2ridetheworld.com : diary

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20-06-2008
It was an easy hour ride down the highway and into BMW of Milwaukee, but not without its lighter and dumber moments. We noticed in the last few days just how much the accent has changed here or to be more precise just how much harder our own accents are to understand to on the East Coast. If you think I’m exaggerating…try this. We popped into café for a coffee en route to Milwaukee, now we’re talking Milwaukee, not outer Mongolia. The server came up all cheery and chirpy and before I ordered I asked…”excuse me, can you tell me what town we’re in”? He thought and pondered the question and then wearing a triumphant smile replied ...”it’s 12:30pm”. I looked at Lisa, she looked at me and then we both realized it simply wasn’t worth asking again? With our linguistic lessons of the day learnt we pushed on to BMW of Milwaukee and within minutes of arriving Tinkerbell was up on the ramp and getting all the oils changed, engine, gear and final drive. Even the clutch got adjusted. Lisa was back inside the main showroom and flicking through web pages on the laptop looking to sort out some cheap Motel’s. I’d seen John stroll over and hand Lisa a white sheet. By the time I’d walked to Lisa she’d picked her draw off the floor. Earlier on we’d asked John if he knew of anywhere to stay as camping was out. He’d mentioned off hand that he’d sort something and we’d left it at that. We figured he meant a mate down the road who had a spare couch. Er, that’s not what he meant!!! We were now both staring at the white booking sheet John had handed us. We read it twice and both times it read…’booking confirmed for two nights for Simon & Lisa Thomas. 1 Suite booked all cost covered’. ‘The Radisson Hotel Milwaukee’. Needless to say John got an enthusiastic kiss from Lisa and I er…shook his hand very firmly’ ? Talked about spoiled. At the Hotel we enjoyed a quite night
21-06-2008
Day of the show. It kicked off at 4:30 and with Q&A the presentation lasted 3-hours, way more than normal. With the presentation done we headed back to the Hotel, got changed and then headed off with John again to one of his favorite fish restaurant. What great food. Got back to the hotel and joined the wedding party who’d opened the bar.
22-06-2008
We’d managed to finally get to bed at 5:30am and had woken at 8:00am. Wow, I should be feeling worse. We were still drinking gin and tonic in bed at 5:00am We’d agreed to meet John at the hotel and throw our bags into his car and he’d drive us over to the dealership. At the dealership we packed up and loaded the bikes before grabbing a few photos of John and his family in front of the store. With our thanks given to John as best we could we forced our heavy bodies onto the bikes and headed down the street, taking the first right and then finding the highway that would take us South on the West side of Lake Michigan. I needed food and lots of water! An hour after leaving Milwaukee and our eyes were closing. We’d pulled off and found a small café, parked the bikes and had ordered some food. God…I did not want to leave the comfy chair. Must move…must move, mmm, bodies heavy, eyes are closing, bellies full. The swift kick to my lower shin from Lisa as she got dressed along with the ‘move your ass’ comment got my attention and kick started my lazy ass into getting up. Back on the bikes and things felt better. We’d hoped to head into Chicago but thought better of it as we battled insane traffic into the city. Oh hell no! It was too busy, and it was going to be too expensive even if we managed to find somewhere to stay. We ended up bypassing Chicago and staying in Hammond a stones throw from the highway.
23-06-2008
Today was a short so why did it feel like it just went on and on? We’d left Highland this morning and made the short jump over to the highway on ramp and once again onto the I-80. We are so bored of highways! For the better part of half the ride we’d skirt the southerly shores of Lake Michigan. We were laughing and marveling at so many of the name of either roads or towns we were passing. We half expected John Wayne to coming galloping by at any second. We passed, New Chicago, Ogden Dunes, Town of Pines, Trail Creek, New Buffalo, the Red Arrow Highway, Fair Plain, Colonsville ( I know there’s an ass joke in there somewhere?), Paw Paw lake, Paw Paw, until finally reaching my favorite…Kalamazoo. Yep it’s a real town. After riding passed places and towns that could have easily be part of a spaghetti Western script we stopped for the night just 147 miles from where we’d started. Our home for this night is none less than…Battle Creek! Ye ha!!!
24 to 26-06-2008
We weren’t going far. For as long as we’ve know Greg and Mare in Washington, we’ve had a standing invitation to stay with Mare parents Terry and Dianne. Now was our chance and we weren’t going to miss it. The short 154-miles North East up to Bay City flew by easily enough, even with the detour on the I-75. Terry and Dianne were outside waiting for us to arrive. Terry’s opening words were…”welcome home”! What a great couple. In no time at all we were settled in, sipping cold beer and chatting with people laid back to the point of falling over. Do you remember I mentioned a few days ago about the language problem we were having being understood…and so it continues. We had a good day, rested a little and chatted and laughed with Terry and Dianne. Around mid-day we needed to get some air and a few jobs done. Terry had commented about the collection of ever growing holes in both of my socks, I explained it was the difference between being sponsored and not. With that Terry had called Mike, his son, and picked up the details for a local motorcross shop. We’d hopped in the car and headed down. Inside the shop and we were greeted by Chuck who was eager to see if he could help us find anything. And so it began… “Hi can I help you find anything”? “yeah, hi, I’m looking for socks”. Chuck looked suddenly shaken! “Uh? Yeah…OK we don’t have those”. I continued…”Really you don’t sell motorcycle socks”? Chuck was looking around the shop for support. “uh, well yeah we have those…but no”! OK, now I was confused. “OK, I;m looking to buy socks, you know that you put under your riding boots and on your feet”!!! “SOCKS”. “Do you have socks”? By now I’d tried different variations…socks, soaks, saks, soucks, soookkkssss. Chuck was looking dumfounded. “I’m not sure”? Hang on I said. “Are you unsure you have them or just unsure what I mean?” Chuck was now looking lost and replied”I,m not sure what you mean”. By now I had no idea if Chuck knew what I wanted or didn’t and was just saying he didn’t have what he didn’t know I was looking for. You work it out!!!! Terry had walked over and in his frustration had said, “c’mon they’re looking for socks”! …with that Chuck raised his hands in triumph and wonder and said “oh socks…yeah we have plenty of those follow me”???????? To our genuine surprise Terry treated us to new socks each and was adamant we weren’t spending a penny in his company. Thanks Terry. We spent the rest of the afternoon laughing it off. Its funny how in good company time flies all too quickly? Between the computer work, the laughing and conversation and even a dinner out at the German based town of Frankenmuth, complete with ladahosen wearing servers and a fairy tale skyline, out time had come to an end. We’ll be sad to leave tomorrow.
27-06-2008
Like so many times when we’ve left the company of new friends, we did our best to express or thanks and appresciation and loaded up the bikes for the trip down to Canton and BMW of South East Michigan. We were buoyed by the idea that this wasn’t really goodbye as Dianne and mike had already confirmed they’d be following us down tomorrow to cath our presentation. Out of Bay City we easily picked up the signs for the highway, pulled through the gears only to find ourselves slamming on the brakes only a mile down the road as we hit roadworks. We were no more than 2-3 miles from Diannes and Tery’s, we’d now left them over an hour ago and we were still inching forward with no end to the congestion in sight. After almost an hour and 45 minutes and now sweating heavily into our riding gear we finally pulled clear of the cars and nonsense. Picking up speed felt great as the moving air passed through the vents in our gear cooling us down. A 112-miles had passed fast enough but we needed to get a move on as again traffic ws building around Canton as the heacens were about to open up any second and it didn’t take a genious to se when they did it was going to be torrential. The large white and blue BMW signage was easy enough to see and with a right off the main road we’d pulled into the car park, sorted ourselves and headed inside. We already knew that John Hormer(owner) was going to be here until tomorrow but Audrey, Owen, John and the rest of the staff made us feel pretty welcome. With intros made we’d found a Motel 6 just a mile up the road and booked ourselves in for two nights. Now all that awaited us was this evening was…Angalina Jolie. Well, obviously not in person but watching her in the film ‘Wanted’ which came out today semed like a pretty good idea. The fast the movie tickets here are only $4 (2 pounds) also doesn’t hurt. Tomorrows presentation looks like it’ll be good.
28-06-2008
We’d arrived at the dealership by early afternoon and plugged in the new laptop which had connected with the projector automatically. Wow I like this! John had arrived back for his business meeting and been introduced and by early evening the chairs and food were being set up. Like before we knew to expect guest to turn up early and right on cue an hour before the publicized ‘kick-off’ time people started turning up. By 7:30pm John had made his welcome comments and introduced us. And so with new people and friends we set about recanting our journey from the UK With question and answers to round things up we finally packed up around 10:00pm and with John an dSylvia headed up the road to a local ‘Outback’ restaurant. A good day with good company to finish it up with.
29-06-2008
We are both a little more tired than we anticipated and so have decided to stay at this Motel 6 for another day. We’ve spent today in the room basically getting web updates and diary and sorted. Our afternoon was punctuated by a movie…’Kung-Fu Panda. Not our typical mivie taste but hell it was funny…Skadoosh!
30-06-2008
Today was short even by our standards. We’d left Canton at 12:00 noon and heads south to Toledo along the edge of Lake Erie and then out East, finally spotting ‘cold creek trout camp’, a cute little campsite just on the outskirts of Sandusky. We easily found a good pitch and handed over our $25 camp fee. The place is cozy, has good hot running showers and lies just on the moth of of the atributaries that feeds the lake. We set up the tent and gear and made ourselves at home around a glowing red fire. A good way to end the day and a real treat after being holed up in the Motel.
01-07-2008
We’d been sitting around the wooden table outside the tent. I was doing a gear sheck and Lisa was sorting out eggs for breakfast when Brian stopped by. Now Brian looks every part the Harley rider and yet seemed to knw his way around a BMW pretty well. After just a few minutes it was clear why. Brian had never owned a Harly in his life but had been riding BMW’s for most if it! A two hour chat ensued with a plan for this evening. We’d hook up with a few of his friends for food and drinks. We’d spent 20 minutes in the evening sitting with owners of cold creek trout camp, Lance and Cindy sipping on cold beer and when we’d handed over another $25 Lance had handed it straight back. “No, go ahead and keep it…your livin’ the life’ Lance said off hand. We expressed our surprise and thanked then both for their generous support. Great people with a great site. We’d love to go back some time. We’d been eyeing up Brian home away form home, ignorant of who’d owned it. A great looking Harley coloured orange, black and crome converted bus. Brians BMW 1200 cruiser was now parked up out front; we’d not heard him arrive back. Kathy and Pul we defiantly heard arrive on their gloriuous kitted out Harley. With introductions made we al headed out. Brian with Cheryl and Paul with Kathy. Our first stop was a small restaurant/café right by the water and a wonderful place to sit and watch the Sun set. With food and drink downed we headed back over the bridge towards Sandusky and a local favoutie bar, where we talked and played pool until 1:00am. So to Brian, Cheryl, Paul and Kathy thanks for a fun evening.
02-07-2008
We 'ummed and ahhed' wether to spend naother night here at cold creek trout camp but we both felt the need to ride today and make some miles and so we’re heading East. Lake Erie was going to be on our left for most of the day. For the most part it was a slow ans easy ride, staying clear of the highways and main roads. We’d passed the manufacturing mecca that is Cleveland by mid afternoon and pushed on until late afternoon. Stopping just East of Lake City at a YMCA camp site. We’d found a pitch and paid another $25 for the night when Jim and Richelle stopped by for a shat both astride huge grass cutting machines, wow these things are fast. We briefly spoke about what had brought us to Lake City and had a few laughs at some of our sillier moments. With that, Jim announced that he’d call the office and get our camp fee refunded. Much like at Cold Creek Trout Camp we were genuinely surprised. These gusy don’t know us or owe us anything. All the same we thanked them for their support and arranged to mmet up later on. As it turned out that didn’t happen. Dinner was selection fo fresh sruit and veg from a vendor just a walk up from the camp site driveway. You can get moe info on both Cold Creek and the YMVA at Lake City here: http://www.2ridetheworld.com/support_on_the%20road3.htm
03-07-2008
Left YMCA and rode around to Bufallo and up to Niagara falls, where we’d booked the KOA $150 for 3 nights, but it’s july 4th.
04-07-2008
Niagara Falls…. …the very name conjures up images of turn of the century daredevils in barrels, Marilyn Munroe inspired honeymooners and the ceaseless cascade of thunderous water, which makes up Americas most famous and powerful waterfall. Our ride from America’s west coast hadn’t been the best. Gusting winds had pushed us around like the proverbial rag dolls. We’d barely escaped tunnels of twisting wind in Tornadoes alley and then almost been stopped in our tracks as a 500-year flood practically washed away the mid-west. The presentations that have interspersed the journey have been a real respite from the unpleasant slog and brought their fair share of ‘big grin’ moments. All the above was about to be made worthwhile. We’d wondered why we were both so genuinely excited about riding to Niagara Falls? We’d been to other falls, some far, far larger than the ones at Niagara, so what’s the big deal? I’ll tell you! Apart from 100-years of Hollywood hype and their sheer mesmerizing size and power, you can get closer and wetter to these falls than any others we’ve been lucky enough to see. Sure looking at waterfalls is pretty, but being soaked to the skin and almost blown off your feet by the unremitting power of water is humbling and inspiring all at the same time. The falls at Niagara are made up of two major sections separated by Goat Island: Horseshoe Falls, on the Canadian side of the border and American Falls on the United States side. The smaller Bridal Veil Falls also is located on the USA side, separated from the main falls by Luna Island, a great place to get a real good view as the Sun Set’s and the night time illuminations of the falls begin. We’d jumped on Tinkerbelle and ridden the easy 7-miles trip to North America’s oldest state park, followed the signage and parked up on Goat Island. We’d even beaten the parking attendants to work and so passed the pay booth, kicked down the side stand and set about getting our day in order. Saving $8 and not having to pay for all day parking was a good way to start the day. It was now 7:00am. We milled about, got our bearings, picked up a park map and waited until 9:00am for the ticket booth’s to open. We done some homework last night and were avoiding the ‘guided-tour’, at $80 is seemed a bit steep. That said, we’d learnt that for $30 each we could experience most of what the park offered and at our own pace. The cave of Wind was our first stop. Or the tunnel of incredible flatulence as we came to affectionately call it..yeah, we’re sad like that, but it made us giggle. We showed our passes and followed the small early morning crowd into the plastic room (again our name for it) where we’d be handed our souvenir plastic sandals and sexy bright yellow see through ponchos. ‘Big Bird’ eat your heart out! We’d beaten the throng of people that were now spilling from the tourist coaches that had just turned up. I was in ‘one of those moods’ and feeling very Monty Python as I looked around the room. 30 or so people, of all ages and sizes, each with a bright yellow throw away poncho, slightly bent forward to compensate for the weight of the mandatory rucksack stuck on their backs. It looked like a big yellow Quasimodo convention. Just think about that for a minute, It’ll make you grin. “Coooomminggg Maaaaaster”!! We joined a small group of ten, and then in true American fashion set about navigating our way through and around the infuriating winding line. You know the one that’s designed to keep control of 200 people at the post office and just leads back and forth and back and forth, so that every 10 seconds you find yourself saying “morning” or “hello’ to the same people as your path’s cross for the 54th time and miss time a ‘heads-up’ and your eyes accidentally meet! With only ten people it just seemed a bit like over-kill. Like using a Magnum 45 to kill a mosquito. My head was still conjuring up strange analogies! The excited chatting and hushed laughter from the line disappeared as we enter a strict ‘no smiling, talking or eye contact zone’, commonly known as a lift, that’s an elevator to our American friends. Just like a morning train or tube ride…only…’smaller’, they seem to suck all frivolity, laughter and life out of anyone who dares to enter. We plunged 175 feet in the space of about a minute and all found our lighter happier selves again as we bundled out of the lift and made for the start of the tour of ‘The tunnel of incredible flatulence’, sorry, ‘The Cave of Wind”! Wearing an impressively ‘day-glow bright orange’ rain suit (not to be confused with a throw away poncho) our temporary guide, dished out facts and figures in a lack luster way that can only come from saying the exact same thing ‘one-hundred million’ times a day and then wished us on our way as we headed down the path towards our first royal soaking of the day. Yeah, I know it sounds like I’m making fun but this was all great stuff. And the winding lines dulled guide and silly jokes are all just part of what we hoped for. We were loving the cliché of it all and we were in for an absolute treat of a day. Outside and at the bottom of Niagara Gorge the noise was already deafening as the Bridal Vail falls came crashing to down on the pummeled rocks below. The ‘cave’ as such is now gone, collapsed back in 1954. What awaits now is a truly breathtaking walk around wooden walkways that get you closer to the falls than I ever thought possible. How the hell do they build these staircases, I thought? Near the rocks it was hard to stand even with the stability offered by flat wooden walkways and hand rails. How do they brace themselves here to work, as apparently the whole walkway is disassembled and then reassembled between November and April due to the destruction caused by the freezing water that otherwise encases the walkway. The winding walkway gets you closer and closer to Bridal Vail and in turn wetter and wetter until at last you’re stood on the famous ‘hurricane Deck’ battling to stand as heavy cascades of water hit either you or the deck around you, the force of which is hard to describe. Excited screaming like a girl is mandatory even for the adventurous biker types! We were going to have to get these grins surgically removed from our faces. What the hell was the point of those goofy looking ponchos; everyone and I mean everyone was soaked to the skin, poncho or no! The wet excited buzz of adrenalin fuelled conversation could be heard all the back up the tunnel that lead to the lift and then back up to our starting point…’The Plastic room’. Just brilliant. Back upstairs we clicked and pressed the buttons on our new POV.1 cameras. Well, it says there water-proof, now seemed like a good opportunity to put that to the test. They worked brilliantly and whilst others were battling to video and protect their expensive toys from a royal drowning with clumsy plastic supermarket bags, we had just held the lens and filmed the whole thing. Check out the podcast coming up on the index page or YouTube. It was going to be along day as we’d planned to be around for the July 4th (Independence Day) and the much promoted firework extravaganza over the falls. Our passes gave us free use of the green park busses (trollies) that we’d seen flying about the park and would pick us up and drop us off at various points, park wide. Right now we needed to dry off and head over to the observation deck and the ‘Maid of the Mist’ launch point. We’d been surprised by how relatively quiet the falls had been so far. We were already wet so it seemed like a good time to jump aboard ‘The Maid of The Mist IV” and like so many other tourist’s before us see the Canadian Horseshoe falls close up. We’ve both seen this particular boat attraction so many times on TV, documentaries and films alike, it felt suddenly and surprisingly surreal to actually be boarding the famous white, tug boat shape vessel and heading up Niagara’s famous Gorge to the foot of the falls. Well, if you’re going to get wet you may as well get truly drenched, and so with that thought in mind we pushed and shoved our way to the very front of the boat and stood our ground at the bow. Sailing pass the base of the American falls to our left gives you a perspective like no other and suddenly the magnitude of water cascading over the top truly hits home, in a much more visceral way that sheer statistics alone can. It’s one thing, hearing that six million cubic feet (168,000 m³) of water fall over the crest line every minute and quite another being pushed back by the rushing air escaping the foot of the falls, as it makes way for the pounding water to occupy the vacume. Raw power. A little like the Sahara Desert, being this close has a way of putting things…into perspective. Once again we used the POV.1’s try capture a little of the experience. Closer to the foot of the Horseshoe falls and we were getting closer than I’d thought we’d go. I looked around and wondered how much water the ship could take on board before, before…you know..glug, glug, glug. The cheers and screams of the passengers, now all clad in bright blue ponchos, was being drowned, literally by the white foaming water crashing down all around and the deep throated growl of the ships engines as it fought against the raging waters flowing underneath it. Truth be told, you could barely make out anything. It was a bit like putting your face under the shower and trying to breath. And then with a deft and much rehearsed turn of the rudder, our white shirt dressed captain made a left turn and you could feel the ship spin a swift 180 degrees as the sheer force of water pushed the vessel once again downstream. Back on dry land and we just stood and grinned at each other as river water poured at of our clothes. From the base of the Gorge and back up the lift we realized how well times our boat ride had been. We’d stood in line for ten minutes before heading to the water line and the ‘Maid of the Mist IV’. There was now a line hundreds deep and probably over an hour wait. It was time for lunch. A hotdog and hamburger combo seemed only fitting on this most American of days. It felt great as the warm sun dried out our wet cloths and trousers legs that 10 minutes ago clung wet to our legs, let go. By the time 8:00pm rolled by we’d walked our fair share of the park, visited the photographic vantage points and made it back to the ‘Observation Deck’ and found our spot for this evening light show. I was keen to try to capture a photo of the illuminated falls and the fireworks combined. I was just hoping that I had a lens wide enough. The Falls get illuminated by huge coloured spot light at around 9:00pm and the Fireworks were due to be launched from the Canadian side at 10:00pm. We set up the tripod, took a wide stance and held our ground as the throng around us grew in weight, numbers and cheeky little bastards that tried to squeeze and shoulder their way past Lisa and myself, into space in front of us that simply wasn’t there! Why is it the same the same little cheeky runts that want to push past you are the same little sods with the very worst body odour? We were already stood right up against the railing, when one of them said ‘excuse me’ in a very presumptive manner as they pushed against us. I just looked down at him and said flattley…”No”! A face looked up surprised, like a ‘likkle animule caught in the headlights. “There’s no space, where do you think you going to go…and if your going to push that hard into my ass, the least you could do is buy me a drink first”. OK, OK, you know I didn’t say the second part, but it would’ve been funny? Anyway, munchkin boy got the message , grumbled something under his breath and backed off, as Lisa just turned her head and gave him the look of…death! She’d been giving me sideways glances for the last hour, most of which silently said…”Their pushing me and leaning on me to get photos but I’m not going to react…but…you know if I wanted to I could…break them like a twig…hiss”!!! A raised eyebrow and persed lips speak volumes. For those of you that know Lisa you know ‘exactly’ what I Mean. By 9:30pm the pink light of dusk had become night, the falls were being bathed in a multitude of ever changing coloured lights and a million camera flashes were being set off. As the hour chimed 10:00pm the sky was lit with an explosion of ballooning coloured light as a barrage of giant fireworks lept skyward. The wait had been worth it…shoving and all! I’m not going to sit here and describe fireworks, but they were truly spectacular. Just check out the photos. What a day. It’s now 2:30am, pitch black and I’m outside the tent as Lisa sleeps inside. I just wanted to write this up as it was fresh in my head. What a day. Night, night!



The next installment in the USA click here