Greetings to everyone!  I’m not sure when we will be able to send this message, as we currently have no signal.  But at least we are thinking of all of you.

Our adventures have continued unabated.  Many of you have not heard that we left on Halloween Eve and started out with several days in Yosemite, where beautiful fall colors were everywhere, but it was really cold at night (down to 35 degrees) and no sunshine in the campground.  When we went up to Glacier Point it was wonderfully warm, however, and we were able to take pictures from the same spots we had visited on our first trip together 10 years ago.  That was cool.  Yosemite continues to fight with the bears, and we complied, putting all our edibles and stuff that smelled like people (including our dish soap) in the bear-proof boxes.  But we didn’t reckon with the raccoons.  A mother and two babies decided they wanted a carton of eggs that was sitting on top of the bear box, and made off with them regardless of our feelings to the contrary.   Smart Rick said “Let her have them,” and the three of them had a real feast.

After four days, we got driven down the mountains by the cold, and ended up above Jackson, enough lower that it was much warmer.  We found a deserted private campground where we parked for a couple of days.  At that point (and still) we were figuring out where to put things in the trailer and how to cook/wash/camp efficiently, so we happily stayed pretty close to camp for a couple of days, working on this. 

This has been an ongoing project.  The day we left town we finally started figuring out what would fit into the new trailer about 3:00 in the afternoon.  We were bound and determined to get out of Dodge, and we had more set aside to go with us than would fit.  So we had to leave some things behind, knowing we would be back in the area in about 10 days and could make some shifts.  So Rick stuffed and stuffed and stuffed…..and we finally got the lid closed and split.  After a week or so, we were finding out we really wanted some things that had been left behind, and didn’t care about some things we had taken; all this in part because some things would fit and others would not.  You just try to figure out what you want when you’re planning to be gone for several years!

As I say, we are still working on this.  But Rick finds it easier to get the trailer packed each time he tries and we are discarding books as they are read, etc. 

After we left Jackson we spent a night up on Mt. Diablo, in the East Bay.  I wanted to stay at a nice, flat campground out in the Delta, but, nooooooo, Rick wanted to press on.  So we ended up climbing this incredibly windy, tight road to the top of nowhere.  The camping was delightful, however, and we had a good time, with me worrying all night how we were going to get off that mountain.  We had a second raccoon episode; they got all our edibles, including the raisins, and chewed up my riding gloves.  Hmmmm.  Lessons to be learned still.  When we got off the mountain (gasp) we made a stop in Fremont.  When we came out of the store and got back to the bike, Rick suddenly spotted a tiny little mouse on the dash, who promptly ran under cover.  But Rick grabbed him by the tail and we turned him loose.  Seems he was the culprit that had chewed my gloves.  We hope he survived the transition from the top of a mountain to a parking lot in Fremont!

Next we spent a few days with friends in the  Bay Area, going to the motorcycle show in San Mateo (this is a really big show if you are in to bikes; lots of guys with cute buns for me to look at while I wait for Rick to get finished…..).  Then, after a quick run through SLO County, we moved on to Las Vegas, and the Art of the Motorcycle show at the Guggenheim museum in the Venetian Hotel.  Rick and I had never really been to Las Vegas.  Now we have and don’t have to do that again.  Actually, we did enjoy walking through all the big new hotels.  The shows were very pricy, and we didn’t attend any (the Cirque du Soleil would have been our destination, if we had had the money; have you ever seen them?  They are incredible, absolutely fantastic).  But we were delighted with the Venetian, and spent considerable time there (no, no gondola ride).  We camped in the RV lot at Circus Circus; weird, but it worked.  Las Vegas is full of tacky people, and they all smoke.  Not our kind of turf.  But the motorcycle show was incredible.  It was a museum show of vintage (and some brand new) bikes from the late 1800s forward, and the show was mounted beautifully and artfully.  I truly enjoyed every moment of it.  Rick had a splendid time trying to explain to me the evolutionary principles while I did a lot of nodding my head.  If you think of motorcycles as evolving from bicycles, and watch as the various parts change through time, it makes good sense even to me. 

We are weather-driven, of course, and had very good luck in Las Vegas.  Our good luck continued as we moved on into Arizona, starting with a visit to Hoover Dam.  We had our first taste of increased security there, as no tours were being held, and the trailer was searched before they would let us approach the dam.  Actually, there was a sign saying no cars with trailers, but we took a chance and they let us through.  But have you ever seen Hoover Dam?  It was neat; there’s a new visitors center there with a good film, and we walked around a lot.  One interesting thing happened that intrigued me, though.  When you are on a motorcycle, nothing about your road bed or directions is taken for granted.  The motorcycles had a special parking area, which was fine, as the parking garage (which is always awful for a bike, with those tight, steep, nasty turns) was a bad one.  But in order to leave, we had to ask the attendant to let us out a different way than was “official.”  He was willing to help, and let us through, but before we left he made me write my name on a piece of paper for him.  The only way I could make any sense of that was to figure he had been told to get information on virtually anything that happened that was out of the ordinary.  So if later on they discovered a bomb they now know I was there!

After leaving Hoover we spent a couple of gorgeous days in northern Arizona, camping in the mountains above Payson and touring that area.  There are lovely roads through beautiful scenery and dropping down into the desert then back up.  This area was a revelation to us.  Usually, if you head out from Flagstaff, you either go to Sedona (super) or east on 40 (boring).  But try dropping down from Sedona a ways and then head east.  You’ll be glad you did.  Be sure to go down through the Salt River Canyon.

Our purpose for being in Arizona was to have Thanksgiving with family; after that we have been slowly returning to San Luis Obispo to take care of some business.  Currently we are in San Diego, visiting with friends and taking advantage of their bicycles to ride along the bay on the boardwalk.  The weather is crisp but clear, and we are enjoying the exercise (SORE BUNS!).  and we got to the Charger football game on Sunday.  What a lousy field goal kicker they have; you know what I mean if you caught the game.

That’s it for now.  We’ll be staying in Los Osos with our good buddies the Janeways for a few days starting this Friday before leaving for parts unknown the middle of the first week in December.  Send messages if you want/need to be in touch, and we’ll try and reach you.  Our best wishes to everyone.

Rick & Kathy

See more photos from 2002-2003

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