Last post for this trip

Well we are home, we left Colorado Springs on a Sunday morning. We were planning on a four day ride home but we pushed through and did the 1687 miles in to days. Our first day out of Colorado was clear and chilly, riding through the pass in Wyoming was rather cool, once down on the other side we layered up and plugged the vest into get warm. The pass was just under 9000 feet with fresh snow in the mountains to the south of us, so chilly was fitting. We made it all the way to Boise Idaho the first day, with being home the second day was now within striking distance, we just had to figure the stupid ferry schedule out and see if it would fit in with our riding times. We left Boise early in the morning and headed up I-84 towards I-82 both impressive highways with beautiful scenery. We stopped in Baker City, Oregon got fuel and had breakfast at the Oregon Trail Cafe, wow what a good breakfast, really cheap also. I would recommend that restaurant to any passing through the area. Back on the road and to Ellensberg, Washington. From there it was a four hour ride to the border, and it looked like we could pull off a straight run home. Woohoo really wooohoo. We caught the seven 0 five from Horseshoe Bay, the last ferry to connect with Earls Cove. We did it, we would be home around eleven at night, again woohoo.

Well we have been home for two days, and I have had time to reflect on the world wind tour. Twenty two states and just over 7000 miles, the 10th anniversary of 9-11 and the Colorado Springs Memorial for fallen firefighters all in 21 days.
The ride it self was amazing, the circumstances around the two memorial visits, sad,sad sad. The Colorado Springs memorial is held every year in September, fallen brothers and sisters are put on the wall and recognized for there bravery, 87 this year. Being in Colorado it gave me a chance to say hi to two friends on the wall, let them know I haven't forgotten them.

Well back to the ride, I made new friends, and met with old ones again, the people of the US really appreciated us and thanked us way to much. Their affection and appreciation was sometimes overwhelming. Pennsillvania is a must see, beautiful scenery, Tennessee is also a top three, Washington DC tops the list for buildings and monuments. Shenandoah Mt. And Blueridge Mt. range should be on all bikers dreams to ride. And well last but not least is the Tail of the Dragon, again 318 corners in 11 miles, it sits on the Border of Tennessee and North Carolina and finishes off with the Cherhola Highway. The US is a vast chunk of land with long distances between towns, cities and metropolitan areas. You will see the wierdest things in the middle of no where when you least expect it. After seeing some of these bizarre things, you begin to think what is around the next corner or what is going to pop up on this straight stretch, there was always something to make me laugh, chuckle or say to my riding buddies did you see that, or what the Hell was that.

All this is what makes meeting new friends, riding with old friends and the ride so special.

four days behind

Sorry it's been a couple days since I last blogged, easy explanation is riding late and to tired to blog and on hotel didn't have wi-fi.
So after we left Gainsville we headed to the Shenandoah Mt. range, it cost ten dollars to ride through the park, about 95 miles, wow what a beautiful road, scenery, it was just an awesome ride. Connected tot the end of the Shenandoah range was the Blue Mountain parkway. Just as nice scenery but the road wasn't in as good as condition as the Shenandoah ride, there is a lot to say for paying tolls after riding the two different sections.
That night we ended up in Alcoa, Tennessee. Up bright and early to go and one of the Harley had a dead battery, one hundred and thirty seven dollars and two hours late we were back on the road.

A Little farther south west on Highway 129, we rode the Tail of the Dragon, this road looks like it was designed by a guy with wooden leg hobbling on a cane, chasing his goats. This road is eleven miles long and has 318 turns or corners. Fifteen motorcycle deaths on the road so far this, they never said how many crashes thou. They have a store at the end of the tail, with a tree in the parking lot. (tree of shame) It is covered with parts from all the crashes. An absolute must to ride if you are in the area. From there we went to the Cherhola Highway and up towards Nashville. We were going to try and get to Memphis, ran stormed blew in and off the road and into a hotel we went. We spent a night a t a Best Western in Kingstown, about thirty miles south west of Nashville, don't ever stay there was expensive compared to the rest of our hotels the roof leaked and no wi-fi and a brutal continental breaky. okay I liked the bananas but I didn't get one. From Nashville we tried to get to Salina In Kansas, didn't happen with a break down we lost about an hour plus, it was getting dark, like 1030 at night dark, time to hit a hotel. That was a real long day, straight into bed up early and on the road a 6:30. Friday was a cold and cloudy day we ran and got into Colorado Springs about 4:00 on Friday. We had to put in lot of seat time to make up for our play time in the south east on those cool roads.

Today Saturday the Firefighter Memorial, it is a bit of a somber place today, last night was a bit of a party, today a little quieter. Lots of families here for the memorial, 87 new names going on the wall, 87 families to receive flags. The toughest of the tough were all shedding tears, A young wife next to us received here flag, she held it together real good until the presentation, then she fell apart, very upsetting for all of us sitting there.

Husbands, wife's, mothers, fathers and children all here, very slobbering times. Bells were tolled each time a name was read and a flag was passed out. I think I will just leave it there......

more to say

Well we didn't really head west, after a discussion this morning we figured we could head south and still get to Colorado in time. So south we went. I-95 all the way to Gainesville Virgina. Really nice ride except for all the toll Highways. You whiners in BC have no Idea what a toll road is and/or how many they have. Sure cuts into the beer money.We cruised around DC for a bit checked out some of the buildings. Not much to natter about so I'll post more pics today.












Oh ya we as human's are suppose to learn from our mistakes..... look back way way back, this is only a small little piece of this cemetery.Sad as always, we must support our soldiers thou. We went to John F. Kennedy's grave site, very obscure for a president, but very nice, sorry didn't take any pic's, 16 gray/brown granite blocks with a kind of mint moss growing between the blocks with an eternal flame. Very plain but classy.

yesterday and today

Well yesterday we hung around the Harley Dealership I got a new front tire and an oil change, Mark and Carl also got an oil change. After the oil change and stuff we got everyone together and got on the train to downtown New York. We got off the train at Grand Central Station, wondered down to Time Square, poked around there and then down to China Town, had some real Chinese food, roast duck with dumplings some sweet sour lo mien, a couple rounds of beer the six of us had a good time. The other six went to little Italy and had pasta. After dinner things got a little interesting, we had Rosemarie wonder down canal street, for those of you know what I am talking about it was pretty funny, she was nervous, scared and excited all in one, and not a bad bargainer at all.
We were back into little Italy and met up with the other six. Oh by the way we gave Carl free rein to use the camera it was his day, well some pretty good pictures and some I don't think I'll post. Back to the storey, we found a little pub, had two Guinness, and were getting to head back to the train we wanted an early night because we had to be up at 6:30 am. After the to drinks the waitress comes out and says this NY resident had just bought us a round. Believe it or not but we told the waitress we couldn't do it and who was the person and we would just thank them for their thought and head out. Waitress said she had left but put the drinks on here card.

Well from there things went sideways, people started finding out we were Canadians who had rode our Harley's from BC to participate in the memorial and support the bothers and sister as well as the families of that tragic day. Hugs pats on the back and needless to say free booze. There was twelve of us they were buying drinks for. Pretty soon the eight o'clock leave time was now ten. We then found out the bar we were at was, the filming location for the Soprano's apparently seven season, that did explain the made men standing around glaring at us cause we were clogging up there little bar. Oh ya another twist to this is these guys in suits come up the street walking beside these vehicles, they clear all the people off the streets so the suburbans can get through. In the one burb was Rhianna, don't know if that is suppose to be cool or not but hey she drove by.

Oh ya pretty soon ten was now twelve and we had to leave, much to the disappointment of the locals, by the time we got the train home and had to catch a cab to the hotel it was three, remember the six thirty start time. Huh we were gonna be tired.

Today we got up f>:"*&ing early, cranky maybe a little, we mustered and organized the bike into thier respective district and off we went well it wasn't that easy it took a couple hours to get it togehter, out we went onto the turn pike to Jeresy. The cops said they stopped counting the bike at just over 3700 and that the train was just over seven miles long. Two mishaps in the train a couple bikes crashed into each other in both mishaps. The police had most of the eighty mile highway blocked off so there were no cars on the route until we got into the city. On the way in it was moving people standing on overpass, firetrucks, ladder trucks and a couple bronto's were all out in display and waving at us, thanking us for our supporting them and thier city. Riding in the city people were lined on the streets, fireman, kids and thier families all waving cheering and clapping for us. When we arrived at the memorial site, it was quiet not a whole lot of talking, somber faces and just erry quiet. After a few moments of quiet reflectivness the members began milling about and talking amongst each other. The main question seem to be" what were you doing at that moment", Everyone could still remember what they were doing,








" Alway Remember, Never Forget"

day whatever

Really don't know what day it is, but we are here in New York we got in on Thursday night, remember the rainstorm, well apparently we ran through the western edge of Hurricane Irene, no wonder the rain squall didn't pass. The road through Pennsylvania was actually beautiful was like riding inbetween our lower mainland scenery and riding the Hope Princeton. The I-80 was flooded from a levy break, we had to take detour around, it took us about 3 1/2 to find a route around the flooded areas. We arrived at our hotel around 1035 at night. There were a bunch of guys here that were waiting for us to arrive, they had a big party for us. WoooHooo. No pictures were taken that day we sure if we were going to get rained on.

Friday in NY we headed down to Paulie JR place they were filming so no visiting was allowed. Then down to Mickey's art gallery, he wasn't there, he was on a religous mentoring retreat, his art is lets say messed, way out there kinda angry like.......off to OCC checked out the bikes, they look better in real then on TV. OCC didn't really impress me thou. WE wondered around the displays at the host hotel. Met Amy from LA INK, got a tatty from Mike and well that was the end of the day.


Oh ya whats Mark got in his hand.... Saturday be interesting, Pictures will be in Carl's view.

Wednesday

Today we left Ottawa, it was a glorious day, they had afire truck escort us to the city boundry and then a copper the rest of the way to the highway. NBC was there in a helicopter filming the whole ride out of town. We stopped at a memorial site they were building for fallen soldiers, 1979 to present for middle east conflicts ... that was sad, more names on the wall then then people in the town we live in. We are suppose to learn from our mistakes... guess not yet. The ride through Chicago was a little hairy but I will let my guest writer explain.

We were getting close to Toledo and getting fuel, looked like it might rain. One of the dickheads in the group said it was just a sprinkle and that the squall would blow past, so we didn't put our rain gear on......... it was a down pour for two hundred freakin kilometers, I mean it really rained, needless to say our leathers probably won't be dry tomorrow, and the guys won't be happy. Wow the power of persuasion. Ya it cost me a few beers. Hotel looks really good, but hey lipstick on a pig is just a pretty pig. Roof leaks, showers are bad and Carl opened the hallway door and pulled the handle off. That was a good laugh.
Short on pictures due to the best boy grip didn't charge the batteries,does that bring back memories Hun...

Riding through the out skirts of Chicago, the stations brought their rigs to the overpasses and set up there ladders in a big arch, light going and all the good stuff, it was pretty impressive, brothers and sisters showing there support for our ride. Sorry no pics of that, maybe if they do it again we will get pic's.

and now from our guest writer Rosemarie
Well I have learned two things on this ride so far never pass up an opportunity to pee, and never drink tequila with Micky. Having a great time but driving through Chicago was very scary but we lived to tell about it.

an update

it has been three days since my last confession...... ha no just since I updated the trip.

Well on our lay over day in Sturgis, while we were waiting for members to catch up, we took a tour of Mt. Rushmore, it was a nice ride, warm day and not much traffic, compared to bike week. Carl was taking a picture for these two ladies I jumped in behind to be the random guy in the pic.One lady thought it was funny the other was pissed. Carl did take a nice pic of the two anyways. After Mt.Rushmore we had an easy stroll down the backside of the mountain and into Deadwood. For those of you out there who might like to know a little tidbit, Deadwood is where Wild Bill Hickcock was killed in 1890. After deadwood it was back to the hotel for a lazy evening. We went to the Loud American, a bar on the mainstreet of Sturgis, meet with the group from District seven, had a beer and got given some rules on the ride and then back to the hotel for the night. So that was our Sunday.

Monday we where good little kids and showed up at 6:45 for a 7 departure. Weather was good, the ride to Rapid City was good, after that the road was all new to me and let me tell you from Rapid City to Sioux Falls was fairly straight, so straight for three hundred k's, I think maybe 15 turns and not relly turns just slight bends. Besides the straight roads and bieng very flat, but still really interesting stuff to look at. Sioux Falls to Sioux City was more of the same except we crossed over the Missouri River, Carl spotted a big Turtle on the side of the road. we had no sign for turtle so I was confused. Sioux City is a really nice town, lots of old, really old brick buildings. Off to bed and up early.

Tuesday we didn't get up early as Carl had to get a new tire and the dealeship didn't open till 8:30 so we didn't get on the road until 10:30. The road is a good road, I-80 all the way across Iowa. to pass from Iowa into Illinois you get to cross over the Mississippi River, a really cool bridge and beautiful meandering river under it. From the bridge into Ottawa, Illinois is rolling planes and all covered in corn fields, lots and lots of corn fields, who wood have thunk.... tomorrow we head to Akron, Ohio.