Coast to coast in the US -third time!

[mr west]

Vegas .... Interesting menu at the Atomic, with an Elvis Sundae

[mr west]

More....

[mr west]

July 10th

Las Vegas is a weird place to me. The big hotels with casinos along the strip where everything is artificial and it just seems that there is nothing healthy or uplifting there at all.... there is just so much of everything, gambling, alcohol, food .. Downtown was a first experience for me, and it at least has some charm to the unhealthyness, so I was quite happy to visit the Atomic and go to bed after.

We got up quite fresh around sunrise, determined to get going before it gets way to hot. But it takes time to pack the bike and we had some coffee and boiled egg from the motel and spicey peanuts from the bike while doing it.

The stretch from Las Vegas to LA is hot, no matter how you go, so I was prepared for a hard day with not so exciting riding.

Amanda had planned ahead though, and prepared some interesting stops and routes along the way. After some time we made some atempts to follow route 66 for a while but it lead into an army base so we had to turn around and go around. Then we tried to go through a silver mining ghost town, but it was not really possible to go through, more like pay entrance and fo in and come back, so we skipped it.

We made one stop at Alien Fresh Jerky (dont get the theme really) and Amanda got some good spicey mango jerkey. After entering California we stoppes at a gas station and had excellent refreshing mexican fruit from a roadside vendor and carried on. I qas surprised to see snow clad montains after all the driving in the hot desert but we went up into Angeles National Forest for som fun roads and a bit colder climate in the pine trees! For a few miles we even had company of a whole gang on adventure bikes enjoying the mountain roads. And then after coming down from the mountains we were almost home!

We reached Amandas parents house tired but happy around 2 pm in the afternoon. Last stretch was way better than anticipated thanks to Amandas planning with the stops and winding mountain roads. My back didnt hurt so much, the tires were fine, the bike was fine, and we were alive!

[mr west]

You all know how it is, so many people are happy to see the GL. The guy at the gas station: "is it 79? Yeah... My dad had the exact same model, great bike, how many miles?"

[mr west]

Pics

[mr west]

Final mile!

[Sagebrush]

Epic Adventure. Thanks for sharing. Many of your pictures brought back good memories. Be sure to post wedding pictures!!!!

[Brant]

I'm sad it over, but very happy for you ! Thanks for sharing ! Best wishes !

[5speed]

thank you for taking us along and glad you had a safe trip. congratulations on your wedding.

[mrs west]

Thank you so much to everyone for being there along the way, just in case we needed anything! It’s amazing that everything went well on this trip! No broken clutch cable, no master cylinder problem, no leaking head gasket… with just one quickly repaired flat tire, it somehow feels like we cheated!

I was also surprised on the last stretch that we got off pearblossom and into Angeles Forest. It was a beautiful ride. Some parts had recently been in a fire which made for Tim Burton esque scenery, but other areas of LA were so grown in where they had been previously ravaged by fires. The landscape is always changing and regenerating there.

Some final stretch pictures, mainly from the Angeles Forest ride. It seemed like Angeles Crest was closed so we actually took a roundabout way through the forest, going in from the east on Angeles Crest, them taking Big Pines Hwy out of the mountains a bit, and cutting back into them later on Angeles Forest Hwy, and swinging by the Big Tujunga Dam overlook. I’d like to do it again on Angeles Crest cause that road looks really nice!

Speaking of, some ideas for the next trip that we missed this time include Mesa Verde, west side of the million dollar highway, 90 west of Telluride, and Arches. Those are all spots we just missed on each trip!

[mrs west]

And finally! We made it to our July 13th wedding date! We had a plan to display the bike out front with Swedish and American flags but with all the preparation and recovery from such an exhaustive trip, we just didn’t get around to it! In fact, I just realized we never took wedding pictures with the bike like we had planned!

So here are some pictures from the wedding!

We had a really small family ceremony, followed by dinner on the beach, in the same spot where my grandpa proposed to my grandma. It was really beautiful, and I’m happy to say that I am officially Mrs. West

[ritalz]

Congrats to you both.

[Sagebrush]

Congratulations!

[Brant]

Congratulations and best wishes !!

[mr west]

Thank you all for the good wishes! I just want to post a picture of the cake my mother came from Sweden to bake for the party! If you look closely you see its relevant to the forum!