Made it to Prescott AZ on the RT

[Lamonster]

I've never been to Oregon and it wasn't far from Crescent City so I made arrangements to meet with Vaughn and Kat from SpyderLovers have lunch and maybe stop by and visit their dealer in Medford OR. I didn't get out of Crescent City till about 9am but the weather was good but a little cold going over the mountain.

This was a shot off of 199.

It was a beautiful ride on the 199 and I stopped for fuel here and called Kat to see about meeting for lunch in Grants Pass. I guess they have a real shortage of JD up there. :doorag:

199 to grants pass is a great road and the RT ate it up. It got down to about 42 degrees but I had my snow pants on and the heated grips cranked up so I was good. This is a road worth traveling for sure.

I met Kat at a gas station and she took me over to see Vaughn where he works. They both ride a RT and it was great to hang out with them a bit and compare notes. They also have a Corbin seat on order so it was good for them to be able to check mine out. They really liked the fuel door but where on the fence about the backrest until they felt mine. It real adds to the comfort on a long ride like this. I'm going to do a full report when I get home. By that time I'll have about 3000 miles on that seat.

Vaughn and Kat were great folks as just about all SpyderLovers are.

From his office we drove over to Medford to meet his dealer. They are mostly into boards but that had a lot of Can Am products including a few new RT's. I guess they are selling pretty good for them.

I got to spend quite a bit of time talking with the owner of Water World Ted Cole. He seemed to know his Spyders well and it sounds like he has a good staff working for him. I would have no problem taking my Spyder's to them after talking with them. I guess they have done a good job taking care of Vaughn and Kat too.

This is Vaughn on the left and Ted on the right.

We left Water World and headed for a little town for lunch. I should have wrote it down but I forgot the name of it already. I wound up staying a lot longer than I should of so I was like a horse to the barn by time we said our goodbyes.

I got on the 5 and headed south. I had a pretty good head wind again but at least I wasn't cold. I didn't stop to much but I just had to take a shot of Mount Shasta.

I wound up staying the night in Redding. Most of the time I stay in Choice Hotels but this time I cheaped out and stayed in a Motel 6. That was a big mistake. Long story short I think it was some kind of drug hang out and I didn't get much sleep with the people coming in and out and the cars sitting right at my window with the motor running. I wanted to flipout on them but then I was worried they would do something to the RT to get back at me. Let's just say I was not a happy camper.

It took me a while to get caught up on my work so I didn't get out of there till 9am and I was watching the weather real close. There was a break that day but it was going to get ugly from where I was all the way to San Diego. My plans were to make it as far as Bakersfeild but I decided to push on to Needles. That was over 700 miles on very little sleep.

I called Big Joe from Kewlmetal and made arrangements to meet with him and Matt the next day. So here I am in Prescott AZ and it looks like I'm going to spend the day with them and take a run to the Grand Canyon seeing it's only about 120 miles from Prescott.

Here's a few shots I took with Big Joe when I got here. Prescott is a great motorcycle town. So far I've seen more bikes on the road here than anywhere else.

Big Joe is a old friend from way back and we've done some great rides together. It's always great when we can hookup.

I guess this park is where a lot of the bikers hangout. Joe said they'll have bikes parked all the way around this place. I guess they were all out riding this day.

We pulled off at this little lake to take some pics. As soon as we did some SpyderLovers pulled in and they knew Joe from Kewlmetal and I guess they've been looking hard at the RT. They have a yellow RS now.

Once again the backrest and the fuel door on the Corbin was a big hit. This seat is back a little further than stock too so that make the bars more comfortable for us long arm guys.

This guy is such a poser.

Right now I'm over 7000 miles into this trip. We'll spend the day riding around the Grand Canyon and then head back to Prescott, from there I'll head to Cuba MO for the Spyder event and then back home. I should be well over 9000 miles by then. It's been a great trip and one I really needed. I ran out of my blood pressure meds in San Diego but when I took my blood pressure at my moms I was better than ever. I took it the next day just to make sure and I was still good. So this ride is saving me 70 bucks a month just on meds. I won't talk about fuel and lodging. Life is good.

 

[retired1]

Great post Lamont. I've enjoyed reading about your adventure and looking forward to posts on the rest of your trip. RTS is going in Wed. for 600 mi. service, and then heading for Cuba Thurs. Looking forward to meeting you again and having as much fun as I had in Gatlinburg.

 

[MarkLawson]

Close down the Dragon & Lamont leaves town for the long ride!

Great posts. Looks like you're having a super ride.

 

[BumbleBee]

Great write-up, I too love to read about your adventures :2thumbs:

Pictures are beautiful, be safe, see you in Cuba

 

[Campverdefela]

You got to spend some time on Whiskey Row while in Prescott. Should try to get to Jerome while here, great biker town.

 

[VaughnCat]

Great timing Lamont . . . .

Glad Cat and I were able to hook it up with you in So Oregon. Right after you left, the rain came back! Took Monday off from the office, figure we will head to the coast even if we have to dodge rain drops. Thanks for all the info about the Spyder, and we are really looking forward to the Corbin seat, back rest and all. With the fuel door making fill ups so easy, I won't have to wake up Cat when we hit the gas station! Ride on Lamont! Vaughn and Cat

 

[Lamonster]

I'll be leaving Prescott AZ in a couple of hours. Looks like I may hit some snow going over the mountain. My plans are a nice easy ride to Albuquerque NM today, that's just a little over 400 miles.

We had a great ride yesterday. Big Joe and I met with Matt and then headed to Williamson for some breakfast. The plan was to head to the Grand Canyon but it was real windy and Matt was just up there and he said it was worst there. It was so windy it was hard to stand he said. That changed our plans so we decided to do the loop through Sedona and Jerome.

Had a great breakfast at this little restaurant in Williamson.

If you noticed Matt took his Victory Crossroad instead of his wife's RT. I guess when you have as many toys as he has it's hard to choose.

We stopped for a photo op on the way to Sedona.

Sedona is a trippy little town. It's full of artwork and is pretty much just a big tourist trap. There was no place to park and look around so we headed to Jerome.

Like I said the wind was really bad and on the way to Jerome there was a pretty steep road with a good size drop off. Traffic was stopped just before you got into town and as it turns out a motorcycle somehow got pushed into the guardrail and the gal he had on the back went over the cliff. We talked with one of the rescuers in town and he said she's going to be alright but her leg was busted up pretty good. I got to tell you I've been driving in bad wind for four days now and I'm getting pretty sick of it.

I really liked the town of Jerome. It's a old copper mining town and even though it's a little run down it was really worth checking out. I liked it better than Sedona.

This is the haunted hotel in town, or so they say.

Just to prove I was there.

They had a real old movie house there and I guess this was what they use to play the movies with.

As you come out of Jerome there are some great twisties. I was having a blast chasing Big Joe on the RT and even with the trailer I was right on his tail the whole way. Having the Elka's made a big difference in the handling, I don't think I could have hit it that hard with the stock shocks.

From there we went to Matts place where he does a lot of his R&D work for the Spyder. Just before we pulled in it started raining and then it hailed. We got there just in time.

One of Matt's shops. He has three.

While talking with Matt and Joe we talked about vibration and how it relates to belt tension. I told Matt I was really happy where I had mine set and I would check his. That's when the panic set in. I looked for my tool kit and it's nowhere to be found. I tore the trailer and the RT apart looking for it but no luck. All I can think of is maybe I left it at Corbin's when I was helping with the seat install but I'm pretty sure I put it back in the trailer. There were only a few times I didn't lock the trailer and there's nothing else missing so I got to think (hope) that's where it is. I'm waiting for a phone call from Mike to see if he found it and can ship it to me. I can't tell you how naked I feel without my tools. I figure it was about $500.00 worth of tools. I even had my killer cordless screwgun in there.

I hope that was the last misadventure. I'm really looking forward to getting home now. I'm over 7000 miles on this trip and it looks like 9000 or so will be my total for this ride. I was thinking about writing a highlight blog called "Lamonsters Rider Across America and back 4 gallons at a time". When I fuel up I pretty much put 4 gallons or a little more each time. That's a lot of fuel stops in 9000 miles.

 

[groundeffect]

Great post Lamont, and great adventures!!
:2thumbs:


Ryde safe!
Cheers from Newfoundland.

 

[Mad Matt]

Lamont,

I am really glad you made it here and had some time to hang out for a day. I really enjoyed spending a little time with you and I am happy we got to take one of our really nice local rides. I must say, I was impressed with the pace you were able to do in the twisties on a Spyder RT with a trailer! The fact that there was still a little gravel on the road from the winter really made it a little spookey on 2 wheels. Another plus for the Spyder. I would imagine this is a big factor in Canada and other places where they do a lot more gravel spreading in the winter time.

Mad Matt