H.A.R.P. Summer Tour 2015: Day 15 Saturday August 8, 2015

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.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Day 15 Saturday August 8, 2015

Days without an incident - 0

Days without rain gear - 1

Today was a scheduled maintenance day for all of us. Juju had a 9:00 a.m. appointment at Carson City Harley-Davidson for her 10,000-mile service. Ed and I were scheduled for oil changes. Juju's service was expected to last about four hours and less than an hour each for Ed and I.

When they said Juju's bike was done at 11:00, we thought we had a bonus of a two-hour head start. Unfortunately, they found a problem. It turned out to be the Shifter Shaft (go ahead...say that three times real fast). As a result of the extra work, we didn't get out of the dealer until about 4:00 p.m. and we had about 250 miles to our next destination of San Francisco.

Leaving Carson City, we began the climb to above 7,000 feet into the Ponderosa Pine covered mountains that sloped down to the beautiful Lake Tahoe area. The traffic around the lake was heavy with summer visitors.

Once we crossed over to the California side of the lake, the drivers seemed to get crazy, including motorcycles taking advantage of California's new law allowing "lane splitting". One of these splitters got a little too close to me and almost wiped out both of us.

In the meantime, we were nearing the completion of the first segment of our journey...the completion of riding U.S. 50. The road ended unceremoniously when it merged into Interstate 80 in Sacramento. Even without a sign like the one in Ocean City, Maryland, we felt the accomplishment in having ridden the entire road.

Including several side trips to view places and things we didn't want to miss, we topped out at around 4,000 miles. We are all very proud of ourselves for being able to get this done.

On the way to our hotel, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco. Even though it was after sunset, it was still a dramatic experience, just not a photo opportunity.

We checked into the Hyatt Regency and immediately caused a stir. Apparently, they don't get too many grubby, road-weary bikers at this ultra-luxury hotel.

We took the time to enjoy the view from our room before visiting the hotel bar for a night-cap. We retired feeling good that we made it, and we had two days of San Francisco sight-seeing without having to get back on the bikes again until Monday.