Motorcycle trip to Vegas and back, second time around.. 2019

With the idea to go see El Capitan (El Cap) in the Yosemite Park in California we planned to head down to the Hexagon conference one more time. Nice conference with the latest and greatest on laser scanning technology to help us as-built the Albian's plant in Fort Mac.
The conference in held in Las Vegas for a week, but it is was only a nice excuse to ride our bikes for a week. Excited about "El Cap" after watching the National Geographic Documentary "Free Solo" we took an extra day in our way to Vegas and headed down through Alberta, BC, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada...
Day 1 we rode from Calgary in the rain all the way to Richland (WA) it is one of Tri City super nice high end community (from what I could see..). It was a long day, but we made it just on time to meet our planned schedule.

Somewhere in southern Alberta

Coffee shop in Idaho (really good looking "coffee")

As we are parking in the hotel we noticed Darcy's rear tire was done.... oh boy... I jumped on Internet and found a shop near by that would open at 8:00am Saturday.



Went out for an early morning run with Pete while Darcy was waiting for the shop to open,


 

Pete was all pumped when we saw that they have a group drive of Pontiac Fierros in town.

Run along the Columbia River in WA

Richland WA

 

 

 

 



Day 2

Mount Shasta CA

 

Day 2 started after Darcy's tire changing was done. With another long day ahead of us through Washington, Oregon and California we left Richland at around 10.30am..

We arrived to Redding after a long long day on the bike... beautiful roads and good food along the way. Redding wasn't quite the place we were expecting, but good enough to spend the night and city morning run with Pete.

Mexican Hotel in Redding...

 

 


Day 3 started well. With "El Cap" in mind we started the ride early at around 8.30am after a run and breaky. Hwy 5 was a long stretch and not very scenery. 

Day 3

 

Lunch near Sacramento were we took the wrong turn... trying to pair helmets wasn't the thing of the trip... but we tried !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sonora Peak CA (9,000 Ft elevation)

Right after an ok lunch in Lagorio's Grill Bar in we left without realizing we took the wrong turn.... and instead of heading to "El Cap" we were off course and headed North East towards Sonora Peak.. Amazing views, roads with tons of snow and 24% grade descent.
We stoped for gas and didn't even check the GPS until 2 hours later, when Darcy and Pete realized we were off course.... We thought about going back, but it was already too far, so decided to keep going and try entering Yosemite Park on 120 road (which ended up been closed for winter conditions..).

 

With Oliver sick after getting the altitude in her head, he was just begging for a bed.... so as we hit the next town called Bridgeport we decided the safer choice was to let him sleep (poor baby calliou, as we nick name from now on)..

Bridgeport CA

It was only 6pm and he was already in bed, so I asked the lady in the counter what else could we do around town and she recommended the nearby Hot Springs called "Travertine". She warned us that people usually don't wear any cloths in there though..... and that it was at least 30min hike to get there from the road.

Pete climbing "El Cap" after a disappointing news that the actual road to "El Cap" was closed....

 

 

After soaking in the thermal waters of Travertine, we had a nice Onion Sup in the Motel and decided to leave next day at 6:00am so that we could make up for the lost time of the previous day. Amazing bakery across from the Motel where we had a nice croissant and coffee.



Day 4 through Death Valley and into Vegas

 

The ride through the Death Valley was HOT !! twisty roads and nice views of the bad lands.. with temperatures of over 45c and 300ft below sea level we just wanted to get through there alive !!

Sand Dunes in Death Valley

Crappiest restaurant ever..

Conference registration and package pick up at Venetian

After 4 days in Vegas attending the Hexagon conference and lots of walking around we were ready to head back to Canada.
First day coming back was through Zion National Park in Utah. It is a "must" ride when in Utah.... amazing roads with beautiful mountains.




Day 5 1st part

 

Day 5 2nd part



Arizona

 

Utah

 




Zion

Salt Lake City hotel

If you are in Utah and you are on a motorcycle you can't ignore the fact that helmets are "optional".... so there we went, like a bunch of irresponsible teenagers !! sandals, shorts and of course "sans casques"

Garage on Beck (grill and bar) Salt Lake City where we tried the famous "Fried Mormon Funeral Potatoes"

Oil Refinery in Salt Lake City right besides the Garage on Beck bar

 



Day 6 on the bike (or day 2 coming back from Vegas) was by far the longest distance.. with 1,080kms we rode from Salt Lake City all the way to Kalispel Montana. The ideas was to have a short day on Sunday heading home, which ended up been on a 6 hours day to get home.

We left Salt Lake City after a quick 8 kms run with Pete.

Day 6

 

Salt Lake City from the top of the run with Pete





Just before Montana




                                                                                          Divide guys in Jane's Cafe Lima MT

 

Kalispel Saloon for dinner




Day 7

 

 



Finally reunited with my kids in Arbour Lake after 10 days!! best part of all time

 

Day 7 on the bike came along... so sad to see that the days of waking up and getting on the bike for the adventure were coming to an end..... last day on the bike was an early start (6:00am without a run) trying to get back to Calgary early in the afternoon to keep everyone happy.