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Jim and Kermit's Big Adventure (well, big to us)

big adventure

Thanks, Jim.

The tree kill is from the Mountain Pine Beetle, which has now spread from B.C. into Alberta. Our winters haven't been cold enough recently to kill them off.

I see your top speed keeps creeping up!:laugh

Rinty
 
Day 10, July 20, 2008.

Not much happened today. We left Calgary, and rode nearly 600 miles to Pembina, ND where we promptly got a room.

Just slabbing for the whole day, and then 100 miles of 2 lane slab.


ride-view-1.jpg

ride-view.jpg


Along the way my GPS wire broke, which I promptly fixed, and then Kermit lost an FF50 bulb, also fixed quickly, and so far the only mechanical issues, knock on wood.
GPS-issue.jpg

GPS-issue-2.jpg


Most of the day was about just miles, and though the area was far from exciting, the weather was great, and the views expansive.

down-the-road.jpg



At one point I found myself at 50K miles on my bike Odometer. Picture worthy.
50000-odo.jpg


GPS-EOD.jpg


In the end we are in a hotel in Pembina, ND, and awaiting a great ride tomorrow back into Canada.

Jim :brow
 
Electronics:

Camera\w lenses
Computer and charger/BMW Eprom
Flashlight
Batteries AA
Nikon camera
CPAP, mask and power cords
iPod and charger
Blackberry and charger
Cell phone and charger

I miss the old days...

List:

Bungee cords
Map


Thanks for the report! Great ride... but you missed Utah... :D

Be well... Ara & Spirit
 
Thanks Guys! The trip is hardly epic, but has been great for my soul, which needed some healing...

Day 11, Back into Canada

Up and early at 6, or was it 7? Kermit and I headed out towards breakfast. I told him to stop at the first McDonalds he saw for a quick and easy. He took me literally. Little did I know there are no McDonalds in all of North Dakota Kermit rode, and rode and rode, for 216 miles, tank to tank, forcing him to stop eventually for lack of gas.

Now I like to ride distance like the rest of you, but I rarely like 3 hours on one stretch! (NO, I am not Iron Butt material, though Kermit apparently is!)

After fueling at nearly empty, emptying a very full bladder, drinking a large bottle of water, and eating 4 mini-burritos for breakfast, we were on our way again

Daily-View.jpg

Pretty much the whole day this is all we saw!



crops.jpg

We saw these crops in Canada and the US for the last couple days and were wondering if anyone could tell us what they were?

Oh, and sometimes they were in Purple, for Tina I imagine, since she is the queen! LOL

Kermit-Sandys.jpg

Lunch at SandyÔÇÖs roadside was especially good in GepettoÔÇÖs roadside Adirondack wood working shop.

Kermit-super-8.jpg

Finally we found the Super 8 in Kenora, ON, and a nice place it is on the lake.

Some shots from the balcony:
clouds-01.jpg

clouds-02.jpg

clouds-03.jpg


In the end, not a lot of miles, but good ones, and now we start the last push past the Great Lakes. Expect some good pictures from this part!
GPS-EOD.jpg

Not bad for a wimpy day!

Jim :brow

PS For you ADV fans, I thought you might find this amusing

205.jpg



PPS Kermit is a great leader and riding companion, but I do love to tease!
 
Day Twelve, July 22, 2008.

From Kenora to Thunder Bay Ontario Canada. The ride was uneventful, and it was perfect weather. The roads were good, except the ever-present construction, and the views were nice, if not spectacular.


purple-flowers.jpg

A purple flower for a friend.

Sea-Plane.jpg

A cool sea plane display reminiscent of the show ÔÇ£Sky KingÔÇØ.


Sea-Plane-Bike.jpg

Even if it isnÔÇÖt, it is a very cool display, and fits the culture of the area.


Along the route we found the Beaver Post, all about beavers, I like that!
beaver-sign.jpg


Purple beaver stuff for Tina and Kielley.
beaver-purple.jpg



We also crossed the last time zone and are back in Eastern Standard time.
sign-east.jpg



I love the historical perspective on Canada.
sign-01.jpg



gps-lakes.jpg

You think the GPS was full of lakes, you should see the real ones. Water everywhere.

Along the way I noticed I have a few specific positions that save my back and hands:

position-hands-norm--back.jpg

The usual riding position, good for about half an hour.



Then the feet on the rear pegs, hands normal.
position-hands-norm--norm.jpg


position-hands-forward--fee.jpg

Then my forearms on the grips, throttle lock locked, and feet normal.


position-hands-forward--bac.jpg

This one is the ultimate for me, and typically covers 50%+ of my riding time. Forearms on the grips, throttle locked, and feet on the rear pegs with my chest on the tank. I can do this forever with no pain at all.

We stopped at the usual Super 8 motel and found ourselves joined by a bunch of bikes from Arkansas, Michigan and Washington.
Bikes-01.jpg

Bikes-02.jpg


In the end, a short riding day, but a good one.
GPS-EOF.jpg


Tomorrow we start over the Great lakes. I did a similar part last year, but we will get them all this year.

Stay tuned

Jim :brow
 
Jim - I am enjoying the travelogue - ride safe and keep us posted on your progress, Bob

PS - what was the problem with the GPS?
 
Hi Bob,

No GPS issues, capt me not reading it right!

Day Thirteen, from Thunder Bay to Sault St Marie (The Soo) Not a lot of miles, just over 200, but some great views of Lake Superior.


Simply stunning, and it never gets dull.

Thunder-Bay-2.jpg

We left thunder Bay, great name for a place! After that we headed out along the lake. The views were great and never ending!

JF.jpg

Who can name this guy?

Traffic.jpg

But, as they say, there are two seasons in Canada, Winter and Construction. We saw no winter, but plenty of construction! This one only had us held up for twenty minutes!


Flower-Bug.jpg

There were thousands of these stuck to my windscreen and headlight cover!

Bug-Headlight.jpg

Nasty!


Kermit-Picture.jpg

When we first started Kermit wasnÔÇÖt much into pictures, but he sure is now, and very good at it too!

There really was no end to the great views!
Bay-View.jpg

Bay-View-2.jpg

Lake.jpg

river.jpg

Road-Bay-View.jpg


This is just one of the attractions along the lake! If you stopped at them all you would never get anywhere, though you would probably be OK with that!
Rock-Gorge-sign.jpg

Rock-Gorge.jpg

Rock-Gorge-2.jpg

Rock-Gorge-falls.jpg


Near the Soo I found a great place to illegally park and get a picture.
Bike-lake.jpg



You have to love modern electronics. Anyone care to decipher how many miles this is?
GPS-EOD-metric.jpg


Jim :brow
 
Hi Guys,

Yes, of course I knew it was Terry Fox, and his story, but you get more responses asking the questions, and different perspectives.

Here is today's segment:

Day Fourteen, July 24, 2008.

Let me start with a little commentary on construction in Ontario, Canada. It seems that of the over 400 miles we rode today that not one road did not have construction. One road was construction all 21 Kilometers of it. Who pays for this? It looks like maybe 20% of adults 20-40 work on construction during the summer (lots of cute flag girls though), what do they do in winter (assuming no construction)?

That said, the roads not covered with orange cones are nice, and the traffic outside of Toronto is incredibly light. Were it not for somewhat slow speed limits, usually 90 Kph (62mph) this would be the ideal traveling country. Beautiful vistas, great scenery of all kinds, and very friendly people al along the way.



Road-View.jpg

The views along even the most mundane roads in Ontario are very cool!

Mountain-road-kermit.jpg

Kermit always hanging tight.

Mountain-road.jpg

I love the cut rock on most every road.

Chopper-Art.jpg

We saw this at a gas stop in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Cool!


Horse-Art.jpg

From Iron Horse to ÔÇ£IronÔÇØ Horses.
Dead-Bird.jpg

Kermit caught a bird, about the same as the one I caught in ND! Damn things seem to be suicidal!

GPS-EOD.jpg

In the end, we covered another 400 miles plus, and are nearing the US Border.

Lastly, the sunset from our room window!
Toronto-Sunset.jpg


Jim :brow
 
Home at 12:30 with a 300 mile final day for a total of 7275 miles in 16 days for me, and a few more for Kermit.

I'll be posting the last two day's pictures later.

Great ride, with a great friend!

Jim :brow
 
Day Fifteen July 25, 2008.

From Toronto to Scranton, PA we rode, from beautiful areas such as the Thousand Islands region to the industrial region of the US.


The ride from Toronto was uneventful and quick, just 110 miles or so.

Alex-Bay-Bridge-Whole.jpg

We crossed over the bridge onto Hill Island, which is split with Canada on the north side, and the US on the south side.

To get the shot above we scaled the Skydeck tower on the Canadian side. It is only 400 feet high, but great views of the Thousand Island area.
Alex-Bay-Tower.jpg

Well, we actually took the elevator.

Alex-Bay-Tower-Bikes.jpg

A view of the bikes from the tower.

Alex-Bay-Bridge.jpg

Here is a shot of us crossing the bridge, and

Alex-Bay-Bridge-2.jpg

The bridge after we crossed. The American side has an identical bridge crossing the St Lawrence River.

Alex-Bay-Customs.jpg

But, before we could cross that bridge we has to go through US Customs. There was a little line, but it was pretty fast. The only delay was talking shop with one of the officers that I know from my Customs training days.

After crossing the river we entered Alexandria Bay.
Alex-Bay-Water-Tower.jpg


Alex-Bay-Dock-of-the-bay.jpg


I have spent several months here from my training days, and knew a great place to have lunch. This is a great place to eat, with excellent food, and a nice view of the bay.
Alex-Bay-Sign.jpg

Alexandria Bay Sign, from the pier.

LotÔÇÖs of famous people come to Alexandria Bay in the summer, and this town hops on the weekends!

Alex-Bay-sailing-ship.jpg


Some very cool ships in the little harbor. There are several more, with even bigger ships around the bay.


B-Castle-.jpg

Another attraction is the Bolt Castle is a great example of early 20th century American opulence. Check out the history here. Though tragic, the castle has some interesting features, and is worthy of visiting.
B-Castle-Potty.jpg

If I remember correctly, this ÔÇ£outbuildingÔÇØ is the bath house.

Alex-Bay-River.jpg

The region is called the Thousand Island Region for a reason. Many of the islands have small to large houses on them. Very cool, and in winter you can sometimes walk to the houses on the ice.

Alex-Bay-Lighthouse.jpg

A very cool lighthouse on a tiny island.

Alexandria Bay is one of my favorite places in Upstate NY.

Heading out we rode on towards home, expecting to stop around Scranton, PA. We did, but found this guy pushing his cool Purple Sportster along I-81. (Cool, right Tina?)
HD-Gas.jpg

Not a safe place to be, we stopped and offered help.

Turns out he had run out of gas. So I popped off my side panel and my return fuel line and donated half a gallon to get him down to the next station. We followed him to make sure he got there and headed on.

Turns out Pennsylvania has itÔÇÖs own traffic issues with construction, and after several delays, and GPS guided detours, we made our destination nearly two hours later than we expected.

GPS-EOD.jpg


Dinner at ArbyÔÇÖs and a crappy Super 8 Motel, and an anticlimactic last night on the road. We had a much better hotel and bar in Toronto!

Jim :brow

PS Stay tuned for the wrap-up post, maybe tonight.
 
Day Sixteen, July 26, 2008.

Last day of our trip, and fairly uneventful, just a short 300 mile ride home, with a stop for lunch!

lunch-jalisca.jpg



We stopped at Front Royal, VA at the Mexican restaurant Jalisca and I realized we had not one obligatory food shot, so I added a couple.

lunch-kermit.jpg

KermitÔÇÖs California Burrito.

lunch-jim.jpg

My excellent beef chimi!

purp-duster.jpg

I thought Tina might like this sweet purple Duster!


kermit-jim-home.jpg

Two happy, and surprisingly unsore guys at my house where we started.

We actually did the route we started to do, but added a dip down into ND because Kermit had not been there before, and I had not on a bike. (Hopefully Kermit will post the updated route showing some minor deviations.)

Summer-Ride-Map-web.jpg


By the time we had 2000 miles on the trip, with 5000 to go, we thought we might have a tire issue. KermitÔÇÖs rear, and mine to a lesser degree, were showing a lot of wear. However, in the end, we both got home with stock tires and a few thousand miles left on them. Once again, the Avon Distanzias held up great, and rode exceptionally well.


tire-compare.jpg

My tire, and my 500 mile take-off from before the trip.

kermits-tire-worn.jpg

KermitÔÇÖs rear tire, still with some life on it.

As a matter of fact, we had nearly no mechanical issues at all. My GPS power wire broke after I adjusted my seat, and Kermit lost a low beam, and a Hella FF50 bulb, and that is it. I added half a quart of oil at 3500 miles, and it is still good. My bike has always used a lot of oil, but I guess at 53K miles it is finally broken in!

Both our bike are over 50K, KermitÔÇÖs over 60K, and neither of us hesitated a bit to take off with NO spare parts, antenna rings, or anything but the kit I usually carry. The bikes were absolutely flawless as far as we are concerned.

A few stats from the trip that I found interesting:

?À 7300 miles (each)
?À 17 states
?À 6 border crossings
?À 6 Indian reservations/reserves
?À 5 national parks
?À 4 Canadian provinces
?À 2 countries
?À 2 conformed bird suicides (a 3rd unconfirmed)
?À 2 bazillion bugs killed
?À 1 ride done, hundreds of ideas for more.

A few observations:

The best drivers are in the Midwest of the US and Canada, with Canada being better overall. The Canadians are generally more courteous, though we had nothing but great experiences with people everywhere we went in both the US and Canada.

Canada is a beautiful country! I have been in every US state, and several countries in Europe, and none are better than Canada in the West. As you go East it becomes harder to tell Canada from the US. The Canadian roads are good, if slow, with construction and low speed limits, but CanadaÔÇÖs short summers make for huge construction projects everywhere in summer.

Highway 101 north of Tillamook is one of the best roads I have ever ridden. Clean, fast, twisty with sweepers and light traffic!

There were bikes everywhere in the Midwest and Canada. Totally amazing to see the volume of bike traffic in the middle of nowhere, with cruisers covered in the same bugs as our bikes, and representing better than 80% of all the bikes we saw!

If you have never done a trip like this, you should try hard! It is amazing the things you see, the fun you have, and the feeling of release from everyday worries.

Here is the GPS for the end of the trip:
GPS-EOR-Standard.jpg


And for our Metric Friends:
DSCN8104.jpg


Jim :brow

PS I am missing Canada already, anyone up for a ride?
Canadian-Flag.jpg
 
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