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Manitoba to Oregon: Round Trip

oldhippie

Senior Member
Finally got a few minutes to log into a computer. My wife and I are day 5 of our trip. Presently in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Day1: Road as far as Fargo, ND. Because of the flooding in Minot and in parts of southern Manitoba, we decided to head that way.
Day 2: Headed west to Jamestown and then turned south and made it to Pierre, SD. They've had their fair share of flooding as well. Most businesses downtown had sandbags still in place.
Day 3: When we crossed over to Fort Pierre there was flooding on that side with a storage unit under water. Was going to go backroads to Sturgis but dummy me didn't fill the tank when we left Pierre so we made a turn south when we were still 80 miles from Sturgis. Still made it to Buffalo, Wyoming for the night.
Day 4: Only went as far as Cody, Wyoming since we wanted to take our time through Yellowstone. Took in a live country performance at the Cody Theatre and chowed down at the Irma Hotel. The wind decided to pick up and the town was bombarded with a sand and dirt storm. We spent a few hours picking sand out of our ears, eyes and clothes after that. 55 mph wind gusts sure make it hard to walk. Made us glad we decided to stop early.
Day 5: Took in the southern part of Yellowstone Park with a stop at Old Faithful. Lots of burnt out bush on the east entrance. Headed south out of Yellowstone through Grand Teton Park and when we got to Jackson, Wyoming we crossed over to Idaho.

Have to fill in the details better when I have time. Lovin the ride.:bigsmiley12:
 
Oldhippe, you and the wife enjoy the ride. I have been to many of those places. I remember Cody, cowboys still walk the streets, I bought a bull whip at some cowboy supply store. I have never found it, the wife hid it. I think Oregon is one of the most beautiful states with ocean and mountains. We went to Mt Hood and Crater Lake, we stopped in Washington and went to the Mt St. Helens wecome center.
Ride safe
Ken
 
If you get a chance visit Chopper at his shop in Pocatello.

That's exactly what we did. Stopped in on the way for a little visit and to support his business. A T-shirt and some Spectro 6-speed. Great chat and one fantastic person to meet.:cheers

I was going to leave Idaho Falls by Hwy 20 but found it to have a gravel coating so changed direction to the Interstate. Fates way of telling me to stop by and visit.

Pretty uneventful day. We've made it to Ontario, Oregon for the night. Apparently I was a little more tired than I thought. Came to a light and failed to drop down to first. Went to take off and realized what I'd done and tried to pop down into first and almost upset the bike. Caught it and stayed upright though.:newsmile030: Too much heat not enough hydration.
 
Got blown away this morning! Who pulls up on their scoot, Old Hippie and his lovely wife. Said he wanted two quarts of Spectro 6 Speed fluid and a T-shirt LOL. Had a great visit, too short but they had to hit the road and being a one man show I had to get back to work, would have gave anything to hop on a scoot and join them, if you like riding never open a motorcycle shop because when the weather is nice your just too busy to stop and smell the roses.
Anyways got a couple of pix's to share.
OldHippiestoppedbytoday.jpg


OldHippiescoot.jpg

Hope you have a safe & trouble free journey.
Happy Trails Old Hippie,
Chop
 
It's been a few days since I was able to post.
Day 7: Left Ontario, Or and headed west on hwy 26. Nice country. When we stopped at Prineville, we met up with an olde lady from Alberta. Turns out she was from around Westlock and knows my older bro and his wife. Small world.
Took the wrong turn leaving Prineville and, instead of turning onto 242 for Eugene, stayed on 26 and didn't really notice our mistake til 60 miles out of Portland (ooops) real nice scenery especially around Mount Hood Forest so we weren't payng attention to directions much. Caught onto a backroad around Sandy (don't have the right map with me and working from memory). More fantastic scenery as we headed to Woodburn and a hotel for the night.
Wrong turns can be really great rides.
Day8: Left Woodburn for Winston and the African Safari. Not bad but no where near as interesting and entertaining as what Cambridge Ontario has. From there headed over to hwy 101 and up the coast to Florence for the night. Really, really nice following the coast. Too much traffic in places but mostly light going.
Day9: Foggy morning so can't see much travelling the coast. Stopped in at the Sea Lion Caves. Should've saved the money since a mile or two further wasSea Lion Cove full of, you guessed it, sea lions free for the watching. Skies started to clear around Tillamook so could finally see some of the ocean scenery. Just my luck between Seaside and Warenton I got stung just under the helmet strap around sideburn area. Side of the face is now a little swollen. Took the bridge at Astoria to Washington. Around 4 miles long. Have I ever mentioned that my wife is scared of travelling on very long bridges? She was a trooper though and made it across without strangling me.

When we got to Aberdeen Washington, decided to bike on to Tacoma to stay the night. But when we got near Olympia the traffic was a turtle race so turned off at Lacey and with sun in the eyes drove right past the hotels. Lousy signage. Ended up in downtown Olympia and finally turned around and, after asking directions, found the hotels where we'd originally turned off the interstate. But couldn't see where to turn in and, thinking I was taking a back lane into the Super8, ended back on the interstate:newsmile055:. Finally got turned around and into the Super8 for the night.

Day10:Went to Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. Not bad but we had higher hopes. Left Tacoma in the rain and headed over the Mt Rainier Pass. Got stopped half way because a tree had fallen on the road. People ahead had already waited 1 1/2 hrs so our 15 min wait wasn't so bad before the tree was cleaned off the road. Tree trunk was a good 3ft across.
Further up Mt Rainier was snow on both sides of the road. That and the rain and minimal guard rails had the wife less than impressed. We're in Yakima for the night now.
Oregon should change their slogan for prairie bikers: If your tires are worn flat, come to Oregon. That'll round them out real nice..
 
Day 10: While stopped for the tree on the road, met a couple on a G'wing, Kelly & Anja from Edmonton, Alberta. Ended up at the same Best Western in Yakima that night.

Day 11: Left Yakima in sunny skies and cool, but comfortable temps. Nice ride out on hwy 24 past orchards and then turning into farm land. Took 24 to hwy 26 at Othello, Washington where we headed east to Colfax. Wife had one word to describe a good portion of that road: boring. I didn't mind it just for it change in scenery: rocks and brown grass.
Stopped in Colfax for lunch and who shows up but Kelly and Anja. We finished eating just as they'd arrived so we compared our routes: same to Coeur d"Alene, Idaho. We left them there with the usual "see you on the road".
But when we left Colfax I'd missed the hwy 272 turn (lousy signage) and we rode to Pullman and then caught hwy 27 back up to hwy 272. Nice ride up hwy 27. Lots of farms and a few twisties.
Turned onto hwy 272 at Palouse and turned to Potlach ( I think that's the name) where we pulled into fuel up and met up with Kelly and Anja, again.

Fate decided we'd ride the road to Coeur d'Alene together. I took lead and we road 272 to hwy 6, then to hwy 3 and finally hwy 97 around Coeur d'Alene Lake. That is one beautiful ride. Tons of curves following the river and then the Lake all the way to Coeur d'Alene where we're all staying the night.

Finally got stopped by the police today for the first time on this trip:D. Got pulled over by a motorcycle officer around Dusty, Washington. Headlight was burn't out. No ticket, or warning since my dims still work. Great guy and very friendly. Had a great chat about our trip and the trailer.

Tomorrow, if the weather holds out for us, we're headed towards the Glacier National Park. Haven't had quite enough of the twisties yet.
 
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