Mesa Verde, Co, Monument Valley and the Moab region, Utah

October 11, 2010 : Mesa Verde National Park, a $ 10.00 fee for the park entrance and here we go ! Blue sky, not the shadow of a cloud, a temperature in the 50’s and a nice ride on motorcycle to the top. We have selected two guided tours : ‘’ Cliff Palace’’, a must and ‘’Balcony House’’. Then, we were on our own to visit some pithouses and stop along the road. It does not look like we have done much today, but we are exhausted and we think it might be because of the altitude again, as we were always above 2000 meters up to 2613 meters at the highest point of the park. Tonight, our faces are as red as lobsters (cooked ones, of course).


The following day we took the road of Monument Valley and this has been our ‘’fourth coup de coeur’’ with an off-road ride on our motorcycles. I had just started the trail that I fell… again. No harm again, and I went on anyway.

It was really worth the ride, the colours of Monument Valley are breathtaking, and everything is majestic.

That night though, we had no other choice than going back to camping as every motel was full. It was not quite cold that night. And again the following morning, blue sky and nice temperature to allow us to have our breakfast outside before taking the road to Moab. Two hundred kilometers later, we learn that the following week is a holiday for the State of Utah, which means that all motels or cabins are booked. We end up camping again and book for five nights a campsite. We just hope that the temperature is not going to drop.

We spent the next four days in the Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park, both parks are breaktaking. This area is the paradise for the outdoors activities : mountain bike, hiking, rafting, off-road motorbike or with 4 wheelers, climbing, sky-diving, you have it all and everybody is very active. In the campings, everybody seems to be in bed by nine o’clock. We guess everybody is tired or ready to be up early the next day to do some kind of activity.

In the Arches National Park, we hike three different trails to see the ‘’delicate” Arch, the ‘’double O Arch’’ and the “Windows’’and two hikes in Canyonlands : the Grand View Trail and Murphy's Trail.

The Grand View Trail is not a very long trail, but worth every step of it. The view is awesome, you see the canyons so far that we noticed that when people arrived there, they automatically lowered their tone of voice. The perfect place for meditation, not a background noise, not a sound, just a deep quietness that fills you and calms you down.

After this, Alain and I decided that we would do another off-road trail. This time, I am riding behind Alain. The Shaffer Road starts within the park with an abrupt slope of 5.3 miles. It was a promising trail as it was written at the entrance that this was going to be rough with steep inclines. Nothing scares us !

Wow, emotions, fears of all kinds, freezing sweats and even wondering, what in the h… I am doing here, or please can I go down now from the motorcycle? A couple of times, Alain asked me to get off the bike, so that he could manage his way through the rocks of all sizes and everytime I was eager to comply... This is Alain negotiating a difficult stretch of road :

 I did not even want to climb back on it. No kidding, he would have asked me to run behind the motorcycle the whole way, I think I would have been happy to comply ! In the end, it went well. We almost fell a couple of times, but I must say that Alain is a really good driver, and 29 kilometers later, we arrived at the end of this. Lesson learnt for next time, when Alain should be on his own for this kind of adventure, with the right tyres and without luggage. Happy to be finished !

On the Road Again tomorrow towards Bryce Canyon and Zion parks...

Rio Grande Bridge, NM and San Juan Skyway, Colorado

October 7 to October 9, 2010
The Enchanted Circle really carries its name well. At every turn, we say “wow, wow’’. Unfortunately, the weather was not as nice as what we would have liked. We got some heavy rain on the way, but prepared as we are, we got our raingear suits on, just in the nick of time… We did want to check out the city of Taos in the evening, but it was pretty quiet. We quickly stopped at the Rio Grande Bridge (pictures on Picassa). Rio Grande is the third longest river of the United States.

Last night, we camped in Bloomfield, NM. The campground (negotiated to $ 18.00 a night) was great and clean with free firewood. As it was dark and started to be chilly, we were very happy to start a large bonfire. What a night we had ! This morning, after a restless night because of the cold and the noise in the surroundings, we did not get up in a very good mood. We were ready for the cold night, though !

The temperature dropped below zero degrees Celsius (I believe around 40 fahrenheit), there was ice on the seats of our motorcycles. We decided that no matter what, considering the altitude of the day, we would find at least a cabin for the next night. Here it is. We found it!

After all, we are not eskimos !

This is a long week-end again and we don’t want to visit Mesa Verde Saturday or Sunday. Therefore, we decided to take the direction of Durango and from Durango, started 550 North to ride the 236 miles loop back to Durango, which is supposed to be a scenic drive. It is called the San Juan Skyway. What a view ! And the sky is blue again, a little bit chilly, but we are dressed appropriately. It was just spectacular and today, we sincerely regretted not to have a camera mounted directly on the motorcycles. The curves were insane, at times, going straight down while turning. As I was riding, I had to tell myself that I had to look far ahead of where I wanted to go, as when you ride a motorcycle, you go where you look ! This is me on this video. We rode up to 10900 feet (around 3300-3500 Meters)

On his side, Alain was thrilled and quite a few times, he flew in front of me to speed away and have some fun. I was absolutely fine with this, as I did not want the pressure to go too quickly and turn. In the end, we both had a lot of fun at our own pace. Tonight, the mood is much better as we have found a cabin in Ouray. The day would not be complete, as I have forgotten to mention Silverton, one old mining village, which is maintaining its charm : the streets are not paved, the sidewalks are made of wood, the railway road connects between Silverton and Durango with an old steam locomotive.

This road today was our ‘’third coup de coeur’’…. And we are only halfway through it!

October 10, 2010 : This was the end of the San Juan skyway today. A little bit less impressive but still gorgeous.

The weather was again great and the colours of autumn are really making our rides enjoyable, not as red as in Quebec, but still yellows and gold colours. Wow! Alain and I are already talking about coming back and hike around here other times.

In Dolores today, we met one young French guy and another one from Quebec, who hitchhiking across the United States. We have stopped in Cortes tonight, again in a cabin, as the forecast is for chilling temperatures again. We have negotiated a rate of $ 44.00 for the night (last night was around $ 42.00, but we get the heat and a mattress and laundry and hot showers for this price !). You would not believe that after 12 days of sleeping on a 1.5 inches Thermarest mattress, how good it feels to have a real one ! We are also right by the Mesa Verde National Park, that we are eager to visit tomorrow.

Route 66, Roswell, Santa Fe and Bandelier National Park, New Mexico

Oct 1 to Oct 6, 2010 :
This is where we are today :

We left Palo Duro Canyon first in direction of Amarillo. We were aware that this is where we would cross the Historic Route 66. First we saw Cadillac Ranch. Cadillac Ranch consists of 10 vintage Cadillacs buried up to their backseats in a wheatfield, rising out the earth at the same angle as the Cheops pyramid in Egypt. It’s interesting to see the reaction of people who go see the Cadillacs. They say it’s stupid, exentric, weird. It’s interactive in a way as you are welcome to leave your own mark with spray on them. I just found it was funny! You would not believe how many people stop and take pictures of them.


We also stopped in Adrian, Texas, the midpoint of Route 66, between Santa Barbara and Chicago. We enjoyed a Texas size Hamburger and moved on. See Pictures on Picassa.

Concerning the scenery we went from the Panhandle of Texas to the Great Plains of New Mexico. Between Santa Rosa and Vaughn and Vaughn to Roswell, there are milesand miles again of nothing , of almost nothing apart from tarentulas… From Vaughn to Roswell, there is a four lane highway stretching for 95 miles with nothing in between except for a Rest Area midway.

In our mind, we had pictured Roswell to be a village with a few ‘’weird’’ (not aliens, but just weird) inhabitants. In the end, it is a pretty large city. We visited the International Museum of UFOs. Apart from a few clippings on what happened on July 4th, 1947 and the seemingly cover-up from the US government, there is not much to see. When you talk to some inhabitants of Roswell, they are absolutely convinced that aliens exist, as they wonder how we can be all alone in the universe. Personally, I was not convinced one way or the other. I came with scepticism and left with scepticism.

The following day, we left Roswell to Santa Fe area. This was a long drive that finished with some tension between both of us, as we were wasting time looking for a campground and of course, in a case like this, it’s always the other’s fault. Another 500 kilometers or so in one day. An experience not to renew too often. We spent a day shopping, doing the laundry and some errands after this. Not very interesting, but you have to do these chores, from time to time. It’s hard to be on vacation! However, to lighten up our day, we did find some time to visit the Pecos National Park, an old Pueblos ( village), a little bit overated by the guide books in our opinion. You have to be really into archaeology to see the real value, otherwise just use your imagination. A nice walk in all cases!

What to tell you about Santa Fe : according to the guide books we had read, this was a must see. We absolutely agree and both Alain and I fell under the charm of this city. It’s gorgeous, all the architecture harmonizes itself with the surroundings colours of the rocks. This is our second ‘’coup de coeur’’ of our trip so far. There is so much art everywhere you turn around, it is truly amazing. We started by checking out the oldest house of the United States, followed by the oldest church. We then walked through the different streets, the historic plaza where there was a ton of animation, tourists of course, but also Indians selling their jewlery. Ladies, this is a place for you to go shopping ! There are dozens of jewelry stores and art galleries, which are truly beautiful and tasteful. This is a day when Alain is pleased that we are travelling with motorbikes… We think Mexico may look something like this, with this type of architecture, round forms and colours. We have tasted the carnitas with a coke at the same time, a spicy beef with peppers on a tortilla, really good and hot! We had an excellent day as in the morning we were also able to have the BMW dealer in Santa Fe take care of Alain’s motorbike service. The service there was excellent, Cameron in charge of the service department is absolutely to be commanded for his customer service skills. I had asked that, as a favour, they would take care of tightening my chain. When we came back in the evening to pick up Alain’s bike, he had not forgotten and took care of it without delay. I did not have to ask again. He listened. In the morning we were able to take care of one last vaccine. In the end, an expensive day, but really rewarding.

If Simon, our nephew, reads our blog, he will know why we posted the below picture !

Today, October 6, 2010, we have visited the Bandelier National Monument Park, another must see ! Located fairly close to Los Alamos, Bandelier National Park will take you back about 700 years in the past when the Anasazi settled into the Frijoles Canyon. The Canyon dates back to 10,000 years when volcans erupted and recovered the land with ashes. With the erosion, canyons have been created and caves were created.

Alain thought the Aliens were back! No, they are talking only about alien plants. Too bad !

By the way, we have just realized that our campsite is located at over 7100’ (2120 meters). No wonder we have had in the last 3 nights to take out the tuques and the socks and the blankets and the extra long underwear… Chilly in the morning : 45 degrees Fahrenheit, 7.2 degrees Celsius.

Tomorrow we head out to the Enchanted Circle close to Taos, a promising ride !

Texas : Houston, Dallas and Palo Duro Canyon

Originally, when I started this blog, I also wanted to update the map of our itinerary. Well, I found a quicker way than doing it through googlemaps. Here is our itinerary up to Dallas:

Yes, we have arrived in Texas !

Another day under the heat to reach Houston and we made it to, guess where, TheMIGroup office in Houston. Huge and busy office! Houston is the fourth largest city in the United States. Traffic in Houston is fairly heavy and I must admit that the first time I drove within Houston, I was a little bit tense. No kidding, everybody is on the cellular phone while driving. This explains the way they drive.
We have visited the Houston Space Center. This is very informative and priced reasonably, especially as we spent over 4 hours there. We were particularly impressed by the rocket that was shown. See pictures on Picassa.

The following day, we headed to Galveston Island about 120 kms away from Houston. We camped two nights in Galveston, the water was really warm, in the nineties (30 degres celsius). The beach at the Galveston Island State Park is not very clean. They leaves the weeds on the beach and the sea vomits all the empty bottles and all kind of debris on the beach. It was just nice to sit in our camping chairs and for a couple of nights, to swim in the waves and in the evenings, to look at the stars and just talk together. We noted that we must not be quite normal, as we were the only aliens playing in the sea...

We had to select between San Antonio, Austin and Dallas. Dallas being our primary goal since the beginning, we have decided to skip San Antonio and Austin, another hard choice. In Dallas, we have JR to visit...

 

We have now arrived in Dallas (530 kms in one day), and one sore butt later, we went with Devita and Steve, her husband, to a bar called Hank's to taste real Texan food (fried okra, beef brisket, fried jalapenos, fried pickles and hot chicken wings) accompanied by a Shiner bock. As you can see, everything good for our diet... Pictures on Picassa.


Devita and Steve have a gun collection. It's a secret, don't tell anyone! Alain was like a little boy and looked like John Wayne with his cowboy hat and the rifle and colt. Now, who is the sheriff? lol...

Devita prepared a pumpkin pie that is really amazing ! ... and Devita has kindly agreed to share with you and me. See Places and Faces (one of the side bar on the side of this blog) : Devita's Pumpkin Pie Recipe!


On Sunday, Devita and Steve also took us to a Biker's bar. This is a cultural experience, not to be missed on our section : ''faces and places'' for a Culture Shock. Check also the pictures on Picassa called : Stroker's
September 28, 2010 : Back On the Road Again. Another 488 kms with nice weather, not too hot in direction of Palo Duron Canyon. Scenery has changed from green to almost desertic, with small bushes. We took the small roads today : 380West then 83 North and finished by camping in Paducah. Straight roads most of the times with plains as far as your eyes could see. I have now learnt that this part of Texas is called the Panhandle of Texas, but the people we have asked did not seem to know why.

Alain and I have now bought our motorcycle to motorcycle communication system. At the beginning of the day, we were chatting frequently as we had to test our new toy. We agree now that we have it that it is a good idea, better than the light and hands signal system. As we were riding in all these empty spaces, we stopped talking for long period of times and felt engulfed in the immensities of the scenery. The ground is covered with yellowish grass and when it transpired you can see its ocre, almost reddish colour. It would be boring except that from time to time, you have one curve which barely reminds you that you should be slowing down. We slow down slightly, go up the next small hill and straight ahead again, you have yellowish grass, bushes and shrubs for miles and miles. From time to time, on the side of the road, you see a gate with the name : “Pinco Ranch” and you guess that far away, on that gravel road, there will be a residence. Tomorrow we will try to fold the tent early. We are impatient to see the “Grand Canyon of Texas”.

By the way, we were able to make some pictures of cotton fields. Not sure whether I have said so before, but the United States are the third producer of cotton in the world, behind China and India.

After 244 kilometers to reach Palo Duro Canyon, our first impression was a little bit of disappointment. Alain and I have been to Grand Canyon many years ago and Palo Duro Canyon is much smaller. However, again we set up our tent and decides that on September 30, we would hike some short trails. Our short trails turned into an 18 kilometers hike in the heat, with as usual, not enough water. I should know about the water, but once again, we start with the intention of hiking 6K and end up going somewhere else… In all cases, seeing the Canyon from below is really worth it and the ‘’lighthouse’’ walk is not very difficult and worth it. I forgot to say that this morning we finished the scenic ride and we had to cross some water with our motorcycles. Alain had no problems, went slowly and waited for me on the other side of the water way. Alain had said that I should be going at 30 kilometers per hour and then not slow down. This is what I did ! Alain told me that he could not see the top of my windshield. No kidding, I could not see anything, I rode across and did not slow down. I ended up being soak and wet from top up to the underwear.

By the way, our campsite is located at least one kilometer away from the closest restrooms. Needless to say that it requires organization and planning on how much we are drinking during the day, so that we don’t have to crawl out of our sleeping bags during the night. Mosquitos and flies are bad here, despite us reeking of ‘’Off’’.

We are going to take the road to Amarillo and the historic Route 66. Already working on the next post... soon to follow.

Sept.11 to Sept.20, 2010 : Louisiana

Over a week in Louisiana already spent with our niece, Isabelle, her husband, Yohann, and their two cute boys, Samuel and Lucas. It’s always nice for Alain and me to visit our family either in France or this time, in Lafayette. We have been living pretty much by ourselves since we decided to immigrate to Canada.

Isabelle and Yohann were eager to show us the surroundings of Lafayette and the first day, we went altogether for a swamp tour. Our guide, a real Cajun of 75 years old, Normand Leblanc invited us to join him in his boat. The atmosphere is strange on the swamp, you have the Spanish moss hanging from the cypress. These large trees have their feet in the water and it’s easy to project yourself at night fall with the mist just over the water… People living nearby the swamps used to harvest the moss to fill out mattresses or car seats until the sixties, which is not that long ago. The heat is torrid and the humidity high. It’s three o’clock, therefore luckily, the mosquitoes are not quite out yet. Normand still speaks French and is happy to share what his live has been growing up around the ‘’bayou’’ Teche, where he grew up. He was a hunter of alligators and he proudly displayed his pictures in the National Geographic. He also shows us pictures of alligators that he had killed, a bullet just above the eyes, weighing about 300 kgs and probably close to 9 feet. You can still hunt alligators in Louisiana with a permit, 4 per season. Normand does not hunt anymore. We have to drink a small glass of whiskey while in the boat, not that we needed this to be hot. At this time of the day, and because of the heat according to Normand, we don’t get to see large alligators but a couple of small ones, resting on branches. A few young alligators are waiting for us to fall in the water, we feel spied as just the eyes come barely out of the water. They barely move…

Did you know that the famous ‘’Tabasco’’ sauce was produced in Louisiana, on Avery Island close to Lafayette. They have only one plant, this one, for their worldwide distribution in about 130 countries with about 200 full time workers. The seeds and grown on the Island, then exported to Central and South America. The red peppers are then harvested and shipped to Louisiana, where they are being mashed with a little bit of salt. The marsh ferments and ages for three years in oak barrels. Finally, the aged mash is mixed with vinegar for 27 days before being bottled. The salt being used for Tabasco is actually mined on Avery Island.

Louisiana is a state with a very rich history too. Of course, there are the ‘’Cajuns’’, the ancestors of the Acadiens, who were deported by the British in 1855 from Acadia (now Nova Scotia). This is what had been called ‘’Le grand derangement’’. For most of them, they did not settle in Louisiana before 1865, after spending a few years in France or in other American areas. They were usually not welcome in the United States, as they spoke French and were mainly Catholics. The Acadiens were hard workers and adapted to their new life style by working even harder. We have visited a couple of State Parks. In Saint-Martinville, an historic village, the Longfellow Evangeline State Park is worth the visit. The Creoles have played a role in the history of Louisiana, they were from French ancestors mostly, as well as from German decendance. They had made the choice of coming to Louisiana. Many plantations of sugar cane belonged to them and at the time, they painted their house in vivid colours. Between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, there were about 400 plantations along the Mississippi. Once the plantation was acquired by an American family, it was painted in white. The plantations were usually oriented facing the river to get as much air as possible.

We were surprised to see in Louisiana how little the French language is used nowadays. You still have in some villages, the streets’ name in both languages like in Saint-Martinville, as a ‘’souvenir’’ of this French heritage, but even in the Visitor Information Centers almost nobody uses French anymore. Even in Lafayette, the capital of the ‘’cajuns’’, you seldom hear French. Our swamp guide, Normand, shared with us that his kids spoke only English. Apparently, there has been a time in Lousiana where you were not authorized nor encouraged to speak French at all. This lasted for about one to two generations. It has been enough to almost eradicate French here. They are trying now to encourage French exchanges and initiatives, but it seems that it is mainly folklore now, most certainly too late...

Yes, we have spent some time in New Orleans : this city has been our ‘’coup de coeur’’ so far. From the other side of one bridge, it does look like any other American city with his skyscrapers, its dome, but very soon, you see on some large streets, the palm trees, the trolley bus. The French Quarter is as wild as it was described to us. As soon as it is 4 o’clock in the afternoon, Royal and Bourbon Streets start becoming alive with hundreds of people invading the road. Bourbon Street is the place to go to have fun and party. All of a sudden, the level of the music is turned up and it is a fierce competition between all the clubs, bars, cafes and tourist shops on which one is going to be the loudest. This is in a friendly atmosphere of course, and like at Mardi Gras, during the carnival, you have people throwing collars of beads for you to catch. In New Orleans, there is no curfew for drinks and the crowd seems to be let lose. From time to time, you do see the police but they seem to quietly gauge the situation and ensuring it does not get too much out of hand. There is a lot of drinking going on and there are Jazz bands playing in the streets or in the clubs, which contributes to the ambiance. We had to taste the worldwide famous ‘’Hurricane’’ at Pete O’Brien, a drink with rum. For the food, Alain and I have tasted the jumbalaya, the seafood gumbo, the ‘’boudin’’ creole and other Cajun specialties both in restaurants and also bought all ready to eat on the way back to our campsite.

We are back to Lafayette for a day or so, just enough time to do some laundry, clean the motorcycles and take care of one oil change. Probably, tomorrow we will be On the Road Again. Next stops : Houston,  and Dallas.

Aug 29 to Sept.10 : From Frankfort, KY to Lafayette, LA

We are still getting organized for our posts and for maintaining the blog, hence no post in the last two weeks. We don’t always find an internet connection available in some parks, and when we have one, it is not always a good time for us to take care of our blog. Believe it or not, we are incredibly busy! If anyone reading this post, by the way, has a good way to load pictures quickly on Picassa, this would be very much appreciated. It seems to take forever…

In our last post, we had mentioned that we had been invited to a Square dancing Evening. Go check out our Faces and Places page to learn more about it.

August 29, 2010: First real good night since we started camping. We woke up at 8am. Sunny again, which announced another very warm day. As we wanted to fill up our bikes, before hitting the road, the gas station was crowded by about one hundred and twenty bikers. They were riding for a good cause : Research for diabetes for kids! I wanted to leave the gas station before all of them, and as we left two police cars pulled up, put all their flashing lights on. They opened the way for us, stopped the cars at the intersections to let us go by. This was so funny, like being in an American movie, with your own police escort.

Tonight, we have arrived at Mammoth Cave National Park (still in Kentucky), but not before I experienced my first fall of the trip. We were turning around on gravel, I slipped and fell. No harm done, not even scared!

This area seems to be very touristic which is reflected in the price of campgrounds. The first one we tried was forty four dollars a night with water, but we thought it was too expensive. In the end, we ended up in the State Park itself at seventeen dollars a night, with no negotiation possible though.

We have now been a week on the road and we are starting to feel we are on vacation. We rode only 253 kilometers today, which is a huge improvement from the first days. Good news : Alain and I still love each other. We are getting organized for the food and to load all our equipment on the bikes. However, today it was just too hot to ride with the motorcycle gear. Alain rode with his jeans on and just a T-shirt. I wear now only a pair of jeans too, but I keep my jacket on despite the heat. It is like a sauna, but the little experience of today shows me I’d better be safe. The temperature was about 35 degres Celsius and we have entered the Central time zone.

The Mammoth Cave Park seems to be quite a lively crowd of animals. We have already seen raccoons, deers, right at our campsite. This morning, as Alain picked up his helmet, I heard a loud scream. He had a huge spider in it. Deep down, I was thankful it had not happened to me. Needless to say, I checked my shoes and helmet after that.

We started by exploring one cave at nine o’clock. It was a two hour tour “the new entrance tour’’, but unfortunately as it was a spur of the moment decision to join the group, we forgot our camera in one of the helmet… therefore, no pictures from the cave. We went down 360’ below the surface of the earth and we went down 286 steps. Each step cost 3 thousand dollars. Narrow and low paths : visibly this is a spot for dwarfs and lean people. The caves are very impressive and of a mammoth size, hence their name. The different rooms are really huge, but you can actually see in some of the rooms very few stalagmites and stalagtites as water is not dripping anymore. Still absolutely worth the detour to go down.

The good thing about travelling at this time of the year, in fact after school has started, is that there are very few people visiting sites. We were only 17 in our group for the visit this morning. The campgrounds are fairly deserted. We even found a beach close to a lake in the Nolan State park, where we ended up being alone.

We are having our second problem with Alain’s motorcycle. His left turning light goes on by itself when he starts the engine. It also goes off by itself.

Despite the heat today, we made another budget decision. The showers are two dollars each for 10 minutes. As we could swim in the lake Nolin today, we are skipping today’s shower. A dollar is a dollar. Since we have left home, we have avoided stopping for coffee at coffee stores and we don’t buy water. We fill up our bottled waters, whenever we find a rest area. This sounds cheap, but between just coffee and water, we save at least nine dollars a day: Just do the maths, and you will be amazed how many sites we can visit instead.

At the end of the day, we went to listen to the story of a guy, named Floyd. The state parks here organize activities at night for the tourists. Real story of a famous local boy, a speleologue who never turned 38 years old. During one of our morning trail’s walk, Alain encountered a ‘’baby snake’’… He was courageous enough to take a picture though, but he used the zoom… Mammoth Cave is opened year round, caves have a constant temperature of 54 degres Fahrenheit with a very sophisticated circulation air system. The lives in caverns include bats, shrimps…

We are getting late already with our notes and our blog…. It’s probably due to the Nashville atmosphere. Yes, we are here already. Only 218 kilometers under a torrid heat, Teresa’s mom is waiting for us in an air conditioned home, with a big bed and our own bathroom. Funny how after 7 days of camping we seem to appreciate this even more… The only issue is that Alain’s light is still not working and this time, we cannot fix this on our own. We locate the BMW dealer in Nashville who is luckily located close to Teresa’s mom house, call him and have to drop the bike. By the way, I have experienced my second fall from my bike today… No harm again, just tired.

On September 2, 2010, we drop by the dealer to check on our bike which is fixed. It’s the left switch who got some water in it. Everything is now fine. Alain starts and guess, the left light goes on by itself one more time. They now have to order a new switch and they should get it airfreighted tomorrow. By the way, this took us 2 hours of our time as we had to wait before they told us they would have to order it. Patience, patience…. We end up leaving to visit the Country Hall of Fame. It’s an incredible Museum, we learn all about Tammy Wynette and ‘’Stand by your man” as well as Hank Williams and the drifting cowboys. We see in one of the show ‘’Bascam Lamar Lunsford’’, who we later learn is Teresa’s uncle. Hee Haw! It’s not for nothing that Nashville is called the City of Music. We are so thrilled to be here !

September 3, 2010 : we start our day by going back downtown to visit the Ryman auditorium (a little bit disappointing), we drop by Tootsie to listen to some country music. We visit the ‘’Hatch Print Shop’’, an interesting little store on Broadway, where they still make posters the old way. We have a guided visit of the Capitol and then visit the Tennessee State Museum. A lot of things to see, far too many things we will not remember, but interesting nonetheless to understand the culture down here.

Alain’s motorbike is now ready, but screwing the rear view mirror is something that was not part of the deal. Here is a dealership who is not going to have a good review on the internet… in short, don’t go to the motorbike BMW dealer in Nashville, unless you have no choice, like us.

September 4, 2010 : After visiting a Bourbon’s distillery, we had no other choice than visiting Jack’s. Jack Daniel’s distillery is made in Tennessee in Lynchburg. A little bit chilly this morning and despite the distance of 125 kilometeres, we leave with Alain’s bike, just wearing shorts, T-shirts and running shoes. The sky is very blue, the temperature is 25 degres Celsius, and all day we regret not to have been more thoughtful. We also forgot that it is the Labour Day long week-end and after getting lost, we realize the place is crowded with tourists, …like us. By the way, nobody knows why it is called Jack Daniel No7 and the weird thing is that it is made in a ‘’dry county’’, meaning Jack Daniels is not sold locally. The visit is a little bit rushed by the guide, but worth seeing nevertheless.

September 5 and 6, 2010 : On the road again towards Memphis and the King. The scenery has changed, less hilly, almost flat in some areas and we see our first soybean fields and most of all our first cotton fields. The heat of 36 degres Celsius is unbearable when you are driving. I had to take off my jacket…, but we are not complaining. We wanted some heat, we have it.

September 7, 2010 : We are starting our visit of Memphis with Graceland. For sure, this is a huge commercial success, although not located in the best neighbourhood of Memphis. Not too many people for the visit, but an artist still well alive. Alain and I get slightly emotional when watching some past performances of the King and in front of his tomb. His voice was really special and deep…

We slightly got lost on our way back to downtown Memphis. We are satisfied and at the same time disappointed to see Memphis, without real street life, with only a few interesting sites to see like the Cotton Museum. The Museum narrates the history of cotton and life around it during many years. Downtown Memphis looks really empty, not many cars in the street and almost nobody walking in the streets, which is weird on a Tuesday early afternoon. Compared to Nashville, we are surprised that the city is not more lively. The highlight of the city center is the trolley. Beale Street is the melting pot of the Delta Blue, Jazz, Rock-N-Roll and Gospel. We could not help tasting a Pork BBQ sandwich, a Memphis Specialty, with a local beer while listening to some blues today. We wish we would have time to visit the Civil Rights Museum and also see where Martin Luther King was assassinated. By the way, about the trolleys, we thought they were typical of Memphis, but we learnt that they were installed about 10-12 years ago, the cars were bought mostly from Argentina. The Montrealers reading this blog will be happy to know that Montreal is not the only city having a Stadium that has cost a fortune to the taxpayers. Memphis has a Pyramid which is empty.

We are going back on the road tomorrow, but we will be watching the weather as we got a few drops of rain today.

September 8, 2010 : We visited the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, the birthplace of the Blues. The blues is more than just music. It is a mirror of culture, of a way of life, of the history of a people. Very often, it describes the frustration of newfound freedom. We heard the music that very often we knew but we re-discovered who sang it : Musicians like B.B. King, Muddy Waters and Charlie Musselwhite, a harp player have left their mark in the Blues history. We had been told to check out the Ground Zero Blues Club, which is partly owned by Morgan Freeman. While looking for the place, a gentleman told me thatif I was looking for fancy Clarksdale was not the place to come. Ground Zero Blues Club looks nothing like a club, but rather like an abandoned house, nothing to show you that it is a Club. I had to ask twice if the building they were showing me, if it was really it. We entered it and the place is covered up from ceiling to the floor with graffitis. Absolutely an ambiance not to be missed! Unfortunately, we were there by mid-afternoon and we had to leave it behind and be on the road again… We are already getting into the habit of deciding whether we should keep going or stay and these are difficult choices to make.

Our camping place that night was also interesting on the banks of the Mississipi River close to Greenville. I will grant you that it is cheap, 10 dollars a night, but this comes with frogs and insects in showers. While I was taking my shower in the morning, I was checking from the corner of my eyes in which directions the bugs or miscellaneous cockroaches were going. By the way, we had been told that the Parchman Sate Penitentiary was not very far, and I certainly believe this when I saw a DNO Convict with the striped pants on opening the door of the bathhouse in the morning. It feels like the beginning of the 20th century to see a Convict with striped suit.

Today has been a very good day, hot and humid though. We kept on putting on and off and raingear. Scenery is now flat with very large cotton fields, some at the beginning of blooming with pink flowers, others ready to be harvested. Only 291 kms today on the odometer! Unfortunately, we haven’t stopped to make any picture of the cotton fields.

September 9, 2010 : We passed Vicksburg and Fort Gibson, not even like Japanese Tourists, who at least will take a minute to take pictures. We realize that there is so much to see in the area, it’s very historical about the blues, the life in the Mississipi Delta, The Civil War… We drove the last part of the Natchez Trace Parkway : very wooded and wild, no houses along the way. It’s nice when you drive your motorcycle and there is no traffic, you do have this sensation of freedom. I see Alain from time to time in front of me checking on me by putting his thumb up, his way of asking me how I am doing. When we camp now, night comes quickly and early. Tonight, we have collected enough dry and dead wood for a campfire, but we will probably go to bed early (this is becoming a habit). As we take our notes by the campfire, we really look like nerds with our lamps on our forehead. Alain heard noises and we saw raccoons come by our table. In the night, we just see the eyes looking at us. I am not comfortable with the eyes staring at us and I keep sweeping the woods with my light by turning my head from left to right. I feel like a lighthouse! It’s not even cold out here and we don’t need to wear jackets. We are discovering the pleasures of living outside all the time, from dawn to night and we are starting to lose track of time and of the days of the week.

September 10, 2010 : we have passed Natchez today. It’s a very pretty city absolutely worth seeing. We don’t have much time and just stop at the Visitors Information, which is like a museum about the story of the city. These last three days, driving in the heat and the humidity, has been so tiresome, that we have had to take a short nap after lunch for about an hour to rest. We arrive in Lafayette where our niece lives with her husband and their two little boys.

Day 1 to 7 (August 22, 2010 to August 28, 2010) - our first week On the Road Again

597 kms! That s how many kilometers we have driven on our first day! We are starting our trip by breaking off our rule, not more than 400 kilometers a day.


The day started at a quick pace! I was up at 7am and went immediately to check the meteo. Light rain, this was the forecast for Cornwall and sunny in the afternoon for the Rochester, NY , area. Alain got up at 7:15 am claiming that I had awoken him. It is true that I had slightly touched his hair. This was meant to be a gentle gesture. At 7:50 am, he told me that we would leave at 8am if it was not raining. At 8:01am, I announced that it was not raining. Then, everything started to go quickly. I vacuumed our bedroom one more time, cleaned the bathroom, prepared sandwiches, called our friends, Christine and Vincent to let them know we were leaving in half an hour. In the end, we left at 9:20am… This was tough, as our son, Julien, got up from bed to waive us goodbye. As we drove away, we had tears in the eyes, not the easiest when you have to drive a motorcycle. I must say that this is a time when you do appreciate having good friends around. Thank you Vincent and Christine for what you are doing for us, Julien and the house. Before we left today, we made a quick call to our mothers to tell them we were indeed leaving. Alain and Lucille, some other friends, called us also to say goodbye. We already had our helmets on…

After 10 kilometers, it started raining, gently at first, but at soon as we reached Cornwall, it started just pouring, and it rained and rained for 450 kilometers… We missed the US border crossing we had planned and ended up crossing the border at Ogdensburg, On. This is when I had my first cold sweats (I am sure I will have more)! The bridge at this crossing is like an iron grid for about 2kms, which seemed to me more like 200kms. With the rain, I am afraid that this is slippery. Maintain your speed, maintain your speed, don’t speed up! And of course on top of the bridge, you have a light, which meant I had to slow down and stop and re-start and here we go again, maintain your speed, maintain your speed. I was happy to see the end of this bridge.

As you are riding your motorcycle, you have plenty of time to do a lot of thinking, especially on long stretches and the weirdest things come to your mind. At one point, it was raining so much that I had the feeling I was sitting in a puddle of fresh water, which made me think that it would be a good alternative to Preparation H. As it was raining so much, Alain and I decided that we would drive down as much as possible today. In the end, it is like trying to escape the bad weather all day long. The positive about the rain is that we got to test our rain equipment in real life. We were happy to see that our boots and rain gear were waterproof. Alain got some water down his neck but it was because he had put another protection in the neck, which took some water. What is annoying about driving in the rain is that you have to make some choices: either you get the fog inside the helmet from your breath and you don t see much, or you keep on lifting the helmet from time to time, but because of the speed it does not hold in place and it is frankly annoying.

By the way, on highway 81 South, exit 34, we had already reached the city of Mexico. We just had to turn around and we would have made our trip within 48 hours.

We ended up our day in a Best Western. Thank you Alain and Lucille for your gift card. We did already use it, but needed the break already. When I went to bed, as I was trying to feel asleep, I felt like I was still on the motorcycle : I could still feel the vibrations in my blood, you know like when you are a teenager and you come back from a party and you still hear the noise of the music. Same feeling! At least, we got some rest which was important.

Our second day did not start too well. I lost my glasses this morning. I put them on the bike and then drove away…

We are planning at some point in time to buy a motorbike to motorbike communication systems, but until we do so, like in business, Alain and I have to work on our own communication system. When I slow down after an exit, it means that we missed the right exit. We have now agreed that when Alain flashes his light to exit, if I flash on the same side, it means that I agree; If I flash the left one, then it means I don’t agree and then he has to keep on going straight. We got lost a couple of times today, it was raining (again), Alain was far ahead of me, I was slowing down, putting my flash light on, but he kept on going. So when he finally caught on that we had missed the exit, he stopped and we discussed the above strategy. It seems to have worked much better since then. In addition, my motorcycle does not have a very high windshield, therefore each time a 53’ air ride trailer passes me, especially if it rains and it is rainy, I have to slow down until I can see again.

We drove about 460 kilometers today, much better than yesterday, but still a lot for one day. We are learning and are spending the day in Pittsburgh tomorrow.

Third day, August 24, 2010

Weather is still not great this morning although the meteo is saying it should be sunny! We have decided to ride only on Alain’s bike today. First motorcycle problem for our trip: the headlight does not work anymore! After 2 hours of trying to find a garage, we decide to change the light ourselves on the parking lot (yes, we have no fear!). I read the instructions and Alain shows dexterity in changing the light. As you may know, Alain’s handy skills are usually fairly limited. This time, I am impressed and five minutes later, it is fixed. On the road again… We decide to visit Pittsburgh with its 440 bridges or so. This city is located on three rivers, which does not make it easy to find your way. We visit the Andy Warhol Museum. Andy Warhol is a Pop Art artist whose art is based on publicity, repetition and all out commercialism. The highlight of the visit, in my opinion, is the Silver Clouds room, where you have silver balloons floating around the room on their own. People react differently when they are inside the room, some trying to touch them others trying to avoid them.

We then walked along the river banks and as the time was running short, we quickly visited the Carnegie Science Center.

On our fourth day, we underestimated the distances. 454 kilometers today. We don’t feel like we are on vacation yet, as it sounds like we have a high average to maintain… Splendid highway with no potholes, very pretty scenery and ideal temperature. Tonight, we sleep in West Virginia, not very far from Huntington and we can already feel the change. It is not as hilly, it is warmer and more humid. Tonight, we have noticed that in the end, the Touratech saddlebags are not waterproofed. Some of our camping gear is humid and wet.

Let talk about the joys of camping a little bit: this camping is located closed to a railway and on the other side, we have the highway. The showers are cold (although Alain told me I should have moved the knob on the side, I could not figure the trick out) and not that clean (I tiptoe in the showers…)

Fifth day, Sixth and Seventh day: August 26, 27 &28 2010

That’s it. We are starting to be reasonable : only 283 kilometers on the odometer on our fifth day and in addition, we have located easily a nice campground, the Elkhorn Campground with swimming pool and Wi-Fi at the negotiated price of $ 15.00 a night instead of $ 24.00. Yes, we are starting to negotiate everything. We advised the owner of the campground that $ 15.00 a night was our daily budget and they agreed. Nothing to lose if it works and we are staying here 3 nights!

We have visited the Buffalo Trace Distillery close to Frankfort, Kentucky. This distillery of Bourbon employs 320 people a year. Bourbon is cooked 10 months as in July and August, it is just too hot. This distillery was the first one to incorporate steam power. During prohibition in the 1920’s, it continued limited production for medicinal purposes. The four ingredients for Bourbon are corn, rye, malted barley and wheat. The change of temperature in the storage facilities is important for the quality of the Bourbon and Bourbon has to be stored in virgin oak barrels, which means that the barrels have to be used only once. After having been used for aging, the barrels are shipped to Canada and overseas. The barrels are charred to give a better taste to the Bourbon. We also got to taste different Bourbons at the end of the visit. A very interesting and educative overall, and by the way it is free.

Camping also allows us to meet with people and last night, our second night, our camping neighbour brought us two big slices of chocolate cake. Very sweet, the lady, not the cake! And the lady told us we did not have to worry, that she was very clean. We were also invited to join them to watch a movie ''when Harry met Sally'' and tonight, it’s Square Dance Night, not that we know what it is.

Today , we are vegging out, meaning not doing much : swimming pool, short walks, eating, sun tanning, enjoying the time off…

By the way, we are starting to struggle with the people’s accent in this area : As Alain said, he thought this accent only existed in movies. We always have the feeling that they are eating something when they talk, but they really aren’t. They also speak very slowly, which means we are never sure whether they have finished their sentence or if they have more to add or if they are going to fall asleep soon.