Four Corners

Running for the Barn

2007-07-20T23:43:00.000-07:00

We wake up in our cabin at Diamond Lake, ready to face the day. This morning we'll head up to Crater Lake to have breakfast at the lodge.

On the way we actually get a decent picture of Mt. Thielsen.

On the way to Crater Lake are these bizarre plains, like the surface of Mars.

As we come around the bend, we see this amazing view of Crater Lake.

And a few of the locals. These are Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrels, and its really clear that they've been domesticated. Years of tourists feeding them has trained them to come and play whenever anyone stops.

But even with a crowd of our little friends, we still can't help but be impressed by the view.

They are awfully cute, don't you think?

I'm thinking of hiring this one as a guard squirrel.

It's really cold up here. So cold that the roads are lined with snow.

Ready, aim, fire!

So pretty...

We make it up to the lodge, which is right along the rim of the crater.

It amazes me that places this elaborate were made entirely of wood, entirely by hand.

Here, Paul reenacts that great picture Tim took of me at Crater Lake a few years back. It really is remarkably peaceful here.

Not a bad self portrait. Even if I do say so myself!

Breakfast at the lodge was pretty tasty, although most things weren't very hot. The coffee was probably scalding hot when it left the kitchen, but by the time it got to the table, it dropped thirty degrees. Brrrr!!! It's cold up here!

It was time to get back on the road. It was definitely a good day for swooshing, and we had a fun ride down the mountain.

Now here is where I get to make my colleges at Akimbo insanely jealous. There is a show on the BBC called "Top Gear", which is all about high performance cars. A while back they did a show about a car called the Ariel Atom. This car is so fast, it rivals motorcycles in acceleration.

Paul is on the mailing list of an American company called Brammo, which has the rights to making a U.S. version of the Ariel Atom. Since we were driving through Ashland, OR., we decided to pay them a visit. Paul being on the mailing list is enough to get in, isn't it?

When we got there, they were really friendly and were happy to give us the guided tour.

Since these cars are custom made, they requested that I not post any pictures on the internet of any car under construction. You can look at these two though. Aren't they cool? Zero to sixty in 3.1 seconds! Think I need one?

By the way, Brammo is currently working on a electric, high-performance motorcycle!

After our tour, we hop on the bikes and do another forty-five minutes to glorious, Yreka, CA!

On our way to Yreka I see a sign. "San Francisco - 310 Miles"

Paul has an expression. Running for the barn. Sometimes when you go horseback riding, the horse can tell when you start heading home. When they do, they often make a run for it. We have a few friends like this. The second they start heading home, they can’t get there fast enough.

Well the second I saw this sign, a thought went through my head. "I can be home in six hours!"

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to sleep in my own bed. When we stop for gas I mention this to Paul, and he understands the allure. Paul decides that he's going to take the slow route along with Jim and Suzanne, and he'll meet me in San Mateo in a couple of days.

I say my goodbyes and off I go! I-5 here I come! Up this far North, even I-5 has its beautiful sights. Here is Mount Shasta in all its glory.

The rest of the way towards Sacramento is less exciting...

But it is peaceful in its own way.

Now I could have gone the most expedient way, but nothing says "Welcome back to the Bay Area" like the Golden Gate Bridge.

And the best view of the City by the Bay is from the Marin Highlands.

From here its just a hop, skip and a jump home.

And here I am, home again! After 67 days and 14,634 miles, my journey is over.

I'm going to crash for a couple of days, then fly down to San Diego to celebrate with Paul when he completes his journey. We'll be celebrating at Phil's BBQ, so it should make for a good blog posting!

See you in a couple of days! - Peter

The Joy of Swooshing!

2007-07-19T23:10:00.000-07:00

It's raining. I know, it shouldn't surprise me that it rains on the coast of Oregon, but I would be a lot happier if it wasn't.

We start off in our rain gear, but after a half hour it clears up. So we pull over and take off our rain gear. Of course, Mother Nature is quite the practical joker, so it starts raining again. So we suit up again.

Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, well, then we'd get wait wet. And we don't like getting wet.

Eventually it clears up enough that we feel safe enough to take off the rain gear again.

Do you think horses mind getting stuck in the rain?

Now I realize that the quality of this picture is just shy of a UFO, but I've been trying to get a decent picture of a bird in flight. Not easy while driving a motorcycle down the road at sixty miles an hour. It's not that bad though.

Today is a good day for "swooshing". What is swooshing you might ask? The way you turn a motorcycle is by leaning the bike left or right. Push left, lean left, go left, as they say in motorcycle class.

One of the great joys of motorcycle riding is swooshing back and forth, especially on a twisty road. Today was a good day for swooshing. Go right...

Then left...

It may seem simple, but its really enjoyable on a really basic level. Did I mention that we saw llamas?

I tend to pick up little hitchhikers along the way. In Louisiana it was grasshoppers. In Oregon it's ladybugs. This one kept pacing my brake cable.

Eventually we make it to Oakland, Oregon. Oakland Oregon is clearly different than Oakland California.

It's a great little town, and the deli makes a decent latte, and an incredible chocolate chip cookie!

Swoosh!

Even the Oregon roads like to swoosh.

And so do Oregon rivers.

There is something about these four trees on the hill that speaks to me.

Mmmmm... cow...

Now this has to be one of the most original stop signs I've ever seen.

We're off to Diamond Lake, by way of Umpqua National Forest. It's beautiful, don't you think?

We eventually stop for gas, and the station is infested with hundred of Sphinx moths.

They're all over the place!

As wonderful an invention the GPS is, often they get confused. Here, Paul and Jim try to figure out why theirs are sending us around in circles.

We finally find our hotel. We live!

They have a nice lodge, with a very good restaurant.

Our cabin was a bit... rustic, with a TV that got sixty channels of TBS. But it does have plenty of electrical outlets.

Diamond Lake is beautiful, even if its really cold.

I keep trying to get a good picture of Mt. Thielsen, but it keeps hiding behind the trees.

Look at that glassy water...

Diamond Lake is truly a beautiful place to visit.

Tomorrow we head to Crater Lake!

It's raining, it's pouring...

2007-07-18T22:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, I don't mean to sound like an ad, but I really like the Park Lane Suites. They basically took an old apartment building, renovated it, and added a bunch of cool amenities. So basically I get a room with a full on living room and kitchen, as well as a separate bedroom. I think it's pretty cool.

I didn't take a picture of the bedroom, since I didn't leave it quite as tidy as the rest of the place.

Is all my motorcycle equipment so day-glo?

As I get ready to leave, this couple comes by and comments on my bike. Since I have a San Francisco BMW sticker on the back, they spotted me as a fellow San Franciscan. When they heard that I came to Portland by way of Key West and Bangor Maine, they were suitably surprised.

I fill up my tank and begin my journey to the coast. I'm supposed to meet Paul, Jim, and Suzanne in Tillamook, so I try to get on my way as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had something else in mind.

If there was anything that could delay me, it decided to show up. Rain, traffic, log trucks, you name it. It's a shame about the rain. Not only because I'm not fond of driving in the rain, but because this particular road was really beautiful. There were low hanging clouds, the rain making the road black and shiny. But given a choice between keeping both hands on my handlebars in a rain storm, or getting a picture or two, I had to opt for safety.

The rain isn't as bad as it could be, so the ride, although slow, is actually quite pleasant. It didn't really come down hard until the last five miles. Then it came down in buckets.

Now I know its sad, but the reason I'm so much drier now that I was in say, Palm Beach Florida, is that I'm finally putting on my waterproof hoodie when I drive. I know, it should have been obvious, but it wasn't until Suzanne said, "Did you know you can put the hood on under your helmet?" that it finally dawned on me. Oh well, better late than never. And so when I arrive in Tillamook, I am dry, safe, and happy.

I get to the rendezvous corner and barely have time to get off the bike and pull out my iPhone when Paul shows up. Jim and Suzanne are happily ensconced in a Starbucks down the street waiting for us. So minutes later I'm back with the group, with a hot latte in my hand. Life is good. Very good!

After loitering for awhile, we have one of those conversations you have when you want to do something, but you don't want it bad enough to argue about it. "Hey, how about going to the Tillamook Cheese Factory?" "I could do that." (Long pause) "Hey, maybe we can go to the cheese factory." Yeah, I know, a truly riveting conversation. But we do all agree to go in quest of cheese, and minutes later we're heading down the road to the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

Not only do they have happy cows, but they also happen to be high-tech cows. This display talks about the "cow tag" each cow wears to identify it, as well as keep track of how much it eats, how much milk it produces, and other bovine statistics.

The factory is quite large and impressive, and as you can see, they have quite the assembly line.

The amazing part is that so much more of it can be automated. There is a spot on the conveyer belt where the sliced blocks of cheese are pulled apart and someone puts the individual smaller blocks onto another conveyer belt. Not exactly rocket science. I suspect they did this a hundred years ago, and they never got around to making it more efficient. But can you imagine what this lady says at cocktail parties? "Yes, I work at the cheese factory. What do I do? I move blocks of cheddar from one conveyer belt to another."

Apparently they sent one of these huge bricks to the Queen of England for the 50th year of her reign. They politely wrote back thanking them for such an unusual gift.

Down here is where they make the cheese curds. Ah, if only Steve Rozmus were here. He does love his cheese curds.

I just love this display. It's just like so many others, but it talks about the Rabbi who works in the cheese factory. They have just one, and since it's a seven day a week operation, he's quite a busy guy. The part that I found amusing is that his lab coat has a name tag. It just says "Rabbi". I don't know why this amuses me so, it just does.

Of course, I can't come to a cheese factory tour and not taste the cheese!

It's good stuff. Although I do wish I had passed on the "chili garlic cheddar".

Thanks to the rain, I didn't get any pictures of us driving to Newport. It's a shame, since the Oregon coast is quite beautiful. At least it cleared up by the time we arrived.

Now Paul and I have been on the road for two and a half months, so we are both looking a bit shaggy. When we arrived we both concluded that it was time for a haircut.

After some research in Google Maps, we find a barber. I don't know if it was how we looked, but she saw us and chased us off, saying that she was really busy. The next one was much nicer, but was also too busy. Finally we end up at the "Sportsman's Barber".

Paul instructs the barber that he doesn't want to look scruffy, but doesn't want to look like he's had a haircut either. She does an excellent job, and follows it up with a neck massage, using this ancient but very effective, back rubbing machine.

Now its my turn. I get in the chair, and through a series of misunderstandings, I go from having the longest hair I've ever had, to the shortest! Dye my hair red and I could pass for my brother! I don't think they make guys in the military wear it this short! Oh well, I'm no longer scruffy and my helmet should fit a lot better now.

We return to the hotel and Jim and Suzanne are ready to head out to dinner.

We end up at this hole in the wall place that the hotel manager recommended. We were a bit worried when the restaurant was completely empty, but soon we realized that it didn't matter. The clam chowder and crab cakes were both incredible.

Afterwards, we went to the pier behind the restaurant, and we saw this sea gulls nest. Not only was she in residence, but had two young ones loitering around.

Newport could easily be mistaken for Cape Cod. Take a look at all these fishing boats...

We make our way up from the shore and go in quest of coffee and ice cream. Google maps on our iPhones comes to the rescue again, and we find a Starbucks and an ice cream parlor, just 200 feet from each other. Jim and Paul get coffee, but by the time we get to Oregon Maid ice cream, they've closed. We settle for some ice cream sandwiches from the supermarket, and head back to the hotel.

Other than the rain, its been another lovely day in Oregon. Tomorrow, Diamond Lake!

The road to Portland

2007-07-17T22:04:00.000-07:00

Today we return to America, so we have to get to the ferry early to deal with customs.

We arrive at the driveway to the ferry and are greeted by a large man at the gate. Mind you, its raining and we're sitting on motorcycles.

Burly guy: "What name is your reservation under?"
Paul: "Swigart"
Burly guy: "You can't all be under Swigart. What's your name?" (as if four people is too many for one reservation)
Paul: "My name is Hacker."
Peter: "My name is Reeves."
Burly guy: "This doesn't make sense." (Wanders to the office, leaving us in the rain)

Burly guy: "What's your name again?"
Paul: "My name is Hacker."
Burly guy: "Oh, I guess that's alright."

So we finally get into the parking lot and are directed to a tent for motorcycles. Then redirected to an office to get our tickets. Half way there I'm called back because my tire is over a painted line, and this constitutes a treat to national security.

By the time I get back to the office, the door is locked.

Annoying Customs Lady: "You can't go in there."
Peter: "My friend is in there."
Annoying Customs Lady: "I assure you that he is not."

(Paul comes out of door that I'm assured he can't be behind)

Peter: "Apparently he is."
Annoying Customs Lady: "Well you can't."
Peter: "So where am I supposed to get my ticket?"
Annoying Customs Lady: "Go up to that (unmarked) window (in the rain) and wait for someone to help you."

If it wasn't for the fact that I would be arrested, I would have a tizzy fit. Instead I patiently wait in the rain for someone to sell me a ticket.

After all this we get to wait around for ninety minutes to get onto the ferry.

At least the ride on the ferry is uneventful. We cross the Strait of Juan de Fuca and land safely in Port Angeles. We are back in America.

Well, a very wet America. We spend the next couple of hours driving in the rain. The rain gear is doing a pretty good job of keeping us dry, and it stops raining just in time for us to stop for lunch.

The Eagle Creek Saloon is a nice little hole in the wall, and I have to say, they make a mighty tasty burger. No, burgers are not as large as the one on the outside. And much to my surprise and delight, my cell phone is actually getting five bars! I know this shouldn't be that exciting, but considering how bad AT&T connectivity has been, this is a miracle!

The other day, someone commented in my blog about whether I was thinking about my imminent return. I hadn't been until this epiphany. We're driving down 101 from Port Angeles and we turn onto I-5 South. This is the moment that it finally struck me. We are driving home.

Paul, Jim and Suzanne stop at a town called Longview for the night, and I head another fifty miles down to Portland to spend the evening with my friend Bill. He recommends a restaurant called the "Ringside Steakhouse", so I try and find a hotel nearby.

I'm having no luck finding a place, but as I pull up to a stoplight, the most interesting thing happens. A gentleman who reminds me a lot of my friend Shreesh, pulls up besides me on a Vespa. He's a dapper man, camel hair sport coat, jaunty italian helmet, grey beard, with a woman about his age sitting on the back. He compliments me on my motorcycle, and after I return the compliment about his Vespa I ask him about hotels in the area.

"You must stay at the Benson! It's a marvelous place!"

I thank him profusely and follow his directions to the hotel. Apparently the whole town is sold out, as I check with every hotel down the street.

Eventually I wander back to the steakhouse, and nearby in a residential area, I find a place called the Park Lane Suites. It's cool, quirky, 300 feet from the restaurant, and has a room. What's not to like? I settle in, call Bill, and soon we're on our way.

We have an hour before our reservation, so Bill takes me to a cool bar towards the top of the U.S. Bank building.

And here he is. My friend. My college. The lovely and talented, Bill Ataras!

As you can tell, the view from up here is pretty amazing!

So we have a couple bourbons, chat a bit, then head to dinner. And I have to say, the Ringside Steakhouse is well worth a visit.

Afterwards we end up at Kells, a very good Irish pub. Here we switch to Irish Whiskey and partake in a couple of nice cigars.

Now being a loving husband and adoring father, Bill doesn't get to go pub crawling very often, so this is a special occasion for both of us. We wander around Portland with our cigars as we go in quest of an all night doughnut shop Bill likes called the Voodoo Doughnut Shop. Apparently their hours used to be from 10:00pm to 10:00am, but from their web site, they seem to now be open 24 hours. That's a good thing, because as they say, "The magic is in the hole".

After a sweet and tasty chocolate cruller, Bill remembers that there is a cool music club around the corner.

Please excuse the dark picture, but I literally took it in the dark. The "musician", and I use the word loosely plays a note on his guitar, then with the help of a mixing board, lets the note go on and on and on. Then he hits a different note. And lets it drift on and on and on. I don't mean to sound like my father, but this is music? I think you have to be majorly stoned to appreciate a series of long tones with not melody or tune. I get up and make my way out of the club, trying desperately not to laugh.

It's been a great visit with Bill, and once again I've renewed my love for Portland.

Tomorrow I head to the coast to reconnect with Paul, Jim and Suzanne.

Victoria, British Columbia

2007-07-16T23:04:00.000-07:00

Today is a pretty mellow day. Jim and Suzanne are heading to Butchart Gardens, so Paul and I get to sleep in.

We start our day at Coyote's Cafe...

It's a coffeeshop/cafe with a very special coffee drink called the Howling Coyote. It's a twelve ounce coffee with six shots of espresso, steamed milk and vanilla syrup. Paul asked them why they don't offer it in a large, and then realized that any more caffeine might cause a coronary!

They really do make a beautiful latte, don't they?

Driving down the length of Vancouver Island is kind of like driving through the suburbs...

Just with a lot more cows.

It does have its moments.

It doesn't take long to get to Victoria.

See, they have a city hall and everything!

While tooling through the city, trying to find our hotel, I ran across this Prius Taxicab. Actually, its a brilliant idea if you think about it. The Prius works really well with stop and go traffic. Who starts and stops as much as a cabbie?

Finally, we arrive at the Admiral Inn.

Tomorrow we'll get on this ferry and head back to America.

Meanwhile, back in Victoria, we have some cool stuff to see. We wander around the harbor and its a beautiful place.

Have I been on the road too long? I think I'm seeing Mermaids!

And since when did Shamu get so much bling?

Walking through town, we go past the Fairmont Empress Hotel. The Empress is one of those grand old hotels that's been around for ages, and will be there for ages to come.

And the Canadian Parliament building... To quote The Onion, "Did you know that Canada has a Government, Laws?"
[Edwin comments: It's not the Canadian Parliament, it's the British Columbia Parliament]

Of course, my favorite discovery was a store called "Out of Ireland". They had a lot of great things, from hand knitted sweaters to Jameson's and Guinness shirts. Some of them were really cool, but even I can't justify $50 for a t-shirt. Even if its $50 Canadian. ;)

After our jaunt around town, we catch up with Jim and Suzanne and head out to dinner.

We end up at a restaurant next to the Fairmont Empress called Pescatores. This definitely wins the award for best dinner of the trip! When you enter Pescatore's, it looks like your average, upscale seafood place. It's dark wood cooled by the wrought iron fans spinning from the ceiling. We had an amazing waiter named Andrew, who started us off with a great Pinot Noir recommendation.

He did so well with the wine, I followed his recommendations for the mussel appetizer, the copper river salmon, and the bananas foster. The man knows his menu and what works with what. Paul took a different recommendation for the carpaccio appetizer, so I got a chance to try that as well. Oh my God! Words cannot describe the yumminess! I made sure that Andrew was well tipped for his delicious insights.

As the bananas foster settles, we once again wander around the harbor. As you can see, the sunset over the harbor is beautiful.

Even Parliament sparkles at sunset.

All and all, its been a really great day. Tomorrow we go back to America.

Lost in Translation

2007-07-15T21:29:00.000-07:00

Today was supposed to be a nice, easy, and not particulary controversial day. It's all of ninety miles to Vancouver, and then we take the ferry across to Vancouver Island.

You've got to love those happy, Canadian cows!

And as short rides into the city go, its actually a pretty one.

The plan is simple. Jill is flying back to San Diego today, so when we get to the city Paul will veer off to the airport. He'll drop Jill off and the rest of us will head to the ferry. When Jill is safely away, Paul will head to the ferry landing to meet us. Simple enough?

We get to the city, wave at Jill, and they are off. Now Rick and I are following Jim.

It's not easy to lead a group of motorcyclists. Paul is really good at making sure no one gets lost, and telegraphing all his moves so that everyone knows where he is going.

Like most of us, Jim hates getting stuck in traffic, doesn't like getting stuck at a red light, and if he sees a gap in traffic that he can dive into, he takes it. Unfortunately, this makes it really hard to keep up with him.

As we get into the city, Jim changes lanes, dives through lights at the last second, and gets way past the point we can see him. Fortunately, the first three or four times this happens, we catch up.

Unfortunately, we don't get so lucky this last time. We get to this spot, and we have no idea where he is. Rick, Ann and I pull over and consider our options. Of course, to Ann and I, the most important option is a trip to Starbucks!

So Rick sets his GPS for West Vancouver and we're across the bridge. I don't know how well you can see it in this picture, but you may notice that each lane has either a red neon "X" or a green neon arrow hanging above it. If the lane has a green arrow, its safe for you to drive in. If its red, the lane is for oncoming traffic. I've seen this in places like Australia, and they make it so that they can change amount of traffic going in each direction. It's very cool in concept, but a bit disconcerting in implementation. You find yourself swerving into the empty lane to your left, only to find that traffic is heading straight at you!

We get to West Vancouver and violate rule one of the Guy Code. We stop for directions. Hey, it's a foreign country! Besides, I'm trying to function without caffeine. Along with the directions, we find a local Starbucks as well.

Ironically, this is only the fourth Starbucks I've had on this trip, as they are not as ubiquitous outside of California as I would like to believe. As I order my latte, I get a text message from Paul. He arrived at the ferry early, and they put him on an earlier boat. He's going to arrive a full two hours before we do.

Fully caffeinated, Rick, Ann and I head through some very expensive neighborhoods on our way to the ferry. When we do arrive we're directed to the head of the line (It pays to be a motorcyclist) and we wait.

While we wait, a motorcyling den mother of sorts chats us up. "Oh yeah, this gentleman here is from Nanaimo, don't-cha-know. And this young man has driven all over North America!" She was quite the maven!

As we sail across the Strait of Georgia, I enjoy my last couple of hours with Rick and Ann. I've grown quite fond of them over the last week, so they will be missed.

I text Paul to see if he's heard from Jim and Suzanne. Like Paul, they ended up on the earlier ferry as well.

We finally land on Vancouver Island and make our way to the Buccaneer Inn. Everyone says their goodbyes to Rick and Ann, then we take some time to crash.

Jim and Suzanne invite Paul and I downstairs to the patio to drink some wine and bask in the sun. While we chat, we notice that the flowers on the patio are swarming with bees!

The bees seem to be completely oblivious of us, so I take the opportunity to take a few pictures. They're actually facinating little beasties, once you get past that whole, "Please don't sting me!" part.

Just to prove that we're actually in Canada, here is the parking space outside of our hotel.

To end our day, we walk past the harbor. Reminds me of my sailing trip with Edwin, around the Straits of Juan de Fuca.

Fortunately, tomorrow is a really short day. We drive seventy miles to Victoria on the South side the island. Then the next day we sail back to the United States. I get to sleep in tomorrow. Yay!!!

Some days, you just ride...

2007-07-14T23:26:00.000-07:00

Today is just a travel day, since its entire purpose is to get us from Banff to Hope. It's one of the few times we'll actually spend on a real freeway.

It was "wheels up" at 9:00am, which is just wrong. One should never get up this early on vacation. Since I'm the only nocturne in the group, I am not getting a lot of sympathy on this point.

We have a good hour of beautiful mountain roads before we make it to the major freeway, so I try to appreciate it while I can.

While tooling down the road, I see Jill waving off to the left. I look, but there's nothing there. Then she waves for me to slow down. Why? I don't see anything? Then I see it. There is an elk on the side of the road! I'm doing 65, so I'm almost past him by the time I see him. I pull my camera out of my tank bag as quickly as I can, but I only get this one picture. Trust me, he was a big and beautiful beastie!

All and all, things are not looking too bad.

And before we know it, ninety minutes have passed and its time to take our first break of the day.

Rick found this sign for "Pee Meadows" particularly amusing.

Now things start to go downhill. Miles and miles trapped on a relatively ugly, single lane road, stuck behind campers that can't seem to hit the speed limit unless they are driving down hill. Jim loses patience with all the traffic and starts passing cars whenever he can, until Rick, Ann and I are so far back we can't even see them any longer. Being without a GPS or maps I don't want to lose track of them, so I wildly start passing traffic myself. I'm more than a bit surprised that I manage to catch up with them, and Rick and Ann manage to catch up to me. We manage to stay together, but it hasn't been a lot of fun.

About half way through the day we stop at a Diner in Barrier, BC. A nicely lady sits us down, but then doesn't come back for a half hour. Eventually we lose patience and decide to leave. Unfortunately, it will be an hour before we find another place to stop for lunch.

The sad part is that all the roads we've driven in Canada so far have been beautiful. It's sad that our longest ride is along the least interesting road.

Look, beautiful Kamloops, BC! Okay, not so beautiful, but at least they have a Dairy Queen. Mmmmm... lunch. Things are finally starting to look up. After all, doesn't everything seem better after a chili-cheese dog?

We finally hit the toll road, which is pretty much like an American interstate. At least it goes through some nice forest.

There is something about this rock formation that just speaks to me.

After a long day on the road, we finally make it to Hope, BC.

Tomorrow we take the ferry to Vancouver Island. Since we're only ninety miles from Vancouver, so it should be much more enjoyable than today.

The Ice Field Parkway

2007-07-13T23:53:00.000-07:00

We continue our journey into deepest, darkest Canada. Today we'll be driving the Ice Field Parkway, but before we do we pay a visit to Lake Louise.

Lake Louise is a popular tourist attraction here in Banff National Park. It's turquois colored water draws thousands of tourists every year.

Had this been in the states, we would have put in a theme park and a roller coaster. I think its kind of cool that people come here just to enjoy the view.

Chateau Lake Louise is an impressive old hotel on the Eastern edge of the lake. It was built in the late 1800's by the Canadian Pacific Railroad to entice people into taking train rides to Western Canada. It became so popular that people continued to come long after trains had been replaced by cars and airplanes.

You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get a picture than doesn't have a thousand tourists in it!

While exploring the hotel, I met Graham, the manager of one of the restaurants. The hotel being so far from civilization creates some interesting challenges for those who work here. For instance, when he recently purchased a new car, he had to check into a hotel for two days. He drove to Calgary, checked in, bought the car, stayed another night, then drove back the next day. And that was nothing compared to the $18 tuna melt he decided to make. The can of tuna costs $10 at the local store, and the cheddar run $18.

Once again we encounter the Lamer's bus. Maybe a name change is in order...

Lake Louise was beautiful, but the Ice Field Parkway awaits! Entering the park we got stuck behind this diesel camper for about twenty minutes. From all the black smoke it was beltching out, it makes me wonder if there are any emissions standards in Canada!

Fortunately we eventually get around the guy, and get back to our regularly scheduled road trip.

Here's Paul and Jill doing their best to look like a BMW commercial.

Isn't it hard to believe that its the middle of July?

When you look to the left, you see mountains with inconceivable amounts of snow and ice. On the right, a sign that says "Avalanche Warning" I can't help but think, "You don't mean today, do you?"

It feels like we took a detour to the Swiss Alps.

After hours of driving this beautiful road, we get to the top of the mountain where we find the Glacier.

Darn! I forgot my parka! I guess we won't go walking on the Glacier.

Oh well, its time to head down the mountain towards our stop for the night, Jasper.

Are we there yet?

Paul was convinced that this blog should be called "This doesn't suck, part three"

If Yellowstone was amazing because of its wildlife, and Glacier was amazing for its grandeur, then the Ice Field Highway is just amazing. This is definitely one of the best rides in all of North America.

Going Canadian

2007-07-12T23:14:00.000-07:00

Waking up at the Prince of Wales Hotel has it's perks. The view of the lake is pretty amazing, don't you think?

This view is something of a issue for Jim and Suzanne. It's been driving them crazy that the best feature of the hotel, its view of the lake, isn't fully exploited. Other than the view from the rooms and this one from the lobby, they don't do much with it.

They keep wondering why there isn't a deck, maybe a bar. At least a door. I have to admit, I find it a bit surprising. I find the fact that this hotel is only open four months a year even more interesting.

An interesting thing happened this morning. According to the people at the hotel, a moose had wandered into the parking lot this morning and began chewing on Jim's motorcycle cover. Eventually it realized that polyester doesn't taste particularly good, and left the chewed up cover behind.

Today was supposed to be a travel day, so the scenery we shaw this morning wasn't particularly interesting...

After the first hour, we found ourselves in Longview, Alberta, which is apparently the home of this rather interesting jerky shop.

Places like this always fascinate me. Like that "Just Socks!" store in the mall. How does a place like this stay in business? This place sells nothing but jerky. Beef, elk, deer, regularly, spicy, teriyaki, every variety possible. Now I like jerky as much as the next guy, but wouldn't you have to sell an awfully lot of it to pay the rent? And since Longview Alberta isn't exactly a teeming metropolis, it's not like they get a lot of foot traffic.

That said, the elk jerky was quite good.

On the way to Banff, we drive through some really beautiful park land. I know, you're thinking "Beautiful scenery, again?!?!" I know. I'll try to keep it to a minimum.

One of the more extraordinary things about this trip are all the encounters we've had with forest creatures. Today, we were driving down the road when we met an entire family of goats.

I think this one needs a new hair stylist. At least a bath.

Since we're riding in Canada, I decided to listen exclusively to Canadian artists on my ride today.

Riding ambience: Avril Lavigne, Alanis Morissette, Michael Buble, Barenaked Ladies, Bryan Adams, Shania Twain, Sarah McLachlan

And while I show you their beautiful countryside, let me say a thing or two about our charming neighbors to the North.

As a nation, we're quite fond of our Canadian cousins. Unlike any other country in the world, we have a lot in common with the Canadians.

Even when we give them a hard time, it's always good natured. After all, is there anything bad you can say about them? They are kind, polite, and could easily be mistaken as the 51st state.

There are some differences. I personally like their road signs. Like this one, that basically says "Beware of happy deer!"

There were a couple others I wish I had gotten pictures of. For instance, "Important Intersection Ahead". Does it have an entourage? Is it up for the Nobel Peace Prize? What makes this intersection so important?

My personal favorite is "Cattle at Large". It's like a cow knocked over the local liqour store, and now there was a manhunt (cowhunt?) to track it down!

We finally reach our destination, Banff, AB. And as you might expect by now, it's in a National Park.

Do people actually ski down this mountain?

We arrive at the Pensioner's B&B. It's a really nice place, but due to a lack of communication, Jim has only booked two rooms for the seven of us. Now I love Paul and Jill, but I understand why they don't want me in their room! Fortunately there are some spare rooms in the place, and everyone ends up with a place of their own.

Banff is a famous ski resort, and we take the opportunity to wander around a bit on the way to dinner. Doesn't this look like Lex Luthor's mansion?

No matter where you go in Banff, the mountain is always there to remind you that this is a ski resort.

After dinner we end up at "Cow's Ice Cream", which is a Canadian institution. They make really amazing ice cream, but apparently they make more from t-shirts and merchandise than ice cream.

In case you can't read it, these t-shirts say "Pasture Bedtime" and "Desperate House Cows"

And how can forget, "Graze Anatomy"?

My picture didn't turn out, but my favorite was CSI, or "Cow Scene Investigation". "Moo, are you... Moo moo!"

Another beautiful day in Canada. Eh? :)

This doesn't suck! Part Deux...

2007-07-11T22:23:00.000-07:00

Glacier National Park is one of the most beautiful, and clearly most majestic of the national parks. Today we'll get a chance to see for ourselves.

You can see, they really do have a love of eagles in this part of the country. Here's another one of those twenty foot iron sculptures of one.

Whitefish isn't very far from Glacier, so we got to the park in no time...

Just inside the park is Lake McDonald Lodge, this old rustic hotel just on the lake.

Jill spotted this butterfly on the grass outside, and I managed to get this picture of it.

We made our way through the lodge to the lake behind. The lakes in this part of the country are amazing. The water is crystal, and often perfectly clear and reflect like a mirror.

Here we are! And thanks to the kindness of a passing stranger, I'm actually in this picture.

At the Lake McDonald Lodge, they clearly use antlers in all of their decorating.

Can you imagine being here in winter, curled up in front of the fire. Works for me!

There are also a lot of totem poles in this part of the country.

Well there is a huge park to explore, so it's time to hit the road. But before we do, I see this three wheel Honda Gold Wing with a side car. Two wheels is a motorcycle. Three is training wheels. Once a motorcycle has four wheels, it's a car!

One other thing of interest. We keep seeing these tour buses with the word "Lamers" on them. Is this a tour company for people who feel really bad about themselves? How insecure do you have to be to buy a ticket on this bus?

Now back to our regularly scheduled road trip.

At Glacier, they have these cool old cars they use for tours. The strange thing is that every time I see one, a question pops into my head. Where do they get tires for a 1920's roadster?

As we climb the mountain, we start to see some spectacular views.

It was about this point that Paul said, "You may have to call this blog entry, 'This doesn't suck, part II'."

These places we visit definitely help put things into perspective. Years ago, I went scuba diving off the great barrier reef...

When I came up for air, all I could see for as far as the eye could see, was sky and ocean. At the time I felt remarkably small.

Looking at these massive mountains, cliffs and waterfalls, it makes me realize how small we are compared to the world around us.

For obvious reasons, this section of the road is called the Weeping Wall.

Some of these views you normally would only see from an airplane or helicopter.

Looks a bit like Switzerland, doesn't it?

It's a long way down from here!

As we approach the summit, the snow is becoming more and more prevalent.

Sometimes it took a lot of effort to keep my eye on the road.

Brrrrrrrrrrr!

After climbing constantly for so long, we get over the summit and head down the other side.

Not surprisingly, there are a few mountain goats around.

Having had my brake line burst while coming down Mt. Washington earlier in the trip, I try to take the decent as slowly as possible.

And this road may be less steep than Mount Washington, but its a lot higher!

As we approach the bottom, we take a break from our ride to take a quick hike along the lake.

Don't they make such a nice couple?

We're almost out of the park, so we stop for one final rest stop. Paul and I try the Huckleberry Cream Soda. It's really quite tasty. Paul is a bit taken back by the complete lack of huckleberries on the ingredient list, but it doesn't put too much of a damper on it. After all, a cold drink on a warm day is always welcome.

After a long and enjoyable visit to Glacier National Park, it's time for us to leave. We'll take the road up a little bit, then reenter the park on the Canadian side.

Doesn't this mountain look like the perfect place for an evil lair? Maybe Dr. Evil can carve his image into the stone.

Yay! Canada!

I know, all these trees, its hard to believe we're in Canada.

We're getting pretty close to our final destination for the day, the Prince of Wales Hotel

It really does look like a Swiss ski lodge. This was built back in the days when it was all wooden craftsmanship, and it really shows.

Because of the age of the building, the elevator was added decades later. It only goes to the fourth floor, and the hotel is seven stories tall. As luck would have it, I was up on the sixth floor. And the room was so small, I had to step out of the room to take this picture!

I did have this nice balcony though. Each room has either a view of the mountain or the lake.

Mine has the mountain view.

It was a long, but pretty remarkable day. Tomorrow we head deeper into the exciting country we know as Canada!

Aebleskivers, eagles and Whitefish, oh my!

2007-07-10T22:34:00.000-07:00

Since half our party had driven to Spokane, I drove over to meet them all at breakfast. The place we decided to meet is called the Old European.

Much to my surprise and delight, the Old European specialized in Aebleskivers. For those of you who haven't made a trek to Solvang (Or Scandinavia) lately, Aebleskivers are a spherical pancake, usually served with jam and often filled with fillings like blueberry. My friends the Hammers serve them with maple syrup, which is quite all right with me!

After breakfast we all headed out to our motorcycles. From left to right we have Jim, Ann's friend Bill, Paul and Jill, me, Ann, Rick and Suzanne.

Here we are, off on the road! All eight of us!

I never did get a good picture of Ann's friend Bill. Bill was a pretty cool guy, and a retired airline pilot for Alaska Airlines. He looked a lot like the character actor, Don S. Davis, most famous for his role on Stargate SG-1.

As I show you the beautiful Idaho and Montana countryside, let me talk a little about what its like to ride with such a large group. Specifically, what it was like after all the wives arrived.

On the positive side, they are all very cool women. And unlike when men ride alone, we actually stop often enough that you don't get really tired or sore. Also, we actually stop for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

On the negative side, they are all early risers. Now anyone who knows me, knows that I'm hardly functional before 11:00am, and usually am not awake until at least 9:00am. I feel that if God intended for us to be up early, our livers would dispense caffeine as needed! Well in this group, anything after 8:00am is sleeping in. Sleeping in? I'm only getting to the good dreams by 8:00am!

The other negative is that we stop, a lot! Now I know I just said that taking more breaks was a good thing. It truly is. But we stopped three times in ninty minutes today! Just a wee bit too often. Like most things in life, I'm sure we'll find a happy medium. As luck will have it, probably when the trip is over. ;)

As you can see, Idaho is okay, but not overly exciting.

Bill swerves off and heads for home, and we once again enter Montana. By my last count, we've not entered this state five times during this trip.

As we head towards Kootenai National Forest, we get stalled by this big stone wall for about fifteen minutes. They were doing some sort of blasting, and they thought people should be driving underneath until they were done. Kind of a cool texture, don't you think?

We make a stop in Libby, Montana, the "City of Eagles". You can see from the huge iron eagle sculptures, they really take this City of Eagles thing seriously.

We have a quick lunch, consisting mostly of convenience store food, and head into Kootenai National Forest.

The road was fast and curvy, which didn't allow for a lot of pictures. However, it was the high point of the day. I don't know which were more interesting, the rock formations, or the huge lake.

Lake...

Lake...

Rocks...

Trees!

Lake...

We end the day in Whitefish, Montana. It's compared a lot to Vail Colorado because of its affluence and ski area. In fact, its ski area is the tenth largest in the United States.

After checking into the "Duck Inn, Bed and Breakfast" we head to McGarry's restaurant. Rick, Ann and I take a cab because we know we're going to be having a drink or two along the way.

We have a delightful dinner, and afterwards Rick, Ann and I head into town for a couple of drinks. Rick was telling me his philosophy of management, and not to get into a lot of work related stuff, but he made me think about my own management style, and helped me crystalize what's important. There are some perks to hanging out with highly successful people. Sometimes their clue rubs off!

Well its time to head to bed. Tomorrow morning we're getting up at ungodly hours to head into Glacier National Park.

Park good. Riding good. Getting up early, bad!

Leaving Missoula...

2007-07-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

Meet Rick and Jim

Rick and Jim are old friends of Paul's, and we've ridden many times before. Since they were unable to take two full months to do the Four Corners, they decided to meet us in Missoula Montana and finish the trip with us.

We get on the road heading towards Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. As you can probably guess, this is mostly a travel day since there isn't a whole lot between Missoula and Coeur D'Alene. Actually, the plan of record is that we would drive to Kellogg, ID, where Jill, Ann and Suzanne (Paul, Rick and Jim's wifes, respectively) are going to meet us.

I'm a single guy, so the logic is beyond my understanding (Paul suspects that if I meet the right girl, there is hope that I can be properly trained), but the three wives are flying to Spokane, where Suzanne's sister lives. Then she is going to drive the three women to Kellogg to meet us.

Now, the three married guys decide to be thoughtful (always dangerous ground!) and drive a little closer to Spokane so that Suzanne's sister doesn't have to drive that far. (I haven't quite figured out why they didn't fly to Montana, or why we didn't just drive to Spokane). Okay, that's the setup, and now we're on our way to Coeur D'Alene.

First stop for the day is a place called Kathy's Whistlestop

Kathy's is a nice, very tiny, cafe in the middle of nowhere in Paradise, MT. Ah, here's a better picture of all three of the guys. That's Rick on the left, Paul you should recognize by now, and Jim is at the right in front.

It was a really enjoyable stop. We talked to the locals who warned us about running into the deer on the road. Since they put salt down on the road during winter to melt the snow, the deer happily walk into the road and start licking. They are quite oblivious to the problem of not being seen, or the potential of being hit by a passing motorist.

Our waitress goes into great detail about what happened to her friend who hit one of these deer with his motorcycle. The deer and the bike were totaled; the guy isn't doing so well himself.

Good advice. And the food was pretty tasty too.

Rick also starts telling us stories, but the most relevant to this post is about the 93 acres of land he and his wife bought in Montana a few years back. They had been married a couple years back then, and decided to take a trip to Montana. While there they looked into buying a vacation property.

They didn't like the first one they saw particularly well, so they asked the realtor what they would be showing if price wasn't an object. Conveniently, he had the perfect place in mind, complete with its only landing field! Since Rick was a private pilot, they were completely enamored with the place.

So Rick calls his dad to see if he wants to partner on the place. He thinks it's a great idea, and before you know it, Rick and Ann are on their way to buying a 93 acre plot in Montana.

After they get it, they are told that they have way too many trees on the property, and that they will have to clear out all the extras. No worries, he calls the local ranger, they get in touch with a guy, and next thing you know, they are selling off the extra trees.

The profit from the trees paid for the entire property, with about $50K extra!

So they built a house, an outhouse (you'll have to write him for that story!) and came up to visit the place every summer for years. Then about ten years ago they realized that it was a bit of an effort to go from San Diego to Montana every summer, so they sold the place.

Well as long as we're driving through Montana, why don't we drive by the old place in Trout Creek? We're just enjoying our ride, so we're all willing to take the small detour.

We have our breakfast, Jim finds some really tasty Huckleberry-aide, and then we hit the road.

When we arrive in Trout Creek, Rick makes a turn up a dirt road. Dirt road? Did he see Jim's shiny new GT? Does he know that I can't drive on gravel unless my life depends upon it?

After a bit of confusion, Jim mentions getting a coke at a convenience store and turns around, while Paul and Rick take off down the gravel road.

I don't know what to do. Jim has made a 180, so I try and catch up to Paul and Rick. With all the dust flying, they're nothing but a cloud in front of me! When it finally clears, I make it a mile down the road to where it branches two ways, and no indication of which way they took. I am completely lost.

My GPS died awhile back, I have no map, I have no idea how to spell (much less pronounce) Coeur D'Alene. Frankly, I'm a bit scared.

After "pontooning" (the act of driving your motorcycle with both feet near the ground) for a couple more miles on the gravel road, I decide to head back. Jim had mentioned a convenience store, so I'm hoping I can make my way back to the original road without falling over. Despite every attempt to make me slide, I eventually make it back to civilization.

And right there at the convenience store is Jim.

Jim had decided that he didn't want to bang up his new bike on a gravel road (a very good idea, if you ask me) and figured that we'd eventually come back. I can't argue with his logic since I did.

Soon Paul returns. He had assumed that I had turned back when Jim did, so he had taken off to catch up to Rick. Paul's bike being the only one of the four made to traverse gravel, he caught up easily and they had seen Rick's old homestead. Now Rick was over at the local Wayside bar, waiting for us. (Why would you go to a convenience store when there is a bar nearby?)

So in the bar we find Rick and he tells us the story about meeting the new owner of his old place, and we figure out what happened to everyone. No harm, no foul. We had a couple of sodas and were once again on the road.

We're tooling along through the lush green forest, when Jim flags everyone to slow down. I'm at the back of the pack so I can't see what's going on up front. When I do, I see a huge moose in the road!

Of course, this is the first time all day I've put the camera away. So I'm scrambling to get it out for a picture, but by the time I do, Bullwinkle had headed back into the forest. We pull over to the side of the road to get our bearings and talk about our encounter with our furry friend.

"You know, that's just a baby. A full grown moose is twice as tall" says Rick. Twice as tall? That beastie was two feet above Jim's head!

Determined not to miss another picture like that, we once again hit the road to Coeur D'Alene.

It's an enjoyable ride, the road clinging to the river as the river twists and turns its way ahead.

Eventually we make it out of the forest and make it to Coeur D'Alene.

Now this is where being single leaves me at a disadvantage. You see, the guys call their wives and tell them that we've driven a lot further than we planned, and that Suzanne's sister won't have to drive all the way to Kellogg. Aren't they thoughtful?

The answer Paul and Jim get is, "We've bought groceries, are you coming to dinner?"

Huh?

Paul explains that we've checked into the hotel and that we're not riding any more today. Jim says something similar to Suzanne, but has "volunteered" to drive to Spokane before breakfast and pick Suzanne up at her sisters.

Of course, the follow up question by Jill to Paul is, "So, are you picking me up in Spokane?"

Realizing that he can be right and in trouble, or play it safe, Paul takes the safe route and agrees to drive to Spokane in the morning and drive Jill back as well. Of course, I will be asleep at the time, because I'm not waking up before seven to drive West, only to drive East.

All seems to be settled, at least for the time being. The four of us head over to the local Italian place. Not too bad, but far from Filippi's or San Remo. We head out after dinner and Rick say that he's going to make a quick trip to the men's room. Paul, Jim and I hang out in front of the restaurant, then start to wonder. Hasn't it been ten minutes? Now fifteen? Did the poor boy fall in?

Jim goes back inside to check on him, and sure enough, there he is at the bar. Apparently he came out of the men's room, someone started chatting him up about baseball, and the next thing he knew, he was drinking a beer.

How come my lapses in memory don't end up with me drinking beer?

Missoula, the "Paris" of Montana

2007-07-08T21:36:00.000-07:00

Paul and I had to come to Missoula Montana to have some routine maintenance done on our bikes. Not surprising, this is about all the excitement there is in Missoula Montana.

No, that's not entirely fair. It also gave us a chance to do some laundry and see a couple of movies, while we waited for our friends Jim and Rick to come up from San Diego.

Since we were staying for a couple of days, we walked practically everywhere. I know this sounds a bit mundane, but to the townsfolk of Missoula, we looked like space aliens had landed. Apparently, we are the only people who've ever used their sidewalks, and the fact that we used them caused great consternation.

"It's 101 degrees. What are they doing outside? On that concrete strip along the road? There's something wrong with those boys!"

Being a huge movie buff, the one bad thing about this trip has been that I've seen very few movies. Since that's one of the few things to do in Missoula, it seemed like a great opportunity to catch up a little. So Paul and I headed down the street to the Carmike 6 to see Shrek 3.

Digital technology has apparently arrived in Missoula, and the Carmike 6 had recently replaced all their projectors with digital projectors. No more reels of film to deal with, nice sound and picture. What could possibly go wrong? Other than the air conditioning going out, and the lights in the theatre not working?

No worries. It's dark, relatively cool, and we're seeing a funny movie. Well we did for the first sixty minutes. Then it crashed.

Apparently you can get a blue screen of death from a theatre projector, because their entire system crashed hard. So hard that they couldn't start the movie again. They had the same problem across the hall. Their solution? Switch the audiences between the two theatres!

Okay, this works for me. The other theatre has air conditioning, and you actually have enough light to see your way to your seat. We come in, get comfortable, and they start the movie. And start the movie. And start it again.

Apparently, there is no fast forward on their cool new digital projector. So the manager comes by, gives us free passes for another movie, and invites us to watch the movie all over again.

We've watched three-quarters of the way through Shrek 3, but since we're in Missoula, why not watch it again? We sat and watched the entire movie from the beginning. It's somewhat surreal to know all the jokes before they happen, just because you've seen the movie so recently.

Later on, we go back to the theatre with our free passes and see Knocked Up. This time there were no technical malfunctions, and we had a great time.
In our time in Missoula, we also had a couple of nice breakfasts at Paul's Pancake Parlour. The first time it seemed like a nice place, so why not try it? After all, it is named after Paul.

The second time, we walked down the street trying to find someplace else. After about a mile, we decided to turn. After another mile we decided to turn again. When we ended up on their doorstep the second time, it seemed like I was destined to have sourdough pancakes again.

By the way, sourdough pancakes rock! If you ever find yourself in Missoula Montana, definitely go to Paul's and have the sourdough pancakes.

When Jim and Rick do arrive, we have a couple of drinks at a place called Curley's. Apparently every store along our street is a "slash/casino". As in "Restaurant/Casino", "Bar/Casino" or "Gas Station/Casino". How an 800 square foot bar can also be a casino eludes me, but Curley's pulls it off. Apparently there is some really good microbrew in Montana!

There are two things I'm reminded of when I hang out with Paul and his friends. First, one can have a very active and enjoyable life in one's sixties. I'm afraid that all three of them are in better shape now than I've ever been. Secondly, I have a lot more to accomplish. I'm not on the board of any companies, I've never owned acres and acres of land in Montana, nor have I built and sold a successful business. These things couldn't have happened to a nicer group of guys, but it reminds me that I better get hot if I want to make my mark on this world!

So there's Missoula in a nutshell. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but trust me, you're not missing much!

Big Sky Country

2007-07-06T21:49:00.000-07:00

Going from Dillon to Missoula, Montana, was going to be a pretty mellow day. We had 180 miles to travel and just needed to get to Missoula before the BMW dealer closed.

Breakfast being the most important meal of the day, we stop at the Longhorn Saloon in Dillon. Surprisingly, a place where they use antlers in all of their decorating, actually makes a really tasty breakfast.

On the way out of town, I see the restaurant we had dinner at the night before. Sparky's Garage is one of those quirky places I only seem to find in the middle of nowhere. Really yummy food, quirky atmosphere, friendly folks. I would definitely go back. Shreesh would be proud of me.

The road from Dillon to Missoula is a great example of why they call Montana "Big Sky Country".

You get the chance to see lots of sky, and vistas for as far as the eye can see.

Paul and I were driving down the road, when before I knew it, he was slowed down to a crawl. I slam on the brakes, then finally see why Paul had slowed down. There was an eagle in the road!

I stopped in time to miss Paul, but not in time to avoid spooking the eagle. Before I can do anything, the eagle takes flight, and as I look up. Its soaring just a couple of feet above my head! I didn't have a chance to take any pictures of it airborne, but it did fly up to a perch where Paul could get a shot. It was very cool!

We went through this amazing section of mountain road, with miles of sweeping turns, surrounded by tens of thousands of trees.

I hated to see it end, but soon we were at the bottom of the big hill, and it would be uneventful the rest of the way.

We made it to Big Sky Motorsports with plenty of time to spare. We arranged to have our bikes serviced tomorrow, and all was right with the world

We're taking a couple of days off along with getting our bikes serviced. Rest is good!

This does not suck!

2007-07-05T21:01:00.000-07:00

Today we drive from Cody, through Yellowstone National Park, through to Dillon, MT. And for the second day in a row, we have breakfast at a place called "Granny's" for breakfast. We have discovered a direct connection between a name like "Granny's" and really good breakfast. And once again we were proven correct!

Wyoming really is a stark and beautiful place.

And sometimes, not so stark.

As we drove by, I got a quick glimpse at this old mining operation.

As with most major national parks such as Yellowstone, it's bounded on each side by a different National Forest. On our way into Yellowstone, we drive through Shoshone National Forest.

In many ways, Shoshone is just as beautiful as Yellowstone.

Ride ambiance: U2, Buddy Guy, Pat Benatar, the Soundtrack to "Avenue Q"

We eventually make it to the North Eastern entrance to Yellowstone. A couple years ago, Paul and I drove Route 66, and went along this same section of road. In fact, this is the same fifteen miles of road that were washed out with mud, and required we follow a pilot vehicle. It was the scariest time I've ever spent on a motorcycle. It's much more enjoyable driving it today, when its clear and dry.

It's under construction today, so its mostly gravel. A bit tricky, but no where near as scary as it was the last time I drove it.

Like New Zealand, Yellowstone has an incredible diversity of ecosystems. There are rivers...

And burnt out forests...

And places where they meet lakes.

And the lakes meet mountains. At this point, I turned to Paul and said "I know what I'm going to call today's blog." He looked up and said "This doesn't suck!" Two great minds!

I could sit and watch the water lap against the shore all day.

Driving through Yellowstone, Paul caught a picture of this 1939 Ford. It amazes me to see these beautiful cars still on the road, happily cruising the road just like me.

The best part of Yellowstone is that the animals always have the right of way. Here, the traffic is backed up so that a family of buffalo can make their way across the road.

It's amazing to get so close to such a strong and noble beast.

They are pretty incredible creatures.

The problem with a place like this, is that you want to sit and watch a view like this all day. I just have to be happy to have seen it, and be glad that there is so much more to see as well.

Coming through the mountains, we find this sign marking the continental divide.

And shortly afterwards, traffic is once again stalled so we can see this huge reindeer!
[Paul: It's not a Reindeer, its an elk!]

Eventually we make our way to Old Faithful, and the Old Faithful Lodge. Since I called Tim the last time I was here, it seemed only fitting that I call him again. It's good to have reminders of my friends as I travel.

Good thing we decided to walk back past the bikes. Paul had left his wallet in his jacket, and just left that laying on his bike. Everything was in its place, but it did give us a bit of a fright.

Now it was time to see Old Faithful blow...

And blow she did! Isn't it amazing that a geyser blows so consistently, that you can tell people when they can come by to see it?

They geysers are only one of the many geothermal sites in Yellowstone. Here's another...

And as wild as some parts of the park are, others are completely serene...

We couldn't leave without at least one more encounter with nature. These deer are so used to people being around, they happily nosh on grass as we all take our pictures.
[Paul: These are elk too!]

We even got a glimpse at this bald eagles nest, although its resident was no where to be seen.

As we leave the park and head towards Dillon, I take one more look at the sky.

The Montana sky always reminds me of a Maxfield Parish painting. No wonder I love driving here.

Independence Day!

2007-07-04T23:53:00.000-07:00

We head towards Cody Wyoming, which will take us through Bighorn National Forest. Paul and I drove through Bighorn National Forest a couple years ago when we drove Route 66, and its one of my favorite rides. It's going to be a good day!

As we've driven through so much farmland, we keep encountering these huge rolls of what look like grass. In any case, I think it looks cool.

The horses seem to like it out here...

One of the most amazing things happened to me this morning. I was driving down the road, and this deer was running down the road beside me. I slowed down so we'd be running at the same pace.

He paced me for about a minute, then jumped into the road in front of me, as he bounded across the lane.

Then off on the other side of the road and bounding out of sight. I was a surreal experience.

This is my favorite way to commune with nature. Get on a motorcycle, drive through a beautiful landscape, the wind in my face, the sun on my skin, and occasionally get to interact with the animal life. Life is good!

Sometimes the barrels of grass are big cubes of grass...

There goes Paul, chasing the sunlight again.

Now it's time to head into Bighorn National Forest.

Ride ambiance: Pink Martini, Madeleine Peyroux, Robin McKelle

There's nothing like a twisty, turny road, surrounded by forest.

The amazing thing about this part of the country, is that you lose all sense of scale.

The trees in the foreground are over a hundred feet tall. Now compare how teeny they are compared to the mountain behind them.

In this one, you can see the rapids below. Compared to its surroundings, the rapids look like a trickle!

And compared to the sky, the mountains look small...

It really does make you feel insignificant.

Ooooh, look at the tiny Paul...

As we leave Bighorn, you can see some of the other view Wyoming has to offer...

It amazes me that fifteen minutes earlier, I was surrounded by lush forests. Now, its parched desert as far as the eye can see.

At least the cows seem happy. I think my friend Shreesh has had a profound effect on me, because his ability to see things as cute is rubbing off on me. I've become a big fan of cows on this trip. And not just when they are served with a baked potato.

When we stayed in Cody last time, we stayed in these really cool cabins that Buffalo Bill Cody built for his workers. This time we stayed at the same hotel, but in the main hotel building. We did have a great view of the log cabins below.

In fact, the cabin we stayed in was where I found Tatonka, the stuffed buffalo I got for Zoe. Since we were in the neighborhood, I paid a visit to Tatonka's brother. Toytonka.

Buffalo Bill also built a magnificent hotel call the Irma, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Considering where we were, Paul and I decided to try the buffalo steak in the Irma's dining room.

If you're ever in Cody Wyoming, and you find yourself at the Irma hotel, do not get the buffalo steak! At least the beer was good.

Being the Fourth of July, we take a walk down the main drag. Since it was a hour or so before sunset, we found our way into Maxwell's restaurant for dessert.

By the time we get out, the sky is overcast. It looks like the fireworks are going to make the clouds glow with pretty colors, but there isn't going to be much to see. It's been a great day, even without fireworks.

From Sturgis to Deadwood to Gillette, oh my!

2007-07-03T21:28:00.000-07:00

Today we go from Rapid City, SD, to Gillette, WY. Hopefully we get to see some cool stuff along the way.

Our first stop if Sturgis, SD. Sturgis, for those of you who may not know, is a small town in South Dakota which hosts a massive Harley motorcycle rally every August called Sturgis Bike Week. This tiny town of 6,600 people will get flooded with as many as 200,000 bikers!

One of the more interesting things about the Sturgis rally is that so many businesses close down, then rent their space to visiting vendors. Today's bakery may be a tattoo parlor during bike week.

As you can probably see, the town in only a few blocks long. The place apparently goes completely crazy with bikers during bike week.

The official "welcome" sign.

Now Sturgis is the big rally for Harley Davidson riders, so it shouldn't be surprising that there is a huge Harley Dealer in the middle of town.

Hey, haven't I seen this store in San Francisco?

You can tell its not bike week. If you look carefully, you'll see these two "welcome" signs are surrounded by Honda Gold Wings. Has the Harley crowd become more inclusive?

We did make a quick stop at Sturgis BMW. Of course its on the outskirts of town. Just in case we need to run away during bike week.

From Sturgis we head into Black Hills National Forest...

I really love the roads in our national forests. The scenery is beautiful, the roads curvy and sweeping. It makes for a relaxing and enjoyable ride.

Now for you fans of the HBO series, Deadwood, I took a few pictures of the actual town of Deadwood as we drove through.

You can't have a western town without a train station, can you?

It's a very small town. Now, back to our regularly scheduled forest...

I wonder if they sail on this lake...

Unfortunately, the weather went from beautiful...

To cloudy...

To really cloudy.

Before the storm hit, we did drive through Custer, SD. Gotta love their crossing guards.

And then the storm came. It was a small rain storm and for once we actually suited up before we got really wet!

About thirty minutes later we made it through the storm. One of the cool things about these wide open spaces, is that you can look back and see them on the horizon. The dark blue smudges are rainfall.

As we leave the wonderous world of South Dakota, we enter the exciting land of Wyoming.

Eastern Wyoming isn't as beautiful as the rest of the state. Lots and lots of plains and straight roads. But what it lacks in terrain, it makes up for in cool cloud formations. Hey, doesn't that one look like a butterfly?

As we head towards Gillette, I look for other interesting shapes in the clouds.

You can see, there was no shortage of them.

Yeah, the one on the right looks like a puffy, toy airplane.

When we do get to Gillette, our hotel is about a mile and a half from the nearest restaurant. Paul and I always walk to dinner so we can drink and not get back on the bikes. So the way I figure it, if we walk a total of three miles to and from dinner, then we can have all the dessert we want, right?

Tomorrow we ride to Cody!

Into the Badlands...

2007-07-02T22:50:00.000-07:00

Today we headed into Badlands National Park.

Badlands is true to its name, in the respect that it would be virtually impossible for people to survive there. However, like many deadly things, it can also be quite beautiful. We were driving into the park when I caught a glance at this...

I think I'm seeing things... I thought I saw the Loch Ness monster earlier in the trip. At least this time I got a picture.

Another thing I saw on the way in was this creek. I don't know if you can see it in this picture, but for some reason there were dozens upon dozens of birds flying about. It was like being in an Alfred Hitchcock movie!

Time to head into the badlands...

Ride ambiance: Van Halen, Joan Jett, assorted 80's tunes.

It really got interesting when we officially entered the park and came across these amazing rock formations... The clay rich soil causes red bands to appear in the soil.

As you can see, we weren't the only people enjoying the rock formations today.

"Hi Paul!"

Paul has been experimenting with different camera angles as he drives. I think he's getting some cool shots.

It almost feels like the surface of the moon.

At one point we pulled over for some water and pictures, and a biker couple stopped by. Phil and Patty have been riding awhile, and as you can see, she has excellent taste in motorcycles! (For the uninitiated, she has the identical twin to my bike)

We talked to them for quite a bit about riding, bikes, accessories and the like. I think Patty liked the Rick Mayer seat on my bike so much she may get one of her own.

The road started this pretty steep climb, as we rose from the desert floor to the high plateaus...

Of Paul's pictures, I think this is my favorite.

Further into the moonscape...

My attempt at one of Paul's cool, "over the shoulder" pictures... Not bad, eh?

Paul calls this one, "Bad ass in the badlands"...

We were driving along and Paul suddenly pulled over. Apparently, the prairie dogs were popping up like a game of Whack-a-Mole.

At least they decided to pose.

These hills had this cool, rainbow color thing going for it. Do the ranger's sneak out here at night and airbrush them?

There really are some amazing views.

For a place that is so inhospitable to human beings, Badlands National Park is filled with stark beauty. The clay rich soil creates layers and layers of red and strata of colors in the rock formations. Even though I melted in the 107 degree heat, it was well worth the visit.

Wall (Drug), South Dakota

2007-07-01T21:53:00.000-07:00

Today we were driving across South Dakota. South Dakota may be a wonderful state, but a from a motorcycle it often looks like this...

or this...

or this...

And if you're lucky, ocassionally like this.

But the best part of driving across South Dakota are the Wall Drug billboards.

For three hundred miles in each direction, there are hundreds of billboards just like these.

There are two particular types I like best. First, the ones that play up the mundane reasons you'd drive hundreds of miles to drive to a drug store. "Black Hills Maps", "Fresh baked donuts", "Homemade pie". All good things, but would you drive three hundred miles for a fresh donut?

Second, the special offers. "Free ice water", "Five cent coffee", "Free coffee for hunters". Hey, I wasn't planning on driving to Wall, SD, but that free ice water offer was too good to refuse!

The amazing part is that after seeing hundreds of these billboards, you just need to see this place. How good or bad does a place have to be, that they need hundreds of billboards to get people to stop? Or for that matter, a huge model of a brontosaurus?

As if that isn't enough encouragement, there are still the signs to direct you ever step of the way.

So after all this build up, this is it!

And this! Whoo hoo! Oh boy! Wall Drug!!!

They really do go overboard to make it the most interesting drug store the world has ever known. Yes, they have aspirin and bandages, but they also have a traveler's chapel...

And an old style apothecary...

And a backyard with a huge model of a jackalope.

And an animatronic tyrannosaurus rex.

Or wax models of Doc Holiday playing poker.

And let's not forget the famous, free ice water.

There's even a store where you can buy paper mache dinosaur fosils.

Actually, they have a couple dozen stores with different things.

And if you don't want to buy something, you can always pan for gold.

As you can see, its not exactly your run of the mill drug store.

After a couple of hours of exploring Wall Drug, we hit the road heading for Rapid City. It was getting a little cloudy, but certainly no reason to stop. If it started to rain, we'd pull over and put on our rain gear.

About ten miles out of Wall, the rain came down. We started to look for a place to pull over, but it really came down, HARD!

I don't mean a little. I mean that the wind was so hard, I couldn't change lanes. At one point, my motorcycle leaned over 45 degrees to the right, and I was still going left. Paul wasn't having any better luck. Finally, we pulled over to the emergency lane, turned our bikes ninety degrees to the right, and forced our way across the highway. Thank God the weather was bad enough that all the cars and trucks had already pulled over.

But that wasn't all. Now came the hail. Golf ball sized hail. We worked out way down the offramp and as we turned the wind hit us from the other side. The hail was pummeling us so hard, we were both getting bruised!

We saw a BP station with a cover over the gas pumps and we headed to it for shelter. By the time we got off the bikes, we were incredulous at what we saw.

Like a meteor shower, the station was hit with thousands of icy balls of hail, shattering against the concrete.

Here you can see where a pile of hailstones piled into a stack!

Paul even picked up a pile to show how big and plentiful they were.

I've had two scary experiences on motorcycles. On the Route 66 trip, I drove through fifteen miles of road, covered in mud, trying desperately to keep upright while following a pilot car. The second was when Morgan and I drove to Reno, and we drove forty miles down a mountain while being hit with rain, sleet and hail. This knocked the Reno trip to second place!

After about a half hour, the storm went away as suddenly as it appeared. The hail stopped and the rain let up. We cautiously suited up, got on our bikes, and hit the road.

When we drove away from that gas station, I was completely soaked. My jeans could have been rung out and produced a gallon of water. In the fifty miles to Rapid City, the clouds broke, the sun came out, and the temperature rose from the sixty degrees it had been, back to the hundred degrees it had been all day. By the time we got to Rapid City, we were completely dry.

It had been a very scary day, but we survived. Why do people live in South Dakota?

A day in Minnesota...

2007-06-30T19:07:00.000-07:00

Minnesota was pretty much a travel day. We didn't really stop, but we saw a lot of beautiful scenery along the way.

There were rows of orchards...

And fields...

Since they named a city after Saint Paul, it seemed only fair that they also named a town after Saint Peter!

But mostly it was fields and fields of corn...

and more corn...

and even more corn.

We even found a newly paved road or two. Very nice!

Of course there were more farms...

and lakes...

and road for as far as the eye could see.

We even saw fields of windmills, scattered over miles of rolling hills.

It was a great day to ride.

Even the horses were having a good day.

This railroad track would look a lot better with a train, don't you think?

Now take a look at this picture...

Wall Drug is a store in western part of South Dakota, and the best example of marketing the world has ever seen. For the next three hundred miles, there are hundreds of billboards describing the wonders of Wall Drug. I'll go into greater detail in a future blog. Just keep in mind, this billboard is deep in Minnesota, and a long way from Wall, SD!

And now back to the road.

We had decided to end the day in Sioux Falls, SD, and call it an early day. Maybe I'd catch up on blogs, or catch a movie. Alas, the fates were working against us. The entire town was booked up for a softball tournament, so we'd have to drive deeper into South Dakota in order to find a place for the night.

As you can see, there isn't much to look at in Eastern South Dakota. As we drove down the road, Paul used his old helmet phone and got us a reservation in Mitchell, SD, at a place called the Thunderbird Lodge.

We drove the freeway towards Mitchell, and I was amused by the plethora of billboards along the road. Not only for Wall Drug, but for many other attractions in South Dakota. My favorite had to be the one for the Thunderbird Lodge. It said "Thunderbird Lodge - Free breakfast, cheap liquor". What had we gotten ourselves into?

We arrived, checked in, and because this was the only room left in town, we got the special suite. Not too bad. Although I never did find the cheap liquor. ;)

Wisconsin: The land of cheese and iPhones...

2007-06-29T22:43:00.000-07:00

The next morning in Appleton, it was time to swap one friend for another. Larry was ready to head back to Michigan, and Paul's friend Fred was ready to join us for a little while.

Paul, Larry, Fred, his wife Bonnie, and I head over to a restaurant called "The Machine Shed" for breakfast. I don't know if the Machine Shed violates my friend Shreeshes "no chain restaurants" rule. They apparently have quite a few restaurants, but they are all family owned. So is this still a chain? I don't know, but they make a wonderful breakfast.

We had a great time, talking about this trip and trips we've all taken. Fred and Bonnie had recently made a trip to Gettysburg and had an amazing time. It's a shame we didn't know about all the cool things before we went, because it sounds like they saw some great stuff.

As we finished breakfast, Larry headed off to his ferry, Bonnie headed home, and Fred, Paul and I hit the road.

Not surprising, we saw many more miles of rolling green hills and farm land...

And even the occasional lake...

As you can see, it was a gorgeous day!

I love days like this!

Fred had to leave us way too early, but he gave Paul a lot of advice on good things to see along the way.

One of the his recommendations was a place in Osseo, WI called the "Norske Nook", where he assured us we'd find great pie. Since pie is one of my favorite motivations, we were definitely going to Norke Nook.

We arrive! We both order pie, apple for me, rhubarb for Paul.

I guess I've been spoiled by years of Julian pies, but theirs was okay. As we enjoyed our pie we discussed the most important topic of our journey so far. How do we each get an iPhone?

We were only a hundred or so miles from Saint Paul, MN. If we got on the interstate right now, we'd make it before their big rollout at 6:00pm. Obviously, we got on the interstate!

We arrived at the mall at 5:40pm. Would anyone in Minnesota buy a $600 phone? Take a look...

There were over two hundred people ahead of us in line. We waited patiently and hoped there would be enough for everyone.

Almost there...

I have to say, Apple really knows how to run a railroad. They were processing sales at an incredible rate, and within fifteen minutes of them opening the doors, Paul and I had our new toys!!!

I'll post a special "iPhone" blog later. It's pretty darn cool!

Wandering in Wisconsin...

2007-06-28T22:18:00.000-07:00

After an enjoyable stay in Chicago, it was time to head up to Wisconsin.

It was a perfect day to ride. It was a bit overcast and not too hot. It was going to be a relaxing day.

As you would expect, when you drive down Wisconsin's country roads, you see a lot of beautiful farm land.

And farms...

There is something really comforting about seeing rolling green hills for as far as the eye can see.

Today we were going to drive around Lake Geneva, WI. Oddly enough, the sixth grade summer camp I went to is on Lake Geneva. I was really looking forward to seeing it again, but there weren't a lot of places to actually see it. The lake is surrounded by properties, so we had to settle for these brief glimses of its sparkling waters.

We did stop for a tasty lunch at Harpoon Willies in Williams Bay, WI. If we can't see much of the lake, at least I can get a tasty burger!

Then back to our jaunt around the lake...

It didn't take very long to get here, so we decided to head into Milwaukee to see the Harley Davidson plant.

Well we found it... kinda. It turns out that the Harley Plant we went to is no longer a Harley factory. Its now offices for the company, so there was nothing for us to see. I guess we'll just head North to Appleton to see Paul's niece, Stephanie.

But first, another trip into the urban blight of Milwaukee. Larry and I have decided that we won't let Paul navigate in cities any more. Its just too scary!

Other than a homeless guy with a bedroll and a bizarre love of passing ambulances, we escape Milwaukee unharmed. So we head North.

We arrive in Appleton, Wisconsin, check into the Hampton Inn, and wait for Stephanie to arrive.

Stephanie arrives and we head off to dinner. Stephanie's husband Dan can't join us, since he's off playing golf, but we have a wonderful time having dinner without him. Then he does head over, but goes to the wrong brew pub. Appleton has to be a pretty cool place if there are so many brew pubs that you can go to the wrong one!

Shortly after dessert, Dan arrives. Dan is as nice and friendly as his wife, and so we all end up talking for awhile. All and all, it's been a good day!

Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town...

2007-06-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

We're off to Chicago!

We have a few miles to go to get there, so for the most part we take the major freeways.

It was an uneventful drive through Michigan, but when we got to Indiana it was another story. It started to rain pretty hard and we quickly pulled over and put on all our rain gear.

Going through Gary Indiana was a bit of an adventure, with roads filled with ponds full of water. We managed to avoid the hazards, but it made for some slow going.

Larry and I have discovered that Paul is a great navigator on cool country roads. But when it comes to cities, he has a gift for driving into... questionable areas. That and his GPS loves to take surface streets, so it literally took us three and a half hours to drive from one side of Chicago to the other! It took so long, and it went so slowly, that Larry's bike actually overheated.

Finally, we made it to the North side of Chicago, and our humble home for the next two nights, the Super 8 Hotel near Loyola University.

Paul got the three of us tickets to the Cubs game the next day, so we decided to walk to the EL station (an "EL" is an elevated train, for those of you who've never lived in Chicago) and take the train to Wrigley Field.

On our way there we saw quite an unusual sight...

Yes, that's a car that drove through the front of a video rental store. According to the police on the scene, the driver thought she was putting her car in reverse, stepped on it, and drove through the front door. The impressive part is that by the time we get back from the Cubs game, the car will be gone, and the window will be replaced. Makes you wonder if this happens all the time. ;)

After our brief detour, we finally get on the train and head into the city.

Oddly enough, we got to the game three hours early, so we found a nearby pub, Sluggers, and stopped for a couple of beers and a lot of fried appetizers.

Oh, I mean, I had lots fried appetizers... Paul and Larry ate celery sticks and carrots.

Now it was time for the game. It almost didn't matter how the Cubs played or who they were playing. Wrigley Field is the best baseball park in the entire world. I swear, I'd see English Cricket there if they played it. Thank God they play baseball, because I enjoy it a lot better.

There is just something wonderful about sitting in those stands and watching a ball game. And as much as I appreciate all the parks that emulate the great ball parks, there's nothing like the real thing.

And here's the first pitch! Okay, the first of four or five first pitches. Very bizarre. And I am not kidding, the second, first pitch, was pitched by Tony the Tiger. Okay, a guy in a Tony the Tiger suit, but still, quite weird. And I only had two beers, I didn't imagine it!

Speaking of which, take a look at this next picture very carefully. Yes, that is a beer vendor walking the aisles. Old Sytle isn't my cup of tea, but I have to love a baseball park that brings you beer to your seat.

The Cubbies were on fire! They were on top of their game today, and it was clear they would win easily. Paul chose a great game for us to see.

The interesting part about Chicago is that if you lived across the street from Wrigley Field, you got to watch the games for free. At least as well as you could from across the street. A couple of years back they decided to add more seats to the park which blocked the view.

In any other city, that would be that. However, in Chicago, all the buildings affected were allowed to build bleachers on their roofs, so that people across the street could still see the game. This picture shows a couple of buildings with bleechers on their roof. Pretty cool, eh?

The Cubs won the game, 6 to 4, just as the clouds rolled in the lightning lit the sky. As we walked to the EL station the rain began to pour.

And pour it did. Here is a picture of Wrigley from our EL platform. In minutes we were in gale force winds and torrential rain. Time to get on the train and head back to the room to get ready for dinner.

The three of us had all been on the Chicago leg of the Route 66 trip we took a couple years ago. On that trip we went to Lawry's for prime rib, and it was really good. This time around we decided to try someplace new, and Larry had a place in mind. A steakhouse called Smith and Wollensky, which has twenty years of reviews saying that they are the best steakhouse on earth. Well with reviews like that, we had to give them a try.

We went to our rooms, changed, then after a break got back on the EL and headed back on the EL to Smith and Wollensky. They had a special, bone in filet mignon that none of us could resist. So we ordered three, as well some tasty crab cakes and a couple of really good side dishes.

The crab cakes were amazing, and here Larry demonstrates what it would look like if he did eat the delicious and completely unhealthy, four cheese Macaroni and Cheese with truffle oil.

As you can see, the special looks pretty amazing!

The food was really good, although the service was a bit spotty. Our original waiter didn't bring me a menu for ten minutes. Then another ten minutes passed before another waitress decided to take over. Fortunately for us she did. We had some amazing cow!

Then it was time for dessert. Once again, Paul will demonstrate what it would look like, if, he actually ate the delicious and unhealthy dessert. Of course, Larry and Paul ate nothign but healthy dishes, and I was forced to eat the Mac and Cheese and the monster chocolate cake all by myself.

It was another wonderful visit to Chicago, one of my favorite cities in the world.

Tomorrow we will bid Chicago goodbye, and make our way into Wisconsin.

We're on... the road... to Bitely... Bitely?

2007-06-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

We start our morning in Toledo Ohio at Uncle John's pancake house. Paul has been jonesing for some buckwheat pancakes for weeks and Uncle John was happy to provide them. Actually, I hadn't had buckwheat pancakes since my father made them for me years ago, so I had them as well. I must say, they were pretty darn tasty!

Paul seems to have this gift with waitresses. It seems that everytime we order breakfast, they have the need to bring him the wrong stuff. Once again, I ordered coffee and OJ, and Paul just OJ. He got coffee. He asked for two pancakes, he got three. Oh well, it was easy enough to cope with. Especially from a waitress named "Wabbit".

"Wabbit" you say? Yes, apparently the sweet, old manager of the pancake house thought she was as cute as a bunny. So he changed her name in the cash register to Wabbit. Apparently it stuck!

We started our journey to Michigan, and to my delight, found my old friend was alive and well in Michigan.

One thing I forgot about the midwest was the long trains. There is something comforting about waiting for a long train. The relaxing sound of chug-chug-chug-chug as it meanders down the track.

We took a lot of country roads to head out to Larry's house in Bitely. Lots and lots of corn fields for as far as the eye could see.

It is quite pastoral...

After a good days ride, we arrive at Larry and Donna's house on the lake.

I had met Larry on our Route 66 trip, but this was my first time meeting Donna. She's very cool and friendly, and we had a great dinner at home, relaxing and talking. By this time Paul and I were getting pretty tuckered out, so Larry showed us to our cabin.

Pretty nice eh?

Their guest cabin is nicer than a lot of apartments I've rented!

As you can see from this picture from the next morning, it pretty sweet on the outside as well.

The road into their property is beautiful as well, but it is a bit tricky. That's sand in the road. It took a bit of patience to get our bikes across okay.

Fortunately, the part going to the house is paved.

As much as we would like to have stayed, it was time to head to Chicago.

So the three masked riders head off on their next great adventure. Chicago here we come!

Rock on! The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

2007-06-24T22:37:00.000-07:00

The next morning we head into Cleveland to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

As you can see, it's a unique kind of building, lots of glass with a kind of multiple pyramid thing going for it. It's a very cool building.

You may ask the question, as I did, why Cleveland? Shouldn't rock and roll be immortalized in a cool, vibrant, urban setting, like New York or Los Angeles, or even San Francisco? I think that's why they felt the need to put up this plaque explaining it all.

You see, the term Rock and roll was first used by Ohio disc jockey, Alan Freed in 1951. He created the first rock concert, the Moondog Coronation Ball, on March 21st, 1951 at the Cleveland Arena. So the people of Ohio felt that since this is where it was all started, this is where they should build the Hall. And of course, this plaque.

Of couse, nothing is truly immortalized until we get a picture of Paul in front of it!

We went inside and The Drifters were playing. The actual Difters! Okay, they are a wee bit old at this point, but it was very cool.

This is where we got the bad news. Photography is strictly forbidden in the Hall. There are signs everywhere saying "Some contributors have donated to the museum with the restriction that their items cannot be filmed. Therefore, no photography is allowed."

Isn't it ironic that rock and roll, the music form of rebellion, of freedom and defiance, is represented in a hall that didn't say "You're a rock star for God's sake! What's wrong with letting people take pictures of your sequined glove?"

So even though the place is full of really cool stuff, I didn't get a lot of pictures.

We did see some pretty amazing things. Exhibits dedicated to everyone from Chuck Berry to Elvis. From James Brown to The Sex Pistols. About the early influences of rhythm and blues, and how the music evolved and its capital moved from place to place.

As a geek, I found it amusing that Steve Jobs is the only CEO who's immortalized in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Why? The iPod! Just like the Sony transistor radio did in the 50's, the iPod made music accessible to kids around the world. You could now take your entire music collection around with you everywhere!

My favorite part was the multimedia presentation of all the inductees. It was a huge theatre with three huge screens, showing all the artists by the year they were inducted. They really need to make this into a DVD, or have a CD boxed set that includes all this amazing music.

This brings up an interesting point. The rock and roll hall of fame is kind of a misnomer at this point. For instance, Grand Master Flash, one of the early innovators in rap, was recently inducted. It's become more of a pop music hall of fame, which is much more inclusive. It now seems to cover all popular music other than country. Good thing they have their own hall down in Tennessee!

Anyway, the presentation reintroduced me to lots of music I had long since forgotten about, like Earth, Wind and Fire. And the ones that I've always loved like The Beatles.

After a full afternoon, we headed out of Cleveland to Toledo. Toledo turned out to be everything I expected it to be. As evidenced by this sign on our hotel.

Of course, it has its positives as well. Across the street is someone I haven't seen in a long time...

Yes, that is a Big Boy! As you may know, Bob's Big Boy used to be ubiquitous throughout California. With the growth of drive through fast food, the Bob's Big Boy became virtually extinct. It seems like he just escaped to Ohio and the Midwest, because Big Boy is alive and well, and on virtually every street corner.

Tomorrow, we're off to Michigan to pick up Larry!

Niagara Falls and the Finger Lakes

2007-06-23T23:51:00.000-07:00

We started our day in Auburn, NY, with breakfast at the Hunter Dinerant. The Hunter Dinerant is a old style diner, balanced precariously above the river.

The food was good, but proved to be another example of unintentionally bad service. I asked for orange juice and coffee and Paul asked for just orange juice. The girl brought him coffee. Paul asked for two pancakes, and she brought three. Both times she apologized profusely, but for some reason it keeps happening.

I think the fates just want Paul amped up on coffee and needs to eat more pancakes!

We decided to take a ride around the finger lakes before heading over to Niagara Falls.

As beautiful as the countryside was, we didn't get many direct views of the lakes. Not that I don't appreciate farm land, its just that it would have been nice to see more water.

One place that was really nice was Hector Falls. Not only did it afford a beautiful view of the lake, but was pretty amazing on its own.

See, there's the lake!

And the lower part of Hector Falls

As we made our way around, we occasionally got glimpses of the water...

After our visit to the lakes we headed towards Niagara Falls.

It is a powerful and awe inspiring act of nature

Take a look at the people in comparison to the falls. Niagara Falls is huge, and the force of that much water is palpable!

Yes, those are hundreds of people in blue plastic panchos, getting as close as they can to the base of the waterfall.

One of the institutions of Niagara Falls is the Maid of the Mist. This boat takes thousands of visitors to the base of the waterfall everyday.

Here you can see a couple of the Maids of the Mists against the backdrop of Toronto...

It's cool to look down, just don't jump!

Can you believe that people used to go over the falls in a barrel?

Tomorrow we wanted to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so we decided to hit the road and see if we could get as far as Erie, Pennsylvania.

We drove and drove and finally made it to Erie after dark. It was a relief to see the hotel after so many hours on the road, and I watched the bikes as Paul went in to get us a room. Well, he tried to get us a room. You see, the state soccer finals are happening in Erie this weekend, and there wasn't a hotel room for thirty miles!

About thirty miles down the road in Conneaut, OH, was another Days Inn, which supposedly had lots of room. So again we hop on our motorcycles and hit the road. It was getting cold, and it was a bit disconcerting that we were following seven cars down the driveway to the hotel in Conneaut! Their passengers apparently weren't too bright, since they drove around looking for parking as Paul and I drove right up to the front door. Good thing we did, since Paul got the very last room available!

Now we were pretty hungry, so we ate at the only restaurant available to us at 10:30PM, Burger King. You know, at 10:30, about ten hours after we last ate, greasy fast food tasted awfully good! When we returned to our room we both fell asleep almost immediately.

It was a long, fun day. Tomorrow, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

Cooperstown - The Baseball Hall of Fame

2007-06-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

After our whirlwind tour of Vermont, we ended up on Glens Falls, NY. Now it was time to head towards Cooperstown, NY and the Baseball Hall of Fame!

On the way we drive through Wilton, NY. Since Adam (Paul's son in law) grew up in Wilton, CA, Paul thought it would be fun to take a picture.

It rained most of the morning, so I didn't any pictures of the ride into Cooperstown. It did dry up long enough to get a picture of my beautiful bike in front of the Baseball Hall of Fame!

Like you'd expect, they have a full on multimedia presentation, with everything short of James Earl Jones saying "Baseball reminds us of all that was once good and could be again". It's definitely not your plain vanilla movie screen.

Of course, they do have the obligatory monument to Babe Ruth, clearly one of the best baseball players ever.

They also have many special displays, like this one about Negro League Baseball, and how black athletes changed the game.

One of my favorite players is the immortal Shoeless Joe Jackson, debatably the greatest baseball player ever. And here they have his hat, jersey and glove! If it hadn't been for the Black Sox scandal, he probably would have gotten the recognition he deserved. Ironically, the best games in his career occurred during the games he is accused of throwing.

In many ways, the Hall has a fetish for the New York Yankees. Not too surprising considering their incredible history.

Another one of the special displays is dedicated to the All American Girls Professional Baseball League, that played during World War II and for about ten years afterwards.

They were immortalized in the movie "A League of their own" with Geena Davis. It's nice to see they got recognized here as well.

Here they immortalize all the greats, from Lou Gehrig...

To Willie Mays...

To Hank Aaron...

And David Winfield (One of my all time favorite Padres!)

One of the most difficult things in baseball is the no-hitter. It's exceedingly rare for a pitcher to pitch all nine innings. Even less likely for them to pitch a game where the other team never gets a hit. This display talks about no-hitters, but most importantly about Nolan Ryan, who not only pitched a no-hitter, but did it SEVEN times! Considering most pitchers have never pitched one no-hitter, this is a pretty amazing accomplishment.

This year the Hall inducted Tony Gwynn. Tony was one of the Padres greatest players, and my friends and I nicknamed him Tatonka, or "buffalo" because he moves like that large and powerful beast in the outfield. A great fielder and an even better batter. I'm glad to see he got recognized.

Another personal favorite is Ozzie Smith. I had the good fortune of seeing him play in his heyday, catching a ball in midair as it flew between second and third, and throwing it before he himself hit the ground. He truly deserved the nickname, "The Wizard of Oz!"

After an amazing afternoon at the Baseball Hall of Fame, we once again hit the road. The rains came again, but when it stopped I took as many pictures as I could of the beautiful New York countryside.

Don't you just love "Golden Hour?"

Vermont in one day or less...

2007-06-21T23:20:00.000-07:00

This was basically a travel day. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot to stop for in Vermont, but a lot of beautiful scenery to look at along the way.

I really do love these old metal bridges...

I don't know if you can really see this, but at one point Paul pulled over and asked me to take a look at the right side of the road. It's an air strip where it's completely covered in flowers! Kind of cool! "Hey Bob, where do I land?" "How about on those bright flowers over there?"

For lunch, we arrived at Island Pond, Vermont.

We stopped at a place called Jennifer's Restaurant for lunch. For the first time in four days, my cell phone had service, and it was beeping like crazy to let me know about all the messages I hadn't received. After lunch I would definitely have to go through them, but pie waits for no man!

We get inside and the place is completely empty. Not surprising for 11:30am. So we find a table, sit down, and the waitress comes by. “Can you move to another table?” Gee, with this crowd I can see why you have to reserve a table!

Fine, we move to the next table and have a couple really yummy, gravy covered sandwiches. (I love Vermont!) And then some amazing desserts, Paul having the Boston Cream Pie and me having the Pecan.

While we're munching, all the tables fill in with lots of nice older ladies, having what looks like some sort city counsel meeting. We start talking to our waitress and she asks if we are the guys with the motorcycles. Turns out that the constable of Island Pond, VT made $78,000 dollars last year from traffic tickets. He basically tickets every motorcycle that goes through town if the drivers don't put both feet firmly on the ground when they stop. It's not illegal, but since no one ever drives back to contest the tickets, they make a fortune!

Well after driving very slowly out of town, we hit the road again.

Vermont is a very diverse state...

Okay, it took me awhile to get my camera out so the clouds scattered a little. But doesn't this look like a smiley face?

I had to stop when I saw these cows. Who says that happy cows are only in Calfornia?

Vermont definitely has its share of happy cows!

Unfortunately, we didn't have a chance to stop for Vermont maple syrup, so we had to settle for views like this...

I definitely need to come back someday. Maybe next time we can stop at the Ben and Jerry's factory!

I want my motorcycle back!!!!

2007-06-20T21:30:00.000-07:00

I wake up this morning at the Falmouth Inn, to the sound of someone packing up a car. I get dressed, look outside, and Jill is getting ready to head home. We say our goodbyes, then I head back in to get showered and dressed.

After I'm once again among the living, I call up Street Cycles. Yes, my part will be in this morning, but it is going to take at least five hours to do the repair work. So Paul and I walk up and down the street in a vain attempt to find breakfast. Having failed in our attempt, we end up at McDonalds.

Okay, not exactly what I wanted for breakfast, but a sausage McMuffin will have to do. But what to do with our five hours of free time? Hey! There's a movie theatre across the street, and Ocean's 13 is starting in fifteen minutes.

So off to the movies we go. I haven't been in two months, so I'm justifiably happy with this chain of events.

Two hours later...

Not the best movie I've seen. As Oceans movies go, it's not as good as the original, but better than the second one. Now it's time to head over to Street Cycles and see if my motorcycle is finished.

Not quite yet.

In fact, the new ETA is 5:00PM. Five o'clock! What did I do to the poor thing that it takes a total of seven hours to fix? Here I thought it was just a brake line. Apparently it's open heart surgery.

Oh well, not much we can do but sit around and be patient. Paul and I look at all the things we can buy, yet somehow manage to keep our self control. Very difficult for Paul, since they have the Bluetooth wired helmets by Nolan. Fortunately for his wallet, they refuse to set up a demo machine, and Paul doesn't want to be a $700 guinea pig. So we wait patiently for my bike to get fixed.

While we wait we talk to a friendly guy from Vermont named George, who apparently owns a Napa auto parts store. Nice guy, although some of his jokes are pretty bad. Still, he keeps us amused until 4:45PM when my motorcycle is finally finished.

The good news, my motorcycle is happy and healthy. The bad news, the brake fluid has caused nasty cosmetic damage to the shaft drive and the exhaust. Still, as long as my motorcycle is running I can handle it looking a bit ugly. I'll have to get the cosmetic work fixed when I get back to San Francisco. The important thing is that my brakes actually work.

So off on the road again.

We do make one quick stop for dinner in Paris, Maine. The place is called the Smilin' Moose, and the people seem quite friendly, with lots of questions about our bikes and our travels. Very nice. Then we're back on the road, trying to get as far West as we can before sunset.

Fortunately we make it as far as Lancaster, NH. If I didn't know better, I would say that the inn keeper had a thing for our friend Paul. Still, he's a stand up guy, so he resists her innuendo about saving him a muffin, and we head to our room. Another exciting day on the road, with the result that I'm once again on my motorcycle, and it's happy and healthy.

In search of Katherine Arthurs...

2007-06-19T19:31:00.000-07:00

After our trip into Canada, it was time to head back to the states and hopefully get my motorcycle back.

After a month on the motorcycles, it had been really strange to go so long without it. It was nice to have someone to talk to, but I was a bit jealous of Paul driving about in the Canadian wilderness.

On the way back I got a text message from my friend Katherine. She had been born in Bangor, Maine, and had hoped that we might get a couple pictures of her childhood home. I checked the GPS and found out that her old house was only about a mile from our planned course, so I talked Paul and Jill into a small detour.

As you can see, Bangor is a picturesque New England town!

It was pretty easy to find her old house...

Pretty cool, eh? Hard to believe that Bangor is the home town of Steven King, and that some of his scariest books are based here.

This is about the time I called Street Cycles BMW to see if my motorcycle had been repaired. Not only had it not been repaired, the replacement brake line was not even in the state! Apparently BMW had shipped the brake line, but it had only gotten as far as Memphis, TN. I was going to have to wait another day to get my part.

It wasn't long before we were back in Falmouth, ME. Not only is this the place where my motorcycle was having a spa day (or three), but it was next to Freeport, home of L.L. Bean.

For those of you who may not know, L.L. Bean is a famous mail order company, specializing in cool, outdoorsy things. I for one don't enjoy living outdoors (A hotel without room service is roughing it to me) but I do like there stuff. I suspect that they should rename Freeport, "L.L. Beanville" since they have multiple, gigantic stores here!

Here, Paul and I pose in front of a giant boot. I just want to know where they keep its mate.

As you can see, there are a lot of L.L. Bean stores.

This was my personal favorite item. Yes, it really is a Chocolate Moose!

Not to sound like a commerical, but it really is an amazing store.

How many stores do you know with their own trout pond? And yes, it is fully stocked with fish. Maybe they give fishing lessons here...

After our visit to Freeport, Jill was feeling a bit tired so we dropped her off at the Falmouth Inn (Amazing showers!) and Paul and I headed off to dinner. Paul definitely had one of his better meals at the Foreside Tavern. I had a really yummy maple and molasses salmon. Mmmmm... Maple syrup...

Hopefully my motorcycle will be done tomorrow.

The Bay of Fundy!

2007-06-18T18:14:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in the previous blog, the Bay of Fundy is famous for its extreme tides. The difference between high and low tide can be as much as fifty feet! On this day the tide had dropped forty one feet.

You may ask why the tides are so extreme. Well think of the Bay of Fundy like a big bucket of water. If you kick the bucket, the water will slosh from one side of the bucket to the other, rising up against the side.

Well think of the bay as being a really big bucket. So big that it takes three or more hours to slosh from one side to the other. And due to its unique shape, the slosh is really high or really low.

This picture was taken from the cliffs above the ocean floor. I've marked someone walking on the beach so you can see the scale of the place.

Of course, my favorite local resident what this red squirrel...

Meanwhile, back at the beach, here you can see the Hopewell Rocks at low tide.

I took the starcase down to the beach, and here you can see that you can actually walk on the ocean floor!

It is a wee bit muddy. After all, the ocean was here just an hour ago...

It was going to be a few hours before the tide came back, so we drove to the town of Moncton to see the Tital Bore.
A tidal bore is when the tide rises, and the rivers start to flow backwards. It's kind of hard to see in these pictures, but its kind of bizarre to see the a river run dry, then have the water flow back in.

It was time to head back to Hopewell Rocks.

We came back a few hours later when the tide started to roll back in.

You can see that the entire area we walked on earlier is submerged again.

When we went out to dinner later the tide was going out. As you can see, the boats are all set up so they don't fall over when the water goes away. The Bay of Fundy really is a memorable place.

The trek into Canada

2007-06-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

We had hoped that if we got my motorcycle to the dealer on time, we'd get it fixed the same day. Unfortunately this wasn't going to happen. Apparently, these brake lines simply don't fail, so no one keeps them in stock. All BMW motorcycle dealers are closed on Sunday and Monday, so the soonest they would get to it was two days from now.
Since we had a couple days to play with, we decided to head to Canada to the Bay of Fundy.

So we head up to Canadia and wait patiently in line to get across the border.

Canada really is a beautiful place. It would have been a little more fun on my motorcycle, but it was still really nice from a car.

We got as far as Saint John and decided to stop for lunch. Really yummy crab cakes! And since we are now in a bi-lingual country, I decided to forego the pie and went for the crepes. Mmmmmm... strawberry crepes.

Yummy crepes aside, we had a long way to go to the Bay of Fundy. The Bay of Funday is an amazing place, where the tide rises and falls as much as fifty feet! When the tide goes out, the floor of the ocean is completely dry and you can walk on it.

We were going to a place called "Hopewell Rocks" where the extreme tides have eroded the rocks into these cool mushroom shapes.

Almost there...

Tomorrow we walk on the bottom of the ocean!

Blame Canada!

2007-06-17T05:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the lack of blogs, but Canada is big on vegetation and lacking in internet connectivity. Hopefully we'll be back online in the next day or two.

Peter! You're on fire!!!

2007-06-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

First let me start by saying, New Hampshire is a beautiful place!

The roads are nestled among beautiful forests, lakes and mountains.

And did I mention that New Hampshire doesn't have a helmet law? Don't worry, I only went without my helmet for a few miles, mainly so I could see what it feels like. Pretty cool actually.

On our way to Mount Washington we came across a wood carving place.

You wouldn't believe the scale of some of these carvings. This Indian chief is about ten feet tall, and carved with a chainsaw! Kind of like an ice sculpture, without the danger of it melting afterwards.

I was rather fond of this one. For obvious reasons.

And this one reminds me. At breakfast I had french toast with real New Hampshire maple syrup. With apologies to Edwin or anyone I know from Vermont, I have to say these people in New Hampshire make a pretty kick-ass pancake topping!

Oh well, time to hit the road once again. Did I mention that New Hampshire is a beautiful place?

Didn't Bob Newhart live here?

Today's goal was to ride up to the top of Mount Washington. Jill had felt a bit ambitious this morning and had decided to drive there early and hike up. After seeing how vertical the paths were, she had the good sense to stop after the first couple of miles and wait for us to pick her up.

Just look at those clouds. Talk about ominous! It did a bit of drama to our trip, but as you'll see, I will have my own drama to add later.

Jill got on at the base of the mountain and we started the steep climb to the top.

You are not allowed to exceed twenty miles per hour on the road. With a bike as big as mine, this is a bit problematic since I have to drive at least twenty miles to hour to keep her upright!

When I did have a chance to look up, the views were pretty amazing.

And there are those ominous clouds again...

As we got towards the top, Paul had this feeling of verboding, thinking it was because of the weather. We were only about a mile from the top, but we decided to head down.

He didn't get much of an argument from me. I would be happy to driving downhill, which makes it much easier to keep my motorcycle upright.

Paul gave me some advice on how to get down the mountain in one piece. Stay off the rear brake, use a low gear, and use the front brake as much as possible.

It seemed like good advice. Now we were heading down.

I have to say, its much more beautiful on the way down. Probably because I get a chance to see the scenery. And the scenery was spectacular!

On the way up I was worried about my clutch. Never getting out of first gear is hard on the transmission, and I could smell it burning by the time we got to the top. Heading down I thought would be hard on the brakes, but between downshifting and my linked brakes, I thought I would be okay.

About two-thirds of the way down, every light on my dash was blinking like a pachinko machine. I stopped and discover that my rear brake line has burst! Paul and I look it over, then decide to continue slowly down the mountain.

A mile later, my rear brakes are gone! I pull over, brace my feet so that the motorcycle won't move, then Paul looks back.

Peter! You're on fire!

What?!?!? I stop my engine, look up the hill behind me, and sure enough, clouds of billowing, oil rich smoke are filling the air. Apparently the brake fluid had squirted out onto the muffler and had started to smoke. We gave it some time to clear, then decided to try to get to the bottom of the hill entirely by downshifting.

That was a scary ride.

We get to the bottom and we all start scrambling to find a BMW dealership somewhere nearby. We find three within a couple hundred miles of Mount Washington. Now comes the hard part. It's Saturday afternoon, and for some reason, every motorcycle service department I've ever seen is closed on both Sunday and Monday. If we don't get this fixed by this afternoon, we're marooned for the next two days!

Each dealership has a different issue. None of them has the part, and most are about to close. There is one about ninety miles away in Maine, but they are closing in two hours.

There wasn't much we could do. Our only hope was to drive there, brakeless, and hope to get there before they closed. Then, convince them to stay late, steal the part off of a new bike, and fix the problem.

What can I say, I'm hopelessly optimistic.

So with Paul leading the way to Falmouth, Maine, and Jill following in the car to keep people from running me over, we start on our way.

The people of New Hampshire and Maine think I'm on drugs. Either that or they think I have seizures.
You see, I have no rear brake, and my front brake will probably only work a few more times before it gives out. (My front brake is electronically linked to my rear brake. Use one, you automatically use the other)

The way I broke was entirely by down shifting. And the only way to stop in any reasonable amount of time, I would need to downshift, release the clutch quickly, which would make the bike seize up, but also slow down. I'd be fine as long as I didn't have to make too many full stops.

Ever see Fred Flintstone? Now I know what it's like to stop a moving vehicle with my feet!

After two and a half hours of eventful driving, we successfully make it to Street Cycles of Falmouth, ME. The store is closed, but the service manager, Duane, has stayed late to let me check in my motorcycle. Unfortunately, new BMWs use a different brake line than mine, so there was no part to steal. And since I've been torturing my bike for the last couple of hours, they would need to reset the computer after they fix it.

What do we do now? The store is closed for the next couple of days, so the soonest I can get it fixed is Tuesday morning.

It looks like Jill and I will be driving in the car for the next couple of days. At least my new pal Duane recommended a great place for dinner.

Up here in New England, where lobster is cheap and plentiful, they have a sandwich called a Lobster Roll. Basically big chunks of lobster with mayo and lettuce, in either a hot dog bun or a thick slice of white bread with a big V cut out of it. Mmmmmm... tasty...

And the scenery wasn't bad either.

Tonight we stay in Bangor, and tomorrow we head into Canada. Hey, at least I get to hang out with Jill in the car for the next couple of days. It should be fun!

A day in Boston

2007-06-15T19:12:00.000-07:00

After we woke up in Worchester, Paul, Jill and I headed into Boston for a quick visit and a bite of lunch.

We wanted to see as much as we could, so we decided to walk along the Freedom Trail. Oddly enough we started in the middle of the trail at the Old State House.

Boston is a great old city, with lots of oddly angled roads and alleys, and centuries old buildings surrounded by their modern siblings.

One such building is the Old South Meeting House. In the late 1700's it was the largest building in Colonial Boston. When it was a house of worship, Ben Franklin was baptized here. Later, it was where thousands of Colonists got together and declared that there should be no taxation without representation, and planned the Boston Tea Party.

And there are many reminders of our old friend Ben...

Most great eastern cities have these immense parks, and Boston is no different. On a beautiful summer day, few things are more enjoyable than a walk through Boston Common.

The Park Street Church is another one of those great old buildings.

As much as we were enjoying our walking tour, we were feeling a bit peckish. So it was time to head to one of our favorite restaurants, the Union Oyster house. It's down the street from this landmark, Faneuil Hall.

After lots of walking, we finally arrive.

As you can see from this impressive brass plaque, the Union Oyster House is the oldest continually operating restaurant in the United States. It's also a place with fond memories for me.

Twenty years ago when Paul gave me my first grown-up job, he took me on a business trip to Boston to go to the MacWorld Exposition. Shortly after we arrived he took me to the Union Oyster House. Well I didn't know anything about budgets or per-diems, so I had no idea what was appropriate to order.

The waitress comes up and asks up what we'd like to order, and Paul says, "I'll have the lobster thermador. Peter, do you want one?" Who was I to disagree with my new boss and the CEO of my company? Needless to say, I have fond memories of the Union Oyster House.

Seems only fitting that I would return here years later with Paul and Jill!

Alas, it was time to hit the road. We needed to get to New Hampshire before dark.

Now there isn't a whole lot to see in Ossipee, NH, but if you ever find yourself there, I highly recommend a little locals place called Jake's Seafood.

It's not very big or impressive, but the food was remarkably tasty! Personally, I found it hard to believe that I had been in New England this long without having devoured a lobster. And no, the lobster and crab cakes at the Union Oyster House didn't count.

I do love visiting a place where lobster is relatively cheap and plentiful!

A quiet afternoon on the road...

2007-06-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

After yesterday's long ride through the rain, Jill decided that she would leave the motorcycling to Paul and I, and got herself a rental car.

Today's ride was remarkably uneventful, but enjoyable none the less. We covered four states, including Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. We rode through the Catskills for a couple of hours, and then ended up at a great little cafe called the R&B Cafe. As you can see, they have a great view.

Not bad, eh?

After some tasty sandwiches and pieces of apple pie, we got back on the road. Not much to talk about today, just some nice roads, a variety of scenery, and an enjoyable day.

We started in Hazelton Pennsylvania and ended up in Worchester, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. It was a long and beautiful day.

The rainy road to Gettysburg

2007-06-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

Although it shouldn't have surprised me, I found that by the time we reached Washington DC, I needed a new set of tires on my motorcycle.

Fortunately, Jessup Maryland is the home of Bob's BMW. Bob's is well known in BMW motorcycle circles, since they come to all the BMW rallies and have a great reputation for customer service. So after our last day in DC, we drove out to Jessup so that I could tire-up the next morning.

Upon waking up I drove over to Bob's. I had called when we first got to DC, and like most of the dealers we've encountered on this trip, they take care of riders who are traveling. They said they would put me to the head of the line since tires are a safety issue.

After a couple of hours I was the proud owner of a new set of Metzler tires. Now it was time to head North.

Jill was having some trouble with the stereo in her helmet, so when we passed a local electronics store, we stopped to get it fixed. Jill waited for them to fix the helmet and Paul and I drove over to the Barne's and Noble for new maps.

This is when the day got interesting. On the way back from the bookstore it started to rain. A lot. A whole lot! By the time we got back to the electronics store, Paul and I were completely soaked.
The people at the electronics store were very nice and let us come in and dry off for awhile. This was a very good thing, since my shirt was dripping with water. After about thirty minutes, the rain let up, so we put on all our rain gear and headed towards Gettysburg.

Riding around dressed in layers of water proof clothing is not a lot of fun. Left to my own devices, I would never ride in the rain. Sometimes the fates don't share my point of view and we just have to face the peril.

By the time we got to Gettysburg the skies had cleared.

It's kind of interesting that the fields remain virtually untouched, with the exception of dozens of statues memorializing various soldiers and armies.

Unfortunately, the break in the rain was not long lived.

We drove onto Hazelton, Pennsylvania in the rain.

Washington, DC

2007-06-11T21:07:00.000-07:00

After spending three days on the Blue Ridge Parkway, it was time for us to get off the mountain and see our nation's capital.

As you can see in the picture above, the hotel was kind enough to block off a spot next to the hotel for us to park the motorcycles. As you will hear later, this is somewhat of a mixed blessing.
Here we are at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza.

Paul's wife Jill flew out tonight, and will be riding with us for the next week and a half.
Right after she arrived, we decided to take a walk around the city.
The Washington Monument looks pretty cool at night.

The White House used to be along Pennsylvania Avenue, but since the Oaklahoma City bombing, the Secret Service has been isolating it more and more from city traffic.

Now there is a huge park on each side of the the White House, where pedestrians can walk. It's both beautiful and sad. Beautiful in the respect that clean, clear parkland in the middle of the city is really nice. On the other hand, the White House is becoming more and more of a fortress. I once read that the White House was the crown jewel in the US Penal system. I guess the price of becoming President is that you're completely cut off from the world.

The next morning we decide to walk towards the mall. Did you know that Washington DC has its own Chinatown? It's not quite as cool as the one in San Francisco, but its cool none the less.

The Archives are where they keep the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It's interesting to note that these are hand-written documents, not printed ones. As such, they have all sorts of spelling errors. But unlike something written with a word processor, all you can do is scratch out the error and keep going.

After seeing the FBI building in dozens of movies, it was kind of cool to see it in real life. The story around town is that upon seeing this building, J. Edgar Hoover said it was the ugliest building ever built. You have to wonder what he thought after they told him they were naming it after him.

One of my personal favorites is the Old Post Office. It looks like an old Germanic castle. Pretty cool!

After a bit of wandering, it was time for us to wander over to National Geographic.

Over the last few years, Paul and Jill have been going on quite a few National Geographic trips.
During their exciting adventures, they've make friends with some amazing people. Amongst them are
Boyd Matson and his lovely and talented wife, Betty Hudson.

Boyd is the host of many National Geographic television programs, including National Geographic Explorer and Wild Chronicles.

Anyway, Boyd was kind enough to give us a guided tour of National Geographic.

After our tour, we went walking around the city...

One thing that was pretty cool is that they new have segway tours of the city! If we had more time, I definitely would have tried one out.

We made our way over to the Holocaust museum.

The Holocaust museum is a lot like Schlinder's List. Really well done, and enough of an emotional train wreck that you would find it difficult to visit it very often.

Here is a wall with hundreds of tiles, each with a picture done by children across the United States.

I wasn't allowed to photograph most of the permanent exhibit, which is really a shame. If you are ever in Washington DC, this exhibit is definitely worth your time.

After the museum, it was time to meet Boyd and Betty for dinner at their home in McLean. I didn't want to invade their privacy, so I resisted the temptation of photographing all the cool stuff in their house. All the Myan, Incan, Thai, Indian and other artifacts, the amazing pictures. They have an original picture of Albert Einstein when he and his wife visited an Indian reservation, and the chief put him in the whole ceremonial headress. Betty is definitely a hoot, and a wonderful evening was had by all.

When we returned to the hotel, we were greeted by an inebriated guy who was really interested in our motorcycles. Between requests to ride the bikes, to guard them all night, and other rants, we finally managed to get back into our hotel.

Unfortunately, this upset our new friend who decided to throw soda all over the bikes, and to try and kick my motorcycle over! This made enough of a racket that the security guy came around and chased him off before he could do any real damage. Grrrrr... I hate it when people do bad things to my motorcycle!

The next morning, after washing the motorcycles and making sure there wasn't any real damage to the bikes, it was time to head to the Smithsonian.

We started at the National Air and Space Museum, which may be my favorite place in all of DC.

They have some incredible history, including the capsule that took Neil Armstrong to the moon.

One of the most significant displays has to be the German V2 Rocket. These rockets killed thousands of innocent civilians in England during the blitz. They also are the design that all American and Soviet rockets are based upon, making it the reason we were able to walk on the moon.

They have a copy of the Hubble Space Telescope...

And here in my favorite part of the museum, we have The Spirit of Saint Louis, Glamourous Glennis and Space Ship One. The Spirit of St. Louis is the plan Charles Lindberg flew across the Atlantic, Glamourous Glennis is the jet that Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in, and Space Ship One is the first private rocket to ever make it into space.

Of course, the most famous aircraft of all time is the Wright Flyer, the first airplane ever flown.

Time was starting to run short, so we got on a tour bus and spent the next couple of hours driving around the city.

It's a shame the main Smithsonian building is closed for the next two years.

The bus tour took us past most of the famous memorials. Here is the Jefferson Memorial...

And the Lincoln Memorial...

And the Ford Theatre, where President Lincoln was shot.

Here is the National Cathedral. Actually, its real name is "The Church of Peter and Paul" which is a far better name than "The National Cathedral"

The most affluent neighborhood in all of DC is Georgetown. In the 1950's they passed a law making it illegal to change the look of any existing building in Georgetown. Since then they've come up with some interesting ways around the issue.

As you can see in this picture of the Spanish Embassy, they are allowed to build a completely new building behind the facade of an old one. Here the three story facade of the original building, acts as the shell in front of a six story, modern, glass and metal building.

After our whirlwind afternoon, Paul and Jill went off to see their niece and I had dinner with my long-lost friend Colin. You can see his new puppy Molly is friendly, and adorable!

We ate a lot of really tasty Ethiopian food. I do love to eat with my hands.

It was a great couple of days in Washington! Now its time for me to sleep. I will blog again soon!

Three days along the Blue Ridge Parkway

2007-06-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

After the BMW Rally, it was time to drive along another famous road, the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is kind of like Skyline drive in the Bay Area, except that it's hundreds of miles long. Imagine hundreds of miles of twisty, beautiful and lush, forrested road, with hardly any traffic. And to top it off, being able to take it at a pace where the only thing you have to worry about is the next curve?

This is one amazing drive.

But before we start, we made a quick stop for lunch.

Yes, the sign says both "Papas & Beer" and "Mexican Restaurant". Just like my trip to New Zealand with Tim, the morbid curiousity of Mexican food so far from home forced us to try it.

And as you can tell from Paul's expression, he was shocked to find Mexican food in North Carolina.

Actually, in all fairness, it wasn't bad. It's almost as good as Mexican food is in Northern California. Which is not as good as Mexican food in Southern California, but can be tasty. Kind of like a McDonalds Apple Pie. It's not an Apple Pie, but it tastes good. This wasn't Mexican food, but it did taste good.

And now was time to hit the road!

I could literally post hundreds of pictures of this road, but it would probably bore you to tears.

This is one of those things in life where you have to decide whether you want to experience something, or document it. And as I went along, I found myself spending way too much time documenting the ride, instead of experiencing it.

So I made sure I spent lots of time experiencing the ride. Swooshing my bike back and forth on the road. Looking at the beautiful views, seeing the patterns in the clouds, waving at the other riders. These last three days have to be some of the most relaxing, most enjoyable I've ridden.

There are very few things along this road. To find food, gas or water, you usually have to get off the Parkway, drive off a few miles, and pull over. Those rare things that are along the parkway are usually special and unique. Such was the case with the Blue Ridge Music Center.

This was an amazing experience for me, because in a strange way it brought me closer to my own father.

My father was born in 1909, so in two years it will have been his 100th birthday. The Blue Ridge Music Center is a museum documenting the music my father listened to when he was a teenager. It gave me some insight into what my father listened to when he was growing up.

It was a very cool experience. I talk a lot about my mother and grandmother, but that doesn't mean I love my father any less. Times like this remind me of all the things about him that I hope I have in common.

Taking a break gave me a chance to give my motorcycle some "tats".

You should be able to see the Deal's Gap Dragon, and hopefully the new "Blue Ridge Parkway" stickers on my top bag.

Another interesting place we found along the parkway is Mabry Mill.

It's kind of a mini version of Colonial Williamsberg, but for Apalachia. The people dress up in period costumes, make their own wool, keep the mill running, and even have a distillery. Well, at least a still.

Here a woman makes her own wool thread, which will soon be made into cloth.

And here we have a complete moonshining operation. I'm sure this still is purely for display purposes.

But the best park of the Blue Ridge Parkway is the road itself...

Paul had mentioned that a lot of people run down a few miles of the BRP, feel they've had the experience, and get back onto the Interstate. I can see why someone might do that, since it took us three days to get four hundred miles. Still, I'm glad we took the time, and made sure we got back on this road after each nights rest. It was a once in a lifetime experience.

I suspect that even people in cars would enjoy this road. I'm just glad I drove it on my motorcycle.

Blue Ridge Parkway & BMW Rally!

2007-06-07T23:58:00.000-07:00

Today's blog written by Paul!

The Blue Ridge Parkway is one of America's premier scenic highways. We began our ride near the southern end of the parkway south west of Asheville, NC.

One of the nice things about the parkway is the abundance of pull-outs that allow one to take pictures and it allows slower drivers the opportunity to allow traffic to pass.

As you can see from the pictures there is a good reason that they call these the "Great Smoky Mountains" The haze that you see is almost always present.

Shear cliffs and rock walls with tickleing water falls line the parkway.

The pull-out signs tell stories of the rich history of the area.

Occasionally you have problems with motorcyclists getting in the way of a perfectly good scenic picture.

Even with the haze the views are spectacular.

There was less flora than I expected. These flowers were among the few blooming along the parkway.

As the road wound higher into the mountains you got an idea of why it is such a popular place.

Some afternoon rain clouds appeared but we never got any rain.

This is a very typical picture along the parkway. Narrow and tree lined most of the time.

Carving its way along the mountain, the parkway continues its way to the summit.

At over six thousand feet the mountains of NC are the highest east of the Rockies.

Peter was comparing the rock wall to the skull of Paul. I see what he was trying to say.

Having heard that there was a BMWRA rally in Asheville we decided to stop by and see it. The rally was being held at the Biltmore Estate. Peter had not seen the estate so we decided to stop by and check it out.

It was the first day of the rally so many of the vendors were not fully set up yet. People were arriving and setting up their tents.

One of the positive side benefits of going to the rally was that Peter got to speak with the people from "Helen2Wheels". He had purchased new "rain proff" bags from them before he left on the trip. Well they were not rain proof. He poured water out of one of the the day we finished our 7 hours in the rain.

Helen2Wheels did the right thing. They told him that they had had a problem with one of the material runs that they had purchased. They asked him to bring his bags to their booth and they gave him brand new bags. Definitely the sign of a well run company.

The estate has its own vineard and winery on the grounds.
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Part of the cost of admission to the rally included either a tour of the winery or a tour of the estate house. Since we did not have time for the house we took the winery tour.

They not only offer tours but classes on cooking and wine pairing also.

Of course the wine tour ended in the gift shop.

Next we were off to see the rest of the estate grounds.

The estate has a large flower which provides all of the flowers needed for the main house and winery.

Many small lakes and pools dot the estate grounds.

There was a steady flow of bikes coming into the estate the entire time we were there.

Deals Gap - The Dragon!

2007-06-06T22:37:00.000-07:00

Deals Gap is one of the most famous motorcycle rides in the United States, right up there with Route 66 and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

It's called the Dragon because, like a dragon's tail, its a collection of dangerous curves. In this case, 318 curves in only 11 miles! So it's not surprising that motorcycle riders from around the world drive deep into the hills of North Carolina and Tennessee to drive this road.

Of course, some enterprising person built the "Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort" right at the beginning of the Dragon, which makes it the official start of the run.

Unlike most other roads we've driven, I wasn't able to take too many pictures of the Dragon. The road is simply too curvy to use the camera, and there aren't many turnouts to pull over. Still, there were a few people in VERY slow cars who occassionally blocked traffic, which allowed me to take a picture or two.

As you can tell from the crowd, Paul and I weren't the only ones riding this day.

Fortunately for me, Paul is a faster rider than I, so he was able to race ahead and get some pictures of me finishing the course...

Unfortunately, a road this wicked takes its toll on the reckless, the careless, and the just plain dumb. So here at the end is the "Tree of Shame", covered completely in the pieces left behind from people who've crashed on this road.

Since Paul and I are incredibly talented riders (and the traffic kept us from driving too fast!), we didn't make any donations to the Tree of Shame.

The Dragon was certainly an enjoyable road, and I don't regret riding it the two times we drove its length. Still, the road to and from the Dragon, although far less curvy, is just as beautiful, but not as crowded. All our drives through North Carolina have been pretty amazing!

The Dragon does have t-shirts though... I guess that makes it a step above... ;)

Maggie Valley - The Wheels of Time

2007-06-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Two of the things that Paul and I wanted to see most on this trip were "The Wheels of Time" museum and "The Dragon" at Deal's Gap.

The gateway to both is a tiny little town called Maggie Valley.

Maggie Valley is an interesting place. The population can't be any more than 1,000, and it basically has one street. Still, it has three miniature golf courses! Strange but true.

The day we arrived, all the hotels were welcoming the "Methodists Convention" to town. The whole idea of a religious convention eludes me. Do they have delegates wearing "Jesus for Son of God!" t-shirts? Are they voting to see if Judas can be an appostle, despite his character issues? Regardless of what they do at their convention, they are quite welcome in Maggie Valley.

I did run across two things that my friend, Katherine Arthurs might find amusing. First, since she's the proud owner of a little pug named Loki...

And since she has a brother named John, the "J. Arthurs" restaurant is interesting. Really good food! We had dinner here twice!

Anyway, back to the Wheels of Time. The Wheels of Time is a museum dedicated to motorcycles made in America. They have a huge collection of bikes, from Indians to Harleys. Actually, they have a whole lot of Harleys!

They even have some things for the kids...

Their collection is pretty impressive, including rare bikes like this shaft drive Harley. Shaft drives are really popular on BMWs, but seldom seen on American bikes.

There are some unusual creations made from bikes as well. Like this carriage built by welding a rickshaw type back to a Harley front end.

Some of the bikes are from the early days of bikes, like this one designed to run on steam.

They also document a like of motorcycle history, like the "board racers" who raced bikes on this tracks made entirely of wooden slats. Yes, the wall they are driving on is almost vertical!

They have also collected many interesting devices made from motorcycles and their parts. Like this Harley Davidson lawn mower...

And this Harley power saw.

I really enjoyed the Gugenheim "Art of the Motorcycle" exhibit when it was in Las Vegas. I have to say, the bikes at "The Wheels of Time" are just as cool!

My personal favorite was this three wheel "Batmobile" made from motorcycle parts!

But for those of you with a more practical bent, how about a Harley truck?

Personally, I've always enjoyed the design of the old Indian bikes.

Paul was particularly fond of the midget racers.

For those of us who watch a lot of the Discovery Channel, you might remember a show called "Big". One episode they created this monster bike, which was about 30 feet long!

The Wheels of Time is a great museum. If you ever find yourself in Maggie Valley, NC, stop by. They'll be happy to see you!

Welcome to North Carolina

2007-06-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

You can always tell when you've entered North Carolina...

No matter how long the road, every bridge has the same sign. It's like they think you'll forget that the bridge ices before the road, since the last time you read the sign, which was usually sixty seconds earlier.

Still, despite this wackiness, North Carolina has some of the most beautiful roads we've driven so far.

It's pretty amazing how enjoyable a ride is when the scenery is beautiful and diverse. In this respect, North Carolina is definitely a riders state.

Once we arrived, Paul got ready to spend his evening with his friends, Tom and Pat, and I headed over to Chapel Hill to see my old friend Ken O'Berry.

It's been way too long since Ken and I have had a chance to hang out, so it was great to get together over some steaks and good wine, and catch up on each other's lives. Not surprisingly, we've both become great fans of sabbaticals!

Of course, Ken's best success has to be his two kids, Hannah and Mikey.

Mikey had not been born at the time the O'Berry's left the bay area, but we became fast friends. Of course, this may have something to do with my motorcycle helmet, which Mikey truly loves. Once he had it on, there was no taking it off. Even to the point where he wanted to go to bed with it!

At least it should be pretty easy to get him to wear a helmet when he starts riding a bicycle or plays baseball!

After a thoroughly enjoyable evening (Even when Ken beat me at pool several times in a row), it was time for me to head out to stay with Paul at Tom and Pat's house.

The next morning Tom took Paul and I on a tour of some of his "spec" houses.

A spec house is when you build a house with the intention of selling it. Paul's friend Tom has made a living by buying cool plots of land, then building these amazing million dollar houses on them.

The two houses above are currently being built along a lake. Each has something like five bedrooms, their own septic systems, and their own home theatres. I don't mean home theatre like, "Hey, look at the big tv", but home theatre like "Look at the two levels of movie theatre chairs on a stage with state of the art audio/visual equipment". Pretty amazing stuff, so its not surprising that someone with the means to buy a $1.7 million house, would buy one from Tom.

Here is one of the houses he built before...

Even though he builds these great houses, the one that Tom and Pat live in is pretty amazing itself. This is their backyard. Yes, that is a lake at the end of their yard!

He also has a pretty amazing set of cars, including this 1942 Rolls that he and Paul are posing in front of.

Thank you Pat and Tom for your hospitality!

What can I say, I really enjoyed our visit to North Carolina!

Spaceman Spiff!

2007-06-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

We're not finding a lot of internet connectivity, so you may have to wait another day or two for blogs. So to help you get by, I provide you with this picture of Spaceman Spiff!

Okay, its not actually Spaceman Spiff, its my friend Ken's adorable son Mikey. Mikey fell madly in love with my motorcycle helmet, and didn't want to take it off. Since its a motorcycle helmet, he felt the call of the open road, got on his tricycle, and rode!

Enjoy and we'll blog again as soon as we can.

Escape from Tropical Storm Barry

2007-06-02T19:30:00.000-07:00

After a day of driving in the pouring rain, Paul and I were anxious to see whether we would have to go through the same process again today. We checked with the weather channel that night and this morning, and looked like hurricane season was in full swing.

When we woke up this morning, our window at the Radisson looked like a video of Hurricane Katrina! The palm trees outside of our window were practically horizontal from the wind and the rain was coming down in buckets!

Not wanting to get trapped in Florida for a week, we decided to head North and see if we could get a hundred or two hundred miles. We didn't like the idea of riding in the rain, but the idea of getting stuck at the Radisson wasn't our idea of fun either.

We packed our things, showered up, then headed down to load up the bikes. Then much to our surprise, the rain stopped!

Paul turned to me and said, "Do you know what I'm thinking?"
"That we should ride before the rain starts again?" I replied.
"Yes, that's what I was thinking"

So we got onto the road as quickly as we could. The first hour looked scary, with dark clouds on the horizon and the occassional drizzle. But so far, so good. We finally stopped for breakfast.

By the time we finished, our fancy GPSes were crying about storm warnings in Palm Beach. We had gotten out before the storm returned, but it was heading our way in a big hurry.

We decided to make our way to Daytona Beach, and if we continued to luck out, push on to Jasonville. Once again, good fortune smiled upon us, and we only faced dark clouds and sprinkles. We had found the perfect little hole in the storm, and we were happy to follow it as far as it would take us.

When we arrived in Daytona, the storm abated and the blue sky finally showed its happy face.

We got some coffee and stopped at the Daytona Race Track for some pictures. Then we decided to do what all biker-geeks do. We went off to visit the local motorcycle shops! Hey, Daytona is the home of "Bike week", so what better place to see bike stuff?

First stop, BMW of Daytona Beach.

They had some interesting stuff, but no matter how cool BMW's are, Harley guys get the best tchotchkes. And not surprisingly, Daytona has the largest Harley dealer in the world.

Actually, that's not quite accurate. Daytona has a motorcycle mall. Not just the world's largest Harley dealer, but an entire mall with lots of motorcycle dealers, stores, souvenirs and theme restaurants.

It really is cool to go someplace with lots of cool bike stuff. Okay, it was way too Harley centric, but cool none the less. I was tempted to get Zach and Zoe some Harley schwag, but figured that Cherie would have my head if I encouraged them to like motorcycles. I guess they will have to do without the harley t-shirts and stuffed animals with harley logos.

We still had another ninty miles to Jacksonville, and the storm had finally caught up to us. It was time to hit the road and head North as quickly as we could.

Sure enough, the dark clouds rolled in. It did make for some dramatic views.

I kept expecting to see the hand of God come from behind the clouds.

(Queue the halleleuiah chorus...)

We almost made it.

The dark clouds begat darker clouds and fog. The fog became drizzle, then sprinkles, then rain, then a storm. We drove very slowly and carefully as we rode the last twenty miles into Jacksonville.So here we are at the end of another day. It looks like we may have made it out of Florida before they get inundated with the first week of Hurricane season. Hopefully Savannah will be much drier than the last couple of days.

First Day of Hurricane Season

2007-06-01T21:21:00.000-07:00

This blog will sadly be picture free.

When we woke up this morning, we turned into the Weather Channel to see what we were up against for our drive back into Florida. Today was the first day of Hurricane Season, and it was determined to start on time.

As we watched the forecast, it seemed like if we wanted to get out of the Keys, today would have to be the day. An array of nasty storms were on the way, and if we got caught, we wouldn't be leaving for a week!

So against our better judgement, we put on our rain suits and hopped on our bikes.

When we started, it looked like a little drizzle. Hey, I can drive in drizzle. Then the warnings came.

Our fancy and schmantzy GPS's are both equiped with live weather and traffic. We were on the road all of ten minutes when the warnings started to arrive. "Storm warning for the Seven Mile Bridge", "Storm Warning for Duck Key". (Yes, it is called "Duck Key", so they residents are "Ducky")

We drove down the road that had been so inviting two days earlier, and watched it dissolve into the rain and fog. Still, we were commited to our exodus, so we kept on rolling.

The skys got darker, the rain more fierce, but we kept at it. I think we were both afraid to stop for fear that if we got caught we'd be spending a lot of quality time in the Florida Keys.

Initially, my rain gear held up pretty well. A little drop of water here and there, but nothing too bad. But once water wicks under a rain suit, its pretty much game over. In my case, my helmet required me to keep the flip face slightly open to keep it from fogging. The by product was that water was getting into my helmet.

This of course caused the water to wick down my neck, into my jack, and to soak my shirt. For once, the infamous Florida heat served a useful purpose, and the water was relatively warm.

Paul and I made our way down through to Key Largo, but Paul kept going. I was good on gas so I continued behind him for the next thirty miles until we were off the Keys and a good way towards Miami!

When we finally pulled over for gas, I asked Paul why he kept going. Like me, he didn't want to get trapped in the middle of tropical storm Barry, so he kept going as long as his gas held out.

We refueled and I dried off the best I could. My "Frogg Toggs" rain gear had done pretty well other than letting the water in from my helmet, and Paul and I plotted our course. We'd head to Palm Beach, and if we were really lucky, Fort Pierce, which is about sixty miles further North.

Off again into the weather we went.

For the first twenty miles, our route took us through every stop light between the Keys and Miami. The only thing worse than driving a motorcycle in the rain is stopping every 500 feet for a stop light! Still, we were upright, relatively warm, and the rain had let up a wee bit.

It wasn't long before the dark clouds rolled in, and we were rolling through a heavy storm. Thank God for rain gear and XM Radio or I don't think I could have made it.

After seven hours on the road with only one break, we finally came to our senses. We looked up and saw that we had indeed arrived in Palm Beach! And as if by magic, there was the Radisson Hotel, Palm Beach. All that mattered was getting dry.

Which gets us to where we are tonight. We got into the room, discovered a pretty kick-ass internet connection, and put on some dry clothes. Will tomorrow bring more storms, or will tropical storm Barry give us a break? I will let you know soon!

Key West

2007-06-01T20:43:00.000-07:00

One of the things I looked forward to most when we started to plan this trip, was driving down to Key West.

A "Key" is a small, low island, and the Florida Keys are a series of these islands that run South and West of Florida for about one-hundred miles. And thanks to our tax dollars, these islands are conveniently connected by a series of bridges, allowing us to drive from Key Largo to Key West without getting on a boat even once.

The Keys are a particularly enjoyable ride, since everywhere you look is water, bridges, trees, or caribbean flavored Victorian buildings.

Did I mention that there are a lot of bridges? The longest is about seven miles long, and you can see the previous bridges alongside the new ones.

Once we arrived we had a whole extra day to explore. We started with the most Southern point in the United States, marked by this big, cheesy bouy!

Of course, Key West is most famous for being the home of Ernest Hemmingway. Here is his cool house, which we know he lived. This is very different from all the bars in town that say "Hemmingway lived here". Kind of like the seventeen places in San Francisco that all claim they invented the Irish Coffee.

Across from the Hemmingway House is the Key West lighthouse.

The entire island feels like it hasn't changed since the beginning of the twentieth century. Kind of like a slightly less adult version of the French Quarter in New Orleans...

In our walks down Duval Street, the main drag of historic Key West, we found our way into Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. Since we were in quest of a good mojito, it seemed like a good start.

Unfortunately, they didn't have mojitos, so we had to move on. After a few failed attempts, we found what we were looking for at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Which to our pleasant surprise, made a really good mojito! Then we were back to our explorations.

Of course, Paul was once again picking up on chicks...

All and all, we both really enjoyed Key West. The buildings we beautiful, the Key Lime pie was really good, and we found out the Hemmingway preferred grapefruit daquiris. Who knew?

And just like the French Quarter, you couldn't go ten feet without hitting another bar...

We spent a good part of our day just driving through the town, looking at all the cool architecture.

Next to the Southernmost Point bouy, every business was "The Southermost Insert Name Here". Above is the most Southernmost Hotel in the US.

Between our ride and our numerous (and very long!) walks, we had a great time in Key West.

Alas, our time came to an end, and the next day we would once again hit the road.