I've been a member of HU for years now, reading and dreaming, being inspired by all of you who take the plunge and go all in on that RTW trip, leaving behind everything you've built up to chase the four winds.

So here's our story, at last:

Neda and I got our motorcycle licenses together in spring of 2004, as an engagement present to ourselves. We thought it would be a neat thing to do.

We took day trips, hung out at motorcycle meets, rode on group rides, did track days, took longer motorcycle trips, rode dirt bikes, became motorcycle instructors, took even longer trips, and then dealt with the aftermath, the ensuing ennui of "real life" - the anchor of a home, the jobs and the bills; the maintenance of everything we've accumulated in our collective seven decades on earth.

So the solution seemed logical to us: quit the jobs, sell our home and everything in it, and set out on THE motorcycle journey with no route planned, no end in sight and no return date in mind.

Here are some pics from our blog: Jun 14 2012: Escape Velocity


It all starts with a bike... Actually, this was one of the last things we did to prepare for our trip!


This is what's left of our earthly possessions after a few rounds of Keep, Sell, Throw Away, Give Away. Now to get it all on our bikes...!

The preparations were long and tedious, possibly the content of another blog entry, and we did manage to finally leave Toronto two days later than we had planned - See! We're already sticking to our "No Plan" resolution.

Our early Sunday morning ride out of Ontario was a breath of fresh air, after the stifling, hectic bustle of the previous few weeks. No responsibility but to ride and ride and ride. A few things still lingered on my mind, one motorcycle, one SUV still left to sell, and the turnover of keys for the condo when we returned in 2 1/2 weeks. And the weather was beautiful! So unlike all of our other motorcycle trips.


I've left just enough space for myself between the tank bag and the stuff piled on the rear seat. Hopefully I don't gain any weight on this trip...

'm taking my trusty R1200GS. It does handle like a pig now with all the weight in the back, the front end feels so light and I have to push the bars a lot harder so I don't run wide in turns. Ack!


First day's ride


Picked up some yummy strawberries at Flynn's Corners before hitting the 507

We rode all our favorite back roads out of Ontario and knocked on the door of our very good friends in Ottawa, Kevin and Manon, who generously fed us with ice cream in the garage and let us set up our tent in their back yard. Just in case you are thinking they aren't very good friends at all, I am deathly allergic to their two cats who glared at me with knowing malintent through the screen door of the back porch.


Coming off the R1200ST's shaft drive, Neda has to get used to lubing her chain drive every evening now. Haha!


Cooling off with a little ice cream in the garage


Easing me into camping, backyard-style. Just like a kid.

I'm not a camping-kinda guy. My idea of roughing it means no fluffy white robe hanging on the back of the bathroom door and no mints on the pillow. Neda, on the other hand, is NatureGirl, so she was really looking forward to getting a lot of outdoor-time.


Neda and Manon prepare breakfast, while I watch from the back porch.

Leaving Kevin and Manon's place, I accidentally left my GPS case lying on the top of one of my saddlebags. The rear is so crowded with all the dry bags, extra fuel tank, toolkit and backpack that it's easy to misplace something back there. By the time I had realized it was missing, it had already been sacrificed to the highway gods.



Kevin: "The only thing this driveway needs is more GSes...!"


GS convention in Kevin and Manon's driveway

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

No RSS feed on the site?? Would help a lot to follow...

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http://www.juvander.fi/ilpo

welcome!
_/\_
namaste

Nice pictures on your website. I hope to see a lot more of them ;-)

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Jan Krijtenburg

My bikes are a Honda GoldWing GL1200 and a BMW R1200GS

My personal homepage with trip reports: https://www.krijtenburg.nl/
YouTube channel (that I do together with one of my sons): motormobilist.nl

Great Blog indeed....I'm thoroughly enjoying reading about your adventures, and congratulations on the great pictures and writing. It's really keeping me busy on a hot lazy day. Thanks!

Repost from Jun 16 2012: Off to Quebec City!



Not too much to say about the ride to Quebec, we've done these roads tons of times, and we've decided to superslab it to see some new sights. We stopped off in Montreal to get a new rear tire fitted on my GS, something I could have done at home, but just didn't have enough time with all the preparations, had a quick grocery store lunch and then off to Quebec City, our first campsite (KOA!)


Streets were deserted during the morning ride through old Quebec City


More old city scenes from the back of a motorcycle.

I've always wanted to ride through the narrow streets of the old city, soaking up the European atmosphere. We passed through the city walls, remnants of the military presence in the 1600s and found the streets were soaked from the rains the night before. After a quick spin, the bikes were parked and we toured the rest of the town on foot, taking lots of pictures.


Owl watches over the Saint Lawrence River at Quebec City


This fiddler was very photogenic! Playing old Quebecois tunes.


Getting busier in the old city.


These cut-outs were hung above the old city streets.


Taking a break from walking around.

The Tour de Beauce runs in Quebec City today. We waited about 20 minutes for the bicycles to come running by in the old city. They were preceded by a police escort on motorcycles.


These guys were dragging their floorboards around the corners!


Waiting for the bicycles to run by


There they go! there must have been over 100 bicycles,
this was their first lap so they were bunched up coming up the hill


They would go on to do thirteen laps around the old city

We did a bit of vagabonding today by hiding out in the lobby of a swanky Quebec hotel, stealing their wi-fi, electric outlets and air-conditioning! We had to share it with a bachelorette party though, and at the end, we got to sign the bride's T-shirt. Sorry, no pix!


Posefest in Quebec City

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Hi Ilpo, you can subscribe to this thread for updates - see 'Thread Tools' and Subscribe to get an instant, daily or weekly e-mail when the thread has new posts.

Cheers, Susan

__________________
Susan Johnson

Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Fantastic pictures, hope you have a wonderful and safe adventure and one day I can make the break just like you have done

Updated from Jun 23 2012: Around St John's


Start the day right!

The next morning, we rode around St John's to get some supplies and walked the downtown area. Ended up at Ches's fish and chips, which was a Newfoundland institution, and came highly recommended by Roy the night before. One of our resolutions on this trip is to try everything the locals recommend. I suspect the food tasted extra good because of all the hills we had to walk up and down to get to Ches's. Did I mention the roads in St John's are crazy steep?!


Lake Quidi Vidi

After lunch, we hopped on our bikes and rode out to a very pretty area just outside St John's, recommended by the waitress at Bacalao last night. It's called Quidi Vidi, and it's where the we drank is made. The brewery is housed in an old fish processing plant on the lake, the white houses above are fishing stages.


GS at Lake Quidi Vidi.


Hanging out at the Quidi Vidi brewery

We took a tour of the brewery and received some s to take home with us. These are not the s, we only got one each. Unfortunately, mine leaked in my top case on the way back. It's very hard to wash out the smell of . So right now I'm carrying a little bit of Quidi Vidi 1892 dark ale with me everywhere I go.


99 bottles of on the wall...

The fishery was bought by the brewery after it was shut down when Newfoundlanders faced tough restrictions on fishing in the 90s.


Signpost at Signal Hill. Foreshadowing, maybe?

Around the same area is Signal Hill, which was the site of the first transatlantic wireless signal by Marconi. Later used by the military as a communications centre, it provided us with great views of St. John's from above as well as the waters of the Atlantic ocean.


Cabot Tower at the top of Signal Hill


Neda gets shot out of a canon at the top of Signal Hill


The view of St. John's from the top of Signal Hill.


Whale-watching from Signal Hill

These tourists must have gotten their money's worth. There were a lot of whales jumping in and out of the waters below Signal Hill, and all you had to do was look for the whale-watching boats as they followed whales swimming in the bay.


Colored row houses are a famous sight in St John's

The legend is that the fog was so thick in St John's that when the fisherman came home, they couldn't distinguish which house was theirs, so they painted them all different colours so they wouldn't walk into the wrong home. Dunno if it's true, but it's pretty.


Still empty on George St, the hub of nightlife in St. John's

In the evening, we took a bus into St. John's looking to taste a bit of nightlife. However, we were reminded how old we were when at 10PM on a Saturday night, we were ready for bed and the party hadn't yet started yet...


Not "screeched in" officially...

Newfoundland screech is a foul-tasting paint-thinner that the locals used to brew cheaply. There is a whole tradition of being "screeched-in" involving drinking this slop, kissing a cod and reciting a dirty limerick about jibs and penises... The only place that we could get screeched in was Trapper John's, which was dead, so we instead went to a crowded bar and ordered some screech there instead. Turned out we walked into a cougar bar...

Next day was a travel day - ride down to Argentia, at the southern tip of Newfoundland to catch the ferry back to Sydney. We were recommended to ride some of the more interested roads around the coastline instead of taking the main highway straight there. So we did! Scenic routes like the Irish Loop which winds its way around the Avalon peninsula and ends up near the ferry dock. Apparently, the Irish Loop gets its name from the fact that most of the initial settlers of the coastal towns hail directly from Ireland.


A wedding and a funeral on the road

The pictures above depict a wedding roadside toll: two women raising money for a stag and doe for a local couple getting married that weekend. Neda donated $5 to pass. The bottom picture was actually a funeral procession, which we initially thought was traffic due to construction! We saw cars lined up behind heavy machinery, but then the construction vehicles did a 180 and all the cars followed as well! Turns out everyone in that town, including the construction workers rode in and out of town to pay their respects to the dearly departed. We joined the procession at the end of the line and followed them back into town and passed them as they turned into the cemetery. A wedding and a funeral on the same road within the same hour! Bizarre!


The ferry ride back to Nova Scotia from Newfoundland

Since we were leaving from the east coast of NL, instead of the west, where we arrived, the ferry ride back was 15-hours long. So, to avoid getting kicked in our sleep by the ferry crew, we dished out a small fortune for a cabin during the overnight ride back to Nova Scotia. This was our first time during this trip that we're sleeping in a bed and the cramped accommodations felt so luxurious!

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

LOL! I love the automatic replacement icon!

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Hi, Just wanted to let you know how much I've enjoyed reading your trip reports. Your photographs are excellent and it's a pleasure to read such well written prose describing your adventures. Thanks for sharing them.
Keep enjoying yourselves.

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/47.html



We have unfinished business in Utah. As mentioned before, one of our earliest motorcycle trips was a whirlwind 18-day from Toronto to San Franciso and back. During that trip, we visiting most of the National Parks in the SW US, but only having a limited amount of time, we spent most of it on the back of the motorcycle, not seeing anything but the park from the side of the road. Arches National Park was a bookmark that we just had to revisit, and this time around, we promised that we wouldn't leave until we'd seen everything.


Arches National Park, Three Sisters rock formation up ahead

We made good on that promise, lazing around the park for four days, spending the days hiking the trails around the area, and the nights freezing our butts off inside the tent. The landscape is straight out of a Road Runner cartoon! Other-worldly-shaped orange rocks thrust up out of the ground, some of them precariously balancing larger rocks on small skinny stems - the result of erosion eating away at the softer layers of the sand and rock that history has laid down.


Weather was beautiful during the day, freezing at night, but the night sky was so clear!

One of the things that was very important to us was hiking up to the Delicate Arch, as we didn't have the opportunity the last time we were here. It's about an hour uphill hike to a remote spot where the arch can be viewed. There are over 2,000 arches in the park, spanning from a few feet to over a hundred feet in height! The views are breathtaking!


Hiking the Delicate Arch Trail


Window to the Delicate Arch

We arrived in the early afternoon and settled down to wait for the best time to view the Arch - sunset. We were told that that was the magical time that elves and unicorns would emerge from the portal created by the sun's rays hitting the Delicate Arch.


We take our seats like everyone else and wait for the show to begin


This guy must have shelled out primo for balcony seats


Things to do when you're waiting for the elves and unicorns


This lady brought her Staff of Infinite Mysteries to help open the portal


"... and then the Earth cooled..."


No elves. No unicorns. But pretty, anyway...


Neda takes her photography very seriously, risking life and limb for that perfect shot

Ok, enough hiking and picture-taking, time to do some riding!

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/48.html



We descended from Arches National Park and landed in the McDonald's at Moab. We were regular fixtures for a few days there, the TV ceaselessly covering the US election, with us catching up on e-mail, and me stretching that $1 bottomless soda. We saw regulars come and go, and greeted the familiar faces as if we lived there. One morning, after Neda's Skype session with her niece in Italy, we found ourselves chatting with a couple of other Canadians, Jacques from St-Jovite (outside of Montreal) who was in the area on a photo-vacation for a couple of months, and Mark from Winnipeg, who towed his KLR to ride the roads around the area with his dirtbike buddies. This was the perfect company to share a McMorning with, as we got great tips on riding roads *and* photo-spots. We really have no plan whatsoever, so it's chance encounters like these that dictate which way we go and what we do and see!


Potash Road is like riding on the surface of Mars!

Both of them suggested we ride the Shafer Trail, which starts out as Potash Road just north of Moab and ends up meeting the famous White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park. We were told to be prepared for great roads and amazing scenery!


Trail turns gravelly and runs through some great canyons


Stream crossing! Ok, the stream was mostly dry. You could see salt or mineral stains left from the water


Marvelous scenery unfolding before us. Shared with NOBODY!


F650GS owners have always been trying to fit a 21" wheel up front. Neda gets a 25" front wheel courtesy of our wide angle lens

The trail is very wide and well maintained. We tried to take a detour off the Shafer Trail towards the Colorado River overlook, but encountered deep sand - our nemesis! So instead of paddling 3 miles through sand with our crappy, gripless Tourances, we decided to turn back to the main trail.


Bye bye, sand. Back to the gravel. Hello, scenery!

As it turns out, we didn't really have to detour from the main trail for a look at the Colorado River, as the Shafer Trail runs alongside it for quite a while. It's at this very spot that they filmed Thelma and Louise driving their car off the cliff after being chased by cops. Hmmm... I hope I didn't ruin the movie for anyone. They also filmed Star Wars here as well, the part where Darth Vader told Luke Skywalker that he was his father...


This entire trip I'm either on a bike or taking pictures. Sometimes both...


Gingerly stepping out onto the edge, trying to get a shot of the Colorado River


Colorado River


I think this is where Thelma and Louise drove off the cliff


Neda was having a great time!


A bit of perspective - Neda is in the top-left hand corner taking a picture with our bikes next to her


Trying not to look down

I am not scared of heights at all. But whenever I'm looking over a high cliff, or over the top-floor balcony of a high rise, I get this tingling sensation in my toes and I have this small urge to just jump. Not sure why...


Getting ready for the leap... only 2,000 feet to the canyon floor


This picture taken by Gary from Colorado. He pulled up on his R1200GS ADV and told us this was his favorite road!


A friend calls this the National Geographic shot




Trail gets quite close to the edge in some sections, giving us some great views. Hard to keep your eyes on the trail!


Here you can see the rim of the cliff


From the edge of the rim, you can see a 270 degree bend in the Colorado River, very cool!


"Do you need a hand?"
"Naw, I'm Superman bitch!"

The Shafer Trail is great for big bikes. A little bit of sand in some areas (as above), lots of gravel, some rocky areas, a couple of steep uphill climbs on loose surfaces,and a ton of fun! Neda and I agree this and the Dalton Highway were our top two favorite rides so far on this trip! What cemented this was the 1,000 foot climb up the Shafer Switchbacks on a section of the White Rim Trail:


Here's Neda motoring up one of the switchbacks


Half-way up we peer over the lip of the basin. Awesome! Toes tingling again, BTW...


Looking back on the way we came


Shafer Basin below us, a spectacular sight!


As we reach the top, Neda hugs the cliff wall on the switchback trail. It's Shafer that way...

We've spent over a week in Utah now. Not sure if or when we're ever going to leave this state!

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/49.html



A few days ago, while talking to our fellow Canadians at the McDonald's in Moab, Jacques mentioned The Wave, a very cool-looking geologic formation, which really intrigued us. However, we found out that to visit it, we needed to obtain a permit. Unfortunately, only 20 permits are given out per day - all chosen by a lottery system. Uh oh. Apparently 10 of the 20 permits are issued 4 months in advance over the Internet, so too late for half the permits. The other 10 are picked via a manual lottery at the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) office, so we decide to take our chances there.

We rode all the way to south Utah, past the phenomenally large and imposing red rock mountain/sculpures of Monument Valley, but didn't stop since we had already visited it on our last trip. Our home base was set up at the town of Kanab, where the BLM office was located and we showed up bright and early the next morning for the lottery. Apparently in the summer, the number of visitors swell to over 200 people, all crammed in the tiny lottery room every morning. The largest number was 260 one day in the summer, all vying for 10 permits! Today, the BLM officer told me we had a record low of applicants - 17! 10 permits. 17 people. Our chances look pretty good! We were assigned a number and one by one, balls were drawn out of an ancient hand-cranked bingo machine, the kind that spins the balls first and spits one out of a small hole in the bottom.

We didn't win. Such good odds and we were so unlucky! One of the permit winners, a European couple exclaimed in joy when their number was drawn. Apparently they had come every morning for the last 5 days, and finally today they won a permit! Good for them, I guess we'd come back tomorrow and try again. But we decided if we didn't win tomorrow, we'd move on.


Beautifully coloured rocks line the Wire Pass as we hike towards the slot canyon

There were still a lot of other sights to see in the Grand Staircase-Escalante area. Coyote Buttes is home to a bunch of slot canyons - canyons that are far deeper than they are wide. So we rode down a 13 km dirt road to visit some of them.


Slot canyons are formed by rushing water through very soft rock. The walls of this canyon are sandstone

Slot canyons are very dangerous to hike in if there is any precipitation in the forecast, since the walls are 30-50 feet high and some of the longer canyons have very little open space or footholds to climb up to escape flash floods. We are hiking part of Buckskin Gulch, which is 21 kms long. We can't hike the entire distance because previous rainfalls have left pools of water hip deep and it's too cold to wade through them. In warmer weather, hikers bring a tent and break up the Buckskin Gulch hike over a few days, wading through the much smaller pools in the heat of the Utah summer.


Sunlight plays against the walls of the slot canyon


Obstacle course

Falling rocks and logs from above sometimes block the slot canyon and it's necessary to climb over or under obstacles. The walls close in very tightly in some places - we had to take our backpacks off and slide sideways to get through. So glad we skipped the cheeseburgers the day before...


Amazing formations on the slot canyon walls caused by different densities of rock carved away by the water


No hip-waders so end of the line for us

We encounter our first pool of water at Buckskin Gulch. The BLM office warned us there would be much deeper ahead, so we decide to turn back here. In the summer, the reflections of the sun streaming down the top of the canyon and hitting the pools cause amazing reflections against the canyon walls, but this late in the year, the sun barely makes it overhead, leaving the canyon in shadows for most of the day. Would be fun to come back here and wade through some of the pools in July!

The next morning, we show up at the BLM office again but we're disheartened when we see many more lottery hopefuls also attending - 27 in total. Our odds are much slimmer today. Our lottery number is 13. I'm not superstitious, but Neda considers this a lucky sign. When she was born, the hospital gave her a bracelet with a number matching mother to baby - her number was 13.

Sure enough, the first ball that dropped out of the lotto machine - number 13! We felt 25 pairs of envious eyes stinging us from all sides. The permits were written up for the next day and we were given instructions on how to get to The Wave as well as what to bring. It's a 10 km round-trip (I HATE HIKING!) to The Wave and there isn't a marked trail, so the BLM handed us a Treasure Island-style map (""50 paces to the Orange Rock, turn left at the Sandy Hill...") and told us to bring lots of water, and a flashlight in case we stayed out past dark. They recommended not to hike in the darkness for fear of falling into a slot canyon. Great. Now I was starting to worry... Would we get lost? Fall into a slot canyon in the dark? I saw 127 Hours and I didn't want to have to cut my arm off with a Swiss Army Knife...


No trail. We're just wandering around, kinda like our motorcycle trip

Early the next morning, we rode out to Wire Pass again where we hike much further past the slot canyons to get to The Wave. The mornings are getting very cold: -9C (-15F) and we were frozen like popsicles when we arrived. Thankfully, the temperatures would climb to a balmy 16C during the day.


Along the way, we met up with a couple of other lottery winners - Sherry and Dugan from Alaksa! They seemed to know where they were going, so we just followed them...


It took us a couple of hours, and as we got closer to The Wave, the rocks start exhibiting some psychedelic properties


Dugan's a geologist, so this is a bit of professional curiousity


This is it! The Wave! So surreal, the pictures don't do it justice!

The Wave was formed when 190-million year old sand dunes were packed down with other layers of rock and sandstone over time, then this whole mass was slowly carved away by wind and water, leaving behind one really cool acid-trip of a sculpture! We spent 3 hours walking around the area mesmerized by the undulating layers of red rock that to me, resembled the musculature of an anatomy doll with it's skin peeled back.


If Salvador Dali ever made sculptures out of stained wood, it would look like The Wave


Even with 20 people visiting The Wave, we couldn't help but get in the way of each other's pictures

The Wave does not cover a large area, so I could imagine if the BLM opened it up for public access you would not be able to enjoy the beauty of it without having other people crammed in that small space. The 20 permit holders had to take turns getting shots of The Wave, while we each hid behind the hills or hiked elsewhere. I think there are actually 5 people hidden in the picture above.


Hardwood floors at The Wave. Helps to increase the property value...


Surfs Up, Dude!


We ? The Wave!

We've been in Utah for nearly two weeks, there's so much to see and do here, but I fear that if we don't leave soon, we'll have to convert to Mormonism and stay here permanently!

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Great photos!

What Camera do you use?