Forums > US Touring > The Grand Trip 2007 part 2

The Grand Trip 2007

Wow, so much to tell. The Canadian Rockies are awesome. All the way across we kept getting advice NOT to take the #1 through Banf but take the #3. All those Canadian bikers were right. One said, if you go through Banf, you get the same mountains, but bus loads of Japanese tourists and $360.00 per night motels, and #3 is way prettier. The pictures I took can not really describe the beauty. They are just a few little windows of the total beauty. I will have to do this again. When we got to Hope BC, the Rockies end, and we met a number of sport bike riders going and a ride of the #3 to Princeton. This is a favorite with the BCSPORTBIKES group. Nice folks. Speaking of Princeton, we were at a restaurant and a guy that road a 50cc Tomos MOPED from Ottawa to Victoria Island taking the Yellowhead route, and was on his way home. He said he spent $176.00 in gas so far. Concidering gas in Canada is $1.24 per litre that is not bad. Wow what a trip that must be. On to Vancouver. The city is dichotomy of the homeless of Canada and rich Asians. It is a beautiful city, but somehow strange. I can't quite describe my feelings for it. The kid and I then decided that we had enough of Canada, with it's nice polite people, and courteous drivers and decided to go back to the USA. I-5 from Seattle to past Tacoma is beyond belief. I have been on the Dan Ryan at rush hour, tackled the LA freeways, rode on the DC beltway, but never have experienced worse traffic or more aggressive drivers than this stretch of I-5. We had to stop on 45 St NE at the Apple store, because the laptops charger was sacrificed to the motel Gods at Medicine Hat AB. Then we just stayed in the HOV lanes to get out of town. Note: the drivers here swoop in and out of the HOV lanes across the solid line like it is just another lane of traffic. I have heard that Seattle has the highest suicide rate in the country. I have also heard that it is blamed on the continuously dismal weather. I disagree. I think it is really driving on I-5. It must be cumulative, like lead poisoning. You go to work on I-5 every day playing bumper cars, then one morning you just think to yourself, no, I am not going to drive that road to work, I think I'll just shoot myself. They do, and it is blamed on the weather. The Oregon ( pronounced ORYGUN ) Coast: Just look at the pictures, I am not skilled enough with words to justify the beauty. The kid and I had been getting on each others nerves, so at Florence OR, she left for my friends in Eugene. I will go there Thursday night. I kept going down the coast to Crescent City CA, where I turned around and today am headed back north. Oh, the kid has a blog to, if you want here perspective on this. The Kids Blog More to come:

---------------------------------

* Kurt * All Your Base Are Belong To Us