Valley View

I've been pretty busy with work the last couple nights and haven't been able to update my blog, so here's a quick recap of the last couple days.

We left the campground in Montana and headed across the mountains to I-15 to the border. Man was it cold! I asked dad to go faster to try to get it over with, but of course at 70mph plus a strong side wind you get even greater wind chill! We eventually stopped and I put on even more

clothing - I was then warm and it was good practice for later on when the low in Montana was higher than the High in Alberta.

We crossed the border at Sweetgrass MT. It was not at all what I expected. Kinda reminded me of a ski-lodge or mountain pass. Just a cluster of buildings around the crossing. I had all my "papers" with me but all I needed was to show my passport and have them photograph my license plate, then I was off. I reset my speedometer to Kilometers and off I went. It was weird to be running triple digit speeds (only did so once before on the trip - while passing a truck in Colorado and that wasn't much fun since the road was grooved and the bike wobbled badly)

Everyone in Canada seems to drive well over the posted speeds. In 1000 miles so far up here I haven't seen a police car with anyone pulled over. When I'm leading I go a little faster than the speed limit, and Dad runs his cruise control at a little over too. I don't like having a solid stream of cars and 34 wheeler trucks (two 53' trailers in tandem (!))

We stopped for the night in Airdrie, AB and had dinner at a nearby restaurant. I ordered a burger and fries and they asked if I wanted Poutien instead. I was not aware of this, and asked the waitress what it is... She brought it for me and I ate it and later looked it up - it is a Quebec thing - French Fries with fresh cheese curd melted by hot brown gravy. Probably very low calories... When I checked my bill later I saw that they charged me $2 for the gravy and curds, and then at the hotel checked my credit card website and it looks like they charged us for the drinks we didn't receive! I'm not sure if it's worth arguing with the credit card company though over $5.00.

After dinner I went to the local Walmart Supercentre. I wanted to get a few items and figured it would be good to go somewhere familiar to save time... so much for that - all of the products and brands were different from what I'm used to at home so I had to do some "shopping" I rode my scooter back to the hotel in the last bit of daylight at 10pm! Sunrise has been around 5 and sunset at a little after 10. The days will only get longer as we go.

We left the hotel quickly on Monday to try to avoid storms, and it worked. We managed to ride

most of the day with no rain, but it was quite cold. I wore several layers of clothes and was dry.

We stayed the night in the Valley View Motor

Inn. It rained hard overnight and we will be riding through mud this morning.

Here are a few photos - I will add descriptions later.

~Ron

Wind, Rain and Sun in Big Sky Country

What a day... we made it through Wyoming and well into Montana today. The views were amazing, but so was the sight of rain showers falling thousands of feet from the high clouds down to the road ahead of us. It started out chilly, got warm, then was really cold with the rain, then alternated between the two. Once we hit Montana it was very hot - low to mid 90s with a few places closer to 100 for short distances... Too bad I was stuck in my heavy coat for part of it! I couldn't wait to stop and get that rain suit off.

We are staying in a campground along I-90 in Reed Point, MT. We are right between the interstate and railroad tracks, as usual, but in this case the trucks and trains are drown out by the drunk people wandering around - there's some kind of event going on it the park by the river and everyone was apparently having a good time well before we got here. The live music is nice though, but one I put my ear-plugs in it

won't matter.

It was threatening to rain when we arrived this evening so we set up

our camp as fast as we could. I finally got to deploy the tent-cot in all it's glory, complete with the one-scooter garage and dog-trot porch. The wind gusted and it did rain for a little bit, but for the most part it was dry enough to sit outside and work on my laptop. The skeeter's weren't too bad either once I sprayed myself with DEET.

For the last two nights we've been able to eat at the campgrounds - Beef BBQ on Friday night right at our picnic table, and tonight was Pizza and beer at our picnic table... it's nice not to need to drive anywhere to eat after a day of driving!

Tomorrow we are heading into Canada, and will be half-way in distance to the Alaskan border, but not in travel time! We will be slowing things down and looking around once we get north of Edmonton, AB.

In the photos you can see our campsite, including a view inside my tent when I'm using the computer! Not much space, but enough... and all of my gear can sit outside at night since it's covered so at least I don't have to bring it in with me.

Cheyenne, WY

Tonight we have stopped in Cheyenne, Wyoming after fewer miles than yesterday's ride. A lot less rain too - this time we caught the rain in Northern Colorado and we had a chance to pull over and get ready for it. Of course, it's so dry up here that within 20 minutes everything was totally dry, but thats only because I wasn't soaked to the bone.

We started the day in Dumas around 9:20 due to me trying to finish up a project then get a file emailed out before departure.

We rode straight north on Highway 287 and it was nice to be off the interstate most of the day - the traffic is a little more predictable, a lot lighter, and it's easier to pull to the side when you look in the rear view mirror and see a couple of bungee cord hooks floating in the air with nothing hooked to them.

As far as I can tell, nothing fell off (everything is held on by at least 3 bungees) but dad lost a water bottle off his bike and I wove back and forth trying to dodge it as it spun along at 75 mph. It eventually decided to blow off to the side of the road and I kept away from it. For two hours before that as we hit bumps and gusts of wind I had been thinking about what I would do if something fell off dad's bike, so it was something I had at least planned for.

Tonight is our first night camping and all of the preparations I made paid off concerning waterproofing. Each of the bags I opened had water in it, but none of it had made it through the rubber or plastic bags I had put inside the outer bags, so everything I had was dry. The tent cot was another story, it was soaked, but because it is separated from my sleeping bag and pad by the rubber bottomed tent it is OK that it is damp, and will probably dry overnight since it's very dry here.

We're still not sure where we will be staying tomorrow night, but I am sure it will be somewhere in Montana.

The photos here are of us at the Colorado border, a view of windmills, and our campsite and my tent this evening.

Finally on our Way

We are finally on our way. Today we rode for 11 hours and ended the day in Dumas, TX. I was sure glad to get here. An hour into the trip this morning I stripped off my rain gear because I was hot and it hadn't rained much. 10 minutes later I was riding along in a very heavy downpour and wondering what the heck I had been thinking! To make matters worse, I was on the wrong highway, which was no big deal since it was going north, but when we corrected course we ended up wasting 40 miles by zig-zagging through the hill country when there was a more direct route. Oh well, we saw some really nice countryside, even if it was flooding.

A few hours after it stopped raining I finally dried out, but once we passed Lubbock we hit a very heavy rainstorm that was 30 or 40 miles across. I just kept the bike pointed straight down the lane and kept going as fast as I could and hoped it would end. It did eventually, but the wonderful mid-80s temps had fallen to the low 60s and I needed to dry out or I'd freeze to death.

At our final gas stop I put the rain gear back on and felt much better for the final hour until we made it to our stop for the night.

Dad and I had a nice steak dinner (what else would you have in North TX?) I did a couple hours of work on some plans and now it's time to go to bed. It will feel really good to lay flat for the night!

Tomorrow we are going to try to get to Ft. Collins, CO. Hopefully not nearly so much rain.

Air conditioned pants...

...just what I needed. While waiting for the dealer to service my scooter today I had 4-1/2 hours to browse the "accessories" section and I ended up purchasing cool gloves, warm gloves, a thing I can soak in water to cool my head, a helmet liner to warm my head, a new visor for my helmet so I can see and riding pants made of mesh.

I took them for a ride in the 95 degree heat and they were amazing. At around 45mph the air actually felt cool. Around 70-80mph however, most of the air flows completely around my legs and it gets warmer... I guess we'll have another incentive to slow down besides the scenery.

I could have used these last summer when we went to New Mexico and it hovered around 100 while crossing Texas. One really cool feature is that the legs unzip and they convert into shorts to wear while exploring. They are also armored, so my knees will get the same protection my elbows currently have. Marlene proved those pads really work when she fell off her bike last year. Hopefully I will never test them!

More Preparation

Anyone who's ever ridden a motorcycle in the rain or on a sticky hot day can appreciate how nice it is to have airflow under you. Well, rather than invest in custom woven beaded seat cover I chose to go the Walmart route and "customize" one of their $8.88 seatcovers. I simply used hot glue to seal off a row of beads where the "tail" that normally goes under the headrest of a car seat meets the "fat" part of the cover that goes on the backrest. I turned the whole thing around and mounted it to my backrest "upside down" so the triangular part that's normally on top now fits the shape of the motorcycle seat. See the value of looking at things upside down?

I also put a piece of diamond plate traction material (normally used on scaffolding) on the luggage rack to prevent my gear from sliding off... you see, I decided that the best material to make my rack from is High Density PolyEthylene, which is similar to what milk jugs are made of. Very strong stuff, can be loaded and overloaded without fear of fracture and will cushion my gear somewhat from road vibration. The problem I had is it's very slippery - anything I set on the rack would immediately slide off. Now the problem is solved and I have an additional 3/16" of soft material to cushion my luggage.

This is also a good view of the back of the MotorMates butt-bumper riser I added for this trip - which converts the standard Burgman butt-bumper into a backrest. It also makes a great place to strap additional luggage on the seat - it's actually possible to lift the seat and access the trunk space without unpacking what's sitting on the seat.

We leave in less than one month!

Old Photos

I haven't had much to add about our Alaska trip lately, I'm still getting my scooter ready with new tires and testing my gear. I'm finally able to sleep soundly through the night on my Cot (without the tent part) with my sleeping bag and matress. Soon I'll be totally comfortable sleeping on something only 2' wide and 6" longer than I am. I still have to get used to not being able to stretch completely out - my feet and hands can't stick off the end once I have the tent on the cot! A week or so before the trip I'll probably add the tent back on to get used to it.

My Nana sent me some old photos last week and I thought I'd share the ones with Motorcycles (and Van Sickles) in them. Mom and Dad, you'll have to help me with the story on these old ones - let me know in the comment section below...

The first is dated April 7, 1974. I didn't notice the little girls in the background on the right until I scanned it in the computer and adjusted the image!

The second is dated May 1978.

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The third one looks like it was taken in Santa Barbara

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The last one is from January 2009. It was a great day for a ride through the hill country, and we made a quick stop at my house to show the girls our borrowed bikes.