Riding through vineyards and fields of various vegetables, the weather got warmer as I headed inland, reaching this place



Walla Walla, home of the sweet onion and also home to Dan



A friend who first got in touch three years ago, I said to him then that if I was ever passing Walla Walla, I'd drop by. A drink and a pastry in a very nice patisserie accompanied by an interesting tour of the town's main street and historic buildings. Then off again through eastern Oregon where I seemed to be a magnet for every flying insect known to man (or woman).



Hmmm, not sure if that photo did justice to the insects, but it was worth getting the picture done, if only for the amusement value in trying to get a passerby to realise that I wanted a picture that showed the insects on my visor and not one of the beautiful surroundings.
I paused in Oregon only to camp in the mountains as I passed through - keeping a wary eye out for bears. Back across the corner of Iowa (apologies to all fans of Iowa that I'm unable to do justice to its great rides on twisty roads, but I needed to get across America quite quickly at this point).
Then once more into the glaring desert that is known as Nevada, pausing only to say hello to the nice man at the petrol station in Wells again and just before that to get a photo of the Jackpot sign



Who on earth would call their town Jackpot?? ne of the pluses about being in a desert is the lack of insects.

__________________
Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

Thelma and I had reached the Bonneville Salt Flats, home to many motorbike land speed records and just simply a very cool place. I'd decided that I couldn't possibly leave America without visiting the flats.



We took off across the salt, at a reasonable speed initially as there was still mud under the hard salt crust, I was light enough to walk on it, but heavyweight Thelma was breaking through the salt and wallowing a bit in the clay-like mud underneath. Previous bike experiences on salt flats have taught me to be wary of the mud (Alon if you're reading this...Uyuni in 2003!)
I decided to off-load my bags and make the back end lighter, and then chucked my tank bag off as well, Thelma likes the freedom. I looked around and got my bearings...no one else in sight.
And then I just rode and rode, enjoying the experience of being on the salt





Thelma looks good with a white background



Our shadows were getting long,

It was time to retrieve the bags and find a camp spot, collecting bits of wood along the way.

I looked around, then rode and rode and rode....8 miles later and I realised that I really had not gotten my bearings very well and all the landmarks were so far away that it was deceptive. I could not find the cases and bag at all, I was riding round in circles desperately searching. I rode on, as it got darker taking a bit of comfort from the knowledge that:

a) I had my tent and camping gear in my topbox with me (along with a small bottle of cider), so I didn't need the cases again that night

b) because I had dropped off my tank bag with the cases, that at least had the GPS Spot Locator in it sending out a signal, and if all else failed I would have to go to the road in the morning and find someone to come with me with a smart phone (what a great invention) to track it down my bags via the spot locator on my website.

c) It would be amisung for the rest of the world to picture me searching for my bags (especially my parents!)

Finally as the gloom was deepening I spotted some dark shapes in the distance and raced over

to my joy there they were



as you can see I had literally just paused riding and dropped them off on either side of Thelma
I was so relieved I took a couple of pictures, I quite like the image of these bags abandoned on the salt flat



I parked Thelma with a piece of wood under her side stand as otherwise it would just sink into the salt and mud to a depth of 6-8 inches and be impossible to pick up again.
I decided to get a picture of us together with the full moon in the background - except that in the picture it looks quite small, it's above the mirror a white spot in the sky.
I set up the timer on the camera, then sat myself down...



Whoops, just as I sat down, Thelma started to fall over, the piece of wood had made her too upright and the weight of the heavier case on the left side pulled her over



all amusingly caught on the timer delay of the camera as I rushed to get up



You can see where the rocker cover just embeds into the mud



and you can also see all the salt on her bash plate

Oh Dear

Cases off I started the long job of getting her upright, not usually an issue for me, but I had a full tank of petrol and we were in mud, which means that as I started taking Thelma's weight, I would just sink deeper and deeper into the mud the more I tried to lift her. She weighs over four times more than me.
I managed to get the cases underneath her so that she was off her side a bit and the tyres were actually on the ground



and then I had to remove her fuel tank- that made her 22Kgs (49lbs) lighter, which makes a big difference to me. Finally she was upright once more.

Tank back on and we made our way out into the middle of the salt flat, about seven miles from solid land and put up my tent




There is a beautiful solitude about camping in the middle of a desert whether it's salt or sand. This was one of the most amazing nightsI have had in all my travels, I had the full moon and the stars above me and silence all around. I managed to get a camp fire going




and sat sipping my cider enjoying the night...

__________________
Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

Overnight camping, fires and fireworks are prohibited on the salt flats to maintain public health and safety and protect natural resources. There are no developed campground facilities; however, camping is available on adjacent public lands. During events participants may camp on the mud flats next to the Salt Flats access road.

Lol thanks for the heads up for other ppl reading this, bjt me thibks your a bit late in telling tiff lol

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We are the Pilgrims, Master, we shall go Always a little further: it may be beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow, Across that angry or that glimmering sea.

Tiffany was not really camping on the salt flats! It was just photo shop!

Does that mean I'm in trouble again?

__________________
Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

Early morning on the Bonneville Salt Flats...and all is peaceful



It's that bloody British woman and her BMW again.

Drinking her morning cup of tea by the looks of it




Before packing up



making the most of the sunrise

and then heading off

__________________
Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

Remember this guy?



It's Jim Harvey from www.globetrottin.com

When Thelma and I had initially passed through Utah a month ago and met him at the Adventure Summit Rally, Jim had kindly offered to craft one of his fantastic lugage racks for Thelma (having first laughed his head off at the Mongolian welding holding it together). Thelma spent a day with Jim and now here we were, back again to pick up the finished product, complete with a very nice powder coating.



I had to confess to having been riding on the Bonneville Salt Flats




And so he produced a hose pipe and we began washing Thelma down



Until he realised I was in supervising mode and passed the hose over to me



My trousers were quite salty looking as well




With Thelma clean(er!), he compared the old racks to the new ones...



No comparison.
and then started putting them on



the finished product





They look fantastic and they will last a very long time

Huge thanks to Jim.

__________________
Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

Another cup of tea time chaps and chapettes, you're going to like this one as I get myself into another little scrape.

It's great to be heading east once more, no more afternoon sun in my eyes as my shadow stetches away in front of me. I'm crossing the state line from Utah into Colorado.



Some threatening looking clouds ahead of me,
which I ignored at the time, more fool me as you will find out as you read on.

A beautiful sunset, if a little strange looking - but then I don't live in the mountains and maybe this is normal for around here




Time to head off the road and find somewhere to camp



A nice little spot in a deserted canyon for my tent.


There were some strange noises though, the occasional coughing noise, which made me a bit nervous as they reminded me of leopards coughing in Africa. I know there aren't any leopards here, but do mountain lions cough?? Made a mental note to self to make sure that I take my tyre levers into the tent with me tonight.

While I was mooching around taking a look at my canyon, I started to notice these bits of white stuff floating around



Could that possibly be ash? I had been hearing about fires in Colorado.
I did a Charlie Coates (my Dad/survival guru) and checked the direction of the wind with some bits of grass- hmm, it seemed to be coming from the direction of some funny looking clouds, on having a second look I decided they might be far off distant clouds of smoke.

Feeling a bit concerned but not wanting to be a bloody Cassandra (drama queen) about the situation, I checked in with my friend Shelly who handily happens to be a forest fire fighter based in Colorado!! But she was in the middle of some work stuff, and we had some connecting problems with the phone, unusually (and luckily for me) there was a variable signal of sorts in the canyon; mostly in rural areas I don't get one at all. So we had a couple of texts going backwards and forwards until she could get to a computer.
About 45 minutes later she got back to me saying it didn't look good, but I might be OK. then suddenly after another 10 mins she was urgently trying to get hold of me to say she's been on the fire brigade infra-red website and she has found my exact position through my GPS SPOT locator (I'd been a bit vague/unsure of my exact location but was within 20 miles) and she says get out NOW, the fire is less than 5 miles from me and being blown my way straight up my peaceful canyon!

Now that she mentioned it, maybe that sky did look a bit more threatening than I had thought




I threw everything back onto Thelma, folded the tent a bit and strapped it onto my pillion seat (no time for niceties like rolling and packing) and roared off- by this point there was quite a bit of ash.

I only needed to go 12 miles down the road to be safe, but it meant I was off-roading in the dark trying to find somewhere flat for my tent.

It's getting dark and I'm running out of options, not many tracks leading off the road, I finally found one and followed it, I was about to stop when an awful stench came wafting past my nose, I pointed Thelma's headlight to find this



A cow that was definitely deceased and stinking. I quite like the way the tail is still jauntily waving in the air.

I tried to go upwind from it but the trail got very narrow and was right next to the road. I had to admit defeat, as I didn't feel like heading back onto more tarmac and so put my tent up 200 yards downwind from Ermintrude. Lying in my sleeping bag and catching the occasional waft of decomposing cattle. But thanking my lucky stars for Shelly and for my SPOT locator.

__________________
Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

I have the sneeking suspicion that the cultural reference might be lost on one or two people here Florence, umh Tiff.

SPROingggoingggggg......



Well well! Ermintrude looks fine to me. Munching the poppies as usual - "Let's all go down The Strand....(have a banana!)"

Hold very tight please - "Ting ting!"

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TTR250 - London to Cape Town

Glad you had a friend that could warn you in time. While you were getting "HOT!" I was enjoying a nice ride through some new passes here in KG. Escorted a friend to the military zone 70 km from the China boarder and took a trip back through the mountains. Almost ran out of gas. But had a great time.

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Thanks very much for that blast from the past McCrankpin, I enjoyed that episode. Glad you're all appreciating my cultural references.

__________________
Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

Ermintrude didn't smell as bad in the morning as she had done the night before, but I still didn't linger, riding on I saw a few of her relatives, maybe they were looking for her



They're a bit of a hazard on the road, particularly this one waiting by the sign, looking like he's going to jump out



Enjoying a cup of tea at a diner, I read the local paper and found out that several towns in the area had been evacuated for the past few days due to the risk of fire, and I realised how lucky I had been last night.

It had been hot crossing Nevada and Utah in the previous few days, and I'd been warned to expect Texas to be brutal in its heat, so I tried to keep to the mountains.

At first things were still quite arid, I liked these flowers beside the road which had struggled to push their way through the tarmac.



I've got a collection of pictures of what I call, "Dilapidated but Delightful" buildings and this particular rundown General Store fitted right into that category



It was in one of the evacuated towns, although people were now back in their houses, as the worst of the danger had passed by. My jacket had lots of white flecks on it from the ash last night.

Finally the road started to climb and I wasn't disappointed with the cooler temperatures and scenery that reminded me of Switzerland. Everything seemed so green



I discussed my route with the lad at the petrol station, and he sent me up towards Ouray...you are not going to believe how that is pronounced
Your Ray is more or less how to say it.
It's a small mountain town typical of those in western Colorado




I listened to a band playing for an open air wedding in the town park, they were a Bluegrass band and played some improbable covers such as the Proclaimers 500 miles and then a Violent Femmes song- pretty funny done as a bluegrass, I've just had to look them up as I always thought they were an Australian band, and have found out they're Yanks.
For those who are wondering how I know about Bluegrass, it's all due Lois, as in Lois Pryce fellow Brit and bike traveller she plays in an all-female bluegrass band and I've been to see them play a couple of times.
I had a dip in the town's hot springs which were nice but the "hot" ones were tucked away and so I was in medium and feeling chilly after a while so didn't stay long- if you go there and want a dip, make sure you ask where the HOT pool is.

the road was beginning to remind me of Bolivia



steep with sharp curves and a lack of safety railings and crumbling tarmac at the edges

The curves were a joy to ride (especially after Nevada)



At the top is Red Mountain, so named for obvious reasons



and even more steep curves



not only am I having to look out for stray cattle on these roads but also these animals



are they supposed to be moose? It's not the usual deer pictures that I'm used to seeing.

Night was falling so it was time to find another camping spot

__________________
Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo

Leaving the mountains of Colorado behind



I also took a picture of my camera set-up so that you can study my spophisticated techniques



Here's the way I do it

1. Find nice photogenic loaction
2. Think about whether I can be arsed to stop bike, set up shot and then ride past a couple of times
3. Put tank bag on ground
4. Place helmet on tank bag
5. Search for tripod (it's small), when found, place it on top of helmet

which is the scene above, obviously the camera is not on the helmet yet as it's in my hands being used to take the picture

6. Put camera on tripod, set up self-time and run like hell to get on bike to ride past, only to realise I have not clicked the shutter button!
7. Return to tripod and repeat step no.6, remembering to press shutter button this time.

I thought I was out in the middle of nowhere, but just as I was doing all this, a car came by and wondered what was going on, I reassured them everything was OK.

__________________
Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo