Day 15 - Williams, CA to Home!

The picture says it all...15 days and 4,091 miles! Excuse the dirt on the speedometer but I haven't washed the bike yet and boy is it dirty!

We left Williams at 8:00 this morning and it was already quite warm. We headed south on Interstate 5 and saw a traffic advisory that the Interstate was shut down to 1 lane further south. We decided to eat at Harris Ranch and took Highway 198 over to Highway 99. From Highway 99 we went to Highway 58 and finally to Highway 14 and home!

The dogs were crazy happy to see us and I have to say I sure missed them!

We had 15 wonderful days of mostly wonderful, perfect riding weather. Jeff had quite the experience as this was his first ever motorcycling road trip. I think he'll do another one, but it may be a year or two!!

Thanks for following along with us on this crazy journey. When I planned it over a year ago, I had planned on doing this ride solo. I'm so glad I found somebody who wanted to come with me on this crazy journey.

Day 14 - Florence, OR to Williams, CA

We decided to take the inland route instead of continuing down the Oregon coast. We left Florence and headed down the 101 and took Highway 38 that runs along the Umpqua River. What a beautiful ride! We saw several elk but unfortunately, didn't get any pictures of them. We passed through many small, quaint towns on our way over to Interstate 5.

The weather was perfect for riding today. We stopped in Medford, OR to visit the Harley dealership there (technically it was in Phoenix!) and had lunch at Debbie's Diner. Great food, great pricing in a 50's theme restaurant.

From there we headed to Williams, CA. The weather warmed up once we crossed the CA border and quickly got quite warm. This is our last night on the road and after riding 439 miles, we were quite happy to get off the bikes!

Day 13 - Sammamish, WA to Florence, OR

After a wonderful breakfast (thanks Tara!) we headed towards Florence, OR. The weather in Sammamish was in the 50's but clear. As we headed towards the coast, the morning fog burned off and we had beautiful, sunny skies for our 357 mile ride.

We got onto the 101 and followed it south along the coast. The coastline is beautiful with lots of trees, cliffs and beautiful scenery. We rode across the Astoria Bridge which separates Washington from Oregon. We has to stop for road construction, so I was able to get a picture of the bridge. The speed limit in Oregon is 55 (what is up with that??!!) and through the many, many towns we rode through on the coast, the speed limits are 25 or 35 mph. So, while the scenery was beautiful, we were growing tired of the stop and go traffic.

We're staying in the town of Florence, OR which is a cute little town. Unfortunately, we got here so late, we didn't get to see much of the town. Our room overlooks the Siuslaw River and there is a cool drawbridge that we can see from our room. We ate at Bliss' Hot Rod Diner. Great food, good prices & quick service. The interior of the diner was car-themed. There were a couple of cars inside that had been made into dining tables. Lots of pictures on the walls of hot rods owned by locals and automobilia signs. Just the right kind of place for Jeff & me to eat!

Day 12 - Victoria, BC

Today we took a float plane from Lake Union, WA to Victoria, BC. We boarded the plane around 8:00 this morning and arrrived in Victoria around 9:00. We walked around town for a bit and then took a carriage ride through Beacon Hill Park and around the neighboring area to see all of the beautiful homes.

After our carriage ride, we had lunch and walked around Victoria. We got a Christmas ornament as a memory of our trip and took lots of pictures which are in our Photobucket album.

On our flight home, Jeff got to ride up front as the "co-pilot" and had a blast! He was good & didn't touch any of the buttons LOL!

We had another wonderful dinner with Tara and her family. We'll be back on the road tomorrow, heading home. It's hard to believe our trip is almost over.

Day 11 - Kamloops,BC to Sammamish, WA

Well our luck with good weather finally ran out. We left today under cloudy skies and got rain almost immediately. The rain stayed with us until we crossed the border back into the US.

We arrived at my friend Tara's house around 4:30 and had a great belated birthday dinner for both Tara & I. We didn't get a chance to take many pictures today because of the rain.

We rode about 300 miles today and were very happy to reach Tara's house safe & dry. Our rain gear held up well and did its job.

Day 10 - Prince George, BC to Kamloops, BC

Well our luck with good weather has finally run out! We woke up this morning to wet bikes & wet roads. We left our hotel and headed to the Harley dealership to pick up a pair of wet weather gloves for Jeff. Fortunately, they had some that fit his big mitts!! We picked up a couple of t-shirts and got on the road at 10:00 am.

Most of the day we spent chasing the rain that had already come through the towns. The roads were quite wet but not much rain fell from the sky until the early afternoon. We had probably 50 miles of rain and the rest of the 328 miles we rode today were on wet roads, but no rain falling. The bikes are quite filthy but performed great!

In hindsight, I would have skipped the trip to Prince George and spent an extra day in Banff. The ride to Prince George was pretty, but we rode a good portion of it when we went to the glacier. We enjoyed Banff so much we just didn't want to leave!

Kamloops is a nice looking town. We're staying at a nice Best Western and had yummy Chinese food for dinner. This is our last night in Canada -- we cross the border tomorrow on our way to the Seattle area.

Day 9 - Banff, AB to Prince George, BC

Sad day today as we had to leave Banff. It is such a beautiful area, I'm sure we'll be back some time in the future. We left at 7:45 this morning with temperatures in the low 40's which can make for some very uncomfortable riding on a motorcycle. We pulled over and Jeff donned his rain suit for warmth. I wish I'd gotten a picture of my Jolly Green Giant in his glow-in-the-dark green DWP rain gear!

We stopped in Jasper for a quick break & to thaw out. The temperatures were finally getting into a tolerable range for riding. From Jasper we stopped in McBride for lunch. Let's just say the town's web site looked much more impressive than the town! Most of Main Street was abandonded buildings. There were restaurants, but they were all closed except for the one at the Sandman Inn which is where we ended up eating.

From there we headed into Prince George. Jeff is convinced there will be a chalk outline in the parking lot by morning; I think the area is fine! We rode 411 miles today. The weather in Prince George is cloudy & calling for rain tonight. Hopefully it clears by morning.