100 Days, 20,000 Miles and the Itch to Ride Again

Hello all!

It has almost been a year since Jason and I left Maui to start our adventure ride to Alaska.  Crazy to think about!  One of the hardest things we have encountered from our 20,000 mile adventure ride last summer is the constant urge to want to do it again.  As we go about our normal days, there are little things here and there that spark a memory from our trip and it makes us smile.  We accomplished something that a lot of people only daydream about.  Our advice to you.....Go Do It!  You won't regret it.

Jason and I keep talking about riding the rest of the Pan American Highway to Argentina some day.  Like the advice I just gave you, we need to "get 'er done."  We are not getting any younger and we have no excuse not to do it.  Traveling through Central and South America is a bit more difficult than traveling to Alaska through Canada, but nothing impossible.  Neither of us are fluent in Spanish but have enough Spanish vocabulary between the 2 of us to get by.  We went to Costa Rica in January for our friend's wedding and there were motorcycles EVERYWHERE!  The typical driving there is nuts, so you want to have health insurance that will cover you internationally haha.  The other thing that takes a bit more planning for this trip is border crossings.  We have to research the ins and outs of how to smoothly get from one country to the next without complications.....but once again, nothing impossible to accomplish.

There are a lot of you out there who have already traveled by motorcycle through Central and/or South America; so any advice is welcome!

We keep getting dumped on with snow here in Colorado, so getting out on the bikes lately has been a challenge.  If weather cooperates, we will satisfy our moto urge by traveling to Indiana on our bikes for my brother's wedding in May.  If not, we are highly considering living on a beach in Baja until it warms up haha.

Stay warm and ride on my friends!

Repairs After Repairs and Homeward Bound

Hello!  Sorry for the long delay in our blog!  We went through some never ending mechanical problems and were so involved with problem solving we didn’t sit down to type at all.  We were fortunate to make it home and then normal adult life activities took over haha.  Anyway….

Back tracking to the night in the wilderness with the wolves.  We woke up in one piece…didn’t sleep too peacefully with our ears on high alert and a flat mattress pad…but we had another beautiful day ahead of us.  AND it is our 6 month anniversary!  Boy how time flies.  I have loved every minute of every day with my husband.  We’ve had a few stressful moments on the trip so far but that’s what makes us stronger.  You can’t expect to live out of a tent day in and day out with several days of rain and expect to always be in a good mood haha.  Since Jason and I were out of water and desperately wanted coffee, we found a campground/restaurant near the lake.  This place was kind of weird.  It was someone’s house that they turned the yard into a campground and the living room/kitchen was turned into a “restaurant.”  Everything I wanted for breakfast they were out of, so we just had a cup of coffee and left.

The roads were great today (paved twisties) and Jason’s bike was running well.  My bike had seen better days.  I needed a new chain and sprocket and the front tire was starting to bounce from the knobbies wearing uneven, but overall can’t complain.

We turned onto Highway 99 toward Whistler and were blown away.  This road is by far one of the most scenic, twisty roads we have ever been on.  We highly recommend it for all riders!  You ride twisty paved roads up into the mountains with absolutely beautiful views and then twisty roads down toward Whistler.

Everything was green, rivers were flowing, and it was just peaceful.  For lunch we stopped in a small cute town called Pemberton.  DO NOT bring potatoes into this town haha!  There are signs everywhere when you drive into town that warn people that they will be prosecuted if they import/grow their own potatoes here.  Anyway…we had a delicious lunch at a small pub and hit the road again.  Our plan was to stop and check out Whistler and then head to Squamish to find a place to camp.  Neither of us have been to Whistler before so we were excited to see it.  We couldn’t believe the amount of people that were there during the summer.  People were mountain biking everywhere!  We badly wanted to stay and bike, but we were watching our budget.  They had the lifts going, a huge downhill play park, people were fully padded up, and everything!

We’ll have to come back someday.

Jason really wanted to find some Budlight for camp, so we went into Squamish and then back tracked a little to find a spot to camp.  It was surprisingly hard to find a spot.  Jason went down a couple “trails” to find access to the river, but it was way too gnarly.  For him to say a trail was too difficult, it was definitely way too difficult for me haha.  We finally found a spot far enough off the road the cars wouldn’t bother us and had a little trail down to the river.

We were able to give our dishes a proper washing in the river and then cooked some backpacker meals.  Throughout the evening, there were quite a few cars stopping by asking us where they could camp. We must have found one of the few good spots out here.  Our night was relaxing. There was a glacier across the river from us; so we watched the moon rise above it, sipped a few beers, and shared more stories and life philosophies.  Besides having a flat mattress pad in the quickly dropping temperatures, it was a great night.

The morning came and we decided to be lazy.  We packed up and drove into town to grab breakfast at Tim Horton’s and talk about our game plan.

We really really really wanted to take the ferry over to Vancouver Island to explore. Everyone has been telling us it’s a place not to miss; however, our bikes are not the happiest right now.  We need to find a place for me to get tires and of course today is Saturday; so unless we could find a place open on a Monday, we would have to kill time in one place waiting for them to open.  It never fails we are stuck on a weekend when we absolutely need tires haha.  We also wanted to spend some time in Vancouver to visit our friend’s from Maui. Our landlord from Maui rides trials bikes and wanted to ride with us.  It would have been amazing! I still haven’t ridden a trials bike.  After lots of research, calling people, and weighing our options, we came up with a plan.  We found a BMW shop in Ferndale that is open on Mondays and Jason’s brother, John, was conveniently at a water ski tournament not too far from there; so we decided to pay him a visit.  It worked out perfectly! To get there, we had to drive straight through the heart of Vancouver.

We didn’t have a map and the traffic was terrible, so we tried to follow signs and not overheat in the process.  I’ve decided it is not a good idea for my hubby to drive through cities haha.  Besides the fact that we hate driving through cities, my hubby likes to sight see haha.  It is not easy sightseeing on a motorcycle with buses stopping in front of you, cars darting in and out, and trying to find signs among the buildings and people.  It was nerve wrecking. We were very thankful to make it out of there in one piece.

We found the busy U.S. border and had to wait about a half hour.  It wasn’t too bad since it was slightly downhill and could just coast with the motors off.

The young border guard was super nice!  He was more interested in our bikes and our trip rather than border questions haha.  The drive to get to where John was staying had a lot of traffic.  Mostly highway driving with traffic at a standstill, but then found a back road that was more scenic and less traffic.  We found John at the water ski tournament and got to hang out a little bit with his coworkers before heading to the hotel.

It was great getting to see John!  Talk about perfect timing for our trips to overlap.  We had a great evening at John’s hotel (good food, good beer, and a super relaxing hot tub).  BIG Thanks to John for letting us crash with him!!

We had to back track a little bit in the morning to get to Ferndale.  Thankfully they had K60 Scout tires for my bike and had time to put them on for me!

They didn’t have time to put on my chain and sprocket, so I just bought the parts and took them with us to put on later.  By the way…actually open the box and look at the parts they sell you.  I learned my lesson on this one.  Not only did they sell me a continuous chain (which means I would have to drop the swing arm myself to put the chain on…who seriously has the time or the proper tools on the road to do that!) but they also sold me a chain that was 3 links too short!!!  Being a BMW motorcycle dealership, you would think they would have more knowledge and common sense than they had.  Let’s just say we were stranded again down the road once I discovered their mistake (full story to come)….idiots!  It took them most of the day to put my new tires on and then hit the road for Jason’s sister’s house (Erin) in Renton, WA.  Once again here we go with the city driving haha.  We were very unfortunate to get stuck in rush hour traffic.  Jason’s bike over heated, so we parked on the side of the very busy highway hoping it would cool off quickly.

As we were waiting, we realized motorcycles were cruising through the carpool lane.  We had no idea we could do that haha!  Once we knew that, we made good time getting to Erin’s house.

Thank you so much Erin Fernandez-Mommer and family for all you did for us (amazing food, a roof over our heads, and fun family time)!!  We have a couple adventure riders in training...

I was able to experience The Crab Pot restaurant for the first time.  You choose what type of seafood you want and then they dump it on the table in front of you.  It was quite tasty and a fun experience.

During our stay, we were able to get a lot of bike maintenance done (oil changes and inspection of air filters). We also properly cleaned our dishes and did some laundry.  Thankfully Big Agnes stood by their product and its warranty and mailed a new air pad to Erin’s house for me! No more sleeping on the cold ground!!  We were planning on changing my chain and sprocket while there; but that’s when we realized Ferndale BMW sold us a continuous chain, so we had to visit I90 Motorsports to have them break the chain for me.  We didn’t have enough daylight left to switch it out, so the plan was to head out toward Mt. Rainier National Park and fix it where ever we camp that night.

Erin fed us an amazing breakfast and then we hit the road.  We took some back roads to avoid traffic and check out Snoqualmie Falls.  It wasn’t flowing much because of the drought, but it was still beautiful.

We did a little grocery shopping in town and bought another SD card for our camera.  I think we have close to 2,500 pictures haha.  The road from here toward Mt. Rainier was very nice (lots of trees).

We found a dirt forest service road and went cruising up it to find a spot to camp.  There was a perfect moss covered spot that looked like people had camped there before.  Jason set up camp while I started tearing into my bike to put the new chain and sprocket on.

The sprocket was super easy. The old chain (using a small chain breaker tool) was kind of a pain, but I finally got it off using a little muscle power.  It seemed like everything was going smoothly until I realized Ferndale BMW sold me the wrong length chain!!!  I know I90 Motorsports didn’t take any links out. They just broke the chain open for me.  Ferndale BMW sold me a chain that was 3 links too short!  The old chain wasn’t in good enough shape to put back on, so unfortunately we were stranded once again until Jason drove back to I90 Motorsports to buy me a new proper length chain.  I don’t think we’ve made very good time on the road since we left Alaska haha.  Just one thing after another.  Despite keeping up with regular maintenance to keep the bikes running well, we still encounter difficulties every now and then.  Just have to be patient and roll with the punches.

I enjoyed my night’s sleep on my new air pad and actually slept in while my wonderful husband rode back to Seattle to grab a chain for me.  He is so sweet!  He even surprised me with Subway sandwiches for lunch. J  The new chain was perfect and went on smoothly.

We packed up camp and set off to ride through Mt. Rainier National Park.  It was such a beautiful ride.  Big green forest all around, nice views, and not a lot of traffic.

All was great until Jason’s bike started backfiring.  Here we go again haha.  It backfired hard and sometimes would shoot fire out the back.  Let’s just say I didn’t ride to close behind him.  Our first thought was his air filter might be dirty (he didn’t check his at Erin’s house), so we stopped at a hardware store to get a K&N filter cleaning kit.  We were both in the mood for Mexican food, so we stopped to eat in Morton, WA before finding a place to camp.  We didn’t know the area too well and it was getting close to sundown, so we camped at a pay campground up the road.  It was quite fancy haha!

It was completely paved, gravel tent spots, sinks with running water, power outlets, and pay showers.  I set up camp this time while Jason tore into his bike.  We tried to waterproof his bike overnight in case it rained.  The air filter isn’t the easiest thing to access on his KTM 950 Adventure.

Jason got his bike put back together in the morning and it seemed to be good to go.  We were heading to Mt. St. Helens National Park today.  The roads were weirdly falling off the side of the mountain but they were still beautiful and curvy.

It was quite a scenic ride.  We road all the way to the top to view the 1980 eruption destruction.  It was crazy seeing all the trees still laying sideways all in the same direction.

This summer’s trip has been very informative.  Not only are we enjoying the ride but we are learning so much from all the places we visit.  We’ve read in school about these events happening but it’s cool to actually see it in person.  Anyway…we kept on truckin toward Hood River, OR.  Coming into White Salmon (just across the river from Hood River), Jason’s bike got way worse.  It was backfiring all the time and would actually kill the bike (sometimes in corners).  If he turned the key off and then back on (resetting the fuel pump), the bike would backfire and come back to life.  We parked our bikes and let them cool off a bit.  He thought maybe overheating in construction traffic was causing problems.  There just happened to be a bar across the street, so we grabbed a cold one and chicken wings and talked about what we were going to do.  He was very determined about throwing his bike off a cliff and buying a new 1190 haha.  We decided to limp his bike across the bridge to Hood River and get a hotel room.

That way we could do some research online about his bike issues and he’d have a paved parking lot to work on it.  Men get cranky when their motorcycles don’t work properly, so I wanted to get it fixed ASAP haha.  Jason changed out the fuel filter and cleaned the battery terminals.  He could also hear that the fuel pump wasn’t always priming.

Our next destination was Bend, OR.  We wanted to see my Maui friend, Phil, and maybe find a KTM shop that could help us or at least have a new fuel pump.  Leaving Hood River there were apple orchards everywhere!  I wished we would have stopped for some apple cider.  We tried to see Mt. Hood on our way to Bend but you could only see the bottom half.  We encountered some terrible wind coming through the Deschutes River area.  Our bikes were leaning sideways the whole way.  There were also very recent wildfires in the area with smoke still coming up from the ground.

We found a Sportsman’s Warehouse first thing when we rolled into Bend, so we bought some more backpacker meals and tried to get a hold of Phil.  Bend is a cute town but it’s bigger than we expected.  We strolled around the river park and still hadn’t heard from Phil.

Phil pretty much blew us off even though we went out of our way to visit him.  So…we started out of town to find a place to camp and Jason’s bike took a turn for the worse again.  It was dying constantly in very bad places (intersections, highways, etc).  We pulled off into a parking lot to work on his bike again.  Jason had read something about the kickstand switch could be causing electrical issues, so he bypassed the switch and got back on the road.  We found the local campground but it was completely full and Jason’ bike was still dying.  We didn’t know what to do.  We weren’t sure how far the next spot to camp would be and we didn’t want to pay for a pricey hotel in Bend waiting on the KTM shop to open.  We decided to risk it and keep on riding.  We thankfully made it to a town called Sisters.  There was a campground right at the edge of town and was pretty crowded, but they had a spot for us.  It’s one of those places where people are camping really close to each other haha.

We had a couple beers, talked about our options again, and prayed Jason’s bike would work in the morning.

Our prayers were answered because his bike worked perfectly fine in the morning!  We found a cozy restaurant with home cooked breakfast before we left town.  It was soooooo good!  Homemade hashbrowns, homemade biscuits, eggs, and bacon….yummmm!  Most of our camping breakfasts have been bagels and Nutella or Luna Bars.  Our next destination was Newport, OR.  Jason has a very good friend from Colorado that moved there with his wife (and now a 1 year old daughter), so he wanted to say “Hi” and catch up with them.  We could see a wall of rain in front of us, so we made sure to put on our heated gear and a couple layers.  Man did it pour rain!  Team Mommer putting out forest fires once again haha.

The drive would have been absolutely amazing with mountainous views and twisty roads, but the rain made it difficult.  It was cold, our visors completely fogged up, and the rain had washed rocks onto the road.  At least we came out the other side of the storm on the other side of the mountains.

Newport, OR is beautiful!  We cruised down to the harbor while we waited to hear from Peter D.  There were so many sea lions by the docks!  It was so cool.  I think that was my first time seeing a real sea lion (besides once at Sea World).  They are loud and stinky but cute.  

Peter D. gave us directions to a park where his daughter’s first birthday party was happening.  It was so great finally getting to meet Peter and his family!  I heard so many stories about Jason and him living in a teepee together back in the day.  A huge thank you to Peter, Christine, and Aria!!

They let us stay with them for several days while we waited for a new fuel pump for Jason’s bike.  I got to hear a lot more stories from their time in Colorado, hung out with an awesome one year old, and were able to re-waterproof our tent.  Jason and I walked to the bay to get some fresh oysters and homemade clam chowder.  It was soooo good!  Probably the best clam chowder we have ever had.

There were lots of people fishing for crab right off the edge of the pier.  That would be a cool thing to do some day.  We just need to buy some crab pots.  Jason and I have been missing the beautiful beaches of Maui, so we walked down the street to stick our toes in the cold sand.

Definitely not a Maui beach but was still nice.

Jason’s fuel pump eventually arrived and he installed it quickly.  He took it for a test drive and it seemed to be working fine again.  We shared one last big spaghetti dinner with our friends and then hit the bar with Peter D.  That was a fun night!  

Jason and him reminisced on old times and had a few beers.  The next morning wasn’t the most pleasant with a hangover headache, but we still packed up and hit the road.  With all of our maintenance stops, we are running out of town to make it down to the bottom of California before heading toward home.  Our drive on Highway 101 was very beautiful (following the coastline).  

We stopped at the Sea Lion Caves because Jason had been there as a kid, but all the sea lions were gone (off having babies or something?).

Shortly after leaving the caves, Jason’s bike started backfiring again and dying!  Since it’s not an air problem and not a fuel problem, maybe it was the carbs?  Jason bought some carb cleaner to add to the bike in hopes of it helping.  We were running out of ideas for what it could be.  We were hoping it wasn’t an electrical gremlin.  Those are so hard to pinpoint.

We crossed into California, but couldn’t find a place to camp.  All of the “free” camp spots were barricaded off by the forest service department and all the pay campgrounds were full because of Labor Day weekend.  We kept riding around and stumbled upon a HUGE Redwood tree park on a dirt road.  It was amazing!!  

All you want to do is stare straight up at these huge trees but then you can’t see the road haha.  Our amazing trail came out in Crescent City.  We were stuck getting another hotel room since we couldn’t find a camp spot.  It was worth it though.  The restaurant next door had a very delicious steak and salad bar dinner.  With our bellies full, we happily went to bed early.

The ride the next day was full of Redwood trees.  We found a place where you could pay to drive through a hole in a gigantic Redwood.  It wasn’t too exciting but it made for some good pictures.

Jason had heard about a road that was supposed to be a nice “scenic route” dirt road instead of staying on the highways; so we decided to check it out.  As you may have read earlier in the blog, my husband’s “scenic routes” tend to be really difficult and not so scenic haha.  This time he was right though.  This road, called Bald Mountain Highway, started out with climbing twisty narrow roads, turned into a beautiful curvy scenic dirt road at the top, and then descending curvy beautiful new pavement.  

Despite our beautiful side trip, we still ended up in some crazy long construction traffic.  Thankfully a local at a gas station told us about a short cut around the construction.  It was a great road and cut probably 30 minutes off our travel time.  By the time we reached Redding, Jason’s bike wouldn’t stay running.  We were very fortunate to make it to Waylon and Sandra’s house (coworkers/friends from Maui).  Huge thank you to Waylon and Sandra for letting us to stay to work on Jason’s bike again!!

We really tore into Jason’s bike this time.

We had started a thread on Adventure Rider to ask advice about how to fix it and just started checking things off our list of what it could possibly be.  Jason accessed his carb boots and noticed one of the boots had been blown off.  The metal collar that held the carb boot on had a stripped screw, so we found a replacement at the hardware store.

We figured that had to have been the problem.  One of the huge backfires must have blown it right off.  He put it back together and made sure the other carb boot was seated properly too.  He took it for a test ride and all seemed great again.  We grabbed a nice dinner with Sandra and made plans to leave around noon the next day to go see Waylon in Fortuna.

We slept in, packed up, and ran down the road for lunch at a cute burger place.  AND….Jason’s bike died in the intersection before the restaurant!  We called all mechanics in the area and none were willing to help us for about a week and a half (despite being travelers).  We called up Sandra and talked about our options.  She was super kind and let us crash at their house again to do more surgery on Jason’s bike.  Our only option was to fix it ourselves or throw the bikes in a storage unit and fly home.  I did a ton more research while Jason tore into his wiring harness.  He cleaned every electrical connector and inspected every wire (even inside the ignition).  He did everything everyone on advrider.com suggested (Thank you to all who tried to help!).  Jason put it all back together AGAIN and took it for another test drive.  The test drive went well, so we decided to give the drive to Fortuna another try in the morning.

We left early in the morning in case we had problems along the way.  The journey started out smooth, but quickly went downhill again.  Jason’s bike was still backfiring and cutting out, which is very bad on curvy roads.  We found Sandra and Waylon at the campground, where Waylon has been living for work.  He’s a journeyman lineman like Jason.  We set up camp and discussed what we were going to do about Jason’s bike.

Of course Jason wants a brand new bike haha.  However, money-wise we could either limp home on I80 and miss out on the last part of the trip (South to the bottom of California, across Arizona to see the Grand Canyon, into New Mexico, and then up to our new home in Colorado) or put both bikes in storage and fly home.  To take our mind off the bike issues, Waylon took us fishing at the nearby jetty.  It was so much fun!

I caught a small rock bass and Jason caught a ling cod.  I have never seen a blue fish before (even the meat is blue)!

It was a big enough fish to eat, so the men filleted it and brought it home to throw on the grill.  We had a nice evening catching up with our friends.

In the morning, we grabbed breakfast at Hot Brew and then hit the road toward the Avenue of the Giants.

This road is amazing!  Huge beautiful Redwoods everywhere!

We were blown away by our journey today.  One beautiful road after another.  Highway 1 is beyond amazing!  I don’t think there was one straight part to this road.  Curve after curve following the California coastline for hundreds of miles.

Jason’s bike actually had a good day (thankfully).  Next and possibly last stop was to see my Maui friend, Holly.  She lives in Santa Rosa.  There were vineyards everywhere!

I could not wait to go wine tasting.  I had never been to a real winery before.  There is one on Maui, but there are not grape fields everywhere.  We made is safely to Holly’s house.  We were super excited to see Holly and little Muffy (her dog) again!

After a very yummy Mexican food dinner, we started researching mechanics in the area again.  We checked the Advrider thread and found an inmate, named Speedy1, who lives in the area.  He offered to meet with Jason to switch out a couple parts.  Speedy1 has 2 bikes similar to Jason’s KTM 950.  Our last thought for Jason’s bike problems was the CDI.  The only way to know for sure is to change out the CDI for one that is known to be good and see if the problems go away.  So…that was our game plan.  Jason scheduled a time and day to meet with Speedy1 and then we would play it by ear after the parts switch.

The next day we went wine tasting with Holly at Imagery Estate Winery.  It was so much fun!

Not only did we get to taste several wines, but we got to try espresso cheese (kinda gross) and cabernet grapes.

We ended up buying a bottle of wine to ship home for a special occasion and then took a glass of wine out to the courtyard to relax before dinner.

We stuck with our fancy theme for dinner and had quite the spread of food.  The food was so decorative and tasted amazing!

Thank you Holly for such a fun day!

Jason had plans to meet with Speedy1 the next day; so Holly and I went grocery shopping and brought me on a tour of her new Menchies store.  We don’t get a lot of home cooked meals on the road and Holly has a big beautiful kitchen; so I wanted to cook everyone a big steak dinner with salad, mash potatoes, and asparagus.  It was just what we needed.  Jason got new parts on his bike and good food in his belly, so he was a happy man.  We had a good night’s sleep and decided to head home on I80 in the morning.  Thank you Holly for allowing us to stay, for the good wine, and great company!

The temperatures in Cali were up in the 100’s and we weren’t 100% sure Jason’s bike would work properly even with the new parts, so we left early to try to avoid traffic and avoid overheating.  Riding 500 miles a day all day long on a straight highway isn’t our idea of fun, but we wanted to make sure we made it home in one piece.  My bike maxes out at 75mph and some sections of the highway were 80mph, which means semis were flying by me sometimes.  I’m not a fan of semi drivers.  There are some nice ones who are aware of their surroundings and watch out for motorcycles on the road; but there were a lot of semi drivers who cut us off or tried to change lanes right into Jason…scary!  At least we found an In and Out Burger before we left Cali.

This was my first experience with an In and Out Burger.  I can’t say I was that impressed with it.  To me it was just another fast food burger.  Anyway…we rolled through Reno and stopped at a casino just to say we’ve been there.

It was still really hot out and Reno is a sketchy town, so we kept on moving.  We made it to a town called Winnemucca in Nevada.

We desperately wanted air conditioning and a shower.  We got a room at the Hotel 6 and had some of the best BBQ ever at a restaurant across the street (called The Pig).  Since Jason’s bike hasn’t had any issues after replacing the CDI (knock on wood), we decided to travel all the way back to Indiana to finish our trip full circle.

The next day we hauled ass across the U.S. making it to Wyoming.  We cruised through the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, which were crazy to see.

Just white salt as far as you can see.  We saw too many RV trailers on their side from the windy conditions.  Makes us want a 5^th wheel someday instead of a tow behind.

We were super lucky to roll through Salt Lake City, UT an hour before rush hour traffic started.  Jason didn’t want to stop for gas until we made it through the city; but then we couldn’t find a gas station, so I had to stop and put fuel in my bike from one of my containers haha.  Thankfully I had one of them full!  It was getting dark when we reached Evanston, WY and ended up staying in a hotel again.  After miles and miles on the highway, the last thing we want to do is set up camp and cook dinner (we got a little lazy haha).  I must say…after completing multiple 500 mile days, I never want to do an Iron Butt.  It just does not sound pleasant at all.  I don’t know how people do it.

We made it all the way from Evanston, WY to Nebraska.  There’s not a whole lot to write about on this leg.  Just chopping away at the miles.

From Nebraska, we made it to Jason’s cousin’s house (Bonnie) in Iowa.

It was perfect!  Her house wasn’t too far off the highway and we’ve been wanting to see it anyway.  It was so cozy!

Thank you so much Bonnie for letting us stay there a night!!  We had one more very long day to get to my parent’s house in Middlebury, Indiana (500+ miles).  My family is so awesome!  All of them were there to have a Welcome Home dinner with us.

We stayed a few days to rest, do some laundry, and finally detail the bikes.  I’m sure my bike was super happy to get deep cleaned.  All that Alaska mud was washed away.

My family convinced us to stay for one last camping trip before heading to Iowa, where Jason’s truck was waiting for us.

We had a great time, but had to hit the road for one last 500 mile day.  We had smooth sailing all the way to the Mommer homestead in Dike, Iowa.  It was a little surreal that our huge summer motorcycle trip was over.  We traveled 20,000 miles in 100 days!!

It all seemed like a dream.  We saw so many beautiful places, met many great people, and experienced things you only can experience by being on a motorcycle.  My hubby and I lived in a tent together for 100 days and didn’t kill each other haha.  We loved spending every day together and experiencing what the world has to offer.  Now to start planning our next adventure…