24 Hours, 4 States, 1000+ Miles

Author's note: Long read. Hey, a lot can happen in 24 hours! And this isn't going to be some photojournalist, mamby-pamby, European, latte sipping, foie gras and pinot grigio pairing while staying at some kinda French villa so there ain't a lot of pictures!!! It's all about the "RIDE" man!

PART I
Ok, for some time I've wanted to do this... Criteria was to ride to four states and return home within 24 hours and mileage being at or over 1000. So early June I started pursuing my DeLorme maps and a couple routes stood out, but being centrally located in the middle of Kalifornia meant that I'd have to ride a bunch of miles just to get "out-of-state". My original ride date was going to be the last weekend June as it was also a Full Moon and just past the summer equinox. So what does that all mean? Well more day-light, more light at night from the Full moon, and typically at little cooler temperatures than later in summer. Because of family obligations I wasn’t able to go in June so I decided to do the ride on July 14th and 15th with the 15th being my birthday. arty and , now that's the ticket!!!

Now back to the routes... Selection one: Head East into Nevada to Winnemucca, then North into Oregon and over to Idaho and return. Second option: Ride South to Bakersfield, East to Las Vegas, dip down into Arizona and Northeast up to St. George, Utah.

Now the kicker is the 24 hour self imposed time limit. Looking at seasonal weather conditions also factored in. The Southern route would be in the 100's + while option one is about 10 degrees cooler, mid to high 90's.

Option one it was… ride East on 80 to Winnemucca, then 95 North into Oregon and East over to Jordan Valley, Oregon which is about a mile from Idaho. Now from Winnemucca to Jordan Valley it’s about 178 miles but the “unknown” was if the gas station was still there and open at night as it has been 20 some years since I last rode through there. I decided to carry some extra fuel with me and used four MSR 33oz fuel bottles. An extra gallon would get me up to Homewood / Nampa, Idaho if the station in Jordan Valley was closed, but would add about two hours and 80+ miles. Speed limit in Oregon is “55” and man is it super hard to do when there’s miles upon miles of straight road in front of you and just an occasional big rig and even fewer cars.

The Official Route:

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I decided to start my journey from Tri-Valley Motors in Livermore (since I was riding the K1300 GT) and leave at 10AM so by the time I got to Sacramento the commute traffic would be over and I wouldn’t be riding into the early morning Sun. Kevin and Bill greeted me and I showed them my route map, etc. and at 10AM I was on the road!!!

First gas stop was at Colfax at 140 miles and 12:06 PM. Stop time was about 10 minutes as I had to wait for the attendant to print a receipt for me. Temperature was about 85 deg. But knew it would cool off riding up into the Sierra’s. No traffic to speak of, just the semi’s over in the right lane with blinkers flashing, making the crawl up the grade. Ah, the open road and the views and sweet smells of the mountains. Still great even though I was slabbing it on “80” (Remember that 24 hour time limit so I had to put down some miles.)

The Obligatory Start Picture at Tri-Valley Moto.

PART II
On the East side of Truckee I was running about 70+ ish, checking my mirrors (no radar detector for me) and I see a set of moto lights coming up. By their pattern I was pretty sure it was an HD Glide and not a CHP Bimmer, even so I held it at 70mph and about a half mile later the HD was along side. I wave and he waved back and since his pace was bit warmer than mine I let him get ahead about an 1/8 mile, hung back and let him ride “point”. Running in lane one we stayed together through Reno and coming into Sparks the traffic was starting to increase, but nothing like the Bay Area. At this point we were running about 65 in lane one and I’m about 5-6 bike lengths behind him. Directly off his right shoulder is this lady in lane two and for reason only know to her, with no one in front of her, she decides to move into his lane. AH FAWK THIS AIN’T GOOD !!! She didn’t even turn her head to the left to check if anybody was next to her or even signal, not that he could have even seen that. Fer Christ’s sake the guys directly opposite her window!!! Fortunately he’s just left of center in his lane and a split second later realizes that this car is coming over on him. He hits the throttle, moves as far as he can to his left next to the center concrete barrier and pulls ahead and back into lane one shaking his head. By this time I had backed off, checked my “6”, signaled and moved over to the far right of lane two. The HD rider was now making his way over to the right and got off at the next exit. A few minutes later I was past Sparks and it was clear sailing..

Second gas stop was in Fernley, Nv., 2 PM and another 117 miles under my belt and the temperature was 94 degrees. This guy driving a big Suburban was getting gas and came over to ask it I was going to the BMW Redmond rally. Told him “No… was going to Idaho for a few minutes and returning back to Livermore”. He laughed and said he was from Livermore too, taking some Scouts to Piedmont. While stopped I had a Pepsi and some beef jerky and pulled off my riding pants.

Back on the road and passing through the 40 Mile Desert, temps were up to 97 degs and the posted speed limit is 75!!! All the big rigs are in high gear and running at the limit out there. I get passed by a new Black Range Rover running a radar unit on the dash and Nevada plates so I figure he is going to be my new best friend during the ride into Winnemucca. Before you knew it in less than two hours we were in Winnemucca. Would have been there a little sooner but there were several long 55 MPH sections of road construction (were talking 2, 3, 4 miles of road repaving sections). From previous experience going through Nevada on 80 whenever there is road work there will be one or two of Nevada’s finest! Sure enough this was still true.

I was running the wind shield in the lowest position to get a little more air flow over the helmet and had the face shield opened about ¼ inch and I’m thinking that this powered, on the fly, adjustable wind screen is pretty darn sweet and I’m really lovin this GT! Well about ten miles this side of Winnemucca I check my mirrors, look back up and KA-BLAM… at first I thought it was a rock, but the Range Rover was well in front of me, too far to flip up a rock. It made this huge Ka-wrack sound and actually rolled my head back a little, then instantly the whole left side of the face shield is covered in green and yellow bug guts. Don’t know what it was (thinking Men in Black kinda creature) but whatever it was it Big and Bad and had a fricken hard-assed exoskeleton with greasy green and yellow slimy guts! Probably with some kinda acid based bodily fluids that would eat yer flesh if it got on ya.

The World is now a better and safer place without that bastard!!!

In Winnemucca I got gas, used the facilities, bought a power bar and under the shade of their awning ate the power bar, drank a bottle of water and cleaned off the face shield as best I could. I spent about 45 minutes in Winnemmuca, wanted to get some post cards but the Chevron mini market didn’t have any so I rode on down to Raley’s. Bought some cards and tossed them in the tail bag and I was off again. It was now just after 4:30 PM.

Gas Stop at Fernley and rolling East on "80" towards Winnemucca.

Part III
The ride out of Winnemucca on 95 is pretty much due North with a gradual climb in elevation with the highest pass being 5293’. It’s a nice smooth, fast, two lane hiway, just remember to watch your speed coming into or leaving any town no matter how small. It was at this highest pass I planned on taking a butt break, eat an apple and have some water. As I make the crest there is new looking KW or Peterbuilt pulling a 40’ Gordon Trucking refer parked off the road. The nose of the tractor flipped forward and the driver is sitting on the running board with the cab door open. I swing over and ask him if he’s ok and needs any help. Seems the truck was just serviced up in Washington and had been running warm throughout the day but had really started to heat up making this grade.

This truck has a big expansion tank off the radiator but the service tech never put the cap back on or didn’t twist it on securely and it fell off so the water was slowly boiling off. Told the driver I’d call someone when I got into Jordan Valley if he wanted (which was still about 80 miles away). Winnemucca was back another 96 miles. Suggested he might duct tape the hole closed to help slow the water loss and if he didn’t have any tape I was carrying some he could have. He said he had some tape and a couple big bottles of drinking water he could add and would also wait until it got dark before he took off (cooler air temps as it was still about 96 degs.).

We say are ado’s and I headed off North to a place called Burns Junction. Think big, triangular shaped, ¼ mile wide traffic circle in the middle of nowhere, where three hiways intersect. Oh, and hundreds of huge, car sized boulders in the center of it. Guess ya never know when you might need a boulder or two out in the middle of the Southern Oregon Desert, but if ya ever did they got ‘em stock piled there for ya. Hmmm, maybe UFOs / ETs put them there, yeah that’s it, let’s dump a bunch of huge boulders there and we can use it as a navigation point from outer space. Oh, and while we're at it let's leave some of them hard assed exoskeleton, acid laced buggy things behind to kill the humans! (Play theme from Twilight Zone now.)

Rolling at legal limit rofl), after the first decontamination attempt of the thing from Outer Space Hell, gas in Winnemmucca, and heading North on "95".

So it sounds like I need to do this lil' trip on my Vespa


Great write up, waiting for the rest.

Hi ya Ritch... I think ya better plan for more than 24 hours if yer doing it on the Vespa.

Did you notice the aero flaps on the side of the semi-trailer? Maybe you could rig up some side curtains on your Vespa to help with the "High-speed" runs! Probably give ya an extra 10 -15 more mpg too!!!

Part IV coming up...

Part IV

Well anyways… I’m now only about 48 miles away from my half way point on this journey, the sun has just about set. I’m figuring I’m about an hour or so ahead of schedule, but I’m losing ground to this 55 MPH speed limit so I wick it up a little bit. Ahhhh… this is better. As I crest another hill the road stretches out for miles and not a car in sight. This is going to be fun, but wait… what was that “glint” of light just off the road but still miles ahead. Maybe an old sign telling ya something like Dead Horse Canyon is 10 miles down an old washed out dirt road, or maybe an old abandoned car that’s had almost all of the windows shot out. Sure that’s probably what it is, an old shot up abandoned car.

The road now has a few dips and rises so the "glint" drops out of sight. Hmmmm, I’m still not having good feeling about this, as I make the last rise the sun has now set and I can see there is something setting about 100 feet off the road. Ahhhhhhh Jeezus, Holy Mother of Pearl... it’s a white pickup truck and emblazoned down the side in BIG bold letters is the word SHERIFF. #*&!@%&^$#, &*$(@#$%!&, repeated in rapid succession over and over, My goose is cooked, my bacon is burnt, the party’s over, the phat lady sang her song and has already gone home and I just know he ain’t sipping coffee and having a donut!!!

Did I mention that I really, I mean REALLY LOVE the ABS brakes on this bike!!! If you had any lose filling they would have been permanently embedded on the inside of your visor. I’m dropping speed faster than an old bull frog trying to get out of a red hot frying pan. Now able to drop two gears cause I didn’t want to roll by with the brake light all lit up… I’m just a “taste” over and check mirrors, so far so good. Ah FOOOOOCK, his moving, maybe he’ll turn left and go to the UFO rock pile but NOOOOOO he’s behind me. DAMZ! Well I set the cruise at 54 and hope for the best, half mile goes by, nothing, a mile goes by still nothing. Saaaweeeetttt! Happy early birthday present to me!!! Woot, Woot, but it was still a very looooong 34 miles to Jordan Valley.

The SHELL station sign was still on but I wanted to dip my tires in Idaho first (you remember that 4 state thing) so I tip-toed through Jordan Valley at 24 MPH and down this single lane country road about a mile and crossed into Idaho. Sign at state line said next gas 100 miles. I stopped and took the obligatory picture and rode back to the Shell station and this white pickup is getting fuel - guess who?! Pulled up to the one pump that actually had “91” octane Premium. Life is good. It was now 8:38 PM. As soon as I lifted my visor I heard this buzz, buzz, buzzing sounds and see this swarm of these baby exoskeleton creatures trying to get at me to suck the life giving blood out-o-me!!! Holy crap I’m sorry your parent creature thing tried to take me out before checking to see if I had any life protecting gear on as I pointed to acid etched visor and side of helmet.

The station attendant that was talking to the Sheriff now comes over and says: “Ya want gas?” Naw, I just want to mail a few post cards that I picked up in Winnemucca. Oh, by the way, you do have a mail box or post office in town, right?! Well actually I didn’t tell him that, although through the closed visor I did tell him “yes” I need gas, so he then hands me the pump nozzle. In Oregon they have to pump your gas but if you’re on a bike they let you do it. Funny thing is the baby flying exoskeleton things weren’t attacking the Sheriff or the attendant. Hmmm, further proof that ETs are here and can take on the appearance of many different Earthly life forms. The Truth is out there, ya just have to keep a vigilant eye to spot the invaders.

On "95" to Jordan Valley, Idaho State line with next gas 100 miles down this road, gas in Jordan Valley, Or.

Part V

Well not much has changed in Jordan Valley, Oregon from what I remember of it some 20+ years ago. The gas station has a new sign and a couple more pumps. There is a new convenience / grocery store in front of the old motel and the post office doesn’t look too old, there’s a dog sniffing around the garbage cans over by the motel and an old guy in a well used old Jeep pulls up to a pump, reaches down, takes off the gas cap located on the side just behind where the driver’s door would be. He grabs the fuel nozzle and starts pumping his gas without even getting out of the seat and yells out something like “Hey Vern, I’m a gittin gas”. Vern looks up from his chair in the office and just waves back. I guess change comes at a bit slower pace in these little ranch and farming communities and that’s probably not a bad thing.

I finished another bottle of water, a power bar, got my riding over pants and vest on, dropped off my post cards and headed back West on 95. After riding about 40 minutes I stopped to look at the night sky. The waxing crescent moon was crystal clear and Venus looked bright white. It was just above and to the right of the moon. Mars, up a little higher and to the left of the moon was also shining brightly and looking directly overhead was the Milky Way stretched out in all its glory. Too bad so much of the night sky is lost to us living in the Bay Area and other incorporated areas. I sat there for probably 10 minutes soaking it all in and not one other car or truck came by. Total darkness, except for the light from the stars and that crescent slice of the moon. It was awesome; the smell of the sage and just the slightest breeze moving across the landscape bringing in the sounds of the desert at night. It truly refreshes the sole!

Unfortunately it was time to get back on the road and I hadn’t even made it to Burns Junction, meaning Winnemucca was still over 100 miles away. On the way up I had seen a couple of coyotes cross the road and I also knew that there were large sections of “open cattle range” and signs warning of antelope. The Zexon headlight on High beam really throws a long wide white flame out in front of you, and I also knew the bike could far outrun the headlight so the pace was mellow. Up and over the pass I had stopped at earlier to offer help to the truck driver and still no cars on the road. Temperature was about 78 degree, which was 10 degrees warmer than what it was upon leaving Jordan Valley.

As I progressed and the night got cooler I started to see little critters (mice and an occasional kangaroo rat) zipping across the road with unbridled determination to make it to the other side of the road, unlike the suicidal squirrels on Mines Road. Unfortunately, one of these little guys launched himself a half second to late and I felt an ever so slight thump under the front wheel. Sorry little fella! Other bigger critters were rabbits, looked like smaller versions of cottontails we have around here, a few owls and some coyotes picking up tasty treats that didn’t make it across the road in time. Truck traffic is starting to pickup, passing one or two about every 10 minutes as they head up North.

It’s now 12:29 AM and I’m in Winnemucca getting gas at a Circle J station as the Chevron is closed up tighter than a drum. Felt good to get off the bike and walk around a little as “monkey butt” was starting to set in. Other than that I was feeling pretty good. Walked inside to use the rest room and decided get a small snack and try one of those little “5 Hour” energy drinks.

I get my items and go up to the counter and there is this grossly obese couple trying to make up their minds on whether to get a quart of potato salad or 6 hard boiled eggs from the deli section to go with super sized drinks, big family size bag of chips, and some kinda shrink wrapped pre-made sandwiches. The guy starts sneezing and can’t cover his face cause his hands are full of stuff their going to eat. Meanwhile the lady comes back with the hard boiled eggs that have a green tint to them and are sliding around the bottom of one of those clear hard plastic containers. I back up to let her by and then she tells her old man that she going looking for some cold medicine for her runny nose. She can’t tend to her nose cause her hands are holding her purse, eggs, two jumbo size candy bars and other stuff, plus she’s snorting like an old race horse and ends up using her shirt sleeve to wipe her faucet of a nose. Have I died and gone to Hell? Dear God I’m really sorry I hit one on your furry little creatures a little while ago and promise to never, ever to do that again if you just let me out of this place!

The whole time this couple is still arguing about what to get, where the cold medicine might be, and who’s got the money to pay, the guy behind the counter is slowly bagging up the previous customers stuff and talking on his cell phone. “James you are not my friend anymore! James, I told you, you are not my friend anymore!”

I'm thinking to myself... Dear Lord, I can see the door, it’s only about 8 feet away. Please part the cellulite. Oh please, oh please!!! I’ll never say your name in vain again I promise. The first customer finally gets his stuff and is starting to leave, the guy behind the counter is still on the phone and I can hear James yelling something and the counter guy’s voice is getting higher and starts in with: “You know that’s not true, it’s over, you are not my friend!..."

Ok, I’m really getting freaked out with the nose wiping sleeve thing, the sneezing with foreign particulate matter being sprayed into the atmosphere, James and the counter guy not being “friends” anymore, and the slimy green eggs sliding around in the clear plastic container. Just then the big obese guy with the arm load of junk food leans forward towards the counter.

Can it be? A small opening between the fat guy and the rack of fishing supplies behind him. Fug it, I’m making a break for the door, toss my energy bar and 5 Hour drink thingy over my shoulder, turn sideways and bolt for the door and the bike. As I’m making for the door, shits still falling off the fishing rack. I yell back at counter guy: “Sorry dude but I gotta go!” “Oh thank you Lord”.

Nice pictures. I was in Jordan Valley once

Part VI

There’s something therapeutic about riding at night in the cool desert air. Particularly when you’re riding solo, the song from the tires on different types of pavement, the serenade of the motor, the darkness that surrounds you except for the headlight piercing the blackness in front of you. In about 2 hours I’ll be in Fernley.

It’s now 2:49 AM as I pull into “Loves”, a big truck stop, gas station in Fernley. Get that 5 Hour drink, a trail mix bar and go outside to enjoy the night air with the drone of diesel trucks in the background. Within 10 minutes I’m back on the road and there’s a lot more road repair / construction zones than there was when East bound. One “zone” was almost 16 miles long.

The ride up through Sparks and Reno was pretty uneventful and just a few trucks on the road. As I pass BoomTown and starting the climb up to Truckee there’s yet another construction zone. Both lanes are coned off with those big plastic barrels with the 4 inch wide reflective strips on them. The road crew has laid down a new “lane” where the shoulder of the road would be and it’s beat to crap cause of all the heavy truck traffic. Part of this new lane is actually includes about 2 feet of the original road and this part has the rumble strips cut into it. Where the old and new temporary asphalt meet there is often a lip of ¼” to an inch in places. I found that running about a foot to the right of this seam was the smoothest (relatively speaking). Up on the rumble strips you’d get “buzzed” to death and out on the far right side the pavement was starting to breakup and undulated like one of those kiddie roller coaster rides at the carnival. Not fun riding at 3 to 4 AM in the morning.

I was coming up behind some slow moving traffic, a truck, a bus, and two more trucks then I saw this marker barrel doing a couple of slow pirouettes off to the left in the two lanes that were coned off. Either the first truck or the bus had clipped the barrel and sent it spinning off into the center divider. The brake lights on the third and fourth trucks come on but I’m back far enough so stopping isn’t an issue for me. Just then the fourth truck clips something in the road and this black ring that’s about 3 feet in diameter flips up on edge and is wobbling towards me. The damn ring goes right, then left, then loops back to the right and flops right in front of me as I’m moving to right and I just clip it with the rear tire. At first I'm thinking "re-cap" but as soon as it flopped in front of me I realized that this was the base ring to the marker barrel that the truck or bus hit just a few moments ago.

The bike felt stable, no soft squishy feeling like a tire going down. I quickly stepped through the bikes “INFO” settings until the TPS info was displayed. Looks good, setting right at 42 PSI but no place to pull over and actually check the tire. I kept my speed down around 40 mph and let the trucks and bus slowly pull away. After about a mile I was able to pull off on a wide spot, get out the flashlight check the tire. No cuts, abrasions, or any kind of a mark at all. Wow, another birthday present!

The road was back to two full lanes now and I soon caught up and passed the three trucks and bus. Hopefully no more surprises as I near the downhill leg of my journey.

B-

Keep writing and ride safe. Enjoying your journey journal.