Last Hurrah Ride - 2022

[FJRPittsburgh]

Amazing ride report Scott! Thank you for taking the time to document the trip and share it with us. Don't let Steel_Gin see this or he's going to be riding out there next year on a Tenere.....

[Burnspot]

Sept. 4th, 2022 - Event Departure
It was Sunday morning and time for us to depart La Pine and see where we would wind up. We had initially wanted to go south, into California, but Doug Plumley warned us off...a heatwave was going on in the region. There was also the wildfire situation, which had closed a number of roads into California the day before (we saw the roadside signs stating as much during our Crater Lake travels). So, in an effort to stay cool and do something interesting, the travel planning committee recommended we go north (Doug and others, lol). To get there, we decided to run for the coast and then turn north! We'd stop for the day when we got tired...here's what the day provided:


Our first stop along the route was to view the Three Sisters, a group of 3 old volcanic peaks along US 20 in Sisters, OR.






Precision photography at work...


Oregon's geography here was quite interesting; a lot of jagged, ripped off, and oddly shaped peaks, thanks to the volcanism. Further along US 20...




We continued along US 20 and took a break as we crossed over I-5. We briefly mulled over the proliferation of weed shops and the number of camper vans, then carried on (I'm milking it as I have no photos for a bit)

We came upon US 101 and the coast at last! We stopped briefly in Newport for some quick photos, proving we'd done it, before moving on.


Moving north on 101, we rolled into the town of Depoe Bay and took a longer break, taking in the scenery while also trying to figure out where we'd be staying for the night. Note the "Motorcycle Only" parking; a nice touch!

Bob seeking out our hotel for the night...






Bob eventually found a room for us in Seaside, OR, a bit over 100 miles north. This would turn out to be the most expensive room on the trip and probably one of the lowest quality, but the ocean man... You wouldn't know it from the photos in Depoe Bay, but it wasn't long after we rolled north out of town, that we encountered rain and, at times, sizeable amounts of it. At the rest area, where we stopped to cover tank bags and make other preparations, we noted the teens standing around a car, with the odor of pot in the air; we'd become fairly used to that by now, lol.

Googlelina tried her best to keep us clear of the holiday traffic jams that were all over 101, taking us off 101 and inland, at one point, on some roads reminiscent of our favorites in the Smokies. We didn't get to see too much of the ocean thanks to the low clouds clinging to the coastline almost the entire distance, thus no photos. The rain let off as we rolled into Seaside, OR, our destination for the night.

The hotel was "ok", but not really worth the price...it is what it is. We unloaded the bikes and sought out the restaurant next door before it closed; Ruby's Roadside Grill, which turned out to be pretty good! As usual, we toasted the ride...


Tomorrow would be interesting as it'd involve a ferry and some old stomping grounds.

More to come!

[Panman]

I like stopping in Depot Bay, a lot of whales hang out there and fun to watch them rolling!
In that third picture you see the boat coming in down by the white building. It's fun to stand down there when the boats are coming in with the rollers, It's a narrow intrance into the inter harbor with a small dog leg and fun to watch the bigger boats gun it to make the little turn.

[Steel_Gin]

Amazing ride report Scott! Thank you for taking the time to document the trip and share it with us. Don't let Steel_Gin see this or he's going to be riding out there next year on a Tenere.....

After sitting on Blind Squirrel's S10 it has been on my mind a lot!! Good thing I didn't take it out for a ride.

[Panman]

Amazing ride report Scott! Thank you for taking the time to document the trip and share it with us. Don't let Steel_Gin see this or he's going to be riding out there next year on a Tenere.....

After sitting on Blind Squirrel's S10 it has been on my mind a lot!! Good thing I didn't take it out for a ride.

Get both, JSNS.

[Burnspot]

Amazing ride report Scott! Thank you for taking the time to document the trip and share it with us. Don't let Steel_Gin see this or he's going to be riding out there next year on a Tenere.....

After sitting on Blind Squirrel's S10 it has been on my mind a lot!! Good thing I didn't take it out for a ride.

I've no regrets, lol. The S10 did quite well on the trip and my knees thanked me (seat in high position).

[wheatonFJR]

Well, this was not only a Ride FTW, but it is one of the best RRs...cataloging a long trip can definitely be wearying.

[Burnspot]

Sept. 5th, 2022
We awoke to a dry and sunny morning, but still couldn't see the ocean from our deluxe accommodations, heh. We packed up the bikes and headed out to Seaside's downtown area to find a nice little breakfast spot. The food was excellent!




We left Seaside and continued north, eventually coming upon Astoria, its beautiful bridge, and crossing into Washington.




Bob and I each had our moment; here's mine. What an awesome machine and excellent way to traverse the country.


Bob had made 2pm reservations for us to catch the ferry to Whidbey Island at Port Townsend and we had hit Astoria around 9am; the next 190 miles rolled by easily...and I took no photos, lol.

We arrived in Port Townsend at 1pm, with a bit of time to spare before the ferry crossing over to Whidbey Island. YouTube is my primary TV and I enjoy watching sailing channels; it just so happens that one of the channels I watch is Sampson Boat Co., an English fella rebuilding the 100+ year old sailing yacht Tally Ho in Port Townsend (https://www.youtube.com/c/SampsonBoatCo). We passed right by the marina and could've sworn I saw the building he's in, lol.

This would be the first time I'd ever taken a bike on a ferry, so I was looking forward to the experience. We chatted with a few of the other bikers waiting while waiting for the ferry to arrive; it's a 30 minute transit.






Pedestrians, bicycles, then motorcycles...they packed us in. The folks in the car beside us could not exit their vehicle...oh well.




The couple trapped in their car, sitting beside my bike, heh.


The ferry was pretty nice; we enjoyed the ride while eating some ice cream (well, I did...Bob ate his while waiting in line to pay for it, lol).








A short time later, we docked in Coupeville, on Whidbey Island, and rolled out. It was 1988 when I was last on Whidbey Island as a young Marine there for training. The island looked completely transformed from what I remembered from the '80's, but we eventually came upon Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, a place I knew well! We stopped at the entrance for photos...




The A-6E Intruder and EA-6B ruled the skies over Whidbey Island back in the '80's and it was the main training base for all things A-6; I was there to learn all there was to know about the A-6E's powerplants and related systems. A really nice touch with the display A-6E was the November Echo (NE) on the vertical stab...NE was our squadron's tail mark while assigned to the USS Ranger (CV 61). Memories flowed...

Just a page out of the Ranger's WestPac '89 cruise book, while aboard USS Ranger with VMA(AW)-121, where I served as a plane captain.


On our way off the island, we stopped off at the Deception Pass Bridge; spectacular views!








We got back onto the mainland and just had a short ride over to Sedro-Woolley, our stop for the night. The Mexican restaurant next door (Lorenzo's) was probably one of the best we'd come across so far; excellent food (and drinks)!




One funny thing about our hotel was that it was in front of a set of apartments and our room overlooked the pool and these apartments. There was a fella in one of the second floor apartments with a Marine Corps flag hanging on his deck and an absolutely monster-sized TV in clear view of our room. We could sip our whisky and watch him play some sort of video game as if we were at the theater, lol. Anyway, it was a fantastic day and we had another on tap for tomorrow, as we got into the North Cascades National Park!

A summary of the day's ride; Sedro-Woolley is the dot to the east of Mt. Vernon on the pic below.


More to come!

[BikerGeek]

We stopped briefly in Newport for some quick photos, proving we'd done it, before moving on.

Too bad you didn't have time to spend in Newport. Newport is the home of Rogue Brewing. We stayed in Newport when we were out west in 2010 and it was a highlight of our trip.

[Panman]

You guys missed a lot when you headed up the Washington coast, I understand as you were a long ways away from home with much traveling to do.
Last year I rode on the Ferry route you guys took over to Port Townsend for a WVM meet. The Captain came on and told all motorcyclist's to stand by thier rides as the tide was going out and rollers were coming in from the Straits. It was quite a ride.

[Burnspot]

You guys missed a lot when you headed up the Washington coast, I understand as you were a long ways away from home with much traveling to do.
Last year I rode on the Ferry route you guys took over to Port Townsend for a WVM meet. The Captain came on and told all motorcyclist's to stand by thier rides as the tide was going out and rollers were coming in from the Straits. It was quite a ride.

We stopped briefly in Newport for some quick photos, proving we'd done it, before moving on.

Too bad you didn't have time to spend in Newport. Newport is the home of Rogue Brewing. We stayed in Newport when we were out west in 2010 and it was a highlight of our trip.

Yep. Unfortunately, we had a time constraint to work against (namely my job, lol); it would've been fantastic to lazily move through those areas and explore, but we simply didn't have the time. That said, missing stuff just provides a reason to get back out there sometime in the future.

Our ferry ride was butter smooth, with only a few small rollers passing us by.

[Panman]

Hopefully I'm around when you do!

[wheatonFJR]

Hopefully I'm around when you do!

Hopefully I'm with you when you do it again!

[escapefjrtist]

Great stuff Scott...thanks for taking us along. You just passed through ^^^^ my back yard. In-law(s) live on Whidbey near Greenbank, so SO and I are over there quite often!

~G

[Burnspot]

September 6, 2022 - A very long day
*I'm trying to keep my photos in order, but there may be some mixups in these last few days. The dates are fine, but the daily timeline may be off by 3 hours for some taken with my lanyard camera.

After a great breakfast in downtown Sedro-Woolley, we headed east for the North Cascades National Park; the weather was a bit chilly, but nice. North Cascades has no Ranger-equipped gate, so we breezed in and stopped at the visitor center for the requisite stickers and stamps.

While not disgustingly dirty to the degree of Wayne's Mr. Happy, mine is quickly catching up, lol.

This NP has dams all along the river, but most were very difficult to see from the road, at least from what we could tell. I did find a small waterfall under the road bridge.


Burn scars are fairly common in this region.


One of the overlooks for a dam we just couldn't get a good photo of (too much overgrowth and cliffs aren't a great combo).




I wanted to see it...but just no great views and we were not going hiking, lol.


There's a dam, way off in the distance.




The reservoir behind the big dam that we couldn't see.


The smoke was back with us...


Some of the day's ride into the morning sun; a change from earlier in the trip, lol. The riding was excellent and traffic was nil!




A bit east of Ross Lake, we rounded a mountain and found this fella towering over us...it was friggin impressive! Bob snapped this photo for me...








Just gorgeous views!






We eventually arrived in Omak, WA and decided to take a break. Naturally, there was a weed shop next door, a pretty standard thing in these parts, lol.


While taking a break in Omak for a fuel up, we had a couple of things to sort out. First, we needed reservations to get into Glacier NP tomorrow, then, we needed to figure out how far we wanted to go today. We'd tried getting Glacier reservations the other day, but their website said to check back TODAY, so that's what we did; we both secured a reservation for Glacier on our phones...which turned out to be a royal pain in the ass, but we got it done. Second, we thought that perhaps we could make it all the way to Kalispell, MT...that'd make for a 500+ mile day, but would also put us in good shape to hit Glacier. We hit the road and continued on...


That was the last photo I took that day, lol. We stopped one more time for fuel, in Laclede, ID and then stopped in Libby, MT to sort out where we'd be staying for the night. By this time, the sun was starting to get real low in the sky and the shadows were quickly enveloping the mountains; Bob shopped around and found us a room in Kalispell, which was still 90 miles away or so.

This brings up the fact that, earlier in the trip, we determined that Bob's low beams were both burnt out. Now, we'd be running into the night and Bob would rely on either high beams or his LED Rider lights to spot what we knew would be heaps of deer. We set off in the darkness and made for Kalispell on one of the most nerve-wracking legs we'd had on the entire trip, next to my fuel issue earlier, lol. And, boy, did we see the deer! One crossed in front of Bob, but the vast majority hung out right beside the road and stared at us. I'd estimate we saw dozens. We just took it easy and kept our heads on a swivel, eventually pulling into Kalispell after 9pm. Right beside our hotel was another Mexican restaurant that closed at 10pm, so instead of checking in at the hotel, we wheeled into the restaurant's parking lot and celebrated a successful deer passage!

Our day's ride...around 550 or so miles. Sedro-Woolley is the first dot on the left.


We knew it'd be a very long day, but it was filled with some really great riding and spectacular views, plus, it put us in prime position to hit the grand finale in the morning...Glacier National Park.

More to come!

[Bugnatr]

Good stuff Scott, I knew you would like the Cascades Hwy.

[Burnspot]

Good stuff Scott, I knew you would like the Cascades Hwy.

Yep, that was an excellent call! We thoroughly enjoyed it!

[Burnspot]

September 7th, 2022
We loaded up the bikes and found a decent place in Kalispell for breakfast, then turned for Glacier National Park. I'm apologizing in advance; this is a photo heavy post!

We found it...and the smoke. That'd play a spoiler for much of our trip through, unfortunately.


Passing time while shuffling forward slowly.


The line getting in was very long.


We finally...get closer.


The line getting in really wasn't too terrible as it at least kept moving along. The somewhat irksome fact of it though was that a good half of the cars in line did NOT have reservations to get in. About 2-300 yards before the entrance booth, there were two rangers checking for entrance reservations and it looked like a good 50% of the cars were being turned around and asked to leave. The rangers checked Bob and I and we moved on up and, finally, into the park!


I took a billion photos in the park and some of the following may not be in their proper order, but we'll see how I do.

I was last at Glacier as a pre-teen child, on a family vacation (we once had family that lived on Flathead Lake, and we were visiting them), so our visit today was pretty fresh for me, yet hints of my childhood emerged here and there. The smoke, on the other hand, wasn't just a hint.






Making the climb up Going to the Sun Road...traffic going up was NOT bad!




The views were, of course, spectacular, despite the smoke.


But smoke did obscure details one would normally see.










This couple owned the road apparently; there was room for a car in front of us, as I recall, but they decided to be morons.


Hints of snow were around, but we saw nothing major close to the road.




Just breathtaking! All one can really do is be awed at nature's creation.


Of course I did.


Scenic.


Most of the waterfall areas were trickles.


But I found one close.


Nearing the top of Logan Pass






Lovely.


We reached the top of Logan Pass and pulled into the visitor's center parking lot to take a break. Motorcycle-only parking between the end bollards was really nice, considering all of the cars circling like vultures, looking for a spot to park. We met some nice fellow bikers and spent some time taking photos and conversing.








Then we started down on the eastern side, heading towards Saint Mary.






Burn scars along Saint Mary Lake, from a recent fire.


The lake was a fire break, from the looks of it; lots of good trees on the other side while our side was burned out.


Gratuitous beauty shot.


Looking back into the park; burn scar on the right.




And then, it was over. Just as well, my lanyard camera battery was completely dead after that workout; it would see no more use on this trip.


We pulled into Saint Mary for an ice cream break and to start looking into where we'd be stopping for the night. The sign advertising ice cream, outside of the store, was lying...they had none. We sat on the steps and drank some Gatorade while perusing hotel rooms down the road. Beside us was an Argentinian couple on adventure bikes, covered with all sorts of stickers and flags; they were on a journey. On top of one of the bikes sat a dog carrier; they had a cute small dog with them that liked barking at us, heh. Meanwhile, Bob had tracked down a room for us in Malta, 277 miles east of Saint Mary, and was on the phone with the owner, assuring her we'd make it there at a decent time (it was around 1-2pm at this point, as I recall).

Once our room for the night was secured, we struck out east, made it a few miles down the road, and ran into a bizarre construction zone; we could see miles of pavement missing in the distance. First, we had to wait for the pilot car to show up, then, once we got rolling, it was about 10 miles of gravel, rock, mud, soft dirt, all of which Bob was not enjoying. The thing about this construction zone was the stopping and waiting for front-end loaders, dump trucks, and bulldozers to finish whatever they were doing so that we could pass. There were no set lanes as we meandered all over the area where a highway used to be. At one point, a bulldozer was pushing dirt mere inches off to my right...figured a rock would roll off the blade and in front of me, lol. We finally made it to the other end, Bob cursing the entire way, and encountered a group of Harley riders waiting for the pilot car; they yelled out, asking how it was, to which we replied, "It sucked!!". Then we got back on pavement and made for Malta.

The wind was pretty fierce on the trek eastward, but we kept at it. We fueled up in Shelby, MT, which just happens to be the home of Welker Farms, yet another YouTube channel I follow, lol. A great family farming operation; and a big one at that (https://www.youtube.com/c/WelkerFarmsInc).

We rolled into Malta around 6:30 in the evening, greeted by the owner and her big pack of small dogs. It turned out to be a decent place!

Malta, MT...middle of nowhere.


We walked into the town center, looking for the bar and grille that was supposed to be there. There, I enjoyed the last 8oz steak they had while Bob had to settle for a 6oz. We met up with a fellow rider from Canada, I seem to recall he was on an ADV bike, and shared appetizers while spinning yarns of the highway.


Our kind of place.


The route of the day.


The end was near (and so is my photo collection); we'd be pushing tomorrow.

More to come!

[wheatonFJR]

Scott, this is so epic. Thanks also for all the text to go with the very scenic photos!

[Burnspot]

September 8th, 2022 - Heading for home - Malta, MN to Fargo, ND - 608 miles

It's at this point in the trip that our minds turn towards getting home, but we still had a long way to go. We left Malta and continued eastward; we'd end up in Fargo, ND for the night. Pictures, from here on out are sparse, by the way.

A stop in Wolf Point, MT.


I could've sworn that I took a photo at our hotel in Fargo, but nope. A Best Western was our hotel for the night and it was quite nice.

September 9th, 2022 - Fargo, ND to Rockford, IL - ~580 miles

We rolled out of Fargo semi-early and continued on our way east and south.

A fuel/snack stop in Alexandria, MN, where the definition of proper yoga pant wearing was found; a trucker agreed with our assessment. JSNS.


We'd been extremely lucky with traffic and the lack of traffic incidents for the entire trip, but we nearly had something today. A FedEx doubles unit ahead of us and two lanes to our right didn't notice that his lane was closing, due to construction. At the last moment, it dawned on him and he swerved left, causing his rear double trailer to whiplash itself into a construction barricade in the closing lane. Luckily, the dude kept it under control and the rear trailer seemed unaffected by the hit...can't say the same for the barricade, but it all stayed out of our way.

Then the rain hit not long after. In the process of stowing my phone and putting the tank bag cover on, I disabled Spotwalla's tracking, which produced a lovely track that was still somewhat accurate, apart from not showing our stop in Menomonie for fuel. Shortly after doing our post-rain uncover, I noticed the app wasn't tracking and turned it back on NW of Madison, WI...oh well. I was a bit peeved as I'd been on top of it for the entire trip, lol. This is the point at which I quit caring about the rain and my phone...it'd stay in the rain (and be completely fine). We stopped at a rest area along the way to sort out where we'd be stopping for the night; Rockford, IL was our goal.


A stop in Lake Delton, WI.


As we had no intentions of getting close to Chicago, we kept moving due south until we reached our hotel in Rockford, IL. Right next to the hotel was a pretty awesome restaurant called Thunder Bay Grille, steak and seafood.


I had the Parmesan Crusted New York Strip and it was excellent! And Makers...of course!


Interesting decor in the restaurant.


September 10th, 2022 - Rockford, IL to Ripley, WV - Appx. 570 miles

We're on the home stretch now! The day was alternating between dry and wet, plus the time changes were catching up with us. Our approach into Ripley, on two lane roads, was dark and rainy, i.e. lots of fun. We pulled into the hotel around 8:30pm. The hotel was owned by an Indian gentleman who was in the process of refurbishing all of the rooms...he was a bit nosy too. While we were in the process of unloading our bikes, he popped by, looking in the room (our door was open) a few times before calling out to me to keep the door closed so it wouldn't condensate in the room, lol. Ok then. Unpacked, we made our way to the remaining restaurant that was still open...yet another Mexican restaurant.

Bob had to give a lesson on Manhattan making...they were good, despite not having the proper bitters. I mean, look at the size of the glasses, lol!


We had run out of whisky ourselves, so we relied on the restaurant to help us celebrate our last night on this trip as a duo. We had a few...oh, and the food was very good too! We celebrated very well...

The bikes tucked away for the night...it was still a bit rainy.


September 11th, 2022 - Splitting up and running to the barn. 418 miles

We ate the breakfast at the hotel, such as it was (not much), loaded up the bikes, and rolled down to the local Sheetz to fuel up. Once fueled, it was time for Bob and I to split up and head for our respective homes. Bob would head east, through Weston while I'd be running south on I-77. I opted to hit the tolls on 77 (a week later, after EOM, I skipped the tolls, lol) and run south until just before the NC line, where I turned east on US58 and ran 58 over to South Boston, then SE to home. It rained off and on pretty much the entire way.

Along US-58 is a traditional stopping point, Lover's Leap. Despite the crappy weather not giving me the usual awesome view, I still stopped.


I arrived at home at 3:48pm with 7,962 miles under the Super Tenere's belt for this trip.


Gah, that Minnesota bit of straight line irks me, lol, but it is what it is.


On the next day, I changed the oil on the ST and prepared her to head out to EOM on Wednesday...

Post-Trip Thoughts
First, I want to thank my good friend Bob. This makes 3 cross country trips we've done; what an excellent time we've had on them all! Thanks for hatching the idea to make this run and stringing the pieces together! Long day, short day; it didn't matter, we had a great time! It does help that neither of us shy away from really long runs, lol. Semper Fi...

Thanks to Big John and folks for organizing the Last Hurrah! It was great meeting the western region's family of riders!

The Super Tenere. It was flawless for the entire trip and the Dunlop Trailmax Mission tires performed very well. I learned a lot about this bike on the trip and it was super comfortable to ride, although the Sargent seat will probably need to be replaced by an RDL at some point, heh.

This ride report is hereby closed.