Diary from the 4th of August to Maine

August 3rd till  11th:-  We stayed in a motel in Boise, stayed out of the heat for a couple of days, and generally relaxed. Went to the movies, first time since we have been here, and saw the Simpsons movie. The day was up over 100 degrees so it was a good day to relax.

Left the following morning down interstate 84 before turning north east towards Idaho falls. The Ural cruised along beautifully at 55mph and being a Sunday very little traffic (this is all relative to a US standards). There was a scenic route via the mountains which was a recommended to us but Julie had seen all the winding mountains road she needed for a while. It was great to travel through some nice open farming country with all the colours, smells and vision of the farming communities. We also saw lots of idaho potatoes for the first time.
This road passes by Craters of the Moon National Park. It's funny how when you are not expecting too much how much better it all becomes. The Craters of the Moon was just brilliant. There are some photographs with the photo collection at the bottom of this diary entry.

The ride heading east through Yellowstone crossed our original path north so at last we felt as though we had made some progress. It was a good ride, Julie thought she was going to be attacked by bison, I must admit though they were a bit close when you don't have the body of a car to protect you. Julie did manage to get a photo or two.
It took us a couple of days to ride from Yellowstone to Sturgis. We spent 2 days at Cody, the town where Bill Cody (Buffalo Bill) lived and built a large hotel two centuries ago. We sat around one evening and watched a shootout between the goodies and the badies outside of the Irma Hotgel, Buffalo Bills Hotel. All a lot of fun.The following day we went through the Bighorn Mountains, fantastic, and via Devils Tower.
We obtained camping accommodation in Spearfish, 17 miles from Sturgis, in a fantastic little campground run by Jo. It was extremely personal as everyone was introduced to the group as they arrived. Sturgis Rally was so much more than we ever expected, more noise, more people, more bikes, more vendors, more noise, more bikes, more noise and so it goes. We had a fantastic ride, but a very long day with the temperature well over 100, through the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park and the Needles Highway. Saturday we moved out of the park and into a Motel in Rapid City so as we can clean up and get an early start for our trip to the South Dakota Badlands then North East toward Lake Superior.

GO HERE TO SEE A LOT OF RECENT PICTURESl

August 12 to 20th, 2007:- Before leaving Sturgis we had an oil change on the Ural by the Harley oil changers so we expected a faster Ural with more exhaust noise, neither happened.
Headed on the south route towards the Badlands, an excellent ride, very scenic and pulled off the main road to stop at a little 'town' called Scenic. If you ever get by that way, stop, it's very educational in a rustic sort of way. It was heading east towards the western end of the Badlands we met the first of the head winds that would bother us for another three days. Weather was cool through the Badlands, unusual for this time of the year, but made for a pleasand days ride. We stopped to have a look at Wall Drug ( www.walldrug.com  ) before continuing across South Dakota. This is not the most exciting riding we have ever done, especially with the 20+mph head winds knocking the Ural back to 50mph max and consuming copious quantities of fuel. For the next couple of days we see endless corn, sunflowers and soybeans.
As the ride moved from South Dakota to Minnesota and into Wisconsin the scenery went from boring to brilliant. We stayed just out of Minneapolis at a KOA one night and Scott (a Ural rider) came out for a pleasant evenings chatting, made for a memorable night. I just wonder if we had been riding a 'mainstream' motorcycle if anyone would have gone out of their way to visit us in a campground. The Ural 'family' has featured very significantly in our trip across the country.

Passed through a number of magnificent old towns and, because we don't follow interstates and main highways, we often go right down the main street of these towns. Many are all but dead as the sprawl marts suck the life out of the centre of these towns and onto the main roads. It's progress I suppose, a few retailers are trying to hold on in the town centres but it doesn't look like much of a place to do business.

Stopped for lunch in a town called Stillwater  (  http://www.ci.stillwater.mn.us/  )on the Minnesota - Wisconsin border, had an excellent lunch in a traditional old saloon and walked along a very interesting main street. Julie found a Christmas decoration shop full of German wooden decorations, I'll even admit it was pretty neat and impressive.
Continued into Michigan on the Upper Peninsula and were offered tent space on Lee and Judy's property just out of the town of Daggett. Later the same day we were joined by Peter and Sally from St Louis and we started another of those episodes on our tour that would be remembered forever. Lee and Judy were the very best hosts, and Peter and Sally were to be our riding companions for the next 9 days. Except for Peters obsession in swimming in all of the Great Lakes on this trip (Lake Superior was about 40F.) it was a pleasant and interesting ride. The ride over Mackinac Bridge ( http://www.mackinacbridge.org/  ) was interesting, just glad it wasn't a windy day.

There are some pictures of the ride and people here.

August 21st to September 4th 2007:- Followed down the east coast of the lower Peninsula of Mitchigan, allowing Peter to have his swim in Lake Huron. It was great to Ride with Peter and Sally, only problem being the food. Every meal becomes a banquet cooked over an open fire. Not good for the waist line.
Arrived down at Crawford's and met Terry and some other early birds for the 3 for all Rally. Three days of socialising with other Ural riders, 2 afternoons of thunderstorms and our first experience of a tornado siren. Went with Peter and Sally into the Henry Ford Museum. As usual, had a day to look when we should have had 3 days for a proper tour.
Whilst at Crawford's Terry did a complete service on the Ural, couple of tiny things he had to adjust but the most interesting was the tire pressure gauge. Discovered we had been running the tires 10psi low because the Russian pressure gauge was faulty. This explained why we were getting low mileage, poor tire wear and a bit of a drift on the highway. The new pressures gave us a totally new feeling Ural. Also installed a new Autocom intercom, the Scala Team Rider had been a very poor choice from the start and finally gave up. Also, for Julie's entertainment, installed a Sirius Satellite radio and connected it through the new intercom.
Headed north again and crossed into Canada at Port Huron. The first days ride into Canada was an adventure. On Interstate 401, just outside of Toronto, in thick, very fast moving traffic made up mostly of semis we blew another rear tire when a chunk of metal off the highway ripped a hole in it. A bit of excitement to say the least. It was also scarey changing the tire on the side of 401 but the ride became even more exciting as we crossed Toronto in peak hour in 12 lanes of high speed traffic. Riders we met in the following days were amazed, no-one would ever ride a Ural on that interstate.  Isn't ignorance great some times, it saved us a long ride around, but scared the hell out of me. Julie reckons I rode through well.
The purpose for going into Cnada was to have a quick visit with Ted Moores at Bear Mountain Canoes, Peterborough, the person that co-designed both the strip plank Redbird Canoe and Reliance Kayak that we had built and toured in. We stopped at a 'Dunkin Doughnut'  store to check our map and have some 'food' when we met Keith, a motorcycle photo-journalist. That night, after a visit with Ted, we had a BBQ with Keith and stayed in a rental house of his that he was doing up. On this trip we have been approached numerous times by strangers, perhaps because of the Ural, perhaps because of the Australian flags on the Ural, and been offered overnight accommodation. I thinks it's could be a bit of both and just part of making an adventure out of travelling. I'm sure the people travelling in tour buses never see the real people, wherever they travel. 
Because of Keith we met Jerry, the importer of Urals into Canada. This led us to meet Terry and Mary-Anne, a couple that own a Ural and generously took us out for a few hours as we followed them around the lovely countryside near Peterborough. Then again, because of the meeting with Keith, we met with Mike and Angie who live in Gananoque at the lakes end of the St Lawrence River. We stayed with Mike and Angie and their dog Hector for 3 days and they showed us around the 1,000 Island area of the St Lawrence River. We had no idea such an area even existed, just stunning and must be the world's best place to own any sort of boat.
But Hector, the Blue Heeler, was the highlight of the stay. Completely blind since one and a half years of age, Hector has no eyes and is the most amazing dog. He is totally at home in the house and yard, it's very easy not to remember he is blind. Hector rides with Mike in the sidecar, sticks his head out in true doggy fashion. Hector chases a ball with a bell in it, catches a frisby by hearing it go through the air, and fetches sticks thrown into a lake with Mike calling directions from the shore. It was Julie's birthday whist we were with Mike and Angie and a pile of early morning birthday pancakes with a appropriate sparker and the singing of happy birthday with Hector the dog singing louder and harder than the rest of us made for a totally memorable day.  I don't think Hector realises he's blind. I think a lot of humans could learn a lot from Hector.
The border crossing back into the US was a bit more adventure that we didn't need. Through a series of events not of our making it took about 30 miniutes of answering questions and 12 dollars to get across the border. Just a bit frustrating.
Another Ural rider, Gary, met us at the border and rode with us into the Adirondack Mountains. So much absolutely magnificent scenery, so much water in lakes and rivers, again, another place where it would be good to stay and explore for a few weeks.
Crossing New York State, Vermont and New Hampshire was just brilliant, the Fall colours were just starting and beautiful lakes and rivers everywhere. Following the minor roads and travelling through small town America is just an amazing experience.
Just as we were leaving New Hampshire we tried to do the ride up Mount Washington. Winds on the top were 68mph and motorcycles were not allowed up that day. We were quite happy about that.

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