Today concludes our Dust to Dawson (D2D) trip and final blog page for this particular adventure. After three weeks on the road, we are headed home. Before leaving we decided to trailer the bikes between Santa Clarita, CA and Olympia, WA, as we find no pleasure in riding Interstate 5 for a 1,000 miles. It's one of those been there done that kind of thing. As the temperatures increased to 95 degrees with a stiff cross wind we concluded that we made the right decision enjoying the air-conditioned comfort of my Ford F-150 Pick up truck.
We departed Roseburg around 7:30 and motored south through Grants Pass, across the California border, the bridge over Lake Shasta and stopped at Russell (Day-Long Motorcycle Seats) in Shasta Lake. They make one of the reportedly most comfortable motorcycle seats in the industry, also one of the least attractive and certainly one of the most expensive, but the most comfortable with a patented internal suspension system. Lane and I are both riding on Sergeant motorcycle seats. The stock KLR seat is good for about 15 minutes of uninterrupted riding before you just want to tear it off and throw it away or burn it. It's that bad.
Around lunchtime we pulled into Willows, CA, and had lunch at Kathy's Airport Cafe, just off the freeway. Kathy's is the apparently the locals favorite eating spot and we could see why. It was very friendly and warm and one can still buy a hamburger plate there for less than $5.00, and most importantly, the food was good. I'd eat there again.
After twelve hours on the road, and 25 miles north of the Grapevine just south of Bakersfield, traffic came to a screeching halt. Cal Tans has one of the two lane of Interstate 5 closed for several miles for resurfacing. It's a three month project and a three month headache for drivers. After a 30 minute delay we going again and pulled into Santa Clarita about 8:30 pm, after 13 hours on the road.
Here are a few stats and reflections on the trip:
We rode the motorcycles 5,551 miles, a little over a 1,000 miles of it on dirt and gravel roads.
We put approximately 245 gallons of gas in the two motorcycles, averaging about 45 MPG.
We paid between $1.17 and $1.84 per liter of gasoline. One liter is equal to approximately 0.2642 gallons, or slightly less than 1/4 gallon.
Food in Canada is expensive, approximately half again what you would expect to pay in the US.
We purchased twenty one hotel rooms (We carried full camping gear but only for emergencies).
We rode on Hiedenau Explorer DOT approved dual-sport tires that went the entire 5,551 miles and still have a some rubber left on them. Most dual-sport tires are only good for about 3,000 to 4,000 miles of this type of riding. So, we didn't have to change tires.
Our new Italian Gaerne waterproof dual-sport boots that we love are not entirely waterproof.
We thank all of you who have tuned in and followed along. We hope you enjoyed our babble and sampling of photos. And, we hope you will join us again for our next adventure. Remember, it's all right here in the diaries, mostly true, most of the time.
Sincerely,
John Vander Horck and Lane Greenberg
Horck Adventures
jevander@sbcglobal.net
Not many photos today just a lot of driving.
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