A Little About Us

A Little About Us
INTRODUCTION: First, allow me to introduce the members of this group...I'm Mike riding my 2003 Heritage Softail Springer...my wife Juju is on her 2015 Freewheeler...and Ed and Nancy are on their 2009 Heritage Softail. For the purposes of this trip we are referring to ourselves as H.A.R.P. HARP is a made-up name and it simply stands for Hogs And Retired People...and all that means is that we are members of HOG (Harley Owners Group) and we are...you guessed it...retired! The name came about when seven of us made a trip out west, but just the four of us this time. I've done blogs before, and this one will be for the same reason...to refresh our memories in our "Golden Years" (they say the memory is the second thing to go...and I can't remember what the first thing was). What is different this time is the blog is being shared by THUNDER ROADS PENNSYLVANIA MAGAZINE...Truly, an honor. This journey will be a round trip from, and to our home town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The plan is to travel to the Atlantic coast at Ocean City, Maryland for the "Official" start on U.S. Route 50. We will follow U.S. 50 west for over 3,000 miles to its terminus in Sacramento, California. From Sacramento, we will head a bit further west to the Pacific Ocean before we begin to travel south. California Highway 1 and U.S. Route 101, better known as the Pacific Coast Highway, will be the route for about 500 miles to Santa Monica. At the world famous Santa Monica Pier, we hop on Route 66...The "Mother Road". Travelling about 2,500 miles to the north east, we'll arrive at the end of 66 in Chicago, Illinois. The "Official" end of our journey. From Chicago, it's just another 450 miles and we're back in Pittsburgh. We've made very few lodging reservations, thus eliminating the pressure of trying to get somewhere by some deadline. The whole purpose of this ride to see this country and whatever piques our interest along the way...and we will be looking for that giant ball of yarn! So we invite you to ride along with us. We hope you will find it both entertaining and informative. Please feel free to leave your comments and share this with anyone you feel would have an interest.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Day 14 Friday August 7, 2015

Days without Incident 4
Days with Rain Gear  0

It was cold and windy this morning.  Then, as we loaded up the bikes, it began to rain...in the desert!

We donned the rain suits before pulling out headed for, Eureka 78 miles away.  An important thing to remember is that between these towns on U.S. 50 in Nevada, there is nothing but mountains and desert.

By the time we arrived in Eureka, the rain had ceased, but the temperatures were very much on the cool side.  After some coffee, we decided we could take off the raincoats, but kept them handy.  The pants are a pain to put on, so we left them on as we set out for the next town of Austin, 70 miles to the west.

Riding through the desert allows you to see for miles in every direction.  What we kept seeing was storms in the distance.  Never sure which way the road would turn, we never knew if we were headed toward the rain or around it.

Now, when we got our "Official Highway 50 Survival Guide" we assumed it was just a fun publicity gimmick for the few towns along the road.  We never thought it actually meant "SURVIVAL".

About 20 miles from Austin, there was a mountain in front of us.  The road obviously went up and over it...and since the entire mountain was blanketed in a dark cloud, it was painfully obvious that there was rain up there.

We stopped to put on the raincoats, and heavier gloves, face and ear protection and headed into the belly of the beast...and it quickly became a beast!

The summit was over 7,000 feet and the cold temperatures kept getting colder.  The road kept getting twistier and the rain began to pound on us.  Then the rain turned to hail.  The ice crystals stung like a million bees as it hit our faces.  The hail then began to accumulate on the road surface, which brought our speed to almost a crawl on the winding downhill approach into Austin.  When we decided to stop for lunch and wait out the storm, the SNOW PLOW passed us as it scraped the road and spread salt...IN AUGUST!

A long lunch allowed the storm to pass as we continued on to our next destinations of Fallon, Virginia City and finally, Carson City.

Having been to Virginia City before, we were all looking forward to the retun.  Another childhood TV town, it was part of the setting for Bonanza.  The Cartwright boys went to Virginia City when it was time to "Go into town".

After dinner at Julia Bulette's (the founder of the Mustang Ranch), we headed to Carson City for the night.

Tomorrow is maintenance day.  Juju has an appointment for her 10,000
mile service and Ed and I need oil changes.


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