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.

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Day 13 Thursday, August 6, 2015

Days without an incident:  3
Days without rain gear:  8


The air was cool this morning as we left Moab, Utah.  Within 40 miles we were on U.S. 50 which was now part of Interstate 70 for about 100 miles.  Once we
left the interstate in Salina, Utah, we continued at interstate speed but were on a two-lane heading for the desert.

I have great respect for the desert...I know that if something goes wrong, they either won't find you, or they will find you too late.  That being said, I also have a great fascination with the desert.

You quickly go from climbing to a mountain summit
at over 7,000 feet, with temperatures dropping, and then find yourself on the desert floor, where it literally feels as if you just stepped into an oven.  At times we could look ten miles in any direction, and realize we were the only visible life forms, other than plants.  The vastness of it all is mesmerizing and
reminds you how insignificant you really are.





As the day wore on, the temperatures continued to rise.  By the time we got to
the Nevada state line, it was in excess of 100°.   We made our stop for the evening in Ely (pronounced E-LEE), Nevada.  Here we got the first stamp on our Route 50 Survival card.  A fun thing to do as you cross the northern Nevada desert.

The card lists eight towns along U.S. 50.  If you get stamps from five of them, you get an "I Survived U.S. 50" commemorative pack.  As stated in the background section of this blog, Time Magazine dubbed this portion of the road "The Loneliest Road in America".  This Survival Guide is the area's way of making the best of a bad rap!

Tomorrow we will begin our trek across the desert!
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