America - Leaving Canada and arriving in a new state

ExploringRTW

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21st September- Leaving Toad Rock .

Despite our “experience” of packing and unpacking, it took us 10.5 hours to re-pack, write some more web updates, and put our BMW suits back together after washing them, and leave, although some of this was also chatting to Mary (our camp hostess) and Dave who was out for a 4 day break on a 1200GS. We had calculated how much we owed Mary for camping as she works on her trust “experiment” and had arrived at a final figure, but as we tried to pay her, she would only accept the reduced rate that had been afforded to the Horizons Unlimited guests the penultimate “week-end” on account of us only using the one pitch, and the laundry money………. BUT even then, she rounded the bill down so she would feel better!?.

We left with mixed emotions. On the one hand we had enjoyed our chats with Mary and playing with the dogs, and on the other it had started to get a bit “ground-hog day”, even though we needed the time there. We had a nice leaving send-off and set off for the ferry in Balfour.

We hadn’t had much opportunity to eat today so we picked up a few pastries from a bakery near the ferry dock and had a daft exchange will the girl behind the counter about our suits--“Did we always do everything the same?”. We responded with our “buy-one, get one free” response which we used for just such an event, and that amused her.

We met a few bikers at the ferry dock and spent the journey talking to an English guy, originally from Manchester, who was now married to and living with a Canadian at Haines Junction(…of all places!). Mary had informed us of a friend Vicky who had a B&B only about an hours ride from the ferry landing_.. stupidly enough we just let Mary’s assumption that there would be vacant room override our common-sense…and so when we got there at about 9:30, we were not entirely surprised to find she was full ! Doh ! Vicky told us of another Motel about 20 mins or so down the road and so we set off. Before we could find that, we found the American border, and decided to go through it as we were going to be crossing within 24 hours anyway. It was-now about 22:15 or so.

This border looked like it meant business, and it did-We had already heard from a 60+ year old guy from Idaho who we’d met in Alaska, of a rigorous questioning session. We needed to extend our 90 day American Visas and so were directed to an ‘interview counter’ with the understanding that this was a reasonably common practice. We met a middle-aged customs lady who some how had found her way into a position if responsibility, and wanted to exercise it !! A sort of cross between Cybil (Faulty Towers and Mrs Bucket!) Apparently we “shouldn’t have been trying to use the type of VISA” we had as it is designed for people staying for less than 3 months, and according to her, for people staying only in one destination. We tried to explain that we had done our research and asked other American customs officials advice and had acted on that, but she seemed to see anything outside of her sphere of understanding as us trying to compromise US security procedures and therefore irrelevant and hence unimportant. Realising that arguing with her too strongly was going to display our "obvious" guilt and get us nowhere, we waited for her judgement…which was ......that she “would let it go this time but we wouldn’t be able to do it again-this would be the last time !“……..even though she was aware that we were on an around-the-world-trip !! So we wondered when we might be trying to re-gain access again ? ?? To add insult to injury she felt she ought to point out that if we could afford to go on a round-the-world trip, we could afford a different visa. Again we tried to explain that money etc wasn’t the issue, we were just following the advice we’d been given,…….. but she was working on her own plain.” Happy” to get our 90 day visa extension for $6 each we left with the new stamp. Funny how there is a charge for extending something that shouldn’t be able to be extended- not that we are implying any sort of misdemeanour, just that she was overdoing her bit. (We had been told of this price before.) Anyway, like a number of customs officials we’ve met along the way, once they’ve checked you’re not a real threat, they then seem to take a more personal interest in where you will be staying etc, so it is quite nice to see a bit more of a human side to the officialdom.

We headed off for some Motels apparently only 30 miles down the road but found directions to another much sooner. This one was at the end of a semi-gravel road and we were greeted by a very drunk/drugged young woman who was inappropriately interested in our accents and wanted us to go and have a beer with her-after she left, one of the housekeepers half offered us her bed as she would be working all night. They had no rooms and so we headed back onto the 30 mile search. Well, they never transpired but a Great Western did at about 00:00.…but they had no rooms either . John asked if they knew anywhere else that might have and they checked with a Motel based a further 30 miles away. A chain called Motel 6. They had a vacancy and so it was reserved for us. I had had problems with my battery running too low with both spot lights, the heated grips and heated clothing being turned on and the bike had refused to start earlier for a while even when John provided a jump start….so John led us to the Motel and we arrived there at about 00:40, very tired. Nice big beds and on-tap coffee in the lobby and this was cheap, $50 !!. Watched Tim Allens Tool-time, (very funny if you've not seen it) and went to sleep very quickly. This was a long day !

In the following morning we had a bit of a lay in but I had to get up to make a call to my estate agent about a damp report that had come as a result of a survey conducted by some potential buyers for my house. That done, quickly back to bed for a bit more dozing. Once up, we spent most of the morning trying to track down some new tyres, Metzler Tourances for this leg of the trip…We were surprised to find a number of motorcycle dealers hadn’t even heard of Metzlers. Finally we found one who had three, two rear and a front and so the search began for a front tyre to make the set. We never anticipated how hard it would be to get parts and tyres this early in the trip and so we are now looking to plan well in advance of our next service/tyre needs. I also noted that one of my fork legs had started to leak oil so that means the fork seal has gone, the same problem John had encountered at Haines Junction so another 3 hour job there somewhere in the future. This is very frustrating-the bikes are costing us too much time, money and effort at the moment-they just aren’t reliable enough and we hope they will settle down soon. We had to settle for -McDonalds brunch as we had no American $’s, having made the sooner-than-anticipated departure from Canada- Mc’D’s do take VISA, the little café we had set our eyes upon, didn‘t. We managed to find a drive-through ATM (not the type accessed in England by fork-lift trucks !) got some dollars and set off towards route 200, one of Mary’s favourite rides. The ride was-largely boring for us, although we can see it would be ok for low Harleys as it had very few bends.. Whilst we were committed to 5-day camping, I really didn’t relish the thought of camping again, and neither did John…. and so we found another Motel after dinner. This was more expensive at $80 but we were both content for not having to look at our tent ceilings for another day or so.

23rd September - Missoula in Montana

We both got a decent nights sleep and had a good breakfast at Minnies, where we ate last nights dinner and set off for Missoula. We’d arranged to have some tyres fitted at the BMW/Kawasaki dealer, Big Sky, so we arrived at about 13:00. All started out ok and we quickly having a laugh and joke about this and that…whilst merrily trying on new all-in-one waterproof suites as we were now fed up with getting wet, and particularly the associated coldness that comes with it. The suites were reasonably priced, but the tyres were expensive and we were also charged for fitting…which was also very expensive ! I had to buy two new fork seals as both mine now appear to have gone, plus my chain and sprockets were now worn out and needed replacing. In total our joint bill came to $1000 and we got a $74 discount. We weren’t really happy at the way we had been charged for the tyre fitment as it wasn’t what we’d been led to believe on the telephone. We pursued the matter with the owner but ultimately our understanding and agreement with a member of staff ,whose name we couldn’t remember, made it all a bit too vague to really put our foot down and so settled for the $74. We did however get a result with our Motel room at $59 and set ourselves up for celebrating the completion of Johns house sale.


Views from the road in Montana


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24th September

Montana is known as the “Big Sky” and this name is reflected in many of the shop names we saw.-“Big sky Kawasaki” being one. After a 3:00 am end to last nights festivities, where we’d ended up in an Irish Bar with a very loud and very good pub band playing some of the velvet underground & their own songs, the start to the day was a bit slower and subsequently got up late this morning,. After packing the bikes we had a long breakfast at “Knuckleheads” where we met a young man, John, we’d met at George’s in Fairbanks some 6 or so weeks earlier, and 3,000 miles or so. He’s just got back from travelling and working up in Alaska as a forest fire fighter and is set for going down to South America ……so we may see him soon. John finally was able to get the adapter he needed to use his MP3 player through his Autocom system and was pleased with the result. It rained again in the morning quite hard but backed off by mid-afternoon. (Not quite enough to try on the one-pieces yet !) Later in the day we actually rode in the snow fall-line which was exilerating…this was accompanied by some pretty dense fog for a while but it was great. Despite the electric clothing, we were still a bit cold, namely our feet which weren’t plugged in. We saw some amazing views from an area called the Big Hole, incredible but too cold to stop and photo I’m afraid … again !

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Big Sky in Montana

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Riding in the mountain-we stopped for a call of nature!!

We stopped at Sundown Motel where my bike wouldn’t re-start, after stopping for just a few seconds, as the battery was yet again drained by the heated clothing and lights. John gave me another jump. (John, the chap we met at breakfast has apparently found another make of sealed battery -we’re using Hawker Odysseys at the moment, which hasn’t given him any problems and is going to e-mail us the make.)

25th September

After a fairly decent nights sleep in a nice room ,if a little on the chilly side, we took advantage of the free bagels, English muffins and coffee which whetted our appetites for our proper breakfast which we took at the Longhorn Saloon in the town. As we’ve decided to do a bit of skiing in Colarado(2nd time round) on our way to Arizona, we’ve decided to put ourselves into a bit of a fitness regime, so this mornings breakfast is to be the last heart-stopper until we hit Colorado. As of Monday, we’re back to cereals with banana and sensible lunches….we’ve taken to eating fruit pies as they’re offered all over the place and more simply referred to as pie……..I.e. do you have any pie?. And we’ve succumbed on too many occasions, The scenery in Montana today was stunning…and I have taken some pictures …at last to try and capture just how big the big sky is. After riding for about 80 miles and taking regular photo stops we came across a gravel track which led up onto a ridge. We followed it for about 5 miles and the scenery was breath-taking. You could see the yellow hills of Montana with the snow-tipped Rockies in the background. Absolutely stunning.
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John on the gravel track.

Views from the gravel track-following

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The next destination is Yellowstone park in Wyoming, the home of the hot geyser, Old Faithful. On the way we came across the result of a fairly recent earthquake-the result was the chasm you see and the flooding of land further along the river.

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Result of earthquake not far from west entrance to Yellowstone park.

Mike
 
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