  Our goal for today was Ely, NV, only about 230 miles from home.

We were on roads that are very familiar to us, having been to Ely countless times.  Fortunately, as we moved north, the temperatures fell and we mostly rode in 85 degrees.  Quite comfortable and absolutely no traffic.  We filled our gas tanks (both main and aux) in Veyo, UT which is about 20 miles from home.  From there is was head toward Nevada.

Goodbye Utah!

 And hello Nevada :-)

We took a quick break in Panaca, NV

And then rode on through lots of this.

We did have a very brief squall blow by but I only counted three tiny raindrops on my windscreen.  We did get some wind but nothing crazy. For the most part, it was a lovely ride.  

What's this?  Atlanta 25 miles?  Oh, not THAT Atlanta.  It must be Atlanta, NV. I've always wondered what was there.  Maybe next time we go to Ely we'll make time to find Atlanta.

 We also passed this sign.  I'm pretty sure this will be on our agenda to ride soon.

 We made a short break stop at Pony Springs, NV.  There is nothing there but a trash container and some broken picnic tables.  But there are some trees and the shade was welcome.

 It was nice to reach Ely and check in to the Cognoscente's favorite Ely motel, The Four Sevens.  We brought in our gear and covered up the bikes for the night.

We shared a burger at the Hotel Nevada for dinner and now, after a lovely cocktail, I'm headed to bed.  Our goal tomorrow is Ontario, Oregon which is about 435 miles.  The weather report is calling for nothing but sunshine!

I'm so excited to finally be on vacation and am really looking forward to going places I've never been before.

Cheers,

Cletha

Final Countdown to Alaska and the Yukon

It seems like it took forever but in fact, time has flown by and now we're down to the final countdown before embarking upon our adventure.  Today I packed up my cooler with snacks and a few easy to make meals for those days when we just don't feel like going to a restaurant.  I also packed a dry bag with a pair of tennis shoes stuffed with socks.  I think I'll be glad to have the tennis shoes when hiking around Dawson City, Denali and other places.  I also filled the dry bag with more goodies for snacking.  I decided to leave the wonderful salmon jerky at home because it is very aromatic and I have visions of grizzly bears making a beeline to my bike.

We plan on departing tomorrow afternoon and all I have left to do it pack up my laptop computer.  For reference, I'll be wearing my LD Comfort zip top and tights under my riding gear.  I'm only taking the one set and will simply give them a good wash when necessary.  For casual clothes, I packed a pair of black yoga pants, short sleeve T-shirt, cotton spaghetti strap shirt, denim shorts, a long sleeve denim shirt and a fleece jacket. Of course, I have undies, socks and a swimsuit.  I cleaned out and lightened up my toiletry bag and threw in a pair of flip flops.  That's it!

Everything fit nicely in my top case bag with room to spare.  Guess that means I can buy some souvenirs along the way :-)  Always resident on my bike is my heated jacket along with a bandanna or two, a cooling kerchief, and an LD Comfort headliner.

Ah, I did go through all the bags, panniers, tank bag, fuel cell bag, and all the nooks and crannies on the bike and thinned down my flashlight collection to a manageable level.  I don't know why but I have a flashlight fetish.  I love them!!!!  All sizes, shapes, colors.  I have a similar fetish for buckets but I don't plan on bringing any on this trip.  Oh wait, I do have that collapsible camping bucket....nah, not taking it!

Here are a few of my favorite flashlights.

The penlight style flashlight is killer!  I mean really, it will burn your eyeballs.  I love it!!!  It is definitely coming with me in the tank bag.

Then Eric got me this great light.  Nice heft and great light and not huge.

 You can zoom the light to a small square or back out to wide area.  It is also in my tank bag.

 This little light is fun simply because it has a compass on top.

 Safety matches with striker inside and the flashlight is pretty bright too.  I'm leaving this one at home, sigh.  I have a caribiner with a compass and a GPS.  I also have spare lighters and safety matches.  So, as much as this little light makes me giggle, it's staying home.

 This is just a small, easy to hold flashlight.  I left this one at home.  (Oh, I have a similar one tucked in a pocket on the fuel cell).

 And, I would never leave home without my D cell Maglight.  Eric tells me it can make a pretty good weapon and the light isn't half bad either.  It resides in my fuel cell bag, in the top pocket directly behind me.

I almost forgot, I always have this little light attached to my riding jacket.  It comes in handy at times.  It came with my Spot "Adventure" kit.  I use it as my jacket zipper pull.

We also prepared for mosquitoes and bugs.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, we sprayed our riding gear with bug stuff.  We are also carrying Coleman 100% Deet in individual pump spray bottles and a bunch of the OFF brand Deep Woods towelettes.

 I'll keep both of these products in my tank bag for easy reach and application as needed.

I'm really hoping that with so much bug protection we'll be overkill and the bugs won't be bad this year at all, LOL.  Regardless, I think we're prepared.  Along with all that bug stuff we also have these.

This cracks me up.  It's almost as good as my picture of Eric with a bucket on his head.  I love how he humors me.  And, I'm sure we'll be glad we brought them along.

I've selected my paper maps.

And have a file folder that fits in my pannier with our itinerary, copies of motel and ferry reservations, maps and an Iron Butt Magazine for those special photo ops.

I guess at this point if I didn't pack it, I either don't need it or can purchase it along the way.  I really made an effort to lighten up the load while covering as many contingencies as I could think.  All in all, I'm satisfied with what I'm taking.  Worst case, I'll be pulling out the credit card :-)

So, I'm counting down in hours now.  Tomorrow, I'll clean out the fridge and take my house plants to a neighbor so they don't die.  Before I know it, we'll be geared up and headed out.  I hope you'll watch my Spot and follow my blog.

Here is a link to my Spot page:   Cletha's Spot

My goal is to be in the top ten if not the number one place for Spotwalla for 2014.  Only you can help me get there!

The adventure is about to begin :-)

Cheers,

Cletha

Preparations for the Yukon/Alaskan Adventure

Preparations for our adventure have begun in earnest.  We are now on countdown, 10 days to lift off.  Maybe only 9, depends on our schedule next week.  Anyway, our departure is rapidly descending upon us and I want to be ready.

I purchased new Ladies Klim Altitude riding gear a month or so ago.  I can totally attest that it is rain proof (snow, sleet and hail proof, too!).  I washed my gear and Eric's so we can spray it with bug be gone stuff.  I think that will be nice when we get north where the skeeters are gigantic.

This is the goo we sprayed on our gear.  I hope it lives up to it's reputation :-)

Guess this is just as good a time as any to give a quick review of my new Klim Altitude riding gear.  First, it's not cheap.  No, it's incredibly expensive and I expect it to last a long, long time.  After years of asking, Klim finally stepped up and produced a Ladies line of adventure riding style gear.  I'm pretty darn happy with it.  Well, except for the color.  It's almost white with silver inserts and orange trim.  I like the orange trim but the almost white is a fail.  It gets filthy in quick time and doesn't wash clean.  I wish they had used the darker grey/silver for the main sections rather than the almost white.

The jacket is well built with lots of pockets.  Good zippers and lots of adjustability in the arms, waist, hips and neck.  I really wish they had put gussets on the sleeve cuffs.  I can barely get my summer, light weight gloves under the cuffs.  My heavy winter gloves with long gauntlets go over the cuffs and I don't know what to do with my mid-weight waterproof gloves.  I'd like to tuck them under the cuffs but that won't work so I guess I'll have to try and tuck the cuffs under the small gauntlet of the gloves.  More on this as I try it out.  Regardless, a gusset in the cuffs would be awesome.  Also, the pockets are NOT waterproof.  Listen up Klim :-)

I have no problem wearing my heated jacket liner under the Klim jacket.  I have plenty of room in the neck (unlike Leslie).  I like that the front zipper is a two way zipper.  When sitting on the bike, I like to unzip a few inches from the bottom especially when using my heated liner.  That way, the electric connection is easy peasy.  I hate the placement of the neck adjustment cord.  It is in the center back of the neck and my long hair catches on it all the time and it pulls...not good.  I wish they had put the adjustment cord on the side.

Here is a pic of the gear.  Underneath, I'm wearing LD Comfort zip top (pink) and tights (black) along with Drymax Socks and my new SIDI Adventure Rain boots.  This will be my everyday riding gear.  I'll complement the gear with the appropriate gloves (depending on weather) and heated liner when needed.  In this pic, I'm all zipped up and ready to ride (after putting on helmet).

 The jacket has some really nice features, one of which is the ability to open the collar and secure it with snaps so it doesn't flip or flap around when moving at speed.  I really like that.

The jacket also has great vents.  When the weather heated up, I opened all the vents and gee, it was awesome.  Lots of airflow to keep me cool.  Wish I could say the same about the pants but I cant.  The pants have a great fit and are extremely comfortable and move and stretch easy, however, they do not vent very well and in the heat that is a problem.  Also, the front pockets on the pants are a joke.  They are shallow and I can't see a use for them at all.  That was disappointing.  However, like I said, the pants fit very well and are super comfortable both walking around and in the riding position.  The knee armor fits well with no adjustment needed.

I'm wearing my Sidi Adventure Rain boots and I LOVE them.  They fit perfect from day one although they squeak something fierce.  I won't be able to sneak up on anyone!  I like that they are waterproof...yes, I've verified that many times.  And I really like the lug soles.  That gives me a lot of confidence on dirt, gravel or rough surfaces.  Yep, I love these boots.   I know, they are dirty!  Our last ride involved a muddy water crossing on a dirt road ;-)

I'll also be wearing my Schuberth C3W helmet that has J&M speakers installed.  I love my Schuberth.  It fits well and is lightweight.  It has a flip up front and a wonderful drop down sun visor.  When I first got the helmet, we did have to "spoon" a bit to get it to fit my dinky head but now it's perfect.  I need to adjust my Pinlock visor as it got wet and fogged up last time I used it.  But, I think we can sort out this issue and make everything golden.  When it gets cold or wet, I use the LD Comfort helmet liner and it keeps my head nice and warm.  That is definitely placed in the easy to reach spot on the bike!

I'll post another more detailed blog at a later date about the gear and how it performs for me.  I just wanted to give you an overview of my set-up.

Here is what I look like all geared up for a ride.

Besides my riding gear, I have new RUMBUX skid plate and crash bars.  And bonus, crash bar bags!!  Yippee.  These awesome bars will replace my current SW Motech bars.  The RUMBUX are much more beefy and protect higher up.  I'm happy to have this upgrade to my F650GS.

 This picture (above) shows the SW Motech bars already installed on my bike and my new RUMBUX bars and bar bags on the garage floor.

 Oh yeah, baby, that's what I'm talking about.  Oh yes, I'm a happy girl.

This picture is with the SWMotech bars.

And here are the RUMBUX bars.  See how much beefier they are?  And, they offer better all over protection.

Here is a picture of the RUMBUX skid plate.  I'm debating on putting the radiator guard on or not.

So, as of today, I have new Rumbux crash bars and skidplate.  New brake pads front and rear.  New air filter and oil change with new oil filter.  The chain looks good (but I have a spare in the pannier).  New Heidenau K60 Scout tire on the rear and a Shenko 705 on the front.  I hope to replace the front in a few days if the replacement Heidenau shows up.  The local dealer ruined my original front Heidenau when they attempted to mount it.  They assure me they have ordered a new one for me but it hasn't shown up.  Regardless, I have a good set of new tires ready for our trip.

Eric and I both have fuel cells that we will keep mounted on the bikes for this adventure.  That will add a small level of comfort or just take us longer to run out of gas!

I spent time today cleaning out my panniers and repacking everything.  I checked all the emergency lights and made sure I have spare batteries.  I eliminated my Frog Toggs because my Klim gear is waterproof and I won't need the additional rain gear.  I checked over my tire repair kits and need to get some fresh glue but other than that, I'm good with stickies, plugs, proper tools and compressor.

I have a few tools (especially chain repair and replace tools!), chain lube, a first aid kit, rain cover, miscellaneous zip ties, tapes, glues, fuses and stuff one should probably have in case of emergency.  Yup, emergency lights, flashlights, flares, and whatever along with plenty of spare batteries.  Bungy cords and a cargo net along with several plastic ziplock bags are also in the panniers as well as spare oil filter and fuel filter.  I've tucked in foot and hand warmers (never know it might get chilly), space blanket, mosquito wipes, ear plugs, hat and belly bag.  There's probably more stuff but this is the meat of it.

I forget to mention some things because they are just part of my bike like the Spot tracker, ZUMO GPS, CB Radio, and volt meter.  Heated grips and heat troller for my electric jacket.  I also carry a can of Plexus with several clean cloths for cleaning my faceshield, windscreen and lights.

I have a Wolfman tankbag that I need to re-arrange.  Then, I think all I need to do is pack a set or two of street clothes, some shoes, a swimsuit and my toiletries and I'll be ready.  Oh, I'll definitely pack my cooler (a/k/a portable bar) with snacks, sodas and juice.  I already have a hydration system on the bike so will keep that full of ice and water.

LOL, I totally forgot to give information on our bikes!!  Eric is riding his 2012 Yamaha Super Tenere.  He currently has about 74,000 plus miles on it.  He is using Heidenau K60 Scouts both front and back.  He has a beautiful, custom Ernie Azevedo flat fuel cell mounted over the pillion area, RUMBUX crash bars and skid plate and a number of other customized farkles.

I'll be riding my 2011 BMW F650GS with about 74,000 plus miles on it.  Hahaha, Eric jumped ahead of me on miles because my bike was out for a good part of the riding season two years ago getting the engine rebuilt!  My bike is loaded with after market products - simply too many to list.  But, I have made it incredibly comfortable for me to stay on for long periods in any weather.

Thanks for reading and soon we'll be on our way.  I will try to be a good blogger and entertain you daily with pictures and stories of our ride.

Cheers for now,
Cletha