Last Post for this trip

 Well, I have been back home for over a week and have had time to reflect on this year’s very interesting trip. I think that one way to appreciate the scope of this trip is to examine the following picture (the details are somewhat easier to see when it is expanded).

The Postits indicate the places where I stayed overnight. 

Here is some summary information:

Days away: from June 3 to July 3, 31 days

Total kilometres travelled: 9,357 (the 6th longest Retirement Ride since the first such ride in 2010

Longest day’s ride: 562 km on June 9th from Sioux Falls SD to Valentine NE

18 States, or portions thereof, visited during the trip

Gas: 451.6 Litres; 4.83L/100 Km

Accommodations: 22 hotels/Inn/motels, 2 private residences. 

Best: Patterson Inn, Denver; second best: Pueblo Bonito, Santa Fe; third: Cotton Court, Lubbock

Worst: St James Hotel, Selma

Best breakfasts: Patterson Inn, Denver

Best breakfast buffet spread: Holiday Inn Express and Suites, Webster NY

Great Meals:  Denver, Santa Fe, Birmingham

Best attractions and sights: Rocky Mountain Park, CO; Puye Cliff Dwellings, NM; everything in Denver and Santa Fe; White Sands National Park, NM;  Contemporary Art Museum, Roswell NM; National Military Park, Vicksburg, MS; and the River Festival in Charleston, WV.

Interesting encounters/events:  a guy sitting at a table with his buddies with a holstered gun at breakfast in a small dinner in Gordon NE; the amusing incident of the young boy and the pancake conveyor machine in Roswell NM; my free ´paid forward’ lunch in Lubbock TX, and my free gas fill-up in Knoxville TN

And finally the weather, WET, sometimes very, in the North;  and quite, record breaking even, HOT in the South.

So, I leave you with a picture that Jane took from the chase car as we headed south to Santa Fe; just this guy on a retirement ride.

Hopefully we can do this again next year! Take care!

“Welcome home.” - “Thank you, it’s nice to be back!”

 My exchange with the nice CBSA agent yesterday at the Thousand Islands Bridge border crossing pretty much sums up my emotions. It is always great to be able to go on my Retirement Rides and discover parts of America, that immense continent that we are so fortunate to live on. But its even a greater joy to be able to return to “Canada our home and native land”. 

Once I have had the time to compile some of the statistics I will post a last entry in this year’s blog. But for now here are a few quick facts. I was away from home for 31 days and covered 9,357 kilometres. I stayed in 23 different hotels/motels and two private residences. I don’t know why but I saw far fewer motorcycles on the road than during previous trips, some days none. Weather-wise there were only a few really nice riding days; otherwise it was either WET, sometimes quite so, or HOT, often blazing heat-warnings hot. 

I have memories a plenty, including particularly wonderful ones when Jane was able to join me in Colorado and New Mexico, and I look forward to sharing some with friends and family members in the days and months ahead.

Did I miss the memo?

 With the exception of the four Harley riders that I saw at breakfast at the hotel where I stayed last night, I did not see another bike over the 6 hours and 338 kilometres I travelled today between Conneaut Ohio, a small city west of Erie, and Webster New York, an eastern suburb of Rochester.  Maybe it was the steady rain that did not let up throughout the journey, or maybe it was because it was Sunday and all the bikers were at Sunday services after their Saturday rally rides. I overheard one of the aforementioned bikers at breakfast say to the others that she had not packed any rain gear for their trip; since it sounded like they had some distance to cover that was a mistake!

The route I followed which avoided major highways took me through the wine country that extends through many counties in upstate Pennsylvania and New York. There are miles after miles of vineyards and many wineries, including the Johnson Estate Winery that claims to be the oldest in America.

Here’s hoping that the rain will stop long enough for me to walk to a local restaurant for dinner and that it will hold off for tomorrow’s last leg of this year’s major motorcycle trip.

Using the fast lane from Charleston,WV to Conneaut, OH on Canada Day

 Last night I went out for a stroll along the riverfront in Charleston to see the large crowd that had come out to see me; or maybe they were there to take in the festivities of Regatta Weekend in the State Capital. There was live entertainment, amusement rides for children and older folk, a proper midway with games, many different food and beverage concessions on the street that runs parallel to the river, and many boats, including a collection of large paddle wheelers. 

While I prefer to avoid the major highways in the USA when I am on my motorcycle, there is something to be said about the benefits of a divided four lane highway with a 70 mph speed limit if you want to quickly cover a long distance and you don’t mind missing all the small towns and cities along the way. So that’s what I did today; I did the 491 km from Charleston, West Virginia to Conneaut, Ohio, including a section on smaller roads that Lucy added just for fun I guess, in just over five hours.