To Recap

For those who have been following our adventures across the country, you can tell that we had a fabulous time and saw so much and experienced a trip of a lifetime.
I must say that we were truly lucky throughout the entire trip. We hit rain in the Chicago area and had to stop for about 10 minutes. Then the next rain stop was at the entrance to Yellowstone that held us up for about 20 minutes. That's only half an hour of inclement weather during the whole trip!!! Faith was a little apprehensive about traveling in August but I think that the majority of the time the daytime temps were in the 80s or low 90s and the nights were absolutely fantastic.
We saw so many beautiful parts of this country and Faith got to see some of the wildlife up close and personal. We visited The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, The Harley Davidson Museum, The Corn Palace and Wall Drug Store. We rode through The Badlands of South Dakota and took the scenic Norbert Highway through The Needles. We saw both Mount Rushmore and The Crazy Horse Monument up close. We spent a couple of nights in Deadwood,SD and visited Wild Bill Hickok's grave. We stayed in Custer,SD which is an absolutely beautiful town with a lot of history. Just outside of Custer is the "wildlife loop" through Custer State Park where we came face to face with herds of buffalo and a herd of donkeys. We took a ride to Devil's Tower in Wyoming. This is the place featured in the "Close Encounters" movie. Driving through Yellowstone National Park was awesome and we saw waterfalls and geysers and waited in the bleachers for "Old Faithful" to do its thing. What an amazing ride down from Yellowstone. We rode along the base of The Grand Tetons on our way to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Thermopolis, Wyoming. We spent some time in the famous natural hot springs of Thermopolis. All along the way we found some great food in some of the local eateries. I don't think that we hit one of the "chain" restaurants during the entire trip. We rode Highway 50 through Nevada. This road is considered "The Lonliest Road in America". And it lives up to its name. After passing through Carson City we were treated to another wonderful road that climbed up the mountains and gave us breathtaking views of the lake below and then zig-zagged down the other side into Lake Tahoe. What a beautiful lake and a very quaint town. The casinos gave us the break we needed and then we pushed onward. This part of the trip was especially nice because we were going to start visiting with friends and family who live out this way and who we haven't seen in quite a while. First of all some friends in Napa, California. A nice long lunch and our next stop was San Francisco. Three days of wandering 'The City by the Bay" and seeing the sights was great. We got down to "Fisherman's Wharf" for lunch took a cable car and went to "The Crookedest Street in The World" and took the tour to Alcatraz and even went to the San Francisco Zoo for the day on Monday. We went down the coast on Highway 1 which took us along California's Big Sur and although it was a little too foggy to really appreciate the beauty of it all, it was a wonderful ride. We stayed in San Simeon just down the street from The Hearst Castle. Then another lunch with a very dear old friend who lives in Santa Barbara. We planned to spend the evening with my brother in a house that he and his in-laws had rented for a few days in San Clemente. As luck would have it, we were there during the great power outage of 2011. The power went out from somewhere north of San Clemente to the Mexican border and over to Arizona. What an adventure!! Also got to see an uncle of mine who I haven't seen in quite a few years. We then moved on to the San Diego area where we met a cousin of Faith's for dinner and then to a very nice little town just east of San Diego called Ramona where a friend of mine lives. After seeing all of these old friends and visiting with family it was hard to get back on the road but we were nearing our destination and actually looking forward to sleeping in our own bed for a change. So after the San Diego area we spent one night in Palm Springs, California and then finished up the last part of our journey.
So after all of the adventure and the sights and the people we met and the memories that will live with us forever, we made it without incident and we thank God that He rode along with us.
What an absolutely FANTASTIC trip !!!  5866 miles !!!  A million memories !!!  Some wonderful new friends !!!
Just because this trip has ended, that doesn't mean that our adventures are over. Check back to this blog occasionally because I will be writing about some of the rides that we take and some of the people that we meet. In this part of the country the riding season lasts most of the year so we will be taking some interesting trips and they will be posted here.
 Thanx again so very much for following us on our trip and we hope you enjoyed the ride.   RobnFaith