For me, the start was in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, on Saturday September 6 at 5:00AM. My BMW R50 was loaded in the back of the Toyota van, and my 1972 Holsclaw motorcycle trailer was hitched on the back.
Sunday about 11:00AM I arrived at Carol's house in Lima. We spent most of the day loading and securing her Kawasaki on the trailer, and getting packed. We also got a chance to visit Carol's mom, my Aunt Doris (98 years old, and still a ball of fire!).
Monday around 11 AM we headed out for the cross country trip to Phoenix to pick up Dick and his bike.
We didn't take any pictures on the trip out to Phoenix, I guess we were thinking the official trip hadn't started yet. The ride out went really well! It's about 1800 miles from Lima to Phoenix, and we had 4 days to do it. Our longest milage was on Wednesday, just over 600 miles. We left about 7 AM, and stopped at a small gas station/snack bar out in the wilderness after driving for a couple of hours. We had a great bacon, eggs and toast breakfast! We stopped at a rest area in New Mexico for a peanut butter and jelly lunch, and finally stopped for the day in Gallup, NM. We found a Golden Corral and pigged out with a great dinner!
The picture above is from our lunch stop at a rest area along route 87 in Arizona. The ride through Holbrook, Heber and Payson down to Phoenix was excellent! We arrived at Dick's house in Phoenix about 2PM, which gave us plenty of time to load Dick's BMW onto the trailer.
Dick and Bill preparing to load Dick's R60.
This was a pretty impressive load for the Sienna van. My BMW in the van along with Carol and myself and all our luggage. Then a trailer with two bikes behind! The bikes each weigh something over 400 pounds..
We made it! It seemed like a long ride on I10 through the desert. We stoppede for lunch at a new truckstop Q? Arizona (I think it was mile 177). Excellent food and service! The van seemed to be doing well, so we plowed on into California. Traffic was a bit stressful (cars pulling trailers are limited to 55, the speed limit for cars is 75 and many were going much faster.) We arrived at Linda and Mike's house just after 6PM. Carl took this picture of Bill, Mike and Carol.
Saturday
Getting ready for breakfast! Anker, Linda, Mike and Bill. Linda is Carl's sister, and Carl has been living with Linda and Mike for several years. They have a beautiful house, and made us feel very much at home. Mike brewed up a great bacon and egg breakfast for us.
After breakfast we drove down to Brenda and Bob's home in San Diego. The weather was perfect, so we spent much of the day in the back yard.
Carl telling one of his great stories.
Bob, Carol and Anker.
Corinne
Sunday it was back to San Diego, actually Mission Bay, where Dick's son Bob likes to dive off his friend Bernie's 46' Hattaras boat. They were diving on a wrecked Canadian warship the Yukon. Anker, Bob, Bernie and Bob's brother Rick all dived, Carol, Dick and I just went for the ride. I fine time was had by all. After the dive we drove to Brenda and Bob's house for another fine meal.
We had a great time with Linda and Mike in San Juan Capistrano. I'll be adding some more pictures from our stay with them later.