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Austin MotoGP, April 2014

I'm staying 10 miles from the track at Days Inn Austin South. I'd be happy to hotel share with anyone in the area; I got a room with two beds just in case others wanted to share.
 
Ok, here's a potential route.

A diagonal through Texas via a nice route from our own Hail! :) From there, it looks like a really nice twisty route up 518 and connect to 64 which looks great as well. 64 runs through Farmington and right to the Grand Canyon. I'll check out the Grand Canyon, make my way down to the I-40 and detour through Route 66 which ends up in Kingman and connects to 93, Lake Mead and the Valley of Fire. I can connect back to 93 and run South to North through Nevada (last time, I took 50 West to East) and into Idaho. Home via Interstates

http://goo.gl/FS1SDZ
 
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Hail's route even gets you the lower leg of Texas's '3 Sisters' loop (335, 336, and 337) - cool! Some folks also call that loop 'The Twisted Sisters' or 'The 3 Twisted Sisters', it just depends on who you talk to I guess. You'll hit 337 between 83 and 55, from Leakey to Campwood.

Looks like a nice run! I rode the Grand Canyon from the other direction, coming back home to Texas from out west.
 
So I chatted with my trip mate today and we worked out a rough idea of the days we'll have to get there and the route to take

This is a potential example. Not too exciting but Austin is far. It'll be a hell of a grind but quite an adventure

http://goo.gl/maps/t6z7T

Sunday: Maple Ridge to Grants Pass, OR -- 880 km / 550 miles
Monday: Grants Pass, OR to Fresno, CA - 820 km / 510 miles
Tuesday: Fresno, CA to Flagstaff, AZ - 950 km / 590 miles
Wednesday: Flagstaff, AZ to Roswell, NM - 840 km / 520 miles
Thursday - Roswell, NM to Austin, TX - 810 km / 500 miles

And the return trip in 4:

http://goo.gl/maps/x9yU3

Monday: Austin, TX to Clovis, NM - 770 km / 480 miles
Tuesday: Clovis, NM to Burley, ID - 850 km /530 miles
Wednesday: Burley, ID to Yakima, WA - 830 km / 515 miles
Thursday: Yakima, WA to Maple Ridge - 450 km / 280 miles
 
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Does anyone have an idea of the weather in Utah & Idaho in April? I should imagine everywhere else will be just fine that time of year but I'm wary of ice and snow.

And if anyone has a better/more interesting/more fun route that can get us there in 5 days under 550 miles per day, please feel free to show me!
 
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Here's an alternative route there which has one long day and the rest shorter and twistier. It includes the Bonneville Salt Flats, Moab and some great twisty roads in New Mexico. If the weather is not too bad in April, this would be more fun and less grindy

http://goo.gl/maps/UyNje

Home to Boise, ID - 1000 km
Boise, ID to Provo, UT - 750 km
Provo, UT to Farmington, NM - 600 km
Farmington, NM to Amarillo, TX - 800 km
Amarillo, TX to Austin, TX - 800 km
 
Dustin said:
Here's an alternative route there which has one long day and the rest shorter and twistier. It includes the Bonneville Salt Flats, Moab and some great twisty roads in New Mexico. If the weather is not too bad in April, this would be more fun and less grindy

http://goo.gl/maps/UyNje

Home to Boise, ID - 1000 km
Boise, ID to Provo, UT - 750 km
Provo, UT to Farmington, NM - 600 km
Farmington, NM to Amarillo, TX - 800 km
Amarillo, TX to Austin, TX - 800 km
Click to expand...

Do yourself a favour and take 313 north of Moab to Dead Horse park when you go through Moab. If I had to choose between Arches and Dead Horse I would go to Dead Horse. The road in and out of the park is worth it on it's own!

Also stop at either the Moab Dinner or the Love Muffin (yeah, yeah, I know). Both are right along the main strip and worth it. If you overnight in Moab, hit the Blu Pig (if you like blues and BBQ) which is excellent!
191 is otherwise pretty boring once you get past the 313 turn off heading north all the way to price. Hwy 6 north of price is really nice.

OH, and I want to see a feet-straight-out-behind-you-lying-on-the tank Salt flat picture!
 
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I will have a look at those additions! I am mostly concerned with weather at that time of year. It's easy enough to cross the Washington state mountain passes via Interstate but I'm not sure about the more inland states in April
 
Update:

Getting close to the day! Weather seems to be warming up steadily and the roads are looking good. The question is, what route do we take? It'll be 5 long days to get down there no matter what way we go
 
I got a notice today that they are allowing a certain number of bikers on the track for a lap.....on the Friday. Didn't really look at the details but might be worth a look for those who are going.
 
Unless we get a sudden dump of snow 2 days before the trip, this is the way I want to go:

Sunday to Boise, Idaho - 1000 km
Monday to Moab, Utah - 850 km -- Maybe we can check out the Bonneville Salt Flats
Tuesday to Las Vegas, New Mexico via Navajo Dam and Highway 64 - 720 km -- Looks really nice
Wednesday to Fort Stockton, Texas by way of Roswell and Carlsbad Caverns -- 675 km
Thursday to Austin -- 540 km mostly Interstate.

This is the Google Maps link: http://goo.gl/OfHNbe

The route home is going to be a lot easier as I have up to 11 days off after the MotoGP is over. Not sure where I'll go just yet
 
Evitzee said:
I got a notice today that they are allowing a certain number of bikers on the track for a lap.....on the Friday. Didn't really look at the details but might be worth a look for those who are going.
Click to expand...

I did the track lap last year in Indianapolis and it was pretty cool, worth the $10 that it cost me (although the staff got a bit overwhelmed and I think that you could have gotten through without having a ticket if you were near the back of the group). Definitely not a high-speed run, but they didn't really enforce any sort of speed limit either.

IndyParadeLap 2013 - YouTube
 
Dustin said:
Unless we get a sudden dump of snow 2 days before the trip, this is the way I want to go:

Sunday to Boise, Idaho - 1000 km
Monday to Moab, Utah - 850 km -- Maybe we can check out the Bonneville Salt Flats
Tuesday to Las Vegas, New Mexico via Navajo Dam and Highway 64 - 720 km -- Looks really nice
Wednesday to Fort Stockton, Texas by way of Roswell and Carlsbad Caverns -- 675 km
Thursday to Austin -- 540 km mostly Interstate.

This is the Google Maps link: http://goo.gl/OfHNbe

The route home is going to be a lot easier as I have up to 11 days off after the MotoGP is over. Not sure where I'll go just yet
Click to expand...

Your last two days will be as somewhat boring .... the road and terrain from Carlsbad Caverns to Ft. Stockton is flat and straight with few towns to speak of. It's desolate, but you'll make good time. Just watch the gas tank.

Once you pick up I-10 at Ft. Stockton the speed limit will be 80 mph and you'll sail along with no problems. I've always seen a fair number of highway patrol vehicles in that part of the world, and most people don't go much above the speed limit, 85 tops. Once you hit Route 290 you will have about 2 to 2.5 hours to Austin, depending on the time of day you get into the outskirts of Austin. Route 290 is four lane once you get past Fredericksburg (where I live) and is moderately appealing with not a lot of traffic until you get about 10 miles out from Austin (Dripping Springs) where it tends to jam up, but you'll be heading in to town in the afternoon which will mitigate congestion since most people will be heading out of town, but keep your eyes peeled for errant drivers. There is some construction on 290 as you get into Austin, nothing major but keep alert.

And keep your eyes peeled for deer on Hwy 290....they can pop up anywhere. Today it's going to 80 deg in central TX, so spring is upon us.

Happy trails.
 
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Evitzee said:
Your last two days will be as somewhat boring .... the road and terrain from Carlsbad Caverns to Ft. Stockton is flat and straight with few towns to speak of. It's desolate, but you'll make good time. Just watch the gas tank.

Once you pick up I-10 at Ft. Stockton the speed limit will be 80 mph and you'll sail along with no problems. I've always seen a fair number of highway patrol vehicles in that part of the world, and most people don't go much above the speed limit, 85 tops. Once you hit Route 290 you will have about 2 to 2.5 hours to Austin, depending on the time of day you get into the outskirts of Austin. Route 290 is four lane once you get past Fredericksburg (where I live) and is moderately appealing with not a lot of traffic until you get about 10 miles out from Austin where it tends to jam up, but you'll be heading in to town in the afternoon which will mitigate congestion since most people will be heading out of town, but keep your eyes peeled for errant drivers. There is some construction on 290 as you get into Austin, nothing major but keep alert.

And keep your eyes peeled for deer on Hwy 290....they can pop up anywhere.

Happy trails.
Click to expand...

Thank you for this. Do you expect 200 miles is enough between fuel stops? In all my travels in the US, I have never had to worry about fuel, even in the middle of nowhere.
 
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