Well we have been out for more than a week now and are settling in to quite the routine. We have covered about 2500 miles doing around 250 to 300 miles per day. The roads so far have been pretty straight with not much traffic (I don’t know why anybody would choose a route on the interstate) but the scenery has been a lot of the same. We have ridden through Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and are now in Michigan. This continent we live on is huge!! Tomorrow we will head back in to Canada across the North Cannel between Lake Superior and Lake Huron into Ontario. We will push on for two more days then take a rest in Ottawa for a couple of days to let the feeling return in our back sides!!
Packing and unpacking the bike every night is a lot of work but we have been able to get it done in one trip each way. We are refining our routine every time and as we move things between bags and some things get locked on the bike we are perfecting the task with each day. As we both thought finding good stuff to eat is always a challenge coming from the west coast we are spoilt with what we find in the restaurants and even small coffee shops in general all the menus are base on the same food groups some of which I have struggled to identify!! But if you want a burger and fries that can be found any were. Good coffee is rare we even had one girl ask us what an Americano was. Help and get me to Italy!!
The bike is performing as expected we are burning about a tank of gas per day and that big tank is great but I guess if we had to fill up more often than that would give us one more rest stop. Navigating is fun I am planning the days ride and uploading it every evening to the GPS. As we get further into the more scenic parts of the USA and Canada’s east coast I think we will maybe need to spend more time on that but for now we have just been blasting across the country. We are both looking forward to getting into Vermont and on through to the coast as they are places we have not see and have heard so much about.
Finding accommodation is not a problem we have even used Hotwire.com where you book and pay for the room before you even get to know where you are staying so far it has worked and we have been getting some good deals so camping has not even been something we have considered also the weather has been a bit hit and miss so we decided the tent could stay packed.
We have ridden in the rain for quite a few hours but with the BMW gear we have on it is not a problem, so far not a drop has got inside. I think the heat might be a challenge for me when the weather gets better as even now I am only riding with a T shirt under my jacket. We are finding the wind noise to be quite harsh especially riding across some of the open country of Montana and North Dakota where the side winds have been extreme but now we are back in the trees of the Hiawatha National Park and as we cross into Northern Ontario I don’t think it will be a problem.
We are having a great time, we have spoken to some very interesting people and we have even been invited into a complete stranger’s home. We were just stopped looking at our map when a lady pulled over to chat about the bike. She and her Husband had made a trip to New Zealand many years ago and rented a bike for a few weeks and she saw our plates from BC. Well after chatting for a while we asked if she could recommend a place to stay and she gave us a couple of options so we got back on the bike and rode off only to be flagged down just down the road and asked if we would like to stay at their house so without a second thought we took her up on the offer and spent a wonderful night chatting about our plans and their experiences riding BMW’s with sidecars and their son in all around the great lakes Thanks to you both Kim and Dan and we mean it if you are ever in our part of the world we would love to repay your hospitality.
Just a note to say it was a pleasure meeting the both of you. When my wife called and said she invited two strangers home to stay the night, I said to myself I hope she made a good judgment call…and she did. We’ve had a long time interest on motorcycles and touring and it was fun spending the evening listening to your plan for the great adventure that’s facing you in the next year. Now I’m having a hard time going to work because I too want to just take off. I wanted to say, you lucky dogs to be able to do this…but it wasn’t luck. It was a your spirit of adventure that put you on the road and it’s obvious there are no toaster warrantee cards in your future. Ride safe and hope to meet again to hear about the trip…Dan, Kim & Sam.
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