Ottawa to Seattle - Day 5

August 6,

Just a placeholder for now. I rode US 20 across Nebraska today with the land changing from cornfields to cattle country. I was surprised how much the elevation changed. It was around 1500 ft in Iowa and i'm at 3600 ft now. I guess that's the whole "High Plains" thing.

Stopped at the Ashfall Fossil Bed - possibly the most amazing thing I've ever seen. 12,000,000 years ago a fall of ash from a super-volcano settled over Idaho & Nebraska and in this spot it killed dozens of large mammals at a water hole. They were wonderfully preserved and discovered only in 1971. Excavation is ongoing but the site is fabulous. I would never have believed that so many animals could be trapped but they had photos of african water holes from present day that looked convincingly similar. The photo below shows the inside of the "Rhino Barn" and some of the srhino and horse skeletons which are mostly still in place.
http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0200/media/0201_010401.jpg

Ottawa to Seattle Day 4

August 5 - Dubuque Iowa to Sioux City Iowa
Distance: 496km
Time: 6hrs approx
Max Speed 81.2 mph
Bike Fuel: 7.4 gal $28.77
Rider Fuel: cereal & waffle breakfast at Super-8, fruit lunch, Mexican food for dinner - Total $18

Rode US 20 across Iowa. I was expecting 2lane but the eastern half of the state was pretty much like the interstates. Once I got to maybe fort dodge the road became the 2 lane i was looking for. I enjoyed the afternoon a lot, almost the best part of the trip so far. 55-60 mph, stop where I like, lots to see, nice temp & no rain.

Way fewer cars and motorcycles - sort of 4-5 per km vs 40-50 on busy roads. Bikes still maybe 1 in 100 vehicles. In Sioux city itself I saw quite a few including a group on their way back from Sturgis. Apparently there are 300,000+ bikers there on any given day, over 1M in the week. whew!

I went to the Lewis & Clark interpretive centre which was very good, a good film from the native point of view. Also a number of monuments to "Sergeant Floyd" which I find a bit patronizing - like "good old Tonto".

Hey, regular grade gas is more expensive than mid grade! 87 octane was 3.65, 89 octane 3.55. What's that about? Corn in the gas?

Ottawa to Seattle - Days 2&3

August 3 - Day 2 - Mississauga to Grand Rapids MI

Distance:560 Km

Time:8:20

Bike Fuel: 6l+6.4 gal $33.11

Rider Fuel: Cereal breakfast. Fruit & yogurt lunch, Gatorade & snickers bar snack, lasagna dinner($16)

Cool in the morning hot in the afternoon. I went from sweatshirt & rain cover in the morning to just the mesh jacket in the afternoon. Crossed the border at Sarni and the Blue Water Bridge. I crossed this bridge in 2006 going to st. Louis on my first long solo ride and the view is as spectacular as i remembered. There's a pretty beach on the US side and overall a great panorama.

I saw lots of bikes during the day including one guy who blew past me on the 403 at what must have been 150kph. I hadn't known it but there was a big Harley rally in chatham Ontario over the long weekend and some of what i saw was from that. I met one group at a rest stop in northern Michigan who were from Northern Ontario. They had come down for the rally then crossed at sarnia. they were planning to take the ferry to milwaukee the next day then go back up the other side of lake Michigan to Canada via sault st Marie. Just a nice group of people - three siblings and some inlaws all on big hd bikes.

I stayed in grand rapids at a motel 6 which i got for $35.95 cause I'm old. Surprisingly decent place with a pool. lots of family types with kids. Dinner was at a Fazoolis down the road and i got fruit & such at a grocery. Gassed up in the evening and checked the tires which were fine.

August 4 - Day 3 - Grand Rapids to Dubuque Iowa

Distance 354 km plus 100 or so km on the ferry.

Time: 8:40

Bike Fuel: 2.1 gal ($8.27)

Rider Fuel: McDonalds Breakfast, raisin bran & fruit for lunch, cheeseburger & beer for dinner ($20)

Had rain & threat of rain all day with some wild lightning. I would see bolts that stretched across most of the sky.

Took the ferry from muskegon to Milwaukee ($150!) along with the group of HD bikes I had met the day before along with half a dozen other HD's. Some heading for sturgis, some coming home from chatham and some just out for the day. Those are nice bikes. Nice people too and complimentary/curious about the triumph.

Dubuque looks dull from here but the rain has stopped so I'll venture out.

Ottawa to Seattle: Day 1

So I'm ensconsed at my sister's house near Toronto. Today's ride was almost all super-slab on the 416 and 401, probably Canada's busiest highway. Lunch at the "Big Apple" in Colborne, a period of rain that drove me off the road for an hour, and some other blockage that sent me on side roads for 20 or 30 km.

Distance: 490 km
Time: approx 9:25
Bike Fuel: 26.4L for C$32.22
Rider fuel: Cereal, pie & coffee, shepherds pie and early birthday cake(mmmmm - chocolate) $10
Attractions: The big apple, pics of other big things including a lobster and a sheep from Australia and a goose from Wawa Ontario.
Oddities: I saw these two guys on big Suzuki volusias towing trailers, nothing unusual there but on the tongue of each trailer was a box maybe 2'X2'X3' with a vinyl cover and two portholes on either side. the portholes had grills behind them and I'm thinking "pet carrier?" but I later realized they must be coolers!