IMMENSE USA

“…THE LOCALS ARE VERY FRIENDLY, ESPECIALLY TO AUSTRALIANS”

It was where Forrest stopped running. The spires of Monument Valley had appeared in front of us, the classic Utah view. It was exactly the spot where Tom Hanks, playing Forrest Gump, had stopped. After three years running, he said, “I’m pretty tired. I think I’ll go home now” and turns around and starts walking back down the road into the same scene in which we were now riding.

It was a time before COVID and there were four of us on two touring bikes visiting a bunch of states in the South-West of the US: California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Arizona before arriving back in San Francisco 8000km later. It was an immense ride, which also describes so much of the USA: the views to the horizon, the distances you can travel, the heights of the mountains and passes - and yes, even the size of the food portions. They can all be immense, and not always in a good way.

UP THE SONORA PASS

Leaving San Francisco, we crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California over Sonora Pass at an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet (3048m). This is a lovely motorcycle road with little traffic and no towns along its length. We then headed north-east through Nevada, Oregon and Idaho on our way to Montana. In Lovelock,