H.A.R.P. Summer Tour 2015: Days 11 & 12 August 4 & 5

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.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Days 11 & 12 August 4 & 5

Days without an incident: 6/7

Days without rain gear: 1/2

Well, it finally happened...I have run out of appropriate adjectives to describe what we have seen and done in the past two days.

These days were filled with unplanned and unexpected eye candy.

I'm going to be as brief as I can to tell you where we were, and what did, then just add a bunch of photos so you can see for yourself.

On Tuesday morning, we left Colorado Springs and once back on U.S. 50 we were riding with the Rockies spread out in front of us as far as we could see.

Toward the end of the day, we visited Black Canyon National Park. I never heard of it, but wait until you look at the photos. The day ended in Montrose, Colorado.

This morning, we decided to go a little off route and rode the "Million Dollar Highway" south and visited Four Corners Monument.

The ride back north was even more amazing as we approached Moab, Utah where we ended the day.

I know you'll enjoy the pictures more than the words...so, get to it!