leo3wheel

Thanks Puc! Hope it helps someone.

Not this trip, but we have been to Jerome. Nice!

We did. Not our first visit... Thanks!

Thanks Puc!

Thanks! Yes, this was a long trip, 5,400 miles in three weeks. May not sound like a lot, but schedule included time for visiting kids and cousins, sightseeing and lots of photo stops. Any trip requires a vision. Originally, planned to ride our trike from NJ to West Coast to add states to my list of states visited. Knew Jeannette would not be able to ride that far. Two ride-in's were planned at Canon City, CO and Cedar City, UT. Made cabin reservation at Royal Gorge KOA in CO. Considered joining the CO ride-in on the way out and the UT ride-in on return trip, but dates made for a long trip. There were bikers who I could ride with in both directions. Had concerns about driving our trike so far, sometimes in very remote areas. Also troubled about leaving Jeannette behind, since I already rode solo to Texas in April. Researched renting a motorcycle out west, but rentals are expensive and trikes were not available. Fellow rider suggested renting a convertible car out of Las Vegas. Renting a car out of Vegas has drawbacks, since there are mileage penalties for driving outside region. Enterprise out of Denver offered unlimited mileage with no region penalties. Found some cheap airline tickets and talked Jeannette into joining me. We would fly from Newark to Denver and back after three weeks. Next thing to do was to plan trip route. Since we would not be adding to states visited with our motorcycle, then let's add to list of national parks visited. There were also places/sights I wanted to see. Wanted to see natural stone arches, Antelope Canyon, Meteor Crater, Saguaro cactus, Giant Sequoia, Death Valley,... Needed to fit in family visits, daughter off on weekends. Tried to find motels around 250 miles apart to allow time for sightseeing. Contingency plan was to not visit national parks already visited if time did not allow. Mapped our route, but did not book all motel reservations. Motel reservations were made at least seven days ahead with Choice Privileges to get reduced rates. Used points to get free nights. Making motel reservations ahead of time kept us on schedule. There were days when we drove into the evening, but we reached all our motels. Trip went without a hitch. Should have checked our rental car before we left Denver. Car needed a quart of oil, antifreeze reservoir was empty, windshield washer reservoir was filled with water and cover was off, tires had 31K miles and front tires were close to wear marks, and windows were filthy. Went to tire shop in Arizona and had tires checked. Tires were low but they said we were okay for then. Fortunately, we encountered no rain or snow. I took care of the fluid levels. When we returned to Denver, Enterprise more than compensated us for our trouble and sent car to service. Despite the issues, this Subaru Legacy provided excellent gas mileage and handled well in the mountain twisties. One thing that made for some longer days was the fact that many national parks have long entrance/exit drives. Since I only Googled from one motel to the next, some driving days were longer than others. Cheap flights were a bit of a pain with connections in Chicago and Dallas. Thunderstorms in Chicago forced us to spend a night at Detroit on the way out, at airline expense. On way home, we could not print our boarding passes ahead of time, and we ended up in the tail of the aircraft from Dallas to Newark. Main thing with a long trip like this is to work through the obstacles and stay on schedule. We started in Denver and had to return to Denver to make our scheduled return flight. Fortunately, we had no breakdowns! If I had known Jeannette was coming, I would have reserved a motel at Canon City. Cabin living was a little tough for Jeannette. It was a trip of a lifetime with so many wonderful memories. It was worth enduring the difficulties. Try it! You'll like it!

Thanks!

We thoroughly enjoyed our western vacation. Thought I would share some of our pics.

Funny! Different forum but same folks! LOL!

Checked, and biker lives in Sahuarita.

Yes, what Joe said!!

Hi David, Wow! We are going to be right in your neighborhood. Fellow biker in your neighborhood is going to take us up Mt. Lemmon on Friday, 9/5. We are then going to Mexican lunch, if time allows. Hmmm... Not sure about scheduling, since we start the day in Chandler and have motel reservation at Blythe, CA for that night. It will be a long day. Reason for long day is we are trying to get to Bellflower, CA by Saturday when our daughter is off from work.

See Aliante is in North Las Vegas. Should be able to get there for lunch if you are available. We can exchange cell phone info via PM's. Hope it works out.

Hi Chris, Not sure how timing will work out. On Friday, 9/12, we will be traveling from Barstow, CA to Cedar City, UT, 325 miles. Wasn't planning to stop in Las Vegas this trip, but Las Vegas is about half way. It may be a good time for lunch. Any ideas? I'm always ready for a good buffet.

Thanks Puc! Will report back with pics. Hope we find some interesting ice cream to help cope with the heat!

Lenny, Yes, we are going to Canyonlands NP as well. We are excited!

Joe, We will be there Monday evening as well. We rented a KOA cabin. Hopefully, we can rent linens.

On Monday, Jeannette and I start off on a three week vacation. Too far for Jeannette to ride on our trike, so we fly to Denver and rent a cage. Will join ride-in at Canon City, CO before setting off on tour of national parks. Along the way, will visit relatives and friends in Phoenix and LA areas. Especially anxious to see Arches NP, Antelope Canyon, Saguaro NP and Sequoia NP!

Returned from TrikeTalk Northeast Rally last evening that was held at West Dover, VT near Mt. Snow. Had a great time with a lot of really nice folks. Happy to share time with three other couples from this forum, Jonesy and Linda, Bongobobny and Linda, Steamer and Robin, and Leo3wheel and Jeannette.

Congrats Larry and many happy miles!

Bob and many more!

Funny thing happened to me last weekend. Our RSV trike has rarely popped or backfired. In fact, it is running very smoothly right now. While at a park in PA, was sitting on our idling trike, and a couple Harley riders walked past me. At that very instant, trike decided to pop. Thinking it was a salute.

Justin, Can still remember our anguish caused by conversion delays. Summer of 2010 slipped by, and we got our trike around Labor Day. Feel your pain!

A triked Roadmaster is going to be serious $$$. Would buy a very nice car!

Sweet trike!