Brian&Jill2013

four days from our tour of America. bike is ready will load it up with all of our "stuff" tomorrow. this picture is before being loaded. Kirk and Lynn will ride with us for the first couple of days. first stop is Sedona, AZ, to see the sunset from the airport. we have 2 1/2 months to tour as much of the back roads of America as we can. our objective is to stay off freeways and out of big cities. we will stop and see some family and friends along the way. we will post as often as we have something worth posting and or have wi-fi. I am tech. challenged so hopefully this will work.

Looking forward to the ride tale, be safe.

Terry

Sounds like a great time is waiting to be had. If you should have any problems arise while in northern arizona, I'm just a PM away.....

While in this part of the world, I would recommend a ride around the Prescott area to include the Verde Valley and Bagdad.....great roads, nice looking country......US 93 from I40 to Wickenburg is a nice ride.....and It's not hot yet. Enjoy!

Mike

We are envious and happy for you. Wish we could have joined you. Maybe next time. Don't be stingy about posting pics and tales from the road. We working folk need it to get through the day.

Wishing you all the best for the ride and please be safe.

three days from our road trip, today I loaded the bike with all the stuff just to see if it would all fit.

OK fellow OC'r, this sounds fun!

Welcome to ADV.

How about some bio on you two, the bike, and the ride. Got any 'must do' destinations? ie, the corner's of the U.S., Hwy 12 in UT, Barber Motorcycle Museum in AL, to name a few???

Do you have a blog anywhere, or will you be posting up here?

Sedona airport :eek1, great views indeed.

We'll be following, have a great trip!

the night before we leave on our big ride, I can't get the bike started. acts like a throttle body issue. I get it running after about twenty minutes but now not real confident, so I call my local BMW dealer, Irv Seaver in Orange Ca. they were great and took me in first thing in the morning and checked it out, apparently the gas lines were "loose and hitting the throttle cable".

My brother Ron and his wife wendy surprised me by showing up at Irv's and riding the first day to Sedona with us, they were on their LT. my other Brother Kirk and his girlfriend and Lynn, were already planning to ride a couple days with us and were waiting at our house.

with the delay at the shop, we only were delayed about 45 minutes from our original start time.

we got on the road about 9:00am. headed out of OC on the 91 to the 60 east and in Palm Springs took the 62 through 29 palms. hadn't taken that route before, probably don't need to again. it started to get a little warm, but at least "it was a dry heat" 100 degrees is still hot dry or not!. luckily, we got out of the heat after just a couple of hours and climbed up in elevation when we started heading up to Skull Valley off the 89, got a picture in front of the general store with a skull painted on he front of the store. dropped into the back of Prescott AZ, nice scenery and the weather was pleasant in the mid 80"s.

from Prescott, shot into Sedona and made it to the airport to catch the sunset. Sat. isn't probably the best day to do the sunset thing because when we pulled up to he little dirt parking lot, there were at least two hundred people there also waiting for the sunset. when the sun ducked behind the red mountains, people cheered like the were surprised.

lucky for us we called ahead and had a hotel, because the town was full. we found a great little Itailian restaurant. day one done, 69ish to go. all in all a good start.

Looking forward to the rest of your story!

Brian’s Brother Ron here. As Brian said, my wife and I made a last minute decision to tag along for the first leg of their trip ending in Sedona Az. We got back home a few hours ago.

This is a shot of Brian, Jill, Kirk and Lynn as we are leaving Brian's place.



I thought I might add a little background info and a few pics from the first leg of the ride.

All three brothers live in Orange County CA. We have each been riding one type of motorcycle or another most of our lives. Long bike trips are something we share a passion for but never get to do enough of. Back in 2008 the three of us, along with Brian's Son Brian Jr., did an Alaska ride together and that was outstanding. Brian has retired and has the time to take this epic U.S tour with his wife Jill. I am so envious!

Brian is still riding the same trusty 1150 GS he took to Alaska back in 2008. In fact, my other brother Kirk is riding the Same GSA he took on that trip. I just sold my GSA in anticipation of the new LC GSA so the LT was in the mix for this first send-off leg of their trip.

These are a couple of shots of the guys on the road somewhere in the desert between 29 Palms CA and Parker AZ.



Kirk and Lynn who will be splitting off for a week ride of their own. Not sure if he is posting his ride in ride reports or not but he can chime in if he is.



And finally, Skull Valley General Store. Just a spot in the road on a back route into Prescott AZ. Couldn't get the whole sign in the shot because the sun was setting right above the rooftop.


We had a great day riding together and were able to have a proper send-off dinner in Sedona AZ with Brian and Jill. Enjoy every minute guys and don't forget to post often.

Day two of our epic tour of the US. we got a little of a late start in Sedona, slept in till about 8:00 am, had beakfast and got on the road. headed north out of town on the 89, toward the Grand cyn. we got a little sidetracked when I saw a photo op, a dirt road with snow capped mountains in the distance. ended up taking the dirt road through the forrest, it was was the diversion, road wan't that bad, and the scenery was great. few pict's of that part of the day, turned out to be about 10-15 miles of back country, this was really in keeping with one of our main objectives of staying off freeways.



after our excursion on the mountain road, we headed to the Grand cyn. the weather was perfect and the scenery was mountain roads, and pine trees.
the Grand Cyn, is always impressive, I think this is the third or fourth time I've been there.

Looks and sounds like a great start. The photos are good to see. How is it being miced for the first time? Jeff...p.s. finally got through "the process" to be on this site. Felt like a background check but glad to be aboard and talking with you guys.

Great start to your trip. Keep up the pix and commentary. I've ridden around the Country myself, and never get tired of reading other riders exploits.

Ride safely,
Steve

OK, on my last post, I was tired, so I kind of rushed through the day. Briefly, the day in AZ was great, the ride out of Sedona on the 89 north is one of my favorite. the red mountains combined with the trees and the river is hard to beat. the dirt road that I talked about, and put a pict. or two on the post was an unexpected joy. Both Kirk and I are (were) dirt bike riders, we still have our wr 450's in our garage, but it's been a while since we actually took them out and abused them (us). so we really liked the "off road", now those big GS's aren't by any stretch of the imagination a dirt bike but the beauty of the gs is just that, when you see a dirt road, you can go. deep sand and large rocks are no fun on the beast, but that ride was fantastic.

Last night when we came out of the Grand Cyn. after a mass attack of bugs, wind shield and face shield covered from just a few miles, little buggers managed to get inside our helmets, even with the face shield down.

we ended up stopping in Cameron, thinking that it would be a little shack, next to a gift shop. turns out, it was a "find" the trading post has been there since early 1900's and the restaurant and hotel were added much more recently. it was really nice and at a reasonable rate. the Navajo Taco and fry bread was a hit.


out of Cameron, we headed to the Four Corners. for those that don't know it is where AZ, UT,NM, and CO all come together, the only place in the country where four states come together. took our obligatory tourist pictures and got back on the road.

https://2ontour.smugmug.com/Other/summer-ride-2013/i
fkbkVLL/0/L/image-L.jpg




stopped at the UTE Casino for lunch, and then back on the 160 toward Cortez CO. that's where Kirk and Lynn separated from us to start their way back home via Arches National Monument. we split at the 160 & 491 junction.



the terrain from southern CO to just a few miles east on the 160 changes dramatically, from "barren desert" to rolling hills with farms to Mountains with snow. we got into Durango CO. at about 5ish, with the time change we lost an hour. we really didn't put that many miles on the bike today, much like yesterday, but they were quality and that is what counts. so we pulled into town and found a great old Hotel, the General Palmer Hotel, it was built in 1898. the wife loves old hotels that have been restored, so if she's happy....






Tomorrow, the plan is to head south through NM.

Hey everyone,
I am the third brother Kirk. Sorry it took so long for me to post up but we have been uploading the 12000 pics that my GF Lynn has taken. We have even more to upload tonight. So I will keep the text to a minimum and just get the pics going.

This is us ready to go


Ron and Wendy on the road


This was at a gas stop near 29 Palms. Just thought it was a cool pic


Another of Ron and Wendy


Brian and Jill at the "spectacular" Sedona Airport.


Will post more later gotta eat!

Looking forward to the Report, and keep the pics coming!

A few action shots










Ok you probably get the idea, next post....scenery

Great! I can see the smiles behind the helmet shields.

I'll start with Forrest and his girl Jenny (Brian's Joke)




Had lunch here...food not so great but it was the Flinstones so we had to stop.



I was attacked!!!




I know i know...this should be in action shots...

The sign lied, we didnt see any???

My favorite....


More to come....

great night in Durango, highly recommend Ken and Sue's restaurant, the Jerk Chicken and New York Strip were outstanding!



left Durango this morning at about 9:30, the view going out of Durango south on the 550 was great, river, red mountains with pines. the temp was cool in the high 60's low 70's, we stopped in Cuba NM and decided to put our liners on because it obviously wasn't going to warm up anytime soon. about five minutes outside Cuba, it shot up to 85. shortly thereafter, 96 degrees! oh and it gets better, a nasty cross wind started, and then stayed with us the rest of the day. a couple of gusts had me white knuckling it for a while. the scenery once we got out of CO. was mostly scrub brush desert, with some mesas.



stopped in Albuquerque for lunch, and picked up parts of Route 66 / I 40 east all the way to Amarillo TX. on our way we saw a dark cloud up ahead of us and thought it was a storm, turned out it was a massive cattle pen. that went on for what seemed forever because "you can't hold your breath that long".



didn't upload the cows, but this was better.

lots of wind mills off he I40,



got into Amarillo about 8:00pm, that put us in the saddle for about 9 hrs. of hot wind and cow smells, not as scenic as the last few days but still better than working.

The riding around Durango, Creede, Lake City, and Pagosa Springs is amazing! Thanks for sharing your ride with us.

Steve