I sometimes think that adventures are born in the minds of the foolish.  But sometimes you have to be a bit foolish to make things happen.  Maybe that's why some folks jaws would drop when we told them we left from our home in North Idaho on Feb. 18 For a 7,200 mile trip to Baja and the Southwest!

One day I had foolishly mentioned to my bride Susan that in the past I've thought of riding to the Southwest in the winter.  I guess I underestimated her thirst for adventure and courage to attempt such an undertaking.  I suppose she thought that after riding 7,500 miles last summer that this wouldn't be so bad, just a little cooler perhaps. Well I knew from past experiences with cold weather riding that I had to do the homework to make us as comfortable as possible.  I ordered two sets of electrically heated jacket liners and gloves. Riding in the cold without this and you slowly get the heat sucked out of you.We kept an eye on the weather for a break so we could leave here and make it to the coast where it would be warmer.  We got about a two day break in the weather where the roads were clear and the day temps in the 40's.  When we left it was 28 deg.F.  Just turn the little knob for more heat!  I had two Balaclava's on my head.  Our knees and feet got chilly but we made it to Portland and stayed with Jeff and Cathy.  We found them in the BMW anonymous book.  Turns out he is an Iron butt rider.  They ride like a thousand miles a day in endurance rides.  I was keeping our day rides down to around 400 miles and that was plenty.

We stopped in Corvallis, Or. To see Ruby Maxfield, a friend of ours originally from Bonners Ferry, at a nursing home and she was shocked and delighted to see us.  We pressed on through the redwoods to Eureka Ca. To visit my daughter Rebecca.  She took us to the beach and over to the Redwood park and hiked amongst the giant trees. We had a good time celebrating her birthday a little early.
While we were celebrating, Mother Nature was moving in with a day and a half of rain for us when we left there.  We found out that spray on waterproofing on leather boots doesn't.  We stopped, wrung out our socks, put dry ones on and then a plastic bag over the sock and we were good to go.  Gloves got wet also, but the heaters still work.  No we didn't short circuit and light up like in the cartoons.We went down 101 and went over the Golden Gate Bridge.  That is a great site.   I proceeded to get lost in San Francisco and got a close up look at China town.  The GPS had a hard time getting a signal in there.Once we got over Tehachapi pass and into the desert things were moocho bettero (practicing my Spanish here).