Just got back from a great ride from Chicago to visit family in San Diego. Road through Colorado and stopped in Moab, UT on the way out. Everyone needs to ride Canyonlands in Moab. What an awesome place.

Spent most of my time in San Diego riding the surrounding mountain areas. Be sure to stop in Julian for some apple pie. They recently re-paved the road so the ride up there is great.

Took the southern route on the way back and stopped in Santa Fe, NM. There's a neat little town called Madrid just south of Santa Fe that you should visit. This is the town where Wild Hogs was filmed and they have a great bar in town called the Mine Shaft Tavern.

This was my first solo trip and it was great. Put on over 5,000 miles.

 

When they repaved the roads near Julian, they also removed all the cattle guards. Those would launch you out of your seat sometimes. Glad you enjoyed our little mountain.

 

You rode al the way to San Diego and back and your road report consists of 4 paragraphs and no pictures??

C'mon - tell us some more! I'm doing a similar ride next week. We're going taking a northern route out to Oregon, down the PCH, and heading back just north of LA. Some of the highlights (I hope) will be lots of mountain roads, Craters of the Moon, the Redwoods, PCH, Napa, Vegas, Grand Canyon, Zion, Moab....

I've done the ride to Julian and up to Palomar Observatory - nice ride. Canyonlands is great too. I like the Moab area.

 

Yes, I was a little vague considering it was 5,000 miles. Of course when you live in Illinois there's not much to see until you get to Denver.

Riding thru Colorado and Utah was amazing. It's crazy how much the temperature changes. I rode out of Utah in the morning and needed my leather, then later in the day I was headed to Vegas and everyone knows hot freakin' hot it is there. Dry heat my ***. Fortunately I caught a little rain shower in the desert to keep me cool. I've never drank so much Gatorade in my life.

While I was in San Diego, I also rode down to Coronado which is great except for the traffic. Of all the states, California drivers are the only ones that tried to kill me.

Also stopped in Phoenix on the way back and visited Buddy Stubbs dealership but the museum was closed. He's got some great stuff in there. If anyone gets to Illinois you need to check out the DeKalb, IL dealership which also has a great museum attached to it.

I tell you, after this trip I've begun to wonder why the hell I live in Illinois. There are so many better places to live.