Made it to Omaha

We made it back to Omaha! Left the motel in Dalhart, TX this a.m. around 4:30 and we just got back to the Omaha area at 2:00. Whew!!!

All I can think about now is cleaning my bike....we rode through some rain in Texas...or was it Oklahoma...hmmm, maybe it was Kansas...whatever, it left my bike looking really bad!




I'll be here at my brother's house for a couple days and then head back to Florida Thursday a.m. with a (hopeful) arrival of Friday night.

On the road again....

Said goodbye to Tucson at around 4:00 a.m. today. We rode all day and made it to Dalhart, Tx for the night. Best Western motel right next to the train tracks...oh joy :) No pics today as we were too busy making time on the bikes.

Tomorrow we'll leve early again as we have about 590 miles to cover. Hopefully arrive in the Omaha area mid to late afternoon.

Tucson day 2

Had a great dinner of fish tacos, homemade salsa and guacamole and mango chutney last night...topped off by Key Lime Pie!! Thanks goodness I did not eat breakfast or lunch yesterday!

This morning we arose early and went for a 3.5 mile hike up/down one of the local mountains. We got some great pics of Tucson from up there!

Following that we washed the bikes and then a dip in the pool. This afternoon Mike and I are going to take Wyatt for a motorcycle ride again, to one of his favorite destinations...Dairy Queen!! Hey, I'm not complaining! Probably another pool dip later on today and then we are ordering pizza fro dinner.

Tomorrow we plan to hit the road at ~4:00 a.m. to beat the heat.



MORE PICS HERE!(CLICKY)

Kickin back in Tucson

We left San Diego today around 5:30 a.m. for Tucson. It was mid 60's when we left Sn Diego but dropped like a rock into the 40's as we entered the mountains. Needless to say my teeth were chattering. But as has been the norm, within a couple hours we had hit the 80's, then 90's and finally high of 101 degrees. Not a lot of fun riding in that kind of heat, low humidity notwithstanding.

We arrived around 12:15 at my friends Dave and Julie's place in Tucson and were greeted by a cool, refreshing dip in the pool!

Later I took one of their sons, Wyatt, on a ride on the Guzzi, which he appeared to enjoy. Since then we have been kicking back, enjoying some foosball and a margarita. Later I get to assist in grilling the fish for fish tacos.

It's been a lot of fun to catch up with Dave and Julie and just hang out. very relaxing. Tomorrow looks like a hike up one of the local Tucson mountains.....

MORE PICS HERE! (CLICKY)

San Diego

Today's journey took us to San Diego. from here will will leave early tomorrow to Tucson.

The ride to San Diego was easy....just 2.5 hours.

Here are some pics from today...










MORE PICS HERE (CLICKY!)

Guzzi rally Day 2 and Santa Monica Pier!

It's been a fun day on day 2 of the Moto Guzzi rally. We got to the rally site around 8:30 and signed up for demo rides on the new Guzzi models.

I signed up to ride the new Beva 1200 Sport and Mike rode the Griso 1100. We had a goup of about 7 bikes and the Guzzi folks took us onto some verychallenging, curvy roads for the 35 minute test ride. So challenging in fact, that on the first sharp curve, one fella stalled the engine on a brand new black Nroge and then proceeded to dump the bike on its side. The guy behind him then proceeded to run into the the don bike and he fell over too. Sheesh. I quickly pulled off the road and assisted in picking up the fallen bikes. Nobody was hurt and just some scratches on the bikes.

We continued on and it was a blast riding the 1200 Sport.

After the demo ride, we headed south on the Pacific coast highway to Santa Monica to see the famed pier. That was really cool! Really nice beach, loads of people and restaurants and even an amusement park on the pier!

Tomorrow night staying in San Diego then Friday a.m. early off to Tucson... :=)






MORE PICS HERE!!(CLICK ME!)

Guzzi Rally Day One

We had a load of fun today at day one of the Guzzi rally. Started out by riding down to the rally site on a nice road with some great sweeping curves. We arrived at the rally site, Leo Carillo State Park, which is right across the Pacific Coast Highway from the Pacific Ocean.

When we arrived, about 10 a.m. there where probably 60-70 rally goers in attendance. As the day went on, however, more than 200 were on hand.

We milled around for a bit, meeting some folks and chatting, then decided to go find lunch. We found a nice place right on the ocean called Neptunes Palace...shrimp tacos...mmmm mmm good!

After that we decided to ride some of the great mountain roads in the area. I did not know what to expect, but these were unbelievable roads! Tight turn after tight turn, blind curves, switchbacks, altitude changes, unbelievable scenery! On the first road we tried, Decker Canyon road, after we rounded the corner on the first tight curves, we were greeted by a fire truck tending to folks (they were ok) who had flipped their SUV rounding the curve! There are loads of opportunities to have something bad happen on these roads if one is not very aware and careful.


We also visited the Moto Guzzi/Piaggio dealer in Thousand Oaks. Really nice operation.

We returned to the rally site for more conversation and looking at cool bikes followed by a dinner of shredded pork fajitas.....excellent stuff! I even got to meet renowned motorcycle writer Clement Salvadori! Got to shake his hand and talk to him even :=)






I took lots of pics and posted them HERE (click me!)

California here I come!

Left Phoenix this a.m. headed for the Malibu, CA area. Stepping out of my siser's house at 6 a.m. the temperature was 93 degrees...at 6 a.m.!!!

We rode across the Arizona desert into California with temperaures ranging between 104 and 107 degrees all the while. It was pretty brutal...opening my helmet's faceshield felt like a blast furnace. The heat beat us down pretty good but nothing a McDonald's OJ, cup o' joe and sausage biscuit wouldn't cure, right?!


Well, while the breakfast was good, the power of Ronald McD is overrated...the heat still faced us as we left. For the next couple hours as we crossed the desert on I-10 we dealt with temps above 100 degrees. Near Palm Springs we saw a really cool windmill farm....what looked like over 1000 masive windmills sppinning away. The area was extremely windy and keeping the bike on course was a bit of a challenge.



We finally made it into the L.A. area and rode on the famous Ventura Highway for a while. The verysame one that was the subject of the great tune by the group America. We finally made it to the hotel in Calabasas in the early afternoon. Nice place...cold air conditioning!! :=) We found a good place for dinner and a couple Widmer wheat ales to round out the day.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the Naional Moto Guzzi rally, so expect lots more pics to come....

Alive and well(sorta) in Phoenix, AZ

Today's ride took us from Tucumcari, NM to my sister Mara's house in Phoenix. We left at 5:30 this morning and had beautiful weather for most of the ride. Temps started off at about 70 degrees in Tucumcari but luckily we made the wise decision to wear an extra layer under the jacket, anticipating some cooler temps at elevation. We saw temps in the mid 50's around the Albuquerque area and that had me shivering in the seat of the Breva.

Our route included a lot of interstate highway unfortunately as we had to cover 630 miles or so. Luckily though I-40 through New Mexico is actually very scenic and has great elevation changes with picturesque of mountains. We were about 7,000 feet above sea level.

For those of you have not seen New Mexico you should give it a look...beautiful state.

Up until we got into Arizona the riding was a real pleasure. Once we hit Holbrook on I-40 we decided to get off the interstate and head south on some state highways. We took hwy 77 to hwy 277 to hwy 260 and then to hwy 87, which leads right to Phoenix. These were some really great roads with plenty of curves and elevation changes.

Initially the temps were fine because we were at elevation, mostly in the mid 80s. But as we descended into the valley the temperatures skyrocketed, eventually reaching an uncomfortable 111 degrees!!! But flying down hwy 87 in Phoenix is too cool, feeling like a racetrack with these maniac drivers here, but we did our best to keep up with the flow (wink). The heat is really unbearable here though and made for a tough afternoon of riding.

My sister Mara and her husband Robert have been fantastic hosts, making us an awesome dinner and showing us around their neighborhood and their house. Robert has done a fantastic job of customizing their new house. It was great to see my nephews Aidan and Roman...what cute and very friendly kids!

Tomorrow takes us to Malibu, California and we'll be there a coule days attending the annual Moto Guzzi National rally.

Here are some pics from today....

Gettin our kicks on Route 66 - Tucumcari, NM

Day 3 of the journey to the Guzzi National in Malibu,CA was a long one. We started out at 4:30 a.m. from Springfield, MO and finally made it Tucumcari, NM at 5:00. A long day and we covered just shy of 700 miles.

Luckily weather was favorable and even crossing the all of Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle temperaures never exceeded 85 degrees.

Oklahoma was rather boring to ride but its saving grace was that there are miles and miles of the original Route 66 running parallel to I-40. It's amazing how narrow Route 66 was....from what we saw in most places just one narrow lane in each direction. Luckily there are numerous places where you can hop off I-40 and onto Route 66 and have it all to yourself.....just 50 yards from the interstate for much of the way.

We rode chunks of Route 66 and stopped in at a couple of the towns whose names were made by this great road. The Guzzis were a constant source of conversation, eliciting a lot of questions and compliments from folks. So far they have hummed along nicely, hour after hour, town after town.

We are staying at the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, an original Route 66 motel from 1937. Tucumcari was once a thriving haven fr rod weary travelers when Route 66 was THE way to get from Chicago to LA by vehicle. It once boasted 2000 motel rooms. Now, the shells of many of those motels litter Route 66 running down e middle of Tucumcari....yet some of those original motels survive and I am happy to say some of these old wrecks have been resurrected since my last visit here 3 years ago.