As I was getting ready to leave, I shook out my trousers and luckily I did so, as this little fellow came flying out



Since the spider biting incident from last time, I am a bit wary about American spiders

My first night after the Adventure Summit was spent in relative luxury, in a bed at a friend's house, waking up to the most amazing view in the morning - this might look like a painting, but it was what I saw when I woke up. The bear is actually a sculpture, but the deer was real.



Riding throughout the mountains, I was heading to Jim Harvey's workshop, he'd been riding with our group over the weekend and having seen the pitiful state of Thelma's pannier rack, he offered to build her a new one.





We spent the day at his workshop while he measured and measured some more, as none of the angles seemed to match up on Thelma!!






The serious welding started happening






More checking of angles



More welding







The finished product



They look great and they will be stronger than any rack I've had before. Hopefully that means there will be no more scenes like this one in the future



This was welding...Siberian style

The racks needs powder coating, so I'll pick it up on my way back through Salt Lake City in a couple of weeks time.

Huge thanks to Jim and to his wife who fed and me and chatted.

http://www.globetrottin.com

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Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

I'd been invited to a friend's place at Bear Lake, riding north through Utah, it actually got quite chilly in Logan Canyon, as I paused to switch on my heated Gerbing jacket and gloves. Lots of greenery all around and a few deer lurking by the roadside, which made me go a lot slower, I'd been hearing tales about motorcyclists hitting deer and they didn't have happy endings.

Finally, the lake appeared, sparkling blue in the distance.



Naturally I couldn't resist going in for a paddle (or a wade as Americans call it)



The water level in the lake had been dropping for a long time, but in the past year, it has risen as you can tell from the sign.

and then we went out in their little ATV buggy thing, which I completely failed to get a picture of!

The trails through the woods were pretty and it was nice to be a passenger for a change, I could sit back and enjoy the scenery.


We went up to the snow line,



A hike through the woods brought us to some creeks



and back down to the lake, I wish I could have had more time to explore the area on Thelma, some great dirt trails

__________________
Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

You guys are going to enjoy this

Leaving Idaho, I headed across Nevada, as expected it was hot and there's not an awful lot to see except more amusing road signs

here's one for any dyslexic Star Wars fans who may be reading



Towards the end of the day, I was getting tired and the sun was about to set, I headed off road to find a place to camp. I'd seen on my map a reservoir was marked and so headed towards it through the sandy tracks





I was doing OK until this point



For some reason, Thelma just could not be shifted, I did all the usual desert stuff of digging away and putting stuff under the wheel, pushing and pulling





she moved about 2 inches



and so I used a different tack...I don't think I've seen this manoeuvre in the handbook



the facial grimaces say it all







Finally, Thelma was back on reasonably solid ground



Feeling hot and sweaty, Ileft her there and headed off to the reservoir....
well more fool me
Being a Brit, the image that comes to mind when the word reservoir is used is one of clear, blue sparkling waters. Why on earth I didn't stop to think "Tiff, you're in Nevada, one of the driest places on the planet"?!

The reality of a Nevada Reservoir was actually something that personally I would describe as a rather large muddy puddle. There was not the faintest chance in hell of plunging into cool water, the mud was knee deep to get to the first few inches of water, at which point I gave up and contented myself with gazing at it instead



I've got to admit, the "reservoir" looked better in the dark





But then, even Thelma (Perfection Personified as a Bike) improves as the sun sets...


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Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

Yes, sorry for that, I think poor Austin was befuddled by the whole thing. It is nice to see Flat Stanley getting about, although that's not to detract from all your other, rather more inspiring, pictures. I'm quite surprised to find myself moving the US of A further up my list of places I'd like to ride. Thank you for another dose...

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Alex,
America has surprised me too with the sheer range of riding that is available here. This is from someone who doesn't usually choose to travel in the more developed countries.

And I have a confession to make, I seem to have lost Flat Stanley I'll be in trouble if a certain seven year old finds out.

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Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

Oh no, poor Flat Stanley (you could sneakily print out another).

__________________

As I left the muddy puddle/reservoir, I took comfort from the "care package" that had thoughtfully been provided by my friends at Bear Lake.



Food parcels from Yanks to Brits are an old tradition, which I thought had died out soon after the Second World war, but still gratefully received. A bit squashed after a day in my tankbag but it tasted good.

I finally made it to Lake Tahoe, it's a sort of Yank version of Lake Titicaca but with Taco Bell and McDonalds. I headed down onto the beach




and had a swim, chilly but nowhere near as cold as the sea in Cornwall, I did appear to be the only adult in the water. Then back into my sweltering bike gear, persuaded a surprised Russian tourist to take my photo




I would have liked to stay by the lake and find somewhere to camp on the south side, but I didn't have time. I joined the traffic heading out of the moutains, oh the joy of filtering through the queues at the roadworks, as I went down to Auburn, got there just in time to find out that the pasty shops had closed for the day. I had no idea there were pasty shops in America, I'll have to save those for another visit.

My hosts in Auburn were Al and Holly, many thanks to them for their hospitality, and for all the bike chat. Here is Al with his Airhead BMW- older than Thelma and even more miles

__________________
Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

The Bay area was as welcoming as ever.
I took to non-motorised two wheels, with a wild ride through the streets of downtown San Francisco on a borrowed push bike, wearing full bike gear except for my helmet.





these particular streets were fairly quiet, because guess where we were heading???





yep, a baseball game. actually I have been instructed that the correct terminology is Major League Ball Game

the streets were closed to allow for all the pedestrians, each corner carefully watched over by the entirely un-menacing presence of these funny vehicles



what I particularly liked about them was the slogan on the side



The SF Giants stadium has an amzing backdrop, gazing out at the water and all the ships.




However most people's attention/interest seemed more taken up by not the ball game but the food and drink opportunities
I weakened (any excuse to eat) and went in search of the local speciality which turned out to be garlic fries



I was with my friend Kevin and we settled down to eat the grease whilst he coached me in the rules, the jargon and all the funny stuff that happens during the game. I now feel quite at ease with the phrases "the bases are loaded" and "top of the 8th". No home runs but a good match as the Giants beat the Chicago Cubs. Someone asked where I had ridden from on my bike and I answered Chicago- which gave the impression that I was a hardcore Cubs fan.

The route home took us past some trams, I tried to grab a lift

__________________
Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

This is Tom (whom some of you will know), he is one of the tallest people I know and happens to live on a boat with a low ceiling.


His boat is in Sausalito and so Tom took me out for a ride to show me the more scenic areas around Marin County. Tom was on his 1200GS, which I faled to get a picture of! We headed up Mount Tamalpais (I don't even attempt to pronounce that one). Lots of twisty roads and great veiws over the Pacific, inevitably, there was fog over the Golden Gate Bridge




The next day it was time to hit the road again, as Thelma and I headed north east, into some very pretty but very sparsely populated parts of California



Yep, that's right, a population of just 35



and that looks like it was pushing things a bit when I saw how few houses there were.

Up into the mountains where I camped and got a bit chilly, I had naively worn my shorts under my leather trousers assuming I would be in desert country, how wrong I was. That night as I lay in my tent trying to sleep, my knees were incredibly cold, I had lazily only taken my tank bag off Thelma and into the tent, which meant I didn't have my pannier to hand, I delved around inside the tank bag and the only clothing I could come up with was two pairs of clean knickers (female priorities in a woman's tank bag). I managed to wrap one around each knee and amazingly it worked, my knees warmed up and I fell asleep.

The morning brought more beautiful scenery



Seemingly devoid of traffic

__________________
Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

For the eagle-eyed amongst you, I know there will be some questions about that last picture of Thelma..just what is that "pink thing" on her??
Here's a picture which shows it a bit more, plus she matches the woman behind her.



I can explain...on my way north I dropped in at Ozzie's BMWs in Chico, California.

http://ozziesbmwcenter.com

Ozzie is a legend, a classic grumpy German, with a heart of gold, who knows everything about airheads. We'd originally met at the BMW MOA National Rally two years ago in Redmond. He'd wandered over to take a look at Thelma, we got chatting and then he said if I was ever passing to drop in and say hello, and to ask if I needed anything.
here I was two years later, and he remembered me, he was starting to wince as I casually said "Thelma needs something". But I think he was pleasantly surprised when all I pointed out was the missing panel on the side. Up to now there has been one in the pictures as I "nicked/borrowed" one off Bill's Dad's old bike in Bill Mayer's workshop...I must confess that Bill was not there at the time.
It was time to return the panel to Bill and I asked Ozzie for a replacement. He scratched his head and then led me into the room out the back. It was like an Aladdin's cave of old BMW parts- I'm kicking myself I didn't take a picture. He poked around on various shelves until finally he unearthed a panel for me. Not only was it not quite the right colour- it was pink and it had the WRONG numbers on it
Ozzie assured me this was the only one he had, and so I said a grateful thank you, put it on and rode off.

Looking on the positive side I see it as a way for Thelma to get in touch with her feminine side, but the numbers...well they are something else.

Almost daily I have had "enlightening" discussions with Yanks who are swearing blind that my bike is an R100GS and who refuse to listen when I say she's an R80GS. I know many of them walk away still not believing me. Just because it wasn't introduced into the States, it doesn't mean they don't exist. Everyone knows they kept the best BMWs for the European market

And now, to aid them in their arguments, the bloody bike has the characters R100 on the side.


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Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

We'd reached cowboy country






and apparently it's cougar country too. When the bloke in the garage heard that I'd been wild camping, he told me I was mad (and no, I had NOT mentioned the knickers on knees scenario to him). He said there are lots of cougars around and that they will attack, particularly people on their own.
Oh great I thought, I'll be keeping a careful eye open for them, apparently there's not a lot you can do to protect yourself from them. I'm just hoping my helmet and jacket would be up to the job. I asked the guys at Rukka how well they think my Rukka kevlar jacket would stand up to cougar claws, they said that was a test that hadn't been tried out yet, but that they would appreciate any first hand reports back about the jacket's performance under those circumstances

__________________
Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

I had travelled north through small town, cougar-filled mountainous California then Oregon and into Boise Idaho because Thelma was heading for some TLC at Happy Trail in Boise, which I learnt is NOT pronounced the french way but sounds more like "Boysie"
Here she is in the workshop with Jeff taking a close look



Her front end has never been the same since the Mongolian Episode...

stripped down



does that look straight now???



calling in the reinforcements



and hey, presto, Thelma was so much straighter (and easier to ride) than before. Huge thanks to Jeff at Happy Trail.
Meanwhile, I was upstairs, giving a talk and presentation about my travels which was a lot of fun. Thank you to Tim Bernard at Happy Trail for inviting me to give my presentation and for arranging for giving Thelma so much workshop time and parts, a big hi to all the busy people at Happy Trail and hello to Nevil from Plymouth/Canada whowas also presenting about his upcoming 2013 charity ride from my house (I kid you not) and around the world with his brother.
And also a big thanks to Tim's wife Sherri as well as they put me up at their house for a couple of days.

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Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

Hey Tiffany I just discovered this thread thanks for sharing your journey the pics and comentary are fantastic. I look forward to reading more.

You're welcome Becsta, more to follow shortly, glad you're enjoying the read.

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Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

Heading across Oregon, aware that there will now potentially be bears when I'm camping so remembering to take the tyre levers into my tent at night.
But no-one had mentioned the wolves...




Closer inspection, showed that she's actually the family pet and very friendly



She belongs to Harold at Giant Loop and he and his family were my hosts for the weekend, although I think it would be more accurate to say that I hijacked their family weekend!

First of all as I arrived into Bend on the Friday evening, there was an ominous wobble, I pulled over to find that I had a flat- yep - same tyre again. I knew I wasn't far from the Giant Loop HQ so I rang Harold and he popped out with Justin to give a hand.



They brought a compressor with them, but it only had an electrical socket type thing on it for the power. And as we all know, Thelma's power outlet died completely about 12 years ago in Mozambique.
However Justin had the bright idea of using my jump leads on the plug bit to get the power from my battery (is this making sense?) see picture below



As we were so close, we inflated and I rode carefully, nursing Thelma along to Giant Loop HQ..



We got the wheel and tyre off and found that the inner tube had a hole where it had rubbed against the plug repair- despite the guys who had put the tube in just 10 days ago assuring me that would not happen! Sometimes I wonder why I believe a single word that blokes say.

Anyway, having identified the problem, more pressing things were at hand...it's Friday evening, the weekend is starting, so we retired to the local pub to discuss my options.

__________________
Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo