I see all these notes over the weekend about where is everyone? Well, I and the misses went for a little jaunt on the GTS and had one of the best Thanksgivings in a long while and even the weather cooperated. The plan was Fremont, CA to Tucson, Az on Wed to Sandy's brothers house for Thanksgiving, to Phoenix on Fri, Las Vegas on Sat and back home on Sunday.
Started the weekend early and left Wed at 6:30 am from our home in Fremont heading south on I5, saw a great sunrise, making great time until we stopped for breakfast at Denny's at Hwy 33 junction (near Coalinga). Turned out everyone else was heading out and stopping at the same time. Turned into a 2 hr stop. That was even ordering take out while waiting for a table, me going to gas up the bike while waiting and asking for the check as soon as they brought our order. Back on the road, things went smoothly again. Got off I5 at Gorman onto Hwy 138 east thru Palmdale to I15 and onto I10 at San Bernadino. My plan was to avoid the LA traffic, but even at 2 pm, I10 was bumper to bumper. I had to use my best lane splitting skills with my 47 L Krauser outriggers (the wife insisted on bringing half her wardrobe plus plenty of wine for our various stays) for about 20 miles heading east. Man are there a lot of off-roaders down in So Cal. Every other truck, camper, motorhome was towing dune buggies, Quads, dirt bikes, jeeps. Stopped to change shields at George Patton's Desert Tank Museum off I10 to see a great sunset with all the clouds turning a deep red. We dropped down to I8 thru Gila Bend to avoid Phoenix and made it to Sandy's brothers house in Tucson by midnight. The stats were about 850 miles, 17 hrs total with about 4 1/2 hrs of stopped time. Thurs was your typical Turkey day - plenty of good food & wine, lots of friends and family. Friday we headed east out to the Pima air museum (before going West to Phoenix). This museum continues to grow and is just huge. Even though Sandy is not a airplane junkie (like I am), we spent hours there. She was amazed at how I could easily pull down on the wing tip of a huge B-52 (there are 3 there) and it would flex several feet. They now have two of the past Air Force Ones, older prop job that carried Kennedy and one of the recently retired 707's and an SR-71 Blackbird plus hundreds of other aircraft. Fri was another beautiful sunset heading up to Phoenix to stay with Sandy's ex-boss from her previous company. This was an easy 140 mile jaunt. They have an absolute palace they have built on a bluff in Scottsdale overlooking all of Phoenix. He also has an impressive wine cellar / collection, so needless to say, more great eats and wine. Sat was off to Vegas and the Guggenheim! We went up 60 thru Kingman and was supposed to be an easy 350 mile day. However, because of the terrorism threats they had roadblocks at Hoover dam to search all trucks and campers before going across, which created about a 10 mile back up, which took over an hour to get thru and my clutch hand was pumping up. Then we hit rain coming in to Vegas with another great sunset (Sandy is beginning to see the benefits of ld riding) but more stop and go traffic on the strip. But staying at the Venetian made it worth it - what a beautiful hotel. And the Art of the Motorcycle exhibit was all that the book and web site make it out to be, even more so. Seeing the engineering and craftsmanship that went into the early designs is something to behold, the Britten is a stunning marvel, especially seeing it up close with all its stunning color. And there, in the last group of modern street bikes as I come around the corner is our baby - a beautiful Red GTS with all of 0.9 mi on the speedometer. It is well worth the $15 price of admission. If you take your SO, I highly recommend you stay at the Venetian - you will impress her, beautiful rooms. Their hours were recently adjusted to where they close at 8:30 pm now, not 11 as stated on the web site. Sunday was back home, about 550 miles, but took 11 hours. As the truckers were remarking on the CB, every f---in citizen who has a car seemed to be on the road. I15 east was bumper to bumper at 9 am for at least 50 miles. It was endless lane splitting and slow going at avg 25- 35 mph. Sandy was reading the paper on my back, although I did see one page going flying as she was trying to turn a page. I thought about heading out thru Pahrump and Death Valley, but because of weather figured Lake Isabella / Walker Pass would have snow, so would have to go thru Tehachapi any way. Traffic started moving at the limit past Baker and at Barstow cut across on 58. Then hit another monumental back up for 10 miles or so because of a signal light at the junction of 395 and 58. When we finally made it to I5 at Buttonwillow (and another sunset), took one look at the line of traffic crawling along heading North with unpleasant visions of Pacheco Pass. Decided right there that 33 north to 198 to 25 up thru Hollister would be much better and faster even though would be at night, but my favorite twisty roads. Turned out to be right, with no traffic what so ever. Impressed Sandy with the aux PIAA's and extreme white bulb in the main lamp (she remarked "God, you can see at least a mile ahead on the straights") and I said "Yeah, and wait until I get the HID set up I have on order!" We just missed the rain coming into Silicon Valley earlier that day. The GTS ran like a top. Sandy was a real trooper, but First Gear Gortex riding gear, AlpineStar Gortex boots and Widder electric vest kept her warm, dry and happy. Stereo, intercom, Corbin seat also help. The accommodations we stayed at wowed her as well. There were a lot of people driving this Thanksgiving, but thank god we took the GTS or I probably wouldn't have made it home until today. I hope you all had as enjoyable Thanksgiving as Sandy and I. It made us very much appreciate the great roads, scenery and country we live in, our friends and family and to be an American. -- Dave Biasotti // Fremont, CA
