Day 25 - July 24 - From Pacific to Atlantic and back to the Pacific

Said adios to Bill & Donna, and Dave & Shirley, and headed off from Osoyoos for the last 400 kms of the Odyssey (for me; for Jim that happened 2 days ago; for Bob and George it will be 2 days hence).

A very familiar drive, unlike most of what we have done: Hedley, Princeton, Hope, highway 1 into Vancouver...

I reached English Bay. The GPS says we have travelled 14, 837.5 kilometres - 15,000 kms, it seems fair to say.

I got off the bike - looking across at the fireworks barge that is seen in one of the photos - and walked down to the water and stuck my hand in.

So... for me, it's done.

A once in a lifetime experience. Endlessly interesting; endlessly inspirational; for me at least, endlessly challenging.

I am more grateful than I can say for having had the opportunity to do this, and for the successful outcome.

I am grateful for the wonderful company, the comradeship, with the Knights of the Open Road. They are distinguished gentlemen; they have been and are good friends.

I am grateful for those who were so generous to us along the way: Sue & Jack McCartney; Keith & Kathy; Bill & Donna; too many strangers to count - so many wonderful folk across Canada and across the U.S.

I am grateful to all who have read parts of this blog, and offered such positive feedback. The blog had a selfish objective of creating a record of the trip, but if it has offered some interest to others, that is great.

Finally, and above all, I am grateful to Jo-Ann, and to Colin, David, Patrick, and Matthew for their loving support and encouragement in this, as in all things.

Oh, and Flat Stanley says he had a great time, too.

The next adventure?.....

Day 24 - July 23 - H to Osoyoos; G & B to Yellowstone

In the morning I headed off on secondary highway 200 - absolutely beautiful road which starts out west of Great Falls pretty flat, but then rises into hills, and takes on a wonderful twisty, up and down, that was great fun. Leads to Lincoln Montana, and eventually on to Missoula.

From Missoula one heads quickly into the Idaho "panhandle" and Cour d'Alene and, seemingly, before long, to Spokane. From Spokane I headed northwest towards Omak, via the Grand Coulee Dam, and-eventually - north through the Roosville crossing to Osoyoos, because I'd learned that brother-in-law and sister-in-law Bill and Donna, and Kaylen, Liam (and Amanda), and Cameron (and a friend, Dylan) were in Osoyoos with Dave & Shirley, Jo-Ann's folks.

After 890 kms, I managed to arrive just as dinner was being served - great timing! A great visit. Great hospitality from Bill & Donna. Just 400 kms left to get home tomorrow.

Heard from Bob that he and George had reached the eastern gate of Yellowstone Park (mostly in Wyoming, but covering portions of Washington and Idaho as well). Bob described the ride as maybe his best ever.

Day 23 - July 22 - the beginning of the end...

Dawn broke with George and I leaving Cullbertson Montana to head west, and Bob and Jim leaving (wherever it was that they finished their Iron Butt 1,000 miles - I don't remember, but I have to wonder whether they really do either) to head north - the plan for the four of us to meet in Shelby Montana in the mid afternoon.

An encouraging chat outside the Kings Inn Motel, as an older fellow with the common Honda Goldwing-with-trailer set-up tells us that the day before his wife's and his travelling companions - another couple on a Honda Goldwing-with-trailer - had hit a small deer at about 60 mph and been thrown from their bike... thankfully surviving, but getting "severe" road rash that had them both hospitalized. It is a constant danger - whether moose further east, or deer in this part of the world; the deer are particularly worrisome because they move so quickly and can "spring up" out of tall grasses alongside the roadway. So your eyes are constantly scanning the roadside ahead for any indication of movement...

It was another hot day in Montana, with the temperature getting up into the 34 degrees centigrade range before lunch. We stopped in a little bar for lunch, only to have the grizzled oldtimer beside us warn us again about omnipresent deer on the highway. George says the fellow said there had been 3 motorcyclists killed from collisions with deer during the last year - I'm sure George is right - but I heard it a bit more like "the highway is littered with the carcasses of dead motrocyclists..."

As it turned out, saw no deer, but did see and photograph other indigenous Montana wildlife in the grasslands, and on a beer label.

Back onto the road, eventually arriving in Shelby. Looked for Jim and Bob at Lucky Lil's Casino (where they said we could expect to find them), but spot their bikes at the more likely adjacent truckspot, where they are eating lunch, including deep fried flatbread which Jim insists we must try, hot with butter and honey.

Jim had learned that a major business project which he had been quarterbacking from the road for the last weeks was in need of some immediate and personal attention from the boss, so he needed to go north (i.e., home to Strathmore, and onto a plane the next day). The Great Adventure for the four Knights of the Open Road had to end some time, but inevitably there was sadness in knowing the moment had arrived. A lady in the gas station took a final photo of the four of us.

Jim headed north; George, Bob and I headed south to Great Falls, with the plan that in the morning I would head west towards home, while George and Bob would head south for a couple of days and then meet up with Ben (who originally was to have been one of the KotOR) and a friend for a ride on the Road to the Sun in Glacier Park, with a view to getting home to Langley Saturday.

Stayed at the Best Western Heritage Inn in Great Falls. Got a room with two beds, so asked for a cot as well. Later mentioned this on the phone with Jo-Ann; she pointed out that three women would be sensible enough to share the better quality bed. Discussion followed among the three remaining Knights - clear and immediate consensus that this identifies a profound but immutable difference between women and men. The cot stayed. Dinner offered Bob an opportunity to try walleye for the first time - positive verdict.

Day 22 - July 21 - Bob & Jim have Iron Butts

In the event there is anyone who has followed this blog closely, and analyses the text closely, that (unlikely) person may have noticed that the second half of Day 21's entry made no express mention of Jim or Bob. In fact we separated after lunch at Duluth Minnesota, with George and me continuing west as described in the blog, but Bob and Jim heading south to Minneapolis, with a view to spending the night somewhere on an Interstate, and the next day starting out at 4:00 a.m. to drive 1,000 miles - or 1620 kms - within 24 hours... the standard which must be met to achieve "Iron Butt" status as a rider.

Well, Day 22 dawned with George and me leaving our comfortable Hampton Inn suite, after a full night sleep, and heading west on Highway 2, eventually passing through 3 states: Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana.

We crossed the Minnesota/North Dakota state line at Grand Forks - another state boundary that is set in the middle of a river, and thus a bridge - and continued west to Devil's Lake. What a great name for a town! Devil's Lake itself (i.e., the lake, not the town) is really b ig, and quite scenic. The town....

While stopped for coffee in Devil's Lake, George and I for some reason were discussing competitive sports, and in that context talked about rugby in terms of the tradition of both teams leaving the conflict on the field, and joining together afterward for a beer.

So in the "how weird is this?" department, it was pretty strange to leave Devil's Lake and see an overhead sign saying the next major town was Rugby, North Dakota. So we set Rugby as our goal for lunch.

When we got closer to Rugby, we saw signs proclaiming that Rugby is the "geographic centre of North America". In due course we found a rock cairn asserting the same fact, and flying flags of Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. Yes, sports fans, we have been to the geographic centre of North America, and have eaten lunch there.

We carried on through sweltering heat (34 degrees) and, as has been said before, the commitment to maintaining Kevlar protection in jacket and pants is a commitment to almost mesmerizing, incapacitating heat. We need to research air conditioning inside Kevlar suits.

And the highways are straight, and flat.

We saw a wonderful billboard which said only, "Be nice", without attributing it to anyone. Hate billboards, but this was pretty cool.

In due course we got to Williston where we expected to spend the night, only to find there were no rooms at the inns (of Williston), so we rode on for another 65 kms to the thriving metropolis of Culbertson Montana. There we gratefuly ended what felt like a long, hot day at the King's Inn motel, and ate at the only option in this very small community, the adjacent casino.

Well, we thought we were having a long, hot day... meanwhile, Bob and Jim had travelled just over 1700 kms in 16 hours and seven minutes (you don't want to do the math about average speed). They spent the night with sore (but iron nonetheless) butts.

Day 21 - July 20 - the resort community of Bemidji Minnesota - who knew?

Left Marquette this morning, heading west on Highway 2, that pretty much runs all the way to the Pacific - perhaps most notably in its related Highway 20 manifestation in the northern Cascades of Washington state. But I'm getting ahead of myself - we were still in Michigan.

Interesting to take a moment to look at a map, and see that Michigan has a separate part that extends up in a penninsula to become the southern shore of Lake Superior. We kept hearing of "the U.P." as an area, as in "the best (pizza joint, automotive shop, judicial candidate) in the U.P.", before realizing that the U.P. was/is the upper penninsula of Michigan.

But before long we were out of Michigan, and into Wisconsin.

Drove through some very pretty area - a quiet Sunday morning, complete with some attractive country churches with apparently busy congregations, judging from the parked cars.

Stopped for coffee in a great little restaurant attached to a little motel - dreadful coffee (water, with only a faint association with the bean) but engaging local folk out for their Sunday breakfast.

On to Superior Wisconsin (what a great name for a town - no municipal self-esteem isues for these folks!), and lunch at Perkins, on the edge of Lake Superior. After lunch, over the bridge to Duluth, and halfway across, enter the great state of Minnesota. I say the "great state of Minnesota" not because it is or isn't (great, that is), but because as we see these various states, I can't help thinking of years of watching U.S. national political conventions, and representatives of states saying one by one, "the great state of (x) casts its (y number of) votes for ...", etc....

Interesting drive west from Duluth: for a long stretch there is little to see but scrubby growth, and dead taller trees, reminiscent of some areas in the far north of B.C. - it seems clear that there are harsh winters here.

En route we could see a monstrous storm brewing, kind of to the west where we were heading, but a little more to the north (one hoped). Great black clouds were swirling around to the extent that I was looking for a tornado, imagining that we might be scooped up from Wisconsin, and be deposited in Kansas. After thinking we might dodge it, suddenly we were engulfed. We stopped to put on warmer clothes, even though we were only 50 kms from our final destination, by chance stopping adjacent to a tavern called "the Big Fish" - George can be seen in the mouth of the fish. When we resumed riding, the rain was falling so densely that we had to slow right down, unable to see the road or the driving lanes. After 20 minutes or so, the rain diminished, and then vanished, leaving us laughing in the way you do sometimes afte something has been kind of intense.

Arrived in Bemidji Minnesota, a charming lakeside resort community of 11,000, with a state college with 4,000 students, and staying at a Hampton's Inn and Suites that is relatively plush by our usual standards. As has happened at a few places, the desk staff offered without being asked to let us park our bikes right outside the front door, in the most visible, secure (and, in this case, covered!) spot in the property.

Tomorrow, continue west across Highway 2 for another 750 kms to Williston North Dakota. Today we cracked the 3,000 kms barrier to the "and back" part of the trip. So given that we've already travelled more than 12,000 kms, 2800 or so doesn't seem like much.

Day 20 - July 19 - Back to the U.S.A.

We left the home of the Big Nickel, and (hold your breath): Don Cherry's Family Restaurant - which was across the street from our motel - and headed off for the north shore of Lake HuronThis one leg of the trip, from North Bay in the last part of Day 19, through Sault Ste Marie - our halfway point in Day 20 - are the only portions of the trip in which we are covering the same ground, as our plan had us crossing the border at the Sault and continuing west, particularly on U.S. highway 2.

I know this is a recurring theme, but it says something interesting about Canadian culture that we stopped for morning coffee at the ubuquitous - or perhaps, iconic (used in the sense of it having become an object of uncritical devotion) - small town Tim Hortons (in this case at Blind River Ontario), and were met with a huge drive-through line-up, and an indoor line-up that was out the door. I took some photos to try to capture the feeling of the Saturday morning crowd, though I don't know how successful I was. At some level, though, it's kind of charming: clearly in the small town environment in particular, it has become a great meeting place. It's great fun to hear snippets of conversation between George and Martha and Susan and Joe as they talk about - well, whatever - and the banter that goes on between the large table of older men who obviously hang out there routinely.

A great moment came when Bob decided he needed a power nap more than coffee, so lay on his back on some grass outside a motel next to the Tim Horton's. Someone drove past and shouted out at him, "Moron, what are you doing? Get a job!?" Juxtapose that enlightened and compassionate moment of human engagement, with the lady who had driven by, and then took the time to turn around and return to check to see if this guy lying on his back with both arms and feet outstretched was O.K. or, as she said to Bob as she stood over him, "I wondered if you needed CPR?".

Gotta love people. One of the great joys and privileges of this trip has been to encounter so very many people in so very many places. The "Moron" moment was an aberration: we have met a wide variety of people to be sure, with widely varying degrees of sophistication, but predominantly, strikingly, friendly and engaging.

Anyway, from Blind River we proceeded along the north shore of Lake Huron, passing Thessalon (of earlier note in this blog), and on to the Sault. We stopped for gas at a PetroCan and discovered a group of full-patch Hells Angels in conversation with 4 cars worth of Ontario Provincial Police. Interestingly, the OPP didn't seem to have any interest in interviewing the second group of bikers in the station (I refer, of course, to the Knights of the Open Road). We moved on. No photos.

Didn't know that Sault Ste Marie spans both sides of the border. A very long bridge joins the 2 sides. George and I went through Customs together (unusually, it seemed, he waved both of us forward to get together). Turned out he was a very friendly fellow, lots of friiendly conversation asking about our trip, etc. Early on he asked us what we did for a living, and George said he is "self-employed". As our conversation was coming to a close, the fellow said (ostensibly to me, but to both of us), "You're O.K. to go, but I don't know about this unemployed guy". Loved the line, and gave George the gears about it. Intersting synchronicity with the "Moron, get a job" line directed at Bob earlier.

One can only assume they don't know they are talking to Knights of the Open Road.

Off towards Marquestte Washington on what must surely have been one of the longest, stratightest secondary highways upon which I've ever driven.

Stopped for a bottle of water at a roadside grocery located across a small parking area fromn a tavern. A lot of bikes parked there. Some people came out fo the tavern as we were drinking our water, and remarked upon how odd oit was to see bikers drinking water. They asked if we were there for the 19th Annual - apparently an event at the tavern of some considerable local repute. it was difficult not to form the opinion that s considerable percentage of the persons driving past us within a 40 km radius might well have been 19th Annual revellers - dictating caution and a wide berth!

We had riddeen mostly through nice sunshine - warm to be sure, but not sweltering hot. As we neared the south shore of Lake Superior, suddenly the temperature dcropped dramatically, to the exptent that we stopped and put on extral layers. The lake was foggy and cold looking - took a picture of sand dunes and foggy nothingness behind.

Tomorrow on to Duluth.

A postscript: today was Jo-Ann's and my 33rd wedding anniversary. She spent the day with son Patrick and his partner, Cara, in Victoria, picking out paint colours for their new home, and then getting at the actual painting. Earlier in the day when we stopped for lunch in the U.S. side of Sault Ste Marie, I saw a sign that I had to capture. Jo-Ann won't be happy that I included it in the blog, but it is an oblique way from this unfortunate distance of expressing my deep gratitude for 33 years of "experiencing" (to quote the sign) Jo-Ann.

Day 19 - July 18 - Belleville to Sudbury

A refreshed unit - with profound thanks to Keith and Kathy, Dylan, Laura and Kaitlin - left Belleville, going north to Canada's famous Algonquin Park (famous in my family for our granfather's recording of "A Day in the Life of Algonquin Park" which - when we were teenagers, was often a big hit at parties at about 2:00 a.m.)

Coffee in small Brantford at yet another breathtakingly busy Canadian Tim Hortons! Where does their clientele come from even in small communities?

The park is pretty impressive. We finally saw a moose, and in happy circumstances, a healthy distance from the highway. We've been warned again and again and again in both Canada and tghe U.S. to be on a sharp lookout for moose near to or on the highway. We've been gratified by not being surprised by one as we come around a corner, but it was a little disappointing not to see one before.

We passed a huge line-up of cars within the park, and stopped to see what it was. A young woman asked me rather incredulously whether we were attending the electronic music festival.

We weren't.

Headed off towards Huntsville, where it began to rain torrentially. We stopped for lunch, and it had eased up somewhat, but rode much of the day in varying amounts of rain.

Drove through North Bay, and on to Sudbury, where we had dinner at a Keg. The server asked us if we'd been to the Keg before (it's relatively new to Sudbury). Wanted to say, "Son, I was the waiter in the Keg training film before you were born!". Didn't.

Tomorrow off to Marquette Michigan - the most direct route home.

Today we got under the 4,000 km mark on the "and back" part of the trip.