USA4CT - Ride Day 21 - June 18, 2013 - Tue

Start Time: 0630 CDT
Stop Time: 1800 CDT
Start Location: Williston, ND
Stop Location: Superior, WI
Lodging: Best Western
Dinner: The Shack
Miles Traveled Today: 617
Weather: 52-80-57, Sunny

We were kinda glad to get up early and head out of Williston, ND. I guess this must have been what the California Gold Rush was like back in the 1800's. We stopped to get gas in eastern Montana and a local told us to watch our and be careful the closer we got to Williston. Really did not expect what we did encounter there!! I would have to say I am glad I came through the area and personally witnessed all the business activity going on there, but we were so glad to get out of the area and head on east. Sure don't plan to go back to Williston anytime soon. If you need a job, looks like that is the place to be!!

Here was one of the many oil wells going into production. Most of them were venting and burning off the gas as in this one.

This was a typical picture of all the highways/streets in Williston. Even had temporary stop lights installed on wooden poles at many intersections due to the truck traffic. We made the mistake this morning of not stopping on the right side of the road for gas and had to cross over to the left side to a gas station. Didn't think we would ever get pulled back out on the highway going east!!

Lots of construction of temporary housing, i.e. "mancamps" everywhere. They even had temporary "mobile motels".

EVERYTHING was expensive too. The highest price we paid for premium gas was in Williston, ND. Even higher than California!! ($4.59 a gallon). Kinda ironic that gas/oil was so expensive there with the oil/gas boom going on!!

No doubt it is an economic boom to the town and state and I am sure there are a lot of mixed feelings with the locals there with the huge disruption in their lifestyle.

Lot's of infrastructure going in. Water, sewer, electric lines, roads, etc.!!

Anyway, good to see it, but was really glad to leave this morning!!

No other pictures today. We crossed both North Dakota and Minnesota on US 2 and landed in Superior, Wisconsin for the night. Good day of riding and another 600 mile day! Temperature was a little cool both in the morning and when we arrived in Duluth/Superior. I guess Lake Superior keeps the air temperature cool/cold for awhile in the summer!

USA4CT - Ride Day 20 - June 17, 2013 - Mon

Start Time: 0700 MDT
Stop Time: 1830 CDT
Start Location: Kalispell, MT
Stop Location: Williston, ND
Lodging: Best Western
Dinner: Big Willy's Restaurant
Miles Traveled Today: 581
Weather: 55-75, Sunny

Today was a ride across Montana, Big Sky Country. I knew that on our way, in the neat little town of Hungry Horse, MT was The Huckleberry Patch!! The place has been in business for 20 years and the people that own it have been dealing with Huckleberries for over 60 years. They do know Huckleberries! This was my THIRD time stopping by and having a piece of Huckleberry pie. I stopped here in 2007, 2010 and now 2013 (hmmm, every 3 years, will be interesting if I am back again in 2016, maybe so!!!!). I had asked Bill if he liked Huckleberries and he said "oh yes". I told him I knew the place we were going to stop by for Huckleberries in that case (of course, I was going to stop whether he liked them or not!!)

We had our normal continental breakfast at the Hampton Inn before we left at 7 am. We had decided that we would get coffee and a piece of Huckleberry Pie at the Patch instead of another full breakfast!! I thought The Huckleberry Patch opened at 7 too. When we arrived the door was locked with a sign that they didn't open until 8 am!! I thought OH NO, that is a loooong time to wait for a piece of Huckleberry Pie. About that time a lady walked by the door and I knocked. She opened the door and I explained that we were on a motorcycle trip from Richmond, VA and we just wanted a piece of pie. She said, "In that case, come on it. We won't have breakfast ready until 8 am but the Huckleberry Pie and coffee are always ready". She let us in, so we had the place all to ourselves while we enjoyed our pie!

WOW, it doesn't get any better than this!!! Huckleberry coffee and Huckleberry pie!! We also loaded up on some of their Huckleberry preserves and pie filling to bring home. Nothing more valuable could occupy the limited space on our motorcycles!!! hehe!

WOW, that is quite a smile on Bill's face!! Wonder why?????

I don't think I had a picture of myself for the "record book" in front of The Huckleberry Patch" so I had Bill take one for me. Now I have it officially recorded.

I also wanted to ride the "Going to the Sun" Highway through Glacier National Park. I had ridden the road back in 2007. Here are a copy of pics from that ride in 2007 and a video my riding friend made of me coming down the west side from Logan Pass:

The "line" mid way down the mountain in the picture is the "highway"!!

Keith, in 2007, was the "videographer" of me in this short video:

 

Unfortunately, the Going To The Sun Highway was STILL not open due to snow today!! No big deal, we would just continue on US-2. Neither of us had ever ridden US-2 around the south end of Glacier NP, so all is good!

We stopped for a break and a few pics at the top of Marias Pass and the Continental Divide.

I always like to take a few pics of my bike with the snow covered mountains in the background. I like the red in contrast with the gray and white!!

Here is Bill

More of my bike!!

About that time, I needed to take a "nature" break so I headed up the hill into the woods. (BTW, for all my East coast friends, I made sure I took my "nature" break on the Pacific side of the Continental Divide - sorry West coast friends!! hehe!!)

Remember the snake "incident" in the National Park in Maryland a couple of weeks ago. Well, as I was standing in the wooded area I looked over to my right and saw this. Now the picture doesn't do it justice, as what I thought I saw at the edge of the woods was a GRIZZLY BEAR!! But as you can see it was a brown limb of an evergreen tree (if you get back from the picture it does look like a bear face). It was enough to startle me a little!! hehe, again!!

On east we rode. The true meaning of "Big Sky Country" was realized as we headed east of Browning, MT. WOW!!

Reminds me of the song I like by The Highwaymen, "The Road Goes On Forever and The Party Never Ends"!! (One of my "theme songs" for this trip!)

The last sight of the Rocky Mountains of western Montana behind us. BTW, that is Bill behind me as I took this picture with the camera backwards. Lucky shot traveling around 70 mph!!

We made it to Williston, ND for the night. We had called several places the night before trying to find a hotel room. If you don't know it there is a oil boom going on in western North Dakota and Williston is right in the middle of it. I will post more pics tomorrow of the area and talk more about it. Here was our dinner for the evening. We found a really neat restaurant within walking distance of the hotel we did find with a room!

USA4CT - Ride Day 19 - June 16, 2013 - Sun

Start Time: 0800 PDT
Stop Time: 1800 MDT
Start Location: Winthrop, WA
Stop Location: Kalispell, MT
Lodging: Hampton Inn
Dinner: La Fiesta Mexican Family
Miles Traveled Today: 456
Weather: 60-85, Sunny

WOW, this is what we woke up to this morning. We had left the sliding door open last night. Had a really good night's sleep with the cool mountain air and sounds of rushing snow melt water of the Methow River right outside! Yesterday had been a really exciting day so it was nice to have a restful night.

 We walked back downtown for a hearty breakfast this morning. Here is Bill waiting for his breakfast to be served at Three Finged Jack's Saloon.

This was a picture in the saloon! At first, I thought someone had taken my and Bill's picture the night before and had it mounted on the wall already!! Hard to remember all the celebrating we did last night for finishing the USA4CT!! hehe!!

Nope, this was more of the way we looked the night before in the saloon!! hehe, again!!

Look at the size of this plate of sausage gravy and biscuits!!

Look at the size of that pancake and all that bacon, just for Bill!!!!We definitely had a hearty breakfast!!

We headed on east on US 2. Planned to take US 2 all the way to the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan. As you can see, it was another beautiful day on our tour! Very little traffic. One short stretch of US 2 was under construction and we had to ride on gravel for about a mile, but without any delay. We also had an elk run out in front of us nearing Idaho. The dang thing got in front of us and just ran down the road for about quarter of a mile. All we could do was slow down to a near stop and watch what it may do. It finally turned to the right and headed back into the woods.

Another beautiful SUNNY day of riding across Washington, Idaho and into Montana!!!

USA4CT - Ride Day 18 - Tour Day 15 - June 15, 2013 - Sat

Start Time: 0630 PDT
Stop Time: 1800 PDT
Start Location: Yakima, WA
Stop Location: Winthrop, WA
Lodging: Hotel Rio Vista
Dinner: Carlos 1800 Mexican Grill
Miles Traveled Today: 478
Weather: 65-85, Sunny

Well today would be the day to complete the USA4CT by visiting Blaine, Washington. I had read about the North Cascades Highway (WA-20) and about the town of Winthrop, WA. It looked like we could make it to Blaine and then head on east on WA-20 to Winthrop for the night.

I had also "met" another USA4CT rider, Charles, who lived near Seattle through the Southern California Motorcycling Association. He had completed the tour solo back in May of this year. We became Facebook friends and I had got several "tips" from him about the tour. I called Charles yesterday and told him we planned to be in Blaine today, so he said he would plan to meet us in Everett, WA and ride up to Blaine with us. Charles also has a very unique motorcycle that is truly his as you will see later!

We had a beautiful ride up to Everett. First thing this morning we took scenic route 821 along the Yakima River between Yakima and Ellensburg. I had ridden this route back in 2007 and knew it was good. It was a refreshing start to our ride today! We also crossed Steven's Pass on US-2. All of US-2 was a beautiful ride.

We met Charles at a rest stop on I-5. Spent some time talking about our trip and Charles' customized Road King. Charles is a retired US Army Miltary Policeman and current works as a police officer at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. His bike is "customized" for a military policeman!! Pretty cool as you can see in the pictures below.

Somewhat surprising he was only stopped on his USA4CT one time by the state police and that was in Illinois (someone had called 911 about a motorcycle going down the road with guns!!). After he showed the state police his bike and that he himself was a career police officer they all had a good laugh about it!

Charles is a great guy. We really enjoyed meeting him and having his company & direction along our way to Blaine. He was a real asset in leading us through the detour on I-5 near Mount Vernon where the interstate bridge had fallen into the river back in May. Took us only about 30 minutes of stop and go traffic to get through the detour. 

BTW, Charles tells us his current base commander where he works will not allow his motorcycle on base!!

Well, here we are, at our final corner of the USA4CT!!! And in 15 days too, since we left Madawaska, ME! Bill and I both felt a great relief and a sense of achievement at the same time. I had been planning and thinking about this tour for several years and had it set in place for last year when I had my accident coming back from Daytona. This was a big ticket item on Bill's "bucket list"!! We both felt the achievement, since this official tour sponsored by the Southern California Motorcycling Association (SCMA) has been running for 29 years. It started in 1984. 1,300 people have completed the challenge over the 29 years. That is an average of only 45 people per year. As Blake Anderson, the chairman of the SCMA said, more people climb Mt. Everest every year than ride the USA Four Corners Tour!!! Now we just need to get our documentation sent out in the mail and get the official certification and plaque sent to us as well as our name on the SCMA US4CT web site!!! That does feel good!!!!

Had to get a pic of all three of us at Blaine too!!

After the documentation pictures and gas receipts we all headed back south on I-5. Bill and I headed east at Bellingham. WA-20 was pretty straight and flat for several miles until we hit the North Cascades National Park and the scenery and road really changed as you can see below!! Hardly any traffic so it was a fun, enjoyable motorcycle ride!

Note in this picture the railroad track well about the road. This was a pretty good grade. I was hoping to see a train coming and to see how many engines it would take to get up this grade. I am sure it was a lot. We didn't see a train.

We made it to Winthrop and our lodging for the night, Hotel Rio Vista. Lots of motorcycles there!!

The desk clerk gave Bill and I a prime parking location for our motorcycles!!

This is the river right outside our room balcony.

Here is where Bill and I had our now, traditional cigar and Scotch for finishing our fourth corner.

We were hungry so next on the agenda was dinner. We wore our USA4CT hats & pins with pride this evening too!!

I think we really celebrated with dinner too!!

Winthrop was a very authenic looking Western town. It was hard to walk down the board walkway without putting your thumbs in your pockets or walk bowlegged (that was pretty easy for us after now about 9,000 miles in the motorcycle saddle over the past 3 weeks!!)

This is the oldest "legal" saloon in the state of Washington

Hey, this was our kind of place!!!! hehe

USA4CT - Ride Day 17 - Tour Day 14 - June 14, 2013 - Fri

Start Time: 1000 PDT
Stop Time: 1800 PDT
Start Location: Crater Lake NP, OR
Stop Location: Yakima, WA
Lodging: Best Western
Dinner: Outback Steakhouse
Miles Traveled Today: 330
Weather: 26-85, Sunny

Even though I didn't set the clock, my intent was to get up early enough to see the sun rise on Crater Lake. That I did! WOW, was it ever COLD this morning. The official temperature in the lodge was 26 degrees and my bike thermometer showed 27 degrees. Quite a heavy layer of frost on my motorcycle in the parking lot. For sure we would have to wait for a warm up before departing as a Harley does not include a defroster!!! (although probably should for what it costs!!)

 So here is the pic of the sun coming up over the edge of the crater. Quite a site. Funny, although it was in the 20's, I didn't really feel cold. I guess I had already got used to the colder temps having been in them for about a day now. After a few cups of coffee, I ended up hiking about 3 miles on the rim trail, just pausing and enjoying the views and taking a few pics along the way. I talked to Bill and Marty and told them to just go on to breakfast without me this morning.

I took a bunch of pictures this morning. Just like the evening before, as the sun rose and I walked along the rim trail the view of the lake constantly was changing. Here are just a select few of them.The pictures speak for themselves:

This was my shadow next to a rock column. I thought it was kinda cool as the rock shadow looked somewhat like a face.

It warmed up into the upper 40's around 10 am so we packed up to take off. We had called Wildhorse Harley Davidson in Bend, OR a couple of days ago to see if they would work us in for an oil change if we just stopped by today. They said they would and should get us done in about an hour. Most Harley shops will do that for traveling motorcyclists, although I have been to a couple that would not do that, but that is definitely the exception rather than the rule!

 We said our goodbys to Marty and he headed on South as we headed North ready to make it on to Blaine, WA for our last corner checkin. We knew it would take more than a day to get there so we planned to spend the night around Yakima, WA.

We had to stop at the North entrance station since I had been talking to Bill on his CB a few times coming out of the park but I wasn't getting any response. Hadn't mentioned it, but since riding in the Tropical Storm back in Florida, Bill's LCD display on his radio had gone blank. Apparently some water got into it and shorted something out. The radio and CB continued to work, it's just he couldn't tell if it was on or if the volume was turned up. We found that the CB volume had gotten accidentally turned down when we stopped. Fixed that and we were back on our way.

We made it to Wildhorse Harley Davidson around 12:30. The folks there were super nice and took our bikes right in for the oil change. They even made us a fresh pot of coffee! Kinda funny, our home dealer in Richmond is Steelhorse Harley as is where we got our last maintenance, now we were at Wildhorse Harley for our next maintenance.

The ride up US 97 was a nice ride. Not much traffic and nice scenery. The best part was coming down into the Columbia River gorge and coming back up out of the gorge. That was some fun, scenic riding.

We made it to a Best Western in Yakima, WA and ate dinner across the parking lot at a Outback Steakhouse. We were ready to head on to Blaine and our final corner tomorrow!