2002 BMW R1150RT
My first BMW after years of riding with other people who had them. I like the fact that it is more compact than the ST1100 and feels great in the corners. The second weekend I had it I went to Las Vegas and took a "shortcut" across the Mojave Desert preserve.
The road surface was distinctly dodgy, in places they just seemed to have poured a quarter inch of asphalt over the sand and rocks which stuck up through the surface. It was also rather warm, in the 110F range.
Here I am in the Sierra Nevada on one of my favourite roads, Ca 4 which goes from San Rafael in the Bay Area all the way to the heart of the Sierra across Ebbet's Pass at 8700 ft. On the way it passes through the East Bay suburbs of Concord, Pittsburg and Antioch, then the former farm towns which are now bedroom communities, like Brentwood. From there across the central valley through the existing farm lands and places like Farmington and Stockton. It meets the Sierra foothills at Copperopolis and winds its way up to Angels Camp, home of the jumping frog contest Mark Twain wrote about. From there into the Sierra proper past Arnold and Bear Valley and becoming a single lane road as it crosses Pacific Pass and then Ebbets each at over 8000 ft. It ends high on the eastern side of the Sierra where it meets Ca 89, another great road. Sadly over the years Ca 4 has been "improved" and the only original parts of the road I like so much are high in the mountains.
On November 26th, 2003 the BMW became my longest distance bike at 60053 miles surpassing the Battlestar.
It so happened that the mileage coincided with the placement of a view area in
Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona and there was another visitor there
willing to take a picture.