Date: 12/07 – 17/07
City: Modesto, California
Miles ridden: 33
Cumulative miles: 9004

When we went to the flute group, we got invited by Sue to stay with her for a couple of days. Once we’d figured out that we’d have to stay in Modesto for at least a week, we contacted Sue and she invited us to dinner at her place. The idea was that this would give Sue a chance to meet us before we move in for a couple of days. When we arrived a nice home cooked dinner was waiting for us and we talked about Sues journeys and about our travel plans. Just before we left, we meet Bob, Sue’s husband; he is a doctor and according to Sue a workaholic.

Sue was happy for us to move in, so we did. After we settled in, we watched pictures of Sues India trip and we showed some pictures from our trip. Sue has a nice pool at the back and Sigrid had to test it out.

Then we talked a bit about Australia and Sue brought out two didgeridoo’s, so we played it for a bit 🙂

The next day we got up really early (3:30AM) to have a look at the aurora which should be visible just before sunrise. We drove to a lake state resort but couldn’t see anything of the aurora. We did manage to see a beautiful sunrise instead. I was cold, luckily  Sue brought some sleeping bags to keep us warm.

 

On our way back we had breakfast at a Donut place. This was the first time that we had Donuts for breakfast. After a nap, we watched more pictures of Sue’s Indonesia and Antarctic trip. We had another nap or two and then all went out for dinner to a nice pizza place.

Later that day we found out that the aurora didn’t hit the earth yet, maybe next night or it might miss the earth all together.

Well we managed to sleep in again, life can be hard J. I made some scrambled eggs and after breakfast Sigrid and Sue went to pick up Sues horse. It had injured its foot and was now almost mended and ready to come home again. Bob went to work so I had time to update our blog. When Sigrid and Sue came back with the trailer they got the horse out and you could see it was happy to be back home.

I briefly talked to Wombat. We’re thinking we might catch up before the HU meeting, but it all depends how fast the wrist is healing. In the afternoon we met one of Sue’s friends, she is from Germany and came to the USA a long time ago. It was really interesting to talk to her; she had done a lot of things in her life, all kinds of jobs and businesses, from owning a factory that produced hard disk parts to a roof fixing company. That day was Sues mums birthday, so we picked her up from an age care facility, sang happy birthday and went to a Japanese restaurant. She enjoyed the food and I hope I will be as switched on as she is when I turn 95.

After a nice meal we went home to Sue’s place and had some cake and coffee.

 

Next day I went to the physio, and had breakfast at Taxi’s: a burger chain that makes breakfast as well. After we arrived back at the house, we went to a Chinese chair massage, recommended by Sue. The chair was more of a couch than a chair, and it was very relaxing. When we came back it was time for a swim in the pool and a power nap after.

In the evening we went to the cinema with Sue and watched Brave. We all liked it. After the movies, we felt hungry and went to dinner at a BBQ place, came home and had some beer and some chocolate. Life is really stressful around here 😀

We felt a bit lazy, so when Sue invited us to a water aerobics class the next day, we jumped on it, or into it 🙂

It was the first time after the accident that I put my left hand under water, the cool water seems to help a lot. So after the water gymnastic, we went for 30 minutes gym circuits (single handed), not bad, but I think I will feel my legs and the right arm the next day.

In the evening we packed the bike, then sat together and talked for quite a while but we went to bed quite early since we would like to ride to Santa Cruz tomorrow and I needed to be at the physio at 8:00AM. To my surprise, the sun was up at this time.

Date: 09/07 – 11/07
City: Modesto, California
Miles ridden: 18.4
Cumulative miles: 8971
Finally! Today I got the motorbike gear on, and rode (as pillion) for the first time in four weeks! It felt great! We are mobile again! Yaaaay!!!
It was a nice warm morning and I enjoyed the wind in the helmet, I /knew/ something was missing the last four weeks.

We rode to the physio and Sigrid managed the additional weight at the back very well. It’s not a surprise since we practiced in Adelaide when Sigrid was picking me up from a pub 🙂 (You see? It was all part of a greater plan).

First thing at the physio was to wash my left hand. I felt odd to do that for the first time in four weeks, particularly while not having the splint support and twisting the hand. Then I got some exercises to do (ouch) and in the end I got my homework.

We will be back on Wednesday for more 🙂.
We spent the rest of the day on some mail and housekeeping. We are nearly done with everything that’s needed. It’s amazing how many forms you have to fill out and how many calls you have to make if you have an insurance claim. Imagine if you have to do it with two insurance companies at the same time! At night I had a look at Wombats spot tracking, and noticed that they were on the Dalton Highway yet after 7 hours of riding they turned around. I followed them until they were back in Fairbanks, when we Skyped and it turned out that the plan was to ride up to the Arctic Circle and turn around after that. We were relieved that everything was all right, but they did more than a whopping 400 miles and at least 200 of it on dirt. Now that’s impressive!

 

The next day was not very eventful, but at night we celebrated our 100’s day since leaving Adelaide. We went out for a meal at the Mexican restaurant around the corner.

Ok and the next day was my second rehab session. I got to play with balls, a puzzle, some putty and at the end I got a hand massage (ouch again).

When we went home and I realized why the one legged man sold the motorcycle pants so cheap J. Actually I tried to unzip the legs of the pants so I can wear them as shorts.

On Thursday we will meet with Sue and see how we organize the stay at her house.

Date: 05/07 – 08/07
City: Modesto, California
Miles ridden: 21
Cumulative miles: 8954

We used the next couple of days to do some housekeeping, follow up with both insurance companies, get in touch with the bike shop and go to the doctor again. Other than that there is the pool, hot tub and warm weather. The bike shop ordered all parts and they were all on the way, except the left luggage bracket from H&B, which might take 6 to 8 weeks….

We said there is no hurry since my hand isn’t ready yet When we were talking to other riders and motorcycle mechanics, most of them thought there was probably something wrong with the front/back tyre alignment, either a spacer not fitted or some problem with the newly fitted back tyre. So I ask Chris to have a closer look at it when he starts working on my bike.
So we had a brief look at my back tyre pressure, it measured 50 PSI. Suzuki says the tyre pressure for maximum load should be 29 PSI and Bridgestone states it should not be over 39 PSI. With 50 PSI after 4 weeks in the workshop, it would imply that I left San Francisco with even more. I’m not sure if this was a contributing factor to the accident.  Just in case we measured Sigrid’s bike a couple of days later, it had the expected 36 PSI.

The next day I had a doctor’s appointment. I did some ‘mouse lifts’ with a heavy mouse, to keep my left arm muscles strong.

The first thing that the nurse did was to remove my lovely pink cast. I was a bit reluctant when she rocked up with a power tool, pictures of me cutting big bits of wood flashed from my eyes. I made sure that we both agreed on what to cut, so that she doesn’t cut my arm off by accident. The next thing was the cut depth, there is no depth gauge on the tool, she explained that she had never cut someone and if she would cut me, I could take home the prized title of the ‘first cutoff’. Hmm, did I have a choice ? Could I run? While I looked like a deer startled by headlights, Sigrid quickly took a picture as proof that I arrived with a left hand.

As the song say, the first cut is the deepest 🙂. Well not yet, I didn’t get a cut so far, but it’s not over yet. And then it just popped open.

Turns out that there’s life after a cast! Dr. Tracy Bigello gave me the good news that I can be a pillion and that I won a free month of torture! Well she called it “Physio therapy” but I knew what she meant 🙂

 

With physio for the next 4 weeks, twice a week, the distanace we can do on our bikes is minimised. We will have to have a look at the closer surroundings. But before we can do it, we have to sort out some things, what I wear as jacket, which luggage boxes to take and what we do with the other ones and how to pack the tent and the sleeping bags. After the doctor’s visit we went straight to the rehab centre and booked an appointment for Monday morning.

Date: 07/07
City: Modesto, California
Miles ridden: 0
Cumulative miles: 8954
Sigrid had a brilliant idea! She’s often got those.  Ever since accepting my marriage proposal, she’s had them.

Anyway, until my motorcycle jacket arrives, we could ask Tony if he would lend me one of his older jackets. In addition we could ask him if we could store the tent and the sleeping bags at his place until I’m ready to ride. So we did, and he kindly lent me a motorcycle jacket and allowed us to drop our stuff off, when we picked up Sigrid’s bike. Now we could get rid of the car!!! It was nice to have it for the time but it drained our budged every day. We rearrange the side panniers and put the tent into its new home, a 50 L watertight bag. When that was finished it was time to meet Keith -Pats husband. You might remember him from previous blogs were we met him in a pub. If you don’t feel free to go back, read that chapter, and then return and continue reading here 😛  Anyway, He invited us to have a beer with him on Saturday at his favourite place.

I was geared up and almost ready, with only gloves missing. That was the moment when I realised that we had a problem, the new BMW gloves and the removable splint didn’t fit together. We tried everything to make that work, well, at the end we took a taxi. All the mucking around with the gloves and then waiting for a taxi (30 min) took much longer than we thought, so we arrived much later but Keith was still there. We had a nice afternoon and were talking about the bike, what we did so far and what our new plans are.

That’s when a parrot arrived in the pub. The owner was sitting at the bar and the parrot was sitting on his lap. After talking to him he offered that Sigrid could hold him, so she did.

After Keith left we went to our next appointment, to Doc’s inn restaurant which is famous for its large meals and ribs. The taxi driver told us that the neighbourhood would be not the best – so did Tony – but when we arrived it looked ok. Maybe it’s only not so great at night. This time we were the first ones to arrive. Tony was playing and we had brief chat during his break. He plays the blues harmonica, it was really great to listen to live music!

Seeing all that food around us, we got hungry and ordered before the others arrived. I was looking for a meal for a one handed man so the waiter laught and suggested something.

Not long after we had finished our meal, Jane- the birthday girl- her sister and her daughter with her two kids arrived.

They ordered food and we listen to Tony play. The daughter and her kids left after the meal, and Charles and Rita arrived. Around 7PM Jane invited us to her house for her birthday party. We got a lift with Charles and Rita 🙂

We talked about motorcycles and it turned out that everybody was riding a motorcycle. Dirk, Janes husband, had a BMW R1200C, a bike that I had my eye on before I bought the ZZR1100. I really like the looks of this bike.

We talked about our mishap today and that I couldn’t fit the glove over the cast, so Dirk went out and came back with some gloves for me to try. I ended up borrowing one left glove from him that fit under the removable splint. It was a great evening and we departed only around 12:30 AM.

 

We took the next day off and did nothing other than hanging out at the pool. Well over lunch we went into our room and enjoyed a nap in our air-conditioned room. In the afternoon we went out again and when the weather cooled down a bit we also used the hot tub.

I played the first time with my camera and discovered some nice features.

Date: 04/07
City: Modesto, California
Miles ridden: 75
Cumulative miles: 8933

Today we were invited to an independence day party by Tony and, with only a one hour drive back to Modesto, we had a really slow start with a nice looong breakfast with omelettes and plenty of coffee. I really liked the atmosphere in the restaurant . the owner and cook dressed up for independence day – he even added a hat for us to take a picture

Ahh, I forgot to mention that the place had a pool, so Sigrid was happy.

We drove back to the Ramada Inn in Modesto, checked in, dropped our gear off and went to Tony’s place. We didn’t realise that he had a pool so we didn’t bring bathers L. The party was great, we talked to some people and could ‘extract’ more information for our trip. Lucky, nobody lost an ear during our conversation- as far as we know, anyway. During the evening Tony was talking about playing in a restaurant on Saturday , so Jane said that she would like to celebrate her birthday in this restaurant and we could all meet there. So once more we had something else to look forward too.

There is no set time for fireworks. Like New Years Eve, the fireworks start when it gets dark. That made it hard to predict where the next couple of flares would come from, so most of the time I was pointing the camera in the wrong direction and before I got the camera ready and pointed it the right direction, the firework stopped and another started on the opposite site. Below are some pictures where I caught more than just smoke.

The advantage of not having the fireworks all at once is that it drags out for much longer. We departed around 11:00PM after a really good night

Date: 01/07
City: Selina, Utah
Miles ridden: 224
Cumulative miles: 8106

In the morning we went to the Canyon Land National Park. To be honest, I thought this park wouldn’t hold any surprises for us, we’ve seen it all.  Before we entered the National park we saw a stone formation called ‘Monitor and Merrimac’ in reference to two battleships in the independence war. Looking it up in wikipedia, the stone formation did really resemble the form of these two ships.

In the national park we looked around to see if we could find something interesting. We found the Upheaval Dome Overlook. It’s a spot where a large meteorite hit the ground and left a crater. Well at least some scientists believe that, other think it is a natural occurrence. We drove to the crater and then went for a short hike. It’s hard to see on the picture, but looks like a meteorite crater. As usual, the weather was on the warm side (97 Fahrenheit), so we decided that this was enough of hiking for the day.

From here we continued to other viewpoints by car. And wouldn’t you know it, I was surprised again. Looking at the pictures it becomes obvious where the ‘Canyon Land National Park’ gets its name from.

 

Then we drove to Salina where Sigrid had booked accommodation the day before. On the way we passed a couple of impressive mountain ranges.

Date: 02/07
City: Austin, Nevda
Miles ridden: 409
Cumulative miles: 8515

Today we were heading direction Reno. On the way we saw smoke from a wild fire. We were hoping that this was a controlled burn but heard later in the news that unfortunately this was not the case. From the highway we could spot flames along the ridge of a mountain, but luckily the highway veered away from this mountain range.

On our way we passed the Great Basin National Park so we had a look and asked the rangers for advice on what to check out . They recommended the scenic drive and the caves. The overlooks were quite nice! On one side there were the mountain ranges and to the other side there was the plateau, which we just came through. From this view we could see the huge circles of crop in the middle of the dessert.

After the view point we checked out the cave. In the car park at the Lehman’s visitor centre, we saw a deer eating the leaves of a fruit tree, ignoring the cars and the visitors all together. The caves surprised us again. We have been in a couple of caves before, but the variety and colour of the formation was extraordinary, there were formations of popcorn and curtains, disks and the ‘normal’ stalactites and stalagmites.

We were quiet happy that we took our jackets and changed into long trousers before we went into the caves. The temperature there was around 50F (10C) and outside it still was in the high nineties. From there we attempted to drive loneliest road, highway 50. The landscape reminded us very much of the Nullarbor Plain, but it was surrounded by hills. When it started to get late we stopped at Austin for the night.

 

Date: 03/07
City: Drytown, California
Miles ridden: 343
Cumulative miles: 8858

Got up early to get to Reno and to visit the BMW shop, yippee, shopping time for me!! J
We had a look at trousers, jackets, helmets and gloves. The only thing that was available in my size was the trousers, but that’s not bad for a start.

I read in the morning that the BMW shop in Sacramento would have 15% off on all gear, so we decided to get there next. Before we did we went to McDonalds to talk to Progressive insurance, McDonalds has free WiFi and my phone stopped working for unknown reasons. So we had a short cruise through Reno, which reminded me a bit of Las Vegas.

At McDonalds, we got hold of the bike insurance. They got a bill from the Modesto health department, so we clarified that this should go to our travel insurance and that the hospital has all the details. Finally we drove to BMW Sacramento, more shopping for me. On the way we passed Cisco grove. Maybe there are routers and switches growing on trees. We didn’t’ stop to investigate J.

Once we finally arrived in Sacrament and went shopping, they didn’t have the jacket in the right size either but the gloves were right. So we decided to order the helmet in matt black and the jacket and get it sent to the hotel in Modesto. The shop assistant, Adam spent quite a while with us to get things sorted out; he was really patient with us!

After the exhausting shopping spree we drove to a township called Drytown. It is a small township on a scenic road not too far from Sacramento. Here we found a nice Motel with a restaurant, where I got a nice spicy omelette.

At night we talked to Wombat and Val in Alaska and saw some pictures via Skype of the beautiful view from their window. At this time of the year it really doesn’t get dark over there. Would have been fun to be there.. then again its nice and warm here and no rain…. 😛

Day: 88 – 89
Date: 29/06 – 30/06
City: Boulder and Moab, Utah
Miles ridden: 270
Cumulative miles: 7882

In the morning we went back to the old western town and took pictures of the Trabbi.

On our list today was to visit the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. There we would see a landscape that looks like a huge staircase with cliff edges that look like giant stairs. Our first stop was at Tropics visitor centre where we got a map and some information about the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. We found this old petrol station on our way out, lucky that we didn’t’ need petrol! By the way, petrol is called ‘gas’ in the US, which brings me to another question: Why is a bicycle called a pushbike in Australia? We don’t really push it J

During the day it got hotter and hotter, I guess the thermometer went over 100 degrees and getting in and out of the car was a shock every time. At Escalante, we stopped at the visitor centre which had a giant bronze lizard at the entrance.

A bit further down the street there was a nice green and shady rest area; they are not many around in the USA. We had a power nap under a tree on the lawn – it’s amazing how much cooler it is under a tree. Once reseted we continued to Boulder, on the way to which we came down from a mountain and looked over a large plain. The road down was meandering down below us and disappeared in the distance. We saw a couple of motorbikes riding below us, it was fun just watching them riding the curved road and disappearing into the horizon.

At boulder we had a look at the Anasazi State Park Museum where some excavation unearthed a small village from the Anasazi Indians. We had a look at the exhibition, the ruins

and a replica. I must admit it was nice and cool inside the replica houses.

When we left, Sigrid saw a motel opposite, so she asked for a price. The price was too high and no internet, but they referred us to another hotel ½ block down the road. Well the blocks must be large here, but we found a motel after driving a couple of minutes. The gate was open but the office door was closed. A sign indicated, self-service, take a key, have a look at the room, if you like it, stay and pay in the morning. The price and the amenities were written on the back of the key tag J. We took a room, the internet in the room didn’t work but as soon we went into the garden behind our room, we got reception. So we settled in a tree swing, in a shady place with lawn and wrote our blog and made a couple of Skype calls. After a while two dogs came to say hello and wanting us to play ‘catch the apple’ with them. They brought an apple from the ground, put it in front of you and expected you to throw it. When the apple was chewed trough, they jumped into the tree and picked a new one. That was fun.

We talked to Wombat and Val, they are in Tok. Val has a bit of a cold so they rested for a day and they will meet with Mike tomorrow. Mike didn’t get to Dead Horse, since it rained heavily for the last couple of weeks and the Dalton highway was boggy. Hope it dries out and that Wombat and Val have a good ride! In the evening we went for a stroll thought the neighbourhood and saw a nice sunset

.

 

The morning I updated my dairy for the last 3 days. Then we left for Capital reef. On the way we meet a couple of ‘wanna be burgers’, but honking the horn made them reluctantly move off the road:

I can only describe Capitol reef as ‘the view is stunning’. I wish I had a better camera! Well for the moment, but as soon we are on the bikes I wouldn’t have the space for it. Anyway, with plenty of stops at viewpoints we drove to the visitor centre.

Looking at the time we made the decision not to take the scenic road, which was 20 miles return. Instead we would have a look at the Petroglyphs and spend a bit of time on the Capital Dome. So we drove towards the exit of the park and had a look at the Petroglyphs (rock engravings),

Stopping at the Capitol Dome to take a couple of pictures- as a side note the dome is actually a remnant of an ancient Sahara like desert.

On the way to the dome we saw a small creek with a beach at the Hickman Bridge car park, so we decided to turned back and spend a bit of time there. Since it was very hot, we sat at the beach and put our feet into the small stream and just enjoyed the view.

After half an hour or so we continued to Moab. On the way we saw landscape that looked like a moon scape which seemed to go on forever,

But the shape and colour of the stones was consistently changing. It is hard to describe and impossible to capture truly on camera, so I just put a couple of pictures up for you to have a look at. I also noticed that since we started traveling by car, the blog gets more and more pictures J . After a while we arrived in Moab, most of the hotels were booked out or too expensive. We went to the information office; they recommended the Riverside inn for a reasonable price, so we got a room there. After a short rest we continued to the Arches National Park. As usual, we had a couple of stops

before we arrived at the Windows section  (and no, the name has nothing to do with rebooting, it refers to the stone formation…). During this time the moon was rising, (well, the moon doesn’t rise, its really the earth which turns but ‘the earth was turning towards the moon’ …is a bit longwinded :-p) – which gave us a really nice view.

 

When we approached the North Window, it didn’t look spectacular, so Bryce, the Diddles and Sigrid were posing again.

When we came closer, the sheer size of the window became more obvious, I like the shot with the clouds in the background, it looks like a window to heaven J

 

Sigrid and Moon on the side of the North Window :-). Me sitting in the middle of the window.

Then we had a look at the South Window which was just around the corner.

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Since the ‘earth turning away from sun’ was close (aka sunset), we went back to the car park to set the video time lapse mode to record the north window. It was one of the most beautiful sunsets that we had seen.

Tomorrow, we plan to visit the Canyon Lands National Park before we’re going back Modesto.

Day: 85 – 87
Date: 26/06 – 28/06
City: Tonopah, Nevada
Miles ridden: 302
Cumulative miles:7199

We stored Sigrid’s bike at Tony’s place. The entry was a bit tight, so Tony walked the bike into the backyard for us.

After a short talk, we drove to Stanislaus National Forest. It was a great road (for a motor bike…) We stopped at a lookout and had a great view onto the cherry lake and the dam.

We also saw the Lorelei (German reference to a maiden at the Rhein river).

All the way through the park it reminded us of the Austrian Mountains. At some stage we could even see a bit of snow on the mountains .Ok, Wombat and Val will smile about this amount, since they are currently in Alaska, and will possibly have this amount of snow on the road in front of them…

After Lake Mono, the landscape changed into a desert and townships on the highway got a bit sparse. So we decided to stop in Tonopah, since the next larger town was at least 60 miles away and the sun stated to set. Tonopah was a mining town and opposite of our motel were some old buildings and some old mining machines.

It was nice to watch the sunset over the desert.

 

Day: 86
Date: 27/06
City: Bryce Canyon, Utah
Miles ridden: 379
Cumulative miles: 7578

Today we planned to go to Bryce Canyon by passing through a vast desert, so we started early. All of a sudden, a cow crossed the road. In this environment, a cow? Maybe it got lost; there was not much to eat in this plain. Unfortunately we were too slow for a picture. Close to the end of the plains there was suddenly an area covered with spiky bushes, it really stuck out in that vast landscape.

These bushes were really spiky, trust us, Sigrid and I tried it J

Then we continued and drove via the Extra-Terrestrial Highway and past Area 51, where we saw….. well we can’t tell you, but pictures say more than a thousand words 😛

 

After a safe flight, urh… ride… we arrived at Bryce Canyon and found typical American accommodation: a Teepee. It had a canvas floor and was pretty spacious inside, but I wasn’t too sure about the opening at the top. I’m pretty sure if it starts to rain we’ll get wet. Well the weather forecast did say no rain…

Lucky that we brought our camping equipment, so we could start cooking our tea, camping style.

We made pasta for tea on our cooker. By the way, Sigrid did all the work for the, I was just posing J

After tea, we started a little bonfire in front of our teepee. Since the wood was still a bit moist, it took a couple of hours before it was fully burned. Live can be hard 😀

Day: 87
Date: 28/06
City: Bryce Canyon, Utah
Miles ridden: 34
Cumulative miles: 7612

We slept very well that night, apparently the temperature went down to 6 degrees Celsius, but we didn’t noticed anything in our sleeping bags and on our x-pad mattress. After breakfast we hopped onto the shuttle bus to the park and got off at Sunset Point, which is where our walk started. We walked down the ‘Wall Street’, which was a trek that meandered down steeply, but the view was great. The first white dot on the right picture is me J

The way down was fun….. When we saw all the people huffing and puffing on the way up we decided to chicken out and take the easier and 500 feet lower exit via the Queens Garden walk. At the bottom was a gap, which led to the outside of the canyon.

The view from the gap was quite impressive as well.

Sometimes visitors have to stabilize some hoodoos, to stop them from falling. Normally I would have done that, but with just one arm it would have been a bit ambitious. 😛

The whole landscape looks different from the bottom, the hoodoos look bigger and the colour scheme seemed different than when we saw it from the top.

The Wall Street walk meets with the Queens garden walk, which led us to  hoodoos that looked like Queen Elisabeth.

After that we saw some nice stone formation around the rim and in one part of the canyon there were suddenly these stack stone hills. We think some tourist started it and everybody now crossed that area added one or two of these stacks. They were all over the place, even in the trees.

But we are sure the Diddles and Bryce had nothing to do with it.

 

and then there was the way up.

Well, even taking the ‘easier’ way, we were still huffing and puffing at the top but the view on the way up was worth it.

After our ‘little walk’, we went back to our teepee at the campground. We went shopping, had a humungous ice cream and found a Trabbi (Iconic car of the DDR, ex east germany), in Utah, in the middle of the USA. Turns out that it belongs to the Crocodile Dundee from Germany. To be honest, I didn’t know him at all as we’ve been out of Germany for 20 Years. We didn’t have our camera with us (and ice cream in our hands) so we decided we’d take a picture tomorrow on our way out.

After all that walking, I had a power nap, …or two, its amazing what you can do if you don’t have to work (sorry, couldn’t resist 😀 )

In the evening we made our way through the rest of the park that we hadn’t seen so far. So we went up to Rainbow point

and stopped at every view point on the way back. Don’t worry, that is only a tiny portion of the pictures taken…

We ended up at Sunset point and watched the sunset. It was not as exciting as we thought, since the sun was setting from the back of the Amphi Theatre. On the way back we passed a dear with two youngsters, not afraid of humans at all… (or cars for that matter! :/ )

The next day we planned to get moving again, going up to the Staircase Escalante National Monument and possibly to Capital Reef National Park.

Day: 81- 84
Date: 22/06 – 25/06
City: Modesto, California
Miles ridden: 0
Cumulative miles: 6897

I had a doctor’s appointment in the morning. I got the stiches removed (ouch!) and an x-ray taken. The doctor was happy with the outcome but I shouldn’t lift anything heavy with the left hand, and I should avoid being pillion for at least the next two weeks. *sigh*
That means that we will have to rent a car again which will stretch our budget. The doc said that I could ride the motorbike again about 6-8 weeks  after the operation.
Well at least I finally got a cast fitted. I could pick a colour, cool! I picked fluorescent pink, so that at least cars and trucks could see me at night 😛
The colour on the package was fluorescent pink; the final colour was unfortunately slightly less bright.

After the appointment we dropped off the car and met up with Tony, Pat and Keith in the afternoon. Tony is a friend of Pat and Keith, and Pat was the Ambulance driver who ensured that Sigrid could follow the ambulance at night to the second hospital. She hooked us up with Tony, since Tony is also rides motorcycles and has good connections to the motor cycle community in the valley. So we met in the hotel lobby and talked about our and Tony’s adventures, and about what happened with the bike at the accident. Tony is a riding instructor and Keith is a motorbike mechanic, so we had a lot to talk about. We were picking Tony’s brain, since he frequently went on motorcycle holidays in Mexico. The evening ended when Pat had to go to work. I really enjoyed the evening, thank you SO MUCH guys!

(above, Bjoern, Sigrid, Pat, Tony and Keith)

The next couple of days were relatively relaxing. We did our planning for the next four weeks and looked at multiple options for the rest of the trip. It looks like we are renting a car for the next eleven days, go back to Bryce Canyon and see if we get accommodation booked at the Grand Canyon. If the accommodation doesn’t work out, then we have a look at all the other parks around.
On Sunday at 14:00 we were invited to a Native American Flute circle by Pat. Below is a group picture, with Pats help we got the names of the people present

From left to right:

Jeffrey “Zone” McFarland Johnson Cellist, Cal and Cheryl Haupt of the blues band Rhythm Deluxe, Michele “Two Feathers” Turpin, resident artist Katrina, the newest member Larry “Moon Rider” Burns with ukelele Lynn Wrench, an original member and potter Dan “Noisy Bear” Ricketts, founder, instructor, board of directors for the Flute Portal Rex Gideon, my tech advisor and frequent YouTube performer Pat, off duty paramedic at the keyboard

The music was a mixture out of Indian flutes, keyboard, ukulele, cello and drums. In the beginning two of the flute players each played one particular song casually with the keyboard played by Pat providing the background music. The music group was joined a bit later by Jeffrey,the cello player when the rehearsal took on an even better sound. After a short interval filled with conversation, cookies and fruit, a jam session started with players drifting in and out. For me that was the first time that I was listening live to such an impromptu performance. It was amazing!! During the last song a woman started singing. I couldn’t get over it, she was just sitting there and singing casually but the whole room was filled with her voice. That, together with the flutes and the piano was ready for a stage performance! All of the musicians were a joy to listen to, Sigrid and I enjoyed it very much.

Thanks everyone for playing and special thanks Pat for inviting us!

Day: 79
Date: 20/06
City: Mammoth Lakes, California
Miles ridden: 172
Cumulative miles: 6677

Today we drove to Emerald Bay and had a look at the waterfall from Inspiration point along the road. Doesn’t this look fantastic?

We then turned around and drove back to Mammoth lakes using the scenic route again. During our drive we meet a ‘Harry Hirsch’, (reference to a German comedian ‘Otto’) a deer, who tried to play dare with us J. The picture was taken through the wind screen.

On the way back we stopped at multiple viewpoints, the best was over Mono Lake.

We tried to find some nice but cheap accommodation on the, without success. After 2.5h of trying, we went back to Mammoth Lakes, the same hotel that we had before. The good thing was that it was in walking distance of the ‘Mammoth Brewing & Co’ Brewery.

‘Mammoth Brewing & Co’ Brewery is the highest brewery on the western coast, so we had to try it, particular after the ‘Double Nut Brown’ won a gold medal in the world beer cup J. The beer tasted as the name said, a bit like roasted peanuts, but the bartender assured me that no nuts were hurt during the creation of the beer, so that’s nice…. 😉

Day: 80
Date: 21/06
City: Modesto, California
Miles ridden: 220
Cumulative miles: 6897

In the morning we had a look at the lakes around Mammoth Lakes, there are plenty of crystal clear lakes and beautiful valleys. On the second picture in the middle you can see a small waterfall.

Sigrid had to try how cold the water was J

At the end of one road we found a warning sign, that there was a natural high level of carbon dioxide coming out of the ground. The white dead trees indicate that there is some truth to it.

So we decided to drive to an area with more oxygen and not so many dead trees, and drove back to Yosemite. When we entered the park we noticed a steam running in parallel to the road, and stopped to have a look. This time I tested if the water was cold; it was ok after the feed went numb.

We continued on the Tioga Road and towards the Tuolumne Meadows, where some of the big Giant Sequoias trees are. We walked to Giant Sequoias, they can get up to 3000 years old. It was hard to take a picture of the whole tree but with the panorama shot it seem to work, I love the panorama feature.

One dead tree had a tunnel carved through its trunk, that might show the size of the trees. Not far from there there was a fallen tree, have a look at the roots of that thing!.

I guess the oldest tree was older then 2000 years, but the youngest one that we found was propably not even 100 years old.

From here on we continued through Yosemite Valley to take pictures of the valley that we didn’t take on the previous visit. We stopped on nearly all viewpoints and discovered some waterfalls that were not visible from another view point.

In the panorama shot below you can just make out Yosemite valley in the left half of the picture.

After we ran out view points, we continued into the valley and stopped at a park bay where the stream was running along the road.  There was also a nice beach was visible. So we headed over and had a lunch break. Since it was warm, Sigrid went swimming and I stayed in the water.

It took a while before we decided to go back to Modesto.

Once when we arrived at the hotel, we got the ordered parcels and everything was there. Before we left on this car trip, we ordered some stuff that was either broken during the accident or was missing. I must admit, the staff in the hotel were very helpful and made things much easier for us. It was still warm outside, so we decided to have a short dip in the hot tub, hmmm, live can be hard. The right picture shows the view out of the hot tub.

 

Day: 77
Date: 18/06
City: Lake Tahoe, California
Miles ridden: 172
Cumulative miles: 6505

Today, after breakfast we started in direction Lake Tahoe, below is a picture of the road.

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We followed a scenic drive around lake June and had a brief stop at the beach. The water was quite chilli, even for Sigrid

Then we made our way to the petrol station at the end of the Tioga Pass. The view at lake mono was great and so were the tacos 😀

We continued to Lake Tahoe. After Topas we turned on the CA 89, a twisty road with beautiful views, passes and creeks,

If I have a chance I would like to ride this road with the bike again, though time will tell. We arrived in Lake Tahoe at 16:00, unpacked and walked to the Casino to score a cheap meal. Nothing cheap in the casino. So we looked around and I had a short rest with my buddy’s 🙂

In the end we found a nice an Irish pub where we had a nice stew. Sigrid is drinking my beer again 😉

Day: 78
Date: 19/06
City: Lake Tahoe, California
Miles ridden: 0
Cumulative miles: 6505

The next morning we had planned to get onto a paddle steamer for a boat ride on the lake, however the lady in the ticket both didn’t sell us a ticket, since we were 1 minute too late… Even though the boat was still moored and people were still getting onto it. My fault, I made the time estimation. When the ship left, we noticed that is was no paddle steamerat all! It was a normal boat. Asking the lady at the ticket counter (the one which doesn’t sell tickets if you are one minute late), and she confirmed that the paddle steamer was in maintenance and this was the replacement boat, but the price was the same. So in the end, I was not too upset. When we walked back, we saw a DUCK Amphi vehicle, so we called them and booked a tour with them instead.

On the trip we saw a electrecution boat – they remove non native fish from the lake by stunning and collecting them after – and a hot air ballon carrier, which drives to the middle of the lake in the morning, inflates the hot air ballon and captures it again at the end of the flight.

And there was this huge houseboat, that hardly left the habour since it was so top heavy that it would tip over in heavy winds. Nevertheless, it had a helipot on its topdeck. The water was cristal clear, and we could see the ground without any problems.

The view on the lake was great, I tried to capture it with a panorama shot, but as usual, it doesn’t do it justice.

We enjoyed the trip very much, it felt strange when the vehicle entered or left the water again. During the trip there was plenty of information about the lake and we got a couple of ideas what else to see. After we came back, we jumped onto the Gondola and got up the mountain.

There was an intermediate stop and the view over the lake and the surrounding mountains was marvellous,

We had a coffee there and stayed for 1.5 hours, just sitting there.

We continued to the top station but that was not as good, no view to the lake at all. So we didn’t stay there long, went down again, got some groceries and met some bears on the way (disclaimer: No human being was injured in the taking of these photos)

Then we went home and had a glass of Champagne at sunset.