June 25 - Monday -Wenatchee WA to Kalama WA - 338 miles

Relaxed morning, did not leve until 8am, bankers hours. I stopped at the Walmart to look for chain lube which they apparently carry, but no joy. I did pick up some bright orange duct tape. I figured out the first week that I could reduce the helmet noise by blocking he area around the mirrors. Air funnels past the mirror mounts righ to either side of the helmet. So, being my fathers some, and being an "R&D guy", it duct tapes triangle on the morrors, and voila, no more helmet noise (certainy less) and I now sport some high visibilty bling on the front. Not pretty, but effective.
The hydro dam guy last night said I have to go to Levenworth so see the Bavarian themed town, which I had heard of when we rode the Empire builder from Portland to Minneapolis. It was kinda on the way so I took off up Rt2, hal thinking that if the road was not too busy, and pretty, I would stay on. It was pretty, but also busy.
Levenworth is indeed Bavarian themed. All the signs, store fronts, even the McDonalds and Subways were decked out with Bavarian signage. Looks like a good place to take your spouse for a weekend.

I headed back Rt 2 and turned south on Rt 97. This is a beauty, no traffic and relaxed. I took this all the way to Ellensburg. I stopped for gas and noticed a pack of motorcycle riders huddled in the parking lot so I stopped to ask them about routes. It turned out to be 10 women who all flew to Seattle, rented motorcycles (mostly BMW, but an Indian, a Harley or two). and they were touring arount the Pacific Northwest. They had a tour leader who immediately pointing out how I had packed my bike with the Giant Loop bag, and quizzed me on what all I was carrying with me. Now they were having a good time! So the tour leader gave some great tips that lead me all over for the rest of the day.

The first gem was a little Rt 821 which goes through Ellensburg Canyon. Beautiful road, dry with a little irrigation going on but mostly public land with a wide river and lots of public access spots. There are a lot of boats that drift down the river with fisherman in them so not sure what they are trying to catch. The Hydro guy last night said salmon is the big fish around here, so I suppose salmon.

After Rt 821 I took Rt 12 west which is a little busy but going the speed limit or less means you always have a wide open road in front of you and the cars behind pass whenever a passing lane comes along.

At Randle I took Rt 131, which quickly becomes a tiny Forest Service road, paved but rough, and it goes 100 miles or so around the back side of Mt St Helens. This is the other road the trip leader woman tipped me off to.  As I climbed, the temperature dropped to around 43F (it was 49 degrees yesterday..) and it started to rain (of course). The up side was, there was nobody on that road other than one or two Forest Service trucks parked alongside the road, so I had the entire 100 miles of 15 mph turns, frost heaved, cold patched road to myself. It took a while because my average speed was way down there.

It was 5:30 by the time I popped out the other end and those 2 hardboiled eggs and yogurt were long since gone. So cheap motel with a dog barking next door but a good restaurant next door with beer and taco salad. Oh and the bonus is Elvis and Jack Benny both ate here sometime between 1955 and when they died.

The bike used a little oil the last couple days so I gotta watch that...

23,968 on the odometer tonight.

June 24 - Sunday - Abbotsford BC to Wenatchee WA - 261 miles

Lazy day today. I did laundry this morning and drank coffee, check the chain tension (still ok, maybe tweak it in a day or two). The laundry was getting a little out of control so I wanted ti smell fresh and clean for the US border guy. Did not leave the motel until 9:15, which felt pretty darn good. The border is only 10 km away but there was already a 10-15 min line stacked up. I must have graduated to the "This guy is awesome" list because the border guy didn't ask me any of the usual questions. He even gave me some rout tips (hot on the other end of Rt 20, which turned out to be true). A got ahead of myself on the hot day prediction and stopped to add a layer. This part of Washington is very green and it looks like they get a lot of rain. They were growing cherries and raspberries and the cherries were ripe right now. I stopped at on of the endless roadside fruit stands and bought a small basket of cherries (Rainier) and arranged then in my tank bag so I could munch them while I was moving, a moving breakfast feast.

Rt 9 is a 50 mph road and very sleepy on Sunday morning, but to keep you awake, they pepper it with 90 degree 25 mph turns. Kinda fun actually. Those and spitting cherry pits kept me entertained.
Rt 20 was the road I was really interested in today. It goes over the mountains to the east and goes through the North Cascades National Park. They have all kinds of hiking trails and water access (canoes, kayaks). And a lot of people were up there parked beside the trailheads. I think it gets used a lot. And lots of motorcycles. Lot of Harley's (of course) and a lot of BMW GS motorcycles.

Winthrop WA is the first big town on the east side of the mountains and it was obviously and end destination, tourist town. Anytime you see "emporium" on a sign, you are in a tourist town. Kinda cute with the wild west theme. I kept going and stopped in Twisp just down the road for drinks for me and the bike. Gas was crazy expensive all day ($3.50) so either it is particular to Washington or this area or something blew up in the middle east while I was in Canada.
After Twisp I was shooting for Rt 2 to head back west through the mountains. The temperature hit 94 degF and was a bit uncomfortable, even with the mesh jacket on. I started to notice a lot of fruit trees on this side, but it was all due to the gift of irrigation. This side of the mountains is bone dry. Somewhere back there the built a bunch of dams and created huge reservoirs and used the reservoir to irrigate crops. The result is a bustling community built around apples. They also had peaches and cherries.
So 4pm I hit Wenatchee which is a lot bigger town than  was expecting. I stopped and checked the map and it wold be 3 hours to go over the mountain again and they had nice air conditioned hotels here so..
I cooled off in the motel for an hour and then walked down the street to a brew pub, sat at the bar, had another local hoppy IPA I had never heard of and ended up spending a couple hours talking to a local guy who worked at the hydro dam and another guy who just retired and sold machine shop equipment. My two new nest friends gave me endless history items and lots of travel ideas. Looks like it's back west tomorrow, hopefully cooler and should miss the rain going on west of here tonight.

June 23 - Saturday - Little Fort BC to Abbotsford BC - 383 miles

Woke up to numerous Spidermen crawling around the walls along with Incredible Hulk's angry mug so inspired to get up and go. This room is definitely a man cave. The shower is this swanky Scandinavian  thing with too many knobs and valves but really cool looking. The shower door was a big slab of glass but it kept sliding itself open, no match for the spare bungee I packed.
The dine next door did not open for a couple hours so no coffee for you old man. It was misting out as i packed the bike so I just did the rain gear thing to be safe (smart, as it turned out). I should have taken the nice lady up on "motorcycle rags" she offered last night as this bike is filthy with road grime. She said she started offering after the first year when motorcycle guys were using the towels to clean their bikes. She went through $800 worth of towels the first year. Jeff....

I got 10 km out of town and realized I did not fill up with gas and i was heading to the great unkown so turned around and went back to the gas station next to the motel (Bye Spidey). The guy running it said it was supposed to be a perfect day so don't worry about eh weather (he lied). A guy and his wife were gassing up behind me and was going fishing. I say gazoodles of boats being towed this morning so fishing must be a big deal. He went through all the great roads I could go on today and the route the trucker gave me last night was voted the best (Rt24->Rt97->Rt99->Vancouver). Finished my much needed coffee and back on the road by 7:00. OK now I am on my way. And 20 minutes later it strted to rain lightly, but the pessimist already had his rain gear on (take that you optimists).
The trucker mentioned steep roads (they remember things like that) and he was right on the money.

Saw lots of 11-13% grades today on the way west and then down the coast. Stopped several times to hike down to the rivers(s) and a nice waterfall or two. Rt 24 and Rt 97 are kinda Alaskaism with lots of open wooded areas, much of it cleared (logging) but some haying and some grazing, but mostly wild. Rt 99 turns south and the top part before Pemberton (Indian reservation?) I had all to myself pretty much with pretty relaxed drivers when I did see some. A bit arid and lots of twisty urns and 20 km/h turns (not mph!) just like the trucker said.
When I hit Pemberton it got busy with more traffic, but relaxed traffic. This must be the town they shoot for when they decide to do a day trip from Vancouver. As I went further south and got toward Whistler, it went from busy to busy and trendy. Lots of shiny Audi and Mercedes. Whistler is definitely the post Olympics hip place to go and it was crawling with people. I drove up to base of one of the ski areas, but it is hard to get near with all the big hotels.

Once I left Whistler it went to bury trendy to busy trendy frantic traffic and stayed that way all the way to Vancouver. This seems to be the only road down the coast (I call it a coast but it's really a sound. I hit Vancouver about 4pm and decided to find Rt1 East and go east until the traffic died down, and it did after about 50 km. The last part of Rt 99 is the worst since it is single lane with occasional passing lanes where everybody turns into Mario Andretti and then back to single file. At least on the 4-laner, you can park in one of the 2 to 5 lanes and go any speed you want, people will go by safely.
There are a bunch of border crossings and the big one at Vancouver had a 1 hr delay so I decided to skip the border tonight and give those nice Canadians a little more tourist money. Ended the day in Abbotsford BC. Walked next door to a sports bar and had some bar grub with a local guy who old me how great the Canadian health care was. He was 30 something and just had his cataracts replaced (damage from sun lamps or something?). He also had a couple bikes (crotch rockets) and was pretty impressed that I had gone coast to coast on the X300.

The bike has 23,369 miles on it tonight and is working great. I will need to find a shop this week to do the service and might need a new fron tire since this one is cupping. Not too bad but I have long way to go back home.

June 22 - Friday - Nordegg AB to Little Fort BC - 377 miles

It rained last night so we walked next door for supper and just a few local working guys (who had left in their trucks by 6am this morning) playing pool, enjoying a couple beers. A few people in the dining room, but pretty sleepy. The restaurant had historical pictured on the walls of the glory days when they were mining coal here. A German guy named Nordegg discovered a vein of coal and started the town around 1904, convinced the railroad to come here and they dug and shipped coal until 1955 when they closed the mine (trains went to diesel). At it's peak in 1948 the town had 2800 people and now has 80 (in the summer). It was slow enough that the front desk guy joined us after we ate and gave us some town history and his history. He was grew up in Quebec and had a job in the Northwest Territories, but took this job 3 years ago, and has 3 years left until he can "retire". Nordegg is a little off the main road (Rt 11) so you have to want to stop. We stopped because the sign down the road says 92 km to the next gas.

We left around 4:45 this morning and headed back west on Rt 12 to go into the park again and then north to Jasper. It kinda drizzled all day, but not too bad. Again, the rain gear works well so drizzle is a nothingburger.
We stopped at the Athabasca Glacier. It has receded since the 1950's and presumably will continue to do so.


We stopped for coffee where I finally saw a bear, granted a big stuffed one, but the only one I have seen so far this trip

We made it to Jasper (the town) by 11 and filled with gas (always keep your tank full up here) and said our goodbyes. Jeff is heading back east and I am heading west. He will be blissfully riding 85 mph home and I will be blissfully riding 55 mph west. We compromised the whole trip so thanks for slowing down for me.

I headed north out of the north entrance of Jasper and the weather cleared off for a few hours. I caught Rt5 south west toward Kamloops along the backside of the peaks I had just ridden up trough. Eventually the road got away from the snowy peaks and into more rugged logging areas. There were quite a few towns doen this road and it was pretty darn nice, but alas, the rain returned. All traffic stopped and I waited about 30 minutes as the rain really started to come down. I finally gave up and backtracked to see if I could find a motel and get out of the rain. The next town back was Little Fort and the only motel was a tiny one run by a nice lady and her husband along with a campground and a diner (Hi-Five Diner). The previous housekeeper had quit and a new girl was frantically cleaning the rooms (her first day on the job). She said to walk to the owners house which was the motel office. I knocked and nice woman invited me into her house and we did the paperwork for the room and we both walked over and figured out the the only room ready was the Marvel Comics Room.
This room is awesome. He husband is a huge Marvel Comics fan and decide to do a theme room (sounds like a man-cave to me). Cool wall colors, Spiderman, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man posters on the wall, Retro microwave and fridge and coffee pot, DVDs of all the Marvel movies and Netflix (somehow). Also all the classic Marvel Comic character figurines in a glass display recessed into the wall. How cool is that!!
I went next door for some coffee and a couple eggs for dinner where her husband is also the cook. I sat with a trucker who said he sat for an hour and a half waiting for the traffic hold up which was caused by and accident between two tractor trailers and a car. Sounded pretty bad. He (didn't get his name) was born in New Brunswick and his dad hauled pulp wood around there starting in the 1940's He did farm work with his uncle and father and then moved to Ontario and started driving trucks. Finally made it out here to BC and was hauling a load of excavator buckets today. Awesome guy who knew a lot about American and Canadian politics. Like the guy last night, he likes the Canadian health care system a lot. He told me all the best routes to try tomorrow. Thanks to my new best friend for the day. Still have not found apiece of Coconut Cream Pie on this trip..

June 21 - Thursday - Eureka MT to Nordegg Alberta - 350 miles

The motel last night was ok. Something had chewed the bathroom door, but other than that it was clean and not too expensive. It was one of those motels rolled into a gass station / convenience store / real estate office / Subway franchise kind of places. The office was the cash register in the convenience store. And All the coffee you could drink if you stay at the motel. It was still pretty empty this morning, hmmm.We walked next door to a restaurant and I had two beers (as last nights blog(s) probably show) and a burger.
Beautiful morning and only seven miles to the border. I swapped the US money for Canadian money in my pockets and we got the usual Canadian border grilling. I must be on the "this guy couldn't hurt anyone" list since I never get questioned too badly.
Staright up toward Banff and Jeff found a place after a couple hours to get coffe and some breakfast. Once again, lovely folks running the place and before our order came a guy on a KLR 650 (Kawasaki), highly modified pulled in. His name was Anthony and he was 71 and owned 3 KLRs and he was really excited because he say my bike (X300). He just bought one and started customizing it and was excited that I had ridden this far with no problems. . He rides to Alaska from Alabama every year to ride his bike in the July 4 parade.

 Banff is beautiful of course and once in the park we saw deer and mountain goats. We stopped at Lake Louise and got some great pictures. Deb and I hiked to the lodge there from the American side 30 years ago just after we got married. Looks more like a fancy hotel now than I remember. I'll post more pics but the wifi in our motel is dog slow.
So north toward Jasper and we put on full rain gear since we could see what was coming, and it did. We decided to head east out of the park and find a place to stay. The temperature dropped 30 degrees and we ended the day amid wicked thunder boomers at Nordegg AB, a tiny town with one of everything and gravel roads. Reminds of what it must be like in Alaska.

June 20 - How is that little motorcycle working out??

So the question on everyone's mind as we travel is "How is that Kawasaki working out". I am currently at 22,260 miles on this little bike and it is awesome.
Some history. I have been doing long distance motorcycle riding for a long time. When I was 19 my buddy Pete (stubborn never give up Pete) and I did a 10K circumnavigation of the USA. Dump 19 year olds with no money sleeping on picnic tables and roadsides for 6 weeks. Cheap Japanese bikes (Honda 650 & Suzuki 550 "two-smoke"). Too dumb to know or worry about what could go wrong. This kid has been my inspiration for along time. He went 11K miles on a moped from Toronto to Alaska. There is something inspiring about youth "too dumb to know" that what they are attempting is not possible and then doing it anyway. Check out this crazy woman on a Yamaha 225 and this nut job on a Honda CRF250 going around the planet on these small bikes.

So I have been riding a BMW R100RT for the last 20 years and have accumulated over 100K miles on it. My mechanic sorta suggested it was getting a little long in the tooth, and I have been wondering the same when sitting on a back road in Kansas with an old BMW under me.
My son bought this a year ago and disappeared on it for 3 months riding it 16K miles in that time across the US to Vancouver, the Southern California, the back across country to the Florida Keys and then arriving home in a snowstorm in October last fall. So I started riding this 300 cc wonder and fell in love with it. So here is my list of reasons for riding long distance on a smaller bike

• I can pick it up off the ground. 
• I don't have to tipi-toe around in parking lots praying I do not drop it
• I can go up gravel, no make that mud, goat paths and not worrying about my skeletal remains being found 6 months later.
• It gets 67 MPG
• Kawasaki did not print "X-300" on it so people think it's a 650.
• The older I get, the slower I go, and this guy keeps the top speed in check.
• I can go 80 if I need to, but it is most comfortable going 50-60.
• Going slower means a lot safer.
• Going slower means you spend more time "rubbernecking" and less time scanning for critters and road trash and un-attentive drivers pulling out in front of you.
• When you go slower than the other traffic, there is always a big opening in front of you. Back in my crotch-rocket days, I would end up close behind the next guy I had to pass, all day long. Sometime people stack up behind you abut it's easy to let them go by.
• The point of the trip is the trip, not just getting to your destination. Stop for coffee more, stop and read those roadside historical markers, Go back and take that picture you wanted to take. Slow down and see all the great hings going by. Slow down!!

So this bike has circumnavigated the lower 48 and now I am taking it again to the west coast and back. In those three bags on the back I have tools, clothes, tent and sleeping stuff, rain stuff, and even a stove to stop and make coffee and watch sunrises or sunsets or prairie dogs or cattle or babbling brooks.

Not a bolt has vibrated loose, nothing has failed, I just keep the chain lubed once a day and change the oil every 8K miles or so.

I have 4 weeks to go so I'll keep you posted.

June 20 - Weds - Missoula MT to Eureka MT - 353 miles

 I called Keith (our new friend and Montana motorcycle travel guru) about 6:30 since he knew the best coffee places in Missoula. There are lots of coffee places (college town), but not many open at 6am so we went to an alternate and Keith told us all the best places to ride in Montana. He also had a friend (Steve) who lives up in the mountains and is a BMW guy and also a huge model train guy. I love passionate people so we had to meet this Steve train guy.
We told google to get us to Eureka, MT (just below the Canadian border) and no interstates please, and it took us on a great ride. It got a little confused way up in the mountains (no cell service), but in general, it did a great job.
Today we gassed up every 100 miles or so since I knew we were going into the boonies. Nice feeling when you have a full tank and 300 miles of range. Bad feeling when you have been 280 miles and the fuel gauge has been blinking for an hour and the range display stopped guessing when you are going to run out a long time ago (blink, blink, blink). But no problems today.

Montana is drop dead gorgeous with lots of rivers (running really high right now after a week of storms), and mountains and big valleys and skies. After a few hours we figured out where Steve lived. A nice place with log cabin and a couple out building for his "hobbies". The big builing is for his HO stuff. He had been collecting model trains for quite a while, but never had a place to set them up. He retired and built this nice place in Montana and he has more trains than you can shake a stick at. All wireless, computer connected with lights and sound and, well you name it. He is also a very nice guy! Lots of outdoor projects, good bear stories, and also has a BMW GSA with 50K miles on it? Where does he find the time? These retired people..

So  we tried to take the shortcut "over the top" to Eureka, but there was no cell service and we ended up almost kissing the Canadian border on a dead end back road and backtracked back to Yaak (who would not want to live in a town called Yaak?), and took the crazy bumpy cold patched one lane road back to civilization (Libby) and then an hour plus along Lake Koocanusa to Eureka. Little town with a couple gas stations, a couple motels (our is suspiciously cheap and empty...). Walk next door for a burger and brew (more unknown but delicious local brews), and end of day. Tomorrow we go into Canada and Banff!!