Day 35 - June 4 2010 - Lansing, MI to Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON

LAST DAY Day 35 - June 4 2010
TRIP IS OVER - EVERYONE IS BACK HOME SAFE

I can't believe that the trip is over, having been on the road for 35 days seem like a blur, and some days were a blur.

The trip (route) passed through 20 American States and one Canadian Provence (Ontario) for a total of 11,852KM (7,364.5miles). With every weather condition you can imagine, from snow, hail, dust storms, high winds 75+MPH, and tornado watches to monsoon downpours. But the rest was glorious days, some cool and some very hot 104F (40+C) BUT sunny.

Experienced a lot, meet a number of people on motorcycles doing the same (or wishing they did), as one of my Southern Cruiser friends said to me on Friday on my why home, "there are very few that have done what you (we) did". Ben and I are true Continental Riders and have set a new meaning to "road trip".

Ben and I parted in Lansing, MI, with him heading to Windsor, ON (via Detroit) and I headed due East to the St. Clair River and the last remaining car ferries on the great lakes. Ben was home by 12noon, I was home at 7:15pm. I had a longer trip and Highway #3 in Ontario is not fast, but it was not the Interstate or the 400 series highway ether, so I enjoyed the return trip through Southern Ontario farm country.

Just outside of Port Dover, on Highway 3 I came across an example of "Jewish Lighting" almost first hand, a major restaurant fire at the 18 Wheeler Restaurant, which by the way was for sale (as the OPP Officer said to me "I guess it didn't sell"). It was interesting to watch the Norfolk Country Fire Department set up swimming pools on the highway and truck in water to fight the fire.

Other than a brief stop in Thorold, to say hello to my fellow Southern Cruiser motorcycle members heading out on the Friday ride, I was home at 7:15pm, with most of my neighbours out to see my arrival, did a victory lap of the block with horn blaring.

Karen had prepared a special welcome home dinner for me, and there have been two additional parities hosted by our neighbours in celebration of my return to Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Would I do this trip again - YOU BET! Already working on next years trip, about a 12 to 15 day adventure to the American South on the Natchez Trace Parkway. [http://www.byways.org/explore/byways/2285/travel.html?map=]


KG
Back Home and Retired

Day 34 - June 3 2010 - Milwaukee, WI to Lansing, MI

Today was a short ride day of about 125miles, PLUS the 400 miles we saved by taking the Lake Express across Lake Michigan from Milwaukee to Muskegon, MI. The ferry followed the old route of the C&O Railway Ferry and the Ann Arbour RR. Big difference this is a hydrofoil and it takes only 2 1/2 hours to cross the lake, vs 5 hours in the old days, but this also saved over a day of riding and we did not have to go through Chicago.

Before taking the ferry we checked out the Harley Davidson museum, this is a fantastic place, even if you don't own a Harley. They have the original Harley #1 motorcycle and some interesting ones from WWII and lots of police bikes as well. A very close friend of Karen and I (Sheila Gale) is writing a book of which the female character called "DOT", is riding a motorcycle, well I found "Dot's Motorcycle" in the Museum (see the photo).

One more day on the road and I will be back in Niagara-on-the-Lake, some 35 days from when I started, bit tired, but a lot wiser, and I have seen so much of the US.

Day 33 - June 2 2010 - Cedar Rapids, IA to Milwaukee, WI

Today's journey will take us out of the Corn Belt and into Dairy Country of Wisconsin, and the rolling hills which were left over from the last glacier period of 10,000 years ago.

And no motorcycle trip through this area would not be complete without a stop at J&P Cycles in Anamosa, IA (http://www.jpcycles.com/) reported to be the world largest after market motorcycle store. I got an H3 headlight bulb, which I had been looking for since mine bunt out 3 weeks ago, yes they had it (pricey at $10.00), store was an experience in itself, we were there for 1 1/2 hours. Lots of bike candy to buy.

We also stopped in at BEAVER, IA, at the post office, open from 7:45AM to 11:30AM, only, this is almost a ghost town, but interesting.

Pushing on east through the rolling hills we passed through Debuque, IA, which was our crossing back over the Mississippi River and our "official" passing from West to East, and also that our epic adventure would soon be over.

As we approached Milwaukee, the monsoon rain hit, with a very fast clothing change under a convenient overpass, I stayed dry, Ben chose NOT to put on rain pants - he paid the price for that. We were about 30 minutes from our hotel for the night, but it seamed like hours, 20MPH, on I-94 and we could not see a thing, made it to the hotel with some dampness around the neck, but BEN was soaked and COLD, we spent most of the night taking his stuff to the laundry mat for drying etc. - Just a very interesting day -

Day 32 - June 1 2010 - Fremont, NE to Cedar Rapids, IA

Today the rain chased us East, we never got wet but the showers were close to us for most of the day, except in the afternoon when it became sunny and very humid. It got up to 30C by 4pm, so it was hot!!

We made a brief stop in Omaha to tour through the restored Omaha Union Station, they have restored the interior to what it looked like in 1948 or so, just a wonderful experience. It is also an excellent museum for the city of Omaha. UP RR has it's Headquarters in Omaha as well in a 30 story office tower downtown.

Heading East on I-80 to US59 turning North to pick up US30 East again, this segment of the UP line is double track but very few trains, we only saw two all day. It is nice not be be on the interstate highways, a slower pace, but you get to stop and see things, like the post office in Beaver, IW, only open from 7:30am to 11:30am, but is open on Saturday as well to 10:30am, very small.

Day 31 - May 31 2010 - North Platte NE to Fremont, NE

This Memorial Day in the US, flags everywhere, even on some bikes, but most places are open.

We departed North Platte and followed US30 EAST, which follows the UP Main Line for 250miles to Fremont, NE. There are a lot of trains running today, as well, this is a three track main line so lots of directional movements and overtakes. The UP still likes have trains sitting in sidings waiting and waiting, as well there overtakes are not well staged either, a complex subject which I will not try to explain on the blog.

Most of what we are seeing is unit coal trains heading from and to mid west power plants. These trains are about 100 cars, 2 or 3 engines up front and one DPU (Distributed Power Unit) on the rear, and they roar by.

The landscape changes as well as you move East, soon the sand hills and open range give way to irrigation and corn and wheat farming, with massive grain elevators, much bigger then what we have in Manitoba, as well some of these operations have their own switch engines to move grain cars around.

Also passed several ethanol plants as well, which is what the US is adding to gasoline, our motorcycles don't like this stuff and Ben's bike has some major starting problems with the ethanol mix. We did find that BP has 91 and sometimes 92 octane gas without ethanol.

US30 is also one of the roads which was supplanted by I-80, so you pass by a number of old disused gas stations and a few abandoned motels, almost like Route 66, but it is not the Mother Road.

Some of the farms have large cattle herds, and smell is overwhelming, so to is a 60ft tall pile of fermenting corn, but this is the US mid west.

Day 30 - May 30 2010 - Valentine, NE to North Platte, NE

Bright sunny skies this morning after last night horrific thunder storm and monsoon rains.

We continued South on US83 to North Platte, on the way through the sand hills of Nebraska there was a small Nebraska Sand Turtle making his way across the highway, which was not smart on his part. I immediately stopped turned around and scooped him up from the middle of the driving lane and made sure he safely deposited down the embankment which was his destination.

Today was also a short day (ride of under 100 miles) so we could take in the largest Railroad Yard in the world on the Union Pacific Railroad. There is an 8 story tower built, two years ago, with outside and inside viewing areas, plus a gift shop, bathrooms, and they have retired RR staff to explain what is happening. This yard is 11 miles long by 2 1/2 miles wide, employees 2,500 staff and use 14million gallons of diesel fuel in a month, over 100 trains pass through this place - word is MEGA!! We spent about 4 hours here and left at closing which was 7pm, lots of pictures and about an hour of video. Also taped the intro segment to the Route 66 video as well, watch for its release in the Fall of 2010.