Autumn Leaves

In what turned out to be the last day of our motorcycle adventure, we woke to more rain and decided that if we could, we would try and make it through Oregon to Rod and Linda's place in Montesano, Washington. Despite the weather, the journey through the Redwoods was just gorgeous. Not only are the redwoods magnificent, but autumn had hit this part of the US and the colours were stunning - lots of yellows and reds as well as the various shades of green. It was a shame we could not do this journey on a sunny day but even so, parts of this journey were great. We knew we would not see too much scenery because of the rain so joined the I-5 freeway to get in as many miles as we could. We became temporarily geographically embarrassed in the freeway system at Portland and had to call on Nagging Nellie, the GPS to help us out.

After 480 wet miles, we arrived at Rod and Linda's just after 6.00pm tired, a little wet and also a little sad that this two wheeled part of our big adventure was over. The Gold Wing had performed magnificently and only went lame once - and carried us in comfort for 9000 miles from sea level to more than 10,000 ft, from near freezing to 40 degrees C plus (over 104 degrees F) conditions, and from cities to deserts.

Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair

The hotel in Fremont was about 30-40 miles or so from downtown San Francisco. Rather than risk riding the motorcycle in San Francisco traffic, we rode to the local BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station and caught the train. The first thing we did (of course) was to ride a cable car to Fisherman's Wharf. It was to be one of many cable car rides we took and Ric rode standing on the outside for all of them. He figured he may not get the chance again and besides, where else in the developed world can you legally ride on the outside of public transport? In the two days in the Bay area, we spent more time waiting in line for a cable car than we actually spent riding them. As you'd expect, they are very popular with tourists as well as being part of the normal commuter transport system. We learned too late that it is easier and faster to walk one or two stops from the ends of the line and then catch a car - they can almost always squeeze a couple more on and people are getting on and off all the time. We walked along Fisherman's Wharf (including the famous Pier 39), rode a tram, visited the Cable Car Museum, and experienced the Aquarium on the Bay. Jenny shopped at Bloomingdales (but passed on the $57 G-string) and we had dinner at Lori's Diner - a 1950's themed restaurant. We also walked up Hyde Street to Lombard St (supposedly the world's steepest street with the most sharp curves in it) and walked down Lombard St. It was about four blocks along from the waterfront but felt about 20 blocks up. It was a steep, steep walk!

We left fairly early the next day, continuing north as the forecast was for more bad weather. It was morning rush hour but thanks to the carpool lane (which we could use) we managed to navigate our way through the freeway system pretty easily. We even rode across the Golden Gate Bridge and Jenny did not scream all the way across.

Shortly after leaving San Francisco we again hit rain which continued for the rest of the day. We knew it was not going to get any better so pushed on and arrived in Crescent City near the Oregon state line wet through after travelling more than 400 miles. Our worst incident of the trip ocuured this day. We were travelling through a small town which had disused rail tracks anglng across the main street. We hit these tracks and both wheels started sliding sideways. It was a nerve racking fraction of a second before Ric managed to get the bike under control but it was the closest we had come to having an "off" in the whole journey. Once at Crescent City, we put on dry clothes, dried out our wet gear and decided to order in pizza!

Castles In The Air

From Bakersfield, we followed the Coastal Highway north via Hearst Castle. Hearst Castle, built by William Randolph Hearst and now a national monument is a huge property comprising a number of structures including the main house, some guest houses, a huge outdoor pool, an indoor pool which is just as big, gardens and goodness knows what else. It is at around 1600' elevation and only about a mile from the coast so the views should be wonderful. Regrettably, we were in the clouds the whole time so did not see much of the estate. Jenny and I took one of the four tours but unfortunately, the weather was terrible – it rained the whole time. The "castle" is about five miles from the Visitors Centre on a road that winds its way steeply up the side of the hill. Jenny didn't like the trip much - nor the trip back down. The ride from Hearst Castle north was in dreadful weather along the Pacific Coast Road that had lots of sharp curves and at times climbed very high along bluffs on the coast. Again, this was not a favourite part of the trip for Jenny, not helped by knowing that Ric's visibility in the driving rain was pretty marginal at times. We stopped in Gilroy for the night, soaked to the skin despite our wet weather gear.

The weather was better for our brief journey to San Francisco and we checked in to a really nice hotel the AmeriSuites at Fremont, about 50 miles out of San Francisco.

We are having troubles uploading photos just now so keep checking and we'll get them uploaded as soon as we can.

California Here We Come

On the trip from Las Vegas to Bakersfield, California, we suddenly came upon some road works. Normally, this is not worth mentioning but in this case, it was a case of mayhem on the I-15. Road workers were working on the large median strip and had closed off both inside lanes on the four lane highway. Something we have noticed throughout the States is that road construction crews regularly close off sections of the highway for a long distance, even if they are only working on a short section. This is understandable as road crews are hurt or killed by vehicles quite often and they deserve to have a safe working environment. However, having such large areas of road closed and dealing with the resultant snarled traffic can be very frustrating for drivers.

The I-15 is a very busy stretch of road and the traffic, which had been traveling steadily at about 75 mph, came suddenly to a near halt, backing up very quickly. We tuned the CB to Channel 19 to see if we could find out what the problem was (we could not initially see the road works). We spent the next 30 minutes or so being thoroughly entertained by the truckers who were talking on the CB. They were hilarious and it was clear that they too were frustrated at the lane closure but it was also clear that they were contemptuous of the behaviour of some of the car drivers some of whom were doing some very stupid and/or inconsiderate things. A couple of times, we heard some truckers organize a rolling block to prevent some idiot car driver from doing something stupid but they also used the CB to warn others of the approach of a police car so the officer would have a clear passage through the mayhem. It was all very entertaining.

Bright Light City

We spent two nights in Las Vegas. It is what you expect - really busy (the traffic is nuts!) and bright and exciting. The photo above shows one of the hotels - Caesars Palace (apart from the street in the photo,it is ALL just Caesers Palace!). We really liked our stay. We stayed in a casino hotel (of course) about a mile as the crow flies from the strip. It was not one of the bigger resorts with only about 1,850 or so rooms. It did provide a free shuttle to and from the strip though more often than not there were more people waiting than the bus could actually handle.

We wandered the strip and checked out a few places though it is still really hot here at this time of year. On the first night we managed to get tickets to Cirque Du Soleil's "Mystere" at Treasure Island. This show was brilliant - so good that instead of taking in a musical (there are dozens of shows all over Vegas to choose from) we decided to take in Cirque's latest, "Zumanity", billed as the show showing the sensual side of Cirque Du Soleil. It had a R18 rating. What a contrast and a disappointment. Zumanity is just awful rubbish. Certainly it is for adults with lots of bad language, constant reference to sex, semi clad people and a drag queen as an MC. We expected a lot of this. What we didn't expect was the lack of circus performance. There were four or five acts you could call circus related, including a contortionist, two topless and very flexible women swimming in a giant champagne glass and a couple of aerial performances that we could not see because the balcony blocked the view. The rest of the show was a series of acts whose only relevance was that they were related to sex (though the relevance of the two men play fighting in a cage was totally lost on us). We think most of the cast are erotic dancers not circus performers. Honestly, if we wanted something like this, we could have paid far less to visit a strip show which would have done it better. Despite the high ticket price, a number of people walked out and we considered it but waited, hoping it would improve. It didn't. Shame.

Zion National Park

Forget everything we said before. Zion National Park left us astounded and speechless (and left Jenny more than a little nervous in some places). The natural rock formations here have to be seen to be believed. We were there, we saw them, but I am not sure we believed them! Watch this space for more.

Zion is a "must see" in our opinion. Regrettably we only had time to ride through it - there is much much more only accessible if you take the free shuttle further into the park. With this option, there are also what appear to be some brilliant hikes available. We just did not have the time which was disappointing. Once again, the phots do not do it justice but check out the hole ion the rock in the photos. This was one of the ventilation and light shafts in a vehicle tunnel that extends a mile through solid rock.

What A Hole

As we checked out of the hotel in Flagstaff, we ran into another biker – Mike from San Francisco. Mike, who rides a Ducatti, generously invited us to stay with him if we were in San Francisco. It turns out he has been to New Zealand and one or two people were nice to him so he wanted to return the favour. Mike is an ex Navy diver and spent some time in Papua New Guinea – as did we. Ric’s Dad and an Uncle are also ex US Navy so we had some things in common to talk about.

The Grand Canyon is … well… grand. It is huge and beautiful and awesome and has to be seen to be believed. We rode there from Flagstaff on a cool but cloudless day to arrive at the Grand Canyon mid morning. Beware! Some of the businesses our out to fleece you! We stopped at McDonalds for a coffee and were charged US$4.50 for two very mediocre cups of filter coffee. We also had to pay $24.00 to enter the Grand Canyon National Park but to be fair, this was for a 7 Day pass. A single day pass is not an option.

As we approached the Grand Canyon, Jenny became more and more nervous. She is not at all comfortable with heights, or more specifically, she hates big and sudden drops. And guess what? The Grand Canyon is the biggest, suddenist drop on the planet. Yes, the views are nothing less than stunning and while you should check the small selection of photos on our site, believe us when we say that these in no way do this geological masterpiece justice. For sure, you cannot get any sense of the sheer depth of the canyon. Jenny was brave enough to get reasonably close to the edge to get her photo taken but you can see she did not enjoy it. In fact, two seconds after the photo was taken she was on the other side of the track – as far from the edge as she could get, clinging to the fence. She was not alone. It does take a lot of courage to confront your fears like this and she did very well.

We left the Grand Canyon but as the road followed the canyon edge for about 25 miles, Jenny had a death grip on the pillion passengers panic rails the whole time. In fact, her fingerprints are now permanently embedded into the plastic. We stopped at one of the scenic viewing stops for another look at the Canyon. We should mention that this is Navajo Country and the Navajo have set up stalls at every scenic spot selling jewellery and ceramics made on the reservation – really nice stuff, too. We had just pulled up at one of the spots when our new best friend, Dan from New Jersey turned up. Dan had been riding almost as long as we had and seemed genuinely impressed that we had clocked up so many miles and had been riding for so many days.

We bought some Navajo jewellery and said goodbye to Dan and headed off to follow Highway 89A – a designated Scenic Highway. Again, check out the photos we took, especially at Marble Canyon. While Ric was admiring the beautiful surroundings, you can see that Jenny was praying that this ordeal from Hell would end soon. On the other side of the Canyon, we filled up on gas and spoke to the Ranger who tried with only limited success to assure Jenny that the road ahead was really pretty good and that the chances of her dying were actually pretty low. He didn’t help.

Painted Desert

We rode to Flagstaff, Arizona from Cortez via US 491. The only reason this is significant is because apparently it is the deadliest stretch of highway in New Mexico! We didn't find out about that until we stopped for fuel and coffee and saw an article about it in a local newspaper. It used to be called Route 666 - aka The Highway to Hell.

We rode through the Petrified Forest National Park which also contains the Painted Desert. Both are well named. The Painted Desert is just full of colour changes while the Petrified Forest is literally an old forest (obviously the trees have fallen down) which has become petrified. It is very eerie seeing acres and acres of petrified logs (sometimes entire tree trunks)lying about. While it is illegal to remove anything from these National Parks, someone told us the National Parks Service estimates they lose up to a ton of petrified material a day to souvenir hunters.

We also managed to find - and ride - some sections of the legendary Route 66 so added yet another great experience to our trip.

Reaching For the Gods

We feel like we have run out of adjectives because we have over-used expressions like "awesome" and "fantastic" but once again, we have been left awe-struck by some of the things we have seen. We did leave Durango and managed to stay dry for the short drive to Cortez. After one look at the bluffs of Mesa Verde, Jenny decided she was not going up there on the motorcycle! Imagine being at 6,000 ft and seeing vertical and near vertical cliffs that rise another 2,000 ft. That is the first sight of Mesa Verde and the road into the park (which goes for 20 miles or more) clings to the sides and tops of some of these bluffs much of the way. It is definitely not for those afraid of heights or vertical drops - and Jenny is uncomfortable with both! Mesa Verde was home to the Ancestral Puebloans - native Americans whose origin is not exactly known. Some say they are descendents of the original inhabitants - the hunters of the sabre tooth tiger and woolly mammoth. They established villages - pueblos - in a number of areas including Mesa Verde and they are intriguing because they built masonry structures - sometimes 3 and 4 stories high - in the sandstone overhangs high on the side of the mountains. The group that established in Mesa Verde lived there from around 850AD to 1280 AD and then they left. No-one is quite sure why they left but one theory is that the weather patterns changed, adversely affecting their ability to grow sufficient crops.

We were once again lucky with the weather on this visit because while it was pretty cool at the top, at least the sun was shining. The following day, it was cold and wet and miserable in Cortez and the surrounding area and we believe they had snow on the top of Mesa Verde. We kept the rental car for a second day in Cortez as once again, we decided the weather was not great for motorcycling. We did do some exploring including a visit to the Four Corners monument - the only place in the USA where four states meet - and to the ruins of another Ancestral Puebloan group.

We left Cortez this morning (it is October 7th) and rode to Flagstaff, Arizona via the Petrified Forest National Park and Painted Desert. But that is the next instalment. While the sky was cloudless the whole way, it was a really cold start - we had ice on the motorcycle cover this morning - and it took till the middle of the day for it to really get warm.

I Don't Think We're In Kansas Anymore

We got out of Dodge and travelled to Taos, New Mexico via the Oklahoma panhandle. We think Taos could equally be re-named "Chaos" because when we arrived, the traffic was horrendous, especially for quite a small town. It was easily the worst traffic we have so far encountered and many of the drivers seemed plain crazy, showing little courtesy and carrying out some very risky manoeuvres. For the first time, Ric was a little nervous riding a motorcycle in traffic as he never knew what the other drivers were going to do - most did not use any indicators so it was a case of riding by ESP. To our surprise, we also found Taos to be very very busy and we were lucky to get a room at all.

As we left Taos to head to Colorado, we did ride through some magnificent scenery. On the outskirts of Taos, we stopped at a bridge over the Rio Grande and chatted with a fellow who had a pet wolf. We also saw earthship housing - eco friendly houses built into the earth - which look very impressive. We rode over the Rockies - again through some stunning scenery and stopped at a viewing area at an elevation of 10,000 ft to view the expanse below. The weather was threatening so we moved on but did get caught in a brief but very intense downpour. Not small rain either. It was, to quote Forrest Gump "big fat ole rain." We survived the rain and almost getting taken out by a maniac truck driver who came from a side road and just entered the highway right in front of us without even slowing down. He must have seen us but we reckon he just did not care about us on a motorcycle. We had been warned about that though to date, we have not had any problems with any truck drivers (other than the fact that they are navigating a block of apartments along highways and creating awful turbulence).

We spent the night in Durango as the weather closed in. We woke this morning to thunderstorms and as we write this, the weather is still looking very wet and cloudy. More thunderstorms are predicted. We will leave Durango this morning for Cortez, Colorado and hope to check out the Mesa Verde area, weather permitting.

Looking for the Ruby Slippers

Along the road, we saw a very impressive road building crew at work. They had strung together a number of trucks and various bits of machinery into a train which must have been 400 or so metres long and took up half the road. What it was doing was melting, milling, grading, resurfacing and rolling half the road at a time - all in a series of linked operations. Very slick indeed! We spent the night in Winfield and as we were checking in, a truck pulled up and the driver greeted us. In the truck was Jerry Crowe and his dad. Jerry is assistant Director of the Kansas Chapter of the Gold Wing Road Riders Association (we are also members) and wanted to know who it was that had ridden into his town! It was nice of Jerry to greet us and we exchanged some pleasant conversation. Ric even talked to his lovely wife Cheryll Crowe (like the singer only not spelled the same) on the phone. We left Winfield early as thunderstorms were again predicted. We dodged the thunderstorms but did hit some rain but worse, we were hit with high cross winds. After 250 miles we had had enough and about lunchtime reached Meade where we checked out the hide-out of the Dalton Gang. Two of the Dalton brothers were killed and one seriously injured when they tried robbing a couple of banks in nearby Coffeyville. On the way to Meade, we saw something very unusual. Lots of big black spiders, easily half the size of your hand or bigger were crossing the road! As they were all moving in the same direction, Jenny reckoned they were involved in some kind of migration. Ric reckoned they were on the way to the milking shed.

We arrived in Dodge City having ridden about 300 miles and glad to be out of the wind. The prairies, including Montana, the Dakotas, Kansas, Oklahoma etc are not motorcycle friendly at this time of the year. No offense to the people or the places but the winds (which always seem to be coming from one side or the other) are just awful - especially when gusts and the turbulence from semis are thrown in. At Dodge, we visited Boot Hill and the recreated main street. We were again re-united with our old friend Wyatt Earp who, you will recall, we first met in Deadwood, South Dakota. Wyatt was an assistant City Marshall in Dodge City and with Bat Masterson and a few others, was credited with cleaning up what really was a pretty lawless and dangerous town. Doc Holiday set up his dentist rooms in the hotel in Dodge and of course, both went on to Tombstone, Arizona where Wyatt was deputy Sheriff. It seems ironic that Wyatt Earp, the most famous lawman in history was never more than a deputy Sheriff or assistant city Marshall. After just an overnight stay, we had to get out of Dodge. We left Kansas and crossed into Oklahoma - no tin man, no wizard, no Toto and no ruby slippers.

We've Re-organised the Photos!

We realise it was getting to be a pain scrolling through all the old photos to view the new ones so from now on, the latest photos will appear first.

A Psychiatric Museum? That's Crazy!

After another very windy trip on the Interstate, we arrived at St Joseph, Missouri. When we tried to check into the Super 8, we found out that there was a NASCAR race meeting in nearby Kansas City and all accommodation within about an hours drive had been booked out long before. The motel clerk was kind enough to call around and found one smoking room available at a Best Western motel further down the Interstate (not what we wanted but it looked like we had little choice). As we were about to head off, we decided to just check the Ramada next door and found they had one room left. As we were checking in, the clerk fielded several phone calls from others looking for a room so once again, our luck held. We also managed to find a replacement helmet lead for Ric’s helmet from the local Honda dealer so we were once again on speaking terms.

Like so many other places we stopped at, we found that St Joseph is steeped in history. It is the place where the Pony Express was established and we visited the Pony Express Museum. Everyone has heard of the Pony Express but what we did not know was that it only lasted 19 months and then went bust as it failed to win the necessary government contract.

We also found out that it was in this town that Jesse James was gunned down – and we visited his house where it happened. But the strangest place we visited was the Glore Psychiatric Museum in a psychiatric hospital. Here we learned about how mental illness was regarded in the past and some of the more recent treatments for mental illness. It was interesting but also a little disturbing.

We stayed in St Joseph for two days as thunderstorms were predicted for Sunday and indeed, the thunder, lightning and rain arrived on Sunday afternoon, exactly as predicted. Monday was a riding day - we rode 300 miles (across half of Kansas) in magnificent weather. Monday night sees us staying in Winfield, Kansas for the night and looking at an early departure to beat more predicted thunderstorms.

Donut Flavours # 263 and 264: Vanilla Sprinkle and Blackberry Jelly. We are Falling Behind

Hey Thelma, I Found Your Glasses

The Bridges of Madison County

We left Dubuque and rode north, following the Mississippi. Readers will be getting sick of the descriptions of the various scenery, so suffice to say that we both loved the ride along the river. Turning west, our faithful steed broke down. It just died, right there in the middle of nowhere (on Highway 51, Yellow River Valley, two rocks in, according to Nagging Nellie but it still looked like the boonies). No problem as we had purchased an emergency rescue package. But there was no cell phone coverage there in boony, Iowa. OK, so there was a problem, and just as Ric was deciding on whether or not to throw Jenny into the path of one of the few vehicles travelling this road, an Iowa State Trooper pulled up. He was most helpful, and with a series of relayed radio messages, arranged for a Honda dealer located not too far away (and also in the middle of nowhere) to come get us. This they duly did. It turns out the alternator was no longer supplying zaptrons at the required rate to feed the battery. The dealer did not have any alternators in stock, but gleefully scavenged one from one of the several second hand Goldwings he had in the showroom. So an hour or two later and more than $500 poorer, we resumed our journey - grateful to the Iowa State trooper (who by the way had also informed the other troopers of our plight and asked them to look out for us) and to the guys at Waukon Honda. By this time, we needed to find somewhere to stay so stayed at Charles City. The following day, we seemed to zigzag all over Iowa state. We visited the Winnebago plant, taking in the tour and checking out the latest models. Hint: if you are pressed for time, just check out the RVs. The tour is interesting but overly long! We then rode to the small town of Gladbrook to a museum called Matchstick Marvels. This was built by the town officials for a local man who makes amazing sculptures from matchsticks. Check out the photos - they are unbelievable. After riding around the Amanas Colonies (German settlements), we stayed the night in Pella (a Dutch settlement). Pella is another of the beautiful small towns we have found in the US. It is proud of its Dutch heritage to the point they have built a new 1850's design working grain windmill. In fact, they had a company in Holland build it and ship it to Pella. Pella also has a working Klokkenspel - a musical clock that has automatons playing some key Pella identities. One of these was Wyatt Earp. We cannot get away from this guy. We learned he was in Deadwood, SD for a while but it turns out he was brought up in Pella - we even visited his house! Another mechanical/electrical mishap. Ric managed to bend one of the small pins in the lead that connects his helmet audio system. In the process of trying to straighten it, the pin broke, so while he can now hear Jenny prattle on, he can no longer tell her to clam up as the broken pin was for his microphone! From Pella we visited the National Balloon Museum in Indianola and from there to Madison County. There really are covered bridges in Madison County and we visited three and rode through one. These are the same bridges that featured in the movie and Ric commented that the bridges were way more interesting than the movie ever was. We ended our fifth day in Iowa in Shenandoah, not far from the Missouri state line. We are watching the weather channel and hearing of thunderstorms, high winds and tornado warnings further southwest. Tomorrow could be interesting!

The Mighty Mississippi

After a short ride, we again crossed the Mississippi and rode into Dubuque, Iowa. We planned to stay a couple of days as rain was expected. What a contrast! The Iowa Information Centre was easy to find (it was provided by the Dubuque Chamber of Commerce) and the lady there could not have been more friendly or helpful. There was so much good information provided that we ended up staying in Iowa longer than we planned - but more of that later. Dubuque is a river city and every single person we spoke to there was very friendly. We called in to the local Honda dealer to get the oil and filter changed on the bike and the guys were great. We walked along the Mississippi River but were too late to take in the Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium on that first day. The second day brought the expected rain so we took in the museum. This was another of the many "finds" for us. It is very modern and fantastic. Apart from telling the story of the river (we had not appreciated how significant this river was and is to the USA), it housed a very good aquarium of fish that are found in the river plus a few snakes, turtles, otters and an alligator. In the afternoon, we took a river cruise in a paddle riverboat. There were only eight passengers in all on a boat designed to take a couple of hundred so initially they debated whether to go at all. They did, and despite the rain, we had a good trip, with the captain regaling us with interesting facts all the while. We were invited up to the pilot house and Ric engaged the captain in conversation, and indicated that he was surprised at how manoeuverable the craft was. A juju must have been laid down at that point because as we came in to dock, something went wrong and instead of neatly turning and berthing at the designated place, the riverboat plowed on, hitting the docking barge with the extended gangway. The gangway splintered, one of the crew high-tailed it up a ladder while the other was thrown into the water. You can imagine this disrupted the berthing sequence somewhat but shortly after, all eight passenger safely disembarked and all crew were safe and well. We guess there are quite a few people who can claim to have sailed the Mississippi in a riverboat but how many can also say they crashed in one?

Wisconsin? What Wisconsin?

In the last post, we mentioned the benefits of stopping at Information Centres. When we crossed the state line - across the Mississippi - from Minnesota to Wisconsin at La Crosse, we couldn't find the Wisconsin Information Centre. We saw one sign - then nothing! We decided to ride into the city of Madison about a hundred miles or so west of Milwaukee and we struck the old traffic again. Admittedly we were on the Interstate and the wind was a bit gusty anyway (not great for motorcyclists) but the speed of the traffic was somewhat daunting. The posted speed limit is 65mph and we were doing just under 70 and still the slowest thing on the road - a six lane highway. We were overtaken by everything from huge semis to pick-ups towing horse floats to family cars with caravans. And the drivers were changing lanes like you would not believe. Eventually, we just decided to stay in the right lane at around the posted limit and let everyone overtake us - it seemed safer and was definitely more comfortable.

We were in southern Wisconsin which is supposedly not as scenic as the north. Even so, we were a bit disappointed, Jenny had heard good things about the state and wanted to visit but we could find no information about it. Even the normal tourist material at the motel told us nothing, so we departed Wisconsin the next day for Iowa. A pity.

From South Dakota to Minnesota

The ride from Sturgis to Sioux Falls on the I-90 was long and uneventful, except for one stop. This again was prairie land with miles and miles of grain crops and grassland. The one interesting stop was at a small town called Wall and here we visited Wall Drug. The only reason we stopped there was that for miles along the I-90 there were dozens of small billboards telling motorists of the things that could be procured at Wall Drug - almost everything. It turns out this store is now a major attraction and up to 20,000 visitors stop there daily. It started as a small town drug store in the 1930's which struggled for business until the owners had the bright idea of attracting people to deviate from I-90 by offering them free iced iced water, and advertising this fact with a series of billboards along the road. The idea worked and Wall Drug is now a huge and amazing store where almost anything can be obtained from meals to western wear to jewellery to motorcycle leathers.

Continuing to Sioux Falls, we struck some gusty winds which did blow us around a bit. We initially travelled at the posted 75mph (about 120kph or so) but were forced to slow - especially when close to the big semis which tend to displace a lot of air.

We stopped at Sioux Falls for a couple of days as the weather was predicted to deteriote with thunderstorm warnings issued. These did not eventuate but we took the time to look around the city and visit museums and the butterfly house. We also popped into the Sioux Falls YMCA where the previous CEO gave us a quick tour.

Leaving Sioux Falls, we rode into Minnesota. As a hint, we have discovered that it is almost always worth while stopping and talking to the staff at the information centres. Mostly, these are located on major highways just across the state lines. A really nice lady at the Minnesota Information Office suggested we visit the Spam Museum in Austin - not something we would normally contemplate. As the name suggests, this is a museum dedicated to Spam - something of a US food icon - and their sometimes tongue in cheek approach made it pretty interesting.

We road the scenic byway through southern Minnesota where the countryside is beautiful. We stopped for gas at Rose Creek - a town/village of just 400 inhabitants and is exactly what we often picture a small US rural town to be like. It was really picturesque and we both felt that it was a place we'd like to live in. This time of the year - the start of Fall/Autumn, this part of the country is popular on weekends as city dwellers come out to see the changing colours and to ride the mountain bike trails. It is also Amish country. As a result, the first two motels we tried were full so we drove on to another small town - Chatfield. Here we had the worst accommodation experience of our journey so far. The Val A Lodge (aka the Chatfield Hotel) is a goodly sized place which looks fine on the outside and to be fair doesn't look too bad on the inside. It is run by Lloyd, an elderly gentleman who quoted us a rate of US$94 - a pretty high rate for a small town establishment. The room we had was quite big but had nothing other than a bed, a TV and a bathroom. No coffee making facilities, no fridge, no microwave, no internet. There was a common area in the hallway which had a snack vending machine, a microwave that didn't work and a coffee machine. We think we were the only guests (we checked in at around 4.30) though some others checked in later. Ric turned on the coffee machine but when he went to get the coffee, the coffee pot was gone! He asked Lloyd about it and it turns out Lloyd had got upset that Ric had turned on the machine as it was set up to be turned on the following morning. When Ric asked about coffee, Lloyd told him to go up the road to a convenience store where he could get a cup of coffee. Needless to say, Ric was unimpressed with this and told Lloyd so. Lloyd was unflinching but did let us have a cup of coffee from the pot he has rescued from the common area. Shame on you Lloyd for charging premium rates for sub-par accommodation and especially for being such a mean spirited old man. Lloyd had lost an arm at some point so Ric immediately referred to him as the one-armed bandit.

The following day, we visited two cave systems - the Mystery Cave in a state park and the privately owned Niagara Cave. Both were really interesting but unfortunately, our little camera is not equipped to take good photos in such conditions so we cannot show the true majesty of these structures. We then headed towards Wisconsin - a state Jenny had wanted to see - via Harmony. Harmony is a small town with apparently a large Amish population. Amish were not thick on the ground the day we went through (it was Sunday). Ric, the ex-reconniassance man - put his tracking skills to work. While we saw all manner of dead critters on the road (as we usually do) there were no signs of the Amish. No buggy tracks - not even horse poo.

More of the Black Hills: Deadwood, Crazy Horse and Mt Rushmore

The thing that will stick most in our minds about Deadwood is the gaming machines - the "slots". To us, it seems that Deadwood is primarily a town for those interested in gambling - whether playing the slots or playing poker. It looked like more than 80% of the businesses on Main St had slot machines - including the cafes and burger places.

We took a guided tour of Deadwood in an open sided bus - in the rain. The town is historically important and many famous names from the American west were associated with Deadwood. The most famous is probably Wild Bill Hickok because it is here he was murdered - shot from behind while playing poker (it was the only time he had ever sat with his back to the door). Wild Bill is buried in Deadwood next to Calamity Jane. It is a strange story. Jane insisted on being buried next to Wild Bill even though the two had apparently only ever met once and had never had a relationship. Wyatt Earp even made some money in Deadwood before moving on to Tombstone, Arizona. He provided firewood for the gold miners making around $5000 in one year, more than most of the miners ever made.

The Crazy Horse Memorial is simply awesome - much more than we had expected. You can see a selection of photos for yourself but the very scale of this endeavour is amazing. It began in 1948 with the sculptor (whose name escapes us for now) who had worked on the Mt Rushmore project and who was already in his early 40's. He died in 1982 but the project is continued by his wife and seven of their 10 children. Millions of tons of granite have already been removed (mostly blasted) and the project looks to consume several more decades yet. While the model of this work is Crazy Horse, the work is actually a dedication to the American Indian. To give some idea of the scale of this sculpture, apparently all four presidents on Mt Rushmore will fit on Crazy Horse's head!

We continued riding the Black Hills via Wind Cave National Park and Custer National Park - including the Iron Mountain Highway. We came quite close to all sorts of wildlife including prairie dogs and buffalo; we were almost taken out by a couple of deer springing across the road in front of us and were held up by a flock of donkeys.

We did not know what to expect at Mt Rushmore and were a little fearful that perhaps it would be an anti climax after the Crazy Horse memorial. It wasn't. Mt Rushmore is a national memorial so there were quite a few people there though the parking lots were nowhere near full. What can we say? Mt Rushmore is all we expected - another awe-inspiring venture.

Black Hills of Dakota

Sturgis is a relatively small town of a few thousand but swells to around 250,000 over the week of the motorcycle rally. It is nestled against the Black Hills of South Dakota and about 15 minutes ride to Deadwood and about an hour to Mt Rushmore. We rode Spearfish Canyon in the Black Hills – yet another stunning piece of scenery. We also visited Deadwood – one of the original “wild west” towns best known perhaps for being the place where Wild Bill Hickok was murdered while playing poker. It is also the place Calamity Jane made a name for herself and where Wyatt Earp earned some money providing firewood to gold prospectors before he moved on to Tombstone.

There are a number of other fascinating places within easy ride of Sturgis also, including the Crazy Horse memorial – giant rock sculpture that is a work in progress, the wildlife loop road and a number of caves.

Riding the Prairies

We left Moose Jaw and rode south to cross the border. We had decided to head south from Canada to avoid bad weather further east and then continued south east for the same reason. Riding the Prairies has its own challenges – not the least of which is overcoming the boredom - because more often than not, riding in the prairies means long, long straight roads and flat land. The road kill was interesting though. We have seen elk, raccoons, a porcupine, snakes, a coyote, several skunk and a number of unidentifiable critters. Northern Montana and North Dakota are both experiencing an oil boom right now and there seems to be drilling or pumping stations everywhere, and this part of the country has wide open spaces and cowboys. It is also the part of the country explored by Lewis and Clark with the help of Sakakawea – a young Shoshone Indian woman.

After crossing back into the USA at a very quiet border post, we visited three forts in the mid west – Fort Peck, in Montana and Forts Union and Buford, both in Montana. Fort Peck is an area created by the US Army Corps of Engineers who built the largest earth dam in the mid west (if not the entire USA). Fort Peck Dam straddles the Missouri River not too far from the source and from it, generates hydro power. Fort Union was a trading post that promoted trade between the settlers and the local Indians. Originally, it was right on the banks of the Missouri where a river steamer would dock once a year. Nowadays, the Missouri has altered its course and is now about a kilometre from the fort. Fort Buford was also a trading post but also housed a company of US Army soldiers – both infantry and cavalry. Fort Buford is famous for being the place Chief Sitting Bull surrendered. Little Big Horn is in north-west Montana but we were already east of it when we entered the USA so did not get to visit.

The weather east was still looking dubious so we rode to Bismark, the state capitol of North Dakota. Again, most of the ride was through prairie land though as we approached Bismark, we entered some hills which were really scenic. After talking to some other bikers along the way, we realized that we were quite close to Mt Rushmore so decided to head that way. It meant heading west again – another prairie crossing and Jenny was getting pretty bored with these very long journeys. This one was different though, as you’ll see below.

We decided to ride to Sturgis, South Dakota (yes, hog country!) via one of the scenic by-ways. The scenery here was stunning – grand vistas, roaming buffalo herds, all manor of wildlife, great roads … actually we are lying. The first 70 miles or so (two hours riding) we were in pea soup fog and lucky to see 100 metres in any direction. The Navman once again proved its worth and for the most part, we were riding IFR (Instrumentally Following Roads) as opposed to the usual VFR (Visually Following Roads), as Ric used the rolling map function to see where the road went. Along the way, we stopped at what was the original burial place of Sitting Bull. While this site is marked, it is a simple monument and we did not linger as we were being eaten by giant mosquitoes. It turns out that relatives of Sitting Bull disinterred him from this site and removed him to another location further south. We managed to visit this site also which is just outside Mobridge, South Dakota. Thankfully we were out of the fog so were able to take in the vista at this more substantial monument to him – and to Sakakawea. From these two monuments, we had a journey following a road that was more than 200 miles long and seemed to have only three bends in it to arrive in Sturgis. It was long day – only 380 miles but it felt longer.

Medicine Hat to Moose Jaw

The ride to Moose Jaw took us around 4 hours and once again, it was really cold. While we managed to miss the rain until just before we reached Moose Jaw, we were really feeling the cold. We stayed at Capone's Hideaway - a motel on Main St. Moose Jaw was known as Little Chicago and is infamous as a town heavily involved in the illegal bootlegging trade. Al Capone had an operation there and made use of some of the tunnels (which workers had dug previously) to store the bootleg liquor and conduct business. We took a tour of one of the tunnel systems which was really interesting. Sadly, no photography was allowed.

Lethbridge and Medicine Hat

Waking up in Lethbridge, the weather was wet and really cold - a real change from the previous two days. We managed to find Fort Whoop Up as we reported earlier and then hit the road en route to Medicine Hat. We stopped on the way at a road side coffee shop to warm up and ran in to another couple who were riding a Harley and were as wet and cold as us. It turned out Dave and Laura were from Medicine Hat and we started talking about this and that. Dave and Laura invited us to stay with them but because we were not sure what were going to do, and did not want to put them out, we stayed at a motel. However, we did have a great salmon dinner at their home, prepared by Laura. It must have been good, too because Ric, who does not like fish and especially salmon, had two helpings! Following dinner, Dave and Laura took us to a country and western concert - the Wilkinson's were in town performing and they were great, as you'd expect from a family band that has a number of No 1 hits on the US and Canada country charts. Dave and Laura are two extraordinarily generous people. We were sad we could not spend more time with them but we wanted to out run the weather - as if we could! We did get to see what we cam to see in Medicine Hat - the worlds biggest tipi. We have a photo.

Donut Flavour # 83 (Or Is It 87?). Maple. Mmmm!

Names

Canada has some great names for its towns and places. We are currently in Medicine Hat and yesterday we visited Fort Whoop Up in Lethbridge. We drove close to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump near Calgary but did not detour to see it - we wish we had, just to say we had been there! Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump is, as we understand it, a place where buffalo were herded and driven off a cliff - so the name makes perfect sense. Fort Whoop Up is a trading fort that also served as a NW Mounted Police outpost and the place where a battle was fought with the local Blackfoot Indians. It was originally called Hamilton, but when describing the place, apparently some traders said it was a place were people really "whooped it up" - and the name stuck! This was a really interesting place to visit to gain some local history and we spent some time talking to some local Blackkfoot Indians and to the forts curator.

So What About That Traffic!!

A few words about riding a motorcycle on the roads of Canada to date. We mentioned earlier that riding in British Columbia was great. While the roads in the mountain were often under construction and, like mountain roads everywhere, were pretty windy (as in full of bends, not full of wind), the speeds were generally quite low. Besides, the scenery was usually nothing less than stunning. Riding in Alberta has been a bit different. For a start, the major highways have a 110 kph speed limit which means if you are traveling at that speed, you are holding up traffic. Riding into Edmonton, we were overtaken by a Mountie (in a car, not on a horse) who must have been trying to make the donut shop before closing because he could not have been doing less than 130! And no, he wasn’t chasing anyone nor did he have lights flashing.

There is something uncomfortable about riding a Wing, two up, at 110 kph and being passed by a semi about a metre and a half from your left elbow. It is even more uncomfortable being the Goldwing filling for a two-truck sandwich. Perhaps we will get used to it, but we doubt it.

We bought and fitted a Navman GPS unit before we left NZ – complete with USA and Canada maps and we are glad we did. Today, we programmed the unit to stay off the major highways and it guided us through some really excellent secondary roads to Lethbridge, Alberta (south of Calgary). We programmed it for multiple destinations to retain some control over where we went and we learned that we had to follow the instructions of Nagging Nellie (as some have dubbed the Navman) exactly. We thought we knew better once and rather than go to the centre of the town we had programmed as one of the stops, we stayed on the main road and kept going. For the next 50km, Nagging Nellie constantly told us to make a U-turn where possible, until we stopped and told her to skip that destination.

While the road from Edmonton to Lethbridge was more interesting than the Jasper – Edmonton Road, it was still about 500km of not much. There is something mesmerizing about having a road that is dead straight for 50-75 km. This is grain and oil country and we saw lots of grain harvesting and quite a few oil well heads. One of the finds was the Reynolds Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin. This is not on the main drag but is a big, modern museum dedicated to cars and planes and it houses Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame. It is great, as you’ll see from the selection of photos.

West Edmonton Mall

The reason we traveled all the way to Edmonton was for Jenny to see West Edmonton Mall. They don’t label it as the biggest mall in the world any more, but it is huge. Apart from more than 800 shops and more than 100 eating places, it has a big water park with a wave machine, an aquarium with a sea lion show, a kids theme park complete with roller coaster, an ice rink, a bowling alley, an Imax theatre, glow in the dark mini golf, two hotels, and more. And Ric got to ride a Segway! We spent a whole day there without getting bored – and we are not shoppers.

Mt Robson -highest peak in the Canadian Rockies

Kamloops to Edmonton

Sunday 9th September was our biggest day to date. We headed off early from Kamloops following Highway 5 - The Yellowhead Highway. This route took us over the Rockies via Jasper National Park. Just out of Kamloops, Jenny spotted a black bear running down the road toward us. It dropped into a culvert and disappeared before we reached it. Ric did not see it. He was either looking the other way or having a quiet snooze at the front of the bike where Jenny cannot see his eyes. She can, however, see the speedo but that is another story.

The ride to Jasper is just amazing with even more beautiful scenary as you can see from the small selection of photos. The mountains change with the perspective so you are always treated to something new. In contrast, the road to Edmonton from Jasper was about 5 hours of, well, nothing at all. It was really boring but the speed limit was 110kph. We arrived at Edmonton at about 7.00 and spent about an hour looking for somewhere to stay. We had expected motels and hotels to be fairly prominent, but we were wrong. We finally checked in to the Continental Inn 11 hours after leaving Kamloops though an hour of that was time zone change. Today we are exploring West Edmonton Mall - the reason we have come to Edmonton.

British Columbia

Getting on the internet is proving a little more difficult than we thought. After Victoria, we caught the ferry at Nanaimo on Vancouver Island to Horseshoe Bay just outside Vancouver. We rode along the Sea to Sky Highway passingh though Whistler and stopping for the night in Pemberton, BC. This part of British Columbia is stunning. While the road to Whistler weas under construction pretty much all the way (the Winter Olympics 2010 will be in the region), the scenery was absolutely superb. Jenny had the best view as Ric concentrated on keeping the bike on the road. We stopped for the night in Pemberton, partly because we thought it would be less expensive than Whistler. I think we were wrong as accommodation choices in Pemberton were limited. In fact, we have found accommodation in Canada to be pretty expensive everywhere - not helped by the big taxes they add on to every bill!

We rode from Pemberton to Kamloops on Saturday 8th. Again, the ride was really scenic and there was not too much traffic. We stopped for a drink at a little town called Lytton and tried chatting with three elderly native American (Canadian?) indians who were sitting on a park bench. One stayed asleep, one was speaking something that was probably english but we could not understand a word and Roy, the talkative one, was almost as incomprehensible. Having thus done our bit to improve NZ/Canadian relations we rode on to Kamloops. Kamloops is a place that did not seem to have much going for it, though it is a sizable city so we headed off early the next morning.

Washington State

We arrived in Seattle after a two and a half hour flight. The most stressful part of the journey was wondering if the bus to take us to LAX would turn up! As luck would have it, not only did we arrive in the middle of the biggest heatwave in years but it was also Labor Day and the Disney Marathon was run on Monday morning. And of course, we were caught up in that as most of the major roads were closed meaning traffic could not get through. However, we arrived in Washington without incident and stayed at a hotel close to the airport on the first night. It felt like murder central but we survived.. The next morning, Rod and Linda arrived to pick us up and take us to their place where we stayed for a couple of days. Rod and Linda live in Montesano, about and hour and a half from Seattle and it is where Chris leaves his Goldwing. Rod and Linda are the nicest and most generous people you could hope to meet. I think a kiwi must have been nice to them once because for some reason they think all New Zealanders are just great. Anyway, they not only put us up at their home, they also took us on local rides in the beautiful Washington State area (we oonly saw a fraction of it of course) and made sure we were well set. When the time came for us to go, Rod and Linda rode with us to Port Angeles - a three hour ride! Jenny and said our goodbyes there to this great couple and we boarded the ferry to Victoria on Vancouver Island. We caught up with a number of other riders on the ferry and swapped stories of varying degrees of truthfulness. Jenny and I visited Butchart Gardens - a Vancouver Island icon yesterday and as we write this, we are about to check out of the hotel and catch another ferry to Vancouver where we will then start our ride to Edmonton via Whistler and Jasper National Park. We are having problems uploading photos but will have more pictures when we can.

The Adventure Begins!

Our flight from Wellington to Auckland was delayed for about 30 minutes which meant we made the international connection with 10 minutes to spare. As it happened, the flight to LA was also delayed. We had heard all sorts of horror stories about arriving in LAX, but actually it was pretty good. It was reasonably quick and the officials were very pleasant. We went from the airport to our hotel opposite Disneyland, had a quick shower and change and headed off to the magic kingdom. We arrived a Disneyland at about 4.30pm and stayed until 10.00 - watching the amazing fireworks show. The second day (today) we were back at Disneyland and California Adventure. You can see some photos. It is Labor Day weeekend here so there were lots of people, and the temperature is hot! About 35 - 40 degrees. We have already received text messages from friends and family wishing us all the best. Thanks to all.

More on Insurance

Following from our earlier post on insurance, readers will be pleased to know that we now have our insurance sorted. Ok, we know you don't really care, but if any of you are contemplating anything like the trip we have planned, read on. We mentioned that the "free" travel insurance offered if you pay for your travel by credit card has a few catches and that you really need to read the policy carefully. AIG, the company that provides the insurance for Westpac Bank would not alter their policy to accommodate us nor did an agent ever respond to us with an offer when we asked if we could buy a separate policy. After we used a broker to talk to them, AIG did finally agree to provide travel insurance but reduced the medical coverage because we are riding a motorcycle. Needless to say, we are not dealing with them. Many other companies we approached would not insure anyone who is riding a motorcycle with an engine size of more than 200cc - so be aware of this. Air New Zealand, via their insurers would cover us but at a cost of more than NZ$900 for less than 60 days. AA Insurance was the easiest to deal with but even then, the insurance cost us more than NZ$700.

Getting liability insurance in the US was even harder! Until we happened upon one company in Florida, we were despairing! No New Zealand insurer would provide cover in the US and a number of US insurers stated that they do not provide cover unless the rider holds a US issued drivers licence - which makes it pretty hard for tourists like us who are not hiring a machine from a commercial rental company.

Someone pointed us to Fernet Insurance Brokers USA - http://www.fernet.com - and these guys were great. Their website makes it pretty clear that one of the products they offer is exactly what tourists like us are looking for. We printed off the application form and faxed it to them and they came back within a couple of days with the cover approved. The lady we have been in contact with at Fernet - Phyllis - deserves a special mention. We'd love to meet her. Phyllis' email tone is wonderful and friendly. We had mentioned to her that we had this blog so she had a look and discovered we planned to venture into Canada. She immediately sent an email saying that a special certificate is needed for Canada and attached one to the email. Now that is service! In our opinion, if you want temporary insurance while in North America, contact Phyllis at Fernet. Thanks again Phyllis.

A Trial Pack Was Called For

Ric and Jenny on the Gold Wing

564 Flavours of Donut

One of the Vodafone advertisements claims there are 564 different flavours of donut. Now I know the last thing I need to add to my diet, however temporarily, is donuts but hey! a challenge is a challenge. Jenny and I reckon that if you can get all 564 flavours of donut anywhere, you can get them in North America and we figure that we'll need to eat, on average, 11.28 donuts per day of our trip if we are to sample them all. What we haven't figured out is how many hours at the gym we'll need to spend to work off each donut nor how much our new bike gear will be able to expand before the seams split, nor how much extra cash we'll need to pay for the extra fuel we'll burn carting around our donut bloated bodies.

Insurance - Read the Small Print

There may be a few countries on this planet where travel insurance is something you might consider dispensing with, but the USA is not one of them. Jenny and I used our credit card to book and pay for the travel and we have one of those cards where if you do that, you are provided with travel insurance as one of the benefits. We thought! When I read the 50 page (I kid you not) Travel Insurance Policy, I found, on page 37 (Part E: General Exclusions, Section 9 (f)), a little one liner that changed everything. It says that the Insurer (AIG, who provides the policy for Westpac bank) "..will not pay under any benefit ...claims arising directly or indirectly out of...motorcycling outside of New Zealand (unless you are riding a motorcycle with an engine capacity of 200cc or less and hold a licence ....)" etc. I called the companay and asked if they would modify this, given my clean record, 30 odd years holding a motorcycle licence and so on but to no avail. Strangely, I understand AIG is one of the biggest insurance companies in the world and is US-based so I'd have thought if anyone could provide the insurance cover they could. It appears not. Now, I already know that I can get insurance from other companies but as AIG (via Westpac) were offering it to us for "free" I thought I'd ask them. The lessons are old ones but worth repeating. First, read the fine print. In our case, one line in 50 pages made the policy virtually worthless for us and we could easily have missed it and headed to the northern hemisphere under the misapprehension that we were covered. Second, shop around. Two other quotes I received were almost $200 different in their premiums.

Where are We Going?

This is all about the journey, not the destination and we only have 2 months. We fly in to Los Angeles where will spend a couple of days before heading to Seattle, Washington to pick up the Gold Wing we will be using. From there we intend heading north into Canada so Jenny can see West Edmonton Mall and then we travel east. While we have friends we may meet up with in the Toronto area, and I'd like Jenny to see Boston and New York, we do not have any fixed itinerary. We will ride when we want to, where we want to. If we meet new friends who point out places we "must see" then we might just check those places out!

Ric has family in the Southern states but, if any of them are reading this, please do not be offended if we don't make it to your place.

We need to be back in Seattle to park up the Wing and then head home via Hawaii.

We do have to thank Chris, a fellow member of the New Zealand Gold Wing Riders who has generously let us use the Wing he keeps in Seattle. Thanks again, Chris.