"Life is the great adventure ride. Twist the throttle hard."

It’s the end of day #2 of our 2011 ride around America. In short: excellent!  We’re having a great time and bikes are running well.  It was 110 degrees going through Palm Springs to Amboy, and Chris’s bike did not like the heat and had some trouble starting after lunch, but its all good now.

Roy's Cafe route 66 in Amboy

 Once we crossed the Mojave, the heat dropped below 100, and we spent the first night in Laughlin.  Only one day, and we already look like dirty bikers:  A family at the hotel would not get into the elevator with us “bikers”.   This morning, we got going about 8am, and picked up Route 66 again in Kingman.  We had breakfast at a 60s type dinner and checked out the old train parked next to it. 

Train On Route 66

As we got into Arizona, we could see rain clouds gathering.  By noon, we were surrounded by them.  We took a break at the Grand Canyon Cavern and toured the cave for an hour.  Nice tour and well worth it. 

Back on the road, it became obvious that we mightget very wet, so we stopped and put on the rain gear. We put waterproof pants and jackets over the top of our regular gear if it is going to rain. 

Thanks for checking our this Blog, and keep in touch.  We’ll update it every day or two.  The boys are Face-Booking all day long, so friend either one and get the real-time scoop.

We’re doing it again!

Sam, John and now Chris are going to lap the country again on Harley’s during the summer of 2011.  Chris is graduating from La Costa Canyon High School in June and he just completed his motorcycle safety class.  Late last year he found a beautiful 1997 green Harley Road King.

Dad gave Chris a budget, and Chris found the bike himself on Craig’s List.  A great guy (Troy K) in Del Mar sold it to us.  It’s a beautiful bike and Troy put a lot of work into making it look as good as it runs.

I bought a 2007 Road King from a great guy Andy in Chula Vista.  He’s an expert sky diver, and give me some good advise about skydiving with the boys.  Sam and Chris will be doing a jump the last day of our ride this summer, at a place in Nevada that is run by a friend of Andy’s. 

On memorial day, Sam, Chris and John rode up to grandpa Sam’s tomb at Fort Rosecrans to pay our respects and honor his memory.  It was a very special day to ride together, and as we were walking across the cemetery, a soldier started playing taps as a WWII era plane did it low fly-by.  Awesome. 

I am so looking forward to making this ride again with my boys, and visiting our friends and family around the country.  We appreciated the encouragement from everyone who followed us on-line in 1997, and hope you’ll keep in touch again this year.

Please — send us your suggestions on the “Must See” stops for our 2011 trip around America.  We’ve decided to add the Brooklin Bride, Statue of Libery, and Harry Potter Land to this years ride.  Chris has mapped out the location of every in-door sky-diving place in the USA so we’ll try to him some of them also.   We want to see Punksatony Phil, so we will probaby go through PA, Ohio, and Michigan on the way to Wisconsin this time instead of up and over through Canada to Wisconsin.