Oregon Bound from the Rally

[Chris near Kansas City]

The road from Boysen State Park up through Thermopolis to about Worland is one of my most memorable rides. Went through there in '03 on my way to Cody and back. Winding your way along next to the river and rail road tracks with the sun setting, and then coming back through several days later early in the morning, is something I'll never forget.

[debron]

Final leg!

Left Burns, Oregon and headed west. One nice thing about the high desert in Oregon in the summer is that no matter how hot it gets in the day, it gets cold at night. Temps this morning in the high 40s but warming quickly as the sun rose.

As much as I complained about having to take this route through the desert rather than my preferred route over the mountains, it’s really a very decent ride. The two routes converge in Sisters so the last 100 miles over Santiam Pass in the Cascades is the same either way. Though the road is straight, it’s not flat. And the scenery has its own charm and beauty. The beginning of the trip is mostly brown grass and sage brush, eventually adding Juniper trees. There are hills and cliffs to break things up.



This photo of the Three Sisters Mountains in the Central Oregon Cascade Mountains should be vaguely familiar to most of you, sub-consciously if not consciously. The photos for some of the Voyager XII ads and even some of the 1700 ads were shot in this approximate location, though they used a much higher quality camera!




A long shot:


As a tribute to Don and Trisha since they couldn’t be here, I stopped at Sisters Coffee Company for coffee. Though I didn’t get an espresso I did get a cup of regular coffee and a bag of beans.



Arrived home at 11:37am. Here’s odo shots (notice the missing odometer reset knob at the start but it’s back at the end? Thanks to “Chris near Kansas City” for bringing me that knob!):



Final Stats:

24 countries (oops, some of them seemed liked different countries) states in 26 days.
8,492 miles,
162.821 gallons of gas
52.16 mpg average for entire trip (low 44.96, high 60.95)
$595.15 for all of the gas
$3.66 average price per gallon.

[Lucasind]

Congrats Ron !. Any issues (repairs ) made to your XII to report , along the way,

[Ditto]

Ron, Don, Trisha, and Joel, thank you so much for allowing us to tag along on the ride home. I just wish we could have ridden along. Glad you made it home safely.

[Jim Loiselle]

Thanks to you West Coast Folks for a most enjoyable ride along!

Jim in Indy

[hank43]

Excellent excellent travel log Ron, wish we could have been there too.

Figuring 22 days of travel and 4 for the rally, I come up with an average of about 386 miles per day. This is why it's always great traveling with you guys, keeping it under 400 miles a day anyone can do - plenty of stops for Starbucks, and still get to see the scenery. What a great trip!

We WILL make the next one!

Hank and Gert

[Skibou]

Ron,

I've read a lot of motorcycle travel books and travel articles in motorcycle magazine in my time, but yours gets my vote as number one. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The writing and the photographs were the most informative, balanced and entertaining I've come across. Have you considered getting into that line of business, or at the very least publishing it. Thanks for a great read.

[vxiirider]

Thanks for the travelogue , Ron. We looked at your report every day and tracked your trip in a road atlas. We also enjoyed the couple of hours that you spent at our house on your way to Muskegon and the ferry crossing of Lake Michigan.

[debron]

Tony, no issues or problems with the bikes. Voyagers are awesome machines!

Gene (Skibou), I'm glad you enjoyed the "trip." I have sort-of-semi considered writing but it's a lot of hard work. Even this log is not up to par of what I wanted to include because after starting so early and riding all day, it was always so late when I was able to do it I was usually so tired I couldn't think straight. I often forgot to include stuff I wanted to include.

I have had two articles published in sailing magazines, one regional and one national magazine. However, I'm retired now and just want to do what I want to do!


Don said he was going to assemble the two logs into a booklet of sorts to give to his family members. I don't know what else to do with it. I did it primarily so my wife could follow my trip and also share it with AVA folks who were interested. Turned out to be more than I thought!


John, we also enjoyed the visit with you and Mary Jane. By the way, John and Mary Jane do not live in "Shar'-lutt", but in "Shar-lot'"!!

[onegunguitar]

That is awesome!! Thanks for keeping us "in the loop" throughout your trip. Great pictures too!! It goes to show how great the Voyager is-8492 miles in 26 days and no problems,that in itself speaks volumes!!!! Glad you made it home safe and sound

[metric]

Thank you Ron... we enjoy reading about the trip you guys took, 8000+ miles in 26 days on a motorcycle is a great accomplishment.