Aug 25 2015

The Nation’s Capitol

In our previous visits to Washington we have never seen either the Pentagon or Arlington National Cemetery. Our location to the south of the city allowed us the opportunity to see the Pentagon and spend a little time walking through a small part of the cemetery. Seeing some of the dates on the tombstones is a sober reminder of sacrifices that individuals have been made on behalf of their country. It is nice to see that their wives can be buried alongside them, at a later date of course. Currently some 400,000 people are buried there.

Arlington cemetery

Washington DC, the nation’s Capital, is home to the United States’ Capitol Building, which houses the legislative arm of the US government. Congress, as it is called, is made up of a Senate and a House of Representatives. We had never been inside the Capitol Building in previous visits, so decided this was time to see the interior and learn a little about how the Congress of the United States works. Anne unfortunately went down with a MSG induced migraine, so only I had the opportunity to visit the Capitol building.

Washington DC Capitol showing House of Representatives.

The visitor centre is extensive and built underground so as not to spoil the views of the Capitol Building. It is designed to take hundreds of visitors at a time and was much larger than I had imagined. I was able to see both the Senate chamber and House of Representatives chamber from their respective visitors’ galleries plus a tour of the old house of Representatives chamber and its 36 statues. Not bad for an hour and a half.

Throughout the Capitol building, one comes across many statues, the largest number reside in the National Statuary Hall which was the old House of Representatives meeting place from 1807 to 1857 – the tour guide said that each of the 50 States can nominate and provide 2 statues, bronze or marble, of famous people (deceased) or, as in the case of the Rosa parks statue, commissioned by Congress, the first by them since 1873. That is just the cover story, one of the other guides said that anyone on a tour left behind overnight gets turned into a statue! Reminds me of C.S. Lewis’s book ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’, where the White Witch turns people and talking animals to stone. A much more plausible explanation than that the States provide the Statues I think, so do not dawdle on the tour.

Rosa Parks amongst the Capitol statues

Greek and Roman democracy influenced the founding fathers and this extended to the architecture of the Congress Building but one can see the local influences, such as the top of columns decorated with corn cobs and tobacco leaves. Good to see a local touch.

Washington laying the foundation stone for the Capitol building.

I find Washington is city of contrasts: we have wide avenues, amazing monuments, impressive buildings and poverty. As I walk though the city, I see government officials, military personnel, tourists, every type of law enforcement officer and the homeless and mentally ill. Such a mixture and we have noted that in wealthy areas, such as Santa Barbara in California, we find a higher number of homeless people. We should not forget how lucky we are and have been in life.

The White House

Passing the old post office on Pennsylvania Avenue half way between the Capitol Building and the White House, which is being converted into a hotel, I see a sign: ‘ Trump coming in 2016’. The hotel will be a Trump, or does this foretell the results of the 2016 Presidential Election? I cannot imagine that even Donald Trump planned that one, but we will have wait and see how the Republican Presidential Primaries turn out next year before we know if the poster was more than it was intended to be.

Post Office being converted to a ‘Trump’ Hotel

Capital DanceSport Championships were taking place in our hotel. The place was full of colourful dresses and bronzed people taking part in the Ballroom and Latin dancing. The hotel’s arrival information for the participants included warnings not to use the water sprinklers to hang clothing from and to contact housekeeping for old sheets if they were using bronzing sprays in the room! Talking to one of the makeup artists, I learned that she starts at 4 am, as the first dance heats commence at 7am and the competition runs until midnight each day.

Amazing dance dress

A day of contrasts…

– Anthony

Aug 24 2015

Barns, Buggies and beautiful bends

After our most wonderful experiences, outlined in Anne’s blog entry ‘An insight into Armish life’ we find ourselves contemplating the end of this amazing journey. Suddenly dates and places that seemed so distant a short time ago can be seen appearing as dots on the horizon. Civilisation will be crowding in on us as we leave the open spaces of the west behind and head east, a reminder of the lifestyle changes we will face when we turn Streak and Storms engines off for the last time next month.

With our initial transition being to visiting family and friends in Europe, we will have time to contemplate our 15 months on the road and how those experiences will weave their way into the fabric of our lives going forward.

Enough of the contemplation, we have another three weeks of sights, sound and experiences ahead to enjoy and record for our loyal followers around the world. We have no specific destination apart from New York at the end of August, and are almost taking a day to day approach to finding the next destination. We arrived in the Amish country in Indiana, Anne also wanted to visit some of the Amish communities in Ohio as well so we are headed for Wooster, Ohio. With a 100 mile wide rain front just starting to tap on our windscreens as we rode out of Elkhart along Interstate 88/90, we happily emerge out of the grey drizzle into the bright sunshine and on our way.

Barns, the red variety, and buggies have been the focus of Anne’s photography this last couple of days. We can tell when we are in Amish country from the horse droppings on the road, an early warning system for buggies around the corner or over the hill. The terrain is quite undulating. Here is a sample of what we saw, the visual representation is far better than any words I can write.

Amish buggy with night flashing lights

Grain storage and Buggy

Grocery parking in Berlin, Ohio

Amish horse and buggy near Apple Creek, Ohio

Typical Ohio red barn

Lehmans of Kidron, Ohio https://www.lehmans.com is a country store in a tiny village that carries a range of Amish made and used products. Their byline is ‘Simple Products for a Simpler Life’ and the range of products, their simplicity, the use of local and US manufacturing, plus the interweaving of historical items in the displays makes for a fascinating store, being used by Amish and tourists alike. It is worth visiting if you are in the area.

Choice of wicks at Lehman’s

The widespread Amish quilting practice, piqued our interest in the work. No, not to take up quilting, but just to see what is being, and can be done. I find that an event called Quilt National 2015, a biennial event for quilting as an art form located in Athens, Ohio some 80 miles south. We find an old barn filled with some amazing artistic creations, no photos allowed but here is the link for those interested. dairybarn.org/quilt-national/quilt-national-2015/

Athens is also a university town and full of parents taking their kids with all their possessions for a new academic year, starting next week. We will have to remember that all the school zone speed restriction signs and school bus rules apply from Monday.

We had stopped for a night in Marietta Ohio, initially for one night, but after talking to an enthusiastic visitor we decide to spend an extra day here. A river bikeway leads us from our hotel next to the Ohio River and Interstate 77 to a beautiful town centre. Unlike so many places we have passed through, this town centre seems alive. It may be because a 2,000 student college provides the economic impetus for redevelopment. We enjoy coffee, a middle eastern lunch at great resturant and the annual flu jab to round off a great day.

Front Street, Marietta, flags, flowers and fabulous

Interstate 77 takes one on a winding journey for over 80 miles towards the Capital of West Virginia, Charleston with its golden dome State Capitol Building. The morning sun falls on the large variety of trees that line the highway and surrounding hills. This must make for a fabulous journey in the Autumn/Fall.

West Virginia must be stunning during the fall

Charleston Capitol, West Virginia

When this region was being explored and developed in the early 1800’s, access would have only been possible by river. Even today, all economic activity we saw in West Virginia seems to take place along the rivers – road and rail have to follow the river’s course. We diverge from the Interstate after Charleston onto route US60 which initially follows the course of the Kanawha River. We pass a mile long chemical plant at Belle, a shuttered power station and both open and closed coal mines all clinging to the slivers of flat land between river and heavily wooded hills. Some of these once prosperous towns seem to have an air of sadness about them, pressure on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increased natural gas usage for power generation is reducing coal demand which is the major economic activity here. Tough times.

One of many coal plants along the Kanawha River

US60 rocks and rolls, brakes and throttle, an edgy twisty road, so much fun even at the slow speeds pace. The scenery reminds me of SE Asia, the density, thick green ivy and I thought at one point we were back at the Golden Rock in Myanmar, but no just a golden ‘M’ arch poking through above the tree line.

Riding along the Valley Ridge Road West Virginia

Chesapeake & Ohio 614 4-8-4 steam locomotive made by Lima in 1948

Appomattox, a name those familiar with the American Civil War will recognise, was the place where Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of North Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant in April 1865. The location of the surrender is now the Appomattox Court House National Park Monument. Buildings have been rebuilt or restored, recreating the location as it was in 1865, although we were told more trees exist today, mostly to screen out modern constructions. The surrounding land used was used for tobacco farming. Reading the history of the event in the museum, one gained a sense of two men who by the outcome of the terms of surrender, helped lay the foundations for reconciliation over time between North and South.

Where the Appomattox surrender was actually agreed and signed

One of the more interesting aspects of being in the USA at this time is vey early campaigning, Republican and Democrat Presidential candidates, given the first primary elections are not till February 2016. This is our daily diet of TV, interspersed with all the USA crime program series to allow me to catch up in what I have missed over the last 24 months. Yes I can be a TV junkie.

First impressions are of a busload of Republicans competing on the one hand, and Hilary and her ‘baggage’ on the other bus, although her bus may take on extra passengers (candidates) should the baggage slow the bus down too much. On the republican side Donald Trump has taken the limelight as he always does, uses non politically correct language and raises issues such as illegal immigration that politicians want to ‘manage’ the message in their usual way. His approach has gone down well with a portion of the population fed up with ‘Real Politicians’ , but I suspect over time his approach will see his vote stagnate and as other republican candidates fall beside the wayside those supporters will not move to Donald Trump. I am glad I do not have to sit through this interminable election process in the USA, I just hope the process turns up a good couple of candidates to enable a good President to be elected.

– Anthony

Aug 16 2015

Meandering across the ‘M’s

Three days in Fargo have left us refreshed and ready to ride again. We have blue skies and a cool breeze at our backs as we head east for New York. Our route will take us across the ‘M’ states Minnesota and Michigan, plus Wisconsin, which is really an upside down ‘M’. We are also adding Metzeler to the list of good ‘M’s. While we were at Sturgis, Metzeler offered us a new set of tyres to replace the ones we have worn down with all our riding since Costa Rica. How generous of them. We will get them fitted in Grand Rapids, Michigan, hence our route over the top of lake Michigan.

Across the state line into Minnesota and a change of scenery. The flat plains and large fields are replaced by rolling hills, trees and lakes. The Minnesota number plates say ‘10,000 lakes’ and after seeing as many as we have, and more on the GPS, that the statement is probably true.

Anne spots a real coffee shop in Park Rapids and as we bask in the sun under the shade of a pine tree, we meet Brian & Kathy, the owners, and spend time chatting. They are small business owners, who own this drive through only coffee shop. Open all year round, must be tough in winter with no tourists and half the local inhabitants fleeing south to warmer climes, but what would our staff do without a job if we closed in winter they say. Lovely people.

Brian and Cathy, owners of Espresso 34 – great coffee!!

We also have our first large animal encounter, a deer, walking out across the road, brakes worked fine, but a timely reminder that we should not ride too late and as we head through state and national forest, we need to keep our eyes open.

Duluth is a city that I recall from my geography at school as a major port on Lake Superior for the transportation of iron ore to the steel mills in places such as Cleveland and Pittsburg. Today iron ore and Wyoming coal account for 80% of exports, with grain making up the bulk of the rest. A major import are nacelles, bases, towers and blades for wind turbines. This is the most inland port in the USA. We get to see a Polish ship arrive to collect grain, and the locally famous Aerial Lift Bridge in action.

William A Irwin, a bulk iron ore carrier museum.

Water towers in Duluth, MN

Isadora ship is through, lift bridge goes down again to let road traffic across

The size of the port becomes apparent as the Polish ship disappears from view and we see it later looking quite small next to an enormous grain elevator complex, one of many that dot the harbour basin. We are quickly out of town and heading for Wisconsin and Michigan.

Isadora is ready to be loaded up with grain

The nature of the landscape, in my view, lends itself to holidays by lakesides. We see RV’s with boats, ATVs, jet-skis and a local boat variant called a pontoon boat. The latter is designed for leisurely trips around the myriad of small lakes that exist, some interconnected allowing quite extensive travel. People seem to holiday locally, many we meet are from a few hours away or the next state. A great environment for holidays with kids.

Great spot to stop and refresh

While we are protected by trees for the most part our journey along the northern shore of lake Michigan and then over the Mackinac Bridge, one can see how windy it could be for us, but I am glad we are travelling now with bearable winds – we heard of one RV being flipped over by the wind the other day.

Crossing Mackinac bridge

Chicago is a long way away, on the far side of Michigan lake

We keep meeting people interested in our journey. At the campsites, hotel car parks and food stops, we get their enthusiasm in our journey. It is quite infectious and a reminder to us of where we have been and what we have achieved in 14 months. It is hard for us to imagine that this way of life is coming to an end in a few weeks. We are so used to having another country ahead to cross, places to visit, people to see. Now we look at our calendar and see flights and family reunions, which we are looking forward to, but how will we miss this nomadic life on the road? Time will tell.

Luke, Jamie, Jaime and Alia

We visit BMW Motorcycles of Grand Rapids. Two new fresh sets of Metzeler Tourances await Streak and Storm. They are fitted and we are able to use their cleaning bay, equipped with all the best cleaning tools and products to change Streak and Storm to their purchased grey colours from the dirt, mud and oil spattered bikes they had become. It will hopefully reduce the number of wasps that seem to show interest the bikes each time we stop, probably because of all the dead insects that formed a film across the front of the bikes protecting the chrome and paint from the elements. We had great help from Gary in cleaning the bikes.

Storm being washed for the first time since Costa Rica!!

The 3 miles from our hotel to BMW Motorcycles of Grand Rapids took us past 30,000 miles for the trip. Another milestone, no pun intended, and Anne has updated the route map in our blog to reflect this and our recent wanderings in Colorado and Wyoming.

In Australia I was only able to get six months’ supply of heart medication before coming away. A law that exists to stop people stockpiling I guess? Suddenly we have been gone for six months and I need some refills. We find an urgent care clinic who are very helpful and fill my prescriptions. They do not even charge for the service on the spot, just say they will invoice me at my home address.

Across the road to the Walgreens pharmacy the prescriptions were sent. They are electronically transferred. I take Crestor for cholesterol which in Australia with the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme costs me about US$25 for one month. Here the bill is US$265 for one month. Eeeeek!, Just one month please, I will get more in Europe thanks. We forget what is subsided back home. Must be tough for those without medical insurance here when you need such tablets.

Off to Amish Country tomorrow and then a leisurely ride eastwards.

– Anthony

Aug 10 2015

Feet up in Fargo

Sturgis now over and being the last of our ‘deadline’ until New York then Montreal, we are heading for the great Lakes before stopping in Amish country next. I want to ride through Badlands National Park before leaving the area, and we are not disappointed.

Badlands National park

Badlands National Park – so many motorcyclists

Badlands national park

Gary, a BMW rider from Orange City, Fl, stopped to chat

We pick a zig zag route north – we need to get through the vast flat, tiringly boring area of North Dakota safely and give ourselves a break from the winds. We are not great distance riders anyway and the monotony of the deadly straight stretches means we need even more stops. We overnight in Pierre before stopping in Fargo for 2 nights. It is the first time we are spending more than one night in one spot since Casper, as the lack of posts for the past 2 weeks testify!!

Lovely spot to stop and revitalise

We still see many Harley Davidsons, a few Honda Goldwings and the odd BMW or other brands obviously making it to Sturgis for the last few days of the rally or riding home, wherever that might be. About half of them take their bikes on trailers and only ride in Sturgis or maybe the surrounding area. We are glad we didn’t chicken out completely based on everyone’s “warnings”. One day and night there was perfect for us. We see a bike pulled over and of course stop in case he needs help. He has a puncture, is waiting for the tow truck but would like to pump some air into his flat so that he can ride up the tow truck ramp without damaging his tyre. He is from Winnipeg, went to Sturgis but didn’t take any repair tools with him. Glad we can help.

As we are riding, we discuss all the things we need to do while in Fargo and we quickly decide we will stay an additional day so that we can relax a bit too. It is always great to go to bed knowing there is no rush in getting up in the morning.

As we ride east then north of Aberdeen, there are so many lakes. We have seen fields and fields of wheat, soya beans, sunflowers and I ask Anthony whether rice is grown here as it would be a great use of the natural water available here. My question is answered when we cross Wild Rice river and confirmed with a Google search later.

So many lakes in North Dakota

Sunflower fields around Highmore

Wheat fields around Aberdeen

Had to stop in Miller and take a photo for my mum:

Named after my mother’s ancestors?

Having watched the Republican, or commonly referred to GOP (Grand Old Party) candidates debate last night in Pierre, it is interesting to listen to various commentaries on different channels the next day. Over the last 2 months in the US, we have met many people who have willingly shared their political views with us. Never before have we felt such a gulf between the Republicans and Democrats. It seems that over the last few years, under Obama, views and parties have become polarised. And they are not class related as I originally thought. Very simply and maybe simplistically, there are those on the left, the Democrats, who believe there should be safety nets and programs to help everyone under every circumstance, while those on the right, the Republicans, who do not want or expect the government to be everything to all people, are tired of being ‘institutionalised’ with too many laws about every aspect of their lives, and believe it is up to individuals, who are able to, to make it for themselves.

While in Fargo, we upload photos and videos, make space on our desperately full iPads, do all our washing, make some plans and bookings for our time back in Europe, send emails, skype family, message friends, go to the movies, get our hair cut, write new posts for the past 2 weeks, do some basic bike maintenance, write emails and … spend time with our feet up watching tv and simply relaxing.

Storm building in Fargo, North Dakota

It is funny how after just over 24 hours in our lovely hotel, I am itching to get out onto the road again, missing the wild open spaces of Kyrgyzstan… And it feels very strange to think that one month from now, our trip will nearly be over, with our bikes with Air Canada ready for shipping back to the UK, a day ahead of us… The excitement of seeing family mixed with so many other feelings…

– Anne

Aug 5 2015

Sturgis – second visit

We are heading first for Devil’s Tower National Monument, made famous as the mountain backdrop in the Steven Speilberg movie ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’. Devil’s Tower was the first declared United States National Monument, created in 1906, by then President Theodore Roosevelt. We will spend the night at the KOA campground near the base of the monument, before moving on for our now single night at the Sturgis motorcycle rally. Our schedule has been adjusted because of the time taken to get to and back from Yellowstone. We think this will be enough of the Sturgis experience for both of us.

Early morning light on Devil’s Tower

Our campground is full of motorcyclists heading to or from Sturgis, we are still over 100 miles away but the influence of the event, and the economic benefit, can be felt this far out. Backgrounds of our camping neighbours are varied, on one side a couple of Boeing executives and the other a man from rural Tennessee. We meet many others with different stories to tell, all making for interesting conversations.

Eddie, “Nasty Nick”, Ronna and Roxane

Nick’s Mustang Contraption

We find out that the KOA campground shows the movie ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ each night, with the screen setup in such a way that the backdrop of Devil’s Tower looms imposingly above us soaring almost vertically 1,267 feet (386 m) above the Belle Fourche River which separates the campground from Devil’s Tower. Those who have seen the movie will know the scenes with light and thunder in the grey clouds. Above us, we have a similar backdrop with dark grey clouds, thunder and lightening, so atmospheric, we are just waiting for the alien ships to descend and whisk us away, but no, not tonight.

Watching Close Encounters of a 3rd Kind at Devil’s Tower

We are still about 100 miles or 160 kilometres from Sturgis. Having heard stories of it taking hours to get in and out of Sturgis via the main street, we decide to loop to the north to get to our destination on the far side of Sturgis. My clutch plates are fairly worn and may not last if I have to spend time riding the clutch. I do not want it failing in the middle of Sturgis and have to push ‘Storm’.

Loaded and what headgear

Even this back route is filled with motorcycles, group after group pass us by. We see our first accident as a woman rider locks up and crashes for no apparent reason. She is Ok, but a reminder to us to keep our eyes open. As we get closer to Sturgis, we start to see more and more fields turned into camp sites. This is going to be a big event!

I think about all the Harley Davidson (HD) motorcycles that are filling Sturgis and its surrounds for the 10 days of the rally and wonder if, from above, the vast numbers of motorcycles and their riders in the HD colours of black and orange would not look to dissimilar to the large herds of bison that once roamed these rolling plains. As we have observed previously, the age of the HD riders is advancing, we see more and more HD three wheelers, perhaps over time they may fade away as the vast herds of bison did. The advancing years story was reinforced by seeing one grey haired baby boomer packing one of those weekly tablet holders in his panniers!

Traffic is not as bad as we had feared and we are quickly inside the Buffalo Chip Campground. Given the heavy rain the previous night, and the churned up grass from ATV’s, we decide to camp close to the West Gate just off the main route through the camp. We realise this will be noisy, but with more rain forecast, want to be able to get out tomorrow. The noise of HD motorcycles is constant as we setup the tent – what will the night bring? We also start to see the various interesting vehicles and their occupants pass us by, we have an excellent location for this.

Businesses around Sturgis open up to campers

I started to write this next part as a chronological report on our activities and observations, but feel that our visit and report on Sturgis is better served by a different approach.

When people heard that we were going to stay at the Buffalo Chip for Sturgis, we received warnings about drinking and fighting. Our impression was that this would be a wild place with all sorts of risks and dangers. The opposite could not be more true. I had expected many, many tents, the reality was that RV’s or Motorhomes as we call them predominate. Many are large house sized vehicles with trailers for motorcycles. Yes many people trailer their HD motorcycles to Sturgis, probably to keep them clean, given the efforts we have seen in this direction on the road. The impression I have of the hundreds of acres of RV’s is that of a shantytown we have seen in other parts of the world, with much improved interiors. I suspect this is due, as mentioned previously, the largest age group here seems be be the 50+ or, as we are known, the ‘baby boomers’. With age comes wealth and this was definitely reflected here. People are here to have a good time in a more mature way than we would have done in our 20’s. We see a number of interesting and non politically correct activities that in this environment do no harm and probably take one back to one’s youth, so why not?

Our camping spot at Buffalo Chip!!

Buffalo Chip, Sturgis

Michael from Warm Beach, Wa

Buffalo Chip, Sturgis

People enjoying themselves responsibly was my takeaway from this event. We are glad we went and enjoyed our time at Sturgis. We even managed to fall asleep at 1am as hundreds of motorbikes went past the tent, no noise restrictions here. You can even take you motorcycle to the concert and rev your engines in lieu of clapping.

We saw Lynyrd Skynyrd, Shinedown and Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real. A real rock evening. This and a visit to the Full Throttle Saloon, the largest biker bar in the world, made for a memorable time – roll on the 100th anniversary.

– Anthony

2slowspeeds

Loving life – Turning Dreams into Memories

Tag Archives: Santiago to UK 2015

The Nation’s Capitol

Barns, Buggies and beautiful bends

Meandering across the ‘M’s

Feet up in Fargo

Sturgis – second visit

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