Saturday night and Sunday drive home

 Saturday night dinner at the VFW was surprising.  Apparently there was a pub crawl in town, so there were many women dressed up as witches or in related Halloween garb rambling around town.  Many of them were to be found at the VFW…the VFW was a happening place ;).  Lots of tipsy very friendly half dressed middle aged women in front of the building and at the bar…quite an eye full.   Our banquet room was separated from the main bar thankfully.   There were 24 of us at dinner, and we were done with the salad, steak, potatoes and cheesecake in about two hours.   We had a half hour delay due to the need to cook the baked potatoes another half hour.  We decided that apparently only giving the VFW a month of notice on meals wasn’t enough ;).   The service was friendly and we all had a good time.  And we have the final answer to the question “is there good food in Death Valley anywhere?”   The answer is no.  The range was from really bad to edible…we never crept into the good category.   I have the long history of covering up awful food with my napkin near the end of the meal (Stu knows what it means)…at the VFW dinner, I looked over and Stu had covered up the cheesecake with his napkin 😳😳😳.    Then again, we didn’t get food poisoning so that is something positive.

The rally itself was excellent, about 12 bikes on the Saturday ride and another 40 came into Furnace Creek Saturday night, so a really good group of interesting old bikes.

The ride home was long, just short of 475 miles due to the bypass we took around Downtown Vegas and the half hour traffic jam coming into Kingman.   Sigh.  Home by 6.  Lucy, the most wonderful dog in the world, was picked up Monday morning at 8, then home and straight into the shower.  She now smells like springtime ;).  Bike is unloaded, laundry machines twirling.  We are done!

Check out the wind in Boulder City…

Saturday in the Park again

This year, 2021, marks two major anniversaries.  First, the bike we are riding on this trip is a 1971 Honda CB500.  50 years old this year.  Second, Stu and I met and started dating in 1981, so this marks 40 years we have been traveling on motorcycles together!  Happy anniversaries indeed!

The group is gathering again at 9.  Plan is to go into the Park, drive around a bit and then meet up with the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club group of 40 bikes at Trona.  The VJLA group will split in half with one group returning south to their starting point in Lancaster Ca, the other half coming north to Beatty.  For many years, maybe five or six, we did this Death Valley weekend with the VJLA group…this is the first year the Arizona contingent split off and had their base in Beatty.   Weather forecast today is wonderful high of 70 with very light winds!

Update:  the day was full of excellent riding and mediocre meals ;)   We stopped in Stove Pipe Wells and had lunch in Panamint Springs, then a photo on the road to Trona, then back to the motel.   All in all, five hours.   Tonight we have a group dinner at the Beatty VFW hall, apparently (based on recommendations from the front desk clerk) known for its fine cuisine!  It’s website photos seemed to focus on marvels from a deep fryer.  We shall see ;)

Friday, Day One-Death Valley

Friday morning, 7 am, 44 degrees…yikes.   In packing for our trip yesterday we added critical items such as a coffee machine, coffee, peanuts and crunchy bars.   The crappy Motel 6 room is full of our stuff.   But it was grand this morning to have good coffee!   On the plus side, the motel offers Fox News ;)

We will get together about 9 to get registered.  Jack Stein (supreme organizer) said it was too cold to ride early so we will mill around.   

Photos are in reverse order, will fix someday, maybe ;)

Friday pm update.  The ride was about 160 miles total, intermittent windy sections (25 mph winds with gusts to 40, then some sections without wind)…8 bikes, one pickup, 11 total people.  Two bikes broke down within minutes of leaving the motel so they were on a trailer for the day.  Great ride overall.  Beatty into the park, through Furnace Creek for gas and a dreadful meal at great expense (carrying on the Furnace Creek tradition of dreadful expensive food), then to Badwater, then north through Furnace Creek again, Beatty Junction and on to the Motel.   We skipped the group dinner and stayed in the room, watched tv and got a good nights sleep.  Temperature range for the day was 44 in Beatty at 8 am (we left about 10), to 91 in Badwater.  

VJMC Death Valley weekend-Fall 2021

 Weds Oct 20.  Spent getting the truck and bike packed, Lucy to the spa.  Leaving tomorrow for Beatty, weather forecast looks good (of course, since we are in the pickup…had we been going on a bike, we would have expected gusts of 45 mph).  

Thursday and we made it to Beatty without winds, rain or meteors ;)   Photos along the way.