USA Tour 2007

Graham & Elaine

Last updated 23^rd November 2007

4^th June 2007

Well we’ve, we arrived safely after an uneventful flight. The hotel we had booked because it had a shuttle bus turned out not to have one so we spent a small fortune on a Taxi – still we’re here now. We’re still not sure if the Trike has cleared custom’s or not, hopefully we’ll find out in the morning.

5^th June 2007

It seems one of the forms we completed for Customs wasn’t valid for Maryland !! The shipping agent has sorted the paperwork out but as the Docks shut at 15:30 we won’t be collecting the Trike today after all. Rented a car instead (strangely a PT Cruiser) and went to do some shopping. We are now the proud owners of two mesh motorcycle suits (Mesh jackets and trousers) and boy are we going to need them it’s real hot & sunny.

6^th June 2007

Having been told that the Trike would be ready to collect this morning we camped out (In the rental car) outside the shipping agent’s office at 09:30. The paperwork arrived at 11:30 but the Docks close for lunch between 11:45 at 13:00. We finally took delivery of the Trike at around 14:00, rode/drove back to a car park outside of the Docks, unloaded the luggage into the Trike, returned the rental car and headed down to Honda at Crofton for the first service. We arrived at Crofton at around 16:00 and the service was completed by 18:30 by which time Jeff from Haus of Trikes had arrived to collect his new compressor. Although it was rather later than we’d hoped, we followed Jeff down to his and Edith’s home near Ocean City (Maryland) arriving at around 22:30. Hot & sunny again today.

7^th June 2007

Took the Trike over the Jeff’s workshop to have the steering lock fixed and a few other bits and pieces sorted out. We’re very lucky to have met Jeff and Edith, not only are they providing us with accommodation but they also lent us their SUV while the Trike was in the shop. Took a run out to see some of the local sights – very hot & sunny again. Jeff’s Mother and her partner are also staying for a few days and, following a visit to the new Haus of Trikes workshop and Edith’s new Art studio/Gallery (both of which are due to open shortly) we all went to a local restaurant for food.

8^th June 2007

Had a mostly lazy day, doing some laundry, looking at photographs etc. It’s a good day to be indoors too as the roadside readouts are showing 97 degrees F. Travelled up to Georgetown in Delaware this evening to see some local dirt track racing (two different classes of car) unfortunately they were running under floodlights and had a power outage that lasted an hour. As a result, the racing didn’t finish until gone 23:00. Total Trike mileage so far = 264

9^th June 2007

Left Jeff & Edith’s at around 11:00 this morning and headed North through Delaware and in to New Jersey (or as the locals say, Noo Joyzee). Wasn’t too much to see en-route and when we got to Ocean City (Yes we did leave one Ocean City and drive to another) we discovered it’s rather like a very tacky Blackpool and probably twice as expensive (we’ve ended up paying $165.00 for a fairly standard room). Weather sunny again but only 86 degrees today. Total mileage so far = 514

10^th June 2007

Decided, as it was Sunday, it was a good day to skirt around New York City. Unfortunately, this meant spending quite a bit of time sitting on an Interstate but it really was the only way. Picked up some information from a local Tourist Centre who recommended we stay at a small town called New Paltz, which is near the Catskill Mountains (still in New York State). They also gave us a ‘Room Saver’ guide (well worth picking up if you’re ever over here – most States have one) which had a voucher for a Super 8 Motel in New Paltz at $39 + tax. Needless to say we took up the offer and the room ended up costing us around £24 for the night including breakfast. The Motel then recommended a local Diner that gave us 10% off our check (sorry, bill) for showing our room key. All in all, not a bad night.

11^th June 2007

It was nice, warm and sunny this morning so we decided to take a trip around the Catskills – very pretty and well worth the effort. As the weather was good this morning we wore our nice new mesh suits without their waterproof/windproof liners. That was great this morning but not so good when the heavens suddenly opened this afternoon – Yes, mesh suits do let water through as well as air – lots of it!! Before the weather changed we had decided to head for the Connecticut coast which turned out not to be a nice as we’d hoped – still we know that now! We ended up staying in the only Motel we could find (eventually) which was expensive and not very good but, hey ho, you have to take the rough with the smooth.

12^th June 2007

Had some thunderstorms overnight last night and woke to a fairly grey morning. As a result we decided it was time to try out the liners for the new suits. By the time we’d travelled about 20 miles the sun had come out and it was so hot we had to stop at some services to take the liners out again! We left the Connecticut coast and rode through Rhode Island (pretty) to the Massachusetts coast and Cape Cod where we stayed at a small harbour town called Hyannis that turned out to be quite a nice town. By the time we’d arrived the weather had deteriorated again with a little rain but more noticeable was the change in temperature it was now around 64F.

13^th June 2007

It was cold and grey this morning when we left so the new suit liners got a proper test (very good). We did as all good Pilgrims have to do, and rode around the Cape Cod peninsular to Provincetown which is where the original Pilgrims first set foot on American soil and where they have a monument to them (see photos). It turned out to be a really pretty little town but quite touristy and it would probably be very busy in high season. From there we rode back around the peninsula to Plymouth to see the Mayflower II (a replica built 50 years ago) and the Plymouth Rock (see photos) before heading a little further north in an attempt to get within striking distance of Laconia whilst bike week is still in progress. We’re now settled in a nice Motel which has a restaurant and bar next door so I really must go now……

14^th June 2007

A very helpful young lady at our last motel rang ahead for us and managed to get us into a motel fairly close to Laconia (New Hampshire) for tonight, we also managed to get in to a different one (even closer to the action) for Friday night. Once we’d checked in to the motel we rode along to take a look at Bike Week which, as we suspected, has one central location but with other satellite areas spread around the vicinity (some 30+ miles away). The main area is big and pretty much takes over what appears, outside of Bike Week, to be a small resort town on the edge of a lake. The best way to describe it is rather like the BMF show but without the bargains and with more ‘Image Bikers’ than we’re used to seeing. We did feel a little out of place as we weren’t wearing the requisite blue jeans, black cut off T-shirt and, even more so, because we actually rode our bike to get here (most seem to be trailered to a local hotel and then ridden around for a few days before being trailered home again and that includes those from within New England!!). We’re intending to take a look at some of the other venues tomorrow and also to take in one of their mapped out routes through the White Mountains so watch this space.

15^th June 2007

We spent this morning calling in at some of the Bike Week meeting points including one where Lehman Trikes have a stand. Although they are not really offering demo rides this week they decided that, as we’d come so far and as we know how to ride a Trike, they’d let us take one out. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go too far as the crowds are really out today and we spent an absolute age sat in traffic, still it was enough for us to get an idea of the handling (which is a bit better in some ways but not in others) and we also had an opportunity to try out the trunk which turns out to be smaller than the one we have now. Later on in the day we rode out to the Kancamgus pass in the White Mountains – very pretty. It also helped that the weather has been hot & sunny all day.

16^th June 2007

Left the madness that is Laconia and took a circuitous route through the White Mountains to avoid the traffic. Once again – very pretty. We rode across Maine to the coast and the very pretty waterside town of Boothbay Harbour where we hope to do some whale watching over the next day or so. Weather hot & sunny again.

17^th June 2007

Despite threatened thunderstorms the Whale watch tour still went ahead and we were lucky enough to see Fin whales and Minke whales during a 4 hour boat ride which took us about 18 miles out to sea. We also saw Harbour seals and an assortment of birdlife. The weather held until we were just returning to the Harbour and then we had the promised major storm, thankfully it didn’t last long and we were able to shelter from the worst of it. The Hotel bar has very friendly staff and a number of local brews for us to try so I’ll be going now.

18^th June 2007

We left Boothbay Harbour this morning in beautiful sunshine and headed along the coast road (US 1) towards the East. The first part of the journey saw us in reasonably heavy traffic but it soon disappeared and we were back to quiet roads and great coastal scenery. We had been told that Bar Harbour and the Acadia National Park were both well worth a visit so we decided to take a look. We checked in to a Motel in Bar Harbour and then headed out to the National Park where we bought our annual park pass for $80 – this should save us a fortune over the coming months. The views from the park were absolutely stunning (thanks for the recommendation Ted) and we spent a happy few hours trundling through and taking in the views. Once we’d been back to the Motel and cleaned up, we made our way in to town as it turned out we were there during the town’s arts festival which included free open air concerts around the town. So between 7pm & 8pm we were to be found sitting on a park bench listening to some very good music/vocals and overlooking a stunning harbour view (thanks again Ted).

19^th June 2007

We moved on again this morning, still heading east along the coast taking in the Schoodic Peninsula en-route. We also visited Eastport, the most easterly city on the US mainland. We had though that we might stay there but it turned out to be a very small town with very little in it (not quite sure how it got City status but…). Instead we moved on again with a view to staying at Calais (no not that one!) but before we got there we both had a very strange sense of deja vu as we came over a crest in the road to find a very distinctive Motel we had stayed at when we visited the area (by car) some 14 years or so ago. We pulled in, confirmed it was the same Motel, still run by the same English woman, and checked in (well we had to didn’t we!).

20^th June 2007

It was overcast and cool as we left the Motel this morning and we caught up with the rain (which lasted most of the day) late morning. We had been told that Baxter State Park, towards the north of the State, had some great views and lots of wildlife, including plenty of Moose so we decided to head up there to take a look. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until we stopped for brunch approximately 20 miles from the Park, that we discovered that they don’t allow motorcycles in (apparently because it’s a wilderness park with unpaved roads and because most motorcycles are noisy)!! The young lady at the local visitor centre told us that, although we couldn’t get in to the park, we would still stand a good chance of seeing Moose if we took one of the logging roads near to the park entrance and that, although motorcycles were also banned from this road, there would be no one around to tell us that so it would be worth a try. We did try but saw nothing until we started back on our planned route when we came across a couple of Moose feeding at the edge of a lake. It was a bit of a long distance view but at least we saw them. There didn’t seem much point in staying around the Baxter area so we headed for our next destination i.e. Rangeley Lakes State Park to the west of the State. It was a fairly long, bumpy and wet run but we made it in plenty of time to get a room for the night (after a good deal of faffing around because of offers of overpriced and dodgy rooms). Total mileage to date = 2463.

21^st June 2007

Today was mostly bright but cool & windy as we rode out of Maine, across New Hampshire and in to Vermont. The scenery was great as we headed across and we decided to stop once we reached a historic town called Stowe where we took a (free) trolley ride around the town before retiring to the restaurant at the Inn we’re staying in. We also spent some time trying to track down a front tyre (and someone who could fit it) for the Trike. It would seem that it’s not quite as simple a process as it is at home. We tried three places, one, a trike dealer, who doesn’t do tyres at all, a Honda main dealer who could get the tyre and fit it but not until next week!!! and another dealer who has a suitable tyre in stock and is going to try to fit us in for a change tomorrow, or at the latest on Saturday – guess who we’re going to spend our money with. I’m going to sign off now as there’s thunder and lightning crashing around outside.

22^nd June 2007

It bucketed with rain most of last night and was cool, grey and very threatening this morning, still, having arranged to be at the dealers 35/40 miles further south by early morning we had no choice but to set off. The promised rain materialised shortly after we left but thankfully didn’t last long. The dealers turned out to be very accommodating and fitted us in almost straight away – we were on the road again by 11:00 – can’t be bad. The cost wasn’t too horrendous either at $193 including fitting and balancing. By the time we left the dealers the weather had brightened considerably and we took a run through the Green Mountains, once again, very pretty. We ended our day at a hotel next to the Quechee Gorge, a deep ravine that the locals refer to as the Vermont version of the Grand Canyon (it’s not quite that big though – only 163 feet deep!). Unfortunately, it’s started belting with rain again but it’s supposed to be better tomorrow (Summer? What summer?).

23^rd June 2007

The weather was better this morning, considerably so, bright and sunny but still cold. We decided to spend a few hours at the Vermont Raptor and conservation centre and, having got talking to one of the guides, we joined her (and a few others) on an hour-long nature walk through the forest which turned out to be very interesting. We then went to their outdoor amphitheatre where two young ladies introduced us to some different types of raptor and explained a lot about the different methods of flying/hunting they use – once again, very interesting. Once we left there we headed across to Lake George where Americade had been held a few weeks ago as we were told that it was worth a look. The lake area is very pretty but the town is full of tourist attractions and, as it was a Saturday, also very full of people (by now it was also warm and sunny). This also meant that many of the Motels were fully booked and those that weren’t, were generally very expensive. We found one on the edge of town which turned out not to be very good – I think the walls and floors were made of cardboard. It was really noisy, not cheap and generally a bit rough and ready. Still we went in to town to eat and found a nice real bar that appeared to be frequented by the locals and we got into a good conversation (and a “guess who this is” on the Juke box competition) with two them.

24^th June2007

We were up early this morning and, as the weather forecast for the next few days is good, we decided to head across to Niagara Falls. There are really only two ways to get there, the first being on a toll road/Interstate this is supposed to take around 6 hours. We decided to take the alternative route i.e. all the way across on the smaller roads – it took us around 8/9 hours but it was much more interesting. Now, I’ve mentioned the Room saver coupon books before, and I’m going to mention them again, they are well worth picking up as we are currently sitting in a Comfort Inn (nothing special but more than adequate) which is advertised as being the closest hotel to the Falls (I can hear them from here) and it only cost us $60 per night thanks to a coupon from the book. The weather today has generally been good but started out with temperatures at 54F (decidedly chilly in mesh suits) and ended with 84F (blooming hot). We’re told the forecast for tomorrow is sunny and even hotter so we’ve booked to take a tour of the falls whilst we have the chance.

25^th June 2007

As previously mentioned, we had booked a tour to take in the sights of Niagara. We were picked up at 09:45 and joined the 6 Koreans and 5 Thai’s who were also on our tour (interesting at times as not all of them spoke English). Our tour took in just about all of the sights on the US side including the ‘Cave of the Winds’ which takes you down to the bottom of the ‘Bridal Veil’ fall where a strange rock formation creates winds that are just about hurricane force. We also took the obligatory trip on the ‘Maid of the Mist’ boat ride which takes you out to the bottom of the falls where you get a great view whilst getting pretty wet (despite the attractive blue plastic cape you’re given). Once the tour finished, we took a walk through the Park that runs along the side of the Niagara river and spent a lazy hour or so sitting watching the water run. During the evening we tried to find the local nightlife but there doesn’t seem to be any, the only place that had a bar was the Hard Rock Café so we had a quick drink in there before retiring. Hot & sunny all day with temperatures at around 84F.

26^th June 2007

By the time we left the Hotel this morning the temperature had reached 84F and by the time we got part way through our ride into northern Pennsylvania it was 92F – rather like riding in the stream of a hairdryer. Once again we took, wherever possible, the back roads south through western New York State and then we headed a bit further east as we knew there was a State visitors centre there and, as we didn’t have a map of the area, we thought it would be a good idea to get hold of one. The young guy there was real helpful, gave us a map, some information on the local area (their state guide book includes a chapter on recommended motorcycle runs) and even booked a Motel for us. We’re staying in a pretty little town whose main street is still lit by gaslight and which has a diner that has been in constant use since 1939. Once we got ourselves settled in we took a ride out (as recommended by the motel owner) and went to see the ‘Pennsylvania Grand Canyon’ which at 1833’ deep is quite impressive. It’s now 19:00 and still registering 91F but with possible thunderstorms forecast for tomorrow- oh well!

27^th June 2007

The weather forecast turned out to be right. We had a great start to the day with temperatures reaching 90F and lots of hot sunshine – we took advantage of this and headed south to the Elk Scenic Drive which is exactly what is says, a scenic drive with the chance of seeing Elk. Unfortunately, as we were there in the heat of the day we only saw a few glimpses of them in the trees, but never mind it was a pretty run anyway. Towards mid afternoon it started to get very dark, then the thunder started, then the lightning. We decided it was time to stop and dived into a supermarket that had a coffee bar and made it just in time before the heavens opened. The storm was quite impressive but didn’t last long so we were soon underway again, that was all very well except we managed to catch up with the storm just before we made it to the hotel we had a voucher for – still we didn’t get too wet! Once we’d checked in the weather worsened again and we’re currently sitting here watching severe thunderstorm warnings flash up on the TV for this area – hmmm! The forecast for tomorrow is further storms until around 17:00 so it’s quite possible that we’ll be holed up here tomorrow too.

28^th June 2007

As the weather forecasters were still threatening storms for the area we decided that we would stay another day and took a cab to the local shopping mall where we both had our first US haircuts. We also spent some time chatting to a local realtor and checking out the property prices – believe it or not, you can still buy a property here for around $50k and a ‘farmette’ with 10 acres, three garages and a huge barn for $225k ! Whilst in the mall we also discovered that, rather than pay for a return cab, we could use the local bus service for around 1/10^th of the cost so, with some help from one of the locals, we worked out which bus we needed, where we needed to change etc and were finally dropped off by the bus driver right at the hotel door – can’t be bad. We ate in the hotel restaurant again this evening (very good food and excellent value) and got talking to an ex-pat from Coventry who’s been living in New York for the past 30 years. It turned out to be a very interesting (and late) night.

29^th June 2007

After leaving the motel this morning we headed for the Allegehny National Forest which turned out to be reasonably pretty but which also had a number of very industrialised areas too. We then jumped on the I80 and rode across into Ohio (you can generally find a State visitors centre just across the State line if you’re on an Interstate) collected a map and some information and started across towards a motorcycle rally we had found some basic details of on the internet. Unfortunately, we decided to follow the directions given to us by the lady in the visitors centre which “would enable us to avoid the road works in Youngstown” Hah! By following her directions we got just a wee bit mislaid and ended up riding right through the middle of town which is not to be recommended! We did eventually find the rally site and went in to have a chat to the organisers – it turned out that they were expecting approximately 400/500 people most of whom would be camping. The format was not too dissimilar to a UK rally and the cost for the weekend was $35 per head. As we didn’t have any camping equipment we obviously couldn’t stay so instead headed for the nearest motel. This turned out to be quite some distance away and, as we’re committed to be elsewhere tomorrow evening (we’re going to the finals of the NHRA drag race meeting at Norwalk on Sunday) we have decided that it isn’t going to be practical to go back to the rally tomorrow – never mind I’m sure we’ll find another one we can get to before too long.

30^th June 2007

Instead of going to the rally, we took a ride around the area that is home to a large Amish population. I can see why they settled here as it’s very pretty and the roads are both quiet and almost empty (ideal for their horse drawn buggies and great motorcycling roads too). All in all it was a good relaxing day, riding quiet roads with nice sweeping bends in warm sunshine. One picture that will remain with me was that of the local Walmart parking lot – it’s the only one I can recall with a big sign directing people to the hitching posts and under cover ‘parking’ for horses (a nice touch we thought). We had pre-booked a motel for tonight (and tomorrow) as it was the nearest reasonably priced motel to the drag strip that still had rooms (although it was still a good hours ride away) – it turned out to be a rather old motel with an empty building next door that used to be the local restaurant so once we’d cleaned up we took the trike out to find the nearest restaurant. Not a long ride but still a pleasant one as we trundled along with no riding gear on watching the groundhogs on the side of the road.

1^st July 2007

Drag racing day! We left the hotel early expecting to meet a lot of traffic en-route to the strip but were pleasantly surprised and arrived at just after 08:00 when we were directed to the motorcycle only parking just by the main entrance. There was, as usual, plenty to see before the racing kicked off at 11:00 and we had a good walk around gasoline alley (the pit area) before taking our seats. The weather was kind to us with warm sunshine all day and it was a good days racing although none of our favoured drivers/riders made it to the finals. Unlike this type of venue in the UK, the car parks were very well marshalled by the local law enforcement agencies and we were on he road within 20/30 minutes of the racing finishing – can’t be bad.

2^nd July 2007

We made our way North West this morning over to the Michigan State line (not really as easy as it sounds as most routes in Ohio seem to run directly North/South or East/West) and visited yet another tourist office to get our free map and information. We also gathered some further information, including a town to avoid “at all costs”, from a very enthusiastic lady who accosted us at a local coffee stop and tried to impart all her local knowledge within about 5 minutes flat! The information included details of some lakeside towns which might be worth a visit for the 4^th July celebrations but as a good number of these were more than 3 hours away and it was already mid afternoon, we decided to stop early and take advantage of the guest laundry at our motel. It turned out the motel was within walking distance (although you had to negotiate some 5 lane highways) of a large outlet mall so we decided to go for a walk and ended up spending money we hadn’t intended spending. It also means we’re going to have to find a post office so that we can sent some more stuff home!

3^rd July 2007

It’s been a funny sort of day with one or two definite successes and one or two failures! First the successes: We managed to get booked in to a small motel on the banks of lake Huron for two nights – this is in a small town which appears to have quite a range of celebrations arranged for independence day tomorrow and we also managed to find a nearby post office and send our extra bits home. Great so far but the post office was next door to a Honda dealers who actually stocked Goldwings and accessories for them. Naturally, we went in and it turned out that they had a top box rack bag which we’d been thinking about buying (to take some of the excess baggage) so we bought it whilst we had the chance – A total success you might think but not quite. Although we’ve not mentioned it before, we’ve been having a little bit of trouble with the trike i.e. when you try to use the front heated seat the right hand heated grip come on at full blast. As it’s generally been warm/hot up until now it’s not been a great problem but Graham decided to ask the mechanic if he had any ideas what the problem might be. He very kindly came out and took the front switch panel off to take a look. After a while he discovered that there was no resistance in one of the switches so, with his bosses permission, he took one off of their demo bike and fitted it – great, or was it?? Graham went off down the road for a test drive and all seem to be well so we put all of our gear back on, both climbed on board and within 100 yards or so both seats and the right handle bar grip were getting really hot !!?? We went back to the shop but there was nothing more they could do without dismantling the whole front end, which they didn’t have time to do (neither did we) so we did the only thing left to do and removed the necessary fuses. Hopefully, we’ll get it sorted properly when it goes in for it’s next service – wherever that might be. We left the dealers (having left them a healthy tip for an Independence Day drink) and made our way up to Alpena on the shores of lake Huron. The motel is one of the older style ones and quite basic but clean and comfortable. The town appears to be as dead as a doornail in the evenings and we ended up walking for almost an hour to get in to the old town and a restaurant that was open. Thankfully there was a local cab firm that could take us back.

4^th July 2007 – Independence Day.

Following some overnight thunderstorms the day started very overcast and grey. After managing to get breakfast (of sorts) at a local burger bar, we took the seat off of the trike just to make sure there were no obviously damaged wires around/under the back seat. There weren’t – oh well it was worth a try! We then went back in to town for the 4^th July parade which included floats/displays from what must have been every single local group – it was nice to see. Once the end of the parade had passed we followed on to the finishing post – well we had to really as it was at the local brewery who’s tap room was open for business. The weather improved dramatically, despite the forecast, so we’ve also been along to look at the entries for the sandcastle competition and will soon be making our way to the beach (at the end of the motel garden) to watch the firework display which just happens to be at the park that’s within a few hundred yards or so of the motel.

5^th July 2007

Last nights fireworks were scheduled for dusk (whenever that is) so we left our room a 20:30 and joined the hoards on the beach and waited to watch the display – and waited – and waited and…. Yes, you guessed it. It was gone 23:00 by the time one of the ‘spectators’ came by and told us that he’d had a call on his cell-phone to say that, according to a local TV report, the fireworks had been cancelled due to “technical difficulties” – nice of them to tell the folks on the beach! Still one of the motels neighbours had put on a pretty good display so all was not lost. We left this morning and headed west across the state to the Lake Michigan shoreline. The roads across were really pretty, lined with a mix of forest, meadows and wetlands – for some reason this wasn’t quite what we’d expected and a pleasant surprise. The shoreline this side is also more visible (on Lake Huron much of the view is obscured by private properties) and extremely pretty with vivid blue water. As motels appear to be few and far between outside of the bigger towns we’ve booked in to an independently run establishment which is very good and $40 cheaper than the chain motel (Days Inn) next door. Weather warm & sunny all day.

6^th July 2007

With beautiful blue skies and promises of sunshine all day we made a move further north up to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (UP as everyone here seems to call it). En-route we took in the scenic road which takes you through Wilderness State Park – this was an absolutely cracking road (US119 just south west of Mackinaw City for anyone who’s over here). You pass through forest all the way on narrow winding roads (real ones just like in parts of Europe) you also get some stunning views of the lake. Before crossing the bridge to UP we went in to Mackinaw city to try to find something for lunch but actually found something much better i.e: a fellow traveller. What we caught sight of first was his British registered bike and the masses of stickers on it – e.g. from Thai International airlines, Quantas and some in a language I couldn’t read. We got talking to the owner – Richard Hammond (if anyone knows him), who’s from near Daventry and discovered that he’s in his 13^th month of travelling and has been to all sorts of places including Pakistan (where he said everyone was really friendly and going out of their way to tell him that they’re not all fanatics who want to blow people up), Tibet, Australia and a whole host of other places. He’s now heading for Canada and a flight, for him and his bike, to Lisbon where he intends (after a short trip home to his daughter’s graduation) to start around Europe again. Once we left Richard we went across the bridge into some of the emptiest areas we’ve seen – lots and lots of trees but not much else, it’s really lovely. It took us quite a few miles before we found anything to eat (we forgot after our earlier meeting) when we stopped at a small Inn that had some Harleys parked outside. The locals turned out to be real friendly and offered us lots of information on places to see. We’re now ensconced in a motel in downtown Paradise – well they call it downtown but it appears to be the only street with anything in it!

7^th July 2007

We spent yesterday evening in a very pleasant restaurant/saloon whose bar is covered with carved names and dates. We got chatting to the barman (whose grandparents own this establishment, the attached ice cream bar and the hotel next door) and he gave us some of the history of the place. Apparently, the restaurant building was the first to be erected in the 1920’s and the bar followed in the 1940’s – most interesting of all was that the second building had already existed quite a few miles further north and had been re-sited by sliding the whole thing on to the frozen lake and down the ice to it’s current position. Well it’s different! After breakfast we continued on through the UP wilderness – there really is such an expanse of forest it’s really great to see. We stopped off at both the upper and lower Tahquamenon waterfalls which were both very pretty but apparently quite low in water for this time of year. We decided to stop fairly early today, partly because it’s bloomin’ hot and partly because we had things to do which meant we needed to be sure we found wi-fi access. As we pulled in to our motel on the outskirts of Marquette (there’s not much to see in the town itself) we spotted a sign for a classic car show this afternoon – we’ve been across to it and there were some great cars on show. Next on the agenda will be to try out the motel lounge before happy hour finishes. Total mileage to date = 5075 !

8^th July 2007

The motel lounge was pretty quiet last night but we were joined by a fellow motorcyclist, Jim, who’s been working in town for the past two weeks giving insurance estimates on cars damaged by the most recent hail storm –Hmmm ! It turned out we didn’t really need happy hour as, having bought one ourselves, the hotel manager who we’d been chatting to gave us a drink on the house and then Jim plied us with drinks all night as he was on expenses – it was the first hangover of the trip! We were woken this morning by a strong thunderstorm that went on for an hour and a half. There were threats of further storms for the rest of the day but as we were heading north and the weather was heading south, we decided to chance it. It was real hot and sticky when we left and stayed that way most of the day – that was until we rode right along side Lake Superior when the temperature plummeted by a full 25 degrees F but at least we stayed dry. We rode right the way up the Keweenaw peninsula through another wilderness park (once again extremely pretty) to Copper Harbour which is a very pretty little town but as it was only just lunchtime we decided it was far too early to stop so we went on further to the edge of the Porcupine Mountains which we intend taking a look at tomorrow on our way into Wisconsin.

9^th July 2007

We left this morning and rode up to Cloud Lake in the ‘Porkies’ it wasn’t far and was well worth the detour as a short walk took us to a great overlook. We then rode across northern Wisconsin, (pretty but much less wooded and more agricultural) through Duluth (Yuk!) and into Minnesota where found a very nice and, considering its location, reasonably priced motel/resort and checked in. We spent the early part of this evening sitting on the beach around a bonfire where the ‘locals’ were making S’mores (a sweet biscuit on the bottom, a piece of Hershey’s chocolate on top, a marshmallow which had been toasted on the fire and gone all soggy, and another biscuit on top) we were offered a try but politely declined ! We then went in and checked out the motel lounge and had a good conversation with some other ‘locals’ before retiring for the night. The weather had been kind to us with warm sunshine all day; unfortunately, the forecast for tomorrow isn’t as good.

10^th July 2007

It would seem that the weather forecast was right as we woke to bucketing rain. By the time we’d had breakfast and checked out, the weather had cleared a little and we set off for the Gooseberry Falls which turned out to be pretty but perhaps not as spectacular as they would be in spring after the snow melt. When researching this trip I had found some information about the International Wolf Centre in the town of Ely so we made that our next destination – unfortunately this took us along a route that had been dug up Scandinavian style i.e with the entire top surface taken off to reveal loose gravel and sticky mud - lovely . The centre has four captive wolves which you can see via a glass wall, it supports Wolf research projects and runs education programmes in an attempt to encourage people in this region to co-exist with the now many wolves they have in the area – it proved to be interesting but, as by this time the weather had really deteriorated, it was also very busy with families. We decided, once we left the centre, to check in to a local motel as the weather really wasn’t conducive to going further, we also discovered that the live music that had been scheduled in town this evening had been cancelled because of the weather. Lets hope it improves for tomorrow !

11^th July 2007

I think I can safely say that neither of us has enjoyed today. It was cold and breezy but dry when we left this morning and we took State highway 1 across from the East of Minnesota to the West. The first part of the journey wasn’t too bad as we headed through a State Forest past lakes and rivers (apart from one detour because of a closed bridge that took us out in to the back of beyond on a long, bumpy dirt road). This, however, gave way to grasslands and cultivated farmland which went on for mile after mile – also the wind had become progressively stronger as the day went on and there were times when we both thought we were going to end up in the water filled ditch at the side of the road – it was also belting with rain at the time. We had been heading for a town called Pembina, just inside North Dakota as the State website features a motorcycling section which suggests you really should take in the Pembina Gorge scenic byway. We knew things weren’t going to get much better when we called in at the local museum/come tourist office and, in response to our request for accommodation, were met with “You want to stay here?”. It turns out that, although the town is within minutes of the border crossing in to Canada, it has only one very small, fairly run down motel – guess where we are now – still it’s clean. Also, when we asked the girl at the motel where we could eat she suggested we could either ride back out to the Truckstop on the edge of town or we could visit the shop and buy something to heat in the in-room microwave – we’ve just had a really mediocre microwaved lasagne – Mmmm, lovely!! Just to top it all the information we picked up earlier informs us that we’ve come all this way for a scenic ride of all of 11 miles – Arghhhh!

12^th July 2007

If anyone tells you that you really must go to the Pembina Gorge, ignore them ! Okay, it was quite pretty for the two or three minutes we were actually in the gorge but it really wasn’t worth the effort to get there particularly as most of the 11 miles of scenic backway was thick gravel. Once we’d been through the gorge and then stopped for brunch, we headed due west on some incredibly long, dead straight roads where all you could see in any direction was arable lands. It seemed to take us an age to get anywhere so imagine what it must have been like for the group of cyclists we past going in the other direction – as far as I’m concerned, they wanted their bumps feeling. We did pass through some more undulating land, especially around the Devil’s lake (not sure why it’s called that but it did rather smell of stagnant water in places) and it was not a bad ride other than the fact that it was still blowing a gale but at least it was dry and warm this time.

13^th July 2007

Still windy this morning but pretty hot even at the start of the day. It’s now almost 20:00 mountain time (that was confusing; we gained an hour, lost it, and then gained it again all in the course of an afternoon) and it’s still over 80F. After checking out of the motel this morning we went due south to the Lewis & Clark Interpretive centre and Fort Mandan (for those who aren’t sure, Lewis & Clark are the two army officers responsible for exploring and mapping the western USA in the early 1800’s) The interpretive centre was very good and gave you a fairly potted, but informative, outline of their journey – the Fort is a replica of one which they occupied over the winter months whilst they were unable to move on – again, very interesting. From there we set off due west again to see if we could make it to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park by a sensible time. For the first umpteen miles the landscape was, once again, flat and boring and the roads dead straight but, after a good while, we started to see undulations in the land and then, all of a sudden we were in amongst the Killdeer mountains which were stunning, not huge but stunning. We did make it to the north unit of the TRNP in time to visit and went on the 14 miles each way scenic drive. The scenery was great and seeing the Buffalo and longhorn steers was a bonus. We decided that it really was too late to go to the southern end of the park as it was around 70 miles away and it was already 18:00 (or was it 17:00 mountain time – I don’t know anymore) so we rode down to a motel around 30 miles away so that we can go visit tomorrow.

14^th July 2007

What a great day. It was 83F by 08:30 this morning, 95F by late afternoon and we had sunshine all the way. We went to the South unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park via the Painted Canyon Overlook – both really pretty. The Park has a 36-mile loop road which takes you through both mountains & grassland. As well as seeing the fabulous scenery, we passed a number of prairie dog towns (they make an awful lot of noise for a little creature) saw Buffalo, one of which was really quite close, and wild horses. After leaving the park we headed due south in to South Dakota on more seemingly never ending straight roads (see ‘photo’s) stopping for an ice cream at an outpost that really was just that, completely out on it’s own. We came across a visitors centre in a small town called Belle Fourche only to find that it shuts early on a Saturday (?) – we discovered this by speaking to the Canadian motorcyclist who had arrived there just before us. A car carrying two Australians arrived shortly so we had quite an international meeting for a short while. We are now in a motel in Spearfish ready to head into ‘them thar hills’ tomorrow.

15^th July 2007

Another great day. After some rain overnight, it was clear blue skies by the time we left at 08:30, 90F by midday and 99F at 16:30. Once we’d found our way to it, we took the Spearfish Canyon scenic byway which, as it suggests, takes you through a real pretty Canyon then on to Deadwood (of stagecoach and ‘Wild’ Bill Hickok fame) and further on to Sturgis. Before we started this trip we had been thinking of taking in the Sturgis Rally but we’ve spoken to a number of people whilst we’ve been over here and, without exception, they’ve said don’t bother! We rode in to the town this morning and there is some evidence of the preparations but there really is very little here (although you can, if you want to, already by Bike Week T-shirts – we didn’t). It was interesting that even the barmaid at the Knuckle Saloon said we’d picked the best time to come! From there we went on to the Wounded Knee museum which tells the story of a (in)famous Massacre of Sioux Indians, then on again to the Badlands National Park – it was a bit out of our way but well worth the visit with some fabulous scenery (see photos). We’re now staying in a small town around 15 miles from Mount Rushmore so that’s where we’ll be headed first tomorrow.

16^th July 2007

Well, they say that travelling is about new experiences and we can now count (at least) another two ‘firsts’. 1 – Being woken at 01:30 by the local energy company who’ve turned up outside our room with a cherry picker to fix the transformer that went off bang at around 22:00 yesterday evening. 2 – Riding in temperatures that reached 104F (the lowest we saw was 82F and that was at 08:00 this morning). We did, as planned, make our first stop Mount Rushmore although, having seen the queues to get in, we didn’t go to the visitors centre we, like many others, just viewed from a number of roadside sites. We then went a little back on ourselves to take the Peter Norbeck scenic byway and, boy, was it worth it. It’s a really, really good road with part that almost corkscrew back on themselves via wooden bridges. Not only was the road great but the scenery was too – the road takes you through one particular tunnel which beautifully frames Mount Rushmore in the distance. From there we went in to Custer State Park which has a Wildlife loop road which enabled us to see Pronghorn Antelope, and Buffalo – rather too many Buffalo at one point as they’d all decided that they wanted to cross the road but ever so slowly so we sat in amongst the traffic at 104F watching and waiting – eventually there was a big enough break in the group to get through safely (they’re too big and bossy to argue with). Next on the agenda was the Needles highway, named for the needle like rock formations. This too was a great road, which entails actually riding through the needles, and once again the scenery was cracking. We also rode past the Crazy Horse monument that is being carved into one of the mountains (and which has been under construction since about the 1930’s) again, we didn’t stop as the visitors centre was a complete tourist trap. Last stop for today was going to be the Mammoth Site at Hot Springs, an on-going excavation of a Woolly Mammoth and a number of other long extinct creatures, but, by the time we arrived in town we decided we’d had enough and checked in to a motel with a laundry so that we could give our riding suits a much needed freshen up. Maybe we’ll go tomorrow.

17^th July 2007

Well, we did go today (to the Mammoth site) and it was well worth it. They have a fairly large covered site where the dig is still on-going and, to date, they have found a phenomenal amount of fossils including some almost complete Mammoth skeletons. The theory is that the animals were drawn to the site because it was a sink hole filled with warm water which enabled grass to grow on it’s edges year round, the animals then fell in and drowned when they discovered that the sides were slippery. The site is very well presented and the guides very knowledgeable. Once we’d finished there we took off for Robinson State Park in northern Nebraska. We’d been warned by Wally, the Polish owner of last nights motel, that if we were going to head that way we really should make sure we had plenty of water with us, just in case of emergencies, as there was absolutely nothing along the road and he was right. We travelled one of the smaller roads for approximately 45 miles and only saw a handful of other vehicles and a one horse town which appeared to be deserted, as the temperatures reached 104F again (and stayed that way for over a hour when it finally dropped to just 102F) we would have been in real trouble if there’d been a problem. As it is, we are both coping much better with the extreme heat than we had feared, partly because we’re drinking plenty and, we believe, partly because we’re keeping covered/wearing our crash helmets. It seems that some of the locals, who are riding in sleeveless t-shirts and no hats of any sort, are suffering with a mix of sunburn and sunstroke. Whilst we were on the road we ran, for a short time, alongside a rail line coming from the coal mines – I counted two locos at either end and 130 huge carriages filled to the brim with coal. We also had some close(ish) encounters with wildlife in the shape of a Doe and her two fawns who meandered out in front of us and stopped to take a look at us before slowly moving on, thankfully, there was enough room for us to slow down. The fox that ran out in front of us a few hours later didn’t give us quite so much room – still we missed it! Over the past week or so where it’s been so hot we have discovered one definite disadvantage of riding a motorcycle i.e. you not only see the roadkill but you can smell it - Yuk, Yuk, YUK ! We finished our day in Sundance Wyoming (yes- The Sundance Kid really did take his name from here after a stay in their jail) and found an extremely friendly ‘biker’ bar – we called in during the afternoon and spent a very pleasant hour or two chatting with the locals before going out to eat. We then went back later for a few more and another great hour or two chatting to some different locals and the bar owner – all very convivial.

18^th July 2007

First stop this morning was Devil’s Tower, the core of an extinct volcano that sits pretty much alone in the countryside and which is surrounded by Indian myths. We decided not to take the walk around the base as it was 1.25 miles and already pretty hot (although cooler than yesterday as it apparently rained overnight) so went for breakfast at a nearby café where we were joined by a fellow goldwing rider from Canada (who turned out to be rather odd but, it takes all sorts). We then carried on through some more fabulous scenery and roadsides with lots of Pronghorn Antelope before reaching a not so pretty area called Thunder Valley where there is a huge open cast coal mine followed, a short while later, by a small oil field that appeared to be growing electricity poles, it turned back to great scenery soon enough though. We are now checked in to a motel in Casper (a fairly large town) which is just across the road from the local Honda dealers who are going to do the 12000 mile service for us tomorrow. They’re also going to try to find the electrical problem for us so we’ve checked in for two nights just in case. Luckily, the motel is within walking distance and there appears to be a local bus service of sorts that will take us in to town. Total mileage to date = 7843 !

19^th July 2007

We arrived at the Honda dealers just before 09:00 this morning and, after explaining the problem with the electrics (which, of course, wouldn’t show themselves at the time) and the extra bits that needed doing because of the trike conversion, we made our way to the nearest bus stop which was quite a walk away at the Wal-Mart. We made it just in time to catch a bus in to town and then to make a connection to the shopping mall. The mall turned out not to be very big so after having walked around there and the local Wal-mart (a different one) and the K-mart, we took a bus back in to town where we found a small outfitters that sold Eagle Creek stuff and we bought yet another different sized/shaped pack-it cube. Although it had been hot & sunny all day, it was beginning to look as though the threatened thunderstorms would materialise so the shop staff very kindly called us a cab to take us back to the dealers. Once we were in the cab we started to hear the severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for the town and the cab driver said we needed to head out of town quick as the centre of town is known to flood – just what we needed. By the time we reached the workshop it was positively bucketing down and we got pretty wet even getting from the door of the cab to the shop so even though the trike was almost ready, it was an hour or so before we left. Now, back to the trike – the 12000 mile service had been completed and the mechanic told us that, although he had spent quite a few hours on the electrics he had been unable to find the problem. However, he has narrowed it down and it looks like it’s probably something to do with the handlebars having been off to sort out the steering lock. We’ll have to get that looked at next time but for now, the fuses are out again. One very positive thing was that the Service Manager offered to cover the cost of the mechanics time to sort out the electrical problem, as they hadn’t identified what it was, so the bill was only $234 – far less than the cost of a service at home.

20^th July 2007

We re-traced out wheel tracks slightly for the first part of today’s trip and then headed north to Buffalo where we turned west on to the Cloud Peak Skyway which is a fabulous scenic byway with two very distinct different types of terrain. We realised that we were climbing to a higher altitude but we were still taken by surprise when we came to the snow, there wasn’t very much of it but it was definitely snow and the temperature was reading 78F ! When planning our days route, we had thought that we might stay around 30 miles further on at Worland but, when we got there, there was very little to see so we went on to Thermopolis which is a town built up around the (supposedly) biggest thermal hot spring in the world. It was only as we came over the brow of a hill that we realised that we’d been there before, some years ago and it seems that little has changed – it still smells of sulphur and there’s little to do there but visit the springs so, on we went again. The next sizeable town on the map was Shosoni, that turned out to have even less in the way of amenities so we decided, as it was now in striking distance, we’d head for Lander a very pleasant little town (a real one with a high street) that we’d stayed in on our last visit to Wyoming. The road to Lander took us through the Wind River Canyon, yet another stunning road with equally stunning scenery. Once we arrived at Lander we discovered that the hotel we’d stayed in last time was full so we’re now in another one at the other end of town. When we booked in, the young lady who runs the place, told us that there is an Arapahoe POW-WOW around 12 miles up the road which is on tonight and tomorrow night so, once we’ve sorted ourselves out, we may go take a look.

21^st July 2007

We didn’t go to the POW-WOW yesterday evening as, when we asked for some further information, we were advised (by some native Americans) that the best time to go would be Saturday evening so we decided to stay in town and go along tonight. We were also told, by a group of young lads in one of the towns bars, that there was a ‘real cool’ car show on at the college in Riverton on Saturday so that pretty much sorted the day out for us. We did, however, change motels as the one we were in last night was definitely down market and, excuse the expression, in the arse end of town. This time we managed to get in to the one we stayed in on our last visit. We went along to the aforementioned car show and the guys were right, there were some ‘real cool’ cars there – the weather was not so cool though at 95F. From there we went to Wal-marts as we’d also found some information which suggested you really should take a chair along to the POW-WOW as there was a definite etiquette about who can use the benches provided (reserved for those who are dancing) so we spent a whole $11 on two chairs. We then spent a somewhat frustrating two hours trying to get sensibly priced accommodation for our run in to the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks and it really doesn’t exist (sensibly priced that is) so we just had to swallow and book some rooms anyway. As it turned out, we are going back to a motel we stayed at last time we were here and they still had our details on file so were able to confirm when we were there i.e July 2000. Not knowing what to expect, we went along to the POW-WOW expecting to pay to get in and were surprised to find that it was totally free and all you needed to do was find a convenient place to put your chair, sit down and enjoy the entertainment. It seems that the meeting is really a weekend long party with a variety of competitions (some of which appear to be taken quite seriously) e.g. drumming, dancing and singing. They have different classes for different age groups including a Tiny Tots dance competition in which all were adjudged to be winners and all received $2 prize money – ahhh!! Some of the costumes being worn were fabulous (see ‘photos) and the sounds these people can make with just voice and drums were amazing. We declined to stay to the end as we were told that these events usually go on until 02:00 – we left at a more reasonable hour, rode back to the motel past what we believe was an involuntary display of fireworks (looked rather like a store had gone up in flames), parked up and went to the local brew pub. What a great day.

22^nd July 2007

We left Lander this morning and headed south west to Rock Springs where we’re staying tonight but, rather than stopping, we went out on to the Flaming Gorge scenic byway which is a loop of approximately 160 miles and it was worth every one of them, once again there was stunning scenery almost all of the way. It is also worth mentioning that, when we first left the civilisation that is Lander (after filling the gas tank), we joined a road that went on for very nearly 70 miles before we saw any kind of community at all – it really is important to keep your tank filled and a supply of water on board if you’re travelling in this neck of the woods. Once we’d completed the loop we checked in at our motel (which we’d pre-booked), sorted ourselves out, and went next door to the sports bar and grill for something to eat and drink. This turned out to be a real bar full of locals but really noisy so we couldn’t even speak to each other properly and would have been unlikely to get in to conversation with the locals – that’s why I’m here now writing this!

23^rd July 2007

The first half of today’s journey was rather less picturesque as we were back in to open grassland but we were fairly soon back on to a scenic byway with great views of the Gros Ventre Mountain Range. This took us in to Jackson, our ‘home’ for the evening. We were very lucky with the weather as it had been hot & sunny all morning but within half hour of our arrival (at a motel we’d stayed at 7 years ago on our last visit) it started to rain so we sat out on a bench under our canopy to watch the rain before getting ourselves cleaned up and walking in to town (by which time it had stopped raining again). Unfortunately, the town was even busier than on our previous visit so, after a short walk, we went back to the motel and one of the more important jobs of the day i.e. trying to repair the visor for my crash helmet as a small piece of plastic had broken off of the rise & fall mechanism. It took some time and ingenuity on Graham’s part (plus some superglue and an aerosol top) but, so far, it seems to have worked – time will tell. Once that was done we went next door the eat and then next door again for an after dinner drink during which we heard a rather good expression – one of the locals confided that many, though not all, of the tourists were known locally as ‘Tourons’ a cross between tourists and morons!

24^th July 2007

This morning we rode north and into Grand Teton National Park which is just as beautiful as we remembered. It is not a particularly big park but it includes a fabulous, although relatively small, mountain range so, with ‘photo stops, it took us quite a while to make our way through. From there we continued north in to Yellowstone National Park which is a different kettle of fish altogether, not obviously as mountainous although at fairly high altitude, and much more forested. It is also a lot busier. The main roads through the park form a figure of eight and, as we were booked in to a motel in West Yellowstone we headed around the bottom of the lower loop towards the town taking in ‘Old faithful’ en-route. This, for those who may not be familiar, is a geyser which has been blowing very regularly for years (on average every 90 – 120 minutes) and which reaches around 120 feet each time – pretty impressive but, unfortunately, we arrived not long after it had ‘gone off’ so, in order to get a picture for the blog (yes, really) we sat outside the visitors centre for over an hour waiting for it to go again. As we came out of the park towards the town, we came across a nice lush field next to a river which had a herd of Elk feeding at the water side so the long camera lens came out for it’s first real test on this trip. We made it in to town by late afternoon and discovered, much to our disappointment (yeh, right), that our motel was right next door to the town’s brew pub. Unfortunately, they have some odd laws up here and the pub is obliged to shut a 20:00 so after a swift one in there, we went further in to town to eat, getting wet in the process as, after a warm sunny day, it had started to rain. Hopefully, the weather will improve for tomorrow as we hope to see all of the rest of the park and make it back in time to visit the Grizzly bear and wolf sanctuary that’s in town.

25^th July 2007

Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side today. We woke to light rain and rode out to the park in very overcast conditions which is a shame as you just don’t get the same views but they still weren’t bad! We completed the loop around the park and, in doing so, saw some pretty good views and quite a bit of wildlife; Elk, Stags, Bald Eagle, Buffalo and we also had an interesting situation with some grizzlies. We came to a queue of traffic that was being directed by Park Rangers and, as we got towards the front of the queue we discovered that a mother grizzly had decided to feed her cubs along the side of the road (a fellow motorcyclist coming the other way shouted “don’t worry it’s only a grizzly just eaten two motorcyclists”). As they can be particularly touchy when they have young about, the Rangers were taking no chances and allowing traffic to pass only when they felt it safe. Just as we got to the front of the queue, the mother made a move towards the road stopping again when she was around six feet away from us. We were told very firmly that we were not to move and that we should stay “just there – don’t move”. We did as we were told and, although we only got to see the head of the mother, that was quite enough in the circumstances! Once she’d decided to stop again we were on our way. We were just a few miles outside of West Yellowstone when the heavens opened and I mean really opened. We, and a bunch of other motorcyclists took refuge in a gas station until it had eased before returning to the motel and some dry clothes. Once we’d dried ourselves off we went along to the Grizzly & Wolf discovery centre which was in walking distance and saw some of the animals that are in their care (most are there because they were orphaned as cubs/pups). Interestingly, they use the bears at the centre to test bear resistant trash cans etc.

26^th July 2007

The weather was a little kinder this morning with a mix of cloud and blue sky but it was decidedly chilly. We left fairly early and headed through the Park again seeing buffalo, deer and a black bear en-route to the Beartooth Pass. We drove the Beartooth 7 years ago in a rental car and vowed that, if we were ever here on a bike, we’d do it again so that’s what we did. Unfortunately, although the weather was better than yesterday, it still wasn’t clear and we didn’t get to see a lot of the views we know are there; still, you can’t win them all. Now, on to a different subject altogether: Before we left home we agreed that there was one thing we really, really must not forget to pack i.e. the GWRRA Gold Book (a book produced by the Goldwing Road Riders Association giving details of Honda dealers across the US as well as contact details for members in each state) well, you guessed it, we forgot to bring it with us which wasn’t a problem until we tried to find a dealer to arrange a service. We’d been trying to think of a way to get hold of a copy of the book and decided that the best way was to ask them to send a copy to us at a pre-booked motel. Whilst we’ve been in the vicinity of Yellowstone we’ve been booking motels in advance and this seemed like a good opportunity so Graham rang the GWRRA and asked if they could send a copy to tonight’s accommodation. The very helpful young lady there suggested that, to make sure we got it in time, she would contact a local member and see if they could drop off their own copy for us and she would send them a new one. This is exactly what happened, Lee & Debbie from Red Lodge Montana very kindly dropped off their copy for us, and after a brief telephone conversation we agreed to meet for a quick drink this evening. A drink turned in to dinner and we spent a very pleasant evening in their company. Thanks again Lee & Debbie, it was great meeting you.

27^th July 2007

As we’d missed most of the views yesterday, we decided to make the return journey across the Beartooth. When we left, a little after 08:00, it was overcast but the cloud appeared to be at a higher level, however, within 20 minutes of our departure it had started to rain and rain quite hard. We put on our wet weather gear and continued over the Pass and, despite the rain, some of the views were easier to see so all was not lost. Once we reached Cooke City just beyond the end of the scenic highway we stopped for breakfast and, by the time we’d eaten, the weather had started to brighten a little so we stayed with plan ‘A’ which was to take a look at the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. As we did so the weather continued to improve and we saw some great scenery. Once we’d reached the end of the highway we turned around and headed back on ourselves stopping for coffee back in Cooke City. From there we went back into Yellowstone, across from the North West entrance to the Northern entrance and we were lucky enough to, once again, see a black bear and also some Moose (A mother and baby plus a lone adult). From there we headed north to a small town called Livingston a whole 72 miles from where we started off this morning but with a further 270 miles on the clock. Total mileage to date 9208 !

28^th July 2007

We’re back to hot, sunny weather again today with temperatures reaching 99F as we headed north towards Glacier National Park. Now, as I’ve said before, we don’t really like to book motels in advance but decided that, as we were heading for the Park on a weekend we really should and it was a good job we did as we discovered that there was a state ‘swim meet’ on which meant that accommodation was almost impossible to find. As a result, we changed our route slightly and have ended up around 60 miles from the park entrance. The route took us through a real mix of landscapes with lots of flat open farm land, through the Lewis & Clark National Forest and open prairie which proved to be hard work at times because of a strong cross wind and some real strong gusts. We’re told by the hotel staff that it’s always like that so, if you’re coming this way, you’ve been warned. Whilst heading across the open fields I discovered another real advantage of the mesh suits we bought when I had a lucky escape: I felt something fly up my right trouser leg, was able to catch it in the spare fabric around my knee and hang on long enough to stop, unzip the full length zip on the outer leg of the trousers and release what appeared to be a very large wasp before it stung me– phew!

29^th July 2007

We spent yesterday evening at a nearby Steakhouse/Saloon/Casino and had what was probably the best Buffalo prime rib we’ve ever had – excellent. As we walked across from the motel there was a real strong smell of smoke in the air from one of the wildfires that was burning not too far away. By this morning the wind had dropped, there was a fine dusting of ash on the trike and the first 30 miles or so of this morning’s run to Glacier was also accompanied by a smoky haze that prevented any sight of the horizon – it was really quite eerie. Thankfully, the wind direction meant that the views cleared the nearer we got to the park. As we approached the park entrance it became obvious that there was rather more traffic here than we’d expected and, although the views were still great, the run through was a little disappointing as it was almost entirely spent in a queue of slow moving traffic. It also seems that there is far less water in the streams than we saw last time and it will be interesting to compare the photos with those taken 7 years ago as it looks like the glacier has receded dramatically. We’re spending this evening a small town we’ve visited before and have already visited the brew pub for our samples. Tomorrow we’ll be heading into Washington State.

30^th July 2007

For the most part today was a really great day. As usual we left town by a rather circuitous route taking the road north rather than due west which is our general direction of travel. This took us through the Kootanai National Forest and down the side of lake Koocanusa, the roads were superb and the scenery stunning. Further on, the road took us through the top of Idaho along the side of the river, the scenery continued in the same stunning vein for mile after mile. We stopped for lunch at a roadside café where we met a really friendly group of Canadian motorcyclists, which meant that lunch took rather longer than normal (which was great) but it didn’t matter as we’d gained another hour so we’re now 8 hours ahead of you guys in the UK. After lunch we headed for the Washington state line and more superb scenery before the not so great bit of the day – it went like this: We were running along highway 20, minding our own business and enjoying the scenery, when a logging truck coming the other way had a rear tire (sorry, tyre) blow out. We both saw the explosion, Graham saw the huge piece of rubber coming through the air (I think I’d shut my eyes by then) before the rubber (see photos) hit the left hand side of the screen on the trike, cracking it and taking off the front vent before, thankfully, going straight over the top of the pair of us. It seems that another small piece of debris (probably the one which caught my right shin) also put three small chips in the right rear fender – still it could have been so much worse. Graham has had the super glue and duct tape out and affected a temporary repair on the windshield, we’ve also left a message on the Insurance companies ansaphone so we’ll have to see what happens from here. We’re now in a small, rather old (but perfectly serviceable) motel that has cost us a whole $42 for the night including tax so the day hasn’t finished too badly.

31^st July 2007

Plan ‘A’ for today had been to head to a small old fashioned Western town called Winthrop where we had stayed some 15 years ago. We left and headed in that general direction through some fairly pretty countryside and, for a time, we found we were flinching just a little when the logging trucks passed us. We arrived at Winthrop at just about lunchtime, rather too early to stop, also the hotel rooms all turned out to be very expensive so we went on to plan ‘B’ which was to head across towards the west coast but stop at one of the chain motels close to the Interstate so that we could use a guest laundry. This route took us through two National Forests and the North Cascade Mountains all of which were really great, unfortunately, the same could not be said of the area where the motels were located, it turned out to be a particularly grotty area so we invented a plan ‘C’ and made for the coast. We are now in a very nice hotel in Anacosta (so we’ve completed our first coast to coast) and have booked in for a whale-watching trip tomorrow.

1^st August 2007

We joined our whale-watching tour this morning in beautiful sunshine. The tour started at 09:00 so it was really quite chilly out on the water but it warmed up as the day went on with sunshine all the way. We had hoped to see Orca (Killer whale) but didn’t, instead we saw a Minke whale, harbour porpoises, harbour seals, a pacific white-sided dolphin, bald eagles and a few other things too so all in all, it was a pretty good day. Once the tour finished we returned to our hotel and spent a lazy hour or two sat in the garden drinking lemonade (honest) and planning our route for the next few days and we’ve decided we will be heading across to the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic National Park. We have also managed to make contact with Rick & Jean Schrader who live in Oregon (not too far south of here) and it looks as though we will be able to meet up with them some time next week which will be great.

2^nd August 2007

It was sunny and reasonably warm when we left this morning and we had an hour to make the 40 mile run to get to the ferry that would take us from the islands to the mainland. That sounded fine except we came across roadworks, more roadworks and then a coastal fog (which the area is infamous for) rolled in and it got really cold. It took us more than the hour we had to get to the ferry port but, as luck would have it, the fog had delayed the ferry and we just about got on it, and I mean just about (see photos) as we had just a few feet between the back of the trike and the water – there are no doors front or back on these boats! Once we’d reached the Olympic peninsula we went west on to the coastal scenic byway which was a bit of a disappointment really as, although the road itself was quite nice and twisty, it was still real cold and despite the name of the road, there were only a few glimpses of the ocean to be had. We are now in a motel (another one we used on our last visit here) and making good use of the guest laundry before we go explore the town.

3^rd August 2007

We did go and explore town last night and it took us all of 20 minutes! It rained overnight and was cold, damp a dreary this morning as we left and headed further south on the coast road and in to the Hoh rainforest. It seems very odd visiting a rainforest when it’s cold but it’s one of three small rainforests in the area and, although it was an interesting visit, you really need to be able to get out in to the forest and walk to be able to appreciate it to the full. As the weather had stayed cold a dismal, we decided to stop early and to find somewhere where we could get our hair cut. We had seen a small mall on our way to the motel but were advised by the young lady on reception that there was a bigger, better mall only five minutes further away in the opposite direction – well either she can’t tell the time or she drives far too fast as it was over 20 miles further up the interstate towards Seattle, not a good idea on a Friday afternoon ! We rode around in a few circles trying to find the place then Graham asked a guy at a gas station who apparently got it horribly wrong too (should have asked a woman) – we never did find the mall but we did find a roadside hair salon so managed to get our haircuts after all. We’re planning on going to Mount Rainier tomorrow and taking our time about it, we’ll then go on to Mount St. Helens (the one which blew it’s top on 1980) on Sunday.

4^th August 2007

The weather was a little better when we left this morning, not as cold and with a few blue bits about. As usual we took a circuitous route which took us through all sorts of back roads and small towns before we finally reached the scenic byway to the Mount Rainier National Park and the Sunrise road which takes you to one of the best view points. Sunrise is somewhat bumpy in places as they’ve had quite a few landslips but it’s still a pretty ride. Thankfully, the weather had continued to improve and we managed to get a few good sightings of the peak before the cloud rolled in again (it was, however, pretty cold at the top i.e. 6500 feet). One of the loop roads we had planned on taking was, for some reason, closed so we continued straight on via the Chinook Pass, to Yakima a small town to the east of the park and our motel for the night. We’re now in striking distance of Mount St Helens so we’ll be heading there tomorrow and then on to Oregon on Monday where, providing everything works to plan, we’ll be having another front tire (tyre) fitted on Tuesday.

5^th August 2007

Yakima turned out to be a slightly odd little town with a few motels, restaurants and bars in a variety of states of repair (from really quite nice to hmmmm!) but there was little else in the town. We walked out to a restaurant to eat and popped in to a bar on the way back for a nightcap, that was fine until we realised it was Karaoke night and that few of the locals could sing !! We did stay for one drink and got talking to a local artist who suffers from ADHD and seems to do everything at 100 miles per hour including, talk, eat and draw. He said that, if we’d stayed longer, he would have got out his paper and paints and given us a portrait to take home but, as we were leaving he decided to provide us with a quick sketch so we became the proud owners of a ‘charcoal on napkin’!! (see photos). We went back in to Mount Rainier National Park this morning but this time from the south and we took a leisurely ride through the park and up to Paradise. The weather was on our side this morning and we had some stunning views which meant that the ride took us rather longer than expected so after we’d we stopped for lunch, and spent a very pleasant hour or so chatting to some fellow motorcyclists and others, we headed back west towards the Interstate so that we could find some accommodation that will enable us to get in to Mount St Helens fairly swiftly tomorrow.

6^th August 2007

It’s been a bit of a disappointing day really. We woke to very overcast skies, low cloud and cool temperatures but decided to head for Mount St Helens and hope that the weather cleared – it didn’t. When we visited the volcano 15 years ago one of the things we most liked about it was the fact that nature had been left to take it’s course and there was very little human impact. There was a visitors centre approximately 50 miles away from the crater, a fairly good single road in/out, lots of pull-offs for viewing and, at the top, a large mound you could climb by use of a rough staircase to get a good look at the crater. Now, there is still only one road in/out but it’s bigger, there are 4 visitors’ centres the first being the original one which now charges $3 to see the films/displays which is very acceptable and well worth seeing. The second, which turned out to be no more than a snack bar and shop selling tourist tat, was free to get into but the other two wanted $8 per person for each separate building which we thought was rather steep as all they appeared to be were observatories i.e. concrete monstrosities with large glass walls facing the views (only of course there weren’t any views today because of the cloud) you even had to pay your $8 before you were able to climb the now tarmaced path up the mound - we chose not to pay for any of these ‘privileges’. We headed back in the direction we’d arrived from and stopped beside the Interstate to make a call to confirm that our new tire would be available for Tuesday but it turned out that the dealers couldn’t supply what we wanted anyway and, as they didn’t seem to know their a - - - from their elbow (or the put it more politely their head from their heels) we decided to try somewhere else and, after a number of calls and a few language problems, we now have a tire being fitted on Wednesday. The additional delays also meant that we headed south over the Columbia river into Portland, Oregon (the State capital) just in time for rush hour – it was rather reminiscent of the Antwerp ring road in the rush hour. Tomorrow we intend taking in the Mount Hood loop road, let’s hope we can see it !!

7^th August 2007

We weren’t too hopeful of good views when we saw this morning’s weather as the day dawned with lots of very low cloud and light drizzle. We decided, as we had a day to spare before the tire is fitted, to go with plan ‘A’ and take in the Mount Hood scenic loop. The first part of the route took us on a pretty, narrow, winding road through a forest with a number of waterfalls en-route, this included the Multnomah falls which, although not very wide, are the highest in Oregon and bearing in mind we were in a forest, the weather didn’t affect our enjoyment. From there we had no choice but to join the I84 which, despite being an interstate, still offered some good views of the river, particularly as the weather had begun to clear. By the time we’d left the interstate the weather had pretty much cleared and we had some great views of the Mountain before the loop took us back into the cloud and cold damp conditions – still it was a loop! We’re now in a motel quite close to the Honda dealers so we should be there for when they open.

8^th August 2007

We arrived at the dealers shortly before it opened at 09:00, unfortunately, the tire didn’t arrive until around two hours later !! We spent half an hour or so wandering around the shop that had a small mezzanine floor stuffed full of old bikes including (Mitch will like this) all sorts of elderly Honda mopeds. By the time they had changed the tire and completed the service (plus changed the front brake pads as they described them as paper thin) it was lunchtime. We headed west to the coast and we’ve now done the first part, for us, of the Pacific coast highway and we’re in a motel room with a balcony overlooking the sea, albeit across the road. We got talking to a Harley rider who was checking in a the same time as us and he was extolling the virtues of some of the scenic byways further inland plus we’re told that the further south you go on the coast the prettier it gets so, once again, we’re going to be doing some late night route planning.

9^th August 2007

Our re-routing exercise now means that we’ll be taking in two more of the scenic byways people keep telling us we mustn’t miss, each one is around 150 miles in length. We left our motel rather later than usual this morning having got into conversation with fellow motorcyclists both before and during breakfast. The sun was shining (but it was chilly) as we continued south on the Pacific coast highway taking in some great views en-route; it would seem that the lady at the visitors centre was right, the scenery does get better and better the further south you go so we’ll be coming back out to the coast in a few days time. After 70 miles or so we took a left turn and headed inland towards the first of the ‘new’ scenic routes. Although the road we chose was not shown on the map as a scenic route it most certainly was as it headed for miles along the side of a very pretty river. The information we collected yesterday suggested that the scenic byway was completely devoid of accommodation and a local at our lunch stop confirmed this. Her words were “when they say scenic they mean scenic, when they say in the middle of nowhere they mean the middle of nowhere”; as a result we’ve stopped a little earlier than we might otherwise have done tonight and we’ve also booked ahead for the next two nights – not like us at all!

10^th August 2007

We took the first of the ‘new’ scenic routes this morning – the ‘over the rivers and through the woods scenic byway’ (honest – that’s what it’s called) and, although it was very pretty, I’m not sure it was worth going out of our way for. It entailed a pleasant ride through a fairly dense forest but there were no stopping points so we’d reached the end by around 11:30 – rather too early to think about stopping. Having looked at the map again we found yet another scenic byway which met up with a scenic waterway so we decided to take those in as well. The plan was good and so was the first part of the trip; we were surprised to find a huge lava flow along the route but, unfortunately, after 20 miles or so the road had been completely closed by a rock slide so that put an end to that! Instead, we doubled back on ourselves (not much choice really) made a lunch stop at a very pleasant little town close by and then moved on, via an outlet shopping mall, to our motel.

11^th August 2007

If you come to Oregon and only have time to see one thing, it has to be Crater Lake National Park– it’s stunning. Our route to the park took us on the Cascade Lakes scenic byway on nice winding roads through a great forest with views of some very pretty lakes. Once we’d reached the end and fuelled up, we headed for Crater Lake which was formed when a volcano collapsed in on itself. The lake is five miles wide and ringed by cliffs almost 2000 feet high, there is a rim road which is 33 miles long, very steep in places and also narrow with no shoulder to the road, no guard rails of any sort and drop- offs of, in places, hundreds of feet – it’s great! There are plenty of photo pullouts, trails and picnic areas too so, all in all, the drive took us around three hours to complete and it was worth every minute of it. We reluctantly left the park and, en-route to our motel, took in yet another (shorter) scenic byway through a really nice valley full of cattle and past yet another really nice lake. Today really has been a great day.

12^th August 2007

It’s been another really good day; more scenic roads, more lakes, more forests, more mountains and more sunshine! Our original plan had been to take in one more scenic byway and stop, reasonably early, near to I5 and make our way to the coast tomorrow but the first scenic road we took was really pretty but also a really good road which meant we reached the end of it rather sooner than we expected. As a result, we decided to make for the coast today, that was no problem except the signposts through Roseburg, where we had to cross the I5, were non-existent and, this time, following our instincts didn’t work. We then decided to dial in Gladys to help us out – Hah – fat chance (Gladys is the name we’ve given to our SatNav as she sounds like Gladys Pugh from Hi-de-Hi with her constant ‘bing-bong’). We followed Gladys’ directions and ended up on a really fabulous road, narrow, twisty and very steep and once we reached the top, we were in for a real treat as the view was stunning. Unfortunately, it started to go downhill (both actually and metaphorically) from there as we headed out into the back of beyond with the road getting smaller and smaller. Then Gladys tells us to turn left but, having seen that the road was smaller still, we decided to keep going in a straight line, until that was, we reached the gravel. That’s when we decided we’d better take her word for it and turned around. By this time Gladys was having trouble with satellite reception and every time she regained a signal, the turning she was directing us to had got further away??? We took the road she had originally suggested and, as we thought, it got narrower still and took us even further into the woods until, eventually, we found what looked like a real road and made our way back to civilisation (but we did see our first real live skunk whilst we were out there). From there it was a very pretty run across to the coast but it meant we arrived rather later than expected and we’ve ended up paying a small fortune for a motel because, by that time, we couldn’t be bothered to shop around. Total mileage to date 12856.

13^th August 2007

We left our very expensive motel hungry as it didn’t even have breakfast included !! We continued south along highway 101 where the coastal scenery is fabulous, very rocky coves but also some really great beaches. We stopped at one viewpoint and I got talking to a Park Ranger who told me that there were two further places we really must stop at – one of them being an area where a bunch of adolescent humpback whales are passing through, sometimes quite close to the rocks. We went along and we saw what we believe were whales but they were a long way off so we couldn’t be sure. Once we reached the California state line we headed inland for a bit to see the redwoods as we’d been informed we should do; there certainly were some huge trees to be seen and some pretty shots of the Smith river gorge too. We’re now in a slightly less expensive motel (which does have breakfast) and we’re trying to re-work our route plan as there is a lot still to see and it’s less obvious now which is the most practical route to take from here.

14^th August 2007

I was woken at around 03:00 last night by what sounded like an intermittent alarm, there were also some very odd barking sounds (seals/sea-lions) coming from the ‘ocean centre’ across the road. When we woke this morning it became obvious that the ‘alarm’ was in fact a foghorn as there was a thick coastal fog surrounding the area and, as a result, we saw very little on our run down the coast this morning, it was also really cold (55F). Once we started to head inland, the weather improved dramatically with wall-to-wall sunshine and temperatures reaching 95F. The route we’d chosen went through a very large gorge and alongside a very pretty, crystal clear river. We had stopped at a state visitors centre and had been told that if we went beyond a town called Redding on the route we’d chosen, we would struggle to find accommodation so, once again, we’ve stopped a little early to make sure we got in to somewhere sensible. Tomorrow we’re going to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park and on to Lake Tahoe before heading towards Carson City (for Wild West history) and then to Yosemite – at least that’s the plan right now!!

15^th August 2007

Lassen National Volcanic Park was well worth the visit. Unless you want to hike or fish, it is really just a drive through but one that is well worth taking and which takes you to over 8500 feet with some great views to boot. From Lassen we followed a fairly twisty, pretty and, in some places, high, scenic byway to Lake Tahoe which, itself, is quite a sight and, apparently, the second largest fresh water lake in the US. We drove around the lake and we’re staying in the town of South Lake Tahoe which is right on the state line with Nevada so there are a number of casinos close by. Casinos are rally not our thing so, after a brief walk to the lake, we decided to eat close to the motel and it just so happens that the Lake Tahoe brewery and restaurant is two doors down – oh blast !!!

16^th August 2007

We took yet another detour this morning, following the lake around to a short but very sweet scenic byway past Mount Rose; the road was twisty and steep and the views were great. From there we went to Carson City (Nevada) which is famous for it’s Wild West history but it seems that the old town has been well and truly swallowed up by the expanding new town so we only made it a drive through rather than a stop. Just outside of the city is a wide-open valley where they had posted a high wind advisory and were diverting trucks/RV’s etc. but we carried on and it wasn’t too bad, certainly no worse than we’ve come across elsewhere. From there we headed back west into California and through the Sierra Nevada mountains on another real good, steep, twisty road with a summit of over 8500 feet at Carson Pass before heading south to the small town of Sonora and our stop for the night. This is a walking town with sidewalks and everything (pavements for those at home) so; once we checked in we went for a walk to try to spot a good place to eat tonight. There are quite a few eateries in town and no less than 5 of them are Mexican restaurants! As Mexican isn’t our favourite we’ll probably be trying one of the others and then maybe (just maybe) the bar we spotted on Main Street.

17^th August 2007

We ate at a ’European’ restaurant yesterday evening and had Tapas, definitely a first for the US. We also thought that we really should check out one of the local watering holes and, once again, met up with some very chatty locals. Today was a real day of two halves; this morning we rode the 70 or so miles to Yosemite on great roads, nice and twisty and surrounded by forests and mountains. The Park was pretty much as we remembered with great scenery, pretty lakes and a mountain pass that takes you to 9965 feet. Once we’d left the park we headed east into Nevada and to the desert where we stopped for lunch at a really godforsaken little place where there was one building that was the store, the gas station (thank goodness as we were real low on gas), the café and the post office. Other than that there were a handful of tatty trailer homes and absolutely nothing else. The road from there became even more inhospitable, it was hot, very dry and very windy and, as we were in a wide valley, there was nothing at all to stop the cross winds – it was not a pleasant journey. We are now staying over in the only town for miles that has any accommodation, it has quite a few motels and, after this afternoons ride feels like quite the little oasis. It looks as though we are in for more of the same tomorrow (oh well!) so have pre-booked a motel in Utah so that we can take our time to get there if we need to.

18^th August 2007

What an odd little town Tonapah is! It is a small silver mining town that is also famous (locally) for being home to the Stealth bombers back in the 1980’s. There are a number of motels, only two restaurants (as far as we could determine anyway) and at least two saloons. One of the restaurants was a Mexican (surprise, surprise) and the other was attached to the casino (I use the term loosely as it was really only a room full of slot machines) and that’s where we discovered that Nevada appears to have a free smoking policy – it is the first restaurant we’ve been in that has allowed smoking (unfortunately). From the restaurant we went across to one of the Saloons to find that it was occupied by a fair number of locals all of whom appeared to be three sheets to the wind (for those that don’t know the term it means they were p----d) and it was only 20:30. After one quick drink we left! We filled the gas tank first thing this morning as we were fairly certain that there would be a bit of a gap between gas stations and we were right. Just after we left town we saw a signpost saying ‘next gas 90 miles’ but we turned off before the 90 miles were up and found our next gas only once the trip was reading 188.5 miles !!! The journey which took us across the high desert and along the extraterrestrial highway (not sure why yet) was not quite as bad as yesterday afternoon’s although it was still very windy in places and hot too but this time the scenery was better with some fascinating rock formations amongst the wide open desert. We’ve lost an hour en-route today and are back in Mountain Time – so seven hours behind those of you who are in the UK. Tomorrow we’re heading for the first of the 5 national parks that are here in Utah before making our way to Monument Valley.

19^th August 2007

The weather forecast for today was partly cloudy, hot & windy and they were definitely right as the temperature right now (at almost 18:00) is 100F and it’s still blowing a gale. Thankfully the wind hasn’t been too much of an issue as we’ve been sightseeing (I’m just glad we weren’t on those open roads of yesterday). The sights we’ve seen have included some of the most dramatic scenery we’ve seen so far with our first stop being the Cedar Breaks National Monument at a maximum of 10647 feet and with some superb views. From there we took a rather roundabout route to Zion National Park where we discovered that, since we were there last, the rules have changed and you are no longer able to take private vehicles into the main part of the canyon during the summer months, if you want to see it you have to get on one of the numerous shuttle buses with the masses. The full journey in and back apparently takes around 90 minutes if you don’t get off for more than ‘photo stops. As you’ve probably gathered, we decided not to take the shuttle but instead were content with seeing the stunning scenery on the drive through the park and on the alternative drive that the Park Ranger we spoke to recommended. The moral of this story is, if you can, come outside of the summer months. We’re now in the motel that we’d pre-booked which has turned out to be miles from anywhere – thank goodness for Pizza delivery!!

20^th August 2007

We left the motel at around 09:00 this morning and it was already 80F. We rode for around an hour, crossing into Arizona, before coming across some signs to the Pipe Spring National Monument; we’d no idea what it was but decided to call in anyway. As we went in to the visitors centre the Ranger said that, if we were quick, we could just catch the 09:00 guided tour – surely she meant the 10:00 tour ?? Apparently not, it seems that Arizona doesn’t use daylight saving time (like British summer time) so we got back the hour we lost yesterday – it’s all very confusing! The monument turned out to be rather like a living museum with a guide dressed in the costume of the sites original era i.e. the 1820’s, showing us around a house (used by John Wesley amongst others) that had been built over a spring to prevent anyone else (including the Indians who owned the land) from getting to it. It was well worth the visit. From there we took the Vermillion Cliffs scenic byway which, not surprisingly, took us through a range of brightly coloured cliffs and on to Lees Ferry which is on the Colorado river and seems to be a major kicking off point for rafting trips into the Grand Canyon. It wasn’t far from there to our motel which is overlooking (at a bit of a distance admittedly) Lake Powell.

21^st August 2007

It was real hot again this morning as we headed along the Navajo Mountain scenic byway en-route to Monument Valley. When we passed this way last time, we stayed at Gouldings Lodge, a particularly well-located motel/museum/restaurant that overlooks Monument Valley itself. We’d considered staying there again on this visit but had discovered that the nightly rates were now up to around $200 and decided no to bother (as it was they didn’t have any vacancies anyway) but we did stop for lunch instead. The views from there are still pretty special but there have been a few changes e.g. there is now a small airstrip in front of the lodge which allows for scenic flights and there is a gas station too. After lunch we rode through the valley and the scenery is still just as good as we remembered. Having looked at the detail of some of the areas other national parks we’ve decided to give one or two of them a miss as they are quite a bit out of our way and include mainly short scenic drives or drives on dirt roads – as we’ve said before, we’ve had to accept that we won’t be able to see everything – not even in six months.

22^nd August 2007

More superb scenery, more sunshine, more very dry heat (102F this afternoon) - that just about sums up today. We started out by visiting the Natural Bridges National Park where a nine mile loop road has been built to allow viewings of three Natural Bridges – all very fascinating but very hard to photograph! Most of the rest of the day was spent on scenic roads that loosely formed a loop around the Canyonlands National Park before bringing us to the town of Moab which is quite a nice little town but pretty full of tourists so there don’t appear to be any locals haunts to go to. We’ve still to decide exactly where we’re going tomorrow but our first port of call will be the Arches National Park that is just outside of town. From there we’ll have to see where we end up.

23^rd August 2007

Another really good day. We went along to the Arches National Park and have decided that it is probably one of our favourites. There is only one road in and one road out with a number of spur roads directing you to areas of particular interest; the drive through, with plenty of stops for photographs, took us around 2 hours (that was partly because I didn’t read the notice properly at one of the view points and only realised that it was half a mile trek each way once I’d got back). As the name suggests, there are a number of rock arches scattered around the park but there are also a whole host of other interesting rock formations to be seen. All in all, it was well worth the visit. From there we hung a left and headed east towards Colorado and within a very short space of time we were out of the desert and into greenery, trees and fertile valleys. The road we chose was not marked on the map as scenic but it certainly was with a whole host of colours to be seen. The road also took us through the town of Bedrock but we didn’t get to see Fred & Wilma !! After a further 60 miles or so we were in the Mountains at around 7000 feet and a different set of scenery again. We’re staying overnight in a very nice (small) historic town called Ouray (that’s hooray without the ‘H’) before taking a scenic route through the mountains tomorrow with a view to ending up near to Mesa Verde (the largest set of ancient ruins in the USA) for a visit either tomorrow afternoon or on Saturday.

24^th August 2007

We spent a very pleasant evening in a local restaurant/bar and, having had to wait quite a while for our table, didn’t pay for the two rounds of drinks we had pre-dinner! Whilst having a post-dinner drink at the bar, we got talking to a couple who now live in Mexico (they run a company giving catamaran trips for tourists) and had a very interesting discussion about other areas we should visit (they strongly recommend Guatemala so that’s one we’ll have to have a look at). It had rained overnight so was rather cooler when we left this morning and it got cooler still as we went across the Red Mountain Pass at 11008 feet, the Molas Pass at 10910 feet and the Coal Bank Pass at 10640 feet – it got warmer as we came down though. These passes form part of a 245-mile loop that’s called the San Juan Skyway; we’ve now completed around ¾ of the loop and intend travelling the remainder tomorrow. This afternoon we also called in at the Mesa Verde National Park, somewhere Graham has wanted to visit since his childhood days. A number of the ruins within the park are only accessible by trail/ladder and with a guide so weren’t really suitable for us but there are a good number of overlooks to see the ruins from so it was still worth the visit (despite the delays/rough roads resulting from the fact that they’re re-surfacing most of the 20 mile road in/out). We’re now in a motel in Cortez, which isn’t really a walking town so we’ll just have to settle for walking next door to the pub/restaurant – oh, bother!

25^th August 2007

We completed the Skyway loop this morning by taking a very pretty road alongside the Dolores River to Lizard Head Pass (10222 feet). From there we followed a route that took in two canyons both very pretty and both quite different in that one was formed by a vivid red rock and the other was granite grey. Our last stop of the day (apart from the motel) was at the Colorado National Monument, a 23-mile loop road through yet another canyon, once again very pretty. Unusually, the National Park Service had made little concession for the physically handicapped or families with children as most of the viewpoints involved a walk over rough rocks to get to them and there were large areas with no fencing and long drop offs. The plan for tomorrow is to visit Grand Mesa before heading for Glenwood Springs and the start of the Independence Pass.

26^th August 2007

I think we must have been spoilt with the views recently as the scenic routes we followed today seemed slightly dull by comparison. We first rode through Grand Mesa National Forest where the road was fairly twisty but not particularly challenging; there were also very few stopping off points along the way so we reached our planned finish for the day before lunchtime. After a quick look at the map (and a discussion with a local fire-fighter) we continued on to Independence Pass and it’s summit of 12095 feet. Although we were at high altitude, there was little to see at the top as even higher peaks surrounded us. When we left this morning the sun was shining but the forecast was showing a 30% chance of scattered thunderstorms. We didn’t see any storms en-route but did have a few spots of rain here and there. Right now, there is a thunderstorm in the area so we’re not going to take our planned walk to the lake (we have a lake view room in a ski area – Dillon - at a very reasonable price), we’ll just have to go to the pub/restaurant next door instead! Mileage to date 16018.

27^th August 2007

As the weather forecast for the Rocky Mountain National Park showed possible thunderstorms for all of the coming week, we decided that today was as good a day as any to go. As the majority of storms were supposed to be during the afternoon, we got up and left early hoping to beat the weather but it was very grey, very cold and a little damp as we rode through; there were also quite a few road works which meant that the traffic was bunched together – it is obvious that we have not seen the park at it’s best. There were some reasonable views from the top (the highest point being 12183 feet) but I’m sure we would have seen more on a different day. Once we left the park it warmed up considerably but there was a huge horribly black cloud following us so we stopped early and checked in to a motel quite close to a shopping mall. If it stays dry we may take a walk to mall just to get some exercise.

28^th August 2007

We had showers yesterday evening and rain overnight but, this morning dawned with mostly blue skies so we continued on our way through northeast Colorado and in to Nebraska. We’d been told that Nebraska was as flat as a pancake and our previous brief visit had suggested that was the case. However, we had a very pleasant ride across the Pawnee Grasslands and onto the Gold Rush Byway both of which proved to be nice roads through undulating countryside and which passed through some really rather quaint old towns. One amusing thing we saw en-route was a large railroad repair team with a variety of tracked vehicles including a completely separate ‘train’ with a thunder box (portable toilet) mounted on it – well, we thought it was funny! We’ve stopped quite early again today as the scenic byway (the Sandhills scenic byway) that we intend to take tomorrow is around 285 miles and doesn’t appear to have any accommodation along the way so we need to be able to go from end to end in one hit.

29^th August 2007

It was really grey & overcast when we left this morning but the byway we took was still a very pleasant ride with mile after mile of easy, gently curving roads surrounded by sandhills that are now covered in rough grass (it reminded me of a much larger version of the South Downs back in England). Although it was a nice ride I’d have to disagree with the poll that put this road amongst the top 10 most scenic routes in the USA. There were numerous really nice small towns along the way, most with populations of less than 200. We stopped at a couple of them for refreshments and found the locals to be real friendly and very interested to find out about us and our tour. We also lost another hour on the way as we’re now back in Central Time so 6 hours behind the UK.

30^th August 2007

Ever since we arrived in the US we’ve been seeing advertisements for a company called Cabelas who claim to be the biggest supplier of outdoor gear in the country, as we’d discovered that there was a store not too far from last nights stop we decided to go take a look this morning. The store was certainly big and had more guns, ammo, crossbows etc than I’ve ever seen (and would really care to see again) but had little in the way of camping equipment or clothing that would be of use to us. From there, we headed south and in to Kansas, another state that had been described to us as dead flat but which turned out to be covered in very pleasant undulating agricultural land. The one thing I think we will particularly remember it for is the amount of enormous bugs we encountered – the Trike looks as though it’s been used in a paintball battle and we didn’t fair much better, it was pretty horrid really! We’ve stopped for the night in Abilene a town famous as an 1880’s cowboy town and we’ve just been to the first restaurant we can remember that only has one choice on the menu, the country style chicken dinner (it really is a case of have it or don’t – there’s nothing else served) and it turned out to be very good. Tomorrow, we’ll be making our way across to Olathe, just south west of Kansas City, as we’ve arranged to meet up (and stay) with Johan & Lena and their family which we’re really looking forward to (the FIM goers amongst you may well remember them, they are part of the Kils MCC contingent from Sweden who now live over here).

31^st August 2007

As usual, we took a circuitous route this morning and followed scenic roads heading first south and then east across more rolling countryside and the only remaining preserved area of tall-grass prairie. We were doing really well until we found that the road we’d chosen to take us to Olathe had been closed by road works; this meant taking quite a convoluted detour so we didn’t arrive at the Ekstrom household until late in the afternoon when we were met and admirably looked after by Nicklas (14) and Sheila the family dog. As the evening wore on, we gradually met the rest of the family (Johan & Lena, of course, but also Michael (18), Jochiem (16) and Jessica (12)) and spent a really great evening chatting and eating home cooked Swedish food – excellent.

1^st September 2007

This morning Johan, Lena, Nicklas and Jessica showed us around Kansas City and took us to the Farmers market where we bought provisions for a barbeque this evening. Once the goodies were loaded in to the car we moved on to the Kansas City Irish Festival, one of the many celebrations going on in the city this weekend (It’s the Labour day weekend with a public holiday on Monday). There were four different stages with a variety of bands playing, there were also plenty of food and craft stalls to be seen alongside the fountains which had all been turned a very fetching shade of green! After leaving the festival we did some more shopping before returning home for a barbeque of epic proportions.

2^nd September 2007

Breakfast this morning turned in to an all morning chat during which we learned a huge amount about how it is to live in the USA and about the education system, which appears to be very different to the UK system. Once we’d got ourselves moving, we visited a massive sports outfitters and spent a happy hour or so looking at the specialist clothing, camping gear etc. before going on to ‘Famous Dave’s’ for a very large lunch that was served to us on two dustbin lids!! Unfortunately, Michael hadn’t been able to join us for lunch as he was working but there was plenty to take home for him to enjoy as a midnight feast. Our last stop of the day was a retail park where I was finally able to find some hi-tech t-shirts that I’d been looking for. A very pleasant evening followed, sat in proper comfortable chairs (something you don’t get in motel rooms) enjoying good conversation with great friends – thank you all.

3^rd September 2007

We left the Ekstrom home this morning (it was very tempting to stay longer but we really needed to get moving again before we took root) and once again headed first south and then east through pretty countryside and in to Missouri. It had been hot and sunny all weekend and it was just that way when we left this morning. However, the further east we went the more overcast it became and it did finally rain this evening albeit not for long. The forecast for the rest of this week is decidedly unsettled so we’ll have to take that in to account as we plan our route for the next few days.

4^th September 2007

We spent last night in Branson Missouri a real over the top tourist town with around 35 theatres featuring a range of musical shows (some of which look like they’d have made the Osmonds look like a heavy rock band !!). As none of the music on offer was to our taste, we decided to just get a quick meal at the restaurant across the road and then spend the evening catching up on some admin. (like updating the website), now I know I said we wanted a quick meal but this place gave fast food a whole new meaning – we were in, fed and out again in just over 20 minutes!! This morning dawned very grey, overcast and humid but as we made our way east across the state the sun came out and the temperature reached 95F. For the first 100 miles or so we were on minor roads that were reminiscent of a very big roller coaster with lots of blind summits and very deep, lose your stomach, dips but the scenery along the way was great. We then joined a rather bigger road which, although still surrounded by nice countryside, wasn’t quite so much fun. Our original plan for the day had been to stop close to the Missouri State line but, as we were making good progress and the only motel we could find had limited options for eating (McDonalds, which we don’t count as a restaurant or the café inside Boomerland, a huge the fireworks shop next-door to a gas station which surprisingly we didn’t fancy) we decided to go on and in to Kentucky – big mistake ! Within 10 miles or so we found ourselves out on a levee heading for the bridge over the Mississippi in really heavy rain and horribly strong winds, not nice at all; luckily we came across a gas station and took shelter there, as did a fellow motorcyclist who’d arrived from the other direction. It was just as well we did stop too as the winds picked up even more and I really wouldn’t have wanted to be out in that. Once the storm had passed we carried on and we are now 50 miles or so in to Kentucky and still heading for the east coast.

5^th September 2007

It was 80F and raining when we left this morning but, as the rain was intermittent, we chose not to put on our waterproofs (they’re plastic so we’d probably have been just as wet on the inside if we’d worn them). Within 40 miles the rain had stopped and, eventually, the sun came out with temperatures reaching 97F this afternoon. As usual, we chose to travel on scenic byways which meant that we took a rather convoluted route to get us across to northeast Kentucky and arrived just outside of Lexington rather later than we’d expected, especially as we lost an hour by crossing in to the Eastern Time Zone (so we’re now just 5 hours behind the UK). We’ve been to Kentucky before and rather enjoyed it; we weren’t disappointed today either as the countryside is full of rolling hills, arable land and horse farms – very pretty.

6^th September 2007

Another very pleasant day in all respects; hot & sunny weather (98F), pretty countryside and gentle, easy roads. One thing we hadn’t been aware of until today is that Kentucky is a tobacco growing area and that the crop is still dried in small, tatty, wooden barns which means that, unfortunately, you can sometimes smell it as you pass. We’ve left Kentucky and moved across in to Virginia – we’re now only 700 miles or so from where we started out three months ago and we’ll be going to see Jeff & Edith (Haus of Trikes) and Paul Zublionis (Honda of Crofton) whilst we’re over this way before starting back west towards our final destination, San Diego.

7^th September 2007

Our route today took us in to the Appalachian Mountains and on to the Blue Ridge Parkway and it’s just as good as we remember. To get us to the parkway, we took a very nice twisty road that passed through part of the Jefferson National Forest and some rather nice small towns. The parkway itself has a 45-mile per hour speed limit all the way so you have little choice but to take a nice relaxed ride through, looking at the scenery and the local wildlife (there seem to be an awful lot of very big butterflies). Something else we spotted were lots of huge spiders webs which, in places, seemed to bend small branches from one tree to another, on closer inspection, however, there didn’t appear to be any spiders in them – very odd! We left the parkway at Roanoke and checked in to a motel close to a shopping mall so that we could both get a much needed haircut – what I want to know is why some ladies hairdressers insist on washing your hair and then putting half a gallon of gunk on it before blow drying to twice it’s size – it really isn’t me and I’ve had to come back to the motel and wash my hair again – I do wish they’d ask first!

8^th September 2007

As usual we decided to stay off of the main roads and, as a result, found a really nice ‘gentle’ road; not much in the way of hills, bends etc just a nice easy ride in the sunshine through small towns and cotton fields. Bearing in mind it was a Saturday, it was also surprisingly quiet all the way across, hardly any traffic anywhere – it was great. It did get busier as we reached the east coast (yes, that’s right, we’ve now been coast to coast and back again with just one more crossing to go) but it was still a lot less busy than most small UK towns on a Saturday. Tomorrow we’ll be making our way across the bridge/tunnel to Ocean City, Maryland to see Jeff & Edith. It seems that, on this occasion, our timing isn’t too great as Jeff’s son is getting married on Wednesday so we’re hoping that Ed will be able to do the necessary with the Trike on Monday so that we can get out of their hair in time for the big day as they’re still very kindly putting us up (or is that putting up with us?) whilst we’re in town.

9^th September 2007

When we arrived at the motel yesterday evening we found the parking lot pretty much full of sports bikes so naturally asked if there was an event on locally. It turned out that there was, indeed, an event on at the motel across the road but that it was ‘by invitation’ as it seems that it was for black bikers only but never mind, we still had a good chat with a number of them during our stay. The weather forecast for later this morning was slightly disturbing as we were right on the edge of a tropical storm warning and winds of 50 – 60 miles per hour were predicted. As we had to cross a 24 mile stretch of bridge/tunnel combination, it didn’t seem like a good idea to hang around so we left as early as we could and headed north and out of the storm warning area – luckily we made it in plenty of time and had a pretty good run up to Ocean City. Our early departure meant that we arrived rather earlier than expected so rang Jeff & Edith to see if it was okay to turn up early, they said it was and that they’d wait for us at home before heading to the new workshop/gallery to continue unpacking boxes as they’d only just moved in. Once we were settled in to Edith’s house (just around the corner from their own home) we went along to the shop to see if we could help out. We arrived to find both the Haus of Trikes showroom and workshop absolutely full of ‘stuff’, all sorts of stuff, some of which had apparently been tucked away in the old shop and hadn’t seen the light of day for some time. It was about this time that we discovered that the shop is one of the official venues for the Ocean City bike week that starts this Thursday - Arghhh! As you might expect, we got stuck in and started to help sort things out finally finishing at about 20:30 before heading out for something to eat.

10^th September 2007

It was back to the shop this morning to continue with the sort out and to get the Trike looked at (we were hoping to get the electrical problem sorted out amongst other things). Whilst Ed & Steve worked on the Trike, we both got to work (along with others, of course) moving, sorting and cleaning and gradually, the showroom started to take shape. By the time we finished at around 20:00 the showroom looked pretty good with just the bike and sales displays to be finished off. The workshop was a different matter, that still needed to be tackled but at least there wasn’t any work scheduled for tomorrow so there should be time for that then, there would also be additional volunteers available as some of Jeff’s family had arrived ready for the wedding on Wednesday. By this time, Ed/Steve had managed to identify our electrical problem, as we had suspected, it was a trapped wire (under the handlebar) that had been shorting out so, with a bit of luck, all should be well now.

11^th September 2007

Our plan for today was to spend this morning helping out at the shop before heading up to Crofton so that the Trike can get it’s 24000 mile service, new front tyre and replacement windshield tomorrow. Sorting out the workshop proved to be quite a challenge as Ed had had to go out to run a number of errands and wasn’t available to tell us what was ‘good’ and what was trash. There was also a small issue of trying to move a rather large compressor from its current position in the middle of the floor in to a loft space. By the time mid afternoon had arrived we’d made quite a lot of progress but there was still plenty to do so, as it had started to rain real heavily, we stayed a while longer eventually leaving at 17:30 before riding up across the bay bridge and a fabulous sunset, to a motel a few miles from Honda of Crofton. (The compressor still hadn’t been moved by the time we left but they were waiting on some extra muscle to arrive before attempting the manoeuvre).

12^th September 2007

We arrived at Honda of Crofton just after 09:00 and settled in to wait (the 24000 mile service is supposed to take around 6.5 hours). The shop owner, Paul Zublionis and his wife Lorraine very kindly took us out to lunch so that we didn’t take root, we then returned to the shop to wait some more. The Trike was returned to us at around 16:15 so we decided that we still had time to make it to Bob’s BMW to get Graham’s riding pants repaired (one of the press studs had come off). Unfortunately, by the time we reached Bob’s, it had become obvious that all was not well with the front end of the Trike and closer inspection revealed that the front wheel was not properly aligned so we telephoned Paul to tell him that we were on our way back. After a very careful run back (approximately 12 miles) a very apologetic Paul made sure that the job was finished off properly before we headed back to our motel.

13^th September 2007

Our first port of call this morning was the Bass Pro shop at the Arundel Mills shopping mall, a very large sporting goods shop that sells a good range of hi-tech clothing (it’s all Brian Downing’s fault, he introduced us to Bass Pro last time we were over and it’s been costing us a fortune ever since!). By the time we left there it was close on 11:00 and there was quite a bit of traffic around – there was even more around by the time we reached the Bay Bridge which, in this direction, is a toll bridge; it took us an absolute age to get through the toll booths. Today being the first day of the Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) bike week there were an awful lot of bikes on the road so we knew we needed to get a move on as we had volunteered to help out at Haus of Trikes over the coming few days. We arrived shortly after lunch and set to work manning the cash register and helping with general customer queries and, although not terrifically busy, we were kept occupied until well in to the evening. As well as everything else that’s been going on, Jeff & Edith also had more guests arrive today i.e. Edith’s cousin and her husband so, once we’d shut up shop, we all went out to eat together which was really great if a little raucous!

14^th September 2007

Our first task of the day was to go to the main show area at the Ocean Downs horse racing track and pass on some flyers giving details of the new Haus of Trikes venue. Once we’d done that we spent an hour or so wandering around looking at the goodies on offer – it is very much like the BMF show vendors area only none of the goods are ‘seconds’ and there are a lot more custom bikes on show. We then went on to the shop and spent the rest of the day busying ourselves with a variety of tasks (including Graham spending quite a lot of time talking to a young man in a wheelchair (Rocky) who has never ridden a motorcycle but who is extremely keen to do so – following a long conversation with Jeff, it looks as though they will be able to help him achieve this ambition which is great).

15^th September 2007

We had promised Paul that we would go back to Crofton today to support their charity ‘Goldwing giveaway’ where a brand new Goldwing was being given away in a reverse raffle (all of the tickets are pulled, with prizes given away at specified points and with the last ticket left winning the bike) but before doing so we had to return to Jeff’s shop to say our goodbyes. As a number of groups had arranged to ride out to the shop this morning and as Jeff had arranged some Tricycle racing (yes, that’s right, the pedal type) it took us quite a while to get away. We were also sad to see the end of a real fun few days spent with Jeff’s family i.e his Mum Ann, her partner Ted, his sister Corrina, son Garry, his new wife Kirstin and, of course Uncle Russ (not forgetting Ed who might as well be family) and Steve the other mechanic, we had been made to feel extremely welcome and it really was quite a wrench to leave but leave we must. Once we finally got away, we made our way back north and over the Bay Bridge (again) back to Paul’s where we discovered that our number had already been drawn so we’d not won the bike (drat). From there we headed west around Washington D.C. where the traffic was absolutely awful despite it being a Saturday but at least we’re now on the right side of the City to be able to get to Skyline Drive (a 105 mile scenic parkway) tomorrow.

16^th September 2007

We woke to find sunshine and a new record low temperature for this time of year, just 41F – great! Once we’d left our motel, we made our way across country (on a circuitous route once again) to Front Royal and the start of Skyline Drive. The entire 105 mile ride takes you along the top of a ridge running through the Shenandoah valley, there are 75 scenic overlooks en-route and the views are great at every one of them, there is also a 35-mile per hour speed limit so, what with the speed limit, the abundant overlooks and the longer than usual lunch break that enabled us to thaw out (the temperature for the majority of the run hovered around 50F), the ride took us most of the day. Once we’d left Skyline we headed for the nearest town and booked in to a motel which, if you’re feeling energetic has a restaurant in walking distance but, as we’re not, we’ve ordered a pizza and we’re going to slob out in front of the TV (there’s drag racing on).

17^th September 2007

It seems that a cold, sunny Monday morning is a good time to take the Blue Ridge Parkway; we started at the most northerly point of the parkway and gradually made our way almost 200 miles south meeting very little traffic for the entire journey. It felt quite autumnal first thing and the cold overnight temperatures seem to have just started to turn the leaves various shades of red – a few more weeks and the colours will be stunning but the crowds will also be out in force so it’s good that we’re here now. With the blue skies and sunshine the views from the ridge were fabulous we also saw a number of deer (5), two wild turkeys and far too many squirrels to be able to count. All in all it was a very pleasant day. Tonight we’re staying at a motel around 10 miles off of the parkway and it hasn’t cost us a bean as we’ve ‘cashed in’ some of our reward points. Tomorrow we’ll be heading back to the parkway and in to North Carolina.

18^th September 2007

A cold, sunny Tuesday morning on the parkway is pretty good too! There was a little more traffic around today but much of it was two-wheeled so no problem there (except perhaps the group of 7/8 who decided that they wanted to travel at 30 miles per hour), there was also a little more evidence of the colours changing too. In general the road is made up of very gentle curves but there are one or two that are a little tighter (nothing like alpine roads though) – the reason I mention this is that we saw a road sign we’ve not seen before and it was aimed specifically at motorcyclists, presumably, motorcyclists who aren’t used to curves (see ‘photos)!!!! We’ve just found out that there is a Goldwing Road Riders Association event on in this area this weekend so we’re trying to find out if we’re okay to go along. If so we’ll be changing the plan yet again – hey ho.

19^th September 2007

Well, we’ve now completed all 469 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway and thoroughly enjoyed every one of them (except perhaps the ones where we were being held up by a women driving a nice V8 SUV who apparently didn’t know what the throttle was for or how to drive around a curve – why she needed a V8 I’ll never know). Once we’d left the parkway we called in to Cherokee, somewhere we’ve been before, and had lunch. Whilst we were eating a Harley rider we’d spoken to yesterday arrived and we naturally got chatting about the roads. He very kindly gave us a really good map of the Smoky Mountains that highlights all of the scenic byways and he also told us of some other good roads to ride whilst we’re in the area. We’re now staying in Gatlinburg, a real over the top tourist town that, because it is a tourist town, has plenty of motels all vying for trade so we’ve got a room at a pretty good rate which is very close to the town and, apparently, to the brew pub. Tomorrow we’ll be heading for some of the roads we’ve been told about and to Deals Gap, which, if memory serves me correctly, is supposed to have 318 curves in 11 Miles!!!!

20^th September 2007

Although it’s a tourist town, Gatlinburg turned out to be a very pleasant place to spend an evening. We had one of the nicest meals we’ve had in weeks at the brew house that turned out to be just a few hundred yards from our motel, we then took a walk in to town where we found a bluegrass band playing in one of the small squares – all very enjoyable. This morning we followed the directions given to us by one of the guys we spoke to yesterday and started out on the Little River Road which, as the name suggests, follows the path of a very pretty river. We then took the Foothills Scenic Byway through to Deals Gap, which as I said yesterday, is supposed to have 318 curves in 11 miles, well, we didn’t count them but it certainly didn’t seem like 318 curves. They call this portion of the road the Dragon’s tail and, yes, it is twisty but it is also quite wide, has a 30 mile per hour speed limit and, today at least, had one Sheriff parked at the start of the road and another positioned about halfway across so it really wasn’t a difficult ride (despite the T-shirts you can buy saying ‘I survived the Dragon’s tail’). After a coffee stop at the Motorcycle resort at the end of the ‘tail’ we headed south and then west on to the Cherohala Skyway, an extremely pretty gently curving road through the mountains. From there is was further south and then east on to the Ocoee scenic byway (we discovered part way through that we’ve done this one before in a rental car!!) then slightly north and east on the Mountain Waters Byway. This turned out to be much more demanding than Deals Gap as it is narrower and entails a number of hairpin bends and steep grades. All tolled, we were in the saddle for around 9 hours today so we’re going to take it easy tomorrow and head over to the ‘Wings over the Smokies’ an event run by the GWRRA which is only around 80 miles away. Mileage to date 20564.

21^st September 2007

I need to start today’s update with an apology to any GWRRA members out there – I apologise now if I offend any of you with my opinions of the event we attended today but I can honestly say it is the most bizarre motorcycle rally I have ever been to. We arrived at the rally site this morning having had a reasonable run through the mountains (despite the fog and getting stuck behind a truck that was really too big for the road) and asked for some information about the rally. We were told that we could either pay $13 each for a day pass that would give us access to the 100 or so vendors who were on site during the day but would not give us evening access. Alternatively, we could pay $30 each for a full weekend pass that would give us a rally pin (badge), access to the vendors all weekend, entry to the Goldwing raffle plus access to the evening entertainment. As it sounded like better value, we went for the latter option. We spent an hour or two this afternoon looking around the various stalls and chatting to a few people before going to our motel to check in. As the evening entertainment was scheduled to start at 18:00 we ate early and made our way back to the site for the opening ceremonies which started out pretty much as we expected with the National Anthem being sung as the flag was carried in, there was then a prayer which wasn’t necessarily something we’d expected but wasn’t a problem for us either. From there things became progressively more and more odd. There were the finals of the North Carolina ‘couple of the year contest’ (not sure what that was all about but it took half an hour to get through) before the highlight of the evening i.e. the talent contest!!!! There were, apparently three categories, ‘Hawaiian’, ‘Serious’ and ‘Comedy’ – there were only two entries for the first category (thankfully as they were both painful to watch) and there were said to be four entries for the ‘serious’ category (which turned out to be more of a bad karaoke contest) – we managed to sit through two of them before admitting defeat and leaving at just before 20:00. We did check with one of the organisers who confirmed that there was no other entertainment this evening and that there was nothing at all arranged for after the closing ceremony which was scheduled for 17:30 tomorrow evening. There was nowhere on site for people to gather and socialise, there was no alcohol allowed on site which is fair enough if you know the rules but the concession selling soft drinks also shut at 20:00. When we asked what people do of an evening we got something of a blank look (when we got back to our motel there were four people sitting in the foyer playing a card game reminiscent of ‘snap’ and others, apparently already tucked up in their rooms). Despite having paid for the full weekend we have cancelled our accommodation for tomorrow night and will be moving on in the morning.

22^nd September 2007

Our latest re-route took us south & west through part of South Carolina and in to Georgia via the Chattahoochee National Forest. We encountered a mixture of roads ranging from mountain roads with steep grades and tight(ish) bends, to expanses of two-lane divided highway. We also passed a number of rivers en-route and, although we’d been hearing about the severe drought in the South East, we hadn’t realised just how bad it was. Some of the rivers have very little water in them and, although the locals are praying for rain, it was hot & mostly sunny all day with the same forecast for the next few days at least. We’re going to be continuing west tomorrow and have decided to make a stop off in Memphis on Monday so that we can take in a evening of live blues music on the famous Beale Street.

23^rd September 2007

As usual we took a round-about route today leaving Georgia behind and heading in to Alabama passing backwards and forwards across the Tennessee river as we did so – that also appears to be low on water. The countryside is very much agricultural with large areas of cotton fields and what we believe to be Soya beans. The weather has been kind to us today; it was around 80F when we left this morning and has been hot & sunny all day. Tomorrow we’ll be heading in to Mississippi and taking in part of the Natchez Trace Parkway as we do so.

24^th September 2007

It was real hot and muggy again as we left this morning and there were threats of some isolated thunderstorms to come over the next few days. Our chosen route this morning took us on to part of the Natchez Trace Parkway which is similar to the Blue Ridge Parkway in that it is maintained by the National Parks Service, has limited access points and is a nice, gentle winding road. Unlike the Blue Ridge, it doesn’t have the valley views but it does have Native American archaeological sites along the way. Once we’d left the Parkway (we’ll be going back on to it later on) we headed in to Tupelo where we made a brief stop at Elvis Presley’s birthplace before heading north to Memphis. We stopped for lunch at one of the many chain burger restaurants and were approached by a fellow Goldwing rider who had all the usual questions, how did we get the bike over here etc (Graham has taken to telling people we brought it as hand luggage!!!) but who came back over to us later on to let us know that the route we’d chosen to take to Memphis was one of the most popular truck routes and was very badly rutted in places. Having learned this we re-routed yet again and took a much less busy but fiddly route in, making use of the Gladys (our SatNav) to locate the motel. That was fine except she decided to take us right through the middle of the city which was interesting to say the least. Once we’d settled in to our room and cleaned ourselves up, we headed for Beale Street, which has changed quite a bit since we were here last. There’s a brand new entertainment arena, a Hard Rock Café and a number of other new buildings too. Having had a wander around, we went back to an old haunt, the Rum Boogie Café where we had a good meal and listened to some great live music.

25^th September 2007

The skies were very overcast and threatening as we left this morning and it started to look as though we were going to get the threatened storms. After leaving Memphis we headed west and slightly north in to Arkansas through more cotton and soya bean fields. This finally gave way to prettier views as we reached the Ozark mountains, they’re not huge mountains but still pretty to look at. We encountered a number of mostly light showers as we made our way across but nothing heavy enough to make us stop and put our wet gear on (it probably wouldn’t have been worth it anyway as at 80F+ we’d have been melting) but shortly after we stopped at our motel and Graham had washed some of the grime off of the bike, it started to lash down – not for long but I’m still glad we were in a nice dry motel room (it’s all Graham’s fault for washing the bike!).

26^th September 2007

It was very overcast again this morning and cooler too – we had one or two showers throughout to day but, once again, nothing too terrible. We had decided to follow one of Arkansas’s scenic roads that runs north/south for most of the length of the State. For the most part it was a pleasant enough ride on gentle curves on forested roads, nothing staggering but pleasant. Unfortunately, some of the towns along the route weren’t quite so pleasant – typically busy and industrial. As the road wasn’t quite as good as we’d hoped and the weather forecast for the next few days was showing more rain the further south and east we headed, we decided to cut our losses and stopped fairly early this afternoon. We’ve now had another re-think and won’t be going east but will head west towards Troup in Texas where the Motor Trike factory is. We were offered a tour of the factory when we met the owners in Daytona a few years ago so we’ll try to make contact with them in the morning to confirm that it’s okay to go along to see them.

27^th September 2007

We managed to speak to Tonya at Motor Trike first thing this morning, someone Graham has been speaking to on and off for 3 or 4 years now, and she confirmed that it was okay to visit. Unfortunately, we’d woken to find a thick fog outside so we had to delay our getaway for a short while. Once we got underway the weather initially improved and it got real hot, sunny and humid, it then came over very overcast, then sunny, then the sky turned real black and we had a few showers, then sunny….. You get the idea! Our route took in a variety of roads some small & quiet, others not. We eventually found our way out to Motor Trike (Tonya was right, they really are out in the middle of nowhere) by around 15:30 and spent an interesting hour in Tonya’s company having a tour of the facility – very enlightening, thank you Tonya. Tomorrow we’ll be heading north in to Oklahoma as we found some details of a motorcycle rally and rodeo (yes – a real rodeo with horses/bulls etc., not a motorcycle rodeo) this weekend and have confirmed that it’s okay for us to go along and register on the gate – sounds like it should be interesting. As it’s going to take us more than a day to get there we’ve booked a motel for tomorrow that will leave us just 100 miles or so to do on Saturday.

28^th September 2007

Some of the individual States over here really do have some odd ideas. Yesterday evening, we walked to a nearby restaurant and, along with our food, ordered a beer each. It was at this point that we were asked if we were members; as we hadn’t been there before and obviously weren’t already members (of what I’m not really sure) we were given an application form and asked to complete it – we did as we were asked using our own names, Brian & Barbara’s address in San Diego and a fictitious drivers licence number (as we didn’t know our own off by heart), the application was duly accepted and we were served our beers!!!! This morning, we started out by making slight detour via the local FedEx office, as we had to send off the necessary documents to book the return journey for the Trike. Once that was done, we had a fairly ordinary run north through Oklahoma – nothing wrong with it but it was just ordinary – ordinary roads through fairly ordinary farmlands.

29^th September 2007

We only had 80 or so miles to cover this morning so didn’t rush away. As it was, we reached Tahlequah late morning and found the rodeo grounds after just one slight wrong turn. We were greeted at the gate by a very friendly gentleman who gave us registration forms to fill in and gave us the usual wristbands to wear. We were also given an events schedule which included a bike show, on-bike rally games, Mutton Bustin’ (whatever that is) a professional rodeo and a concert following that. The amazing thing about that is it’s all free – the only thing you have to pay for is your food/drink (once again, there’s no alcohol allowed but that’s not going to worry us too much). We’re now back at our motel, which is only a few miles away, getting cleaned up so that we can get back in time for the Mutton Bustin’ – I just have to know what it is!!!

30^th September 2007

Well, now we know. Mutton Bustin’ is rodeo riding for real youngsters – kids of as young as four rodeo riding a sheep that doesn’t want to be ridden – quite amusing really (although I’m not generally in favour of a rodeo). A group of professional rodeo riders followed the youngsters riding (no not sheep) in three classes, bareback horse riding, riding horses with some sort of saddle (apologies for any rodeo fans amongst you – I never really did get the gist of the whole thing) and bull riding; there were also some display riders. The horsemanship etc. was very good but, having now been to two rodeos, I still can’t quite see how they say this isn’t unfair to the poor creatures who have their private parts wrapped in a rope to make them buck!! Following the rodeo there was a free concert given by a well-known (in the USA at least) country & western singer. We stayed for a while but as it started to get quite chilly sitting out on metal ‘grandstands’ we called it a night at about 22:00. Just a mile or two from the rodeo grounds is the Cherokee heritage centre and we had originally planned to go there this morning – that idea was scuppered when we discovered it didn’t open until 13:00. Plan B was to visit the rally site for an hour or so before going to the centre for a look around. We arrived at the rally site at around 11:00 to find that the church service was still going on (the event was run by a Christian group) so we sat outside chatting to one or two people before the weather started to close in (there had been threats of some thunderstorms but not until later in the day). As a result of the ever-blackening cloud, we decided not to wait around and, instead, made a hasty departure towards Broken Arrow on the outskirts of Tulsa. We had also learned, this morning, that the ‘moving wall’ (a mobile ‘copy’ of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall that is in Washington DC which visits various States/Towns around the USA) was currently in Broken Arrow so we made a brief stop to look and pay our respects before searching out a suitable motel. Mileage to date 22440.

1^st October 2007

As it turned out, we just missed yesterday’s thunderstorms. They passed within a few miles of us and we could see the horrendously black clouds a short distance away as we went out to eat last night. This morning dawned bright, sunny & warm so we made the most of it and made our way west on parts of the old Historic Route 66. There wasn’t a great deal to see (just a few signs) but it was pretty much on our route anyway and much better than taking the Interstate. The only disadvantage was that certain parts of the road didn’t appear to have been re-surfaced since the road was first built – it really didn’t make for a comfortable journey at times. The weather forecast for tomorrow is currently looking pretty nasty with potential for strong storms in the morning and maybe into the afternoon – we’ll have to wait and see what the morning brings before deciding where to head for but it will almost certainly be somewhere within the Texas panhandle.

2^nd October 2007

It was dry and reasonably bright when we woke this morning but the forecast was still showing the potential for some really nasty storms as the day went on, as a result, we decided to make a move into the Texas panhandle but no to go too far just in case. We pre-booked a motel using some of our vast cache of rewards points (they have promotion on at the moment so for every two nights we pay for, we get a night free – can’t be bad) and made our way 165 miles up the road through some agricultural areas, past some real big cattle ranches and some even bigger natural gas plants – definitely not the prettiest area we’ve been to and although it stayed dry, it was pretty windy in places. As we arrived early we took a trip to the local shopping mall (mall is a bit of an exaggeration really, it’s only a handful of shops) and had another haircut – hooray – a hairdresser who doesn’t use gallons of gel/hairspray. We are now approximately 45 miles north of Amarillo and will be making for New Mexico tomorrow.

3^rd October 2007

We’re now well and truly into the fall season and the later sunrise meant that it was pretty chilly when we left this morning, but it did warm up nicely as the day went on. The remainder of the Texas panhandle was filled (if that’s the right word for a lot of open space) with vast areas of arable land and some enormous cattle feeding stations – there were thousands of beasts almost as far as the eye could see. Once we made our way across into New Mexico the land quite quickly became hillier and more like desert with cacti along the roadside. There were also some very long stretches of road with no signs of human life at all. Having collected some visitor information en-route, we’ve discovered that there are a number of scenic byways in the area so will be taking a look to see what we can sensibly take in over the next few days.

4^th October 2007

We left this morning in bright sunshine and headed for the Sangre de Christo Mountains. The road up in to the mountains was pretty but also very windy with some very strong gusts from time to time. Once we’d actually got into the mountains the wind calmed and we had a pretty pleasant run through the Carson National Forest before heading a little south to the Bandelier National Monument. We’d stopped at a visitors centre en-route and the very helpful lady there suggested some additional scenic routes for us to follow before and after visiting the monument. One of the routes, she said, would involve passing through a security checkpoint. When we asked why she explained that the road runs right through the Los Alamos National Laboratory where the very first atomic bomb was developed and that the facility is still in use. We visited the monument which included a number of ruins and cliff dwellings from the Pueblo Indian days; we both took the first part of the self-guided tour and then I ventured off on my own for a short while and it’s just as well I did as Graham would have struggled with the number (and width) of the steps involved. From there we took the route the lady had suggested and, sure enough, we passed through (were waved through) a security checkpoint before entering a most bizarre area full of all sorts of apparently high security buildings but with tourist signs pointing out what was what. It was rather like riding through a film set!! As we made our way to our overnight stop, a very, very black cloud started to loom up behind us, by the time we’d reached the 50 miles to go point, it had pretty much caught up with us but somehow, and I really don’t know how, Graham managed to outrun it and we arrived dry.

5^th October 2007

Our fist visit this morning was to the Taos Pueblo, a traditional Native American village that is still inhabited. It was a very interesting visit and reminded us in some ways of parts of South America we’ve seen. From there we took a loop road through the mountains ending up more or less where we started out. Next was a very scenic road through more of the National Forest and further into the mountains. Along the way we passed through a huge mountain plateau and it was here that we found that this morning’s weather forecast had been accurate – it said strong winds and by crikey they were! Our route took us further north and west and, eventually, back in to Colorado (because the fall colours are close to their peak in New Mexico accommodation proved impossible to book hence the trip over the state line). The roads were good, the weather cool, bright and breezy and all should have been well with our world but, unfortunately, neither of us was really in the mood to enjoy the day as we’d received word this morning that we’d lost a good friend to a road traffic accident –we’ll be raising a glass to him later this evening.

6^th October 2007

The motel we stayed in last night (which we’d pre-booked) was in a small town on the edge of the San Juan Mountains at an elevation of just over 7000 feet. Unbeknown to us when we booked it, it was just across the road from the natural hot springs which meant that there was an all pervading smell of rotten eggs – not very nice. The other thing that wasn’t very nice was the weather forecast; when we booked to stay here we hadn’t realised it was at quite such a high elevation and we certainly hadn’t expected a forecast showing possible snow showers nor had we expected the high wind advisory for the entire area! As it turned out it didn’t snow but it was bloomin’ cold when we left this morning. We had decided to book ahead again for tonight so that we could use up some of our cache of rewards points so we duly booked a motel around 230 miles away (heading south and to lower elevations). All was well until we entered the Navajo reservation and the traffic came to an abrupt stop. It turned out that we had arrived during a parade which had shut one side of the divided highway (dual carriageway) to allow the procession to pass. We sat in a queue of traffic for over an hour before pulling in to a gas station (once we eventually got to it) for a coffee only to discover that it wasn’t only a parade but there was a fair going on actually on the bridge over the San Juan River and our only two choices were to sit in traffic for maybe another hour or to turn back. As, by now, it was blowing an absolute gale, we turned back, checked in to a motel in the nearest big town and cancelled our previously booked motel – thankfully we got a refund of our reward points. Here’s hoping for a better day tomorrow.

7^th October 2007

We woke this morning to lovely sunshine but temperatures of 27F (-3C). The readout on the Trike showed 45F by the time we left but as there was a stiff breeze in places it really didn’t feel like it. So as to avoid the fair that was still going on, on the bridge, we took an alternative route on a less well developed (and certainly less well maintained) road which ran due south just west of the Navajo reservation and I’m real glad that we didn’t try this yesterday as it went across and area of open high plains and, even today when the winds weren’t so bad, it was quite uncomfortable and I absolutely froze. We’re now staying in a Navajo owned and operated motel at Window Rock just inside Arizona and we’ll be making our way towards the Grand Canyon tomorrow (to arrive Tuesday) as we’ve treated ourselves to a motel ¼ from the South Rim for two nights.

8^th October 2007

There was frost on the Trike when we woke this morning so, before setting off, I put on as many layers of clothes as possible whilst maintaining the ability to move, and I’m glad I did as it was real cold again. Our route today took us right through the middle of the Navajo and Hopi Indian reservations where there was mile after mile of nothing much but two lane black top and rough grassland – it did have a kind of strange, harsh beauty about it though. We’re staying overnight in a fairly drab motel in a large city so nothing much to report here but tomorrow we have only 80 miles or so to cover before we reach the Grand Canyon.

9^th October 2007

It was still chilly when we left this morning but not as cold as the last few days (thankfully). The road to the Canyon took us through the Kaibab National Forest which sits at around 7000/7500 feet so it was pretty chilly up there but as we descended towards the Canyon (yes the rim is lower) it warmed considerably. We arrived at the Canyon via the South entrance and stopped at a number of viewpoints en-route to our motel. Whilst we were at the first of the visitors’ centres we heard lots of emergency sirens and saw a number of emergency vehicles (that stopped just 100 yards or so away) which made us think that there’d been some sort of accident. We learned later in the day that we were right and a four-year-old girl had lost her life when she fell from the rim. It’s an absolute tragedy that a fun family day out can end that way but there are lots of warning signs about the dangers and they obviously need to be taken seriously. We first arrived at our motel rather too early to check in so went out on the Desert view scenic drive that takes you along the east rim. The views were great. We were back in time to watch the sunset before getting ourselves cleaned up ready for some food and a swift drink in the bar. Tomorrow will be a little different again as we’ve booked a flight over the Canyon – should be interesting as they’re forecasting gusty winds!!

10^th October 2007

It was gusty this morning but it just made for a slightly more interesting flight but it was no more than a bit bumpy. The aircraft we were in was pretty small having room for 5 passengers so we all had a window seat. The views afforded as you fly over the Canyon are terrific; it’s still real hard to appreciate just how big it is, it feels somewhat unreal. In all, the flight lasted just short of an hour so it was almost lunchtime by the time we arrived back at Grand Canyon Village. As the Park entrance fee (which we didn’t have to pay as we’ve got the Annual Parks Pass) includes free shuttle buses to all points of interest around the village as well as out to a number of view points that do not allow private vehicles, we made use of those for the best part of the afternoon and saw more great views. We’re currently having an hours R&R before going to eat and maybe, just maybe, to have a drink in the bar afterwards. Tomorrow we’re moving on and heading south to Sedona, a real nice town we’ve been to before on a previous visit.

11^th October 2007

We left the Park this morning in bright, warm sunshine and doubled back on ourselves for the first 70 or so miles (there really isn’t much option but to do so). As we had no accommodation booked and it’s a very popular tourist town, we made sure we’d reached Sedona by around midday and already a number of the motels had ‘no vacancy’ signs showing. We pulled in to one (as it turns out it is the one we stayed in on our previous visit) that was showing a vacancy sign and when we enquired we were told that the only rooms they had on offer were the ‘promotional’ rooms and that, if we wished, we could have one of these, overlooking the red rock canyon Sedona is famous for, for $39.95 – the catch was that you had to agree to sit through a timeshare presentation at their resort just on the edge of town. As the rooms usually go for $139 per night and they actually gave us two nights for the same price we agreed to attend the presentation tomorrow but made it clear that we had no intention of buying a timeshare here or anywhere else. As that didn’t seem to be a problem we checked in, took advantage of the balcony overlooking the canyon sitting out there to have lunch and meandered around the town for the afternoon/evening before retiring at around 21:00 which is when the bar shut – very odd for a tourist town but it apparently none of the bars/restaurants are open after 22:00 as “it’s always quite in the evenings” - not surprising really when everything shuts!

12^th October 2007

We had a late, leisurely breakfast this morning before taking another wander around the local galleries/shops. We then went along for our presentation which was conducted by a very pleasant lady who realised fairly early on that she wasn’t going to get a sale and, although obviously a little miffed, continued to show us around what was a very nice 4/5 star resort before giving up and signing off our piece of paper that confirmed our entitlement to the cheap motel rates (if you don’t show for the presentation you pay full price). In a way it was a waste of an hour or two but we had nothing else planned so it was worth it. We then visited a small gallery/boutique shopping village just outside of the resort before heading back in to town on the free shuttle bus. All in all it’s been a fairly lazy and not unpleasant day and one of the very few where we’ve not taken the Trike out.

13^th October 2007

It seems that listening to yesterday’s presentation may have been even more worthwhile than we thought as, when Graham went along to check out this morning he was given a check with a zero balance on it!! We may still find that we’re charged but as along as it’s at the lower rate that’ll be fine. Over the past few days people have been telling us that, as we’re in the area, we really should go see a small town called Jerome as it “clings to the side of a mountain”. Well, we went along and it’s a pretty enough town but it’ hardly a Rocamador, it’s just built on a steep slope. From there we headed South East and way up in altitude as we went through the Tonto National Forest and the Tonto basin past a very pretty (if a bit low on water) lake surrounded by mountains and huge Saguaro cacti (like the ones you see on the cowboy films). We finished up the day in a small town called Globe which is on the edge of the Apache reservation and we checked in to a motel with a family restaurant next door and a decidedly dodgy looking saloon on the opposite corner, the sort with few windows and plain, unmarked doors. We ate in the restaurant and then went in to the saloon which turned out to be a real locals bar with a majority Native American clientele (around a 70/30 split) and we had a real good evening talking to a variety of people (including some young ladies who were officers in the local corrections centre) drinking very cheap drinks – not sure how we don’t have hangovers but hoorah, we don’t.

14^th October 2007

We left this morning in warm sunshine but, once again, moved to higher altitude so it got really quite chilly but it was worth it. As we’ve managed to get a few days ahead of ourselves (we’re going to a rally in Tuscon next weekend and it’s only 100 miles or so in a straight line) we did some research on the web and identified some good motorcycling roads to spend the next few days exploring. Today, we went north and east through part of the San Carlos Apache reservation and through the Salt River Canyon which was stunning. The roads were great and the views superb. We reached the town of Show Low far too early to check in to the motel we’d booked so took another loop ride further north. Not quite so pretty but still pleasant. Tomorrow we’re heading almost due south on US191 (otherwise known as US666 – the Devil’s highway) which is supposed to be “a real challenge for machine & rider” – should be interesting.

15^th October 2007

To get to the Devil’s Highway we had first to ride through the White Mountains, the Apache National Forest and another part of the Apache reservation. The road was great with nice sweeping curves and the mountains were deceivingly high, we reached over 9000 feet and it was positively bitter for a while as we rode across the huge plateau that’s at the top. As there didn’t appear to be much on the 191 we stopped for an early lunch at the ‘Bear Wallow Café’ (excellent pies, apparently !) and then made tracks. At first the road was more nice gentle sweeping bends with some very long, though not steep, inclines. The road did, however, become more challenging with two sections (one of 8 miles and one of 11 miles) being posted with advisory speed limits of 10 miles per hour. In usual US style they were being over-cautious, having said that, you wouldn’t want to take some of the bends too quickly as there are some pretty big drop-offs and the surface had been pretty well chewed up by the snow-plows. The views as we made our way along were absolutely stunning until, that was, we reached a point just north of the town of Morenci when we came around a bend to find an enormous blot on the landscape in the shape of a massive open-cast Copper mine. It went on for miles and totally engulfed the old town and had, apparently, resulted in the building of a very bland new town – it was awful. Thankfully, once we’d got through it, the roads turned to wide-open twisties and mountain views but, this time, they were covered in harsh scrub rather than the earlier lovely forests. The other thing we were surprised to find in such an arid area was field after field of very healthy looking cotton crops – not what we’d expected. Tomorrow were heading to Tombstone (of OK Corral fame) where we’ve booked in to a small, locally run motel for two nights. Should be fun.

16^th October 2007

The run across to Tombstone wasn’t a particularly comfortable one as we were heading across open countryside in very strong crosswinds (again), there wasn’t a great deal to see en-route either, unless you count the barriers being built along the border with Mexico (we were within a spit of it). We did stop in one small town on the way where we had lunch, it was an old 1880’s mining town with a few points of interest but there wasn’t a great deal to see. We reached Tombstone fairly early and were lucky enough to be able to check in straight away. Once we’d done so we took a walk across to the old town, had a wander around and a quick drink before getting cleaned up and going back in to town for the evening. When we were here before, the town was fairly busy but this time it is pretty quiet. It’s all the more noticeable because they’ve now closed the main street to everything except horse-drawn traffic. We visited a couple of the saloons during the evening and got in to a very interesting conversation with a guy called Mike who owns another bar/restaurant/gunfight reconstruction business in town and we’re going along to see the show tomorrow.

17^th October 2007

After a lie in and a late breakfast, we went across to town and did the tourist bits i.e. visited the original Birdcage theatre (which was actually a bar/casino & house of ill-repute) where a number of famous cowboys were known to have spent their leisure time. We took a trolley bus tour of the town, and as we’d promised, we went along to Mike’s place to watch one of the gunfights. We returned to Mike’s later in the evening to try out the restaurant and the food was very good (and far too much) but, much as the same as the rest of the town, it was real quiet. The only place that had signs of life was the Crystal Palace Saloon which had a Karaoke night that sounded pretty awful so we avoided that one and had a drink in ‘Big nose Kate’s Saloon’ before retiring.

18^th October 2007

As I said a few days ago, we’ve managed to get a bit ahead of ourselves and when we left Tombstone this morning we still had no real idea where to head for so we meandered our way south towards the Mexican border and then back up again to a small town called Tubac that we’d been told was worth a visit. It was a pleasant enough place, full of art galleries and boutique shops but there was absolutely nowhere to have stayed if we’d wanted to so we decided that we may as well make a call and try to book in for an extra night in Tucson and spend three nights in one place (not like us at all) so that’s what we’re doing. Tomorrow we’ll probably take a trip either in to the City or to one of the sights on the outskirts. The rally we’re going to is another GWRRA event (yes – I know, but we decided to give it another go) and Brian & Barbara Downing are riding across from San Diego to meet up with us and, I believe, a couple of Brian’s buddies will be here too so it should be better than last time!!

19^th October 2007

This morning we visited the Arizona-Sonora desert museum which is a mixture of a zoo, a museum and a desert botanical gardens. To get to the museum you have to drive through part of the Segura National Park which, as you might expect, is chock full of huge Segura Cacti. The ‘museum’ itself makes for an interesting (and hot/dry) visit; the exhibits all represent species from the local deserts and are mostly outdoors. You follow a footpath through the desert landscape and there are a variety of enclosures spread around the area (as with most zoo’s some of them are too small but it’s better than some we’ve been to). Once we’d finished there, we went along to the rally site to sign in and it was fairly obvious even then that this was going to be better than the previous GWRRA event. We were made to feel very welcome and as the afternoon/evening went on we met a lot of very nice people and, much to our embarrassment, were introduced to the whole room during the opening ceremony. During the evening there was a free barbeque where we met even more people before having to dash away to meet up with Brian & Barbara who’d called to say they’d arrived. We met up for a drink or two in our motel lounge and arranged to meet at the rally site tomorrow.

20^th October 2007

We met Brian & Barb at the rally site as arranged and spent a pleasant hour or two looking around the vendors (spending more money) and meeting yet more new people before riding along to the local Honda dealers who were hosting the Poker Run; it cost $5 to enter and you could either draw the first card for your poker hand from there and then join the run to a variety of collection points along a pre-prescribed route to collect the other four or, as we did, you could collect all five cards from the dealers. There is a prize for both the best and worst hands – we didn’t win either. We then went back to the site to watch the Arizona drill team – it all sounds very twee but they are a group of very skilled riders who put on a show of precision riding which was great to watch and made a nice change from seeing display riders burning out their back tyres. After we’d eaten at the local (not very good) steakhouse we joined the rest of the crowd to watch the light parade (bikes covered in a variety of LED and/or flashing Christmas lights). This was followed by a free ice-cream social. The evening still finished early, there was still no official bar on site but the whole thing was so much better than the last rally that this group has restored our faith in the GWRRA.

21^st October 2007

We were up early this morning as Brian & Barb needed to be away by 08:30 and we wanted to meet for breakfast; they made their deadline but we didn’t get away until around 10:00. As we’re now heading towards Las Vegas and needed to get from the south east of Tucson to the north west of Phoenix there were really only three route options. The first would have taken us on a real big loop around the east side of both cities, the second would have taken us on a westward loop through proper sandy desert and the third took us partly on an Interstate, right through the middle of both cities. As by this time it had started to get extremely windy and it was by far the shortest, we chose the latter option – it still made for a very uncomfortable journey and we were glad to reach our motel. Graham spoke to Brian a few minutes ago and they too had a very uncomfortable journey (twice the distance of ours too) but they arrived home safely, which is what counts. Please be aware that dear old BT internet are in the process of moving our photographs to a different location and we are, as yet, unable to provide a new link so, sorry, the album will not be available for a short while.

22^nd October 2007

We didn’t have far to go today (we’re still a bit ahead of ourselves) so didn’t leave until around 10:00. The route took us through a large area of desert, not all sand dunes as you see in films, but vast areas of very dry scrubland with lots of dust blowing around. It was windy again but nothing like yesterday thankfully. We’re now staying for two nights in a resort town called Lake Havasu City which is where the old London Bridge is and we’ll no doubt be going down to take a look at some point. Interestingly, two people have already told us that they really did think that they were buying Tower bridge – sad really don’t you think??

23^rd October 2007

So, we went and had a walk over the bridge and we read the plaque that owns up to the fact that they paid $2.46m to purchase it and a further $4.5m to transport and re-build it – all for a fairly ordinary looking bridge, boy they must have been disappointed! Once we’d been to the bridge and the, apparently, world famous London village (a small shopping/eating area) that’s grown up next to it, we could find little else to do in the town so we decided to be real lazy, bought a couple of books and sat by the motel pool reading all afternoon. We’ll soon be on our way out to the brewery/restaurant we’ve spotted just across the road as it only seems fair to give it a try.

24^th October 2007

We had a really good run today, it was only around 80 miles but the majority of it was on the Historic Route 66 which wound its way through part of the Mojave desert, some of it flat sandy desert and some mountainous. The scenery was great and the road nice and twisty but in some places the surface was poor and in others it was positively awful. This also took us through a small gold mining town called Oatman that we’d been told about by a couple we met at the Grand Canyon. There are still mines there but very little commercial mining, the town now survives on tourism and most of that results from the fact that a herd of wild Burro (donkeys) live in the surrounding hills and visit the town during daylight hours to be fed carrots that the locals sell to the tourists! Some of the buildings in the town still appear to be the originals but most are now tourist shops or cafes, there is also a staged shootout every day – a bit twee but worth a visit. We’re now only just over 100 miles away from Las Vegas but will be heading straight there tomorrow as we’ve booked a four-day ticket to the NHRA drag racing at the Las Vegas strip and we need to collect the tickets (the racing doesn’t really start until Friday and finishes Sunday). We’re going to have a few busy days too as we decided to push the boat out whilst we’re there and we’ve not only got tickets to the drags but we’re going to see Cirque du Soleil perform ‘Love’ (based on the Beatles songs) on Thursday evening, Elton John on Friday evening and, all being well, on Sunday evening we’ll be meeting up with Steve & Elise (Steve is an ex-colleague of Graham’s) who just happen to be arriving in town on Sunday!!

25^th October 2007

As we didn’t have too far to go today we took a few scenic detours, one being along the side of Lake Mead. We also rode through the security checkpoints and over the Hoover Dam. It looks as though, before too long, you won’t have to cross the dam unless you want to as they are in the process of building a hoofing great bridge across the top. We arrived in Vegas from the north and went straight to the drag strip to collect our tickets and to see what was going on. Qualifying races had already started albeit in the (relatively) minor classes so we stayed for a while, checked out our seating for the weekend and then left in plenty of time (Hah!) to get to the hotel and sort ourselves out before tonight’s show. We made one big mistake on the way i.e. to drive down the Las Vegas Strip – the traffic was abysmal and it took us the best part of an hour to travel the 2.5 miles to our hotel and a further ½ hour to check in and get from the motorcycle parking to our room. As a result we didn’t have long to get ready and get to the Mirage theatre. It didn’t help that the taxi we took there chose the route where there’d been an accident – luckily we made it in time but we didn’t have time to eat before the show. The show itself was excellent; probably less spectacular than the other Cirque du Soleil shows we’ve seen but still well worth seeing.

26^th October 2007

We woke this morning to grey skies, the wind has changed direction and we’re now getting the smoke from the California wildfires, it didn’t affect things for us though as, although hazy, the sun came through and we had a real hot day at the drag strip. The traffic getting there was really awful again but as we’d left early we still made it by 10:00, in time to watch the competition-altered cars etc. before the main qualifying started at around 11:00. We were really surprised and pleased to find that John Force was at the track albeit on an elaborate set of crutches (for those who don’t know he’s the 14 times Funny Car champion who had a real nasty crash just a few weeks ago) and we thoroughly enjoyed the day watching the majority of the qualifying sessions but, bearing in mind the traffic, we had to leave after the first Nitro qualifying to get to the concert on time. Despite the traffic we made the show in plenty of time and even had time to eat first which was just as well as the show, which was absolutely superb, lasted a full two hours without Elton getting a single note wrong.

27^th October 2007

It was back to the drag strip this morning for another excellent days racing. It was qualifying sessions again today and, thankfully, almost all of our favoured drivers/riders made the grid for tomorrows racing. There were some really good times put in and it bodes well for tomorrows racing, it also helps that the facilities here are really good with good (although typically hard) seating, plenty of clean restrooms and a great group of volunteers from nearby Nellis airforce base managing the crowds and stopping people from standing at the fencing in front of the paid for seating – excellent. The racing didn’t finish until around 17:30 so it was dark by the time we made it back to the hotel (the 18 mile journey took us over an hour again) so apart from eating at one of the hotel restaurants we had a lazy evening.

28^th October 2007

Finals day at the drag strip. It was real hot & sunny again today which isn’t always a good thing for the race track but, as it was, there were some excellent times put in again today and one small piece of history was made as one of our favourites, Ashley Force, became the first woman to make it to the final of a Nitro funny car race, unfortunately, she lost in the final but only by 100^th of a second!!! Once again, it took us an hour to get back to the hotel (not bad really as there were thousands of people leaving the circuit at the same time) and we arrived to a message telling us that Steve & Elise had just arrived in town so, after a quick shower, we met for a meal and a drink, all very pleasant.

29^th October 2007

We left Vegas this morning under overcast skies and made our way across in to California and through Death Valley. Whilst we were at the visitors centre we noticed that our chosen route included an area marked as ‘rough road’ which had a number of weight/length restrictions on it so we checked with one of the Rangers to see exactly what lay ahead. He confirmed that the rough part included areas of dirt followed by tarmac, followed by dirt etc. etc. He also warned that, in places, the tarmac sections were worse than the dirt and that we would have to be real careful making our way through. He was right, the road was pretty bad and we did have to weave our way around the potholes but this only lasted for 4 or 5 miles and the scenery meant it was worth it. We’re now staying in a small town on the edge of the Mojave desert and we’ll be making along day of it tomorrow in an attempt to get to Monterey, on the coast, so that we can ride some more of the Pacific Coat highway before we have to ship the Trike back home.

30^th October 2007

It’s been an interesting day; we’ve travelled through a real mix of countryside and weather. It was bright and sunny but cool when we left the Mojave Desert behind this morning and it was cold with complete cloud cover by the time we rode through the Kern Canyon, the views were still real good but I’m sure they would have been even better on a clear day. Once we’d cleared the mountainous terrain of the Canyon there were signs that there had been a few showers (although we managed to stay dry) and we passed through a huge agricultural area with some of the biggest vineyards we’ve ever seen, orange groves plus almond and pistachio farms. There was also an area that was rather like a massive salad bowl, full of various types of lettuce, lollo rosso, celery and tomatoes, all of which were being harvested. By the time we reached the coast, yes that does mean we’ve completed our third coast to coast, it was bright and sunny again but still pretty cold. We’re now staying in Carmel (where Clint Eastwood is/was mayor) which is one of the areas with huge celebrity houses along the coast. Just to top off the day we experienced what is being described as ‘ a significant earthquake of approx. 5.6 on the Richter scale’ whilst we were eating dinner!!!!! (It lasted around a minute or so and was rather like sitting on airbed someone was walking along it – very odd). Tomorrow we’ll be heading down the coast road towards Santa Barbara so that we can be at Brian & Barbara’s in San Diego by Thursday.

31^st October 2007

Happy Halloween!! We’ve spent the day travelling the Pacific Coast Highway which was great except that there was a coastal fog that prevented us from seeing a fair bit of the coastline, it also made it real cold in places. Never mind, we’ve generally been very lucky with the weather so we can’t really complain. It was noticeable that the further south (and nearer to LA) we got the busier the roads became, we’ve got so used to empty roads it was a bit of a shock to the system. We’re now just south of Santa Barbara in a motel that’s apparently run by an Angel and a Gypsy (it could, of course, have something to do with Halloween) so we’re expecting to get to Brian & Barbara’s in time to join a GWRRA chapter dinner run tomorrow evening –should be interesting.

1^st November 2007

Last night turned out to be a bit of a mistake. After we’d eaten dinner we joined a number of ‘locals’ at the motel bar and it turned out we had far too much to drink so we were both feeling a bit woolly when we left this morning. We’d intended staying on the Pacific Coast highway for as long as possible but, after we’d passed Santa Monica and reached LA proper, we decided that the traffic lights were just too much to bear and we jumped on the Interstate until we reached Huntingdon beach when we re-joined the coastal road. It was still pretty foggy so the views weren’t bad but not as good as they might have been. The last part of the journey was also on an Interstate as there really is no option to get in/through San Diego. We finally reached Brian & Barbara’s house, which is in a real nice quiet residential area, at around 15:00 so in plenty of time to join the GWRRA dinner which Brian said was at an Italian restaurant (first time I’ve ever had fajitas in an Italian). Unfortunately, Barbara wasn’t able to join us as she was working but it was a pleasant evening none the less.

2^nd November 2007

We’d made arrangements to take the Trike to a Honda dealer local to Brian & Barbara so that it could have a final service before we ship it home. Brian had very kindly given me the keys to his truck so that we didn’t have to spend the whole day waiting, after we’d checked the trike in and had a look around the shop (which is absolutely enormous with a wide selection of bikes and gear) we made our way back to the house. Barbara later took us shopping for suitcases and I’m real glad that she did as she managed to get us discount after discount meaning that a five-piece luggage set cost us less than $50:00 (£25:00). We collected the trike during the afternoon and discovered that the cost was less than we’d feared - $467 including a new front tire – can’t be bad.

3^rd November 2007

We were all up and out early this morning as we had tickets to the drag racing at Pomona just to the east of Los Angeles. Brian drove and it took us just two hours to make the journey, unfortunately, it then took us another hour to get in to the parking lot!! It was a good days racing with some real good times set but, as far as we’re concerned the strip, which is one of the early ones, doesn’t have good facilities, everything inside was also real expensive, we even had to pay a separate parking fee and we haven’t had to do that at any other drag strip whether on this trip or previous ones. Getting away from the event wasn’t nearly so painful and we managed to check in to our motel in plenty of time to have a quick wash & brush up before going out to eat.

4^th November 2007

Pomona finals day. Another good days racing which included a special tribute to Wally Parks who passed away recently (for those of you who don’t follow drag racing, he was the man who created the NHRA and made drag racing possible), this included a display of a number of cars from the nearby NHRA museum and was attended by some of the most famous drag racers from the past, it was great to see Don Garlits in his ‘Swamp Rat III’ amongst those paying their respects. The racing finished at around 17:30 so by the time we got back to San Diego it was definitely time to eat and we went along to a Jewish restaurant (as far as I’m aware that’s a first for me) and had some really good wholesome food.

5^th November 2007

Well, that’s it then, the end of our motorcycle tour. The trike had to be delivered to the docks at Long Beach by 14:00 today and Brian had very kindly taken some time off so that he & Barbara could collect us and bring us back to their place. We keyed the address into the SatNav on both vehicles and left at around 11:00 to be sure we made it in time. All was going well until we were part way up the I5 when Gladys (our SatNav) decided she didn’t want to go home and wasn’t going to play, she kept giving us a message that said there were no roads near our destination and she just shut down. Luckily we had a set of written directions so after a stop or two while we tried to convince Gladys she wouldn’t be redundant at home (we’ve ordered the European maps) we made the docks with a little time to spare. Once there, there was very little red tape and we were in and out within around ½ hour. Brian drove us back down most of the Pacific Coast Highway and it was actually clear enough for us to see the sea this time. Total Mileage 27206. States Visited 42. Number of interesting people met = too many to count.

6^th November 2007

Barbara looked after us today and took us shopping to look at SatNavs for our car at home as we’re now firm converts (they make it so much easier to find specific addresses etc). We’ve also done some grocery shopping and have booked a rental car for nine days from tomorrow so that we can get out of their hair for a while before coming back on the 16^th ready for our flight back to Baltimore on the 18^th.

7^th November 2007

We collected our rental car this morning (a PT Cruiser again) and headed for the San Diego zoo which proved to be a good days visit. At first the entry fee seemed a little steep but we then discovered it included an orientation tour by bus and a ride on the aerial Skyway from one side of the zoo to the other. Once we’d finished there we headed back to Brian & Barbara’s for a very pleasant evening chatting about anything & everything.

8^th November 2007

We left San Diego (and the mist) behind this morning and headed through the hills to Palm Springs where it was warm (86F) and sunny. Our route took us through a large area that had been devastated by the recent wildfires, it was a strange and sobering sight to see so many properties completely razed to the ground whilst others within feet of them appeared largely untouched. We reached Palm Springs mid-afternoon and checked in to our motel before going for a walk along the main street and partaking of an ice cream. Whilst taking our stroll we noticed a number of vendors starting to set up on the side of the street and discovered that every Thursday evening they have ’villagefest’, a mixture of craft market, street entertainment and food stalls. We started the evening by having an excellent Thai meal and followed that with a walk through the market area, all in all it was a very pleasant evening.

9^th November 2007

We left Palm Springs this morning and drove north across to the Joshua Tree National Park which is largely a park for hikers/climbers but was worth a drive through (despite the fact that the road to one of the main views was closed for maintenance). We continued north through the desert landscapes and have ended the day at a small town called Hesperia. The weather forecast for the next few days is a little less promising (still warmer than home though) so we’re not entirely sure where to head for tomorrow, there doesn’t seem much point in driving to the coast if it’s going to be cool and wet, we’ll have to see.

10^th November 2007

Amongst some tourist information we collected from our motel foyer last night was a flyer for a Feline Conservation centre which just happened to be on our proposed route so we decided to call in. It was a fairly small place but there were a lot of cats there including some we’d never heard of i.e. some Jaguarundi’s (they looked like across between a cat and an otter to me!). The main purpose of the centre is as a breeding facility for endangered species and it apparently does pretty well on that front as was borne out by the presence of an eight-month-old leopard cub. Unfortunately, the enclosures for some of the animals were rather too small so, although the beasts all looked to be in good condition, I left feeling a little uncomfortable about the place. Once we’d left we headed for a motel in Bakersfield we’d booked using some of our reward points and, as it was close to a shopping mall we took the opportunity to have our final US haircuts and to do a little shopping before retiring.

11^th November 2007

If you ever have the chance to stay in Bakersfield at the Quality Inn, White Lane DON’T !! When we arrived yesterday we noticed that one of the rooms close to ours had a broken window but we didn’t think too much of it and it had been repaired by the time we’d had dinner. Unfortunately, it appears that it may have been indicative of the area we were in as we spent much of last night listening to a very heated domestic and late night arrivals chatting, swearing and laughing outside – I think it finally stopped at around 03:30. It had started to rain as we left the motel and remained damp and dreary for most of the way to Sequoia National Park. Once we reached the park it got worse, not the rain, but the fog/low cloud; at times it was difficult to see the centre-line in the road leave alone any of the scenery. As a result, we didn’t bother with Kings Canyon, as we would likely have been able to see even less. The weather forecast for tomorrow is apparently better so we’re in the process of trying to decide where to head for.

12^th November 2007

We really didn’t have the best of starts this morning having gone out to our rental car to find that the front off-side tire was completely flat !! After a bit of a struggle Graham managed to find the necessary tools and change to the silly little spare wheel and I, eventually, managed to get hold of Avis to find out what we were supposed to do about getting it fixed. They agreed that we would get the tire repaired (there was a very large screw sticking in it) and they would refund the cost when we return the car, luckily, there was a garage in the town (and by calling it a town I’m being generous) that did tire repairs so we were on our way after only an hour or so delay. We had decided that we would start to head south again, back to Brian & Barbara’s, and that we would go via the NHRA drag racing museum at Pomona. This meant driving in to the outskirts of LA again which is a bit of a pain and, what with the traffic and this morning’s delay, we didn’t make it in time to have a good look around so we’re going along tomorrow morning instead before we go back to San Diego. Just to finish our day off we received an e-mail telling us that the ship the Trike was due to sail on was over-booked so it’s now going on a different ship/route and won’t arrive in the UK until 25^th December. As our contact said – Merry Christmas to you too!!

13^th November 2007

We really aren’t doing too well this last few days; having not had internet access for a while, today was the first chance we’d had to check a few things out and, lo and behold, we looked at the NHRA website to find that the museum isn’t open on Monday’s or Tuesdays so we’d come back in to LA for nothing!!!! We consoled ourselves by doing a bit of shopping (just a few things to bring home) and then went on to visit the small town of Temecula that Barbara had said was worth a visit. She was right; it is a nice old town with lots of antiques shops, craft shops and eateries. We stopped there for lunch before making our way down to San Diego and another pleasant evening in Brian & Barbara’s company.

14^th November 2007

I really could get used to this. At 08:30 this morning I was sitting in the back garden in the sunshine being bombarded by the hummingbirds and it was around 70F. We later went out to visit the Aquarium at La Jolla which is run by an oceanographic research group so wasn’t just done for the tourists, it was well worth a visit. From there, we went down to the bay and sat out on the beach watching the sunbathers and surfers and, by then, it was around 82F, I really, really could get used to this. Once we’d torn ourselves away from the beach we did a little more shopping (I think I can still get it all in the bags?!) before heading back ‘home’.

15^th November 2007

Today, we really hit the shops, not for anything big or expensive, just the opposite; boy do they sell some Christmas junk over here! Barbara very kindly took us around the town and helped us find just what we were looking for (we have this great Christmas competition with our neighbours that involves the worst possible bad taste present for less than $2, and I think we’ve done REALLY well this year, snigger). Now we really do need to worry about getting everything into the bags!! After we’d walked our feet off, we returned home to another great home cooked meal.

16^th November 2007

As Barbara was working this morning we took the opportunity to get some of the boring jobs out of the way e.g. laundry and packing (it sort of fits in the bags we’ve got!!). After we’d eaten it was time to get ready for another new experience, a drive-in movie. As there were the four of us we took along some camping chairs and sat in front of the car so that we could all get a good view, thankfully, Brian & Barbara have been there before and knew to take along the blankets as it got pretty chilly sitting still for that long. We saw two full-length feature films, ‘Bee Movie’ a pretty good cartoon that included quite a few jokes that were definitely for the adults, and ‘Stardust’ a rather odd fantasy/love story type of film. We both thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would go again given the chance.

17^th November 2007

It was warm & sunny again today and there was a slight breeze which prompted Brian to make a call to the Torrey Pines gliderport where he regularly (for some strange reason) throws himself off of a cliff with an oversized kite strapped to his back – well, that’s what it looked like to me anyway. No, seriously, Brian has his paragliding licence and we went along to watch as he took a flight along the coast. I can think of far worse ways to spend a November afternoon than sitting at the top of a cliff, overlooking the bay we visited earlier in the week whilst soaking up the warm sunshine. Once we’d finished there we took a quick trip ‘home’ before going out for a very nice meal at a local restaurant.

18^th November 2007

Unfortunately, it was time to leave Brian & Barbara’s (and the sunshine) behind. We owe them a very big thank you not only for putting us up (or is it putting up with us?) but for getting up at an ungodly hour to take us to the airport this morning. They dropped us at the kerbside check-in at around 07:30 and we made our way through to security where, as usual, Graham set off the alarms and received a very thorough pat-down. From there, the day consisted of two flights and quite a lot of waiting around. Everything went pretty much to plan and we reached our motel in Baltimore at around 23:00 (allowing for a three hour time difference).

19^th November 2007

After picking up a rental car we headed across to Crofton to see Paul at the Honda shop. He has very kindly been looking after a bag of ours whilst we’ve been travelling and we went along to pick it up so that we could see just how much trouble we we’re in with the packing. The luggage allowance is pretty generous but the problem is the weight limit per bag, we’ve just about got everything into a bag, now all we have to do is see what they weigh. Luckily, Jeff has a set of scales at Haus of Trikes so we’ll be able to check that out tomorrow when we go along to see them all.

20^th November 2007

We took in some scenic roads on the way to Haus of Trikes and arrived at around lunchtime. As Jeff & Ed were out, we took advantage of their scales and discovered that most of our bags were well within the weight limit but one was very borderline (the limit is 50lbs and it weighed 49.85lbs) so we moved things around a little just to be on the safe side. We spent the rest of the day catching up with everyone and also discovered that we had made front page of the local newspaper after we were interviewed, during Delmarva Bike Week, as a customer of Jeff’s. We spent a very pleasant evening with Jeff, Edith and Ed at a restaurant that has become something of a favourite haunt.

21^st November 2007

We made a brief stop off at the shop this morning to say our goodbyes and then headed north across the Chesapeake Bay bridge and on to our rendezvous with Paul at Honda of Crofton. Paul and his wife Lorraine had very kindly asked us to share Thanksgiving with them and, as they were closing the dealership at 15:00 we made sure we arrived in time to follow Paul home. His daily journey to/from work only lasts around 15/20 minutes but is a really pretty ride and the house isn’t bad either !! They share the house with Lorraine’s mother Marie, their youngest daughter Steffie and three very friendly dogs, we were made to feel very welcome and were even treated to some real Italian home cooking courtesy of Marie – excellent. Later in the evening we took a drive across to one of the State Parks alongside the Chesapeake Bay to view the Christmas lights that erected each year in aid of a local charity. The display covered quite an area and was well worth a visit.

22^nd November 2007 – Thanksgiving.

Paul joined his club’s traditional Thanksgiving motorcycle run this morning but, as we no longer have a bike available, we spent the morning chatting to Lorraine. We later sat down to the traditional turkey dinner (not quite the same as our Christmas dinner but close) followed, later in the day, by Pumpkin pie – all very nice thank you. The afternoon was spent watching (or in our case trying to understand) American Football. All in all, a very nice relaxing day.

23^rd November 2007

As our flight wasn’t until the evening, we spent the morning making final adjustments to the luggage etc. before going out to lunch with Paul and Lorraine. From there everything went pretty much to plan. I dropped Graham and the luggage at the airport before returning the rental car, we dropped our bags off (having checked-in on-line) and made or way through security to await the flight which, thankfully, was on time.

24^th November 2007

An uneventful flight saw us arriving at Heathrow around 30 minutes early thanks to a 103mph tailwind. Richard who’d very kindly volunteered to collect us, arrived just a few minutes after we’d passed through customs and we made it home by around 10:00. The cold weather was a bit of a shock to the system (from 75F on Friday to 28F on Saturday !) and I’m sure there are more of those to come (especially having seen the price of fuel) but I suppose we’ll just have to get used to it!!!!!

We do intend including one more update once we get the Trike back and will also be adding some ‘hints and tips’ for anyone who decides they want to tour in the States but, for now as Bugs Bunny would say; That’s it folks!!!!

Hints and Tips can be found here !