The Big Ride 2013

 Bob and I are off again on a 6,000 kilometre journey up the west coast (Pacific) of the US.

Please keep us company over the next four weeks as we encounter this beautiful country and amazingly friendly people.

We start again in Bob's home town - Reno across Nevada to the Californian coast and then right up through Oregon (Redwood National Park) and Washington State to  British Columbia, Canada (Vancouver, Whisker etc.) - then across to Alberta (Calgary) down through Banff into Montana , Yellowstone National  Park and back to Reno again - Phew! 

This time it is more of a challenge for Bob as his chronic lung condition has deteriorated, as he explains below.

Day 1

We head off on a tester run up to Virginia City - just like we did last October. This is the old mining capital of Nevada - now just a tourist destination. But a beautiful ride up.

This time I can actually enjoy the ride, because I am not the complete scared novice like the last time. 

But I do get an early reminder as we head up the mountain via the High Chaparral Way.

Along the way

Virginia City is straight out of the cowboy movies - with the same old wooden saloon buildings - quite delapidated now but still serving drink.

Lots of bikers here.

As luck would have it there was a historic reenactment of a Civil War battle outside the town. The streets were packed with costumed volunteers for the occasion. 

Video Duration 15"

I spoke to this cowboy about his trip on a horse across the Nevada desert to Vegas from Virginia City.  Was he pulling my leg? Video Duration 2'30"

Tomorrow we head off on the real trip! For Bob this time his lung condition is a real challenge as he explains - 

"I read somewhere recently about a survey that was conducted to determine individual’s happiness regarding vacations.  It was found that the happiest time for vacationers was not while they were actually on vacation or just after returning but rather during the anticipation of an upcoming recreation.  I guess that just proves reality cannot live up to expectations.  I experienced this personally as I was contemplating the next big motorcycle ride.  After our trip in October of last year, Eugene and I planned on another ride in May 2013.  I have been looking forward to this all winter.  But, my expectation and excitement has been tempered with concern as well.

My breathing took a real downturn almost as soon as we returned to Reno after the last trip.  By February, I was not only thinking that I might not be able to make the next trip but that I might even have to go on full-time oxygen.  My Doctor gave me a course of oral steroids for two weeks and these pumped me up enough that I thought I could make a ride without encountering an emergency.  But even though I had great improvement, it did not last long after discontinuing the medications.  I tried another course on meds but had the same result.  The medical advice was to try to avoid taking too much of the steroids because they could have some nasty side effects such as growing a third eye and having your dick shrink up.  I was not too concerned with the latter since I was pretty much through using it very much but I was concerned that an additional eye might spoil my attractive countenance. 

I was also concerned that I needed to be pretty sure of my health before I asked Eugene to come all the way from Ireland only to find that I was not able to participate or worse that he would end up acting as a nurse to get me though each day.  When there were only 5 weeks to go before his arrival I decided to just go with the steroids daily and hope that the possible bad effects just did not show up.  So far that has been the case but the improvement has not been as dramatic as I had hoped.  I resolved to get out more in the hope that additional exercise would improve the breathing and I planned on making a short two or three-day ride before Eugene had to leave Dublin.  As the date of his arrival approached, the exercise seemed to be having a modest improvement but my bike needed some repairs and the parts had to be ordered so that I was not going to be able to make the test ride.  Even the week before “D” day I was still uncertain and thought my capabilities were marginal at best but I decided to take the risk and not tell Eugene that we needed to postpone or cancel our plans. 

The day after he arrived, we took the day ride up to Virginia City, which is about 40 miles from Reno and about 1,750 feet higher in elevation.  We had made a similar ride the previous year and surprisingly this one was much more enjoyable.  For Eugene because he was so much more comfortable with the bike and could relax a bit to enjoy the sights and for me because I survived.  I did have trouble with the breathing when we were walking around the old part of town but by using the rescue inhaler often I was able to get by, just had to go very slowly.  The previous year we had taken the highway back from Carson City to Reno but the wind was very strong and there is a section on that road where gusts can often top 100 mph; sometimes blowing trucks off the road.  I thought it would be best to avoid that section so we simply turned around at Virginia City and headed back the way we came.  Some of you will recognize how much I hate travelling the same road twice and can appreciate the difficulty of that choice.

If you missed our last trip you can scroll this page down to view older posts or search the 2012 archive on the sidebar on the top right of this page - some of amusing videos shot on the Iphone. 

If you are a new visitor to this blog and you  missed the time I went in to a pawnshop and asked for an AK47 in Utah  - the most popular video from the 2012 trip -  have a look here.







Hopefully more to come.