Home Again!

The last few days have been a blur. The picture at left shows Buzz liberally applying pepper to his meal (a regular occurance).
We left Nevada, Missouri in the fog - it took an hour or two to clear. We wanted to make sure we had enough time to meet with Dick & Cheryl Parker the next day in Marshall, IL so we pushed hard to cover a lot of territory and ended up in Mount Vernon, Illinois at the end of a 400 mile day.
We met Dick and Cheryl in Casey, IL and they guided us to the "Moonshine Store" (no alcohol served here) for a Moonburger. It was great. Afterwards we went to their beuatiful home for a great dessert.
Saying Good-Byes was hard. But knowing that we've started some fantastic friendships helps a great deal.

In all we covered 6,129 miles (5,608 miles in the company of Buzz and Marinan Brewer). We averaged around 255 miles per day when we travelled and around 42 miles per gallon.

It was a fantastic trip, but not without challenges. I don't think we will tackle this large of a trip again on two wheels, but who knows?

Thanks to all for your prayers and encouragement! We could not have done this without them!

More pictures at http://www.picasaweb.google.com/stephen.hamstra

Love,

Steve & Melinda

We're not in Kansas anymore...

We left Walsenburg, Colorado and continued east into Kansas.

We stopped at the Visitor Center in Lamar, KS and took pictures of the wind turbine blade (huge). There are some very large wind farms south of town.

We continued onto Dodge City where I was able to get the oil changed in the Goldwing at the Honda/Harley Dealer. We stayed in Dodge City that night and left this morning.
While crossing Kansas we stopped at Greensburg - the small town devastated by an F5 tornado in May of 2007. They are rebuilding the town using green/sustainable guidelines. All city buildings to be LEED Platinum rated (very high on the "green" scale). While there we looked at the "Big Well" (32 feet in diameter and 109 feet deep) that was dug by hand in the late 1800's. Amazing.

We continued east and made it into Missouri (a small town called Nevada) and had a nice dinner at Buzz's BBQ.

More pictures at http://www.picasaweb.google.com/stephen.hamstra

That's all for now! Tomorrow we try to get all the way across MO into IL.

Heading for home

We've had several days where we were unable to post new pictures - now there are new ones at the website below.

We travelled to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon - very beautiful! We walked out onto the rocks shown in the second picture for a better view. Marinan & Buzz wouldn't walk near the edges (yet they will ride their motorcycle to Alaska, Newfoundland, etc.) - go figure!



The next day we went through Monument Valley. This could be the most pretty ride of our trip - breath-taking beauty!
Today we needed to cross the San Juan Mountains in Colorado to get ready to enter the flat-lands of Kansas tomorrow. Climbing and crossing Wolf Creek Pass was very traumatic for Melinda - but we made it. No pictures of that (Melinda was holding onto me too tight to take pictures) - much of the road seemed to be cantilevered off of cliffs and we passed through an Ice Shed (like a tunnel) and also a tunnel.

Marinan & Buzz have been awesome to ride with - they have truly made this part of our trip a wonderful time!

We are currently staying in Walsenburg,m Colorado - tomorrow it's Kansas!

Love to all,

Steve & Melinda

More pictures at http://www.picasaweb.google.com/stephen.hamstra

Alabama Hills & Death Valley!

Yesterday we left Barstow, CA and headed north to Mojave, CA to meet Buzz & Marinan Brewer. We then contined to Lone Pine, California.

This picture is taken just west of Lone Pine in an area called the Alabama Hills. Many western and science fiction movies have been shot here. The movie "Gunga Din" was shot in the location where Melinda and I are standing.





This morning we left Lone Pine and first drove north to an internment camp where the Japanese were held during WW II. There is nothing left there except for ruins.

We then headed south and east over the mountains and down into Death Valley. The descent was a bit scary - many curves and drop offs but we did just fine. Death Valley was very hot - 105 F and Melinda got too hot so we stopped and cooled her down.

Buzz and I toured a place called Scotty's Castle that was built in the 1920's. It even had solar collectors from 1927 and a hydroelectric generator!

We made it out of Death Valley and climbed into Nevada - we are currently in Tonopah, Nevada.

Tomorrow we will head east past Area 51 on the Extraterrestrial Highway and we hope to be in Utah tomorrow night.

We'ved posted two more days worth of photos at http://www.picasaweb.google.com/stephen.hamstra

Love to all,

Steve & Melinda

Santa Monica!

The group made it down to the pier yesterday without incident. They all agreed that we made the right decision to hold back in Barstow as the traffic on I-10 was 75+ MPH and very heavy. They aid their good byes and headed off into different directions.

The picture on the bottom was taken by another rider as Melinda and I climbed the infamous Sitgreaves Pass into Oatman. We're still recovering from that one!

Today we leave Barstow and head about 70 miles further west to Mojave. Then we will meet Buzz and Marinan from our group and head north to Lone Pine, an area where many western movies were shot. From Lone Pine we will turn our bikes into the sunrise and begin the long trek back.

We've covered 3,000+ miles so far and really have had minimal problems. Melinda's a little rattled and not so sure she's ready to hop back on the bike, but we're going to do it and it WILL be great!

Thanks for your continued prayers on our behalf.

Steve & Melinda

Sitgreaves Pass

Well...it's been a full couple of days. Yesterday was pretty hard. We started the day by leaving Kingman, Arizona and heading towards Oatman - a small mining town on the old Route 66. To get there we needed to drive through Sitegreaves Pass - I knew that there were hairpins turns and a steep climb, but I had no idea how many and how steep. The picture below is an aerial shot of this route (it shows as a light line labelled "10").
Most of the climb was in 1st and 2nd gears and at no time did we go more than 20 MPH. The climb was 9 miles - those in our group that have ridden the Dragon's Tail in Deal's Gap down south (318 turns in 11 miles) said that this was even more challenging!

This was pretty hard on Melinda and it took some time for her to calm down in Oatman. Eating some ice cream (at 10 AM) helped.

We spent some time in Oatman, but did not see any wild burros - apparently they wake up later in the day.

We left Oatman and began to travel across the Mojave Desert. The sun was hot, the ground was dry - we were riding in 104 F temperatures - it felt like you were standing in front of a hair dryer as we rode. We packed water and stopped often. We had one co-rider that fainted in the heat, but was revived with lots of cool water and damp cloths. She felt much better and was able to continue.

We made it to Barstow, California and spent the night. The Route 66 museum opened up for us after their normal hours and we had a great time there followed by our last dinner together as a group at the Idle Spur Stgeak House.

This morning the group headed for Santa Monica. Melinda and I decided that the big city traffic was more than we wanted to deal with so we said our "good byes" and photographed the group as they left.

What a great trip! We be doing some more posting as we figure out our route home.

More pictures at http://www.picasaweb.google.com/stephen.hamstra

Blue Skies!!!!

The weather has made a turn for the better - blue skies and warmer temperatures.
We've left New Mexico and are now in Arizona.
All is well.
More pictures at http://www.picasaweb.google.com/stephen.hamstra

Steve & Melinda

Halfway to LA!

Yesterday we passed though Adrian, Texas - the official halfway point on Route 66.

We stopped for pie at a small cafe there - it was great!

The weather has been damp and mostly overcast, but has not been a problem. We've managed to avoid any heavy rain.

We decided that we were carrying too much stuff so we wanted to ship some of it home. We asked the hotel clerk here in Santa Rosa, New Mexico how far it was from the Hampton Inn to the Post Office. She said "not too far, about 3/4's of a mile". As it was drizzling, and I had already washed and covered the motorcycle we decided to walk. It was uphill, then downhill and when we finally got there (40 minutes at a good pace) we concluded that it was probably closer to 2 or 3 miles one way. We'll check the distance today when we ride by on the Goldwing.

But we needed the exercise and we are now 13 pounds lighter with unused gear and I hope at least 5 pounds lighter due to the strenuous exercise!

Today we are taking the Santa Fe loop north and then down to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the night. Weather is forecasted to be partly cloudy and 50% chance of rain (again). But no worries - we are having a great time!

More pictures at http://www.picasaweb.google.com/stephen.hamstra

Steve & Melinda

We're doing great!

It seems like there is very little time to spend keeping you all updated - sorry!

Yesterday was very windy as we drove from Oklahoma City to Amarillo, Texas.

We had a great dinner at the Big Texan - the steak was great!

Two days worth of pictures at http://www.picasaweb.google.com/stephen.hamstra

'Sorry that we have not had time to clean them up - some might not be so good! But we are getting feedback that many family members of our riders are checking our website to keep track of our progress so we thought we should get these posted.

Rodger Fox, our leader was laid up yesterday in OK City with a back problem - he hopes to rejoin us today. Please keep him (and the whole group) in your prayers.

Weather forecast says we might be in some rain today - we'll see!

Thanks!

Steve & Melinda

Update

Everything is going great! Not much time to update the Blog, but here is a nice article from the Zeeland Record (local newspaper) that ran after we left. Alison - thanks for emailing this to us!

Just click on the images to see them bigger (you can do this to any of the pictures on the Blog).

There are lots of new pictures at:

http://www.picasaweb.google.com/stephen.hamstra

Today we leave Joplin, Missouria and head to Oklahoma City. We will drive through a small portion of Kansas.

Last night the Joplin Chamber of Commerce hosted us at a BBQ - very nice and excellent ribs!

We are adjusting to the physical exercise - but it's tough! We both look a little tired this morning, but life is great!

The people we are traveling with are wonderful too!

September 6, 2008 - Day One on the Road!

Steve was up at 5:30 AM, Melinda shortly after. We went with some new friends (Buzz and Marinan from Alabama) to a Denny's for breakfast and made our way to Navy Pier to meet with the group.

About half of the motorcycles were there - the rest will join us as we travel. Escaping Chicago was an adventure, but we survived.

We had lunch in Wilmington at the Launch Pad Drive-in, home of the "Gemini Giant" in the picture at the left.
We stopped at a restored gas station in Odell and met a motorcycle tour from Norway that will be riding Route 66 in parallel with us.

We also made stops at Route 66 museums in Joliet and Pontiac, Illinois. We bought gas at the Dixie Truckers Home (truck stop).

We checked into the Route 66 Motel in Springfield, IL and had a CozyDog dinner (corn dogs) at the Cozy Drive In.

Tomorrow - Chain of Rocks Bridge (made famous by Kurt Russell in the movie "Escape from New York" - this is the bridge he "escaped" across), the St. Louis arch, and staying in Rolla, Missouri.

The weather was great, all was good, but it was a long day - we're tired!

See more photos at http://www.picasaweb.google.com/stephen.hamstra

Taliesin East Tour

After a great breakfast at the Silver Star Bed & Breakfast we rode in the rain to the Frank Lloyd Wright estate - Taliesin East.

Here we went on a four hour walking tour in the rain.

The grounds and buildings were most impressive!

Following lunch at the Visitor Center we drove in the rain and 52 F temperature to Janesville, Wisconsin.


We stayed at a Hampton Inn - immediately got in the hot tub to warm up! We hung our wet clothes anywhere we could in hopes they will dry by morning.

Tomorrow the forecast is for partly sunny skies with only scattered rain.

We've posted more pictures at:
http://www.picasaweb.google.com/stephen.hamstra

The first day of our trip...

The RADAR before we left home showed lots of rain in Wisconsin.

Q: "What do you do on the first day of a 6,000 mile motorcycle trip when it's raining?"

A: "You go anyway!"

The crossing of Lake Michigan was very rough, 4 to 5 foot waves - both of us were nauseated, even with the Dramamine we took (but we kept our cookies down!).
We arrived in Milwaukee to gray skies but no rain! The ride to the bed & breakfast was a bit long but we made it OK. We then went out to dinner at the House on the Rock Resort - good food!

We were so tired when we got back we fell right to sleep.

We will be posting our pictures on a website. You can see them at

http://www.picasaweb.google.com/stephen.hamstra