8-1-08 Day 35 Williston, ND to Fargo

After yesterdays late start, getting in late and losing an hour on the time change we don’t get on the road this morning until 8:15. We continue on 2 east which is a good road. About 20 miles out of Williston it becomes a 4 lane divided highway. Why, I don’t know because it doesn’t have very much traffic and it's still just farms. There are sections under construction and they just move the traffic over to the opposite pair of lanes and make them 2 way. They have added a new crop in this area and that is sunflowers. We are told they use it in bird food and it pays more then wheat for the farmers. We have lunch in Devil’s Lake and call the Harley shop in Great Falls an make a 3 pm appointment for oil changes as we’ve put on another 5K since reaching Alaska. This is a small shop but a busy one with 5 full time techs and in the summer they have an oil change guy. We get in and out in a little over an hour. The tech noticed a bolt missing on the bracket that supports my Y-pipe and put one in. From Great Falls we head south on 29 to Fargo and pick up 94 east and go a couple of exits and pull off and get a hotel room. Tomorrow we are shooting for Milwaukee as we are planning on going to the new Harley Museum on Sunday.

7-31-08 Day 34 OLD RED is Dead

Old Red can't answer the bell today. We determined last night that it's not the compensator that's making noise. It's most likely a main bearing. It's running but the noise continues to get worse after we put on a new compensatoreliminator so rather then possily destroy the bike, Tom's elected to use his HOG benefits and call Road America for a tow (see pic) to the closest Harley dealer which is Great Falls, MT. From there they'll ship it home and Tom will fly. Mark & I will stick around until the arrangements are complete and then we'll head east for the ride home. Tom starts making calls and by noon he's in the tow truck heading to Great Falls and Mark & I head east. We decide to ride for a while and then stop for lunch. We get to Havre which was where we intended to stop yesterday and have lunch. The weather is in the low 80's and sunny and it's great riding as is the road. From the pic you can see the road just goes straight for miles at a time. It's either wheat, hay fields or cattle/horses grazing as far as you can see in all directions. We notice that sometimes some wheat fields are barren. We learn that these are the fields the farmers get paid by the government not to plant. We're told they make more on these then if they were planted. The speed limit is 70 and most folks do more then that but traffic is very light. We settle on a cruising speed of 75. After a couple tanks of gas Mark and I realize we are getting better mileage at this higher speed. 50 mpg vs. 42! We end the day in Williston, ND and we've gained back another hour so we're only 1 hour behind now!. We hope to be in Minnesota tomorrow. Stay tuned as the adventure continues.

7-30-08 Day 33 Eureka to Shelby, MT

Up at 6 and on the road at 7:10. There are some spotty light showers but decide to go without rain gear and see what happens. It's about 80 miles to the entrance to Glacier National Park and at about 50 miles we see dark black clouds ahead and we've hit some wet roads off and on so we pull the trigger and stop to put on the rain gear. This doesn't take long because we've mastered doing it on this trip! Of course now that we are geared up it probably won't rain. That's usually the best deterent! We continue on and arrive at the park entrance and pay our $12 admission. The Ranger cautions us that it's windy at the top. The "Road to the Sun" is 52 miles long and it's 30 miles to the top from the west entrance. The road is barely 2 cars wide and has numerous turnouts for picture taking/sightseeing along with campground areas. About 6 miles in a light rain starts and comes and goes! The road is winding it's way up. It has a 40 MPH speed limit which only works for a little while til we catch up to a line of cars! We decide to drop off the pace a little as no one is behind us and stop to grab some pics. You can see from the pics that the road has some steep drop offs and their isn't much of a guard rail. It's an 18" stone wall that's in bad shape in many places or non existant. We continue on until we come to a line of cars where there is a construction zone with alternating one way traffic. Of course it strats raining again and this area is about 2 miles long and only gravel. So much for cleaning our bikes! After about 10 minutes we start moving at about 5 MPH. We get through this section and from there to the top the weather started improving as I think we got above the clouds. The top is called Logans Pass as you can see from the pic. There's a visitor center there and fortunately bathrooms! Behind the visitor center is a plaque put there by the United Nations in 1976 declaring this area to be a Biosphere test study area. Now we know what they do with there money! I'd like to see the data they've collected! The weather has cleared up but haven't seen the wind the Ranger mentioned.

We start down the other side of the mountain and the views are equally spectacular. Once we get down the last couple miles is flat along a lake. We see white caps on the lake and the wind is blowing harder then when any of us have been on a bike. We are getting tossed over 3 - 4 feet when the gusts come and we're laying the bikes over at a 15 degree angle to fight the wind. We get out of the Park and theres a gas station and Lodge there so we pull the bikes behind the building and go in for lunch. Tom's bike is still making noise so we start calling Harley shops to see if they have a compensator. Unfortunately out here they are not set up with the parts locator network like we have at home so you have to keep calling dealers. The Harley shop in Bismark, ND tells us that a bike builder in town might have one. We get a hold of him and he has a used one which is the best we can do at this point and hope Old Red can make the 700 miles to get there. After lunch we gas up and head out the local road to pick up route 2 east. The road to 2 is very windy and it's still very windy. To add to the challenge a few miles down the road it is being chip sealed. Chip sealing is when they spread liquid oil/tar and imediately cover it with pea stone gravel. This is not very motorcycle friendly cause of the loose gravel so we have to go slow. At list it's not raining! Did I mention this road was windy and windy. We are getting blown around like crazy. It is blowing between 40 -50 MPH! Some times the wind is at our backs and we're using the brakes to slow ourselves down cause the wind pushs so hard . This section went on for about 12 miles until we finally came to where the consytruction was and then we had alternating one way traffic to get through. We get through this area and find the junction of 2 which is a great 2 lane highway. It's flat and straight as far as you can see. The wind is at our back and off we go. This is farm country and I mean BIGGGGGGGGGGG farms. It's miles between houses and barns and lots of cattle. We are going between 65 - 68 as Tom doesn't want to push Red to hard. We are getting passed because people just fly down the roads here. About 10 miles past the town of Cut Bank Tom radios that his oil light has come on and he stops immediately. We pull over on the side of Route 2 which has about a 4 foot shoulder. He has plenty of oil in his tank but it doesn't seem to circulate. We check the in line screen for the lifter galley and fiind it clogged with fine filings but their not sticking to a magnet. He cleans the screen and changes the oil filter. (See pic) He starts the bike and the oil light goes out. It still has the noise. The thought is that the compensator issue is allowing the primary chain to rub on the rotor cover which is making the filings. We decide to get to the next town, Shelby, and Tom has an idea on how to tighten the compensator enough to get to Bismark where there's a replacement. Shelby is about 10 miles ahead and we pull in and check into a hotel. Tom & Mark start pulling the cover off again to attempt the repair. The wind is still blowing about 50 MPH making it difficult to work. The hotel parking lot layout didn't make it available to get on the backside of the bldg to block the wind. Tom amazingly has the tools to take this apart but the socket & breaker bar for the compensator nut isn't enough to loosen the nut. There's a diesel repair shop next to the hotel so Tom goes over to see what they can do. The owner of the shop, Don, happens to be a part time bike builder and understands exactly what Tom needs. He lets him borrow an electric impact gun and gives him some washers to use as shims on the compensator. He gives Tom a ride back up the hill to see the bike. He says he'll be back later for the impact. Tom & Mark get the nut off and Tom puts his shim idea on the compensator and puts everything back together. He starts the bike and the noise is still there. Don comes back and says those compensators always do that and he thinks he has a conversion kit to eleiminate the compensator and that will cure it. It must be fate that we happen to find this guy who has the part instead of 600 miles away. He goes to get the aprt and Tom & Mark start to take things apart again. See tomorrows entry for the rest of the story as I need too get some sleep.

I haven't mentioned this before but we all have CB's which is a huge help. It allows the leader to let the others know if we're turning, stopping for gas, etc, but more importantly you can alert the group to potholes, road debris, construction zones etc. Also with more eyes on the road others can relay if they spot something especially the wildlife and to just talk about stuff we see.

7-29-08 Day 32 Kamloops to Eureka, MT

We're back in the US! Todays ride was great. Woke up to partly sunny skies and temps in the mid 60's! Can it be possible that we can go 2 days with no rain gear? YESSSSSSSSSS! We will run Route 1 from Kamloops back to route 95/93 in Radium Hot Springs where we were supposed to be last night. On our first leg Tom says he has a vibration in Old Red. I tell him it's probably the mud/dirt on his wheels that he didn't clean off. At our next gas stop we borrow a hose and he cleans the wheels although it's baked on and he needs to use a stick to loosen it up. We take off and he says it's much better but not gone. At our lunch stop Tom says he's now got some kind of noise with the vibration above 60 - 65 mph and gets worse if he goes faster. We keep it around 65 and cross the border around 6pm. Our hotel is in Eureka which is just 8 miles from the border so we pull in, unload and Tom & Mark try to find the noise. They're thinking collasped lifter but that is ruled out after inspection. Tom now feels it's the compensator so they open the inspection door for the primary chain tensioner and the noise is much louder. They decide to pull the case cover off to get a good look and fortunately Old Red is a dry clutch setup so there's minimal oil to deal with. Once the case is off it appears the compensator spring is shot as there is a lot of slop with no tension on the drive gear from the compensator. Tom feels better knowing what it is and feels he can run the bike til we come across a Harley shop along the way. Bismark, ND may be our best bet. They put things back together, clean up and we walk next door for Mexican. At dinner we all agree the best course of action is to head straight home. We have been told by some folks that Glacier National Park just down the road has a great road for a ride called "Going to the Sun" that goes over Logans Pass at the Continental Divide and then heads east on Route 2 which will bring us to 94 to Chicago and then we will drop down and pick up 80 east to New York. If things are going OK we might try and swing through Milwaukee and go to the new Harley Museum. Stay tuned!

7-28-08 Day 31 Burns Lake to Kamloops

On the road at 7 this morning. It's 30 degrees but partly sunny and we see blue sky!! No rain gear but the electric jackets are on! We continue west on Route 16 and get into Prince George about 9. There's a Harley shop there and Tom wants to pickup some oil as Old Red is marking it's spot well. We stop and get oil, gas up and decide to grab Subway for lunch so we don't have to have a long stop for lunch as we are shooting for a 600 mile day to Radium Hot Springs. We burn another tank of gas getting to McBride and stop for gas and to eat our Subway. While fueling up, our bubble is burst when we are told that Route 16 is supposedly closed ahead due to an accident. Just like when we hit the accident on our way up near the start of our trip we are told the closing will be a minimum of 12 hours. Our options are wait or take what will end up as a 300 mile detour on Route 5 south (which is about 40 miles ahead just before the accident) to Kamloops. What we have learned is that most of the towns along the road do not have police/fire/rescue/ambulance depts. They are only at the more major cities/towns which are many hundreds of miles apart. In this instance the major town is Kamloops, 220 miles away. We eat and head east on 16. Sure enough at the junction of 16 & 5 we are detoured onto 5 or told to wait. We head down 5 and for the next 50 miles we pass response vehicles periodically heading up to the accident. This is more then 2 hours after we learned of the accident and these vehicles haven't even got to the scene! Canadians have a different view on life safety! On the evening news at the hotel we find out that 3 people died at one of the rest area/turnoffs they have periodically along the side of the road when a trailer truck pulling in smashed into several other vehicles. These are bare bone areas that are generally paved, no services other then sometimes there is an outhouse! we also learned that helicopter was used for response.

On a brighter note our route through BC (British Columbia) is some of the best scenery you can encounter. These roads through the Canadian Rockies are great motorcycle rides. See todays pic which also gives you an idea of one of these turn off/rest areas. Another observation we have made is that in Alaska and on parts of the AlCan the bikes we saw are Harleys and dual sport BMW's with a few V-Storms. We have seen maybe 10 -12 Hondas. Since we've come down lower it's been 98% Harleys. from talking to people we've met along the way we found that lots of folks either ship thier bike and many mid & west coasters take the ferry. Another big group you see are bicyclists. I think we've seen probably 30 -40% as many of them as motorcycles. I know I'd never make it through on a 10 speed!

7-27-08 Day 30 Iskut to Burns Lake

Overcast and 38 this am. On the road at 6:30 to burn a tank of gas and then stop to get breakfast. Today Tom was the leader as I have led every day but the first and wanted a change. Within 5 minutes we see a moose on the left side of the road. As usual our personal cloud toys with us and we have showers off and on. The Cassier Highway south of Iskut is in good to great condition surface wise but the maintenance of the cut back clearing is poor and prevents you from going more then about 55 mph to hopefully allow you to react to wildlife. The scenery is just magnificent (see pic) as you wind through the mountains and valleys. This area is big on heli-skiing and the roads are posted/closed quite often for avalanches. See pic of whats left of one still. Along the way today we saw 4 more bears but fortunately no close encounters like yesterday. We stopped for breakfast at a place called Bell2 and also because it's the last gas for next 150 miles. The name is because this ski resort uses Bell helicopters to cater to Heli-skiers. Our waitress told us they basically stay open for the summer as good will because of being the only gas/food stop along the way but they are booked solid all winter and their ski packages are very expensive. Yesterday I mentioned that we see lots of closed down places. We'll today we're going along and see another closed gas/restaurant/conveinance store and we are talking to each other about that instead of noticing the sign which was a turn we should of made. We finally realized this when the pavement ended and there's a sign that said welcome to Hayden, Alaska!!!! This turned out to be a 100 mile (50 miles each way) wrong turn. That's why I made mention of who was leading today! We go back and make it to Kitawunga which is the end ofthe Cassier where it meets Route 16 also know as the Yellowhead highway or the Trans Canadian Highway. We get gas at the junction and grab a light late lunch as we had hoped to make Prince George today but with the wrong turn it didn't work out. We decide to call it quits for the day in Burns Lake where we gas up to be ready for the morning. The weather has warmed up to the upper 50's! We also finally wash the bikes tonight as we should be done with dirt roads.

7-26-08 Day 29 Whitehorse to Iskut via the Cassiar Highway

On the road at 7:30 after gassing up and breakfast. As usual it’s wet and misty with showers off and on, temps in the mid 40‘s. We head east on the Alcan (this is the only road in and out of Alaska) heading to the junction of 37 which is the Cassiar highway that winds south through the Cassiar & Skeena mountains. As I’ve said before the roads here have a clearing from 20’ to 75’ wide off each side with a gully on each side to supposedly allow the drivers a chance to see animals coming out of the woods and onto the road and make it a little more difficult for the animals to dart out. The problem is that much of the time these clearings are not maintained and have overgrown defeating there purpose. Also sometimes the road is elevated so that you can’t see down into the gully. About 15 minutes out of Whitehorse we’re going along about 65 mph riding in staggered formation. I’m leading in the left track and Tom is second in the right track and Mark is behind me. All of a sudden I see a black bear come bounding onto the highway from the westbound lane running diagonally across the road about 50 feet in front of me headed right at me. I swerve to the right track in front of Tom and both Tom and I miss him by about 5 feet and Mark goes left around him. It was over in seconds and we are thankful it was only a close call. The bear was slightly bigger then the bikes and much wider. He must of been 1000 -1200 pounds. That would of left a mark! We had just talked about keeping an eye out for wildlife as this is the section that we had seen the most on our trip up. We continue on our way as the rain keeps toying with us by stopping and starting and we can always see clear sky ahead of us but never seem to catch it. We stop for gas and lunch at the Cassiar turnoff and there‘s one of those big portable billboard construction signs flashing rough road next 20 km. From the Milepost book we knew there were 2 gravel sections between 15 & 25 miles long but this section posted had fell apart this past winter. This section was 12 miles long with about a 100 individual sections of gravel between 50 feet long up to a quarter mile where they had repaired all the frost heaves/road breakups. They evidently do this all summer long as we never saw any new pavement and must do all the paving just before cold weather. Of course it’s still lightly raining so the gravel is greasy. After we get through this section we are keeping a close eye out for wildlife as this road has not had the clearing cut back in a long time and there’s no chance to see anything coming into the road. We keep seeing clear sky out in front of us and we finally catch it. It’s warmed up to the mid/upper 50’s so we pull over to regear into lighter jackets and gloves but as we’ve learned you leave your rain gear on. About 20 minutes later it starts raining again! Yes we have a complex about a cloud following us. Of course the rain started as we reached the first long gravel section to add to the fun. The good thing is that the road had been recently graded and the gravel was pretty smooth but was pretty soupy by the time we got through. By now you can hardly tell what color our bikes are. We continue on and the sky clears for the rest of the day and made the next gravel section a breeze. We get to our cabin have dinner and Mark & I laugh about if we can ever get our bikes clean again while Tom says don‘t bother, it adds character! Today's pics are one from the Cassiar highway gravel section and one of Mark's bike to give you an idea of how dirty the bikes are getting. Cleaning them doesn't make sense until we get back to lower BC where the roads remain good.

7-25-08 Day 28 Tok to Whitehorse

Up at 6:30 and on the road about 7:20. Of course it's wet but only a light mist temps in the low 40's. We head east on the AlCan toward the US/Canadian border which is about 100 miles from Tok. This section has about 40 miles of the worst road under construction we saw on our way up but fortunately this time we are early in the AM so there's not much traffic, the light rain is perfect to hold the dust down but not make it muddy as when we came up in the pouring rain, and most areas are now filled to grade and have been graded and compacted so the gravel is much more motorcycle friendly. We get through this area and get to the actual border
where the US has it's station but Canada has it's border station 22 miles into Canada in a town called Beaver Creek. The crossing agent is very friendly and we are through in a few minutes. Beaver Creek is where we stayed on the way up and there's a great little restaurant called Buckshot Betty's so we had planned to stop an have breakfast. This place is open from 6am to 9pm and Betty is there as chief cook, waitress and dishwasher 7 days a week. The food is great and the place has 2 large tables and 2 small tables so you take any open seat and meet your fellow table mates so there's always interesting conversation with fellow travelers. After breakfast we continue east to Haines Junction which is approx 210 miles but 180 miles of this section is where you earn your stripes on the AlCan as this is the section of frost heaves and potholes and lousy road patches and one large road construction zone (in an area appropriately called Destruction Bay) about 6 miles long that has a gravel bypass road. We get gas in Haines and finish the day around 6:30 pm when we get to Whitehorse. We had off on showers throughout the day but the temp got into the low 50's. This is the last day we ride with IZ, Pete and Joe and we say our good byes after dinner as Tom, Mark & I are planning a 6:30 departure to get gas & breakfast.

7-24-08 Day 27 Anchorage to Tok

Woke up to a surprise. Cold rain. We have breakfast and get on the road. I'm listening to the local radio station and they're talking about a story in todays Anchorage newspaper about how this is the coldest wettest summer on record. Well here's the link. http://www.adn.com/life/story/473786.html No wonder we have a lousy impression of this place. As we head northeast out of Anchorage we have to go through the Wrangell mountain range. The road winds up into the mountains and it's now 37 degrees and raining. We notice that there is fresh snow on the top of the mountains that probably came down last night. We stop for gas and a coffee and we learn from the locals that this first snow is called "termination dust" as it signifies the end of summer. It's only July 24th!!!!!!!!!! We have been using our rain & electric gear for the last 2 weeks nearly every day!! The rest of the day is more of the same and we end the day at a B & B in Tok. Tomorrow we go to Whitehorse and this is the section of the AlCan with the worst roads. Hopefully this time it won't be in the pouring rain!

7-23-08 Day 26 Homer to Anchorage

Today begins our return trip back home. We woke up to another cold rainy day. We go for breakfast and get on the road around 10. Coming into Homer you come down a 2 -3 mile long hill down into town. As we head up it this morning the fog gets thicker and thicker until we have maybe 100 foot visibility. Needless to say this slows us down. Fortunately after another 10 minutes the fog clears out and the rain is left. We keep plugging along for another few hours and stop for lunch around 1:30 when we finally get to someplace with food. After lunch we start the last leg to Anchorage and Pete comes over the CB and says he needs to stop. Turns out one of his mufffler tips lost the inner pipe. We continue on to Anchorage and go to the Harley dealer. While working on the tip Pete notices the bracket holding the muffler(which is also the lower saddle bag bracket) is broken as well and his trailer hitch is cracked. The dealer has a new bracket which we install and Pete fixes the tip with some parts from NAPA across the street. Pete decides to put tie wire & clamp the trailer hitch. We have dinner and head to the airport to drop off Donna & Doreen then go to our hotel.

7-22-08 Day 25 Fishing in Homer

Woke up to overcast skies but amazingly no rain. We booked a half day halibut charter from noon to 6 instead of the 6am to noon cause we didn't feel like getting up early to cold and wet conditions so we went to breakfast and did some laundry in the AM. Tom noticed a missing front motor mount bolt and fixed that today as well. Homer has a 2 -3 mile spit that has all the docks for the commercial and charter fishing boats as well as numerous gift/souvenir shops, restaurants and bars. There are also RV parks as well as tent camping on the public beach. The tide change here is 27 feet! Second largest behind the Bay of Fundy. The weather was warming up as the morning went on and it was in the upper 50's and partly sunny by the time we got to the boat. We booked on the Sizzler which is a 50 footer that takes 20 people max which we had. The boat pulled from the dock on time and goes out around the spit and has an 1-1/2 hour ride out. As were going out the temp starts dropping and the skies start darkening. Were beginning to think we have a personal cloud that follows us around! As we pull up to the fishing location and they give us our poles and instructions the skies open up and it rains the rest of the day! There is a 2 fish/day limit on Halibut here but you can throw them back til you decide which are your keepers. The fish average 10 -15 pounds but the boat took a couple in the 20's and Joe Lodi had the big fish of the day at 60#'s. See the pics. Tomorrow we head back to Anchorage to bring Donna & Doreen back to the airport for the flight home. We've covered pretty much all the roads/sights to Alaska and with the weather we've had the decision was to head out a couple days early.

7-21-08 Day 24 Anchorage to Homer

Woke up expecting rain in Anchorage and clearing as we headed to Homer per the local forecast. NOTTTTTTT!!! Overcast in Anchorage and rain started about 80 miles into our ride and stayed with us til we got close to Homer. It did clear up as we ate dinner and the sun came out! We haven't seen much sun in a while! Homer is pretty much the farthest west and south you can drive in Alaska. I've come to the conclusion Alaska is not a place you come to do a lot of riding as there are not a lot of roads and the weather isn't conducive to riding at least while we've been here. Homer also claims to be the Halibut fishing capital of the world so tomorrow we're doing a charter and hopefully the weather cooperates. The road from Anchorage to here follows along the Cook inlet and is similar to the Pacific Coast highway but not right at the waters edge but up on the bluff above the water. Because of the rain we didn't take any pics but they would be pretty spectacular as the Aleutian mountain range (still covered in snow) is across the inlet as you drive down. This road had the most RV's, campers and boats we've seen and this area must be what we've been hearing about as far as roads clogged with them.The whole Kenai peninsula supposedly has some of the best fishing in the world and this is where the majority of people are that we've seen. If your a hunter, fisherman, bird watcher, hiker, mountain climber or naturalist then Alaska has a lot of appeal. Beyond that for the average vacationer it's not a place you'd spend a lot of time in or return to as the weather changes quickly, it's geared to be a tourist trap type economy and other then the few major attractions such as Denali Park, Northern Lights (winter only) and the Glaciers you get sensory overloaded with the views and scenery. To me a little is better then a lot. Don't get the wrong impression that Alaska is not worth the trip just if you do more then an inside passage cruise don't spend more then a week doing interior Alaska if your planning on just seeing the main attractions and hope for good weather.

7-20-08 Day 23 Prince William Sound

As I said the other day we booked a glacier/nature cruise for today based on the fact that today's weather was forecast to be the lowest chance of showers. We'll it worked out that way and we only had a few showers later in the day on the way back from the cruise. We didn't need our bikes as the cruise has a bus trip out to the boat which leaves out of Whittier which is about 60 miles from Anchorage. To get to Whittier you must go through a 2.5 mile tunnel which is the only way to drive in or out of there. This tunnel is a single lane with train tracks down the middle and traffic alternates in each direction every 15 minutes but varies if a train needs to come through. Whittier is a fishing port as well as a cruise ship port for cruises beginning and ending in Alaska. Today's pics are from the boat. I was in the right place at the right time as the top pic is of a chunk of the glacier as it's breaking off into the water (I was zoomed in on another spot when I heard the noise of the chunk breaking off and moved to catch the pic) and the next pic is a shot of what it looked like after (bottom middle of the pic is the pile of ice that broke off) along with some sea otters playing on the icebergs. That's it for today.

7-18 & 19-08 Day 21 & 22 Talkeetna - Anchorage

Friday was another rainy day and we rode to Anchorage in the morning and got there around noon. Stopped for gas & a coffee and started making calls for rooms on the Kenai peninsula which was our intended destination. For over an hour we called dozens of places in Seward, Soldotna, Kenai and points in between and everything is booked. Evidently this area is like Key West Florida and you need to book well in advance. As the weather isn't cooperating we decide to get a room in Anchorage and make that our base and run day trips from here. That was not an easy task either but we eventually found rooms near the airport. After getting into our rooms and getting settled we meet to form a game plan. We decide to do a glacier cruise in Prince William Sound and book that for Sunday as the weather is suppose to improve to scattered showers Sunday and tomorrow will be a leisure day around Anchorage to do laundry, visit the Harley shop and do whatever. The hotel has a courtesy shuttle if the weather is lousy.

7-17-08 Day 20 Denali to Talkeetna

Woke up to find overnight rain and very overcast. We load up, check out and stop for breakfast just down the street and it's still cold & gloomy. After breakfast we all put the rain gear on and within a few miles it's coming down pretty good. After about 3 hours of the raw & cold (45 degrees) rain we pull into Talkeetna and decide to call it a day. We find a place with WiFi and cell service is back! which is why I'm catching up with my posts. I've added a few more pics from yesterday such as the narrow road cut into the mountainside, another grizzly pic of a mother with her cubs and Watson Lake with it's deep blue water. The weather forecast is not pretty for the foreseeable future but we've had that before and the forecasters here are about as accurate as at home. Stay tuned for more.

7-16-08 Day 19 Amazing Denali Park

Up at 4:45 am to get ready for our bus trip. It's overcast and I'm thinking today will be a bust. As we're boarding the bus I'm being a pessimist and everyone is ragging on me for having a lousy attitude. Well the weather proved me wrong as you can see from todays pics. Mt. Mckinley is 20,320 feet tall. The pics are as we drove further and further into the park and of a grizzly and a moose along the way. The final pic of McKinley is from about 17 miles away from the north base near Watson Lake. There were over 1200 permits to climb the mountain this year. There are 100 people still on the mountain but the season (starts in March) is just about over now as the snow/ice gets soft and becomes too dangerous. The sucess rate is 59% this year which they say is high but 2 have died this year.

7-15-08 Day 18 Fairbanks to Denali National Park

We left Fairbanks Tuesday morning and had a magnificent ride from there to Denali park. That 120 miles probably was one of the best rides I've ever taken. The weather was sunny, temps in the low 60's, great road, light traffic and scenery that was magnificent. Our lodging was about 15 miles north of Denali so we stopped there, unloaded our bags, checked in and went for lunch and then to the Park to get the lay of the land. Because it was a great day I was saying we should go in the park today as the weather can change in an instant and only about 20% of the folks that come here get to see Mt. McKinley. But I was overruled and we booked an all day (11 hour) bus tour that takes you 85 miles into the park to an area called Watson Lake. Private vehicles are only allowed in the first 15 miles. We spent some time at the visitors center and the little village and went back to our room for an early night as the trip tomorrow is at 6:45 and there is no food in the park so you need to have breakfast early and brown bag your lunch. Conveniently, there's a Subway in the village that takes orders so we scheduled a 6 am pickup. Hoping for good weather tomorrow!

7-14-08 Day 17 Fairbanks

Today is a leisure day. We're doing laundry, shipping some things back to lighten our load as we've found we didn't need some things we brought like spare tires, tents, sleeping bags as well as some gift items the ladies have purchased. This afternoon we went to the Chena Hot Springs as the weather held out and we luckily kept missing the rain but found wet roads. In addition to the Hot springs this is a complete resort & RV park that has dog sledding in the winter, a huge Ice Museum that's really cool (no pun intended) and is a great spot to watch the Northern Lights. They claim they are much busier in the winter then now! The pics today are of the inside of the Ice Museum where everything is carved from ice and they use LED lights cause they are a cool light. There's a pair of knights jousting on their horses, a fireplace, a shot of the main hall with the chandeliers and last but not least Joe with his hot date, Venus de Milo! It's 20 degrees inside all the time. The resort is also a test site for a self-sufficient community for energy, food, heating & fuel using renewable sources such as Geothermal. They are in partnership with United Technologies. Here's a link to the website that tells all about it. http://www.yourownpower.com/ Tomorrow we head for Denali National Park.

I also need to give credit to Joe Lodi who is responsible for many of the pics that have been posted. Thanks Joe.

7-12 & 13-08 Day 15 & 16 Fairbanks

On Saturday we all went to the Harley dealer for service. We all had oil changes, and Pete had a new front tire installed and Mark & I had rear tires. This dealer is also a Honda & BMW store as well so this place is very busy. They don't take appointments so it's first come first served which we checked on the afternoon before when we got into town as the dealer was across the street from our hotel. We were there at opening bell which is 9am and we we're all done by about 2pm. Mark was not planning on a rear tire just yet but after his service we were waiting for my bike which was last to be done, he was looking at his bike and happened to notice there was a split within the tread of the rear tire. He had the extended warranty and the tire was covered at no charge! We asked the guys at the dealer about going on the Dalton highway to the Arctic circle. They said none of them had done it. We asked why. They said that they see day in and day out the bad stuff that happens to folks who try it. The lucky ones can ride back in, many are towed and some have died. Two this year so far. They admit they don't know how many make it as they only see the problems but has convinced them not to try it. As we're waiting for our bikes 2 guys (father & son) on V-Storms from Maryland come in with beat up bikes. They had both crashed with a Caribou on the Dalton highway. They said they were lucky to not be seriously injured and managed to fix the bikes enough to ride out. The road was nearly impassable basically because it had been raining for most of the ride and was difficult to even see the road never mind keep an eye out for wildlife. This convinced us that the Arctic Circle isn't in the cards. We finished the day by having a late lunch and relocating to the hotel were the ladies were. Mark had to go back after lunch to get his rear tire done. It was nice to have a day to hang out. I think we all slept well last night. I know I did. Sunday we did some tours around Fairbanks. One was a paddle wheel boat on the Chena River and the other was the El Dorado gold mine. The riverboat stopped at Breaking Trails kennel which is the home of former 4 time Iditarod champ Susan Butcher who has passed away but her husband still runs. These sled dogs are amazing as they live and love to run. For summer training he hooks them up to an ATV. (see pic) A team of 12 will pull the 600 pound machine about 25 mph! Another pic today from the boat is where the Chena meets the Tanana river. If you notice you can see a distinct line where the Chena is the clean water but the Tanana is fed by numerouis Glaciers and is mostly muddy silty water from the Glaciers weight moving across the earth and scouring the ground like sandpaper and the runoff from the melt becomes the river. This creates a navigation problem for boats because the silt settles out and the channel is constantly changing. We also stopped at the Aleyeska Pipeline visitor center which is today's other pic.

We made it!!!!! 7-11-08 Day 14 Beaver Creek to Fairbanks

Our motto has been "Alaska or Bust". As you can see from today's pic I'm happy to say we made it. It has been a looooooooong ride but very satisfying to have acheived our goal. The last few hundred miles have shown us the the AlCan has it's moments especially when your in the construction zones and it's raining. Overall the AlCan was not as bad as we had heard but you must be ready to respond to the road conditions especially during the the last 2 -300 miles which includes the first 100 inside Alaska. Gas cost has dropped between .60 and 1.00 here back in the US. We payed anywhere between 5.05 and 6.43 a gallon through Canada with the average being probably 5.60. The first station in Alaska was 4.89. Also oddly, the weather is getting warmer as we come north. Yesterday was 40's and rain, today is fifties and partly sunny and warmed up to the low 70's. We went to dinner in short sleeves when a few day ago we had to wear electric gear! The ladies are flying in tonight and will be here shortly. We will be in Fairbanks for another day or so and then head to Denali Park. The weather is still saying rain for the next 5 days so it looks like the Arctic Circle won't happen. It'll be nice to relax for a few days but that might be to much rain in a row! stay tuned.

7-10-08 Day 13 Whitehorse to Beaver Creek

Awoke at 7am to wet ground and threatening skies. During breakfast we checked the weather and things were supposed to be clearing west of us. It turns out there was a HOG rally scheduled for this weekend here so to kill a little time hoping the skies would break we went over to the Harley dealer. Things weren't really scheduled to get going until tomorrow so we quickly looked around and decided to just head west and find clearer skies. We lucked out about 15 - 20 miles out of town the rain eased up and within another half hour the sun was out. We opted to keep the rain gear on cause over the course of this trip especially the last 4 -5 days we have learned that things change quickly and we're becoming superstitious about taking the rain gear off. Today was another top day as you can see from the pic. The scenery is magnificent here in the northern Rockies. We stopped at Haines Junction for gas and lunch. As we're coming out from lunch there are 3 ladies getting off BMW dual sports with Mass. plates and they had noticed our CT plates. We of course spend 20 minutes talking and comparing trips. They had shipped there bikes to Seattle and taken the ferry up to Haines and were taking 2 weeks to ride around Alaska. They belong to an all women's MC club from Boston called "Moving Violations". One of the women was well into her seventies and was between Chemo treatments! She had the best attitude about life that you can imagine. She has ridden her bike all around the world. She even rode a trip from Switzerland to South Africa. We wished them a safe journey and headed out. As I said we ate at Haines Junction and when we took off after lunch failed to pay attention to road signs and continued the way we came into town. We realized this when we stopped for today's pic and a trucker at the rest stop asked us where we were going and let us know of our error. Luckily we were only 60 miles down the road! We went back to Haines Junction, gas upped again and took the correct road this time. The roads continue to be pretty good although after getting back on the right track we finally came upon our first pilot car area. A pilot car is at a construction site where there is a vehicle that you are required to follow through the construction as it's alternating one way and the pilot car escorts the cars one way and then turns around and goes the other. Depending on the length of the work zone it can take 10 - 30 minutes so everybody is out/off of their cars/bikes talking. Some of these work zones are up to 8 miles long! Another thing we found out is that bikes get to go to the head of the line which is nice to pass all the trucks and campers and you don't have to eat as much dust. This first area also had a water truck which we had the pleasure of having to have our pilot car be right behind. Can you say very dirty muddy bikes!!!!! This construction was in an area called Destruction Bay, how appropriate! Shortly beyond this area we get into road conditions that we had heard the horror stories about. Basically the road is now an intermittent series of frost heaves/patches of gravel that are sometimes marked/sometimes not/sometimes marked for no reason. These heaves are not as bad as we had heard, but you need to be ready to zig/zag/slow down at a moments notice. So now we are finally indoctrinated to the AlCan highway. We get into Beaver Creek about 7:30 after we blow by our hotel and realize when we get to Canadian customs that maybe we missed it. Canadian customs is about 22 miles inside from the actual border. We go back about 1 -1-1/2 miles and this time we manage to see the hotel but that's a story for another time! We unpack, go to dinner and then go to bed. Tomorrow we'll be in Alaska!!!!!!!!!

7-9-08 Day 12 Muncho Lake to Whitehorse

The hotel didn't start to serve breakfast until 7 so we didn't head out til slightly after 8. The forecast was cloudy and rain so we geared up for rain. It was 41 when we left but sunny. Electric jacket weather for sure. The roads on the AlCan are awesome biking roads and have some great sections of twisties and sweeping hills & turns. There's a major drawback to really letting yourself go and enjoy and that's the high probability of some type of wildlife either being in the road or jumping out into the road. Today we saw probably 50 Buffalo, a few bears and a deer. The road here has about a 50 foot wide strip on each side that is cut back probably once a year so you have a chance to see any wildlife coming to the road. This area is heavily forested and this maintained strip turns out to be a nice grazing area for the wildlife which is probably why they congregate in it especially the Buffalo as we saw them in packs. The views along the road are just fantastic. By the afternoon we were into the Northern Rockies and we had snow topped mountains all around us! Of course the weather did finally turn on us and the last 150 miles was in 44 degree rain. We were glad to get into the hotel today! By the way, Old Red has run flawless the last 3 days. Hopefully his gremlins have been exorcised!!!!!!!!

The forecast for the next 8 days is grim with rain predicted most every day. If this turns into reality it will deep six our plans for the Top of the World Highway and the run to the Arctic Circle as these are both gravel roads and turns into grease slicks when wet. Stay tuned!

7-8-08 Day 11 Dawson Creek to Muncho Lake

On the road at 7:10, temp about 50 and sunny. We get on the AlCan with the heresay telling us to expect gravel, potholes hat swallow RV's, etc. Well let me tell you it's BS. The road continues to be pretty dam good for being in the middle of no where. Yes there are very occasional gravel patches but they are well graded. Sometimes they have signs but not always and the tricky part is the gravel is the same color as the pavement so t blends in. As long as you stay alert it'snot a problem. If your in a 4 wheeler you have zero to worry about. The biggest concern is wildfire as it's abundant. We saw a few bear, moose, caribou, deer & mountain goats which are generally in the road in packs and are generally around the rock outcropping along the mountainside where the road is cut into the mountain. Todays pic is the road along Muncho Lake with the mountain on the right and of course the lake just a couple feet below the road. Lakes up here go on for miles & miles! We ended up having rain for the last half hour of the day but the temp had been up to about 60 but dropped back to 50 when the rain came. Our hotel tonight is very secluded. There is no power lines here. The power is from generators and everything else is via satellite. Cell service is non existant and probably will be til we get to Fairbanks.

An observation that has come to me is the anti developement/greenies/global warming people that say our carbon footprint is out of control. I challenge any of them to take the ride that we've done for the last 8 days and explain to me that we're in trouble. You can not imagine the enormity of our planet. Yes there are areas that may be over developed but look at the big picture. There is a truth to the saying See America/World at Sea Level! Flying does not give you any feel of what the world has to offer!

7-7-08 Day 10 Edmonton to Dawson Creek

Today was one of the best days on the road yet despite the late start. We left Edmonton just before 11 am and got into Dawson Creek about 4:30 which includes gaining another hour with a time zone. It was a bright sunny day around 60 and stayed in the mid 60's. Toms bike ran flawlessly today. This stretch of road is similar to what we've seen for the last 2500 miles which is farm land. The main crop seems to be Canola as its well over half of what we see and we've probably seen a million acres planted. We took 16 (the TCH) out of Edmonton onto 43 North which gets you to Dawson Creek and then tomorrow we start the AlCan. I can't remember if I said this but the Canadian roads have been superb the whole way so far. Very rarely is there a poor road surface and very little in any one spot. The patches here are visual only you can't feel them. Pretty amazing isn't it. We keep hearing horror stories of what lies ahead but so far the roads are great. Dawson Creek is the gateway to Alaska and Mile O of the AlCan highway as seen in today's pic.

Update on Wildlife - None today but on last Saturday from Banff to Jasper we saw a black bear and elk and 3 packs of mountain sheep/goats walking in the road! That's all today as it's an early start tomorrow because we're not sure what type of speed well have from here on out as it's only 2 lane from here and we need to cover some ground in the next 5 days.

7-7-08 Day 10 Morning Snippets

Up at 6:20 to a bright sun that's drying things out nicely. Tom is having breakfast and will be heading out to the Harley shop. This mornings pic is a first for Tom. He told us yesterday that he's never ridden on the back of a motorcycle!!!!!!! Congratulations Tom!

Tom affectionately calls his bike "Old Red" as it's a 1984 Electra Glide and of course it's red. Well "Old Red" is being tested to its limits and after today there's nearly 2000 miles to the next Harley shop. Old Red has not died on the road but it has slowed the pace at times. We're hoping that this is the end of Toms trials & tribulations and all goes well from here. Our goal today is to make it to Dawson Creek, BC. We have 6 days including today to be in Fairbanks to meet the fly babes. Stay tuned!

10 AM update - Toms back with the part and its installed! We should be on the road within a half hour! Dawson creek here we come!

7-5 & 6-08 Day 8 & 9 Calgary to Edmonton

After the late night last night we are packed up and hit the road by 8am headed to Edmonton. It's only 180 miles if you go the direct route but numerous folks have told us that if your in this area one of the best bike rides you can take is the Icefield Highway (route 93) from Banff to Jasper. This route will be about 500 miles. So we get on the TCH heading west to Banff. I forgot to mention that since we left Regina, the prarrie has changed from flat to long gently rolling hills. Also the yellow topped plant that we didn't know what it was is Canola which is a very large crop out here. About 5 -8 miles out of Calgary in the distance you can see the snow covered Rockies in Banff which is about 60 miles away. Tom mentions that his clutch seems to have some slack all of a sudden and that when we stop for gas he'll adjust it. In Banff we stop for gas and are told that there's no services until you get to Jasper, 180 miles away, as the Icefield highway is within the Jasper National Forest which has a $3.90 US admission. We gas up, Tom adjusts his clutch and off we go. This is a 2 lane road with lots of cars/campers/RV's/bicycles/hikers etc. so you won't set any land speed records. The road winds up & down through the Rockies with some great scenery including glaciers hence the name Icefield highway. I'd be surprised if this road is open in the winter. There are turn outs along the way to take pics. We're heading up one pretty steep pass and there's a turn out with a great vantage point (see upper pic above) and through our CB's we decide we'll stop here. Tom comes back and says he'll meet us at the top! We stop for about 10 - 15 minutes and then continue up. We get up to the top and don't see Tom. As this road has no turns off of it we decide he must of kept going and we keep watching for him along the way at the turn outs but never see him. We continue on for another 60 - 70 miles and never see him all the while calling on the CB. As we cross out of the National Park just before Jasper there's Tom parked on the side of the road. He says that his clutch has slack again and he decided not to stop unless necessary. We are at about 178 miles on this tank of gas and we need gas which is just a few more miles up into Jasper. We fuel up and get lunch around 2:30. We have a little over 200 miles to get to Edmonton. At lunch Tom seems to think that he might have a throw out bearing issue rather then ordinary clutch adjustment as that hasn't worked. The good news is the intermittent power and chain issues he had seemed to be cured. We head for Edmonton via route 16 and the skies are not looking good. About 60 - 70 miles from Jasper we decide to pull over and get our rain gear on as there's some big dark clouds ahead. Perfect timing as it starts raining as we finish getting our gear on. It rained off & on til we got to Edmonton around 7:30 pm. We come into a stretch of hotels and pull in to get rooms. They laugh at us when they realize we don't have a reservation because there's a huge Triathlon and BMX events in town this weekend. We go to about 6 hotels and get the same story although a couple places mention there is 1 smoking room available. We call a place someone says will have a couple rooms and they do but are smoking rooms as well. We decide to bite the bullet cause it's still raining and getting later. We go there and these rooms were wreaking as if the people were still smoking in them, beds not made disgusting. We end up going back to the couple places that had 1 room and stayed in different places. We unload our bags, check in and get to our room and all of a sudden the skies open up with high winds, hail, thunder & lighting. Luckily we got off the road when we did. Tomorrows plan was to check out Edmonton and go the the worlds largest mall and then head north later in the day.

Sunday morning Tom & Mark open up Toms bike and find out the throw out bearing is toast. Of course it's Sunday and the Harley dealers here are closed. There's 2 dealers here so we hope they have the part which we are told is the same since 1984 so it should be in stock. It's a quick fix once we have the part and hope to be back on the road by mid morning. The weather today is showers off and on and we go to the mall for a while have lunch and come back in the rain. Stay tuned for the next part of our adventure.

7-3 & 4-08 Day 6 & 7 Regina to Calgary and Calgary Stampede Day

We left Regina at approx. 7 AM, temp was about mid 50’s and mostly sunny. Back on the TCH heading west to Calgary which is close to 500 miles away. Tom’s bike continues to have the intermittent lack of power problem again that have plaqued him from day 1. So far he has adjusted the float level, removed some weight by taking the tires off, drained the tank and removed the petcock in order to clean the screen which only found minor pieces of debris. Symptoms seem to point to lack of fuel but the problem occasionally persists. About 90 miles out this morning it starts again. Tom & Mark decide to pull over on the side of the road and shut it down when it''s doing it so that they can maybe see what’s happening in the carburetor. They take it apart and find that the o-ring on the vent tube had slid off and may have been blocking the jet. They are hopeful that this will cure the problem. We take back off and all seems good. A while later same issue but now it seems like it’s more of a misfire or skip. Tom has spare used spark plugs so at the next gas stop he puts them in. A policeman who’s also a biker sees us at the gas station and let’s us know there’s a Harley shop about 2 hours away when we’ll enter into Medicine Hat. This seems to clear things up and now the bike is running much better. We pull into the Harley shop and Tom gets plugs and a coil just in case. He puts in the new plugs and all is good. We have lunch and head for Calgary. About 80 miles from Calgary, Joe notices something hanging from Tom’s bike and we pull over. We find that the rubber boot that encases the drive chain to keep it oiled is torn and probably has been for a while. The lack of oil has caused the chain to stretch. Tom attempts to adjust the chain (left pic above) but there is not nearly enough adjustment. We continue on into Calgary at a slower pace hoping we can get there without incident. Of course the weather has warmed to the 80's and muggy so it's about 7:30 when we get to our hotel. Fortunately we booked a room 2 days ago because we knew that the Calgary Stampede is a huge draw and rooms were difficult to get. We ended up having to upscale a bit to the Sheraton. We have dinner and get the info on where the Harley dealer (2 of them) is for the morning and how to get to the Stampede which turns out the Sheraton has a shuttle that takes you to the train which makes it nice not to have to deal with taking the bikes there.

The next morning we are up early cause we're not used to the 2 hour time change and were done with breakfast by 7:20 and the Harley shop parts dept. doesn't open til 9am. As we're not sure where the shop is we leave around 8:15 even though it's supposedly only a couple miles away. Of course we have lost Tom (using Marks bike) before we leave the parking lot as he thought we left without him. After several wrong turns ourselves because the left turn on the map that we were suppose to take didn't exist we show up about 8:40. We look around but don't see Tom. A couple minutes later he shows up and of course he got lost as well. The Shop was barely 10 minutes from the hotel. We go inside and they have the chain but not the boot. The boot is in stock at the other dealer across town. Pete, Joe & I decide to go get the boot while Tom goes back and he and Mark can start tearing the bike apart to do the repair. We get back about 10:30 with the part and they start to put it back together. See pic above. Of course the new chain is 2 links to long so Tom has to go back to the dealer to get it cut as that's a tool we don't have with us. We have tickets to the Rodeo that starts at 1:30 and is a ways downtown so Pete, Joe & I take the shuttle and head to the Stampede. Tom & Mark say they'll catch up when they're done.

They show up to the rodeo about 2:30 and Toms bike is ready for the AM. The Stampede is similar to the "Big E" but on a bigger scale and has the largest rodeo with the biggest cash prizes. The rodeo takes place in the afternoon and they have an unbelievable Grandstand show at night that lasts over 4 hours non stop with an awesome fireworks that's the closest you'll ever be to shells going off. It was part Broadway/Cirque du Soliel/comedy/music/acrobats/ motorcycle stunt riders/chuck wagon races and fireworks. We got back to the hotel about 1 AM. tomorrow were going to Edmonton. Stay tuned

7-2-08 Day 5 Winnipeg to Regina

The word of the day is wind. We left Winnipeg around 7AM, at 48 degrees and headed back out on the TCH. We had some gas left so we decided to ride for a little while and grab gas & breakfast together as previously we had breakfast in the hotel each day. As I said yesterday this is the prairie area which is farmland, with numerous crops such as alfalfa, hay, some type of yellow top plant and soybean. The road is flat & straight as far as the eye can see. The difference is there is nearly a constant 15 - 20 mph cross wind coming out of the north. You find yourself riding leaning about 5 -7 degrees into the wind and getting blown sideways 2 -3 feet when there’s a gust or passing trucks. We actually watched a bird trying to fly across the road into the wind and was not moving! You have to be ready at all times when riding through here.
One thing I haven’t mentioned so far is wildlife sightings. There are signs all along the road cautioning about moose/deer jumping out. We’ve seen quite a bit of road kill, mostly deer and raccoon but Tom got 2 birds yesterday. I got my own road kill today when I was leading the group and a prairie dog hesitated crossing the road. As for the wildlife sightings, the totals as of today, we have 3 moose, 4 deer, and a bunch of prairie dogs. Oh I forgot to mention about eleventy billion dead bugs on our bikes!!!!!!!
We arrived in Regina around 3:45 thanks to our second time zone change. The temp had warmed up to about 75. We are heading into Calgary tomorrow and because the Stampede starts tomorrow we decided to book our room today ( we have been just getting a room when we ride in) and as expected a room was difficult to find but we got one at one of the airport hotels. We also got our Stampede tix for Friday as well.

7-1-08 Day 4 Thunder Bay to Winnipeg

We got up a little earlier today and got on the road about 7:30. It was an absolutely beautiful sunny morning, a little brisk in the low 60's. I decided to just wear a sweatshirt over a t-shirt. As we left the hotel and started back out on the TCH I thought to myself I maybe should have put on a jacket but the TCH heads northwest out of Thunder Bay and away from Lake Superior. Within 5 minutes of getting away from the lake the temp warmed up to about 70 and all was good. About 15 minutes out of Thunder Bay we're going through a small village and there's a policeman sitting on the side of the road, As we go by Pete waves to him. Seconds later he's following us with lights and sirens pulling us over. I'm thinking this isn't a very good start to the day. Turns out by Pete waving to him he notices that Petes wearing his small non DOT approved helmet which is why he was stopping him. Well, you remember yesterday I mentioned that Petes trailer harness got melted by his exhaust and the trailer lights weren't working. Bingo for item 2 that he had for Pete. After a few minutes of he and Pete talking and Pete having the right type helmet in the trailer he let him go with a verbal warning and Petes word that the lights would be fixed immediately. We got the lights fixed in about 20 minutes and we were back on our way. As we continued west on the TCH the skies started looking unfavorable. We felt a few drops and saw some lighting in the distance. We were close to needing gas anyway so we stopped to gas up aand put on our rain gear which was perfect timing as it was raining before we got out of the station. This station turned to be a story about a small world. If you read the day article from Sunday about us, there was a comment posted from a Peggy from Texas. Tom, Pete, Joe & I pulled out of the station and started up the road. Mark has been riding sweep and we quickly realize he's not with us. As we were pulling out Peggy managed to stop Mark to ask if he was Evert or one of the guys from the NLMC. He said that he's Mark and Evert and the other's just pulled out. She wished and a safe trip and to tell us the same and maybe we'd cross paths again as she was headed the same way. Well about 2 hours later we had lunch at Subway and when I got done I was first across the street to fuel up. I'm filling up and this fella on a Harley is parking to go inside and have something to eat and sees the Alaska or Bust sign that's identical to Marks. he says your one of the guys from the NLMC group and I said yes and asks if I'm Evert. He's Ray and Peggy is inside. Turns out Peggy is originally from Salem and now lives in Texas but keeps a link for the Day paper to keep track of whats happening back home which is how she found the story about us and then went to both the NLMC website and my blog. They have a website at groups.msn.com/lifeonaharley There post today talks about our meeting and Peggy says she may join the club!!!!! They ride a 07 Heritage now but did 175000 miles 2 up on a 98 Sporster before this bike.
Back to the ride. Tom has been having occasional power issues and we're not sure if it's carburetor, the weight of the gear he's carrying or the head winds or a combination. Well in typical Tom fashion, during the rain today his bikes running good and we are screaming down the road, later when the sun comes out he can't get out of his own way. Tonight he and Mark adjust the float level to make sure there's plenty of gas available when he gets to a hill or into a head wind (we've had fairly strong winds and with all the gear we're carrying the bikes are getting pushed around) and we relocated the spare tires onto Petes trailer to see how much difference this will make. We crossed into Manitoba today and ended our day in Winnipeg around 4:30. Manitoba is the begining of Canada'a prarrie so we'll have straight flat road for a while. Also the TCH has now become a 2 lane divided highway supposedly all the way to Calgary and is now numbered Route 1 instead of 17. By the way gas here in Canada has been about $1.54 liter which makes it close to $6/gallon. So far gas has been our biggest expense each day.

6-30-08 Day 3 Sault St. Marie to Thunder Bay

We awoke to 51 degree temps so we had breakfast put on our leathers and got back on the TCH. Both yesterday and today we've been in Ontario Province which is basically rolling hills and valleys that follow along the Great Lakes. Until you see them for yourself you cannot imagine just how vast these lakes are. To give you some perspective, we rode some 420 miles today following the edge of Lake Superior (which Tom is pointing out to you) and only covered about 60% of the northern shoreline. We've seen lots of motorcyles going in both directions but from the ones we have spoken to few are doing what we are. Most are doing from 3 to 7 day trips. This part of our route had some great vantage points coming up over some of the hills and looking out over the dozens of bays and inlets along the lake. The weather warmed up into the 70's and we got into the hotel around 6:30 pm as we had stopped to take pictures along the way and our lunch spot was lets say not the speediest but the food was very good. After dinner Pete ran down to the store to get a crimp tool and wiring connectors cause some how his trailer harness got to close to his exhaust and melted the wiring so the trailer had no lights. By the time he came back it was to late to fix and we'll try to get it done tommorrow night.