It's a dry rain in Death Valley!

[Bonnie Abbzug]

About a month ago I was standing in the living room looking out at the ever-accumulating snow in the yard and the glacier of ice in the street and said to Hayduke, I think we need to go to DVDaze, what do you think? :happy

In reply, he immediately began packing :lol .

It was a long month of watching the snow fly, trying to stay warm and spending loads of cash on getting our truck ready to roll.

January 22nd, couldn't come soon enough. With a new windshield, springs and shocks, and a new battery in the truck, we loaded up the trailer (which we put new wheels and tires on) and headed out for Death Valley :rockon:

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First we had to get over Monarch Pass, which can be harrowing enough in good weather. This is how it looked that morning:

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We made it over the pass without incident, but with the hope that the roads would be a little better once we made it to the Gunnison valley. No such luck, but the sun was shining and no new snow was falling!

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We had been hearing on the news about how the Gunnison Valley had been getting so much snow that hundreds of deer were starving to death. It's been so bad that they decided to start bringing in feed for them. Now, we see deer all the time, but I have never ever seen the likes of what I saw that morning. Thousands, I'm not exaggerating here either, literally thousands of deer and hundreds of elk dotted the snow covered rolling hills of the Gunnison Valley that morning. Watching them stumble through the chest high snow, looking tired, weary and hungry brought tears to my eyes.

Unfortunately, it was about -10* outside and I was being wimply, so all the pics I took were from the moving truck. None of them turned out great, but here's a few that aren't too bad.

All the spots that look like rocks are actually deer.

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This was a huge heard of elk (half way down the photo to the right), I missed most of them.

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A little before Montrose, CO the roads finally cleared up and it was smooth sailing the rest of the day. We stopped for lunch in Green River, UT an odd little town with not much more than a boat launch on the Colorado River and a museum about John Wesley Powell and other adventurous river runners. The museum was small, but chocked full of interesting local history. It was well worth the $3 a head to see it!

We made it to St. George Utah around 7pm, tired but happy to be somewhere a little bit warmer than home!

more to come

[ridingAK]

more to come

Well? Hurry up! :lol :lol :lol

Great report so far. Thank you for posting.

[sweptwingnut]

Waahhooooo! Great to see you guys getting out. Thanks for taking us with you! :thumbup: :thumbup:

[KCDakar]

Glad to see you back safe and sound!

Thank you for posting up.:thumbup:

[Bonnie Abbzug]

The next morning, after running a million errands in St. George (it's amazing how you can spend a month getting ready for a trip and still not be completely ready when you finally drive off :tongue ), we hit the road again.

In the early afternoon we made it to Big Dune, just East of Beatty, NV. It was a beautiful warm, sunny day, with not a speck of snow in sight. I wanted nothing more than to get on my bike and ride to the top of that big dune!!! So, we decided to stop and unload the bikes and have a little fun before getting into Death Valley.

The road into the dunes:

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We parked the truck in a big wide open, semi hardpacked sandy lot, unloaded the bikes and rode around in circles for a few minutes just to loosen up and remind our muscles how it feels to ride a motorcycle.

We could see the dunes off in the distance and hear the motor's of the sand rails climbing up the steep sides of the tallest dune. We couldn't wait to get out there and try it ourselves!

We took off down a little atv track headed for the foothills of the dunes. After about 50 feet the semi hardpacked sand turned into foot deep, squirrely soft sand.

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It was a bit of a shock at first, but then I remembered to get my weight back and loosen my grip on the bars and let the front end just do its thing. I picked up some speed and headed straight for the smallest, closest foothill ready to catch some air going over the top :happy .

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Instead, I gave it all I had, and as if in slow motion, proceeded to bury the bike up to the rear axel :lol . Laughing my a$$ off as I watched Hayduke do the same thing, I was able to rock the bike back and forth a bit, pushing as best I could with my feet and get the bike rolling and turned around back down hill.

I realised pretty quickley that my bike just didn't have enough power to pull me up through the dunes, but Hayduke wanted to try again.

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He ended up burying it even worse than the first time and we had to tip the bike over on it's side and shovel sand under the tire and work up a good sweat rocking the bike back and forth until it caught a little traction and he was able to paddle foot himself back down the dune.

We played around in the softer flat area for a while longer and then decided to go check out where the harder packed road led. This was a great road with a few deep soft areas of silt thrown in just to keep ya on your toes!

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After realising we could probably ride that road for hours before actually getting anywhere, we turned around went back, loaded up the truck and headed on in to Beatty for lunch, fuel and firewood then took off for Death Valley.

more to come

[jfike]

i think i want a little bike like that. i love my klr, but that thing looks soo much fun!!

[Bonnie Abbzug]

After a long, slow drop down into DV we passed a sign that said we were at sea level, and just kept on dropping further into the valley. The sun was getting lower in the sky and the mountains were giving off a spectacular show of colors, from burnt orange to gold to pink then a deep merlot. This was set off nicely by fields of yellow wildflowers running right up to the base of the mountains. We were in awe, and failed to take any pictures :( .

We finally made it to the Furnace Creek Campground and found our home for the next 5 nights.

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We were the only ones camping in that area that night, but in the area next door we met a great couple (Mike54 and NotBetty -from ADV). They invited us over to share their campfire for the evening and tell stories of life and riding until we were all too tired to hold our heads up any longer.

It sprinkled a bit in the night, we didn't think much of it until we started to head out for a ride and saw all the snow in the mountains.

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We stopped at the rangers station to check on road conditions and were told that pretty much every road we wanted to ride was closed once it climbed up out of the valley. We were slightly bummed, but then took a look around and decided to make the most of our trip. There are hundreds of miles of roads in the valley alone, more than we could ever ride in a life time, lets go ride as many as we can!!!

First was the Aritist Drive, a one way, poorly paved twisty winding road that takes you through the colorful red and green foothills of the mountains. I don't do a lot of street riding, so I still get pretty nervous in the twisties, but this road was a blast! It had 10-15 foot deep "dips" in the road that made ya lose your stomach if you went into them with any speed, fun, fun, fun!!!

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more

[KCDakar]

Man I love that smile!:happy

[jfike]

nice! i wanna go play too now!!:cryin:

[Bonnie Abbzug]

Next, we headed up Echo Canyon. This was just one of many roads from hell out here :lol . We ride rocks all the time here in Co, but it's nothing like riding rocks in DV. We were basically riding up a dry wash (creekbed) with 6-12" of golf ball to soft ball sized rocks making up the majority of the road surface with a few baby heads thrown in for good measure. It was fun, in that "I think I'm gonna die" sort of way :lol . I definately got a good workout, my heart rate was up and I must of lost at least 5# in water weight :happy . Just about the time I'd think I'd found my groove, some joker would throw in a nice sharp curve. Out would come the outriggers and a multitude of foul words, then a few shaky laughs when I realised I made it through without crashing! Fun times indeed!!!

Of course the pictures never show how gnarly it really was.

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In spite of the road being rough, the canyon was beautiful and it was warm sunny day. It was just what we needed!

more

[jfike]

sweeeet! looks like stuff i did last summer on my first and so far only off road trip! but my rocks were fresh blasted shale.



more please!!:happy

[Bonnie Abbzug]

That night a few more ADVer's started rolling in, but things were still pretty calm around camp. We got up the next morning and Tom (RoadRash) fixed a bunch of us his famous bacon waffles. Yes, that's bacon cooked right into the waffles, yuuuuuummmmmmy!!!

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Johnny Drunkard

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Mr. Cob and his too cool Ural

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Me and NWGS in front of his stylin' motorhome.

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NWGS had a bad connection on his battery and in trying to fix it broke the battery post. Mr. Cob, a master wrencher of the highest order came to the rescue with a little JB Weld!

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After breakfast, Road Rash, Hayduke and I decided to head down to the West Side Road and check it out. It had snowed even more up in the mountains over night so there was no hope of getting up over any of the passes we wanted to ride. I have to say, I wasn't really too upset about it. I had heard stories about some of those roads and they made me shake in my boots!

West Side Road was a graded road, with some annoying sections of washboard and other fun, fast sections of hardpacked dirt. There were a lot of little side roads that went off to different view sites and historical markers.

It was cloudy, but still pretty warm (mid 50's).

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Road Rashes patent pending cycle cam mount:

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Towards the end of the West Side Road there was a turn onto Galena Canyon road which led to some mines. This road was similar to the Echo Canyon road in that it was rocky as heck, but the rocks were bigger and slightly more packed in places.

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I was cruising along pretty good, thinking to myself that it wasn't too bad. Hayduke pulled up beside me and signaled he was gonna go on ahead if I was okay with it. I gave him the thumbs up and off he went. In under a minute all I could see was the cloud of dust he left in his wake! About a minute and a half after he took off, I hit a flat pointed rock that was sticking up at an angle out of the ground (sort of like a ramp), it launched me up and over the side of the road which was basically a huge berm of lava rocks. I landed upright but squirrley as heck, proceeded to apply some whiskey throttle, target fixate on a rock about the size of a beach ball, and smashed right into it. I'm not exactly sure what all happened once the bike stopped other than me doing a backwards sommersault out onto the road. I took inventory thinking I might have broken my hand, I felt it impact a rock at some point. I reached down to pull off my glove and felt wetness, causing me to go week in the knees, then realised it was just water from my leaky camelback. Whew!!! I was perfectly fine, if not a bit bruised, but couldn't lift my bike out of the rocks. This of course caused me a bit of frustration which in turn led to :cryin: . Hayduke and Road Rash were a good bit up the road by this time, but I heard them shut off their engines, wait a minute, then heard Hayduke start his up again and head back down towards me. I tried to pull myself together before he got there, but of course as soon as he looked at me I busted out with a whole lot more :cryin: and then a little :lol for being such a baby! I felt that maybe I was in over my head at this point, so I let Hayduke and RR go on up and I waited for them, taking in the peace and quiet and warmth of DV. I of course managed to psyche myself out about going back down that rocky road, and had a pretty good pep talk with myself. By the time the boys got back I was ready to go and actually managed to have a little fun on the way back to the main road.

We decided to take the paved road back to camp. It was getting late in the day and we were all hungry.

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We made a pit stop at Badwater Basin:

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Then back to camp where the partying was already infull swing!

Me and Maddbritt, he's a really sweet guy!

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Hurty showed up in a huge motorhome and proceeded to fix dinner for anyone who was hungry, every night. What a generous soul!!

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Hurty

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Ilmostro and AceRph - they had me in stitches most of the night!

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The party outside of our tent:

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After way too many beers, I stuck in my earplugs and crawled into the tent and was dead to the world until morning!


I ain't done yet!

[Bonnie Abbzug]

i think i want a little bike like that. i love my klr, but that thing looks soo much fun!!

You must be tall! Hayduke has a KLR and there is absolutely no way I could handle it! He does think my bike would be fun too, but we've lowered it too much for him to really ride it :happy .


Thanks for the encouragement everyone! I'm uploading more pictures to smugmug and will finish this report soon!

[ridingAK]

WOW! What an awesome report and pics. You deserve a lot of credit for riding some of those roads, having bad luck, and going back for more. I'm sure everyone was impressed, and you look like you had a ball. I'd love to get back there and do some exploring, especially with a smaller bike.

[jfike]

You must be tall! Hayduke has a KLR and there is absolutely no way I could handle it! He does think my bike would be fun too, but we've lowered it too much for him to really ride it :happy .

i'm 5'10 in my socks.


when we did the second attempt at riding offroad, i dropped HIS klr twice. i :cryin: too. i think it was the frustration; that i'd had so much fun and did so well the first time and then WHAM blew it the second time out. stupid thing was that when i dropped it the first time we laughed. second time we were back out on the gravel road, and i was trying to turn around. he laughed it off. i cried, i was soooo mad!

that's why i think i would like something smaller. heck, i want it all!! i want my klr for highway/gravel and something smaller for gravel/offroad!:lol

[ridingAK]

It's an addiction all right. :tongue That's ok, you're in good company. :happy

[Bonnie Abbzug]

i'm 5'10 in my socks.


when we did the second attempt at riding offroad, i dropped HIS klr twice. i :cryin: too. i think it was the frustration; that i'd had so much fun and did so well the first time and then WHAM blew it the second time out. stupid thing was that when i dropped it the first time we laughed. second time we were back out on the gravel road, and i was trying to turn around. he laughed it off. i cried, i was soooo mad!

that's why i think i would like something smaller. heck, i want it all!! i want my klr for highway/gravel and something smaller for gravel/offroad!:lol

5'10":confused: That's the same height as Hayduke :happy . He says you need a KTM 950 :lol . Actually at your height, the XT might seem a little small, but Veronica (a woman I rode with at DV) is probably about the same height as you and has an XT225 for dirt riding she says she feels like a monkey on a foot ball, but wouldn't want anything bigger for learning dirt skillz. There's a lot to be said for building your confidence on something smaller!!!!

[jfike]

i am just about at the limit as far as height on the klr. it's okay for street and gravel but i would feel a lot more confident on something a little shorter for offroad. we are looking into a couple dirt bikes for the cabin but i would almost prefer dualsport just because there is a limit to where you can go without getting caught on the road:lol


but enough about me. more pictures??

[Bonnie Abbzug]

Saturday morning, I was feeling a little less than perfect after over imbibing, so Hayduke and I headed off to the Furnace Creek Ranch to find as greasy a breakfast as we could to help cure our hangovers. After eating some biscuits and gravy I felt like a new woman, with a large brick in her gut! :lol

When we got back to camp Mike54, GrayGost and Hayduke hatched a plan to go riding up some gnarly something or other, so Veronica (NotBetty) and I decided to do an easy day of pavement up to the ghost town of Rhyolite.

Veronica - one of my new favorite people!

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Aloha Kitty - she goes everywhere with Veronica

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Now, I suck at taking pictures while moving, so I didn't get any pics of Veronica on her GS while we were moving. But I did take a bunch of pictures of Rhyolite - a very cool little ghost town.

The train depot:

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Most of the buildings are in ruins:

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Road signs:

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The Mercantile is for sale, in case your interested in a career change :happy

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The coolest building there, the bottle house. Even the foundation was built with bottles filled with sand.

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Around the side of the bottle house there were a bunch of small (doll house size) buildings. I think they were supposed to represent a town, not sure if it was Rhyolite or not, but it was pretty nifty.

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A closeup of the roof on the pagoda style little building:

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I don't have a clue what this was supposed to be, I just liked it.

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After Rhyolite we took a detour out towards Stovepipe Wells and then headed back to Furnace Creek Ranch for lunch. I had a great time riding with Veronica, she was very patient with my slowa$$ pavement riding self, something I really appreciated!

We got back to camp, waited for the guys to get back from their ride, then proceeded to spend the rest of the night partying again. I didn't want to have another hangover, so I didn't really do any drinking, but had a great time making fun of all the other drunks running around :lol .

At some point during the night the rains came in in full force. The campground was turned into flooded mud bog. Fortunately our tent was on a little higher ground in the tamarisk trees so we didn't get flooded out. Other's were not so fortunate! We didn't take any pictures of it, because our camera was in the tent, a good muddy walk away from where we were hanging out and helping other's get their cars unstuck etc...

We had planned on staying one more day, but were afraid most of the roads would be too muddy to ride, so we packed up and took off. We ended up taking the southern route home due to bad weather up on I-70. We stopped in Williams, AZ for the night and woke up to a few inches of snow on the ground. A few miles past Flagstaff the roads cleared up and we had a nice long drive home! I was sad to leave my new found friends and the warmth of Death Valley, but was happy to get home and hug my kitty's!!!

The End.

[Luna Tique]

Great report :thumbup:
Thank you for sharing your adventure Sounds like you had a great time.
Now......
Hurry up and go somewhere else so you can write another one :happy :lol :lol We still have aa couple of months of winter to get through so I will wait right here for your next rr :boring:

[Bonnie Abbzug]

:lol Thanks Luna, but unless the weather makes a great change sometime soon, I will be waiting with you for someone in a warmer climate to post up a ride report!

Spring can not come soon enough!

[sweptwingnut]

Great report Bonnie! Love the pics and it looked like a great time. Can't wait for the next one you share with us.:thumbup:

[Lucky_Devil]

Excellent report and pics!!! http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/images/smilies/41.gif

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. Glad you weren't hurt in your little get-off.

I was supposed to got the DVDaze this year, but something came up and I had to cancel http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/images/smilies/2.gif ...looking at the pics of the flooded campgrounds and snow on the roads kind of made me glad I didn't go http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/images/smilies/9.gif ... maybe if I had heated gear, but otherwise: no thanks http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/images/smilies/j.gif

[KCDakar]

<snip>maybe if I had heated gear, but otherwise: no thanks http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/images/smilies/j.gif

That and a set of knobbies!:tongue

[Lucky_Devil]

Yeah... that too! :lol

[Bonnie Abbzug]

:lol I was fortunate enough to have both heated gear and knobbies! And in case anyone was wondering, you can run both a heated jacket and heated grips on the XT225 all at the same time!

[KansasKawboy]

Great report, if I didn't get to ride Sunday I would be real jealous,but I'm only a little jealous.:thumbup:

[Luna Tique]

Glad to hear you got out for a ride KK My driveway is solid ice no way to get from the "bat cave" to the road :( but :happy it is almost Feb http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/dance013.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org) and the days are getting longer

[KansasKawboy]

After the ice melted the gravel drive was swampy and I almost lost it in the drive.:blush:

[KansasKawboy]

Hopefully the snow stops and the sun comes out and melts the ice and you can ride.:riding:

[ridingAK]

LT when do you thaw out normally? Here I hope for late April, early May, but a big snowfall the end of April isn't unusual.

[Luna Tique]

LT when do you thaw out normally? Here I hope for late April, early May, but a big snowfall the end of April isn't unusual.

We are thawed out by the end of March most years. We may get a snow storm or two after that but the driveway is ok by then Ours roads will be covered with sand, salt and whatever litter blew around all winter. So in the spring we take it slow to be sure that all the new ( or larger) potholes and any notable deterioration are imbedded into our memory. Sometimes in the spring the holes are big enough to swallow a VW

[KCDakar]

Sometimes in the spring the holes are big enough to swallow a VW


That could be funny if it wasn't true...:blush:

[Lucky_Devil]

Sometimes in the spring the holes are big enough to swallow a VW

Are they big enough to go fishin' in? :lol

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[KCDakar]

:lol :lol :lol Now that IS funny!!!

[Luna Tique]

:lol :lol :lol Now that IS funny!!!

:thumbup: :lol :lol :lol

[Queen]

Really nice report Bonnie, looks like a great time.

[Bonnie Abbzug]

Thanks Queen.

It's good to see you again! I hope you and your family are doing alright.

[Queen]

Thanks Queen.

It's good to see you again! I hope you and your family are doing alright.
We're doing okay, thanks for the positive thoughts. I'm not sure if I'll go back over to ADV, I'm a little too raw for that place.

Glad your trip was a fun one, the West Coast contingent seems like a great group.

[Bonnie Abbzug]

We're doing okay, thanks for the positive thoughts. I'm not sure if I'll go back over to ADV, I'm a little too raw for that place.

Glad your trip was a fun one, the West Coast contingent seems like a great group.

I understand your reservations about going back to ADV right away. I am constantly amazed at how they can be so kind in one thread and so harsh in another (in Jo Momma at any rate). I'm glad I'll get to see you over here, but I know you will be missed over there!!!

We had such a great time at DVD, it was exactly what we needed to help us get through the rest of this ungodly cold and snowy winter! Every single person we met was genuinely nice and generous and not a few were wickedly funny (CA Stu comes to mind, as well as Ilmostro). I laughed all weekend and have continued to do so while looking at all the pictures and reading the stories over at ADV! It was a great trip and we will go again next year!

[KansasKawboy]

We're doing okay, thanks for the positive thoughts.

Queen I'm glad you all are doing okay. I lost my Dad 15 years ago all I can tell you is it takes time but it will get better. I hope you come around here it's a friendly place and everyone cares and it will help to get back to a normal routine.

[KCDakar]

:lol Thanks Luna, but unless the weather makes a great change sometime soon, I will be waiting with you for someone in a warmer climate to post up a ride report!

Spring can not come soon enough!

OK but you could, if you wanted, cause we would let you, write up a passed ride, like your most favorite of rides...cause I know you have and we would all wait right here for one...


:happy

[ridingAK]

We like stories. New ones, old ones, any story is good!

[KCDakar]

We like stories. New ones, old ones, any story is good!

:happy I like that idea!

[ridingAK]

:happy I like that idea!

Good! With all your years of riding I'm sure there are a few we haven't heard. We'll we waiting. :boring:

[ladybug]

I understand your reservations about going back to ADV right away. I am constantly amazed at how they can be so kind in one thread and so harsh in another

I hear ya! The ride reports are great with cool pics. Technical info helpful. BUT...
Good to see your ride reports on TWF. Keep them coming. Thanks! Living on the other side of the country from you, it's great to see and read about rides from all over the country.

[Luna Tique]

I hear ya! The ride reports are great with cool pics. Technical info helpful. BUT...
Good to see your ride reports on TWF. Keep them coming. Thanks! Living on the other side of the country from you, it's great to see and read about rides from all over the country.

I agree :thumbup:

More please :happy

[KansasKawboy]

Good! With all your years of riding I'm sure there are a few we haven't heard. We'll we waiting. :boring:

Dakar she opened the door and you walked right into it.:lol

[Luna Tique]

Yes this is all of us waiting
:boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring:

WELL :happy

[ridingAK]

Yes this is all of us waiting
:boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring: :boring:

WELL :happy
:lol :lol :lol yeah, what she said.

[KCDakar]

You guys are just plain cruel!:lol :lol :owned

[Bonnie Abbzug]

Wow, I'd be glad to write about an older ride (:lol of course none of them would be older than a year or so ago)!

But first I'm gonna go see if Dakar has posted up something :happy , then I'll get started on mine.

[KCDakar]

Wow, I'd be glad to write about an older ride (:lol of course none of them would be older than a year or so ago)!

But first I'm gonna go see if Dakar has posted up something :happy , then I'll get started on mine.

Man! I see who's side your on!:lol :lol :lol
You all will have to wait tell I get my confuzer back!:tongue

[Lucky_Devil]

But first I'm gonna go see if Dakar has posted up something :happy , then I'll get started on mine.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2115/2242740089_13d35d1bda_o.jpg

[Bonnie Abbzug]

:lol

[KCDakar]

Ouch!:confused:












:lol :lol :thumbup: