Waste of a day and it was expensive

October 12, 2007 by bobcatou

The plan today was to do odds and ends here in Las Vegas but I got stuck at a BMW shop for a good part of the day getting new tires put on my bike. I also screwed up my bike by frying a relay when I was replacing/installing a turn signal myself. This is the one that broke in Death Valley at Ubehebe Crater. Let’s just say I did something stupid and leave it at that. Anyway that cost me about $70 to have fixed and I don’t want to go into the tire expense. Tread was low though. No choice. Blown tires aren’t part of my plan for this trip. Because the bike stuff took so long, I wasn’t able to run my errands unless I wanted to be Las Vegas roadkill during rush hour.

The highlight of the day was once again, meeting new people. David Earl and Bill from a bike club that I am in, met me for lunch. Basically we slammed how little it seems that BMW mechanics know. Anyway it was a good time. Yesterday Bill was nice enough let me use his garage to do some maintenance on my bike that was needed.

Like I said in my last post…GOOD PEOPLE.

I plan to get up early tomorrow and get errands done and hopefully hit the strip.

Sequoia/Kings Canyon visit

October 12, 2007 by bobcatou

I was wary of visiting Sequoia with the bad weather up there but I am glad I did.

I planned the leave the morning of the second day I was up there but when I stopped by the visitor’s center, one of the rangers saw me and yelled, “Roads are clear throughout the park!!!” She knew I had a concern, obviously since I was on a bike. I don’t know if I mentioned but a day earlier, two motorcyclists crashed in the park because of the roads.

Well after she made such a point of telling me the roads were clear, I couldn’t leave the park. By the time I got the all clear, I didn’t have the time to ride as deep into King’s Canyon as I had hoped. (You go through Sequoia to get to KC.) I was able to make it a little ways and with the nice weather it was a good day. At the end of the day, I met with Leon and Eva again and they told me to set up camp again on their site. We had evening coffee and they offered me some soup for dinner which was good because I hadn’t eaten all day.

I didn’t take many pictures of the visit. Below is one of my favorite.

Dared Sequoia…Well kind of.

October 10, 2007 by bobcatou

Note: You can click on the map to get a better view.

After my hotel stay in Tulare, CA and against my better judgment, I rode to the Sequoia National Park. I called the weather line that morning and they said there was ice and snow in parts of the park. It was beautiful in Tulare though so I figured it couldn’t be that worse, 90 minutes away. Well I was wrong.

I got to Sequoia hoping that the roads would be clear by the time I arrived. The visitors station said no and even told me that 2 motorcycles had gone down in a certain area.

The ranger said it was safe up to the Giant Forest. I don’t know if I would agree if it is in the forest by the picture below.

The above picture was taken at a visitor’s center near the entrance of the Giant Forest. As I approached the road was went with only ice on the sides of the road. It is did make me nervous so I turned around at the visitor’s center. For obvious reasons, I didn’t feel safe going farther.

I’m in Boulder City, NV tonight. It’s about 20 minutes south of Las Vegas.

I haven’t had a chance to import my pictures from my camera but I will in a day or so. I am doing some minor bike work at a borrowed biker’s garage tomorrow. I plan to hang around here until Saturaday most likely.

I met some great people over the last few days and see some beautiful areas. I even got up BEFORE sunrise to take some pictures of the Sand Dunes in Death Valley.

More to come very soon…