On the 4th of July, 2011 I had planned to make a loop, starting from Walla Walla, up and over tollgate, down to Elgin, then over to La-Grande, then up and over the mountain again to Arrow Head, and finally home. About a 200 mile loop.

I started the morning getting the bike ready, I attached an American flag to it

This is a motorcycle made by a Japanese company (Yamaha) The cargo cans are made in Italy, and the flag is probably made in China. So we can argue about putting an American flag on a foreign made Bike, or we can simply move on.

The ride up to Tollgate was pretty quick and un-eventfull. It was nice and cool up there, I had to put my jacket on.

I passed by Langdon Lake and had to get a picture.

I went down the other side and got to Elgin, not much to see so I continued on to LaGrande

Finally got to LaGrande and got some lunch

After lunch, I headed up and over Deadman Pass. Its a curvy freeway, with slow moving Semi's it can get a bit spooky on a bike.

Despite some spooky situations with the slow moving Semi's, there are some scenic views along the freeway.

I decided to take a quick side trip and see an Oregon Trail Visitors camp, the camp wasn't much, but I went through this tunnel and got this cool picture.

Finally and on the downhill side of the pass, again its a bit spooky with the slow Semi's going 10 MPH around every blind corner.

This is the first motorcycle I have ever owned with street tires. Today, I learned you can feel every crack, pebble, and piece of tar on the road with these tires. Its a good thing, and a bad thing at the same time.

I finally got to the bottom of Deadman Pass and pulled into the ArrowHead fuel station and got filled up. 136 miles and I burned 3.3 gallons of fuel, 41.2 MPG. not bad!
After a short break I geared up and headed home.

Overall, it was a great ride. 200 miles, perfect temperatures, the bike ran great, no break downs, all of the gear worked great.It doesn't get much better then this.