June Rideabout

I leave this morning for Douglas AZ which is right on the border with Mexico. From there I'll be heading up into Canada, then east into Ontario, south into Minnesota, and then I'll meander my way through various states in the midwest before heading home.

On the way to Canada I'll be riding only on Hwy 191 the entire length. It one of the few roads (perhaps the only?) that goes from border to border as the same numbered highway. It takes me through the Devil's Highway section of Arizona, past the Grand Tetons, and through Yellowstone, so it's not a highly efficient way to get from one country to the next.

My Spotwalla: https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.ph...ast=0&fillFactor=100&zoomLevel=10&showAll=yes
This should be active around 10 am AZ time.

And my inReach in case I didn't configure the Spotwalla correctly: https://share.garmin.com/brianthorn
To use the inReach correctly you'll need to adjust the time frame in the upper left corner of the page (map filters).

The map shows my general riding plans.

Looks like a very fun trip. Have fun, enjoy and be careful.

John in Texas

I see 5,199 miles up there. Any idea how long you will take to do this? I'm guessing you don't have any restrictions or obligations (like a full time job) so you can take as much time as you want.

and I am jealous. One of these days I guess I can try something similar. Until then.......

ride safe and take pics.

How long ya gunna take to do this? 3 days?

I would go further South when you cross through Missouri. Basically, stay South of I-44 if you have time. Almost any road through the Mark Twain NF will be fun. I hate getting on the major highways unless I just have to because of time constraints.

notyou83 said:

I see 5,199 miles up there. Any idea how long you will take to do this? I'm guessing you don't have any restrictions or obligations (like a full time job) so you can take as much time as you want.

Click to expand...

Mexico to Canada begins at 3 am tomorrow. I hope to be in Canada by 8 pm on Friday because the border crossing closes at 9 pm.

I need to be home by the following Saturday night so that I have a day to decompress on Sunday before I return to my full time job on Monday.

Tourmeister said:

I would go further South when you cross through Missouri. Basically, stay South of I-44 if you have time. Almost any road through the Mark Twain NF will be fun. I hate getting on the major highways unless I just have to because of time constraints.

Click to expand...

The only thing that's planned on this ride is the blast up the 191 to Canada, the trip across Canada, the return through Fort Francis into MN, and an 8 am appointment at Aerostich on Monday after a 7 am breakfast at the Duluth Grill.

Everything other than that will be determined on the fly.

I hope to get as far east as Ohio so that I can drop down through KY and TN, but everything will depend upon the weather, the flooding, availability of bridges not washed out, etc.

I've already had to re-route my Duluth to MI route because the easiest/fastest way to get there got washed out early this week.

It was 85 leaving Phx this morning, 97 coming into Tucson, 95 coming into Benson, 91 coming into Bisbee, and 99 coming into Douglas. The highs throughout the state tomorrow are expected to be 110+ which is why I'm leaving so early. I don't expect to see cooler temps until the very top of Utah before I get into Wyoming.

I don't expect snow, but Yellowstone may be as low as 36 with showers.

Map size edited so that you don't have to scroll to see everything.

The Border to Border on 191 was a bust. I called it quits at 11 pm last night, just shy of 1000 miles. The final 100 miles was at an average speed of somewhere between 35 and 50 mph. There were just too many deer and elk to go any faster, and even at 50 mph it was dicey.

I'm in a hotel in Great Falls MT and will cross over into Canada in the morning. I hope to make Winnipeg (or close to it) tomorrow, and then Duluth MN on Sunday.

Hey Brian..just an FYI. Once you get into the UP area, do a good check on road conditions. There was some serious flooding up there with several washouts. Several road closures across the western side of the UP.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...buildings-michigan-upper-peninsula/709371002/

Early day today so I have some time to catch up.

As I mentioned the B2B on 191 was a bust, but I "might" have gotten a Bun Burner 1500 out of it, but it will be close with just 1501 GPS miles and 7 minutes short of 36 hours.

From Great Falls it was up into Alberta and then east to Ontario where I came down into MN so that I could go to Aerostich in Duluth. While there I met a rider that lives about 10 miles from me. What's the likelihood of two Arizona riders being at Aerostich at the same time? He was coming from the east coast and I was coming down from Canada.

While at the hotel in Duluth a woman working at the hotel saw me in my gear and asked if I rode for pleasure or rallies and when I told her both, she told me that her husband is Derek Dickson. For those of you who don't keep up with such things, he was the winner of the 2013 Iron Butt Rally.

Small world, huh?

After leaving Duluth I've managed to meander through WI, MI, IA, IL, and tonight I'm in Indiana. I'll leave in the morning and get 1 Tour Of Honor site in KY, 2 in TN, 1 in AR, and then head for home on I-40. I expect to be home on Saturday some time.

A little over 4,000 miles at this point and close to 2,000 more to go. While I was in Duluth I put on a new front tire as the other one was down to the wear bars.

Hello, Your way east, didn't realize you'd be going that far to the right side of the page. Been following a long on the spot page, pretty neat. Be careful and have a uneventful rip back to AZ

* MODS, if you would, please move this to the Story Telling area.


I'll let my "pictures tell a thousand words".

6,123 miles with 95 hours of seat time.
https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.ne...=2c6532b646ceedbc1f4aedfc070d49ff&oe=5BE732E8


Prior "places I've ridden in" map.
https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.ne...=54682a4a897df2b6fdcca55f7f60f38c&oe=5BAC2928


Current "places ridden in" map.
https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.ne...=80b46b319732de03db9f6a865abeb7ff&oe=5BAC57A0


One of several Iron Butt Motels I used throughout the trip.
https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.ne...=f32e800bcc15c7e8abf6a633fa2531b3&oe=5BAAE1FE


Google put together a small photo album (I didn't take a lot of photos during the trip) for me to share.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/15JxuERoSsgi3bq47


The weather was good for about half the trip, bad another quarter, and miserable for about a quarter. If you review the photo album you will see a lot of wet roads and parking lots. I dealt with a LOT of rain. Of the 11 days, I probably had 3 days of just absolutely beautiful weather.

I had dinner with two Canadian riders who wound up at the same hotel in Saskatchewan because we were getting drowned on the road. We talked about the weather a bit, and they told me they had 100+ days in a row last winter where it never got above 0 degrees C. Ugh.

I discovered that a lot of the roads up north suffer from the winter weather quite a bit, yet some other roads in the same area were a joy to ride. Also, because the winters are so severe they do all their road maintenance during the summer months, so I found myself sitting at a lot of work zones waiting for the pilot vehicle to guide everyone through.

CANADA... this was a learning experience.
1. I didn't convert any cash for my 2 days in-country. Everything went onto my credit card.
2. All the gas stations are pre-pay. That means when you put your credit card in the gas pump you LEAVE it in the gas pump and you choose the dollar amount that you want to pre-authorize for your fuel purchase. Once it's been approved you can remove your card and begin pumping. I use a chipped card, so if all you have is the magnetic strip on the back I don't know how that will work for you.
3. Fuel is in liters, not gallons, so that $1.29 price you see on the street sign can be misleading at first if you're not expecting it.
4. Speed limits... sigh... the highest national speed is 110 kph, which is only 68 mph, and once you're in Ontario it's only 100, with many of the roads only 90. In Ontario you can have your vehicle confiscated for speeding. I tended to obey the limits everywhere until I had a faster rabbit in front of me. One of the provinces has a law against radar detectors so I just kept mine off and hoped for the best.
5. Riding the souther part of the Provinces is the same as riding the northern Plains for us. Farms and cattle. Farms and cattle. Farms and cattle.
6. In the states when you leave one state and enter another you usually have a big ol "Welcome to..." sign. Not so in Canada. There was a nice one entering Alberta from the US, but as I moved Province to Province they didn't have similar signs.

There were three smells that stood out for me on the entire trip... manure, fresh cut grass, and rain on the pavement.

Even when riding riding the back roads of Iowa and Illinois where you don't see anything other than corn fields for miles and miles and miles, the smell of manure was very present. I'm guessing that they fertilize the crops with a liquid manure.

I crossed the Mississippi twice, once in each direction. I crossed the Missouri and the Ohio rivers once. I went to the shore of Lake Superior, and if you have not been there you just can't imagine how immense it really is. It really is no different than standing on the beach facing an ocean.

Crossing the bridge from Duluth MN into WI was not pleasant with high winds coming in from the lake. Not fun at all. And it was also 52 degrees for the final hour of riding into Duluth on Sunday night. Someone forgot to tell them to turn on the Summer switch.

I got a new front tire and an oil change while i was in Duluth and I asked them what "hot" was to them. They said when it's 80-85 it's a bit warm for them, but when it hits 90 it is HOT.

From the "It's a small world after all" category. I went to breakfast at my hotel in Duluth Monday morning and the woman that takes care of everything saw me in my gear and asked if I rode for pleasure or in rallies, to which I replied "both". She then mentioned that her husband Derek was the winner of the 2013 Iron Butt Rally.

Motorcyclists are a very small segment of the population, and Long Distance riders are an even more tiny segment of that. At last count we have less than 70,000 IBA members world-wide. She says she asks that question of every rider she comes in contact with at the hotel and I am the first person to not only answer in the affirmative to riding rallies, but also the first to even know what the Iron Butt Rally is. How 'bout that?

And then... I go to Aerostich for a fitting, and while I'm there another rider from Arizona shows up. Not only just from Arizona, but he lives just about ten miles from me. He too was just out and about and seeing the country.

My mind is still a bit frazzled and my hands are a bit numb, but as I think of more things or come across more photos I'll post them up.

Bottom line:
The weather sucked.
The weather was great.
The roads sucked.
The roads were great.
People everywhere were great. People in Canada would just come right up to me and say "have a safe ride".


Edits:
The BEST roadside rest area I have EVER been in, anywhere in this country, is in Conrad Montana, on I-15 about 40 miles south of the border. Immaculate inside and out. Soft music playing inside. 8 bathrooms for men, 8 bathrooms for women. Not just stalls, but separate bathrooms. With locking doors. With music playing inside the bathroom. With baby changing stations in each bathroom. With electrical outlets for you to use an electric razor or blowdryer. With actual mirrors and not just polished metal. Each bathroom has a light above the door so people outside in the waiting area can see which rooms are already occupied. Separate urinals and toilets in the men's rooms. I was so impressed I didn't want to leave.

The big regret about doing a ride like this is the failure to be able to record info each day about what I saw/did during that day's ride. By the time I stopped each day the only thing I wanted to do was grab a bite to eat, shower, and sleep.

Someone must have a fix for this. I'd like to either have a voice to text log where I can just make comments into my helmet mic, or perhaps a connection to a digital voice recorder that I could trigger, make my comments, and then turn off again.

Another comment about Canadian highways... They don't have Interstates like we do. The Trans-Canada Highway is the closest thing to it, but it still has intersections along the way, therefore it does not have any overpasses. Therefore, when the clouds are about to open up on you, you better be looking for cover at the closest town because there won't be anything to hide under while you're still on the highway.

And even when you do find a town to hide in, the likelihood of finding a gas station canopy to take shelter under is slim to none. When I asked the Canadian riders why this is, it's a combination of snow load and/or wind load, with the wind load being more of an issue.

I filled up more than once with raindrops falling into my gas tank.