Equipment Review

I think that we did a really good job preparing for our trip.  We used most everything that we brought with us (although we only used the stool just so that we could say that we did).

Vehicle prep

Our vehicle preparations were (mostly) spot-on:
* The clear plastic film did a good job of minimizing incidental scratches and nicks from rocks on the road.
* We scraped the skid plate a number of times in construction zones and on secondary roads.  I am sure that I would have done damage to the bodywork without this skid plate.
* Without the luggage rack on the trunk we just wouldn't have had any place for the tent and sleeping bags.
* The little pouches for glasses and incidentals worked out well.
* Cargo nets in the saddle bags and trunk worked well and are quite cheap.
* The backrest was welcome at times, but also a bit of a nuisance at times.  It wanted to constantly flop forward requiring someone to set it up before the driver could mount.

Things that didn't work as well as I thought they would:
* The foot rests (highway pegs) weren't as comfortable as I would have liked.  My feed kept knocking into the front fenders.

The vehicle itself

With the exception of the cruise control, the Spyder performed perfectly.  Its stability in the greasy construction zones of the Yukon was very welcome, as we didn't have to worry about falling over.  We talked to a number of two-wheeled riders who had issues with this, to the point of damaging ankles!
The Spyder always had plenty of power and was quite comfortable, especially on the pillion seat.  Although the spousal unit had no problems with the front seat, my backsides would complain after about an hour and a half when riding in the front position (this is not unusual for me, for I have this experience with many seats).

Power was always plentiful, tractable, and smooth.  I really like the manual transmission as it provides plenty of engine braking on long downhill runs.  The service tech in Eagle River was surprised to see how little brake wear we had experienced compared to the automatic transmission models.

Again, once one gets past the fact that it is not a two-wheeled vehicle, it is a remarkable machine that does what it does very well.  It is purpose-built as a three-wheeled vehicle and performs that role admirably.

Even thought the fairing and front of the vehicle protect the rider well from cold and rain, the handlebar warmers were most welcome during those ~50 degree days.  I  only broke out the cold weather gloves twice.

I tried using the radio a few times, but at anything over about 35 mph it is just garbled noise.  So most of the time I just left it off.

Other equipment:

We only needed the mosquito head nets twice.  After the horror stories we heard about the 'State Bird' of Alaska, we are not disappointed.  As small as these head nets are, they made for cheap insurance and were welcomed when they were  needed.

We also only used the Kelty awning twice.  Again, it was most welcome when we used it in Seward and Homer as someplace to get out of the rain without having to be crouched inside of the tent.  Definitely worth the space and weight, including the pole.

The Klymit sleeping pads are RECOMMENDED!  They roll up into a small package, yet are still very comfortable.

The Eddie Bauer and Marmot down sleeping bags did a good job of keeping us warm and could be compressed with the tent into the dry bag carried on the luggage rack.

Clothing:

Both the BMG Mercury (his) and Tourmaster (hers) jacket/pants combinations performed admirably!  I took the lining out of the BMG in favor of a light fleece jacket which made it easier to layer up/layer down.  The BMG liner has a lot of buttons/zippers/loops making it a chore to install/uninstall.
There were only a couple of times when were were a little cold, and we never got wet while wearing this gear.  Since we were tight on space, these jackets were worn almost constantly, and with the pants were welcome on wildlife and glacier viewing boat excursions.

Electronics:

The tablet was great for updating the blog and for internet searches.
Although I added a second power outlet in the front trunk of the Spyder, we rarely used it as it was often blocked by stuff.  However, the power outlet in the rear trunk was regularly used to charge phones, camera batteries, kindle, and tablet.

Day 27, somewhere along the inland waterway to Yakima,WA, 235 mi

24 July 2015

One thing that has really surprised me is how protected the inland waterway waters are.  One could easily travel from Seattle, WA to Alaska by small boat, almost entirely in protected waters.  There are only a few relatively short passages exposed to swells from the open Pacific Ocean.  For the most part, travel by boat is quite comfortable and smooth.  Again, without the distractions of email/cell phone/television/internet, it is very contemplative.  I never felt bored or lacked for something to occupy myself.

After a good night's sleep (the sound of the engine no longer keeps us awake, and the gentle motion of the ship seems to promote sleep), we all awake feeling refreshed.  The day is overcast and cool, with periods of rain.  The tent people get their tents packed away early,  before we are in another rain shower.  Luggage is loaded on the bike at the first access to the car deck at 8:15am.

Note:  Access is allowed to the car decks only at certain times of the day so that passengers can attend to their pets which must remain in vehicles on the car decks while underway.  During these times one can also access their vehicles to retrieve items they may need.

One can 'feel' a different attitude on the boat today.  People are antsy to get back on the road.  We all know that the relationships we have made will soon be dissolving as we prepare to return to our regular lives.  Some exchange contact information with others so that they can keep in touch.

There isn't a whole lot new to take pictures of this morning, just a few lighthouses spaced a few miles in from Vancouver, Island.

Vancouver Island in the background

Ferry terminal in Bellingham, WA

We eventually get to Bellingham, WA and watch as the ferry is docked.  Curiously, everywhere else the ferry docked side-to so that cars were loaded from the side of the ship.

However, in Bellingham, the ferry docked such that the door in the stern opened so that vehicles could be unloaded.






  

Working the lines

This is quite the process, which the workers carry out with real professionalism.  Final positioning of the ferry is handled by winching the stern of the ship to the dock using 2 inch thick lines.


First, a thin messenger line with a monkey's fist (knot) is thrown to a dock hand.  This line is used to haul the heavier dock line which is made fast to a bollard as shown in the photo.

No tug boats are used when docking or un-docking.  Just the engines and bow thrusters.

We were fortunate to be in this group of bikes that got off the ferry early

While passing through the Seattle area we stop to visit with a friend, Ash who now lives in Redmond.  Some famous Seattle coffee was enjoyed while we got caught up on each others lives.

After all, when in the Seattle area, one MUST have coffee, right?






From there we worked our way to Yakima, WA.  The highway just climbs up, up, and up from the coast.  As it does, the weather clears and gets warmer.  Soon we are shedding layers that we have worn almost constantly for the last couple of weeks.

Eventually we reach Yakima, have a couple 12-ounce bottles of muscle relaxant and a plate of nachos for dinner.  When we return to our hotel I am too exhausted to use the hotel's Internet to update the blog, so we just lose consciousness until morning.

Day 26, Ketchican to somewhere along the inland waterway

23 July 2015

We slept much better in our new location on the lower deck, only awakened by the announcements attendant to our docking/undocking from Ketchikan at 3 a.m.  For the first time in a couple of weeks I can see that the sky is actually dark!  I had become used to going to bed (near midnight) and waking up to twilight.

When we wake up we notice that the passage has become more open and we can feel the gentle rocking of the boat to the muted swells of the Pacific ocean that manage to find their way into the waterway.

Today is laundry day.  How nice that the boat has on-board laundry facilities.  Two washers and dryers are located in each of the rooms for men's and women's showers.

One thing about the Inland waterway is that there is always something to see.  Islands near or far.  Boats  of all kinds: fishing boats, sailing boats, barges, runabouts, derelict, etc.  Birds of many kinds.  Whales. Dolphins.  Just a small sampling...

A beautiful 3-masted schooner

Coast Guard exercises

One of many lighthouses

Traveling by boat has proven to be every bit as enjoyable as I had expected it to be.  For very long stretches we are out of cellular communications range, which means no email, internet, or phone calls.  This provides people the opportunity to have casual conversations and get to know one another.

I remember traveling by air before cellular phones became common.  Upon boarding a plane I would 'test' my adjacent passengers to see if they were interested in conversation.  If so, we might enjoy a pleasant conversation for the next few hours, making the flight pass quickly.  Now everyone's attention is diverted to some electronic device, often attached to earphones effectively saying "don't" even talk to me.  Without these distractions on a boat one is left to read a book, watch a movie in the on-board theater, watch the passing scenery, or visit with fellow passengers.  Really quite civilized.

After spending several days on a boat, one observes little communities develop of people who have never met before, and will likely never see each other again.  The tent people enjoy hanging out together.  The motorcyclists can all identify each other and find it easy to start conversation about shared common experiences.  The parents with children tend to hang together.  A number of the same people can regularly be seen sitting in the open air on the stern decks, making it easy to notify each other about the latest whale sighting.

We end the day in the dining room with a couple in the process of retiring from Fairbanks to Washington state enjoying a delicious Alaskan seafood dinner of salmon, halibut, and local shrimp.

The day goes by slowly, pleasantly, presenting lots of opportunity for photos of the passing scenery.  Just a few more...

These guys usually transit in the night

Just a view forward

Spectacular location

Day 25, ferry day 1 Haines to Ketchikan with stops in Juno and Petersburg

22 July 2015

Exploring the ship in the morning we find another deck that allows tents, two down from the solarium deck that we pitched our tent on.  This location is much better protected from the weather (being under the dining room), exhaust, and engine noise.  We quickly decided that this would be our new home, so we moved the tent to the lower deck and re-erected it using previously used Gorilla Tape scavenged from the deck.  Even previously used Gorilla Tape is better than the tape that we brought.  Gorilla Tape is RECOMMENDED for use on ferry decks!

Ours is the Marmot

At the Juno stop some more marine campers joined the impromptu Hooverville.  Soon our little enclave is well occupied.

At this point we felt that we needed to establish an HOA to keep the riff-raff out, and to make sure that tents that didn't conform to our color palette not be allowed to move in.

Despite being accessible only by air and water, Juno appears to be a fair-sized city.  The ferry terminal is some miles away from the city, precluding our ability to just walk off the dock and explore, so we just hang out while cars unload/load.

As we pull away from the ferry terminal and make our way out to the inland waterway we can see the Mendenhall glacier just to the east of the city.




Continuing on our way, we are notified of sightings of porpoises and whales.  Out come the cameras to shouts of "Thar she blows"  "Over there, a breach"  "I see two of them!"  As is usually the case, by the time one clicks the camera shutter, all that is caught is a splash.  We do, however manage to capture a few whale images.

A whale of a tail

Petersburg is a picturesque working town of fishermen.  Since our stop here was very brief, we didn't go ashore here either, but we did take some photos.

I've never seen a dock for float planes before

As we make our way down the inland waterway the water is very calm, and the views typically fabulous.  We learn from one of the ferry employees that we will be traveling through the second most narrow passage approved by the US Coast Guard for large vessels such as our Ferry, the M/V Columbia.  I think he said that the ferry is the only ship of its size approved to go through the narrows. When we reach this passage shortly past Petersburg we see that it is indeed quite narrow, and the ship has to make quite a number of turns through the narrow passage.  There are many parts where it would not be possible for two such ships to pass each other.

As evening arrives, some of our Hoovervillians are prompted to play a little music.  One couple from Canada on their honeymoon play mandolin and fiddle, while a third from New York brought along a guitar.  These musicians had never met before, but like the true professionals that they are, they soon were making great bluegrass music together to the delight of their audience. Some of the tent people offer to buy them dinner for their entertainment and we are asked to join (we just had pie and coffee). It was a fun evening all around.

Bluegrass on the Inland Waterway

Day24, Haines to ferry transit, N/A miles

21 July 2015

Not a whole lot to talk about today, as we are  mostly biding our time until it is time to load on to the ferry.
We went to the library to update the blog with a couple of posts.  Unfortunately, a sign on the door said that their internet access was down.  Bummer.

So we spent the day exploring the Haines area and took a few photos.

These ducks were in the middle of the Chilkoot River.  It looks like this rock sees a lot of together time - just ducky!

On Chilkoot Lake

Since the salmon are now running in the Chilkoot, the fishermen are out and about trying to catch a few.  We were told of a place where the bears sometimes compete with the fishermen for salmon and went to see for ourselves.  Despite the signs cautioning humans not to interfere with the lives of bears, we didn't see any bears with which to interfere.  We did, however see a number of bald eagles, which were the subject of many camera lenses.

This guy just missed something in the water

At around 7:00 pm we arrive at the ferry dock and find about 8 motorcycles already in the lane 1 queue to get on.  As the evening progresses more and more congregate in the lane 1 area.  Soon there are about 30 motorcycles of many makes and types.  Mostly Harley Davidson and BMW models, but also KTMs, Hondas, one sidehack, another Can-Am Spyder from Texas, and even a Ducati with two tires tied on back.  As is always the case with motorcyclists, people started introducing themselves to each other and shared stories of their Alaskan/Yukon/British Columbian adventures.

Our ship comes in

Eventually we board the ferry at about 12:30 Wednesday morning.  We had heard that there can be some serious competition for tent space on the deck, so the spousal unit sprints off to find a spot while I secure the Spyder on the lower car deck.  When I find her on the upper, solarium deck I find that we are the only ones with a tent!  We try to secure our tent with the lousy duck tape that we had brought (it sticks to itself and to the tent stake, but not to the deck!).  We finally crawl into our sleeping bags at around 1:30 am, to the fine aroma of diesel exhaust and the sound of noisy engines.

Day 21 Palmer, AK to 30 mi near border, 351 mi

18 July 2015

This was another day about putting on miles as we make our way to Haines to catch the ferry to Bellingham, WA.  After three weeks it seems hard to believe that we are on the backside of our adventure.  By now we have kind of figured out a rhythm  on the road.

Morning  comes.  I start the stove and boil water for coffee.  The spousal unit deflates the sleeping pads and stuffs the sleeping bags into a plastic bag.  Off comes the tent rain fly.  If there is sun is out the rainfly is set to dry.  If it is  cloudy/raining, the wet side is folded in on itself.  After coffee, the tent is packed into the dry bag with the sleeping bags along with the laundry.

After coffee, all of the camping detritus is stuffed to the various storage locations on the machine and the dry bag winds up on the trunk rack. Maps are  consulted, and a plan is made for the day.  Then we are on the road.

Time to get fuel.  Someone asks about the Spyder resulting in another nice  conversation with a local.  "Where you from?"  Colorado.  "All the way on that thing?" Yes, this is our first time to Alaska.  "Well Alaska will changes a fella"  I can see how.  "How do you like that Spyder?"  Once you get past the idea that it is not a motorcycle and appreciate it for what it is, it is really a fine machine for this trip.  "You should really check out the Cassiar road  the views are spectacular". Well, that will have to wait until next time, as we are on our way to pick up the ferry.  Like the man said, Alaska will change a fella so that he (or she) will want to return.

Today we finally saw the mythical Alaska bears, we had heard that they exist, and today we actually saw them.  Two cubs and their mama.  We don't have evidence of the cubs, but we do have photographic evidence of the mom.  See:

The cubs are already in the woods on the left side of the road

We can also see that fires are still burning along the border with Canada.  Hopefully they will show up in the following:

We could see 4 fires at once from here (not all visible in photo)

Highlight of the evening:

We stumbled onto the Lakeview Campground at the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge some 30 miles north of the Canada border.  It is free (but accepts donations), has a clean pit toilet, but no water.  A sign says that water is available at the visitor's center. 

There is even a photo blind for taking pictures of birds in the adjacent wetland.  This campground is obviously well-loved and is RECOMMENDED.

Another couple motorcycle camping at the same campsite just shared with us some salmon that was caught just two weeks ago and smoked in Seward, packed in oil.  Easily the best smoked salmon I have ever put in my trout hole!

Day 20 Anchorage, ak to Palmer, Ak, 67 mi

16 July 2015

This was a low mileage, high satisfaction kind of day.  After checking out of our UAA dorm room (co-ed nonetheless!), we made our way to the train station for the trip to Whittier.  The train follows the Turnagain inlet for most of the journey, which we had already seen a few times during our local travels.

Near the junction to Portage Glacier the train enters the first of two tunnels.  The first is an unremarkable train-only tunnel.  The second one is a combination train/car/truck tunnel that is the longest combined car-railroad tunnel in North America at 13,300 feet in length.  Cars and trains must share the tunnel, each able to travel in only one direction at a time.  This can be problematic for single track vehicles (two-wheeled motorcycles), since they may get a tire caught in the rail grooves,  so they are allowed through the tunnel last.
Whittier tunnel link

Once in Whittier we boarded another cruise boat to check out some more glaciers.   On the way to the glaciers the boat serves a nice salmon and prime rib lunch which was enjoyed by all.  It turns out that traveling by motorcycle has some nice benefits, one of which is that we had proper attire for the excursion in the form of warm rain gear - how nice, because it was cold and wet when we started out but cleared later. As usual, the views were fabulous...

Walter White has nothing on nature

After feasting our eyes on fabulous glaciers for a while, including minor calving, we had to indulge ourselves with the obligatory glacier ice chilled Margarita (sans salt).  Made with blue curacao, it was quite tastey.  We found this Margarita to be a bit more 'aged' than those we usually make with fresher ice.

<<Margarita photo here>>

One thing curious about Alaska laws is that one must always present an ID when purchasing muscle relaxant (you know, sometimes spiced, often mixed with Coke to make a refreshing end of the day beverage).  When we asked about this policy we were told that people who have a problem with such substances will have a red stripe on their ID, indicating that they are not allowed to make a purchase.  If two people present themselves at the checkout counter, then both people must present their IDs!

Returning to Anchorage by train, we spied a small bore tide <<link here>>.  Once I heard that they exist here, I wanted to see one.  Of course, we saw lots more fabulous glaciers (oh look, there's another one - yawn).

Once back in Anchorage we got a head start on our trip to Haines by putting on just a few miles to Palmer, AK where we found a lovely campsite very near town for $15 per night, the Matanuska River park.  We have now refined our camp setup that we can be in our sleeping bags in the tent in about 10 minutes!

Tomorrow should be a fairly high mileage day as we retrace our route back over the border and through the Yukon towards Haines Junction.

Matanuska River park.

Buckets filled today 6:
Calving glacier view
Being relatively up close and personal to a big glacier
Train ride in Alaska
Cocktail with glacier ice
View of a bore tide (although I did see one once in the Bay of Fundy)
Alaskan moose (3) and bear (1) Sea otters (2)

Day 19, Homer, AK to Anchorage, AK 251 mi

16 July 2015

Today was the drive to make it back to Anchorage and check back into UAA (University of Alaska at Anchorage) for the night.  In the morning we will be boarding a train bound for Wittier where we will be taking a boat ride to look at some more fabulous glaciers.  Be on the lookout for more YAFG pictures soon.

The whole day was cool and rainy.  Mostly in the low 60s / high 50s.  We didn't stop to take many pictures since the route from Homer to Anchorage is the same as from Anchorage to Homer, when we took lots of pictures.  It is a good thing we took pictures on the way down, because on the way up there was much more cloud cover making for less fabulous pictures.

Nevertheless, we did take a short detour to Hope where we found many fishermen and fisherwomen catching fish in a small river.

Cleaning fish

Looking down from the bridge we could see that many fish, about 18 to 20 inches in length were positioned in the water, appearing stationary.  In the short time that we were there we saw a few of the fisherpersons catch some of the fish.

Main street of Hope, AK

Hope is an old gold mining camp that once had 3000 people in it.  The 1964 earthquake caused the land to drop by some 6-8 feet, inundation much of the town.  As a result a number of the buildings were moved to higher ground, including those in the following photos.

View from Hope across Turnagain Arm

Tomorrow should be a full day of taking pictures of fabulous views from the train and pictures of fabulous glaciers from the boat.  As soon as we return to Anchorage from the train we will start heading for Haines where we will pick up the ferry to Bellingham, WA.  The trip will take a couple of days, as we need to go all the way back up to Tok, then down into Canada again.  It may be a couple of days until we again have internet access sufficient enough to make updates.

Day 18, Homer, AK to Homer, AK, 50 mi

15 July 2015

This is the farthest from home that we will be on this trip, and we figured that it should be a 'relaxing day'.  Since our campsite doesn't have showers, and we haven't showered for ? days (only we know), we indulged ourselves and our clothes in a good cleaning at a nearby commercial RV/camp.  After $6.00/shower and $6.00 for a load of laundry ($18.00 total cleanliness fee), we were ready for lunch.

At the Homer Spit we found Captain Pattie's for lunch where we split a pound of mussels in coconut milk with ginger and curry followed by a fine lunch of grilled halibut, salmon, scallops, and shrimp (they were out of local oysters on the half-shell).  Easily the best mussels I have ever put in my clam hole!
Captain Pattie's is RECOMMENDED.

The rest of the afternoon was spent sucking up the local glacier views.

YAFG

The big deal here is halibut and salmon fishing.  If we wern't on a motorcycle we would probably be fishing too.  However, without a cooler it is hard to deal with 10's or 100's of pounds of fresh fish.

Day 17, Seward, AK to Homer, AK, 173 mi

14 July 2015

I don't like breaking camp when it is wet, but that is exactly what we did, after it rained all day and all night.  We went to bed listening to the patter of raindrops on the tent.  In the morning the tent was wet, the tarp was wet, we were wet, and on it went.  In any event, the weather finally let up as we moved out of Seward and visited Exit Glacier.  This appears to be a popular glacier to visit & photograph, and we saw a number of tours that cater to the ice climber as well.

Now this is blue ice!

YAFG (Yet Another Fabulous Glacier)

Once we left the glacier our focus was to get to Homer.  Although only about 170 miles away, the trip took almost all day because of slow speeds, traffic, and construction.  I've noticed that after we haven't ridden much for a day or two, my back/shoulders start to ache after just a few hours.  However, after a few repeat days on the Spyder this doesn't seem to be a problem.

Along the way were rivers the color of cloudy turqouise enjoyed by fishermen and rafters.  Of course we took pictures, but don't know if the colors will come through.  We passed many businesses catering to fishermen including an Orvis shop.

No, the colors just don't show well

Once we reached Homer, we feasted our eyes on some of the finest high caliber, high-octane Alaska scenery known to man, including multiple glaciers and your usual fabulous fjord views!

View across Cook Inlet

YAFG as viewed from Homer

Not much else to say about this day except that we found another nice municipal campground for $8.00/night for tenters.  Karen Hornaday Hillside Park has pit toilets, plus flush toilets at the adjacent playground.  This is a nice place with very private campsites that are out of the wind.  No mosquitos, but watch out for the stinging nettle (ask me how I now).

Karen Hornaday State Park is RECOMMENDED

For dinner we found some frozen scallops taken from across the bay and cooked them up over charcoal with summer squash with onion and hollandaise sauce (for the oil).  Mmm, tasty!

Day 15, Anchorage, AK to Seward, AK 154 mi

12 July 2015

Although 154 miles isn't much compared to many of our other days, it was enough for today.  The entire day has been cool and rainy/misty/foggy/drizzly.  We donned our rain pants shortly out of Anchorage and made our way on to Seward.  En route we spied more YAFLs, but the weather didn't really make for lovely photographs, so we will try for photos on our way out.   Like Valdez, there is only one way in and the same way out over land.

Seward Marina docs float w/ the tide

When we got to Seward we were both a bit chilled, so we decided that a coffee was in order, which really warmed us up.  We also discovered that the city maintains a LOT of municipal camp sites, including a number of nice tent sites.  These are really nice because they are within walking distance of town centers.  From the campsite we are in one can walk to grocery stores, restaurants, etc.  The marina is also within walking distance.  At $10, this campsite has pit toilets, but no shower.  However we just heard that one is available just a few blocks away.  The municipal campsites in Seward are RECOMMENDED.

I also found open internet access from the tour company we are using (Major Marine Tours), so I nabbed some bandwidth too.

More on Major Marine Tours tomorrow

First time we used the tarp - it was definitely worth bringing

This is a major location for trips into the Kenai Fjords Park area.  In fact there was a large cruise ship docked in the harbor when we arrived.  The focus here is much less on glaciers than on wildlife.  So of course, the spousal unit had to book another cruise in hopes of seeing large marine mammals.  What this means is that we will be spending two nights at this camp site (nice not to break it down tomorrow morning).

While here we stepped into the Yukon Bar (since 1942).  This is one of those bars with the dollar bills plastered all over the ceiling and guns on the wall.  Yes, one of those kind of places (my kind of place).

I'm sure my dollar is here somewhere

Don't take your guns to rown, boys

As I write this it is 9:30 pm and there is still plenty of light.  There will still be plenty of light in two hours.  I am starting to get accustomed to the extra light, but it still seems a bit weird.  Once we start moving south again days will start to seem really short.

Numbers for today...
Average temperature: 60 degF
Number of beers consumed: 2 (each)
Number of calories in dinner:  1300 (each, Progresso chili with Fritos and onion)
Number of interesting neighbors conversed with: 2

Day 4 Renton, WA to Larrabee State Park, WA 148 mi

1 July 2015

After the last three brutal days, we decided today would be an easy exploration of the Seattle area.  We started out down at the newly reopened waterfront.  Since we were early it was easy to find a parking spot.  While purchasing parking permit for 3 hours, a guy struck up a conversation with me.  He said that he had missed his train last night, that his cell phone was stolen, and that he just wanted to get back home to Missoula, MT.  His story sounded plausable, but they all do.  So I gave him $5.00 to help him out.  He was looking for $25, but I figured that he was now at least 20% closer to his goal.

After paying for my $16 parking permit, I placed it on my headlight, as one is directed to do for motorcycles.  We then had a nice time wandering the waterfront, taking pictures, and having a nice lunch of fried oysters and clam chowder.  When I returned to the Spyder I found a parking ticket for $44.  Hmm... What rule had I transgressed?  Since it was timed for only 10 minutes earlier I figured that the officer who gifted me with it would still be near.  In fact he was.  He told me that while I had placed the sticker on my headlight, I had failed to attach the actual receipt with the sticker, which was in fact the backing of the sticker, which wasn't obvious from the tiny writing and tiny picture.

The evidence

This made our $15 lunch the most expensive we have ever had at $75.

[edit: When we returned home to Colorado I filed a request online to mitigate the amount of the fine.  My argument was that I had, in fact, paid the $16.00 fee, so the $44.00 parking ticket fee should be reduced by that amount.  On 31 July 2015, a Seattle Municipal Court decided that I do not owe a debt to society and dismissed my parking ticket.  SWEET!]


Of course this is Seattle, so we had to get the obligatory cup of coffee.  Not Starbucks. And we had to make the obligatory pilgimage to the Space Needle, which we didn't go in.  Because I am cheap - they want $18 each, just to ride the elevator.  Besides I was already in that thing back when it was new.

Some views of seattle:

The squid

Space needle from 1962 Worlds Fair

The clam girl

Next we made our way north toward Whedbey Island for a scenic drive.  Getting to Whedbey Island from the south requires one to take a ferry.  We found the ferry line and added ourselves to the queue.  In a short while a guy in a van leaned out of his window and shouted that motorcycles don't need to wait in line.  They are permitted to go directly to the front of the line.  Well, let's go!

It turned out to be correct.  We made our way to the front of the line, paid our $8.15 and waited to board the ferry.  First on and first off.  Sometimes it pays to ride motorcycles!  The drive was indeed scenic.  I even saw my first wild otter from a high bridge!

Larrabbee State Park turned out to be a very nice park for $25.  Cold showers are included, warm ones cost $.50 extra.  A cold shower sounds nice right now.  The trains with the noisy wheels are free.

Chuck a nut bay from Larrabee State Park

Tomorrow we enter a foreign country - Canada.

Day 3, Missoula MT, Renton, WA - 507 miles

30 June 2015

If every day is going to be some degrees hotter than the day before, than we will soon be riding a blob of plastic, rubber, and metal!

The day started out nicely until the cruise control quit.  Bummer!  We have been having issues with the cruise control since we acquired the Spyder.  No worries, we'll continue on with a stronger right wrist.

Knowing that we are a bit behind schedule we push on to Couer D' Alene, ID. without stopping.  However, we do stop to see the lake (I mean we are here, right?):

Couer D' Alene lake

Timely artwork found at the lake park:

Freedom Statue

While in the area we visited Allsport Polaris/Honda in Liberty Lake, WA to see if they could check out the cruise control problem.  The guy with the spools in his earlobes (Service manager?) said he could fit is in on Thursday.  This didn't really fit in with our plans since we would be up in Canada by then.  However, their parts guy did well to help us to find some parts like a new antenna (which I broke in Laramie, WY) in Vancouver, BC.

Allsport service NOT RECOMMENDED
Allsport parts RECOMMENDED

So riding westward, we encountered a landscape not unlike that of Eastern Colorado, only MUCH hotter!

Looks like Limon

All across Washington on I-90 the thermometer read 96..98..99..100..105.. until the Columbia River where the thermometer read 107 for some time.

Where I-90 crosses Columbia River

We continued on west to Reston, WA where we found a motel room for the night. With showers!  and a Laundry!

The ride into the the Seattle area is fantastic!  Dramatic landscapes.  It seems like one drives steeply downward forever.  (Video footage will be added later).    

All in all, another brutal 3-state day.

Things to remember:

* 85 degrees in the morning seems MUCH hotter than 85 degrees in the evening (after hours of 100+ degrees riding).

* Is it better to shed the jacket and risk sunburn?  Or to keep the jacket on and simply sweat?

* The Spyder doesn't like Exxon gasoline.

* There are plenty of campsites available until you need one.

Day 1, Longmont to Dubois, WY - 409 miles

28 June 2015

We are on the road, the adventure begins!

Today was all about traveling through Wyoming.  98 deg F.  Many antelope (ooh look there is another one!).  After a late start, the goal was to reach proximity to the Tetons/Yellowstone.

What can I say about traveling through Wyoming?  We have all done it, and we just wanted to make some distance, so we didn't take pictures today, although the Landers area is gorgeous.

No need to dwell in Yellowstone this time, as we are just passing through.  Since one has to pay to travel through Yellowstone on 287, we will bypass the park and go through Jackson, WY.

Today's campsite is the Longhorn Lodge near Dubous,WY, complete with WiFi and showers.

Dinner: generic canned stew (cheap!).

Our campsite