Runnin the I-90 Slab

July 4, 2011

Lake Forest, CA

Happy 4^th of July everyone.  I’m back in Lake Forest now and realized I didn’t post a story on my last northwest ride for June.  So here goes.

27June11

Woke up to the sound of the Wenatchee rapids heard thru the open balcony door.  The bed and room here at the River Valley Inn was very comfortable and I slept well.  The Inn serves breakfast so I had two boiled eggs, sausage, croissant, pastry and coffee before heading out.

            From Leavenworth I continued east on ol’ 2 and turned south on WA97.  This is a continuation of the scenic route displayed in the Harley Davidson H.O.G Touring Handbook.  The scenic route goes all the way to Ellensburg but I turned off onto WA970 heading for Cle Elum for fuel before getting on the I-90 for the run back to Bellevue.  I was thinking this Cle Elum leg of the run was only around 30 miles or so but it actually clocked in at around 52 miles.  The skies were overcast so I was a little concerned that rain would be hitting me before pulling into Eastside Harley.  But for now, there was no rain and the temperature was pleasantly in the 60’s or so.  97 didn’t have as many climbs and turns like the 2, but it too is beautiful.  Once out of the hills more farmland became visible. 

When I left Leavenworth I forgot to tank up….but I had over a quarter tank of gas on the gauge so I felt Skyblue was good for 60 miles.  However, heading down the 97 the indicator suddenly dropped to a white dot above the ominous ‘E’…..about 10 miles later it was back to almost a quarter but then back to the white dot shortly thereafter.  I was confident in my calculations of endurance….but the eyeballs sure liked to scan that fuel gauge almost every mile.

           

            An interesting thing here… lotsa caution signs about jumping deer. ….guess none of them walk.  Right under the jumpin deer would be a warning “Next 3 ½” miles or “Next 4 ½ miles”.  Every sign had a ½ mile on it.  Those jumpin deer were good…had their crossing points down to the half mile!  After the 2^nd or 3^rd sign I noticed that as soon as I traveled 3 ½ miles there would be the next sign warning me for the next 4 ½ and then right at about 4 miles later would be the next sign warning me for the next 3 ½ miles.  These horned rascals were basically claiming the whole valley/pass.  Oh well, it is their country, no??

            Finally pulling into the eastern most end of Cle Elum, with a gas indicator screaming at my anxiety, I pulled into the first station I saw.  Tanked up with 4.3 gals.  I still had 1.7 gals to go to empty but the needle was on E….so I was good for another 50 miles.

            The next funny…..after pulling out of the station and heading for the I-90 west on-ramp that turned out to be on the west end of the town, I discovered that Cle Elum is quite a nice little town with about 4 other gas stations that I could have gone to.

            Once on the I-90, with a full tank of gas, I had about 80 miles to go to reach Eastside Harley.  This was going to be nothing but a slab run….no country roads.  So I wasn’t expecting much in regards to scenery, etc.  Boy was I surprised.  Yes, it was a slab run, and thru construction miles, but after climbing for about 20 miles thru some beautiful Cascades, I think I reached a height of about 4500 feet thru the Snoqualmie Pass and seemingly endless mountain views and a lake and trees and water everywhere!

            Speed was mostly in the 60-65 range except for a part where I was doing 70+…but the headwinds made it feel like I was doing 85-90…so I kept Skyblue in the 60’s. 

            At around the Snoqualmie Pass the road began descending….tho it was only about 50 miles to Bellevue, it seemed that I descended all the way to the 405 outside of Seattle.  Later, my calculations came out that from Cle Elum Skyblue was chewing up slab at 56 mpg!

            Oh, did make a stop at North Bend at the small restaurant and golf course on exit 32 for a cup of coffee.  Didn’t eat anything so I cant comment on the food…but the facilities were very nicely arranged with a view to one of the fairways and it was very clean.  Getting back on the bike I was figuring there were only 25 miles to go.  And that’s the end to an absolutely wonderful 4 day riding adventure in the Northwest. 

My thanks to Eastside Harley for making it so great….and special thanks to Jordan for handling everything and making it so easy for me to rent Skyblue.

            I’m looking forward to my next NW adventure later in August when I ride Sophia, my Road King, thru Washington in my quest for USA 4 corners and concurrently my own designed USA48 in 30.

C ya mañana

Gonzo

twitter:  @GonzoCrossUSA