Friday, June 12, 2009
Leaving for CFR
Well, it's almost time.
Late last year, two different FJR rallies were announced. CFR is the Canadian FJR rally, and has traditionally been held in the eastern provinces. This year, they're holding it in Nakusp, BC, in the Kootenay's in eastern British Columbia, about 75 miles north of the border. WFO is the Western FJR Owner's rally, being held this year in Moscow, ID about 80 miles south of Spokane.
Carole and I talked about it back then, and I signed up for both rallies. And, since I was making two different runs up to the Pacific Northwest, I also signed up for the annual Dam Tour. Each year the Dam Tour folks select 8 dams in Oregon, 8 in Washington, and 4 more in (reasonably) adjacent states. You visit each dam, take a picture of your bike, your Dam Tour placard, and the dam, and send it in for credit. If you get all 20, you get a nice commemoration.
There's always lots to do at home and at work, and if I was deciding today I might not have gone for both rallies, but it will do me a world of good to get away from work for a couple of weeks to decompress, and hopefully recharge my sanity levels.
Originally Carole was going to try to come up and meet me at both rallies, but the logistics just didn't work out for CFR, so she'll only join me at WFO in late July/early August. I'll miss her.
My nephew who's great Sheehan gets his degree from Cal Poly on Sunday the 14th, and I wouldn't miss that for the world. I'm going to ride my bike out my sister-in-law's house in Claremont to save some time after the graduation. I need to get to a campground off of I-15 north of Littlefield, AZ for Sunday night, and leaving straight from Claremont will save me about an hour or so.
The plan is to camp every night on the way to Nakusp, stay at the rally hotel while I'm in Nakusp, and camp every night but one on the way home. I'm going to treat myself to the Motel 6 in Williams on the last night before I get home.
On the way to CFR, I'm going up I-15 so I can visit the two Dam Tour dams in Montana. After CFR I'm going to visit a bunch of dams in eastern Washington, eastern and southern Oregon, and a dam just west of Redding, CA. I'll get the rest of the dams in Oregon and Washington on the way to and from WFO in July. I'll need to make a special trip for the last dam - O'Shaugnessy on the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite.
Except for missing Carole, I'm really looking forward to some time off of work and some exploring. I'll post pictures when I get back.
Posted by bnc at June 12, 2009 10:04 AM