July 21 st           330 miles
 Went to the west coast today,and to the Pacific Ocean. Didn't swim too cold!!! There were people at the beach but not in the water. Lots of kite flying and beach combing going on. The trip back east starts here, was planning on going back on Route 20 across Oregon but was advised to go Rt. 26 because of parries fires and lots of smoke. You could see the smoke in the air in the valleys. From the coast to the high dessert today. From cold to hot in the same day. Near the Continental divide and headed east!

July 20th           6 miles
  Cloudy to start but clear by noon. Lots of folk at the rally, 5178!!!
Didn't win a new bike but better luck next year in St.Paul Minn.  Changed the oil in the bike getting ready for the trip home. The band was Tommy Castro and the painkillers, and the Paul Thorn Band. Both great shows!!

July 19th      0 miles

 A few clouds to start but by 11:00 the sun was out with a nice breeze. Checked the vendor building again and volunteered again.  The evening entertainment was Jonny Lang. Great show and a great group of people.

July 18th    0 miles
  4573 miles so far, washed the bugs off the bike today. Worked the beer garden again, viewed the vendor area lots of nice stuff if you have the money!  Canned Heat was the entertainment for the night it sounded great.

July 17th       31 miles
  Spent the morning doing laundry and finding Walmart! Traveled 31 miles to find both. If I knew the way it was about 4 miles away!  Spent the afternoon volunteering at the beer tent, putting my food service experience to good use. Another beautiful day 80's during the day 50's at night.

July 16th           235 miles
  From the state park to mount Hood. It is the largest landmark in the area. Orchards after orchard,apples,cherries and pears. Lavender is big here too, garden after garden of it.At Mount Hood they ski year round over 12k ft high. Lots of skiers, quite a site to see skies and ski boots every where. Row after row a cars with ski racks on them in July!!!! From there we traveled some of the most fun roads yet! One car road with all the twist and turns you can imagine! Made it to Salem early. Lots of people there already, as always great folks from all over, every where you go.

July 15th                       428 miles
  Another great riding day. Keith and I talked to the caretaker of the campground in Republic Washington,he gave use a great route to take. It took us to the Grand Coulee dam. It was a beautiful ride from forest to the high plains. The plains are very dry, everyone has to water everything to get things to grow the soil is sandy fr om the rocks it comes from. All the farms have irrigation systems to grow things, corn,sunflowers ect.. In Washington the corn is ready to pick in places. The Columbia River gets bigger and bigger, traveled for a great distance along the shore. Sail boats and cabin cruisers every where. Even tug boats!!! The river is the boarder of Washington and Oregon. We crossed into Oregon at the Dalles. There is lots of commerce on the river. Stayed in Ainsworth state park on historic route 30. We traveled along it and saw 5-6 huge waterfalls. Hoursetail falls is 529ft tall. The Multnomah falls are the largest. The area is very nice,cool temps and curvy roads. The land was donated by Simon Benson, a lumber baron. Using the river to move the wood to market. Still 80 to 100 miles to the ocean. The river is more than a mile wide in places. Went to Crown Point and got to see how large the river is!!

July 14                                         450 miles
          Off to Salem, 800+miles to go. First bike out at 6:15 am.  Another beautiful day Banff is just awesome! Still much damage to the roads from the rains that flooded Calgary. It's been almost a month and they are still repairing the sides of the roads. Creek beds turned into rageing rivers. Still the glacial rivers are a beautiful green!! Lots of wildlife, deer are every where. The transition from mountains to lower lands are a site to see. From 10k ft mountains to 5k ft mountains. Now the mountains are tree covered. The mountain passes are still over 5k or more. Dropped back into the US again. Everything in Canada is more expensive food and fuel, you wounder how they can afford things. Roads it the area are some of the best to ride on a motorcycle!! Corners with 15mph signs!!! lots of 20 and 30mph corners. Crossed the start of the Columbia River in Canada and in Washington it looks like a lake its so large and will get bigger too! In a different time zone again 3 hrs now. Keith from La. was my riding partner and will ride to Salem Oregon.

July 13                                0 miles
 Rally day! Good food and good friends. Good stories from all the different events from all over. The slide show of the trip to South America from top to bottom. It was written about in the last 5 MOA articles. Lots of effort in the 40 thousand mile trip. lots of logistics to make it happen.

July 12                               2 miles
  Bow Creek Lunatic Fringe Rally. Cold last night 40* this morning. The folks that run the rally are Magna and Ika from Holland. Ika and I talked cooking, he has worked in institutional settings. Hospital and Corrections. Lots of great folks from all over the US and Canada. Truly amazing how many folks go from rally to rally. They know each other from past rally's year to year. First dinner beans and dogs. After dinner a presentation and slide show of Baja Mexico with Dave Anderson. He has been making the trip for 11 years now. Tomorrow's show will be of a trip to south America by the guy who wrote the pieces in the MOA magazines.

July 11 th                                        250 miles
Partly cloudy and windy today. The trip to Calgary was uneventful until going through town at noon time. Lots of traffic and lots of folks going to The Stampede events. Every one was in full cowboy and cowgirl gear on! Lost for awhile in all the traffic but finely got to Cochrane Alberta, where the first rally is. Went to a local campground and met 5 others going to the rally. They are from all over the States. Most have been on the road for more than a month. Tim from Arizona has been going to rallys since May! He has more than 290 thousand miles on his R1200LT All great guys! Keith from Louisiana was the first one there.

July 10th                               303 miles
 A true cloudless day!!!  Left Havre Montana and headed west again. Went from the high plains to the mountains today. The mountains are breath taking snow still on the east slopes.Farming is still the biggest industry in the US and Canada.Miles and miles of fields of wheat.Made the trip to East Glacier today, the views are great. Went into the hotel at East Glacier, built with real logs. Some 3-4 ft thick. Great views from there too. Found the Mex restaurant that Dr Koons had told me about but it didn't open til 5pm and I was there at 1 pm. I did miss that margareta though, darn! From there it was north on some nice motorcycle roads, smooth and curvy. Once in Alberta smooth sailing to Fort Macleod and Daisey Mays campground for the night. Off to Calgary tomorrow.

Good day folks, finely a place with good internet service.
  July 9th                 20 miles
  Took the day to dry out after yesterday's rain and wind,thunder and lightning. Went to see the local points of interest. One is the Buffalo Jump where the native americans would heard the buffalo over the cliff and harvest them at the bottom of the cliff. The dig site found bones and tools used. There they would cook and dry the meat. The site was found in the early 60's and worked until the 80's The dig goes back 2000 years to 600 years ago.The amazing thing is that they walked every where. And carried every thing they owned! There were no horses  until the white man came to the area. Also want to mention Heather and Roger at the Evergreen camp ground, more great folks.

July 8th. 60 miles today. Will stay here in Harve for another night. Rain and thunder showers are here for the day,they also project hail possible too. Good day to take care of house keeping,laundry and shopping. Hard rain and wind, thunder and lighting around noon. Got back to camp just in time to keep the laundry dry!!!! More showers tomorrow will play it by ear and weather. Still have a day or two to work with. Next I head North again so cell and wireless service are iffy. Will be in touch soon.

July 7th 175 miles Another beautiful day, finely into the hills. Met the first person to know where Skowhegan was. His name is Wayne an he is from NH. He worked on the paper mill construction in the 90's. He stayed at The mid-town hotel! Made it to Havre MT. for the night. Every thing going well.

July 6th 475 miles Rained last night but by morning it was partly cloudy so off I went. Two hours into the ride it started to rain again. First riding in the rain. After a hour of rain it quit. ND is still flat and lots of oil biz going on. Many wells pumping and new wells being drilled. Many oil tanker trucks here too. Staying in Glasgow MT. tonight There are hills again,rolling hills. Farm fields as far as you can see. Huge farm equipment here tractors with 12 tires! Ear plugs kept the train noise at night to a minimum.

July 5th 243 miles

Anotheer cloudless day. Had bike issues today the rear breaks were grinding at low speeds. The BMW owner anonymous book was a life saver. Called in Grand Falls and spoke with Mike. He told me to come over and he would have a look.He couldn't help but told me the nearest BMW dealer was in Winnepeg 2.5 hours north. Mike and his wife were great provided water and a bathroom break. Great folks. So north I went,more flat land than you can imagine. Fields of corn,sunflowers and grain as far as you could see. The dealership had the break pads I needed. I asked if someone could listen to the breaks for a 2nd opinion. Before I knew it they had me in the shop and the work done in no time. What great customer service. Wildwood Motorsports is the dealership. If you ever need anything in the area do stop in. Paul the owner,Les the salesman and Dave who did the work are Great!!! Back on the road south and to ND. Stayed in the Icelandic State park for the night.Everyone warned me about travel on Rt 2 west. The oil biz has made travel a mess,one hour to get through a town with one stop light. Oil tanker trucks every where. I plan to travel Rt 5 along the Canada boarder. Same as Rt 2 but much less traffic.

July 4th 527 miles Not much to tell but that there is lots of farming going on here. You an see the horizon in all directions, the hills are the overpasses! Fields of sunflowers,soy beans and grain. Stayed at the state campground in town East Grand Falls Minn.Had a great view of the fireworks from my tent. Every thing is surrounded by burms, because of the flooding. The river flows north so it melts south before the north,causing all the flooding. The Red River flows between Grand Falls,ND and East Grand falls Minn.

Good day folks, Hope this update works. Limited cell and wireless service. Wed. July 3rd. An easy day only 133 miles a site seeing day. Traveled the North shore of Lake Superior today. Very beautiful sites every where. At Two Harbors I talked with a man who said to travel to Split Rock bay light house and Beaver bay. Also to check out the old AT&T transmitter site there they rock climb on the sheer cliffs. It is about 150ft to the water. There were lots of people climbing there. Very cool.

Photos of the trip

The adventure begins June 29th.

Good day folks the first update on my adventure. The trip started on Sunday June 29th. From Skowhegan to Wilderness tours in Forster Falls Ont. 442 miles from Skowhegan. Only got lost for about a half mile because of poor signs. I did not know it was Canada Day so Wilderness Tours was packed. Whitewater rafting is big there because of the Ottawa River that runs through the area.Because of the holiday fireworks were everywhere. Made for a short night. Rafters know how to have fun! The weather was cloudy but no rain. Good riding weather. Monday July 1st. Forester Falls to Brimley Michigan. 453 miles. Another beautiful day for riding,easy to get there because of only one road to follow, the Trans Canada highway. No map reading for this part of the trip. Went through Sudbury Ontario,home of the largest nickle smelter. The smoke stack is the tallest land mark in the area. Can be seen for miles in all directions. In Sault Ste Marie there are locks between the lakes,very cool way to get big ships from lake to lake. Stayed in Brimley stste park for the night. Met great folks,Todd and his wife Ann and two daughters were in the next camp site. provided great hospitality that night. Tuesday July 2nd. Brimley Michigan to Duluth Minnesota. 433 miles. Could not ask for a better day,sunny and cool. Riding by Lake Superior is like riding by the ocean back home. When the wind is off the water it was very cool almost cold! Stopped by the Point Iroquois Light house in the Hiawatha National Forest. As I was leaving met the care taker Gilley. He had been in Maine years ago while in the Navy.So he knew Maine. Told him I was going to the BMW rally he told me to look for someone with a hat like his by the name of Saul and to say hello.This gentleman goes to many BMW rallys across the country. Gilley told me to follow the shore road to see the sites. So many beautiful beaches, and no one at them. Saw a doe and twin fawns cross in front of me. The mom was in the woods before you knew it but the fawns wanted to check every thing out crossing the road. Very cool! staying here for two nights to rest and relax and read the map for the next part of the adventure. Will update in a few days. Happy 4th of July to everyone!