Gettin' Dirty with the Wans: 8400 miles - UTBDR, KLIM rally, Canada, WABDR, OBDR +

Hi sion,
Ack. not good with pics of dead things...
Glad you were ATGATT and survived that.

Matt and I hit a deer on our first 2up camping trip (Yosemite).
It was pretty horrible. Deer died, we were okay.

We were really lucky - it was 1992, and we didn't have much for gear.
No money, no sense (young), not a lot of options...
Jeans, lace up steel-toed boots, leather jackets, mystery helmets (used).

Those deer pics brought back some bad memories.





Everyone - be careful if you're riding this weekend!!!

Heh. OK, JG!
You mean like this?
Haha, maybe this?

Thanks, Scott!
Yeah, I always bite off more than I can chew with these long reports.
But, it's fun to share with you guys.
Thanks for hanging in there and reading it all!

My secret for remembering details - keep a good journal and take lots of photos.
As you know, things start to get confusing and overwhelming pretty quick.
The days start to blend together when you're riding all day in the middle of nowhere...
Every night I write down what I can. If we're camping, Matt cooks while I write, then I do dishes.

If I do a good job out there, the report almost writes itself when we're home. Haha, Almost.

Here's a sample page, all the crossing-out was done that night:




I'm always ragging on the Harley no-gear riders, but...
People! Why wear jeans and tees and slip on shoes in 2012??

And, on $40,000 bikes, it's not like they were too poor for gear...





OK, everyone - Matt and I are hosting my family's T-day this year.
So, I'm too busy to work on Day 53.
Matt's running off to Death Valley tomorrow, with Cap'n underpants and Bartek990.
I was invited, but our last DV ride was soooooo good, I don't want to go back and have it be less good.
It's too soon.
Also, larryboy and mrs. LB aren't going to be there.


I opted to stay home and finish the report instead.
You're welcome!




Day 53, coming up - eventually...
(I've got lots of Xmas gifts to knit, too. )




In the meantime - hope you guys have a wonderful holiday!



That's a hamster, dressed as a turkey.



(long story, it's a felt doll I made a few years ago)




Anyway, American or not - hope all of you enjoy some good food,
good drink , and lots of fun!
Maybe some dancing?

Just when you are getting to my neck of the woods..... I have to wait!

Have a great Turkey Day!!!
I am thankful for MANY things, one of which you for providing us with such wonderful entertainment.

Thanks to BigWanamal for being such a Wanamal on that blue schoolbus, and thanks to Mrs. WonderWan for working so hard for MONTHS after the party is over.

Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope you are all having a great turkey day with lots of good food and surrounded by the ones you love.

The worst part about day 52....is the report is almost over. (Good news for littlewan )

On a side note, it was a beautiful day in upstate NY and I went out for a ride!!!
The downside to that is a switched the GoPro to the narrow field of view and while I get less fish eye effect, the camera wasn't angled up high enough, the field of view was dominated by the pavement , I need to experiment some more and figure out a better set up so I can make some videos!

Gotta add mine in there too. I hope y'all are having a great day. Also hoping Matt enjoys DV. My neighbor just came back from there, doing a newbie off-road ride.

Thanks again for the report. I hate to see these end--you have such a great writing style. From your perspective, you are long past ready for it to end.....

Hope you both had a great Thanksgiving and a big thank you for sharing your RR. I'm bummed it's coming to an end but it just frees you up for the next BIG adventure. I hope Matt has a great time and no flats in DV.
Ride on...

Hi!
The smoke was off the hook this summer. Thanks for thinking about us!
Four huge fires burning up the forest--and desert.
Ramhorn is one of our favorite places to ride. You went past just before the fire hit that area.
It is pretty fried up out there, but the campground is still good, and empty.
Glad the mountain lions were not hungry that night.

I was reading the report and my daughter saw the mameshiba video. She made these.


Way bummed this is about to be wrapped up!

Love me some Apple trailers! Pretty nasty looking stuff , Well done

Thank you LittleWan!! Our friend has arrived!!

We're not very interesting.

Ah Kelly, you do have that proper 'twist' to make things 'interesting'...boring or not, lol
And the 'Mr.' is just a crazy bus driver (of the absolutely best kind, ha!)
Mucho work, but if you put your travels on a CD, I for one would buy a copy... :)
Would make a nice coffee table book too......got any friends in the publishing biz?
Have a great holiday season!
gt

Yay!
Woooo!

They make a super cute pair!
So glad the package got there safely. Thanks for the pics, I love them!


happy to hear you're out riding. Yeah, it takes a while to find the right angle for the GoPro. It can be frustrating at first.
You'll get the hang of it.

Thanks, Ladybug!

Thanks VFR and redog - so far it seems like Matt is having fun in DV.
At least, that's how it looks on the SPOT tracks (haven't talked to him).
Looks like they camped in Eureka Dunes the first night.
Here's where they were last night...





Maybe Rob has some photos from that location...

(I just figure you know every inch of DV)

Hey PP, yep - we thought we might be missing some good riding right there.
But the smoke.
We were anxious to get some cleaner air.
Wow, your daughter is talented!
Those are some cute Mameshibas!!

Hi PDX A - glad you liked the trailer! Have you been to DV yet?
Put that on your list of places to go (but, make rocks and sand your favorites, first. )

Thanks, gt!
That's so sweet of you!
But if you guys had to pay for this stuff, I'd have to do a better job.
I'd have to fix my grammar and spelling and maybe take better photos...



But, maybe some day. If we win the lottery.
Matt and I always talk about how fun it would be to take reader suggestions for rides,
with follow up reports.
It would be exciting to see where you guys would send us!
I could see a whole series (articles maybe? episodes?)
But it would probably turn into "Trying to Kill the Wans" or something like that.








Thanks for the Tday wishes, you guys!
Hope you all had a nice holiday.
We did. It was our best Thanksgiving in years.
Normally, we would have done turkey but my grandfather was hoping for a roast.
He has been eating hospital/care facility food for a month...
How could we say no?



Matt made beautiful prime rib - it was outstanding.
My family is really picky. Everyone wants it super rare - pink, but not raw.


Matt made 11 lbs of prime rib (2 roasts - for 7 people!) and they were rare all the way through.
Every slice was perfectly rare, even the ends were pink on the inside.
They were juicy and tender and sooo delicious.
Searing the outside, then slow roasting at 250° is the key.
recipe here: america's test kitchen prime rib
(I think matt only cooked it to 120° for very rare)


We had a lot to be thankful for this year.
Here's my grandad - 93 years old. Doesn't he look great??




He was driving up until last month, but now that he's got a pacemaker...
I think he's pretty bummed that his driving days are over. That must suck.


One thing I'm sad about is that Grandad never got to ride 2up with Matt.
We kind of talked about it in the past, but it didn't happen.
Now he's too breakable.



My uncle got to see our KTM for the the first time.
He used to ride dirt bikes (I think one was a Maico?) and has ridden the Rubicon,
but he couldn't get over how HUGE the 990s is.

He just shook his head at the thought of us riding the schoolbus, 2up in the rocks.





Speaking of which...

hi, hobbes - sorry - you have to wait just a little longer...

I've got one video uploaded and I'm working on another...

Still have to sort through my photos, too.
Slacker. I know.
My sister stayed for a couple days and we just hung out.
Hadn't seen her in months.
She made me watch Game of Thrones with her.
I'm not usually into that kind of magical, dragon-y stuff but it's a pretty good show.



On the upside, I got lots of knitting done.
(by the way, sorry if you clicked on those knitting links with your filters turned off
Holy crap, some of those willy warmer pics were pretty graphic!
I guess I had safe search turned on the first time. )




OK, I just grabbed this screen shot real quick -
Gold Lake teaser!




I'll be back.


Here's a little music while you wait...





I know I already used that one, but I love it.
(Tn Walrus, are you still with us?)

Pretty much right here:




Cool old truck just about within sight of the icons on the map:

Thanks, Rob!

I knew you would have pics.


By the way, sorry I didn't have an update on your stick. On that rocky 2 track near Xmas Valley...

I didn't think about it until it was too late.
We would have gone to check if I had thought about it in time.

Prime Rib!!!!:dg

Thank's for the recipe link Kelly, I'll be putting that one to use for sure.

Awe, you're such a tease. Got excited when I saw the orange type, but NOOOOoooooo!

I don't want it to end, drag it out as long as you want.

Hey scottmac,
Oh, if you like prime rib, you have to try that recipe!
We'’ve used it at least 4 times now, and it’'s always perfect.
One slight change for the recipe - Matt sears the meat first, then we salt and pepper the outside (it’s a 2 person job.)
As written, it’'s salt/pepper first, then sear.



Also - freshly ground sea salt and pepper are the way to go.
I like the Trader Joe'’s grinders.
Matt has the camera, but I stole this pic from the internet.

It’'s not that I want to drag it out, but these posts take forever and I can only handle so many hours in front of the computer at this point.
Just trying to finish this up without half-assing it.
I've been working on this stupid thing all day.
Must. keep. uploading.

Thanks, Ladybug!
OMG - that's hilarious!
What a frickin' great idea. I like the way you think.
An ADV willy warmer.













Day 53: 8/13/12
Ramhorn CG to home 335 miles






There had been some drama in the campground last night when this guy
locked his keys in his truck.




We heard a bunch of panic and then 3-4 guys spent hours trying to get into the truck.
I think they were trying to fish the keys off the driver’s seat - using fish hooks?
There was lots of talk about fish hooks.
Loud talk. This group had no volume control.


I wanted to make Matt go over and help,
but he thought they had enough people to figure it out.
OK.
We watched a really dumb movie in the meantime.
(it was a magical dragon-y version of Pineapple Express. Bad )


Finally, around 11pm, we heard the owner of the truck...
“Okay, let'’s hope that maybe I left the back unlocked... YES!”
He crawled into the unlocked camper shell, reached through the sliding window and got his keys off the seat.


There were cheers and high fives all around. Huzzah!
I couldn'’t help but chuckle as they congratulated themselves on being “excellent problem solvers!”

It only took them 3+ hours!






Tires.













Lizard hanging on a rock.







I like these ants. They look like they’'re wearing fur bikinis.




Hmmm. I thought raquel welch wore a fur bikini in One Million BC,
but turns out it'’s not that furry.









We saw more smoke as we were leaving the campground.







Matt and I talked about doing the Pacific Crest Quest, starting at Lassen,
but we had done that section before and it wasn’'t great.
With all the smoke in the area, we decided to just slab down to the best parts of the trail (day 7).









There were a lot of hot rods on the road - they were probably coming home after Hot August Nights in Reno.









God, I hate slab.
The highway is so boring, I really wished I had a book or a kindle.








We passed one of those shoe trees, but I didn’'t get a photo.
Could have been that Ravendale shoe tree (we were on 395).









"Put Your Campfire Dead Out" No kidding.
It seemed like most of the West was on fire at this point.







Stopped in Graeagle.






Last burger of the trip!
I don'’t think I'’ve had one since.




Matt and I were just talking about how neither one of us has had a Mountain dew, Red Bull or Monster since Oregon.
It's really not a normal thing for us. Only on long rides.



There has been plenty of learning juice, though.
And, ice cream.




Look at this weird cone. Hard to tell from the photo, but it was translucent and icy.
Maybe not enough milk/cream?








I’'m sure Pink Pillion recognizes this...









Gold Lake, here we come!

























Considering it was a monday, there were lots of people at the lake.
Horse people, hikers, jeeps...
Hmmm. Guess I got lucky and none of them got into my photo.








Here come the rocks!

Here you go, hobbes!
This is soooo much easier than Crane Mountain - and it'’s right in your backyard!
HD for the rocks...





In case you're wondering - when matt’'s talking about “training for Rocky III, he'’s referring to the guy in the green shorts at about :30.
Don'’t ask.































There are some nice campsites by the lake.
No charge, and we hear that the rocky road really thins the herd.

























Lots of hikers.




































Here we go - the last riding video of the report!
That song has been stuck in my head for a while...

















In the summer of stupid, this next section was covered in snow.







If you want to see the snow/without snow photos,
they’'re in this post



There’'s a couple of the old crazy hand-held videos in that post, too.
We'll be heading to Butcher Ranch next...


But, that’'s it for today.
My hands are killing me.




One last tarako video, too!

Waitaminute!!!




Those aren't rocks, they're cobblestones! Yeah, that's it--it's a paved road after all.

Climbing the mountain...

That song is OBSCENE!
oser