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| Looking back, it all happened awfully fast but that
seems to be the way life is anymore. Get in and hang on. We picked
up our new Goldwing on Wednesday, May 25th. That next Saturday started
the three-day Memorial Day weekend. We just had to go somewhere on
the new scooter and since I was in a gambling mood; South Lake Tahoe
seemed like a good bet. Three days and 664 miles later the trip is
now just a memory…with pictures, of course. Let me back up here and explain how we went from owning a perfectly good 1995 BMW R100RT to owning and making a 600 mile trip on a brand new, out of the box, 2002 Honda Goldwing. After my trip around the western states last summer on my Beemer, I definitely wanted to do it again. I started thinking about the fact that I haven’t visited my relatives back East and I have always wanted to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, so I settled on South Carolina and Florida as a destination for this summer. After working out all of the details on MS Streets and Trips, it turned out to be about 8900 miles, to be done in 25 days with 6 additional days for visiting family. I would have to average about 360 miles a day, with stops. That seemed reasonable to me.
Unfortunately, it did not seem reasonable to my wife, Linda, who said I should give folks her best wishes and we could do something else later on in the year. Therein lies the rub. Linda retired this last February and was looking forward to us having some time together. Skip ahead three months. One day, a few weeks ago, Linda says to me, “ Ed, it doesn’t seem quite fair that your using up all of your vacation and we won’t be able to have any time together until you retire in June of next year.” “Well,” say I, “you can come with me on the back of the Beemer.” “I have no interest in riding 360 miles a day all the way to Florida. Maybe if you were taking a shorter trip, I could go,” she said. She also had that look that said, “Figure something out.” “How much shorter,” I ask, not knowing where this conversation might be going. “I don’t know. Maybe 200 miles a day, so we could get off the bike once in a while,” replied my loving wife. Now here’s the part where my male buddies always drop their teeth, “Of course, you’ll have to get a bigger bike so I can be more comfortable.” Say what????? Playing very cool, I say, “That’s probably doable. Let me do some calculating.” With that I run to the computer, altered my course about three different ways, and finally figure out it’s going to have to be a completely different trip.
I start with a clean sheet of paper and change the whole concept of the trip. Since Linda is going with me, and the trip will have to be shorter, I will show her some of the things I saw last summer. I had wished she were along then so I could show her just how beautiful Glacier National Park and the Tetons were. After figuring out the details of the trip, I still needed to find that bigger bike Linda asked for. Since I own a BMW, which I like, it seemed like the big touring Beemer would be just the ticket. I went over and test road the K1200LT and more or less decided that this would be the bike I would buy. It’s fast, comfortable, and has all kinds of gadgets. I liked the dealership, the Beemer’s reputation for quality, the LT was surely the way to go. Still, if I was going to be investing this kind of money, I felt like I should at least try the Goldwing, since that is the bike they always compare the LT to. Linda and I went over and took an hours test ride. We went back the next day and bought it. Now back to the reason for this story, our first trip on the big wing. We left the house about 8:00 in the morning, took Hwy. 680 to Martinez, then Hwy. 80 to Sacramento (photo #1) . The traffic is already starting to get heavy. From Sacramento we headed up 50 into the mountains. We soon picked up the Truckee river and the elevation started to climb; 4000 feet then 5000, now 6000 and pretty soon we’re at 8000 feet. There are lots of cars but it’s not unbearable. The scenery is just great with the granite rock formations of the Sierra Nevada adding interest to the groves of pine and spruce trees surrounding Hwy. 50. Next thing I know, we’re looking down on Lake Tahoe, so I pull off for a picture (photo #2).
Now during this time I was able to evaluate the new Goldwing under a lot of “typical” touring conditions and some, not so typical. On the freeway, which I usually hate, she’s as comfortable as a Pullman car. Merging and passing, she has plenty of power with two-up and will get you to 80 mph faster than I like to think about. When we hit Placerville, we got into stop-and-go traffic and the bike was a perfect lady, a heavy lady, but a lady none-the-less. Obviously, the Wing is heavier than the Beemer, but she’s easier to handle than I had expected. In fact, the slow speed handling of the Wing was one the things that moved me from the K1200 to the Wing. Once we got into the twisties, the Wing proved to be a pleasure. I’m used to my RT, which is a nice bike for the mountains, and depending on the severity of the curves, a more nimble bike than the Wing. But the Wing’s easy motion in the corners verged on being graceful and the 125 ft/lbs of torque allowed me to power out of any curve. You don’t throw it back and forth like a smaller bike. You go in slower and power out gracefully. What a motorcycle. Much better than a bike this big should be. We stopped along the way for drinks and lunch but made it to South Lake Tahoe in about five hours. We took a room at the Embassy Suites (photo #3, 4) since this was kind of a special occasion; new bike and all. That afternoon and evening we enjoyed the gambling, the food, and each other’s company. I’m starting to like this bike. Sunday found us having a great breakfast at the hotel then back on the bike. This time we took a leisurely tour around the lake, counter clockwise. It’s not important to remember the road numbers, just bear left when the lake turns. This “just out for a drive,” attitude allowed us to poke our noses into different parks, resorts, or side roads (photos #5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11). We saw paragliders, beachfront resorts, boats, bays, and lots of beautiful scenery. The Wing handled all of this, for the most part, without complaint. It also pointed out a major difference between the Goldwing and my RT.
The Goldwing is a big, heavy bike and cannot be muscled into small spaces without some forethought. The bike has a wheelbase that is 10” longer than my Beemer. It weighs 150 lbs. more than the RT. A ballet dancer she ain’t. Having said that, the RT is a bit of a slug around the parking lot compared to almost any sport bike. Weight and wheelbase have an affect on handling and nimbleness. We took our time enjoying the sights of Tahoe and it gave me a chance to try out my new digital camera. I took several pictures and most came out just fine. Of course the subject matter helped the photographer quite a bit, also. I have attached some of the photos to give you and example of what we saw. We stopped at Denny’s for a late lunch/early dinner and were back at the hotel by 3 :00. I took a nap and Linda read a book and then it’s up and at ‘um over at the casinos (photo #12, 13, 14, 15). We decide to take in a movie and see Insomnia, with Robert De Niro and Robin Williams. Not a bad movie. The funny thing is that the only place to see a movie in South Lake Tahoe now, is at the Horizon Casino. I’m not sure that they want little kids going into the casino, then again, maybe they do. We get an ice cream for late night dessert and then home(?) to our hotel. The next morning we pack up the bike and head out of town by 8:00. At this time, there is little of the Memorial Day traffic that will come later. We decide on a different ride home, Hwy. 89 to Meyers, then Hwy. 88 to Jackson. This ride takes us over Carson Pass, at 8000 feet, and past a whole parcel of lakes (photos #16, 17 18, 19). Since this is just the beginning of June, there is still snow in the mountains. The ground is not totally covered, but it’s still plentiful and makes for some interesting and colorful pictures. One of my buddies made a screen saver out of my picture of Silver Lake from this trip.
Since this is the “back” road home, the traffic was light. We enjoyed light traffic until we got to Jackson, where it picked up some, and it stayed moderate until we picked up Hwy 4 in Antioch. Hwy. 88 is a great ride. For some reason, it seemed like every time I looked up, we were in the middle of a high-speed sweeper to the left. Then a couple of short rights, a small left, another right and then a high-speed sweeper to the left again. I fully expected to come full circle where we started. The Wing felt surefooted and more nimble than one would expect for a bike this size. I was grinning from ear to ear and Linda was enjoying herself as well. I hardly felt her back there. When we got to Jackson, we pulled into a Safeway, bought a couple of sodas, some sandwiches from the deli, and had a picnic in the parking lot under the trees, sitting on a rock wall (photo #20) . Shortly after leaving Jackson, we picked up Hwy 12 through the farms and fields of the Central Valley and on to Rio Vista, where we stopped and visited with Linda’s sister and brother in-law for an hour. We headed out about 3:00 and pulled into Chili’s in Santa Clara for some early dinner about 4:30. The end to a perfect trip. Miles traveled, 644. Memories made, too many to count. |
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