FINAL POST

Willow and I at her final destination on the trip.

Travelled from Whistler down to Vancouver and spent a week relaxing with some really great friends. Took Willow to a friend's bike shop in Surrey and put her in a crate to ship back to NS. I wish I had time to ride her back and complete the loop but other adventures did not allow a big enough window. Overall the bike trip was a wonderful experience, I learned so much about motorcycles, America and myself. I am grateful to Trav for pushing me to do it and I'm glad I chose to do the trip on my old XS 650 despite the numerous breakdowns! When I left for this trip I thought it would be a one time experience but now I know without a doubt I'm hooked on motorcycle touring! Can't wait to plan the next trip, where should we go and who wants to come with me???

Before the next bike trip, I'm going to try my hand at blue water sailing. If you're interested you can follow that blog at www.twentyeightfeet.blogspot.com

Thank you all for your support and encouragement!

Day 33: Made it!

My friend Natasha who lives in Nova Scotia but happend to be in Victoria took me out for breakfast to a really nice little cafe. We went to the Sitka Skateboard and surf shop. They have a beautiful 4' halfpipe with pool coping that they just use to store stuff on top of. Such a shame.




I left Victoria at about 1:50 and went to Nanimo to take the ferry to Horseshoe Bay. I planed to get gas in Nanimo but the trans Canada suddenly turns into the ferry terminal. So I was suddenly in line for the boat. Getting off the boat I went into the village of Horseshoe bay looking for a gas station. No luck. Driving around the village I had to switch Willow to reserve. Decided trying to make it to Squamish was my only choice. Tried to go slow and coast down all the hills, but it didn't matter and I ran out of gas just outside of town beside this friendly bear.



Got it sorted and made it to Logan and Vika's place in Whistler just after dark. They came down to the driveway for big hugs and they helped me carry all my stuff inside. They promptly fed me chile and beer and politely listened to long winded stories about the trip. So nice to be here! Today Willow can rest, Logan is going to take me to try downhill mountain biking for the first time....

Day 32: CANADA

Had an uneventful drive the rest of the way up the Washington Coast. Made it to Port Angeles just in time for the 5:15 ferry to Victoria. The Canadian customs guy I had wsy super nice and also interested in motorcycle touring. He flew planes too, cool guy.

CUSTOMS GUY: "What are you taking in from the US?"
ME: "Uh... one can of beer, a broken chocolate chip cookie and half a quart of engine oil."
CUSTOMS GUY: "That sounds about right. Welcome home!"

Over due update:

I apologize for the lack of updates over the last three days. It's been an exciting adventure without a lot of time to spare. I'll try to make it up to you, here is a day by day update.

Aug 11th - Day 29:
Aimed to leave Trav's place at sunrise but after packing, bike maintenance checklist and fuelling up, we did not make it to the bay bridge until 7:40 where we sat in weekday morning traffic.

One of my goals was to get a photo of little Willow with the Golden Gate in the background but it was so foggy we could not see it at all. Crossing it was an uplifting feeling, finally out of town and on the number one.



It was foggy, damp and cold. The turns were tight and changed elevation a lot. On my left side the centerstand lever drags on the pavement and on tight right turns my actual pelican case drags. With all of our layers of clothing on we drove shivering most of the day. When a glimpse of the coast did appear, it was breathtaking! In Nova Scotia, one of the nicest rides we have is the cabot trail which traces the coast of Cape Breton. The number one is like that on steroids. Eventually as Hwy 1 turned inland toward Leggit the sun came out and it got warm. For the last 22 miles before Hwy 1 meets Hwy 101 it is nothing but beautiful tight turns among big perfectly spaced trees.

Like touristy suckers we took a detour to drive thru a big redwood tree. After a short break at this tree, Willow decided she did not wanna start. So we gave her about two hours to cool down and by that time she changed her mind and we were off to search for a camping spot. Trav had informed me that we were in a part of California called the "Emerald Triangle" which is a space in North Cal where a huge amount of marijuana is grown. This made total sense when every single side road we tried to take was blocked off with heavy duty gates. After 6 or 7 failed attempts it was getting dark. I saw a truck pulling out of one of the gates so I approached the diver and explained our situation.



The drive was Renee. A gypsy woman in her 60's who claimed to have raised five kids on the road by dumpster diving. She has been living in her truck since 2006. She told us that if we never revealed the location to anyone, she would take us to the non-gated side road where she parked her truck to sleep. I agreed to the conditions and what followed was some fairly intense off roading in the dark. Poor Willow and Fred. Once we got to the spot we set up our hammocks and Renee, slept in her truck beside us. She said if she saw bears, she would start the truck to try to scare them off.


Aug 12th - Day 30:
I woke up in the morning to find my hammock swaying above a patch of poison oak. We talked to Renee and learned a lot about how to survive as a gypsy and a little more about the marijuana industry and then we were off. The drive out in the morning seemed way less intense then it had seemed in the dark.



When we made it back to the pavement, Trav and I parted ways. He was such a good friend to go the first day with me! I picked up some supplies in Garberville and found an internet connection so I could call my friend Shaun (I'm not traveling with a phone). It was about 9:00am and Shaun and his friend Tim were already past Seattle after leaving Vancouver early that morning. I called them again at lunch they had made it to Portland!!!! They were really cruising.

We decided to meet for the night in Coos Bay Oregon. I got there first, got a motel room, picked up some beer and did my laundry in the sink. It was getting dark and I was starting to worry. I was just sitting down to update the blog when I heard the bikes pull in. Vancouver to Coos Bay in one day! Look at a map! That's crazy! Oh, and I forgot to mention that both Shaun and Tim were riding two up with their girlfriends. Oh, and I also forgot to mention that Shaun was riding a 1979 CB 400!!!! These guys put my mileage to shame. We went to the nearest restaurant which was a steakhouse. I tried to eat cow for the first time since Kansas but, I could only get a couple bites down. After dinner and beer we all fell asleep pretty quick.



Aug 13th - Day 31:
Went out for a greasy mom & pop breakfast with the couples. Then parted ways, They are continuing to San Francisco and I was eager to cross into my last American state before making it back to Canada. Heading north on the coast it was cold again and the wind pressure high. It was very tiring. The last few days were the first days of the trip that I really wished Willow had a windshield. On one of my gas stops I met a guy named Paul who has made a bunch of big motorcycle trips south. He said some of his stories were on a blog called Adventure Rider. I can't wait to have some more time to read them. In person he was very fascinating, kind and knowledgeable.



I stopped at Rockaway Beach. It's pretty cool, I get it. Then crossed into Washington. I ended up getting slightly lost while looking for a camping spot. I found myself on a skinny highly populated peninsula on the south west coast. There was for sure no camping here just one large sea side home after the next. So I started looking into motels. But no-vacancy anywhere. I guess this is a vacation spot. So in a last ditch effort I pulled into "Sunset Resort". A place on the ocean with a beach volleyball court, a tennis court and a parking lot filled with BMW SUV's towing speedboats. Clearly I could not afford to stay here. Like all the other places the sign said NO VACANCY. I got talking to the super nice and helpful lady at the front desk who no doubt took pity on me and said they had a room they were using for storage. I told her I would happily sleep amongst the boxes if I could afford it. This is the room they gave me. 50 bucks cash. I was even able to cook the food I had gotten for camping on the stove. Score.



Aug 14th - Day 32:
Thats today. I'm going to try to make it to Canada. Wish me luck.

Day 29: Heading North!

It's just before sunrise on Aug 11th, 29 days since we left Nova Scotia. I've convinced Trav and Fred to ride with me for one more day, it's going to be really nice to have a guided escort across the golden gate and out of town. Can't wait to get on that coast:

Day 22: Trav is Home!

Trav Says:
Had a decent sleep, and hit the road not long after sunrise. It's both exciting and strange to be in familiar places again. I'm eager to get home, and we're only a few hours away. I figure out the best route to avoid highways/freeways, and head for home. We stop for breakfast in Copperopolis, which has an awesome name. The foothills are nice. All the rolling hills are yellow with dried out grass, sprinkled with Oak trees. Just as beautiful as many of the other places we've visited along our trip, but it has the magic of not having snow in the winter.

We're able to take backroads all the way to Walnut Creek, and then we take 10 minutes of freeway to get to my place.

As I type this, I've home for 24 hours now. It's incredibly relaxing, but small hints of sadness are creeping in that the journey is over. Kev will continue his journey up to Vancouver, and he's trying to pressure me to go with him.

Overall, this was a fantastic adventure. Tons of bike problems, but I don't regret any of it. Kev is a fantastic person, and makes a great riding partner. It's great that we're both patient and easy going, as some of the most challenging parts of the trip could have sucked otherwise. I poke fun at Kev in earlier blog posts, but the truth is that I couldn't think of anyone better to do a trip like this with.

Kev Says:
Arriving at Trav's house was a bittersweet feeling. It feels wonderful to have made it here safely, but I am saddened that this marks the end of the journey for Trav. He is excited and relieved to be home and able to relax. Over the next few days I'll be preparing for the next leg of my journey from San Francisco to Whistler BC where I'm looking forward to seeing a bunch great friends.

It's going to be different to continue on the trip without Fred, Trav and Jimmy the GPS. I'm trying to convince them to join me for the first day or two or three.... Also, my friend Shaun and his girlfriend Rosanna are planning a motorcycle trip to Northern California over next couple weeks I'm hoping our paths will cross. Whether the trip turns out to be just Willow and I or with other friends too, I am excited about the adventures that lay ahead. I've been dreaming about Hwy #1 for a long time, I'm imagining it will be EXACTLY like this:

Day 21: California

Kev Says:
Not even 30 minutes out of Tonopah we saw the Sierra Nevadas, still sprinkled with snow and in a dark blue haze far away. Soon after that we crossed the state line into California. At first the change was slight. Mostly, just a bunch more road signs informing you of things you can now be fined for. Seat belts, littering, not turning your lights on. All of them still heavily punctured by gunfire just like the signs in Nevada.

We took HWY 120 which is filled with a succession of dips so abrupt it feels more extreme then some roller coasters I've been on. On this stretch Willow had an anniversary. Her odometer hit 50,000. I know it's not exactly accurate, but it was neat to see. She had 38,100 when I got her.

We stopped at Mono Lake and learned the minimum amount possible about tufas and then continued into Yosemite. The drive through the park is beautiful, but I could not get over how busy it was. A huge line of SUVs, station wagons and RVs following each other single file like a high speed parade. We stopped a couple times to take pictures of the valley and gawk at rock climbing routes and also to check out bridal veill fall. By this time it was getting dark, we had no camping reservations to stay and it was still a long drive out of the park. We drove until eventually we found a small offshoot road where we thought no one could see the bikes and hung the hammocks just before all the light faded. Thankfully no bear encounters.

Trav Says:
Had a decent sleep in Tonopah, NV. Ate breakfast in a small casino, then set out toward California. Explored an abandoned motel/casino just north of Benton, CA which was interesting. Entered Yosemite park (for those of you who don't know, it's pronounced Yo-sim-ite), and made it to Yosemite valley around 5PM. What a wonderful place. Spent some time at Bridalveil Falls, and then ended up having a race against the sunset to find a camping spot. We drove maybe 30 mins west of the valley and eventually found a good place down a side road and onto a dirt path into the woods.

Lots and lots of cars on the roads in Yosemite. When I drive a car, I find I'm modestly impatient. I've really tried hard to avoid adopting any of my bad car driving habits while riding a motorcycle, but it can be a challenge. When I'm riding an amazing mountain road with wonderful turns and twists (like through Yosemite), I want nothing more than to drive at a good (safe) pace for a motorcycle. So when I'm stuck behind slow traffic, it feels like I'm being robbed of something. Thankfully, thinking back on the trip so far, I can't recall too many occurrences of this.

Since we're on the topic, I would like to say that I think Kevin is a safer rider than I am. He's more patient and drives more responsibly. Good job Kev.

Day 20: The Lonely Highway.

Kev Says:

Crossed over into Nevada and things got lonely. After passing through the first town we went into a 200 mile (320km) stretch with no gas! About 50 miles in Willow decided to have a complete electrical failure and quit. I looked her over, thinking maybe the main ground wire had vibrated off as it did before. Nope, second place I looked was her main fuse. It was blown, but I had spares. Replaced it and continued on. 10 miles later. Quits again. Scan exposed wiring for shorts, find that the ground from the right rear signal had pulled out. Fixed it, replaced fuse, continued on. 10 miles later dies again. I have only one fuse left and 130 miles more to go to ANYWHERE. This time I inspect the wiring harness with a greater degree of scrutiny. Find a wire going to the taillight in behing the license plate that had been rubbed bare. Fix this and with fingers crossed that it was the problem, we continue on. Seems to have been the ticket!

We rode west on the lonely ET highway all after noon. Every single sign was riddled with bullet holes. You could tell the pace at which various beer consumers liked to drink based on the frequency of their brand of empties along the road. Our only company was long horned cattle that stood in the ditches and followed us past with their heads in unison. At 179km Willow ran out of gas. Despite me keeping the rpm under 4K and keeping my chin on the handlebars for two hours. Fred and Trav went the last 20 miles into town to fetch a jug of gas while I checked out big beetles and little lizards in the desert. When they got back we headed for town together directly into without question, the most gloriously dramatic sunset and impressive lightning display I had ever seen. It is exactly for days like this that I wanted to do this trip. I could not be happier.

Trav says:

Goodbye Utah, hello Nevada. Nevada is divvied up by a bunch of mountain ranges, with long long valleys between them. It's typical to enter a valley, see the mountains on the other side and think "OK, I can get there in 10 mins", but not actually get there until 35 mins later. Something about the vast open landscape which has no reference points except for the perfectly straight road makes you underestimate how far distances are. I like deserts, so I find the whole thing fascinating.

We rode on Route 375 which goes by the Air Force Range which contains Area 51, as well as where a bunch of nuclear bomb testing was done during the cold war. Pretty fascinating stuff.

Willow ran out of gas, and even though we had an extra liter of regular gas at her disposal (specifically for this purpose), apparently Willow is too good for regular gas and premium is demanded. Kev made me drive 20 miles to go get premium and then come back. What a jerk-face. It all worked out in the end, since we were rewarded with a wonderful sunset and lightning storm ahead of us in the distance.

Day 19: Grand Canyon & Zion.

Kev Says:
Wow being sick was not so great I felt pretty helpless and it slowed us down by a full day. Yesterday I was feeling good enough to ride for a bit so we went down from Kanab to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I was still feeling a little under the weather so we decided to set up the hammocks and nap for a bit. I found a pretty prime location near the canyon edge, probably one of the better views I've had during a nap. We woke up from this to yet another thunder storm. We tried to outrun it and mostly succeeded getting only a little wet. Then we went back into Utah and through Zion State Park. So awesome, if you're into motorcycling, rock-climbing or photography, go there now.

Trav says:
Kev was selfish and decided for "the team" that is he was too sick to ride a motorcycle. So we spent a full day in Kanab, UT, and he started feeling a bit better later in the day.

I had previously seen the Grand Canyon form the South Rim, so I was interested to see what the North Rim looked like. We got there around 11AM, and although the views are most certainly spectacular, I think the views from the South Rim are a bit more impressive.

Kev's body is still pathetically fragile after dealing with his illness, so we're trying to take it easy today. We rode through Zion in the evening, and were treated with amazing views. Of all the parks in Utah, none of the locations seem too touristy or developed, which I felt was refreshing. Zion falls outside of this category, and you must pay a fee to enter the park, and the road feels specifically designed to shuttle thousands of tourists through the park. Still, it was extremely beautiful, and I would highly recommend it to anybody.

Day 17/18: Utah rocks

Trav says:

We slept in and took the morning off to relax. We drove through Capitol Reef park, and witnessed the most impressive 5 mile stretch of road on this trip so far (for me at least). The road cuts along the side of a spectacular canyon, and then dips down into it. Truly amazing. I can't think of anything better than to ride these roads on a motorcycle. The twists and turns are so perfect, combined with the beauty of your scenery. Disney could market this as the greatest theme park ride on the planet and make a killing.

As the day wore on, the clouds looked ominous and we were pretty sure we were going to get rained on. The road happened to take us on a rain-cloud dodging path, so we lucked out. We drove through Bryce park, but the views from the road were not particularly impressive. I think you need to take some side roads to truly see Bryce.

We ended the day in Kanab, UT, right on the Arizona border. Getting close to the Grand Canyon!

Update: Kev got really sick last night and started puking in the early hours. As I type this, he's been puking off and on for the last 7 hours, and he also has a serious fever. Perhaps food poisoning, perhaps influenza of some sort? I'm not keeping count, but I would guess he's puked at least 10-15 times.

I've attached an image I just took of him in bed. He's not posing, and he actually looks that terrible. His fever is up and down, and he moans a lot. Thankfully we were not camping when this happened, as that would have really sucked for Kev.



Update 2: I just did some reading on wikipedia, and it's unlikely that it's food poisoning, since he doesn't have the hot poops. Whatever it is, hopefully it's not contagious.

I've also added a rough map of our route so far:


View Cross-country Motorcycle Trip in a larger map

Day 16: Solitude

Kev Says:
After leaving packing up the hammocks, the first couple hours of riding were downright cold, which I much prefer to riding in the heat, as does Willow. After about 150km we stopped for a roadside diner breakfast where they had the same plates my mom uses at home. By noon we crossed over into Utah. Although our next destination is south to Arizona, we decided to make a big horseshoe to the northwest to explore the terrain Utah has to offer. Turns out it's pretty amazing. We went down roads that were endlessly flat and straight. We could ride for an hour or more without ever meeting another car. Then the flats turned into deep gorges and canyons. There were so many, after a while we stopped even slowing down to look at them. When we stopped at the Colorado river bridge, Trav informed me that the town we thought we were heading to is not a town but rather a natural monument of some kind an the next town was in actual fact still quite a ways further. Having no gas gauge on Willow, very little drinking water left and the sun dipping behind the cliffs made the next hour very stressful. We rolled into a gas station (that as literally inside a mountain) with lots in our reserve tanks to spare. No sweat, whay was I so worried? After fuelling, it became apparent that Fred is having some electrical problems, but we got him going and made it to motel in Cainsville (we hadn't seen good hammock trees in 4 or 5 hours). We decided to take a late morning the next day so we could take some time to update the blog and look into Fred's problems. We went check out the pool & hot tub instead of going straight to sleep. After a 630km day it felt pretty great.


Trav says:
As we started coming down out of the colorado mountains into a large plateau, it really looked a lot like Nevada to me. Very dry, flat, and desert looking. I thought in my helmet "Wow, this really looks like Nevada!." It was a realization that I'm getting really close to home, and I had this giddy wave of excitement come over me. This trip is completely amazing, but I do miss my wonderful wife Amanda. She's patiently waiting at home for me, hoping I don't kill myself.

We entered Utah and my mind exploded when we started going through the Glen Canyon park. Indescribable endless beauty which continued for 150 miles. We're only half way through Utah, and this is already the highlight of the trip for me. I can only imagine what Bryce and Zion parks look like. I have a fascination with desert areas anyway, but the buttes and canyons are truly amazing. This is a spectacular part of the world that I would recommend to anyone! Rock on Utah!

Ohh yeah, and we almost ran out of gas, but we didn't. Lesson learned: We'll need to be really careful when crossing the sparsely populated areas of Nevada. Our bikes will only take us roughly 180-200 miles before needing more gas.

Day 15: The Rockies!

Kev Says:
Packed, fed and on the road by 6:15 we left the feed lot behind and crossed into Colorado in no time. The weather was cool and it made me and Willow both feel good. We had a little sprinkle of rain but just enough to clean the Kansas bugs off of my visor and make the road look contrasty and clean. Before to long, I noticed Trav pointing at something in front of us. It was the Rocky Mountains popping up in the blue hazy distance. We made it! I was so proud of little Willow. All the way from Nova Scotia to the Colorado Rockies! We continued thru the mountains for the rest of the day. As we got close to Monarch Pass (which has an elevation of 11,312ft) Willow started having a hard time. She sounded boggy and there was nothing I could do to get her rpm up over 3500. Her top speed in 5th gear governed out at about 75km per hour. We chugged along until we got over the pass and started heading downward. After a minute or two when the oxygen returned to the air she was back to her old self and we kept chugging. We found a great camping spot and 20 miles west of Gunnison. Had a fire, ate and slept. My sleep was still not amazing but it was the best so far. I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of hammock camping. (Pun absolutely intended)


Trav says:
After two long days of riding in Kansas, entering Colorado was quite the elation. At the beginning of this trip, both Colorado and Utah were high on my list of states to see, so I'm pretty excited to arrive! The rockies here are quite different than the Alberta rockies. Much more arid, and less dense. It's like if you took a chunk of the Canadian rockies, and then stretched it out a bit, you have larger plateaus and valleys, but still some large peaks spread throughout. I've read that the mountains are a bit more intense a bit further north from here (north west of Denver). Decent sleep in my hammock. It was a bit cold though, which I suppose to be expected in the mountains.

Day 14 continued...

Kev Says:
It takes all day and over 300 bucks but Willow is released around 5:00pm. We head west out of Dodge hoping to push for Colorado before dark. However the weather has other plans. It gets dark really dark fast and birds start flocking east by the thousands. We keep pushing on until we heard that familiar boom and see the lightning that has cut a couple of our days short. Begrudgingly, we decide to stay in Kansas one more night.

The only motel in the area just happens to be in close proximity to a feed lot. Which is a big dusty area where cows are fattened on corn until they are killed. I've seen some documentaries about this practice and it's really quite disturbing, we had been driving by these for the last couple of days but this was the first time we stopped. In a moment when the weather let up I went and shot a couple photos for you guys. This was probably the smallest of the feed lots we saw. Neither of us haven eaten meat on the trip since.

Day 13 & 14: I've got a feeling we're not in Missouri anymore.

Kev Says:
Kansas is flat, dry and hot. We rode about 500km then miraculously by sunset we found some trees at the edge of a field to hang the hammocks. Woke up and hit the road around 6:20 and headed further west on the same flat road.

Willow has been having some problems starting and I've been using the kick-starter over the last few days. I'm getting pretty tired with that so we brought her to a shop in Dodge City. The doctor gave her a compression test which she passed with flying colours. He figured it was once again the points to blame and by chance they had two sets in stock. She is still in the shop now so I guess we'll just have to wait and see if we're gonna get the hell outta Dodge today.

Trav Says:
Ahh Kansas. I expected you to be perfectly flat, and completely treeless. However, it turns out that you have some small rolling hills and a few trees here and there. I'm disappointed.

It's bloody hot. Both days are in the 100's. I'm surprised Willow hasn't overheated in this weather (the piece of shit that she is - I kid, I kid. Hopefully Kev doesn't read this before he posts).

A lot of corn stuff going on around here. Corn fields, lots of trucks driving around with chopped up corn stalks going somewhere (for bio fuel? or biomass?). Decent number of trucks driving around with livestock shoved in the back, heading off to be slaughtered. Kind of makes me sick to see. Also lots of natural gas wells and oil pump jacks in the fields. I can often smell the vented gases from the natural gas wells, but I asked Kev and he said he never noticed. Maybe it's in my head after watching Gas Land.

Anyway, I'm eager to get to Colorado for a change of scenery (as well as lower temperatures!)

Day 12: Ozarks

Trav Says:
We had the joy of driving through Cairo, IL today! I remember reading about Cairo about a year ago on reddit, and how it was a perfect example of an american town that has become a wasteland. Indeed it is an empty shell of what once was probably a decent town. As I was thinking these thoughts in my helmet, we got pulled over buy the coppers. Thankfully, he only gave us a warning. What a nice fellow.

Missouri, which I previously knew nothing about, has some really nice forests (called the ozarks) and nice winding country roads. Halfway into the countryside, the main route we wanted to take ended up being closed, and our detour was all over the place. For some reason Jimmy didn't know which roads were dirt and which were paved, so all the recommendations he was making ended up being dirt roads, which would be okay if they were short, but this would have been hours of dirt road driving. Anyways, we eventually made it out of the ozarks, and ended up in Springfield, MO for the night (where we saw a friendly preying mantis in the parking lot).

Kev Says:
We've seen a lot of roadkill along the way so far. You name it, racoons, porcupine, deer, cats, fox, birds, snakes, squirrels, frogs, rabbits, turtles, rats and groundhogs but today just after crossing the Mississippi river I saw a lifeless armadillo laying on the paved shoulder. In that moment that I realized for the first time that we really are far from home.

Shortly after that we were pulled over by the police for the first time so far. 41 in a 30 zone. Let us off with a warning. Score!

By some stroke of luck Willow has never fallen over in the three years I've owned her but it came close TWICE today. Once she slipped sideways in 3" of mud but I somehow was able to save her. (don't ask why we were in mud) The second time I was kick starting her in a gravel parking lot and lost balance. I caught her on a 45 degree angle and was holding the weight of her fully loaded with cases with one leg. I was not strong enough to right her but refused to let her drop so I just held on as long as I could and two helpful people ran to my rescue. Thank goodness Willow remains undropped for now.

Today we hit over 600km Which feels good even if 1/3 of it was not exactly in the direction we wanted to go. While trying to explore for less straight and more interesting roads we ran into some road work detours that left us circling in the Ozarks for a few hours. It would have been annoying if it weren't so fun. The roads were mostly good and the rolling hills and turns were a welcome change from the general flatness we found in Kentucky. Although driving into the sunset tonight was blinding it gave the sense that we were finally making headway in the right direction, if the bikes keep working and we keep this pace I might actually make it to Vancouver before I have to go back to work.

Willow and Fred did so well today they deserved a good comfortable sleep.

Day 11: No bike troubles. Soaked again.

Woke up, and started the day with a surprise 45 minutes of dirt road. Willow seems to be heavy on the front, which makes controlling her that much more difficult on gravel. Bummer. We made decent time going through Kentucky, although the only roads going west are highways, which are boring. Around 6PM we notice some dark clouds to the north, and within 30mins the storm hits us full force. We make it to a ghetto motel in Mayfield, KY. Everything we're wearing is soaked (again). Today's millage clocks in slightly over 500km! Good job Willow and Fred!!

Day 10: Copperhead Rd

Woke up, rode on the back of Kev's bike over to where we left my bike for the night. Tried to start it up (with fingers crossed) and nothing happened. Starter turns it over, but it doesn't catch. Crap. Looks like we're going to have to get Fred towed to a local motorcycle shop. We call AMA (American Motorcycle Association) and a few hours later a tow truck shows up. We get Fred towed to a shop 20 miles down the road who is amazingly open on Saturday. We wait around a couple hours, and then I could hear the distinct sound of Fred's engine running! I walk out to the parking lot, and some guy is driving him around. Awesome. I ask the guy what the problem was, they he said that someone plugged the carb vent hose into the runoff plug form the gas tank. This means that when it rains, the water from the ourside of the gas tank will run into this hose directly into the carburetor. Clearly the last person to work on the carb was a complete moron who hooked up the hoses wrong and had no clue what they were doing. Wait. I think that was me. Anyways, this incorrect hose setup might explain all of my recent Fred troubles. I'm relieved that it was something so simple, and truly hope that this marks the end of Fred's problems.
We hit the road around 3PM, and started looking for camping spots close to sundown. We were in the deep backwoods of Kentucky. (because I decided to go against Jimmy the GPS' reccomendation and do some exploring) All the properties had multiple posting of NO TRESPASSING or WE WILL SHOOT YOU IN THE FACE IF YOU TRESPASS, etc. Kev was concerned that if we camped on someone's property without permission, that there was a very serious chance of actually getting shot. When we knocked on a guys door to ask if we could camp in the woods across the road he informed by locals that the area is "infested" with copperhead snakes that "would get us fer sure" the kind gentleman went on to tell us "I dunno how many a dem I killed this morning". So with that we continued on to the little town of Jellico, TN and moteled it for the night next to a pizza shop. This was a bonus because having wifi let us update the blog and with zero snakebites we fell asleep around midnight.

Also when we went against Jimmy's guidance we ended up discovering some nice twistys.

Day 9: Best Day - Worst Day.

I slept pretty good, and Kev slept okay. Hit the roads at sunrise, and put in a solid morning of riding. There was an amazing 40 mile road in Virginia which followed a river and had the most perfect turns. What an awesome ride. Around noon, I noticed that Fred is starting to run crappy. It's the same problem he had previously, so it's possible he's overheating. We make it to Saltville, VA where we let Fred rest for a couple hours. Eventually, he starts up, and we ride for 30 mins until a crazy rain storm comes upon us. The wind and rain was intense, and thunder and lightening was all around us. Perhaps this type of storm is normal around here, but I haven't seen weather this crazy in a long time. Fred sensed that we were shocked and worried about the storm, and decided that this was a good time for him to quit completely. So here we are, in the middle of a psycho rain storm, and Fred won't run. It was so tragic, it was comical. Kev left to find a motel, and vowed to return and pick me up after he got a room and took the cases off Willow. The road to the motel was blocked by a wind fallen tree. Eventually we got to the Motel (which was half destroyed by a tornado a couple weeks perviously) and met a man who's big rig was struck by lightning. The only thing we could do was try to make light of the situation by drinking like Ameericans.

Day 8: Fun Roads!

We're in the appalachians now, so the scenery is beautiful. Lots of winding country roads in the hills. Jimmy (our GPS) took us on some dirt roads as a surprise as well. It's a hot day today (95f / 35c) so we're being careful to avoid overheating the bikes.

West Virginia is completely awesome and the roads are perfect for motorcycles. Beautiful tree covered mountains, nice windy roads. It was a full day of riding, and we camped somewhere south of Bowden, WV. No mosquitoes, which was rad. Some wildcat or something with a paw print the size of my palm that coud easily reach 4ft off the ground mauled my top case on Fred trying to get to our food, but he failed (what a loser).

Day 7: Willow Goes to the Doctor.

Bloody hell. It's been a week since we started and we're still only in New York. Taking the backroads on these motorcycles really is slow. Since we're not taking freeways, all the backroads generally run through small towns and we constantly get stuck in traffic. The windy roads and great scenery in the countryside is quite wonderful, but progress is slow and sitting in traffic through towns is violating.
We found a good motorcycle shop in Parryville, PA (www.blockers.com). They took a couple hours and found that Willow's ignition timing was off and so they adjusted the points, and she was running good again. Willow's speedometer cable broke a couple days ago as well, so they fixed that( by making a cable with an antique car tool from the 1920s), and also put in new air filters.
Fred just sat in the parking lot while this took place. Afterwards Willow ran like a champ, and we ended the day in Shippensburg, PA.