the continued

so we watched the seahwks get stomped and finished up our bottle of scotch (with fancy plastic cups this time.)  the motel was pretty bad...bare bulbs where there  were lights...no outlets...((quick side-note, just watched another "indie-rocker" influenced commercial...you know, the ones with a whispering obscure band--that won't be anymore.  this time it was for subaru and one of their wagon/adventure models.  young couple (tighter pants, and the appropriate thift-store ansemble) on a road adventure...scene: subaru on side of road in rain...narrative: ":we could've taken the planned route (or something like that) but it wouldn't have been as memorable"....give me a break...i'm not saying we're the shackleton crew or anything but, damn.))
motel had a pretty methed out looking "maid" who chris said was asking for money from the manager for "supplies" but was turned down with a worn, exasperated tone that showed annoyance and familiarity with the situation...

we left the next morning around 8:30 or so (typical) and headed to niagra falls (canadian side), where it took us a little driving to find the entrance...parking was $18 if you didn't want to walk the 1/4 mile...we walked the 1/4 mile and paid $4...it was kind of like the grand canyon to me...really beautiful/enormous and photogenic...but like all places like this, i selfishly can't stand the people and hotels/shops "ruining" the view.  it's pretty hard to ruin that place, but it was kind of a let down...for example the seemingly permanent rainbow that asked to be photographed so you can email it to your mom had a massive hotel that took up the background...yeah i know whine, whine...just being honest

after shooting there for about an hour we went across the rainbow bridge to enter the u.s. where we expected to have the bike stripped down and possible ourselves...we talked with the first guyt for about 5 minutes and were told to have a nice day....so psyched, extra time to get to the allegany national park.

to get there we had to go through buffalo, ny...it was hot, it stunk, and the roads were filled with potholes.  most people exaggerratedly pointed at us and laughed (which made me laugh), some people seemed genuinely offfended and perplexed...there was another nice u.d.f...i don't remember if i explained u.d.f...if you have a ural then you know...the bike is "different" enough to warrant interest from random people everywhere you go and stop (grocery store, gas station, etc.)...the typical u.d.f is about 5 min. if you sort of rush it, but with the way ms laru looks iot can last up to 15 min....i'm convinced, by the way, that this is the reason that at the end of an 8 hour day of driving the beautiful beast that i'm flabbergasted that we only went as far as 230 miles or so....

after potholes and stink, we made it to the allegany national park...nobody there (sweet) but there were a shit ton of flies that tried to get in every orifice.  as i set up my tent i had full motorcycle gear on (including goggles)...the priest in amityville with the bees kept going through my mind...the fire (which chris seems to like to start) and smoke got rid of them eventually...and it was another early night with reading in yet another beautiful park...tracy ridge was the campground.

the next morning i shot the best road footage (that still hasn't been seen by anyone) of the trip so far...coming off the ridge on route 321 in penn. was a ridiculously amazing welcome to the appalachians...the locals said it had been dry and that's why the leaves had started to change.

we stayed in mexico, penn. (for chris) at buttonwood campground...private site that cost $25 for the night...no problem since we got a ton of wood for $5...the place was clean, right on the the river...but it would have been nice to know that there would be a train blasting by right across the river every couple of hours...the moon was so bright that when i set shot the star-trail photos, it looked like 11:00 in the morning.

the next morning we drove through pennsylvania-dutch-amish country to gettysburg where i dropped chris off to spend the next couple hours gathering what he needed to begin the civil war section that would inform his pursuit of his master's degree...while he did this i rode to hagerstown, md to pick up supplies from the fed ex...when i returned 2 hours later to pick him up i saw clouds i hadn't seen since i was in the south last...huge, dark, ominous clouds...the kind that don't let you prepare for what's about to come out of them...chris was loading in and i was just finishing black-bagging everyhting when it started to come down in sheets...we made it about 2 miles before the lack of seeing the car in front of me forced us off the road and into the another motel room....this prevented us from seeing antitem battle grounds, and staying in harper's ferry national park....pretty dissapointing...after drying everything off with the heat in the room at 85 degrees we left the next morning early to get into washington d.c.  after an hour of riding we were in the stifling heat of d.c to get laru worked on...

more later

oh canada

southern ontario = lots of this...just like rural u.s.a...who would've guessed

photos of scenes that mention our names never get tiresome

almost official....unfortunately there's been a "run" of state-sign shots that don't have wise and i flipping off the camera or giving the horns...for this i apologize...either weather or inaccessibility has prevented us from getting off the bike and performing our schmaltz (is this a word?)

bridge into canada

i know there's a lot of this stuff, but it's so damn rad

some photos

more countryside

days 13 and such

alright, first of all i realize i have a bad speedball addiction...not an illegal one but it's coffee first thing in the morning with a 5 hour energy or 2...this gets me psyched to drive yet again for another 200 or 300 miles...this usually works to my benefit, depending on the "countryside" we're going through...sometimes, all wound up doesn't help because just maybe (now this hardly happens...) a really bad driver or bad weather kicks off the day, which unfortunately will affect me deeply until the stimulants wear off...then things can turn around when the next 5 hour energy kicks in...this routine usually takes up about 8-10 hours a day...out by 8:30 or 9 and finished by 5-6:30...this is the other part of the speedball equation comes in...after fighting an 1100 lb monster all day nothing tastes better than a beer, shot or whatever!!!  i know this isn't the healthiest and the food isn't the at all adequate but i do take my daily centrum multivitamin (doesn't that make up for it)...also occasionally i manage to stretch before i take off....right now my tricep on my right arm is huge and my bicep on my left arm is huge...obviously a massive alignment issue where the beast (ms. laru) is pulling massively to the right, hence the rear tire issue (by the way it's time for another)...an issue that we hope to correct tomorrow morning when we arrive in D.C.

so we made it through the canadian border form port huron...thanks again to the care packages, and after about 30 min or so the ladies and gentlemen at the canadian border...i think i have on video at the border entry kiosk (after explaining how we knew each other and what we're doing trying to get into canada) "please pull to the right and you'll recieve the full canadian treatment" haha...no big deal, we're not riding dirty but it was a little nerve racking with the same questions over and over again...after "do you have anything to declare" or "anything we should know about" i stated that "we had the usual camping equipment...but we did have a hatchet, and a machete, but it's only a 12 incher"...this lead us to the full canadian package by the way...i don't know if it was that or the fact that we're a spectacle in the first place...

we staid in a cheap motel (yes, another motel, but it was actually cheaper than staying in a campsite with the purchase of wood by 10 or so u.s. dollars) because one way or the other i was going to catch the seahawks game...as soon as we turned on the television the seahawks began to lose...and it only got worse


more tomorrow

---jleep

scotch & styrofoam

my passport was in that care package...thanks looper

mailing postcards MN (paul bunyan and babe) to big j...also got our 2nd mini stars and stripes

tractor parade on bridge joining the upper and lower of MI

on top of one of the "mountains" in MI