Thursday, July 16, 2009

Back home, or at least in my hometown...

Well I made it back to Toronto by mid afternoon yesterday, and went straight to my dealer to book an oil change for next week...lol... it is a bit passed due.

Once again I got really lucky with the weather and missed a thunderstorm by minutes. At one point I was just exiting the highway heading east when the north bound route I left started raining! So after 1500 miles in 2 1/2 half days I am pretty exhausted, good thing I can put my feet up at work and relax.

Yes I was back at work first thing this morning, looking like Grizzly Adams. Mid morning I headed downstairs for one of men's few "treats": An hour long shave done with a straight razor! Lots of cocoa butter lotions and about a dozen hot towels, it was the first time I have ever done it, and I have to admit it was pretty great! After work I went and got a haircut, so I am now back to my civilized self.

The three questions I have asked myself are: Did I enjoy it? Would I do it again? Did it seem like 5 weeks?

I absolutely enjoyed it! Minus the Prairies, it was fantastic, and a once in a lifetime experience. Which answers my next question... I absolutely would not do it again. I am glad I did it once, but I just can't see going through all that again. Maybe shipping my bike to the West Coast, but even then the cities I would like to stay longer in: Sonoma and Napa Valley, Moab, Vail, you can always fly to and stay for a week, which is what they really need. Doing it with my brother, and for the brief period with Dawn, was great. The majority of the time I spent by myself was unfortunately the grueling boring part, with the exception of Moab. It would be a totally different trip with a woman. I am not sure one could stand the monotony of sitting on the back of a bike for that period of time, I certainly couldn't. A woman with her own bike would be ideal!

Did it seem like 5 weeks? I would have to say yes, at least 5 weeks, things I did before I left seem like such a long time ago. I have a theory I somehow came across or developed over the years: your brain filters out all the things that are similar or routine, and only remembers new or unique things. Which is why at the end of a work week, after having done the same thing over and over again the week seems to have flown by, because your brain has deleted most of the week. As a kid every day is full of new and exciting things, as we get older fewer and fewer new things happen, so time speeds up, as your brain deletes more and more of your time.

These last 5 weeks, even with the routine of riding the same motorcycle for hours on end, has been full of new places, faces, vistas, and views. Things I have never seen, places I have never been to, and activities I have never tried. There hasn't been a whole lot my brain has had to delete for the last 5 weeks, so it seems like it has lasted for a great deal of time.

So I have come to the end of my journey, maybe my next one will be with my bike maybe not... but I do know there will be a next one.... :-)

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

So close I can smell it....

Well the last two days have been pretty exhausting. From Rapid City I had 1500 miles to get back home to Toronto, as of this evening I have about 350 miles left. I started doing the math on if I kept going what time would I get in, when it came back around 11pm, and I have been going since 7am, I thought I would stop. Also I was given a sign... ok I saw a sign: Motel 6 $35.99. Matthew's advice was always if you can find a hotel for $20 more than camping, don't even hesitate.... shower, bed, internet, dry your tent out.... priceless....

I can put up with the heat, the rain, the cold, but the one thing that absolutely exhausts me is the wind. I have spent the last two days on the edge of a big storm and have been battling a crosswind constantly. It is like sitting in a chair and having someone trying to shove you off it, hour, after hour, after hour.... so I am extremely grateful for a hotel tonight.

Matthew and I averaged about an hour to pack up in the mornings, this morning I did it in land speed record time of about 30 minutes. Lying in my tent I had heard the rain in the middle of the night, but when at 6am the wind started howling, I knew I was in trouble. Apparently the threat of getting soaked while packing up your stuff is quite the motivator!!!

So yesterday I left South Dakota, I have been through Omaha, Iowa, Indiana, and am now in Michigan, not bad for two days!! The American Midwest is like what I thought the Canadian prairies would be. A multicolored patchwork quilt of vegetation. Dawn will be happy to know that a great deal of states practice diversified farming, instead of field after field of the same thing. Some fields even had more than one type of crop...

So sadly no picture for today, partly because the weather was so crappy, and the view was basically flat. I was partly hoping to get back to the "Welcome to Toronto" sign, but stopped short. Give or take a day getting back is no big deal, and there is no point in trashing myself to do it...

So tomorrow I will be back home, or at least in my home town. Assuming of course they let my British butt back in the country.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

The Black Hills, Badlands, and Buffalo Gap



I am now in my final day here in Rapid City, I took my bike to the BMW dealer yesterday to get my new tires put on, wow what a difference!! I hadn't realized how much the others had worn to the point of making steering more difficult. I then headed out into the Black Hills for a bit of a tour, I have to admit to being a bit disappointed. There was a brief stretch of about 5 or 10 miles that was fun and twisty, but nothing to write home about(other than this of course...lol...) I then sat out the afternoon thunderstorm in the comfort of my hotel while doing a MUCH needed load of laundry :-)

This morning was one of the few days on the trip where I could get up when I liked, as I had no destination or mileage I needed to accomplish, so a leisurely breakfast and coffee at Starbucks was greatly appreciated. I then set out for Buffalo Gap Grasslands and The Badlands National Park. If you are picturing a post apocalyptic science fiction future where the burned out relics of cars block the way to the Badlands you would be mistaken. I know I was.... ;-) ok not really...

One of my first iterations of my journey had me doing my great big circle clockwise, going through the USA then up the coast, then across Canada. In this scenario The Badlands would have been the first of many scenic vistas I would have seen, instead of the last. In that case I probably would have taken many more pictures and been much more impressed with it. Unfortunately after 8000 miles of roads and MANY spectacular views, touring around Rapid City can't quite live up to some of the other areas of the two countries. If you have an opportunity to come here, The Badlands is definitely worth it though.

On a final note for today, not wanting to toot my own horn(but if I don't no-one else will) I have discovered that trying to pick just one or two photos to adorn my dissertation can sometimes be difficult. I have to admit I am pretty impressed with the improvement in my photography skills over the last 4 weeks. I have now taken 1140 photos, for me a monumental increase in my usual lackluster vacation snapshots. So the best of my days photos I have been uploading to webshots:

http://rides.webshots.com/album/573068121atHQiW

I have been wanting to have some of my own photos to use as a gallery in my house, and now I am sure I have a few shots that I would be happy to display.

Tomorrow morning I set out for home. I am both happy and sad about this; I am definitely looking forward to getting back to my life, and work,( I know I'm weird) but I am sure it won't be very long after I get back that I will pine for the open road, breathable air, and an unencumbered vista to the horizon....

Friday, July 10, 2009

Buffalo and the Presidents....



Ironically after heading out this morning 15 minutes into my ride I came across a State Park with camping, then another one 15 minutes after that!! I guess I should read my map more carefully. Yes, thanks to Matthew's influence I actually bought a map in Moab, and I don't rely totally on my GPS. It is great if you want to find a particular spot, or make your way through an unknown city, or go from point A to point B the quickest way possible, but a map will show you the most scenic routes. I really think you have to have both a map and a GPS.

Thanks to my trusty map I noticed Mount Rushmore was only slightly off route to Rapid City, so made a detour through it. It was quite a sight, and an amazing feat of artistry. Lunch was a buffalo burger in the cafe!! How often do you get to try buffalo, at Mt. Rushmore, staring at a huge likeness of 4 presidents???? Very tasty by the way.... Drove through some amazing cloud formations on the way, with the threat of a thunder shower at any time, that never materialized.

Well, I am now in Rapid City, the center for my tour of the Badlands and the Black Hills. For safety sake of my gear I have a hotel room for 3 days, so I don't have to worry leaving all my stuff behind during the day. The final Tiger woe, which I knew was coming at some point... my tires have pretty much worn out, I was most worried about riding them in the rain. I am even with the wear indicators. 8500 miles, which apparently is much more than the 5000 mile estimate most owners had given me. So I am off to Sturgis tomorrow for new ones. I figured go to probably THE most famous motorcycle city in the USA to get them put on. BTW it is mostly famous with the Harley groups, so it is pretty funny riding a Triumph to a BMW dealer to get my tires!!! lol.... I got a great deal on a new set, rather than shipping my original ones out here cross border. They will still be there when these ones wear out in a year or so.

So I start my tour of the area tomorrow. I have pretty much decided I am going to try to get home about a week early. I will have seen everything I wanted to, and I really just want to get back home, even though I won't have a home to go to for a week... It means I can put in an extra weeks work this month, and maybe take the week later in the year at some point.

BTW for you eagle eyed observers, yes I currently have a beard. Having never really grown one, I figured why not for the trip, saves lots of time shaving... :-)

"Interstate" riding....


After coaxing myself from my lap of luxury hotel room I hit the road heading for my previous days destination: Boulder Colorado. Ironically the temperature was much cooler and got progressively more so as the day went on. Riding on the interstates in Colorado is not quite the same as slab riding the 6 lanes of the 401 in Toronto. With the river on one side(not sure if it was the Colorado or not) and mountains on the other, it is truly gorgeous. With a mild 250 mile day planned I cruised along in cool comfort. Vail is truly gorgeous and definitely a spot I would return to, especially in Winter.

The peak of my day literally was 11,158 ft. as I rode through the highest vehicular tunnel in the world the Eisenhower Tunnel. Yes there was snow 50ft. from the road at one point!! So having gone from over a hundred degrees to putting all the liners in my gear, it was quite a change!!

Arriving in Boulder at a comfortable 1pm, I discovered it wasn't the picturesque Whistler type outdoorsy town, but more like the University district of Denver. Very disappointing. So giving up on staying there I headed towards my final waypoint of my journey Rapid City South Dakota.

Well having gone from a leisurely scenic pace to high speed multi-lane boring hot riding, 3 hours later I was ready to give up. Having not seen a campground for hours I finally pulled into a small town and settled for a hotel again. :-(

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

The view of Moab from 10,000 ft!



Ok those of you that have seen my Facebook update know what is coming.... Moab is considered one of the top Adventure destinations in the USA, from mountain biking, ATV and dirt biking, river rafting etc.... so I figured it was the place to try something I have always wanted to do: skydiving!!

I was supposed to go 6pm last night but the winds were too high so I headed over at 8am this morning, and saw two groups of 2 go ahead of me. There are two instructors jumping tandem, so you are strapped to one of them. The benefit of this is if you jump by yourself the height is much lower, and the chute opens straight away. Jumping tandem means freefall!!! The photo isn't of me, but the group ahead of me, but I have a DVD being sent to me, so I will try and upload it when it arrives.

How to describe it... the first few seconds is like sensory overload. The wind is howling, you are spinning all over the place, then you arch into position and fall stomach first for a while, then the chute opens and everything goes quiet. I was given the controls for a while and manged to put us into a pretty good corkscrew! Thanks to a fantastic instructor, and owner Paul, who I was strapped to, I did a perfect standing/running landing!! It was absolutely fantastic and one more thing checked off my list of things to try.

Having flown over the National Parks in the 20 minute flight to get to 10,000 ft. I figured I should hit the last one which was the north end of Canyonlands Park. Lots more photos, lots more heat, and I was ready to hit the road by 4:30. I had hoped to be gone by noon, but the skydiving took longer than expected. The ride out of town was not the fastest, I chose a route that ran along the Colorado River, but it was certainly gorgeous! By 7:30 I was cooked, I was so hot and tired from the previous nights lack of sleep, I pulled into this little town after seeing a sign for "Wine Country Inn" thinking it sounded like a nice "mom and pop" kind of place. Well it turns out to be a gorgeous(slightly expensive)Inn next to a vineyard. Being too tired to go on, here I am in my king sized feather bed typing this...lol... quite the change in venue from sweating in a tent last night!!

Going it alone...



Matthew and I had our last breakfast together in Green River Utah. After packing up our bikes he was heading east and I was heading west. In typical Matthew fashion he suggested I ride off into the sunrise. The last image I saw of him was the dwindling reflection in my mirror....

I have to admit the thought of heading to the cooler north was quite tempting. Unfortunately I had one more stop in Moab, that I REALLY wanted to do so further south it was.... having zipped through town checking hotels and camping I headed south to the southern end of Canyonland National Park and the Needles region. Fantastic scenery, took a TON of photos. One of my plans didn't work out for the afternoon(more on that tomorrow), so I headed to Arches National Park around 6pm, two hours or so before sunset. Rode through the park taking lots of photos, then got to the end just as the sun was setting, and changing all the colors, so raced back through the park re-taking pictures everywhere. Unbelievable difference!!!

I might start a huge debate here, but I found the National Parks in Moab far more stunning than the Grand Canyon. Partly because you can ride along the edge of it for 25 miles or so, with pullouts every hundred yards. (and yes I did stop at just about every one of them!) The terrain is phenomenal, and the ever changing topography is amazing...

Not a fun night, camping in the heat, lying on my thermarest sweating until about 2am when it finally cooled down :-(

Monday, July 6, 2009

Last day together.


Matthew had said right from the start that if the temperature got too hot he was going to head north. So it came as no surprise that he is going to start making he way home to Smithers. We have now had a week of high 90's and over 100 degree days, and no sign of it breaking any time soon!!

So today we left the camp site out side the Grand Canyon and made our way to Green River Utah. It is the last spot where both our paths meet. I am heading south from here to spend a few days in (hot) Moab, and Matthew is heading north to Flaming Gorge, and Yellowstone. This has been the longest we have spent together in 20-25 years!! I have learned a great deal from him in the last couple of weeks, so am extremely grateful for this time together. Hopefully my photos show the improvement in technique and composition. We even swapped bikes for part of the day today, to see what the other has been riding. Aside from the engine size, they are quite similar in riding style.

The ride into Utah was as expected unbelievably hot. Gorgeous landscapes and a wide variety of terrain. Tomorrow should be a great day for photos!!

A popsicle in the Grand Canyon....



Well the Plaza was a pretty good hotel, until you try to leave, kind of like Hotel California..... Matthew and I figured we would use a bell hop to carry all our motorcycle luggage out to the parking lot to save carrying hundreds of pounds of luggage. Sounded great in theory, in reality it was an hour before we were able to leave. Dead batteries on walkie talkies, and lack luster management impinged our every effort to leave.

Finally on our way, an hour late, and about 5 degrees warmer... we got to the Grand Canyon late in the afternoon, and spent the remainder of the day photographing the view. We stayed until just about sunset, then headed out to backtrack the 45 miles to our campground. The only thing we hadn't taken into account was the temperature. We had stopped at the campground on the way down and unloaded all our stuff, only taking the bare essentials to the Canyon. Well after sunset the temperature dropped to about 10 degrees, and we only had full mesh motorcycle gear with us!!! So yes I was a human Popsicle by the time we got back. We did stop at a lodge for dinner, and in my usual adventurous manner tried Moose Drool beer!! Very tasty!!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Two sides of Vegas...



So last night we saw the "touristy" materialistic side of Vegas. Taking a cab to the "newer" strip we started at Luxor and worked our way along. The Luxor is simply over the top... a huge pyramid that is absolutely crazy inside!! New York, and Treasure Island were pretty cool, bu the Bellagio was truly stunning. The lesson learned on this leg of the trip was staying at the Plaza in the Fremont area of downtown saved us about $50US a night, but the cab to the new strip was $23-25 each way, so if you are planning on visiting the strip you don't really save any money....

This morning we headed out pretty early to visit Red Rock Canyon. The route through the canyon is about 13 miles and is truly one of the natural wonders of the area. Lots of cyclists use it as a route, and I had one draft me for about 5 miles towards the end of the circuit, which was kind of cool! Lots of interesting rock formations, and coloring in the mountains.

Considering this is called Tiger Trippin' I thought I should do a bit of a bike update. I am now at about 6500 miles(can't convert back to kms until the border) and have now had no problems with the bike. The tires are still holding on, but am not sure they will get me home. The side luggage could be larger, but other than that I am extremely happy it.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Death Valley and Vegas...



We decided that if we were going to route through Death Valley, which I REALLY wanted to do, we would get up early to hopefully be there when it wasn't too hot yet. So up at 5am, setting off at 6am, getting to Death Valley about 10am. Still nice and cool, a balmy 101 degrees F in the shade!! Stopped to take a few pictures then ventured down the windy road and across the valley floor, winding our way out of the valley, congratulating our selves on how easy it had been.

Well it turned out that wasn't Death Valley, that was Death Valley's younger, much smaller brother.... Coming over the rise we entered a HUGE valley, 10 miles across, not 1, like the previous valley! Still, this is where we saw the temperature at the Ranger Station, and it still wasn't too bad.

The bad part was the ride from Death Valley to Las Vegas. At one point Matthew signaled it was 46 degrees C!! Makes Death Valley feel like a picnic, especially since we had about 120 miles of it!!

We couldn't get into our hotel fast enough, and having showered and taken a walk we are now waiting for the sun to set, then evening air to fall to a chilly 36 degrees C, so we can go walk the 4 mile strip of casinos!!

Yosemite is burning!


Yup we made it into Yosemite. The park rangers seemed not terribly concerned the fire was within a couple of hundred yards of the road. They have a completely hands off attitude towards putting out fires. I assume they would have closed the road if it got too close though!! Yosemite is what you would expect: thousands of people lining up to get to the same spot to take the same pictures as everyone else.... that is except for Matthew who proceeded to wade through the waterfall to get to a spot on the other side!! Thank heavens for Gortex motorcycle boots!!

Had a fabulous lunch at the Awahnee Resort in the park, very West Coast lodge like. Leaving the park the air was still pretty cool so I zipped in my wind liner.... for 20 minutes!!! The heat increased as we descended until we hit the flats and became unbearable. Taking refuge in a small town for a smoothie then dinner until the sun was almost setting.

The original plan was to stay near Yosemite, but that left a pretty daunting day of about 450 miles to Las Vegas through Death Valley. So we pushed on leaving a measly 250 miles to Vegas, camping in a "lovely" (primitive) campground with a gorgeous view of the desert and the mountains.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Back in the land of the Interweb...


This might end up being a bit of a long update, having been out of touch with the civilized world for a few days. So much so all the batteries on my electronics were dead.

Having left our river resort, Matthew and I headed south along the coast. We have been really lucky and still haven't encountered rain. It was pretty chilly near the water, while the one brief interlude inland had the temperature jump 12 degrees C!! All in about 5 miles. Yes one of the benefits of all this electronic paraphernalia is that when I crossed the border I was able to change my motorcycle over to the backwards American system of miles, my GPS too. It has been very helpful having your speedometer and odometer in miles I must say!!

My favorite road so far is Highway 1 off Highway 101 in north California. One of the first signs was :Twisty tight roads for the next 22 miles"!!! Awesome. Not a huge amount of miles covered due to the terrain, but totally worth it...
Another lovely campground on the coast, within walking distance of the shore. My brother is quite a fantastic photographer so I am taking every opportunity to get tips on how to shoot. We spent about an hour photographing the surf and the sunset.

The next morning we headed on further down the coast into San Francisco. Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge(and paying the $6 US toll to do so!) Stopped to take a few pictures of Alcatraz and the bridge, then headed inland saying good bye to the coast for the last time.

The temperature gradually increased until we hit Sonoma late in the afternoon. Couldn't find a campground in Sonoma so zipped over the hill into Napa Valley and stayed at a Wilderness retreat!! We had deer about 40 feet from us!!

Today was supposed to be a tour of Arrowood Vineyard then tasting at a few others. Arriving at the supposed tour time of 10:30 we were told it is by appointment only, and we should have booked weeks in advance!! Very disappointing. We decided to do a tasting there any way, and half way through it David DuBois the Direct Sales Manager for the vineyard took over, and made it an extremely memorable event. We ended up staying for about 2 1/2 hours chatting with him, and I ended up trying about a dozen wines!! He even gave Matthew a bottle to take of the 2004 Cabernet Private Reserve!!! After that we were pretty much done with the wine tasting...lol...

So we headed out early towards Yosemite, which is our next stop, and ended up dying in the heat. I think it is 39 degrees C outside. Yes we fell back on civilization and are staying in a motel, with air conditioning.... Oh well we got a great deal....

So tomorrow, if we don't melt over night, we will head out to Yosemite. We are keeping an eye on the forest fires. We have also just booked two nights in Las Vegas for this weekend, as it seemed the safest thing to have something booked for July 4th. I couldn't talk Matthew into the Hooters Hotel... ;-)