Travels Without Charley
With extreme apologies to Robert Frost AND John Steinbeck. I guess if you are going to rip off titles you might as well pick two great authors to 'paraphrase'. I did.
Have you seen Google Maps Timeline? What a great thing for a guy like me that rarely writes things down. I actually tried on this trip-then my water bottle leaked and wrecked my notebook. Sigh.
4200 miles (6700 km) was the total. Those of you who are familiar with the area will see that I traveled some lightly populated areas and lonely roads. My kinds of places. 31 days.
Obvious highlights include Lassen Volcanic and Crater Lake National Parks and the 'Volcanic Byway' that connects them. I intended to go to at least 3 other National Parks but a bout of covid ended that plan.
Crater Lake NP
My Goldwing Motorcycle was flawless, just perfect or even better. The trailer was likewise perfect AFTER I got a little better balance on the tongue right out of the gate. Couple hundred miles to get it balanced then it was right behind me the whole way.
I absolutely loved camping out of my trailer. The big tent and cot are already favorites. I bought a new cold weather sleeping bag that is lightweight and very effective after my old bag broke. I guess 'wore out' is a better term. I had big plans for cooking on my trip-that didn't work out so well. Cooking takes time and I didn't want to take it. It'll be different preparations for the next trip.
Temperatures on this trip ranged from 42f (5.5 C) to 105f (40 C) and I was more or less comfortable with all of it. As comfortable as you can be on a motorcycle. I got rained on 4 times and raising the windshield made three of those a near non event. The 4th one was just south of Quartzsite, AZ when I ran into a violent thunderstorm. I was almost home...
So. I'll post more on specific portions of the trip on a precisely imprecise schedule. Thanks for joining me on the ride.
All words and photos in this post are mine. For better or worse. "Author's Note: All photographs taken with my Moto Edge phone. I didn't take a single frame with my Nikon. Amazing good 3 lens camera in that phone.