Days 28 to 35: The Lakes, The Falls and the Lights of New York. 4th to 11th September.

And so we last left our intrepid travellers with their glorious sunset over Lake Superior, comfortable in the knowledge that a red sky at night is a travellers delight.

Well… believe me, that theory is now well and truly debunked.

 

We woke to threatening skies and shortly afterwards the threat was realised and the heavens opened.  A quick pack up and we even used the road to roll up the tent as doing it on the sand was just unthinkable.  Even so we were shaking sand out of our gear for days afterwards.

We got going as soon as possible and rode the 30 minutes into civilisation, and coffee, at a town called Bayfield. We’d just parked the bikes when we were approached by Mike and Deb who started chatting and ended up joining us for coffee and a route discussion.  And even more important Mike was able to help us work out where to get Janelle a back tyre without the hassle we had in Cody.  I rang ahead to the Suzuki dealer in a town called Marquette, about 4 hours away.  We arranged a fitting the next afternoon and worked out a route.

Mike took this pic of us as we left Bayfield.

It had just stopped raining and although we had on and off drizzle the rest of the day, we rode into Marquette in sunshine just as it started getting dark.  Given how wet our pack up had been a hotel was the only option. When this happens we’ve discovered the trick of finding somewhere online and then turning up and without reserving. The savings are amazing.  And so it was with this executive suite for half the “cheap” internet price.  We got everything washed and dried, a great evening meal and the world was kind to us again.

Next morning we found out we had to wait till 2pm for the tyre so a relaxed morning, nice lunch and some supplies before heading to the bike shop and waiting well over an hour. Tip for beginners… if you find yourself stranded in Marquette needing a tyre, don’t bother with the local Suzuki dealer.

We finally hit the road around 3.30pm so didn’t expect to get that far, but it was actually a really good travelling day. We crossed into Michigan, rode down to the lake edge and hit a rather important milestone. 5000 miles and close to our halfway point. A quick video to celebrate and we rode into the sunset then turned south and crossed the amazing Mackinac Bridge. By then it was dark so we got off the tourist road and found a tiny little town with one of these classic single row family run motels.

It was only the next morning we decided to cut through Canada to Niagara Falls, so a run down through Michigan and then a small jump over to the east brought us to the Canadian Border, but not before USA waved us farewell with a horrendous toll over the bridge.

Janelle’s border experience and mine were completely different. We chose different lanes and she was waved through with barely a look, not even bothering with a passport stamp (?!?) while I was questioned about guns, intentions, money, matching passport photo to my gnarly mug, alcohol and guns again, for 5 or so minutes.  There was never any problem as such, just lots of questions. But at least I got the passport stamp.  We made an hour towards Niagara and found a campground just beyond the city of London.

Janelle knew of this pretty little town called Niagara On The Lake, so we thought we’d head there and take stock before entering the tourist craziness of the Falls.  As it turns out, there were 2 surprises waiting for us. First it seems the pretty little town has been heavily marketing to Asia and the Sub Continent, which has worked amazingly well. It was still pretty, but we couldn’t see much of it.  The second was we suddenly lost our phone communications.  It took us some days to get that sorted with AT&T and was damn inconvenient, but we got by.

The advantage of visiting Niagara On The Lake was that we got to ride along the river which was just a truly lovely ride, albeit very slow. And then suddenly we were at the Falls.  Parking was a challenge but we sorted that, and then went for a (long) walk back to the café overlooking the main falls and spent an hour or so enthralled by them.  Well worth the hassle of getting there.

After a while, and a lot of photos, we found a campground a few miles away and paid a small fortune for a small campsite. Later that evening we rode back into the Falls and were blown away by the party town craziness. I’ll let the video describe it far better than I can.  A melting pot of humanity with a mini theme park mentality catering for the teens and 20 somethings who apparently desire such things.  What an experience! And they say the Canadian side is so much better than the American!

Next morning we rode back past the Falls one last time then followed the river all the way to the last border crossing at Buffalo (New York State).  This border experience was completely different and even the concern about Janelle not having a Canadian stamp didn’t eventuate.  We decided to use the same lane but go through separately. Janelle went first, it took about 3 minutes with the usual questions plus a rego and ownership check. She told the Border Security Officer we were travelling together and so when it was my turn all I got was the rego check.  As I pulled up I told then Officer “I don’t know what you asked her, but whatever she said” The guard laughed, wished us a safe trip, waved me through and suddenly we were back in the USA.

About 90 minutes later we had cleared most of the craziness around Buffalo and got ourselves off the interstate, found somewhere to have lunch and started working options for getting our phone comms back.  It turned out there was an AT&T shop open till 8pm that night (Saturday) a few hours down the road. So we set the GPS for a town called Horseheads (yes really) and spent the afternoon riding through beautiful backroads and a few highways and up near Watkins Glen Raceway.  We arrived late afternoon and found the shop. The manager, Eric couldn’t have been more helpful.  Even so it took him over an hour to sort out their mess and restore our phones.  It was a huge relief as without them we’re lost. He even arranged a refund of then $320 that they had taken out of our account.  They actually got an accounts person on the phone to apologise to me. He couldn’t explain what had happened but I figure someone will have a look.  We decided we deserved a hotel and booked ourselves into one close by. Nothing special but a comfortable night.

We were a little ahead of schedule and weren’t expected in New York for a few more days, so thought about exploring the area they call upstate New York, commonly known by the locals as the Catskills. (No one could explain why).  And we also thought we’d try out this accommodation page on the ADV Forum. So we randomly contacted a member in the area we wanted to head for and were invited to spend the night at his home. He also sent us a route that wound its way through some amazing motorcycle country which turned out to be one of the most lovely rides we’d had. We arrived to a warm welcome from a motorcycle racing nut who had set up his TV for us to watch the Italian MotoGP from the night before.  Rich (everyone up there is called Rich it seems) then casually mentioned the weather forecast the next day and suggested that unless we wanted to ride in pouring rain, we probably weren’t going anywhere.

He was right, we weren’t. But as his friend Melissa (who also rode adventure bikes) turned up a few hours later, and the local Walmart sold motorcycle oil, we took the opportunity to change our oil and filters and run through a minor bike service.  It turned out both Rich and Melissa were avid rock climbers and both had recently climbed Devils Tower in Wyoming.  They told us many stories and we shared a few of ours while we spent a most pleasant day staying dry.

Next morning we packed up and said goodbye, armed with another fabulous route down to New Jersey where we had an offer for accommodation in Jersey City.  We were only 5 minutes down the road when the heavens opened and we spend a very uncomfortable hour getting thoroughly soaked before it cleared and we slowly dried out.

We stopped for lunch about 90 minutes out of Jersey, contacted out host (another Rich) and received nav instructions to his place.  The ride from there was almost surreal. After a month on the road, over 5000 miles we were actually riding into New York (ok Jersey City, but it’s almost the same).  As we crested a the huge bridge on the New Jersey Turnpike and caught sight of the Manhattan Skyline we both took a few seconds to take it all in. We had arrived at the eastern leg of our trip and in doing so had crossed the continent.  I wont share the words we said to each other over our intercoms but it was a very special moment that we will remember forever.

Fifteen minutes later we pulled up outside Rich’s building in York St Jersey City. He came down to meet us and help us unload and take everything to his 9th floor apartment. Then he informed us he was going to stay with his partner in Manhattan for the duration of our stay so we had his apartment to ourselves for the next 5 nights!  I should explain that Rich contacted us from the ADV Forum over a year ago with the offer of accommodation. We spoke over the phone and everything was sorted, but to then learn we had it to ourselves, totally free, was an unexpected and very welcome gift.

So then Rich briefed us up on everything, explained the craziness of the NYC subway, options for crossing the Hudson into Manhattan and then we walked with him the 5 minutes to the Hudson shore where he caught the subway. But not before we all took in the sight of the skyline at night. But not just any night. This was, by pure chance, 9/11. The 2 beams of light shining up from Manhattan was an amazing and humbling sight. Almost 20 years ago hundreds of people stood on this very spot and watched those towers fall.  And we were here, by accident, on the anniversary of that day, that changed the world forever.

Another amazing highlight of this incredible adventure, and the one which I will leave with you for now.

Days 22 to 27: Four States, Great Lakes and real coffee again. 28th Aug to 3rd Sept.

Thanks for your feedback and comments everyone. Both here and elsewhere. I’m going to get in more pics and intersperse them with the story where I can. And if possible, I’ll include a map to give an graphic indication of our route.

 

So… Cody…

By mid morning on that Wednesday, Cody had warmed up again to somewhere near stinking hot and we were required to get creative to find shade for a little shopping trip.

Finding shade at Walmart

Then after the back tyre was fitted a quick lunch and we scooted up the road an hour to a little town called Shell to spend the night with a few other Adventure Riders. We were greeted by about a dozen boys and girls (this was only Wednesday of a weekend event) who quickly arranged our camping fee for us, offered us a lovely bit of grass for the night, and we all settled in to an afternoon of  story telling.  We had armed Lisa beforehand this trip with Long Way Down, so she was across the whole thing and held her own in wonderful fashion.  One of the group even paid for dinner for us which was an incredible gesture.  For me the whole scene was so very familiar, but Janelle and Lisa were able to see a whole other side of this motorcycle riding stuff.  It was a damn fine evening, with some dame fine people and we will remember it always.

Cody Wy to Shell Wy
A fine bunch they were too!

But the next day we had to get going, and although full of roadworks, the canyon road out of there towards Devils Tower was well worth it.  A truly wonderful days ride. Except for the bit on our own friend I 90.

Shell Wy to Devils Tower wy

So by late afternoon we arrived at Devil’s Tower and for the second time were saved by not settling for the first campground we came to.  The second was $10 more and 100 times better.  Many will remember this National Monument (ie no drone flying) from the movie Close Encounters, but I’m reliably informed there is no UFO landing base on top.   For those that wish to know, it was once an active volcano, but the the lave solidified and the mountain around it eroded away, leaving just the petrified lava.  It’s actually a huge attraction for climbers, but base jumping is illegal.  And the campground shows the movie every night, just in case.

Devils Tower behind our tent

And this was also our last night with Lisa as we had to part ways in the morning.  So we had a couple of drinks and finished the wine we’d been carrying. The weather was perfect and with that amazing tower hanging over us, we toasted the last 2 weeks. The next morning Lisa jumped on my bike, Janelle dove her car and we rode to the base of the tower and said goodbye.  She’s off to Africa for 3 months now.  Are we allowed to be jealous?

Bon Voyage Lisa. Have a ball in Africa.

We got away quite late and it was a long day, starting off rather stressful when we realised the fuel situation was not what we expected.  So we went in the direction of the closest (20 minutes away) and hoped. We were riding on fumes for the last 5 miles or so but we made it and were able to top up.

And then we were in South Dakota, the Black Hills (think the Dandenongs around Melbourne) Mt Rushmore (we rode up, saw the rock faces, got hit for $10 parking each so didn’t even turn the engines off) and the Badlands.  Now that was a sight!  Videos enclosed provides just a glimpse. They go on for miles and miles. Just amazing sand formations that must be eons old.

Badlands National Park

That night we treated ourselves to a hotel as we knew what awaited us the next day. That wonderful I90… all day…

Now I’m sure there are other ways to get across South Dakota, and I’m sure there are ways to avoid the wretched cross wind that we battled all day, but if there are no one told us and it would seem, no one actually knows.  So the highlight of our ride across S/Dakota?… Getting to the other side! It really was that bad.  The constant 80 mph (130 kph) wind dropped our fuel consumption from 55m/g (23 km/ltr) to 34 m/g (14 km/ltr).  We filled up 3 times that day (used 2.5 tanks of fuel).  Rolled into Sioux Falls just on dusk and treated ourselves to a cheap motel. A little too cheap as it turned out, but you pay for what you get.

We did however start the day with another run through the Badlands, so there was a little self induced pain at the end of the day too.

Everything changed the next morning. We rode over to Minnesota and meandered our way north east through lovely rolling farms of corn, some more corn, pretty little lakes (50,000 of them apparently) and corn, and ended up at a place called Little Falls where we threw up the tent in the State Park.  And unexpected treat awaited us as we went into town for dinner and crossed the start of the Mississippi River.

Even better, we found civilisation again!  Real coffee and not a cowboy hat in sight! No one was playing terrible country music and even the Harleys had got thinner on the ground.

Real coffee makes everything so much brighter.

The next day around lunchtime we rode into Wisconsin, found some lovely little back roads to eventually pop us out at Lake Superior and found a beach to set up camp.

And what an absolutely fantastic location to enter the Great Lakes area.  The photos don’t do it justice so I tried a little drone flight which went perfectly well until a tree jumped in front of me and instead of letting the obstacle avoidance system do its job I panicked, tried to turn and flew sideways into it.  Luckily the only damage was a broken prop (have spares) and pride. Video next time… maybe)

So Im going to leave you here with some photos of our most gorgeous sunset on Lake Superior. Our first ever sunset over water.

Days 19 – 21: The Yellowstone Experience. 26 to 28th August

The weather when we arrived in Cody Wyoming, or more precisely rode through Cody to the Wheels of Wonderment Motorcycle Campground, 14 miles on the Yellowstone side, was just perfect.  We booked for 3 nights and set up camp. The plan was 2 whole days exploring Yellowstone. However, the weather had different ideas.

Around midnight it started raining and the temperature dropped alarmingly.  Our awesome tent stayed watertight and we stayed warm, but when we got up to a forecast of heavy rain all day we decided to give Yellowstone a miss. Instead I went searching for a new back tyre which was wearing at twice the rate Id expected.  And what a search that turned out to be. Apparently unless you have a Harley, no one wants to know.  The only place in town (Cody is about the size of Goulburn) that would lift a finger was a Suzuki Power Sports dealership, and they had to put it on 2 days special order. But at least we found a coffee shop that made real coffee and was strangely (or maybe not) devoid of cowboys.

We used that shop as a base to search for Janelle’s new boots as she’s blown a hole under the gear lever. Unfortunately, she didn’t really want to ride around USA in fancy cowgirl numbers so the options for proper motorcycle boots were non existent. In desperation we finally tried the Harley shop, whose cowgirl boots even had Harley Davidson stamped across them and were 3 times the price. Alas, they were also pretty much useless for anything except line dancing, so the search remained unfulfilled.

And then we heard they had closed the East Entrance of Yellowstone because the snow had blocked the pass. We decided to wait and see as I wasn’t really going anywhere without a new tyre anyway.

Lisa elected on a motel in town that night and we bunkered down in the tent hoping the rain would stop. Which it did shortly after dark and we woke to glorious sun and the news they had reopened the East Entrance. Yellowstone Park here we come!

We arranged by text with Lisa on a meeting place, but because Cody is a kind of special place, texts were a bit hit and miss. This one was a miss so we never received each others instructions.  This turned out to be quite serendipitous as I’ll explain shortly.

Janelle and I rode the 40 miles to the park, climbing all the way with these amazing snow covered mountains getting closer and closer. We knew we had to go over them, but didn’t really get what that meant, until it happened.  The video below is a montage of that ride.  Yes it was cold. So very cold. But how totally awesome at the same time.

After the snow we hit the roadworks made of mud and slush and huge cars that insisted on driving at 5mph meaning we were continually paddling the bikes through said mud and slush.  It wasn’t fun.  It was less fun to arrive at the visitors centre (ie coffee) to discover power had been cut and nothing worked (ie no coffee). We had arranged to wait there for Lisa, and so we did, for an hour, before figuring she must have missed us. Meanwhile, she was waiting somewhere completely different for us.  And no one has any signal in Yellowstone. Lesson learned.

So we decided to head for Old Faithful and see if we could catch up there.  Even with the slow speed limit and all the tourists it was an incredible ride. Such stunning landscape and so many photo opportunities. And then, a surprise that made everything we’d gone through to get here worthwhile. The magnificent creature in the photos below was just wandering along the road with his herd of about three cows and a dozen calves.  It truly made our day. Even later when we found out they were elk, not moose it didn’t matter.  Still so magnificent to see them in the wild.

So we carried on towards another of Americas overblown tourist attractions, Old Faithful. Which was actually pretty impressive, but does it deserve the entire tourist town that supports it? I doubt it really.  However over the last 10 kms we had been slowly catching another adventure bike and we followed them into the parking lot and introduced ourselves. Greg and Cathy belonged to the same Adventure Riders group we had adopted us (those white stickers on the front of our bikes) and they invited us to a meet with a whole group of them, about 50 miles in exactly the direction we were going, on the exact day we were going there.  We gladly accepted, promising to talk more by email and left them to go check out this geyser thingy.

Did that, got the pics and then, reluctantly decided that we’d best head back incase the mud and slush got worse, incase the weather turned bad again, and to be back at camp before everything shut down and we were left with nowhere for dinner. The ride back was lovely but uneventful but it didn’t matter. That day had been everything we had wanted. Stunning scenery, amazing creatures and a ride through snow as an added bonus!

Next morning was perfect and we were itching to get moving again. We packed up quickly, grabbed a last coffee from the only decent barrister for 400+ miles, my tyre arrived and was fitted by 12.30 and we headed up the road towards a tiny 1 pub town called Shell to party with the ADV Riders…

No boots for Janelle
The East Entrance, just reopened after snow.

Old Faithful (+/- 10 minutes)
After the rain. Waiting for Lisa with no coffee.
We rode over those mountains

Days 17 to 19: The first big push part 2. 24 to 26th August

It took us a while to leave Coeur d’Alene with so many goodbyes, but we got on the road around 11 and began what was to become our love/hate affair with Interstate I 90.  A great road for getting somewhere the quickest way possible, for creating muscle aches in places we didn’t know existed, and for halving the life span of rear tyres/fuel tanks.

So after less than a day in Idaho we rode into Montana, the land of cowboys, huge hamburgers and really terrible coffee. And wall to wall Harleys with helmetless riders.  I do get the whole “freedom” thing, but at what cost? Sure a helmet provides protection in an accident, but it does at all other times too. “Freedom” vs bug splattered cheeks, loss of hearing and severe wind/sun burn. I know what wins for me. But then… I suppose we’re riding a bit further than just the next pub.

Anyway, we had been told about this little piece of magic called Lolo Pass so decided to check it out.  The GPS took us on a shortcut that the sign called a “Primitive road”. Basically just unsealed for about 10k, but the herd of goats was a bit of a surprise.  Anyway, Lolo Pass turned out to be exactly what we were told, and a quick stop at the ranger station clued us in on a secret campsite near some hot springs, down a walking track, overlooking a gorgeous valley. We were so there.

So we found the Weir Creek carpark, the walking trail and about 100 mtrs in, the little campsite that was our home for the night.  No photos of the hot springs, but trust me, it was everything as described, a (almost) natural rockpool, halfway up a mountain overlooking a valley.  It turned out to be quite popular with a group of about 6 or so 20-somethings hiking down the track just on dark.

Another little surprise awaited us too. Just as we finished unloading the bikes 3 ute loads of big beefy guys turned up. We saw our quiet night evaporate into a beer fueled boys party, and then they approached us, told us they were Sheriffs doing drug checks and proceeded to have a sniffer dog check all out gear.  We ended up chatting to them for about 20 minutes and they were quite amused about our original impression. (And no one got arrested just in case you were wondering).

The camp site was really lovely, the squirrel investigating our gear was entertaining and the hot spring was fantastic.  And for the dronies, I flew up and down the creek which was a huge technical challenge as it was almost entirely done out of sight on the screen. The drone came back in 1 piece, but was carrying some unexpected foliage.  Still, a successful and highly technical flight.

The next morning we rode back up Lolo Pass to the dreaded intersate and we made good time till our overnight stop in Bozeman. A cute little cowboy town with a public hot spring that gave us free admission. Unfortunately it was Saturday night and it seems that every teenager in Bozeman comes to the hot springs then too. Interesting, but that was about it.

The next day was meant to be very special, and it was sort of, although not entirely as we expected.  Two of the best motorcycle roads in USA, both in the same day! Beartooth Pass into Wyoming and Chief Joseph Highway to Cody, the gateway to Yellowstone and the goal of this big push.  The ominous clouds on the approaches to Beartooth were a giveaway, and as expected we soon encountered mist, then rain, then cold, then sideways rain…  And let’s not mention those damn RV’s (Winnebago things) grinding their way up the mountain.

We made a quick stop at the lookout to stare into the cloud before pushing on over the pass. It dropped down to about 6 degrees and the wind got worse until we were riding at about 30kmh to not get blown over.  But it was also breathtaking. Absolutely amazing to have achieved that.  And then suddenly we were on our way down, the wind stopped, the snow cleared and the sun came out.

We grabbed a quick hot chocolate at the next town before turning onto Chief Joseph Highway in warm sunshine and no wind. The next hour was one of the best rides of our life. Hardly any traffic, no RV’s, a fantastic road surface and scenery that was simply stunning. It was quite possibly the best road we had found so far and easily made the trials of Beartooth Pass worthwhile.

Sadly the road ran out eventually, we turned only another straight highway and rode into Cody Wyoming. Apparently the center to the Wild West.  More like the center of nowhere, but more of that later.

We had arrived at the gateway of Yellowstone Park. Eight days of hard riding, amazing experiences, new friends and personal achievements.  We never expected this would be easy, and it wasn’t. But every minute was worth is.

And then it rained… and then it snowed.

And then they closed the Park Entrance….

Weir Creek campsite

Beartooth Pass

A quick stop at Beartooth Pass lookout.

Flying the drone down Weir Creek, Lolo Pass, Idaho

Days 13 to 16: The first big push. 20th to 23rd August.

From the redwoods we just wanted to cover distance to claw back some chance of sticking to our schedule. So we had a number of big travelling days. This was the first 4, and I’ll just give a brief rundown of the high points.

The night among the redwoods was our last in California. Another hour up the coast at a town called Crescent City we turned inland, crossed into Oregon and followed this gorgeous river valley for a while, spoilt only by… you guessed it, far too many huge RV’s crawling along.  The temperature rose again to stupid levels and we started to ride through towns with “thank you firefighters” signs and the like. And the sky turned smokey. It was pretty clear the fires weren’t too far away. Other than a few emergency vehicles we didn’t really see anything of them.

We stopped somewhere mid afternoon for a break from the heat at some random Mcdonalds for a thickshake and then pushed onto Medford for a cheap hotel.  The sky that night was orange and the moon a nasty red. It was an ominous sign. This was also the day that Lisa’s hire car finally died leaving her stranded in Crescent City for 2 days waiting for a replacement.

We were warned the next morning that there was nothing much to see of Crater Lake through the smoke, but we rode up anyway just for the brilliant road. They were right. Nothing to see. A couple of photos to prove it and then move on.

This turned out to be our longest and hardest push so far. The ride from Crater Lake to a town called Bend was long, straight, boring and very windy. It was horrible. We had a late lunch in Bend and as it was a little after 3pm decided to stop there for the night, only to discover that it’s a ski town and the prices are completely ridiculous.  We settled on a ride of 2 ¼ hours to the Oregon/Washington border called The Dalles. It was flat, achy windy ride that had us arriving around 6pm completely exhausted. That day we had ridden almost 500 kms, most of it in a gusty dry cross wind. A motel for the night was the only option.

Next morning we rode over the Columbia River and into Washington State. An amazing water way and deep valley that was so impressive we stopped and played with the drone.  I’ve attached the vid below.  The haze is smoke from the fires which was to get much worse.  That night we camped in a small town called Yakima. Lisa called us to advise the hire company had delivered a new car up from San Francisco and she was belting down the interstate to catch up.

From Yakima we took highway 2 up through Washington State, heading for Spokane for their camping store so we could buy a new coffee maker cause some gumby left a part behind in Manchester.  As the day wore on it became more and more smokey until we were riding in a gloomy haze with features appearing out of nowhere as we approached.  The world was cut off to us and I couldn’t help thinking this could easily be post apocalypse. It was really that bad.  We stopped for lunch at Billy Bobs Burger Bar, or something like that, which surprisingly wasn’t quite a heart attack on a plate.

Spokane turned out to be a rather large city and we needed to escape, so working on some local knowledge from some days back we headed for a place called Coeur d’Alene about 40 minutes up the road.  It turned out to be a lake surrounded by resorts, but at the very far end a couple of campgrounds. The first was a shocker, even before considering all the RV’s, but the second was simply gorgeous.  So with Lisa quickly catching up, we put in an order for that nights dinner and drinks, which she picked up shortly before rejoining us.

We met a number of lovely people who came and introduced themselves when they saw the bikes. Janelle especially continues to be a huge hit because it seems, very few women actually ride here.

Our big push to Yellowstone continued for a few more days, but Coeur d’Alene is a lovely spot to leave off this story for now.

A well deserved hotel in Medford, Oregon.
Crater Lake. Yes really
Wizard Island in Crater Lake