day 3

Minot Nouth Dakota to Ashland Wisconsin
I have finally gotten an internet connection. I would like to thank Francie and Tim for keeping all of you updated. I have had trouble getting on to the internet, and not enough time to find another location.
North Dakota is very flat and a lot more lakes and water than I realized. Wheat harvest is rapidly going on during storms . We saw one place that is evidently raising elk, so add another wild animal to our list. As you get to the eastern aspect more and more trees.
Minnesota has alot of lakes, but I guess that all of you knew that already. The hardwood trees are just barely starting to turn and adding color to the trees. The Mississippi River is not very wide at this part of it's course. At Duluth we saw the first of the Great Lakes, Lake Superior. It was dark because of storm clouds and at Superior,Wisconsin it started raining and raining hard. It had let up some by the time we got to Ashland. 573 miles

day 4

Rain, rain and hard wind! We traveled from Ashland to Mancelona, continuing to follow Hwy 2 and a planned eight hour drive which lasted twelve hours. It was cool and pretty good traveling until Iron Mountain, where we stopped for lunch. But from them on it was miserable. We’d looked forward to crossing the Mackinaw Bridge. But sadly the wind was blowing 45 mph and it was raining hard. Paul reports he was more frightened than he’d ever been on his bike. He’s worn out the front tire and he had to be careful to not ride on the metal grate. 20 mph was maximum speed, worrying that we would slip or blow over. As we turned south to go to Mancelona, we missed a turn and continued following Lake Michigan further than we should have and added more miles than we’d figured. It was good to finally get to Walter and Lori’s home. Paul will go to the Ann Arbor area to a BMW dealership to purchase and have a new tire put on and I’ll go to Hillsdale and visit our nephew Reed and my oldest brother’s widow, Marilyn. Paul and I will meet up in Ohio and continue on.

day 3

Minot to Ashland, WI. About 540 mile day. Lots of trees, soy bean country, wind and rain, especially around Duluth. Francie made reservations for us at a nice little 1950’s motel. It was clean and had nice beds and not so expensive. Then found a great little restaurant where the prices were really reasonable. Enjoyed dinner and breakfast there.

day 1

There will be no pictures until I get to a better internet connection. 577 miles the first day, Moses Lake to Spokane then highway 2 to Sandpoint, Idaho, 200 to Montana 56 and then back to 2. On through Kalispell and then going to the sun highway. What a ride. I had forgotten how the west side of the road hangs on the side of the rocks. There were the usual sheep in the parking lot of Logan Pass, we had also seen deer and an eagle on 200. When we got to 89,it was open range and just at dusk with both horses and cows right along the roadside. We spent the night in Shelby, and were supposed to have wireless, but I could not get connected there.

preparation

The last night at home for awhile. Formaly quit full time work the 31st of August and have spent the last 3 days getting the bikes ready to go. One day each for full services and then today getting both of my tires replaced. I had initially thought that I would be able to get another 3,000 miles on the back tire, but was told more like 1,ooo. I didn't want tire failure in North Dakota. We are both all packed and ready to leave in the morning. We both are hoping for a good nights sleep. The weather looks okay for tomorrow, maybe some winds in the morning.

August 21

Another conditioning ride. We went from here over Chinook pass and on to Paradise. Mt Rainier was its ususal fickle self, could see it well while going to Yakima and over Chinook and even when we went through the gate to the park. When we were about 5 miles away from Paradise, it clouded up and we didn't see it again the rest of the day. Ate lunch at Paradise and then tried to help another cyclist with a flat tire. I could get the tire inflated with the little compressor that I bought but the air would leak around the spokes and not keep the tire inflated. We then came back via White Pass and on home through Moxee and back roads. A good trip, I did learn that on some corners I could not keep up with Paul and his sportier bike. Our main aim though is to be safe. Next is servicing the bikes and leaving on Saturday.

As part of getting ready,Paul and I took a 520 mile trip the second weekend in July. We needed to see if we had the endurance to go the distances that will be needed on the upcoming trip. We left home, going through Wenatchee, picking up highway 2 there and going over Stevens pass to Snohomish, thence up to Darrington and then on up to the North Cascade Highway and back east. We stopped in Marblemount for lunch and then after we came across the top just had to stop in Winthrop for ice cream and on to Chelan and then cross country back home, going through Withrow. A good trip and all did fine. Paul did get an air cushion for his seat after the trip. We still have not decided for sure what we will use for communication devices, but will probably go for a Chatterbox system which is wireless and mine will hook up with my phone. We each have a good 250 miles between fill ups of fuel, getting 45-50 miles to the gallon depending on how hard we are riding.