Day 1: June 30, 2007 - Kansas City, MO to Zimmerman, MN - 516 Miles

The plan for day 1 was for me to meet the other 6 people in Hudson , WI .  I didn’t want to deal with trying to find a place to meet in Minneapolis since I wasn’t familiar with the city, so I picked a place just over the Wisconsin border where I didn’t think there would be any confusion about where we were meeting.  My ride was to be pretty much a straight north from Kansas City on I-35.  The others were leaving from Luddington , Michigan and taking the ferry across Lake Michigan to Manitowoc , WI and then riding west from there.

I got more sleep the night before then I thought I would.  I thought for sure that I would be laying awake all night because I was so excited about the trip.  That’s what happened to me when I went to sleep before I did my Ironbutt Saddlesore 1000 ride; I didn’t want to take any chances on being overtired from lack of sleep so I took an over the counter sleep aid to help.

I was hopeful that the rain would stop before it was time for me to leave.  It had rained most of the day on Friday but we had a dry BACA ride on Friday evening so I was hoping it would be dry in the morning.  No such luck so I had to start the trip off in my rain gear.  Looked at the weather map in the country and the only place there was rain was Kansas City …. Go figure!

I left the house around quarter to 9 .  I was getting antsy and I couldn’t stand to wait any longer.  I really didn’t have to leave until 10 since the other’s were taking the ferry across Lake Michigan and wouldn’t start their day of riding until noon .  I drove out of the rain within 10 or 15 miles and got out of my raingear at my first potty break, just past the Iowa border.  At my second rest break I was out of leather and into my mesh jacket.

I prefer to take my actual brakes at rest areas instead of gas stations.  I feel safer at a rest area and there are usually places to sit down where I can keep an eye on the bike.  Gas stops for me are usually a quick gas and go… I try and run each gas stop as if I am doing a timed Ironbutt ride.  Get gas, check oil and go.  It’s good practice since that’s the one area on an Ironbutt ride where I can shave time the most.  Being on a Sportster I really can’t go any faster as my oil usage and gas mileage both go down the tubes if I go more than 75 mph for any length of time.  I fell into a routine where I would stop for a 10 minute break at around 85 miles and then for gas at around 125 or so.  I was way ahead of schedule and would rather spread out the extra time along the trip instead of waiting for 2 hours up in Hudson , WI .

At my second rest stop at around the 200 mile mark I met a couple on an Ultraglide from Minnesota that were on their way back from Las Vegas .  The driver said “That’s the most loaded down Sportster I have ever seen!”  They were quite amazed when I told them I was riding to Alaska .  As a side note… she was wearing proper riding equipment, well.. the helmet was a half helmet but at least she had one, he was lidless and in a tanktop.  Their choice, but I seem to have a hard time taking riders serious who aren’t dressed for the ride.

The ride up was pretty uneventful.  I enjoyed cruising along by myself but there just isn’t a whole heck of a lot to look at in Iowa !

Made it to Hudson about an hour before I thought they would be there.  It had gotten quite warm and I stepped out of my armored pants and took off my mesh jacket.  I dug into my compression bag and got the sun block out.  It turned out that I ended up with a 2 hour wait.  I guess they had stopped and eaten lunch along the way.  I had assumed they would snack along the route and not stop for an actual meal.  I grabbed a cheeseburger and ice cream at McDonalds and then parked at the gas station next door and set myself up in the shade to write in my journal while I waited.

We wanted to ride to the otherside of Minneapolis before we stopped for the night.  We ended up camping in a state park in Zimmerman , MN .  Was $45 for all 7 of us and they set us up in a group campsite.  It was a primitive site with just an outhouse but as far as outhouses go it was very good…. No bugs!  I HATE SPIDERS! 

It was 9:00 when we were setting up camp and we were losing the sun fast.  Everyone was hungry but torn between sleep/food.  The ride into the state park was on a dirt/washboard road and some did not want to ride it back in the dark (side note…. By the end of the trip this road wouldn’t haven’t even been given a second though about).  Tom went right to bed, Bruce went out to dinner with a former college student of his who now lived in Minneapolis , Leroy went with them.  Boyscout Cris had a fire going in notime and Cris, Dan and I sat around and relaxed.  Gourmet Dan whipped up some beef stew on his jet boil stove.  I was really impressed with the stove… I need to get myself one of them.

While at a gas stop we met a couple from Indiana who were on their way to Seattle .  He was on an Electraglide, I believe she was on a Dyna Lowrider.  We started talking about where we were heading and they told us that two years ago they made it as far as Coldfoot on their Electraglide, riding 2 up even.  The road was very muddy and they did drop the bike 3 times.  They said that the road didn’t start to get bad until after the Arctic Circle .  Last year they went back to Alaska and rented dirt bikes and made it all the way to Prudhoe without an issue.  This gave us encouraging news about the road conditions up to the circle.

We put in a long day and were able to just tear it up at 75 mph for quite a distance.  Dan’s bike starting misfiring at one point and he pulled the plugs and thought they were looking lean.  A fresh set of plugs cleared up the misfiring issue but he was loosing confidence in his bike.  At the time I chalked it up to flash backs of Spencer West Virginia and the whole “Screw Loose” incident but this turned out just to be the start of his problems.

The plan was to spend most of the day on 94 but a weather report forcasting some rain had us get off of 94 earlier than planned and onto 85.  Dunno if this saved us from any weather but scenary wise it was an awesome decision.  We crossed over the Missouri River .  I guess I really don’t know a whole lot about the geography of the USA because I didn’t even know that the Missouri River came this far West.  We went through an area that looked like the Badlands in SD.

We had an interesting on ramp to 85.  It was non paved and gravel and a bit of a challenge.  By the end of the trip this would have been considered to be nothing at all.  Ron missed the exit and had to circle back…. Great thing about a motorcycle is you can get away more easily with going the wrong way on a highway up the shoulder.

We camped that night at Fort Peck Lake , a great little state campground.  For $5 a tent we got a tenting spot, a pavilion and a hot shower.  We saw some elk on a hill and a big buck with velvet on the side of the road when we were trying to find the camp ground.  We actually got to see them twice as Bruce got us lost trying to find it.  We had stopped by an Albertson’s grocery store and picked up some hotdogs and stuff to cook for dinner at the campground.  Cris provided us with fire (remember I said he was a boy scout), even though it was raining, and cooked us so hot dogs.  Dan's jetboil stove took care of some chicken noodle soup (I need to get one of those stoves!) All in all it was a really cheap day and that’s what I was hoping for!  I got about 7 hours of sleep that night… the earplugs I wear while riding proved useful for blocking out Bruce’s snoring.  By the end of the trip I would be so used to his snoring that I would find it hard to get to sleep without it!

Well today we broke our rule about starting off each day with a full tank of gas and it came back to bite us in the ass!  At breakfast we had about 50 miles on our tanks and we decided to wait and get gas down the road a bit.  This turned out to be a mistake on many levels.  We had all been worrying about Dan’s gas mileage since he had the smallest tank when it turns out that we should have been worrying about Tom’s instead.  It turns out that both Tom and Bruce ran out of gas.  Dan dumped in the 2 small fuel bottles he had but never actually ran out and he was the one we had all been worrying about.  I hit reserve at about 145 miles right as we were pulling into a town with gas.  I had been getting around 43 miles per gallon.  Not great, but not that awful either.

At one of our gas stops Tom dropped his bike and it came down on him, pinning his ankle underneath it.  I think it was a case of having the handlebars turned too sharply and grabbing the front brake.  It took 3 of us to get his bike back up, it being rather top heavy with all the gear on it.  It turns out that Tom was hurting much more than he was letting on.

Today I saw mountains like I have never seen before in my life.  Growing up in the North East and now living in the Midwest , I had never really had any exposure to “real” mountains.  We starting seeing them around Browning.  The ride from Browning to St. Mary’s was just wonderful!  It was scenic and twisty!  I admit that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I could have since I was riding with others.  The trailer slowed the group down and I was riding behind Tom who just wasn’t going as fast as I would have liked to take the twisties.  We camped at the KOA in St. Mary’s.

Most of today’s riding consisted of Glacier National Park .  It was simply spectacular!  The only detracting from all the beauty was all the people.  Considering it was a holiday weekend I guess it wasn’t THAT bad.

Tom decided to part from the group while in Glacier.  He just want enjoying the riding pace.  Plus I think he was still hurting from when he tipped over the bike the day before.  He really enjoyed the times when we were in camp and all sitting around and socializing but there was just not enough times like that.  We were up early every morning and off to make our 300-400 mile mark by the end of the day.  Plus I just don’t think his motorcycle was set up to be comfortable for him.  He only got it a few months before we left.  I’ve been working for a long time to make my motorcycle as comfortable as it can be and I think I am finally there.

We pulled into Cranbrook and the first hotel we saw was a Super 8.  Pretty big place, not very many cars in the parking lot.  We sent Leroy in to see about rooms.  He comes back out and tells us that the guy at the counter said that they were completely full.  There is no way in hell that they were all booked up…. The parking lot had hardly any cars in it and it was a big hotel.  I think he just had something against motorcyclists.  If any executives at Super 8 are reading this… none of your hotels will ever get my business again thanks to the desk clerk at your Cranbrook location!

We ended up staying down the street at ?  The rooms all opened up into a center courtyard.  She let us park on the grass gave us blocks of wood for our kickstands.  She had obviously catered to motorcyclists in the past and was happy to have us there.

If I thought Glacier National Park was beautiful, it was nothing compared to what I saw when we got up into the Canadian Rockies.  This is what I wrote in my journal:

“I’d have to say that the Canadian Rockies have been the most awesome display that mother nature has every shown me.  I am not a religious person so I will not attribute it to a higher power but that leaves me unable to come up with a reason for something so beautiful to exist.  It does help me to realize that there is so much to see, in not only my own country, but all over the world.  People that zip through life on a super slab highway in their cushy minivans just don’t know what they are missing”

The only regret I have is that I waited until I was 30 to get into motorcycles.  But maybe 30 was the point in my life at which I was supposed to discover this.  I look over and see Bruce making this trip and at least I know that I have at least 30 more years to discover just what else is out there waiting for me.  

Surprisingly, when I went back through my pictures I didn't find that I had taken many this day.  I think I was just so blown away by the beauty.

Today’s casualties: Bruce’s shoe…. It went flying off the trailer.  We stopped to look for it but had no luck.  Yesterday Bruce lost his fleece jacket and leather jacket off of the trailer.  We did manage to recover those.  Leroy lost one of his bags off his bike yesterday…. It came bouncing down the highway at me. Something about some roadkill on the road had Ron all giddy and excited.  Some kind of small varmint was squished to the road but every time a vehicle went by the limbs would flail in the wind making it look like it was trying to run.  Dunno if he was just tired or what but he kept mocking the flailing limbs of the dead thing and laughing hysterically. We ate dinner in yuppie Jasper.  It reminded me of Lake Placid , NY … a place where the people who live there can’t afford to shop.  We camped at a nice provincial park though.  We saw some elk on the side of the road and the next morning a whole herd of them wandered through. Before I left for this trip I was thinking that all the riding would leave me with time to think… To reevaluate where I am in my life, my job, my marriage, my future.  But I just haven’t found myself doing that.  The only thing I found myself doing is enjoying the scenery and the companionship of my traveling companions.  Every time I think to myself how much quicker I could be on the road in the morning, how many more miles a day I could cover or how many less vacation days I could have used I just need to look around at the 5 guys I am traveling with and know that I might be moving further and quicker alone but I would not be having as good a time.

Today’s ride was pretty but nothing like the day before.  We got caught in a brief, yet severe rain shower.  Bruce was leading and pushed right through.  Dan’s feet got quite wet and a couple  of people were a little upset that we did not stop when we first saw the rain clouds.  I was very thankful that I had bought new waterproof boots.

There was a little bit of stress in the group as we were reaching our camping spot for the night.  There wasn’t much nearby for food as the provincial campground was 20 miles before reaching Dawson Creek.  We just decided to ride into Dawson Creek and motel it.  Someplace called the Airport hotel or something.  Nothing special about the place… we ate at an attached Chinese Buffet.. it was pretty craptastic.

Dan was having all sorts of problems with his bike today.  It just didn’t want to idle.  If we were stopping for road construction then it would stall.  Leaving from gas stops he would have to just take off ahead of us because pulling out slow would cause him to stall.

We kept passing the same guy with an RV today.  He was pulling a Volvo behind it and also had his Triumph on the back.  It turns out he is a retired truck driver and is on the road to tour Alaska .  He had a really cool musical horn.  It had me thinking about trying to put one of those on the bike!

We got to Whitehorse and stayed at the 202 Motor Lodge.  The staff was friendly and we were able to do laundry.  Dan spent most of the night working on his bike out on the street.  It turns out that there was something wrong with an oxygen sensor.  Not sure how he got much done with all the drunks coming up to bother him.  I always thought the term ‘drunk Indian’ was just a stereotype and I know that it is just a stereotype but I have to tell you that I saw a whole lot of drunk natives in Whitehorse .  They were drunk and would openly ask you for money.  I didn’t leave anything on the bike that night for fear that it would disappear.

I still cannot get over just how much daylight there is.  It is just absolutely amazing.

When we took off that morning we found out that we would be leaving Dan behind.  He had been up most of the night working on his bike (and talking to the stripper! ;-) )  We had to wait until the Harley dealership opened up as Bruce’s bike was passing back an error code and we were without a service manual to look it up.  I tell ya, I was really unimpressed with the dealership in Whitehorse .  They didn’t open on time and they were pretty much just indifferent.  They did tell us what the code meant.  There was too many volts going through the charging system which indicates a possible problem with the voltage regulator.  It turned out to be the trailer wiring again though.

The ‘fun’ part of the day was the road construction in Destruction Bay .  Like at the other road construction parts the motorcycles were placed directly behind the pilot vehicle.  But this construction area was also a blasting zone.  Instead of just dirt and gravel to ride on there was also large rocks in the road which made for fun obstacles.  Plus we had to keep stopping to wait for these huge dumptrucks to move out of the way.  I swear that their tires were like 15 feet high!

We passed Ron Walker from Milwaukee again.  We saw him not too far from the Alaska border.  Dan caught up to us at the border as well.  His bike was fixed and running much better.  He was still a bit stressed out about it all though.   We took pictures of the Alaska sign and then got back on the road to head to Tok.  Somewhere along the trip today Bruce’s FF helmet tried to commit suicide off the back of the trailer.. it tried to take me out with it.  Some of us were REALLY starting to get sick of him losing things off the back of the trailer.

We were staying at the ‘Thompson’s Eagle Claw’ in Tok.  It is a biker campground.  We weren’t quite sure where it was so we stopped to call them when we got into town.  Right at that point both Bruce’s and Leroy’s bikes quit out on them.  It turned out that both of them had had battery cables shake loose on the ride that day.  After shutting down the bikes they wouldn’t start back  up.  Bruce had been having wiring issues with the trailer and the bike was still throwing back that voltage code so it wasn’t immediately apparent what the problem was.  It also had been blowing out fuses all day.  Ron, Cris and I went down the road and ate some dinner at Fast Eddies Restaurant and then met the others back at the campground.  We stayed in something called a 'wall tent'.  It was nice not having to set up the tent that night.

The Thompson’s are just wonderful people and they have a really nice set up at the campground.  It turned out that Ron Walker was staying here as well.  Damn, it’s a small world!  The plan was to get a late start tomorrow since Bruce and Dan needed to track down the fuse/wiring  issue with Bruce’s bike.  Luckily our destination the next day was only about 200 miles away.  I still can’t believe the daylight!  I still had my sunglasses on at 10pm !

Not sure what time we finally got on the road but I had a note in my journal that at 12:15 we were still in Tok.  Bruce and Dan have the bike over in the Thompson’s garage and they’re working on fixing the signal light on Bruce’s bike.  They are pretty sure that they have all the wiring issues in the trailer straightened out.

As we were getting ready to leave for Fairbanks we found out that Dan was leaving the group for good.  He was getting stressed out about the ‘we gotta make it here by the end of the day.’  He wanted to ride at a more relaxed pace and stop when and where he wanted to stop.  Unfortunately, I am most of the reason for the long riding days.  I had to be back to work on July 25^th no matter what.  I would have loved to have extended the trip out another week and gone a bit slower and seen more stuff but I didn’t have any choice.  We ended up seeing him again in Fairbanks as we were walking over to a place for dinner.

We stopped in Delta Junction and got our certificates that said that we wrote the Alaska Highway .  We had no idea where to stay in Fairbanks .  While we were stopped by the side of the road someone stopped to see if we needed some help.  They showed us to a motel that was conveniently right next to the Harley Dealership.  I had to pick up a shirt for a friend and Bruce needed to replace his full face helmet.

Was pouring rain when we woke up and right from the start I had a feeling that someone was going to be against even making an attempt at the Arctic Circle .  For some reason I thought it was going to be Bruce but it turned out to be Ron.  We finally decided that we would at least ride as far as the pavement goes and then make a decision after we see what the conditions further north were.

After our trip to the Harley dealership we got underway.  I didn’t get all that far though…. About 60 miles north of Fairbanks, right as I wicked the throttle to pass a truck, the throttle cable snapped and I was dead on the side of the road.  Cris stopped with me but the others kept going.  Lee had been riding behind me and knew that I was stopped but Bruce was riding in front and did not notice that I had stopped.  It took Leroy quite awhile to pass vehicles to catch up with Bruce to signal him to stop. By then Bruce was at a point where he would have to worry about fuel.

Cris and I swapped out the idle cable for the throttle cable.  Had a little issue getting the carb seated properly but Leroy helped out with that when he finally came back to us.  I would have loved to have continued on but I was unsure of the conditions on the Haul Road .  I would definitely need to do some engine braking and if my throttle was not snapping back correctly it could have been a safety issue.  I had to go back to Fairbanks .. there really wasn’t much of a choice.  Ron and Bruce chose to go back with me while Cris and Leroy continued to the Circle.  That would be the last I would see of Leroy on the trip.  Cris I would see again in Whitehorse .

We made it back to Fairbanks and got to the dealership 45 minutes before they closed.  I cannot say enough good things about the Fairbanks Harley Davidson Dealership!  They didn’t have the exact part number listed for my cable but they found one that would work and they squeezed me in.  The mechanic ended up staying over a half hour late to finish up my bike.  They could have easily have said that they didn’t have time to fit me in.  And not only did they get it done they also insisted on washing it even though they were already way past closing time.

We ended up back at the same motel again.  We saw a couple of guys on BMWs that were getting set to make the trip to Prudhoe.  They were from Los Angeles but were originally from Brazil .  We also saw a Goldwing rider who turned out to be a member of a mailing list I am on.  We had seen him down at the Alaskan Highway sign in Dawson Creek .  He had already been to Prudhoe and back.  It’s funny how you keep running into the same riders over and over again.  In the room on the otherside of us was a couple of guys we had first met in Whitehorse .  They wree from Kansas .  We planned for an early start the next morning.

Bruce decided that he wanted a day to hang out and not ride so Ron and I left our laundry with him and we took off for Seward.  It was a wet, rainy morning.  Got about 50 miles down the road and I was seriously thinking about turning back.  You couldn’t see anything so there was no point in continuing if it was just going to be like this.  Finally, about the time of our first gas stop, it started to clear.  We stopped for breakfast and when we left again I could see some blue sky peaking though.  The rest of the ride down was just gorgeous.

Plenty of scenic views to take pictures of on the way back to Anchorage .  We detoured and took a side trip through Kenai.  We saw 2 glaciers there, the best of which was ‘Exit Glacier’.  We made it back to Anchorage and grabbed dinner at Taco Bell.  Back at Bob’s house that night we got a call from Cris.  He was stranded with a broken drive belt.  We didn’t get any more details than that as the call dropped.

We moved along today and a great pace.  Made it into Tok early enough to goto this Salmon Bake place that we weren’t able to do the last time we were in town.  The ride, like all of Alaska , was just beautiful.  We saw another glacier today.. Watanuksa, Matanuske?  I need to look it up.  We camped again at the Eagle’s Claw.

While looking for the Thompson’s so we could check in we saw a HUGE rabbit.  I swear I have never seen a rabbit that large before.  Luckily I was able to point it out to Ron or nobody would have believed me when I said how big it was.

While at the Salmon Bake we ran into the two guys from Kansas again.  It turns out that one of them, Nick I think his name was, is also a member of A.R.M, the club that Ron Walker rode with.  I had BBQ ribs instead of Salmon… wasn’t as good as something I would get in KC but it was good.

The keyword for today is ‘F@CKING GRAVEL!!!!’

We took the Alaskan Highway down to where it splits in Watson Lake .  At the gas stop we met a guy and his girlfriend who had ridden all the way up from Columbia .  They had been on the road for 2 months.  We had been having trouble deciding if we should backtrack on the Alaskan Highway or split off and take highway 37 so that we could see something new.  We talked to the guy for awhile and he told us about 37 and how pretty it was.  We asked about road construction and he told us there was some but not much… YEAH RIGHT!!

Highway 37 is really beautiful.  There were times when I thought we were the only people on the road.  We had a section of about 20 miles that was unpaved but it wasn’t any trouble for us and then we came to the construction zone.  I knew we were in trouble when we saw the construction sign that advertised that 8 million dollars was being spent on road repairs.  This section of construction area consisted of freshly graded gravel.  It was really quite squishy.  The road was narrow with drop offs on either side.  Plus the trucks traveling on the gravel were really going fast which threw gravel at us as they passed.  There were many sections with steep 10% grades.  Those sections I was forced to pretty much take in 1^st gear to allow the engine to do most of the braking for me.

Came to this one section in which the grader was working.  The darn thing was huge and took up most of the road.  It was coming up the hill as we were going down.  I did the one thing I shouldn’t have done… taken my feet off the pegs.  Without my feet on the pegs I couldn’t use the back brake to slow down and using the front brake on gravel would have been a disaster.  So I ended up going down this hill much faster than I felt comfortable doing. 

I made it through all the gravel with no problems but it was very stressful as the worst section of it fell at about the 15^th hour that I had been riding that day.  I was tired and hungry. We started out around 8am and rolled into camp at 11pm .  The rider we met from Columbia told us about some cabins in Iskut that rent for $20.  The place was called ‘Survivor’s Lodge.’  The place is run by Don Hutchinson.  It’s a really primitive place, no electricity or water but the beds were comfortable and you can’t beat the price.  Don lives in Iskut 3 months of the year and travels selling orthopedics the rest of the year.  We rolled in late, it was still light of course, and asked him where we could find some food.  There wasn’t much in town and everything was closed  Don fixed us some dinner, leftovers from a BBQ the day before.  That was so nice of him as we were starving.

We didn’t go as far as we would have liked to today.  A single car accident has 37 closed down for 2 hours while they flew life flight in and then investigated the accident.  It had gotten quite warm and we were just sitting there on the road in the line of traffic.  I stepped into the bushes and removed the layer of underarmor I was wearing that helped quite a bit.  A nice lady in an RV behind us had bottles of water.  The water I was carrying had gotten warm.

At the gas stop before we were held up for the accident I looked down and noticed that the 2 bolts holding my front muffler on were missing.  The only thing left holding it on was the clamp that holds it to the header pipes.  I knew I had to fix it ASAP as the weight of the muffler pulling down on the header pipes would cause a serious issue if the pipes pulled away from the engine.  Luckily a maintenance man at the lodge we got gas at had a couple of bolts that were the size I needed.

We finally found the Alaska Mosquitos… they were on vacation in British Columbia .  They swarmed around me as I sat on the dirt trying to fit my hands into a tiny spot to get the bolts put on.  Ron gave me the third hand I needed and we got underway.  It turns out that the time I spent doing the repair wasn’t wasted time as we would have been stuck by the accident anyway.

When we finally got moving again we passed the accident… a single car that was just crunched into the ditch on the side of the road.  The driver must have been going very fast for it to had happened.

We made it to Smithers and stopped at an RV park that had cabins with a view of the glacier.  Well, it wasn’t much of a glacier compared to the others we had seen.  The cabins were full so we continued into town.  Bruce stopped at the first motel we saw, it was pretty much a dump but we were tired.  I was kind of glad that it was my turn to sleep on the cot that night as I don’t think I would have wanted to put my skin against their bedding.  There was a Dairy Queen within walking distance… what’s up with no Butterfinger Blizzards?!?  I settled for a Resess Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard.

We got a late start today and it was all Ron’s fault! J usually it is Ron who is up first but when I noticed he was still sleeping at 7am I decided to take advantage of it and go back to sleep.  We broke our rule again about starting each day with a full tank of gas.  About 70 miles on our current tanks and we figured that we would stop 50 miles down the road for gas and breakfast.

Then…. We stopped for breakfast and should have gotten gas before eating as there were 2 stations in town.  Bruce didn’t want to backtrack though.  He asked a pair of bikers in the restaurant if there was gas down the road and they said yes.  Maybe he should have asked how far down the road it was….. Bruce ran out of gas again.  Luckily we still had gas in the can on the trailer.

When we stopped in William’s Lake we got gas right away… we’re learning from our mistakes at least.  We stayed at the William’s Lake Inn.  It was a little dumpy and there were garbage pickers around the place.  We ate dinner at Denny’s…. they served beer here… never seen a Denny’s that served beer.

For the first time I emptied everything out of my saddlebags.  Usually I didn’t bother but after seeing the homeless people around the inn I wasn’t going to take any chances.

We knew from the start that we had a long day ahead of us because of the border crossing.  We would cross back into the states and end up in Seattle … this meant we would get to see Opa!  Opa was supposed to go with us on the trip but had to back out because he never got the back pay he was expecting and his sons were going to be at his place for his birthday on July 2^nd.  One was home from Iraq and he didn’t want to miss seeing him.  I hadn’t seen Opa since the Kansas City rally last year and I really wished he had been able to join us on the trip.

Was a very pretty ride today especially the Cache Creek area.  Lots of gorges with rivers running through them.  Stopped to pee on the side of the rode and got a picture of train tracks and tunnels running along the river.  The road went through some pretty cool tunnels too. 

Being back in the states meant cell phone coverage!  As I get closer and closer to home I was beginning to get more and more homesick.  We had been out of cell ranger for a few days and it was nice to call home.  It was also nice to be back where you bought your gas in gallons!

I didn’t spend as much time thinking on the trip as I thought I would.  It’s amazing how much time you spend thinking about absolutely nothing while riding.  I’m sure my brain was working on something part of the time but I know that I spent part of the day singing the ‘Inspector Gadget’ theme song as well.  We crossed back into the USA at Sumas , WA at around 5pm . 

Went through some rural areas of Washington and then it was all superslab on I-5 down to Seattle .  We had some trouble finding Opa’s house but he came and fetched us.  Opa had the beer cold and waiting for us.  He smoked a chicken and grilled us some brats.  It was great!

Opa had us up a 6:15 and at 7:30 we took pictures and headed towards I-90.  We took a wrong turn but eventually found our way onto the road we would be on for the next 3 days.  It was a long day of riding starting out with a threat of rain in Seattle , luckily it held off but it was cloudy for quite awhile.  The clouds finally cleared up about the time the trees disappeared and it turned into desert.  It was very pretty heading out of Seattle though.

It was nice being back on a highway where we could really cover some miles. We got into Missoula early enough to get camp set up at the KOA and find some dinner.

Today it got hot!  We had planed to make it to Ranchester , WY today but the heat was killing us and we ended up stopping in Billings .  It was over 100 degrees so we decided to stay in a hotel with a pool.  There was an argument about who was going to sleep on the cot and Bruce just ended up getting his own room.  I was planning a long day of riding the next day and I wasn’t about to sleep on the cot…. Especially when it wasn’t my turn for it.

We ordered Chinese food, watched some TV (the Beverly Hillbillies Movie) and went to bed

I set out on my own this morning.  I was just over 1000 miles from home with 2 days to get there.  I was seriously considering an Ironbutt ride back to Kansas City .  I thought it would be fun to surprise my husband and show up a day early but the heat ended up wiping me out early in the day.

I left at 6am and it was actually a bit chilly, around 73 degrees.  I had to stop just down the highway and put in my earplugs as I had forgotten and I snapped a picture of the sunrise.  That is one of the best things about riding alone – being able to stop for small reasons like that.  If I had been with the group I would have just ridden without them.

The high temperature today would reach 110 degrees.  I’ve ridden in 100 degree heat before but never for so many miles.  I swear I drank 3 gallons of water today and hardly peed any of it out!  I started with a goal of making it home and then I changed my goal to be Sioux Falls where I would get off of 90 and head South on 29… I made it as far as Mitchell (home of the corn palace).  Still a respectable day at 650 miles.  The longest day I had with the others was 500 miles and that was an all day affair.  I got into Mitchell real early.  I could have easily have made it home if it wasn’t 110 degrees.

The day of riding was pretty uneventful.  There really isn't a whole heck of a lot to see while riding across Iowa.  It felt good to be on my own though and I really do like riding by myself.  No other time in my life do I have that complete feeling of freedom then when I am away from home, out on the road, riding by myself.

Oh.. the surprise waiting for me was a remodeled kitchen!!

Acknowledgements:  There are so many people out there that I need to send thanks to for playing a part in this trip.  I am going to attempt to name some but I know I am bound to forget someone...

First I need to thank Bruce 'Bootie' Taylor.  The trip was his brain child and I never would have been able to have this awesome experience if he hadn't said "who wants to got o Alaska'.  There were 3 of us together at the end: Bruce, Ron and I.  I really enjoyed riding with you guys!  Tom, I am sorry I didn't get to ride with you longer but I really enjoyed riding with you.  I need to thank Cris and Leroy for their great technical knowledge and for helping me get my bike moving again when my throttle cable snapped.  Dan, again I am sorry we didn't get to ride together longer, I hope we can take another trip together sometime.  I would be up to taking another trip with any of you... what was it Don Hutchinson in Iskut was talking about.... Baja peninsula?  :-)

I need to thank Lee Bussy, not only for the server space to host this page, not only for the time and energy spent wrenching my bike, not only for putting up with my endless questions and insecurities in my quest to learn about my machine, but for being a great friend and someone I can count on to be there when I need help.

Thanks to Bob Hoffman who gave us a place to stay in Anchorage.

Thank you to Bob 'Opa' Hill.  Who not only put us up in his house in Seattle but who shared our story along the way with the people who were following our adventures.  I am truly sad that you couldn't make the trip with us and I hope to see you out in KC again for one of the Sportster Rallys.

The too many to name category.... I am on a few motorcycle related mailing lists and web pages.  I need to send thanks out there to anyone who had provided a piece of advice or some information to aid me in my trip.  I may not had taken your advice, which I may or may not be regretting, but to all the people out there who enjoy sharing information about motorcycling... Thanks!