J - Motorcycle mechanics

Well I've always been a bit scathing of motorcycle mechanics. I've had chains improperly adjusted, tires put on backwards and bolts snapped off and then glued back in with contact cement. Today was another nail in the coffin. My bike has been running rough ever since I got it, you can hear one cylinder missing at low revs. I finally got time to look at it now that we have a garage at our disposal and found that the 3rd spark plug had been inserted when there was gravel in the chamber.

There were rocks in between the plug rim and the head cover!?!

Now I don't know that a mechanic did it but I don't think the guy who owned it changed his own plugs. It's a real pain on a 4 cylinder sport bike. You have to take it half to pieces.

We rigged up this vacuum fitting out of our fuel siphoning tube and some electrical tape, the vacuum overheated and stopped after a while but we sucked the rocks out. I hope none of them dropped into the cylinder ...

Yup anyway it sounds better now, still a little rough but hey :)

It's been good to hang out with my family. Haven't seen most of them for about 15 years now. And the cheese is good here, so is the beer. Plus they have showers and beds :)

Maybe we'll even find time to upload some photos.

J - Episode 14, in which Josh finds a tick in a strange and terrible place

From Wyoming through South Dakota and Minnesota it has been a flat windy marathon over the bumpy cracked up concrete surfaces of the interstate. At 130km/h with 3cm of tired foam between your buttocks and the battery it can become very tiresome.

Water is found only 20 metres under the ground and tastes like it has been sitting in a plastic container in the sun for 3 weeks. But there is a huge amount of life in the prairie if you look.

Pete struck again in Keystone South Dakota 2 miles from Mt Rushmore and hasn't been seen since.

We missed out on seeing the Museum of Spam. 'Spam has done a lot for that town.' We will have to see it on the way back.

Probably the most interesting spot was Plankinton, which was having it's 125th ?quasi-sesqui-centennial? something or other. We were kindly taken in by a nice family, shown how to drink Miller and tomato juice, play the slot machines, and party with the locals. Especially one Chuck, an oil man from Wyoming with too much money and not enough beer.

Wisconsin is nice, it's like Austria probably or the North Island (with swiss people), green, lots of cows, cheese, corn. And whats more, it has corners, a welcome change.

J - things that go crunch in the night

The Tetons were impressive, the Grand Teton was shrouded in clouds however.

Pete turned out to be a constant companion for the next few days. We met him again, after our soggy conversations in Jackson, in Huckleberry hotsprings braving the bacteria and radiation which the local information desk warned us about. It was cool and we were dirty so we decided to brave the same. Caught up to him again touring through Yellowstone and convinced him to ride out that day. Making his total 120 miles. But there were no tent camping areas East of Yellowstone because of Grizzly danger so at 9:15 or so he showed up, kind of buggered after doing about 150 mi. We then caught up to him the next day hitching out of Cody so we gave him a ride. He hasn't unexpectedly shown up in the last 2 days however so maybe our paths have divirged for good. He seems to pedal faster than we ride so he is probably in South Dakota by now.

Yellowstone was a complete circus, complete with interstate-esque roads and flyovers. But it was a very beautiful one. Sadly is was devastated by fire in the '80s so it is a bit bare at the moment. The Bear and Bison on the sides (and in the middle) of the road were a bit of a traffic hazard. Our first taste of Xanterra the company that has been given the contract for managing portions of the National parks was a bitter one. Sadly we didn't make it to Mammoth Hot Springs.

After YNP and Cody we headed once more for the cool juicy mountains. The Bighorn mountains this time. One of our camps there was quite a way into the forest and in the middle of the night I woke up to hear something pretty heavy was walking slowly past our tent. I got out to find out what was going, feeling just a little nervous :) but it was gone.

The Buffalo city library seems to have a Basque fetish going on with titles like Basque Sheepherders of the American West, and Cooking With Our Basque Friends proudly displayed.

M - Shoot em up cowboy!

Here we are in Jackson Hole, about to head into the Grand Teton national park, and then to Yellowstone.

Weather has been less than brilliant, we rode across the Idaho plains in a roaring headwind, Josh used half a tank of gas in about 40 miles. Then camped at Little Elk Creek which was really nice - until it started to rain. It poured down all night, with thunder and lightening. Then to top that - we got hail in the morning. At this point we were seriously considering spending the whole day in bed.

Well it seemed to be clearing... so up we got and headed into Wyoming. Aparently the hail which fell here was golfball sized! The rain wasn't leaving us in peace, so we succumbed, and spent the night in an RV park. $20 it's the most we have spent to camp so far, and it was pretty crap honestly. But on the plus side we got to have showers (first time for 8 days!) and met a nice guy, Pete from the UK who is cycle touring. We might manage to camp in the same place as him tonight as well.

Hopefully we will get to the Huckleberry hot springs just south of the Yellowstone border.

Time to go, internet access is only 15mins at Teton County Library!

J - Dry bread, chipmunks, camp hosts.

Well, the Oregon coast was too wet. Sad because I had wanted to see some of it but rain is no fun on a motorcycle. Luckily it hasn't rained since we left the coast. 10 days later we are in Idaho. Idaho ('famous potatoes' license plates proclaim) is a lot prettier and more interesting than those plates give it credit for. We've just finished a ride through the sawtooth mountain range. Meadows and wildflowers, snow covered peaks, we camped at a lake at 2000 metres which mirrored the 3000 metre (meter) mountains 5 miles away... Anyone would think that we were in Wyoming. It is also very dry, though this season has been a drought killer for Idaho in terms of rainfall it is so dry that in the 1 minute it takes between taking the bread out of the bag and assembling the sandwich it goes all crusty and crispy on the outside. Welcome to the American west I guess. I hear it is very cold and snowy in NZ right now.

We are meeting lots of the locals here and there though there is a distinct lack of women and young people amoungst them. By and large it is old men in the supermarket parking lot who see our motorcycles and are envious/sympathetic. Or Harley riders who are always very very polite.

Meeting them is important otherwise you unknowingly drive past all sorts of great things, hotsprings mostly, which are invaluable to the dirty stinking motorcycle travellor and not to be passed by.

Camp hosts are of course an interesting source of local knowledge though there is only so much local knowledge one has when ones RV is permanently set down in a public campground for the priviledge of free parking and gas for the generator. They come in all flavours though some interesting and some not. Some even serve as a sort of local youth counselor for the more regular inhabitants. The camp host is the one who is responsible for running the campground and so the process of deciding what to pay is a little bit of a negotiation. Does the U.S. Forest service accept the golden eagle pass for 1/2 price camping? Or do they not? Are two motorcycles traveling together technically considered to be 1 vehicle or two? What about a 25 litre Dodge Behemoth towing a 3 axle Caravan towing a Jeep? Are they technically considered 1 vehicle or 6? Do we A) count the axles B) count the wheels or C) count the people and divide by 2. I know I sound bitter but it is certainly true that the best campsite of all is one that has no camp host. These are usually found just a wee way down the forestry access roads or hiding behind some bushes next to a stream.

We have discovered a new low in petrol standards. 85 octane. I wondered why petrol was so cheap in Idaho! In Oregon it's because there is no sales tax. Not in Idaho. Our bikes haven't complained though.

Sadly I don't think we will make it to Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah on this run. Perhaps on the way back.

There are lots of interesting places on the map in Idaho. Hells Canyon, The Headwaters of the River of No Return, the Sawtooth Mountains, Snake River and the Experimental Breeder Reactor #1. Now it is onward to the Craters of the Moon and Yellowstone NP.

New food of the week, Albertsons canned whole potatoes.

P.S. We have turned East and are now heading generally towards Wisconsin for my June 1st family reunion. Alaska will have to wait. Probably a good thing as it is most likely freezing up there right now.

M - When I die please don't name a freeway after me!

Well it's been a busy two weeks since I was last at a computer. From San Fran we went almost all the way to Yosemite. We didn't quite make it though, so spent the first night in a campground near Buck Meadows on the 120. In the morning we were woken by the sound of a woodpecker, crazy little thing smacking his head into the tree again and again!

Yosemite was as amazing as you would expect - but what a zoo. Busy with cars and people and tour buses everywhere. We were very lucky to get into Camp 4 which is where all the climbers base themselves. Heading off for a walk, we wandered through the meadow all flooded with spring snow melt - and we saw a bear! He was pretty brown for a Black Bear and was as shocked to see us as we were to see him. The rules are that you stand together to look bigger, and throw sticks and make lots of noise, which I did while Josh just stood there... anyhow he loped off to the side and we could continue our walk. I understand you don't respond to a Grizzly bear that way, but I'm still hoping not to meet any of those.

We met some great people in camp 4, in particular our neighbour from Aus, and a fellow Bivouac employee from Hamilton, and his climbing buddy. All of these guys lent us climbing gear and Josh and I were able to do a bit of climbing while we were in tha valley. We also walked up to a few of the waterfalls which tumble in from up high. There were lots of squirrels running around, we saw a cayote, and a racoon tried to steal our dinner. In total we spent four nights in the Yosemite Valley.

The road through Yosemite towards Nevada is still closed in with snow, so we had to leave out the way we came, very nervous as we were really short of petrol. It was snowing in Camp 4 that morning, and we thought it would be a good idea to get moving if the weather was turning bad, we were keen to get back on the bikes. Stupidly however we then decided to cross the Sierra Nevadas on HW4 over Ebetts Pass. We got rain, then sleet, then snow! Uggh it was freezing, and we had to go slowly because the snow kept freezing over our visors, and they were misting up from our breath really badly, so yuo had to ride with it open, only that was even colder!

Saviour! Just when you need one the most - there's a hot pools! yay! We stumbed over and then into Glover Hot Springs State Park. Ahhhh...

Since then we have ridden up the side of lake Tahoe, crossed briefly into Nevada where we nearly got lost and seperated taking the wrong highway in Reno, visited Lassen Volcanic National Park, most of which is closed due to 30 feet of snow, and been to Lake Shasta. At lake Shasta we saw a Turkey vulture (which Josh nearly ran over), more squirrels, a chipmunk (which I nearly ran over), ospeys, two bald eagles, and the second largest dam in the USA (which we had to walk over since it's closed to vehicles post 9/11).

And right now I am writing this in southern Oregan. This morning we woke up in California, right in the middle of the coastal redwoods. Aparently the coastal drive up here is really beatiful, but it was covered in a thick sea fog so I'm really not sure!

So all in all about 1500 miles so far. I promise I will try to add posts a bit more often!