Day 22 - Haines AK is an amazing place

I woke up this morning in Juneau Alaska (sounds funny just saying that) and went to the ferry to head to Haines. I didn't know squat about Haines except my fellow bikers rated it very high. The ferry ride there was beautiful (this whole state is just mind-blowing to me) and when we got there, Jody and Elisabeth (who I have been calling Mary - sorry!) invited me to have a beer with the at the local micro-brewery and then lunch. For a town of maybe 3,000 this place was very surprising. The brewery was maybe the size of a big garage (but tall) and they had a line of people before they even opened. And the beer was DELICIOUS! I saw Luke and Ben there who I had met on the ferry and the 5 of us had quite the time. Lunch at the Firewood Restaurant was equally great and Fred, the former Mayor, joined us and then wanted to ride with us as we headed out to Canada. And so we took off. And let me tell you - it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It was like riding across the Alps. And when we got to the Alaskan Highway we found a hotel and then went to eat at a German restaurant. There we met about 10 Germans, Swiss, and Alaskans who were also biking and so we argued about bikes, beer and anything else we could think of and it was a hoot! I left at a little after midnight and the sun was still shining (see the picture of the Raven hotel taken at 12:15 am). For a ride by myself I sure do have a lot of friends with me! :)
ODO - 4598

Day 21 - Juneau Alaska is Fantasyland

Around 2 am this morning the USS Taku (our ferry) entered a very narrow channel. This channel is so narrow it has to be outlined in blinking red and green buoys and have solid yellow lights set up so that the pilot could position the ship such that the yellow lined were lined up and thus he'd know his path was safe. The pilot is absorbing all of this while also being sure to avoid any solid red, green and white lights because they were other boats! Add in the powerful spot light he uses to check for animals in the water and buoys which were getting too close to the ship, a pitch black night and a boat full of passengers going "ohhh" and "ahhh" and "That was close! I need another beer!" and you have the makings of one wild and crazy scene. It was bizarre! It was like watching the scene where the huge space ship lands on Devils Tower in the movie "Close Encounters of the third kind"! So different and so cool! Well now I am in Juneau AK and it feels good to be back on solid ground. My last ferry for this trip is tomorrow at 7:00 am. I have changed my plans from riding out of Skagway to riding out of Haines instead based in information from my fellow motorcycle travelers last night. This afternoon I took advantage of the free time and the beautiful weather and rode my bike as far as I could (about 30 miles in any direction). It was such a beautiful and glorious day! Light white puffs of clouds in a beautiful blue sky with temperatures in the low 70's. What a perfect day and a perfect place for riding! The bald eagles were everywhere and one swooped within 10 feet of my head! And after being on a boat with a bunch of people for so long it feels a bit odd to be alone again; odd but good too. I will see Mary and Jody on tomorrows ferry to Haines but that's a short trip and then they are off to Denali. Anyway, I have made it to Juneau and I am excited about tomorrow. I expect to get back on my bike and start the last leg heading north tomorrow or the next. I am also kind of excited to be so far north (it gets dark around 11 pm local!) and to be in Alaska. It just sounds cool! I am way up here people - 3,640 miles from Atlanta as the crow flies.  Hello down there!!!

ODO - 4412

 

Day 20 - Aboard the good ship Taku

I have now been on this ferry for 18 hours and still have another 13 to go - not so bad actually! All told I have been on a ferry of one sort or another for 34 1/2 hours over the past few days and will have 47 1/2 in before all is done. Wow! "Arrrrrr.. Me thinks I'll have me sea legs Captain!" This ferry is actually part of the the National Highway System which includes the interstates - seems weird! Anyways, I am making friends with a bunch of other folks with very smilier plans as mine. We are all studying our maps and giving each other tips on where to go and where not to bother and to even avoid. Just tonight after dinner Mary, Jody, Carl, Rick, Brian, Tara and I spent 2 or 3 hours together studying maps. I now have a sheet full of great ideas of where to go once I get on land again. Finally I must say its been great sharing a few days with Rick (the guy from Fairbanks). It was nice to have someone to have a beer with, exchange exaggerated stories with and to just experience this craziness with. Tomorrow i will be on my own again but its been a fun 4 or 5 days! Thanks Rick! I hope to run into you again soon. It's almost midnight and as i type the ship is going through a tight channel dodging buoys and lining up markers. Cool stuff! Its amazing to watch them pilot through. Bottom line - I am safe, sound and making new acquaintances as I slowly ferry my way up through Alaska. I will soon be riding again towards Whitehorse in the Yukon. That will be my turning point as from there I start heading south toward Montana, one of the 4 states I have left to see. Until then, I will be the guy with the Harley Davidson on the USS Taku plying the waters of the Alaska Marine Highway System. Oh and the apple? It has crossed two international borders illegally! Unfortunately it will not make it to a third border. :(

Day 19 - Prince Rupert's bald eagles

Not much to report today as it was a day of sightseeing as I wait for the ferry to Juneau. I have to be at the dock at 3:30 am tomorrow morning so not much sleep tonight. Today started out with another crazy rendition of french singer Edith Piaf's hits from the '50's by our hostess (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsKgXZHofRo) followed by an amazing 3-course breakfast and then a ride around the attractions in the general Prince Rupert area. I love the way people are so casual about bald eagles sightings around here - I bet I saw at least 20 of them today and each one amazed me. I also saw what I was told was the Tree of Souls. It turned out to be a gag by the locals - it was a Tree of Soles, a tree where the locals nail their shoes. Ha! It's good to see humor is a common link between all peoples. I am not looking forward to this 31 hour ferry ride that starts tomorrow morning but I am looking forward to getting to Juneau. There is supposed to be an amazing Harley Davidson dealer up there. And BTW - yes, 31 hours on the ferry; my math was wrong yesterday when I said 17 hours. Oh well. as Edith Piaf would say, C'est la vie.

Day 18 - Edith Piaf in Prince Rupert!

When I was getting ready to leave for this trip a number of you told me I would be having these great experiences that I would never forget. And the truth is I thought you were all a bit nuts - yes I would see some cool stuff but "life experiences"? Nahhh.. Well, that was before I met Colleen, the proprietress of the Pillsbury Guesthouse in Prince Rupert BC. Imagine this - I spent 15 hours on a ferry yesterday. When we land I ride to this guesthouse and get there around 11:30 pm, tired and ready for bed. But as I walk in, the house is set up like a scene from a Paris bistro in the mid forties and I experience one of the most bizarre scenes I have ever seen. I cannot describe it here as it would take too long but somewhere around midnight Colleen had me, Rick, a straight laced couple from Germany and a couple of Seattle type grungers sitting down in her living room watching her perform Edith Piaf tunes karaoke style as loud as she could to all of us, her audience. She was in heaven!! We were all exhausted but watching her sing and dance (and BTW, she is in her 70's) was a part of the price of admission. It was so crazy!!! It was like a scene out of the Twilight Zone. But I am telling you you could tell this is what she lived for - she was so happy to have an audience. Wow. I will not forget that one, that's for sure! And as for the ferry ride up here today, it was comfortable but long. We saw whales, eagles, dolphin, etc and the scenery was beautiful but 15 hours... OMG. And Thursday I have a 17 hour ferry ride! Geez! Things are big up here! Did you know that Alaska is 1/3 the size of the continental United States by itself? Tomorrow I will be bumming around Prince Rupert and then heading to Juneau Thursday. What a crazy day. Edith Piaf in Prince Rupert? I loved it!! Life experiences, here I come!!

ODO - 4263

Day 17 - The sun, the moon and the sky

(I was listening to the song "Lazy Eye" by Silversun Pickups as I wrote this. Perhaps listen to it as you read it). Today has been a day of transition for me. I woke up, showered (such a luxury!), rode my bike to the dock and then boarded the ferry to Vancouver Island. As I pulled up to the ferry's area for motorcycles, I met the only other person there - Rick Petterson from Fairbanks Alaska - who just happened to have the same itinerary as me all the way through to Juneau. Cool - a new friend and company for the next 5 days; that will be different. After having lunch in Victoria BC we headed north towards Port Hardy for the ferry to Prince Rupert BC tomorrow. It was a rough 8 hour ride for me as I was really tired and the road went through a dozen or so small towns with their reduced speeds, stop lights, stop signs and detours. But we make it by 8 pm and ended up staying in a hostel for $40 each (which included showers and coffee!). I am still very tired and somewhat distracted for some reason - not sure why. I did really appreciate the aforementioned song on my ride up here; I listened to it a several times in rapid succession. It is true that I have been waiting for this trip for a long, long time and the timing is not perfect (but probably never will be). The feelings and thoughts that come to me as I ride in solitude for hours and hours on end is impossible to describe. There is definitely turmoil but it is mostly peaceful as my mind wanders from thoughts of my family to my personal issues to work issues, friends, spiritual, my past, my future, and a hundred other things. As the landscape around me changes from mountains to geological curiosities, from streams to deserts, and from vast areas of nothingness to crowded little towns with micro-breweries and high school football fields, I am a self-contained story just passing through collecting more memories. Tomorrow brings another ferry to take me further north and the landscape will change again, this time to open waters, glaciers, whales, liters and perhaps a polar bear or two (scratch them hard behind the ears - got it!). The only constants outside of me and the now has been the moon, the sun and the sky. I like that as they are the same ones that are at home. This trip is in many ways like a 6 week long movie except I get to play a part in it, experiment in it, get to get out of myself in it, and learn from it. Cool. It clears the palate. Oh how wonderful that is! It's time for bed. I hope this page makes at least a little bit of sense.

Day 16 - A grateful citizen heads for Canada

Tomorrow I cross into Canada - almost as unnerving as going outside the perimeter (OTP) in Atlanta, but not quite. It feels as though everything up to this point has been a warm-up, well except the tendon thing. Now the work really begins as I head 1,500 miles due north and then trek back south into the USA through Montana. The reality is if my bike tips over I can't pick it up. If something goes wrong with my bike, anything, I am stuck out in the ice tundra all by myself. It's me and the polar bears fighting it out to determine who gets to survive! OK, a little drama there but hey, a little whistling in the dark is good for the nerves. I'll have to see if I can wrestle up a picture of me fighting a polar bear. Anyway, if it wasn't for the satellite phone in my pocket (I'm not that brave!) it would be me versus nature, just like Jim! The truth of the matter is though that I am ready. As a friend of mine says - bring it!!! Doing things differently is always scary - it is easier to stay in the familiar, even if you know it is wrong, than it is to go into the unknown, even if you know it is right. So naturally i am nervous - unknown here I come! So my last day in Washington has been cold, windy, damp and perfect. I talked to a friend of mine who celebrated a major milestone in his life today (again, I am so proud of you!!) and as I was talking to him I was standing on a cliff aside the pacific coast looking at a solitary tree standing guard over the shore. After I hung up with him I stood there admiring the landscape and I fell in love with life all over again. Friends making progress in their lives, beauty being revealed all around us, love blooming in some friends hearts and souls and in full bloom in yet others, opportunities unveiling themselves, chances to change everything being offered... I could go on and on. I just have to look back at this blog and see how tremendously blessed I have been. I read a poem from a mother to her daughter that B L E W me away. This harsh, cold weather may be a tough environment but it sure does feel warm inside around here. So bring Canada, bring Alaska, bring Skagway and ice heaves and polar bears and experiences I have no idea what is about to unfold. But I get it - it's Round 2. I have let go of the sail! Let's see what the wind brings next...