In Summation

This trip, my longest to date, gave me a couple of important realizations.  

#1, traveling by motorcycle east of the Rockies is not worth the effort and expense.  There is great riding and scenery in the Midwest and beyond, no doubt.  Northern Arkansas and West Texas (Big Bend Region) have great riding.  But they don’t outshine what we have in the West.  The roads and scenery in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, California (north of Redding only) and British Columbia will satisfy me for the rest of my riding life.   I could be happy limiting my riding to BC, WA, OR, and ID.  But I won’t.

#2: My trip enjoyment wanes at about three weeks.  That’s not to say that I won’t ride longer than that, but at the three week mark motel and fast food fatigue kicks in.

As for fast food, I rarely consume it in my “regular” life.  But when pulling into an unfamiliar town, I look for two things: familiarity and proximity to a gasoline station.  If that means Burger King, so be it.  If that means Popeye’s, fantastic.  I’m happy to say that I never stooped to Subway on this trip, except at one somewhere in Southern Missouri to use their bathroom.

Speaking of bathrooms, I learned from doing field visits early in my public health career that McDonald’s facilities are generally reliable.  The teenagers working there don’t care if you use the restroom and don’t buy anything. Also, public libraries, Durango, Colorado’s was stellar.  

My motorcycle performed flawlessly.  Having been stranded on other trips by other motorcycles which will go unnamed, but their initials are B M W, I really appreciate this kind of reliability.  My only concern is that one of its most favored qualities, its light weight, makes it a challenge to ride in extremely windy conditions.  That’s a trade-off that I will live with.  I kept up the maintenance, with an oil change in Janesville, WI and new tires in Fargo, ND.  (Don’t make wood chipper jokes when visiting.)  The Tiger is overdue for its 30,000 mile maintenance, which it will get on June 22 at Cascade Moto Classics in Beaverton.

Thank you for your interest.  I very much appreciate the likes and comments.

Total miles ridden: 7341

Length in days: 30

Nights in hotels/motels: 21

Nights at friends’: 9

States visited: Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, and Idaho.  I spent about an hour in Arizona (lunch and fuel) and about a minute in New Mexico – The Four Corners Effect.

Longest day: Bend to Redding by way of Crater Lake - 420 miles 

Easiest day: Fargo to Glendive, MT all interstate, 385 miles

Hardest day: Glendive to Butte, MT, cut short at Big Timber because of heinous crosswinds

Best riding/scenery (in no particular order):

• US 554 (Million Dollar Highway) from Durango to Montrose, CO
• California 299 west from Adin, great views of Mt. Shasta
• US 12 along the Clearwater River, Idaho

Best hotel: Comfort Inn and Suites, Fargo. Runner up, La Quinta in Duluth 

Worst motel: Pony Canyon, Austin, NV. Runner up, Sunset Lodge, Escanaba, MI

Best meal: Big Sky, Stoughton, WI (crab cakes!), runner up El Metate in Mesa Verde National Park

Worst meal: Packaged convenience store sandwich, White Eagle, OK

Furthest point south: Hot Springs, AR

Furthest point east: Munising, MI

Furthest point north: Glendive, MT, barely edging out Missoula and Duluth, MN

Most amazing sights:

• Meteor at twilight between Mesa Verde National Park and Cortez, CO - It seemed so close; I thought it was a giant bottle rocket. 
• Black bear crossing Minnesota Highway 200 near Leech Lake, Chippewa National Forest  

#triumphtiger

#motorcycletravel