Well, I am home and rested and somewhat back to normal life again. The trip was incredible. It was a great time of solitude and reflection for me, enhanced by the awesome beauty of the area we drove through. I really do a lot of thinking, meditating, reflecting, and sermonizing in my mind as I ride. Long extended rides like this one produce great results for me. Thank you very much to you who read my blog and prayed for me. You are the best. I am in the planning stages on what I am going to do next year. Love ya all. Dee

July 21, 2010

Well, I am getting close to home. I am camped at Chelan, Washington. I will get up and ride to my mom's in Trout Lake, WA and tell her all my stories and adventures and then stay the night with her and leave early and be home by 10am on Friday. Just in time to be a counselor at Willamette Celebration. Rode 350 miles today. In every town I rode through the thermometers at banks etc read anywhere from 95-102 degrees. It was a hot one for sure. But I was grumbling about the cold and rain a week ago so I will be happy. My motorcycle has air conditioning anyway. Lift my face shield up, unzip my riding coat, and put my feet up on my highway pegs so the wind blows up my pant legs and go at least 60 miles an hour and it isn't half bad. The only problem is that bugs go up my pant legs, into my helmet, and into my coat. Isn't too bad unless it happens to be a yellow jacket. I really have to concentrate on my riding when that happens. My riding partner, Glen, left shortly after we got into Washington and headed to Spokane to visit family. It was great having him on the trip with me. Where I am camped tonight there is a little concession stand so instead of my usual freeze dried dinner I splurged on a hot dog, diet coke, and a little paper cup of rainbow sherbet. Life is good. The trip has been a great time of reflection, relaxing, experiencing, and growing but I am very excited about being home and winning the world for Jesus.

July 20, 2010

July 20th, Tuesday. We rode 383 miles today. Very hot. Nice for a change. We are camped at Spenses Bridge in British Columbia. We will cross into Washington tomorrow and then home. Yippee!! I had a very challenging day. I have two large aluminum boxes on the side of my motorcycle that I put all my camping stuff in. They are water tight and they lock so I can put stuff like my laptop computer in them and not worry about it getting stolen. This morning as I was packing up my bike I locked my keys in one of the boxes. The key for my bike was in there as well as the key that opened up the lock. I walked around the campground asking to see if anybody had a big hammer and a big screw driver. I had some in my tool box but it was locked up. I finally found somebody who did and I managed to beat the hinge loose that was held on with rivets. Now I hold the lid shut with a bungee cord. Later that day the bungee cord that I use to hold my duffel bag on the passenger seat snapped me in the back of the head. I looked in my rear view mirror and I could see Glen motioning me to pull over. One of the 3/8 inch bolts that hold the aluminum boxes on my bike had broken and the right box was hanging out in space barely hanging on. I brought some nylon cord along and I used that to tie the box back on. I will fix that when I get home along with the latch.

I locked my keys in the storage box, my storage box almost fell in the middle of busty traffic, but there is more. We stopped at a very busy rest stop. Because it was so hot I decided to take off my riding pants. These are special pants that are made out of very tough material and have fiberglass padding to protect in case of a fall on the bike. But they are hot. I wear them over my jeans. I stood next to my bike to take them off. As I got them down I noticed an old lady staring at me. I looked down and I had mistakenly taken my jeans down as well. I quick pulled my jeans back up and waved and smiled at the old lady. She smiled back. I wish I could hear her conversation tonight with her friends.

July 19, 2010

Wow. We rode 521 miles today. A personal best, I think. We are staying in Vanderhoof, British Columbia tonight. One hour west of Prince George. Very nice weather all day today. We rode along the Cassiar Mountain Range all morning. 200 miles of snow covered mountains and we were right at the base of them riding along. I kept singing, "Our God is an awesome God" all morning. I sound pretty good inside my helmet to myself!! As I was looking at the incredible beauty I became so impressed with God's power and wisdom and creativity. I thought these huge mountains are made with billions of atoms that have neutrons and protons and electrons that are moving like little solar systems. All that huge mass of stone was alive with motion and energy and Colossians says that Jesus is holding it all together. As I was pondering that along with the fireweed and the spruce and the aspens and bears and moose, I thought, "who am I?" Here I am a living, self aware being amongst all this along with stars and galaxies. Does God really see me? Does he really care for me? If He can do all this He can certainly keep track of me! He loves me more than I can comprehend. He knows my deepest thoughts and feelings. His thoughts are more numerous towards me than the sand. I wonder what I will be like in 100 years? What will I be doing? Almighty God is my creator, my Father, my Savior, and I am going to live forever with Him. So enjoyable to spend hours just thinking about God and who He is. Boy life is fun.

July 18, 2010

This is Sunday the 18th but I am sending it a day late because there has been no cell service all day. We took a different route today for a little variety. It is called the Cassiar hwy. So far it has been and absolutely terrible road. Miles of gravel and lots of road construction which I hate on my motorcycle. In one section the pilot car was going way faster than we wanted to ride so we got left way behind. Pretty soon he came back from another direction. Everybody honked at us. Then I see this construction truck behind me and he was like an inch from my bumper. I managed to get to the side of the road in the deep gravel without dumping my bike. A near death experience for sure. I kept yelling at the top of my voice, "help me Jesus!" Works good.
We saw a black bear today that had twin cubs. They weren't as big as my dog Russel. They were really cute. Momma bear hustled them off before I could get a picture. We rode 466 miles today. All very hard ones. Trying to make it home by the 22nd so I can be there for Willamette Celebration!!
We are presently trying to build a fire at our camp sight with some quaking aspen wood that is wet. I blew on the fire trying to get it to go until I was ready to pass out and then Glen took over. He got it to go. He must be more windy than I am. Sitting here next to the fire thanking God for my fun life. Doing lots of sermons in my head as I ride. Riding a bike is a great place to think and create.

July 17, 2010

Rode 420 miles today. Lots of road construction and lots of bad road caused from the perma frost heaving the road up. As I said in a previous entry, it is like a bunch of speed bumps and ditches one after the other. My rear end feels like I have been spanked with a 2x4. We are camped at Whitehorse, Yukon tonight. Weather was wonderful all day. A number of times I would point to the sky and yell, "Thank you Jesus!" I couldn't help myself. I keep my water bottle up on my handle bars behind the windshield. Nice little pocket for it to set in. Whenever we stop it is real handy to grab and get a drink from. I drank all the water out of it today. Once I got going again there wasn't enough weight with the water gone to hold it down and the wind blew it out. As it flew out I grabbed it instinctively, WITH BOTH HANDS!!! The bike just went along fine. I didn't know I could ride it with no hands. If I had known that earlier it would have saved alot of hassle trying to get my glove back on after I picked my nose. Boy today was really a tough one on my rear end. Some biker dudes say they have developed an iron butt. Mine is still soft and tender. I try and sit for awhile on only my right cheek and then the left. I do that by sliding as far one way as I can and not fall off the motorcycle, and then the other way. I lean way forward and then lean way back. I even stood on my floorboards for a bit. That is a trick. I was so hungry when we got into camp at 8 tonight that I ate 2 of my freeze dried dinners.

July 16, 2010

Rode from Soldotna to Tok, Alaska- 500 miles today. Rode along the Wrangle Mountain Range most of today so it was absolutely, incredibly beautiful. It was way easy to stay focused on God all day long as I rode seeing His amazing creation. No animals today, rare that happens. Big truck went by me and threw out a rock from his tire. It hit me high in the thigh and I thought for sure someone had shot me. Felt around for a hole and kept looking for blood to come pouring out, but upon closer examination in the shower tonight I just have a nice bruise!
Jon Abel, who is in our church, has a brother named Troy who pastors a church here in Tok. Troy came to the seminar we hold in our church in January. He took us out to dinner tonight to a very nice Alaskan restaurant. I had halibut and Glen suffered through prime rib. And now I am laying in a very comfortable and warm bed. I am really sleepy tonight because Chik's black lab licked me in the face at 4am this morning. Very hard to go to sleep after that.

July 15, 2010

Today is my last day of fishing in the Kenai River for sockeye salmon. 5 days, 3 fish a day limit, equals 15 fish. Not bad for an old guy. Had to work hard for them. My friend Chik Fisher whose cabin I am staying in is going to can the fish and bring them to me when he drives back to Oregon at the end of summer. He is also going to bring back my caribou full head mount as well. That is a major blessing because the cost to ship it was $800.
Fishing on the Kenai is always fun and I have met and visited with people from all over the world. Last night I stood next to a guy and his son who were from Florida. They didn't have a clue how to fish so it was fun teaching them how. Even gave them a bunch of my fishing gear. The son who was about 20 kept calling me "sir." I liked him. I think he thought I was the world's best fisherman. I really liked him alot.
My pastor friend Glen and I are meeting up at 7:00am tomorrow and heading home. Long day planned for tomorrow with over 500 miles. We hope to camp at Tok, Alaska tomorrow night. Have been seeing moose every morning and evening as we drive to the river. They just stand there and eat as we stop and look at them. Saw a momma and 2 little calves this morning. They sure are big animals.

July 14, 2010

Caught my limit of sockeye salmon this morning by 9am. 3 of them. They fought very hard and took me awhile to land each of them. A ton of fun. A couple were particularly rewarding. Lots of guide boats in the Kenai river with about 4 paying customers in each. I hooked one of my fish when one was very close to us where we were fishing on the shore. I loosened up the drag a bit on my reel so that the fish could run and jump a bunch. I thought I put on a nice show for those in the boat. I know, pride goes before a fall!
Washed my motorcycle today so it will look nice for the ride home. Will get in about 8 hrs of reading and writing today. I get really inspired to write sermons when I catch a bunch of salmon. Must be a spiritual truth in there somewhere.

July 13, 2010

Fished about 10 hrs today. Caught 2 salmon. I will catch 3 tomorrow, which is the daily limit. Hung up on the bottom today so I gave a big tug on the line and the hunk of lead I was using came flying towards me and hit me right into the middle of my knee cap. Can't hardly walk tonight. Fishing for salmon in Alaska is dangerous! I have a number of sermon outlines done and have lots of sermon illustrations written from my experiences.

July 12

Caught a sockeye today. Lost 5 others.

July 12, 2010

Reading Ecclesiastes today. Solomon wrote that book as an old man who had grown quite cynical concerning life. His favorite words in the book are "everything is vanity." I go through times when I get to feeling the same way. What starts it for me is thinking about all the things in the past that are lost because I can't remember them any longer. Got started down this path recently holding my grandson, Wyatt, in Fairbanks, praying for him. I thought, I won't remember this even happening and you won't remember this as you grow older. If I won't remember and you won't remember, it is like it didn't even happen so why even do it? I have been making myself quite melancholy the last couple of days even with fishing thinking about all the life that I have lived that I can't remember anymore. The word that came to mind was "vanity, everything is vanity." Then this morning I read 1 Corinthians 15:58: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. Someday when I get to heaven it will all be given back to me. I am not sure how exactly but I am sure it will happen. Everything I do matters. I will keep praying for my grandkids, kids, and other people. I will keep serving the Lord. God is faithful.

July 11, 2010

Woke up this morning sore all over my entire body from my mishap on my bike. My right foot is especially sore but got up at 4am and went fishing anyway. Caught one salmon and had a couple of others on for awhile. Made all the aches go away. Works better than ibuprofen. Got in alot of reading and writing this afternoon, even got a nap in. Very few fish in the river. I am praying that a big run of fish come in tomorrow. I have never figured out if it is ok to pray for fish, but I will keep doing it until I now for sure it isn't. Had no trouble waking up this morning. The guy who I am staying with has this mongrel black lab dog and he came and licked me in the face. Woke me up with quite a start. I thought it was Patty kissing me.

July 10, 2010

Rode from Fairbanks to Soldotna today. 572 miles. Most I have ridden in one day. Don't want to do that too many times. Rained most of the way and was 50 degrees with the wind blowing hard. I was frozen through and through. I would stop at pull outs and put my hands near the engine to warm them up. A couple of times I got too close. I have the blisters to prove it. I had a minor wreck today. One of the pull outs was gravel and I didn't realize it until my front tire hit it. I was going about 20 and before I knew what was happening the bike was on it's side like a baseball player sliding into second base. Sprained my right wrist, sprained my right ankle and bruised my right buttock. I think I can fix it all with a couple of heavy doses of ibuprofen. Bent a bunch of stuff on my bike and took me awhile to get it straightened out. I will have to finish that project when I get home with some tools. I had a tough time after I left Shelly's. I got super emotional and I couldn't make it go away. I must be getting old. I am staying with a friend named Chick who has a nice cabin. He had the fire rip roaring hot when I got in tonight and I am writing this sitting a few inches from the stove. I stopped and bought my fishing license when I got into town so I am ready to go fishing after a good night's sleep.

July 9, 2010

Had a very nice leisurely day with my daughter Shelly and grandkids Alexa and Wyatt. Glen took off this morning on his own. He was going to go on a ride at Denali Park Camp around Anchorage and get started fishing a day ahead of me. I was going to stay at a friends place in Anchorage but he is gone so I am going to drive straight through to Soldotna. That will be about 550 miles. That will be the most that I have ridden in one day. I have lots of daylight so I can take my time. 9 days down and 13 more to go. Seems longer. I am looking forward to catching a bunch of salmon. I hope they are in. Talk to you tomorrow.

July 8, 2010

Made it to Fairbanks today at noon. Been hugging and playing with Alexa and Wyatt my two grandchildren all day. My daughter Shelly too. Having a very nice time. Weather is about 80 degrees and super nice. On the ride here this morning we stopped and took pictures of Mt McKinley or Denali and the mountains all around it. All snow covered and beautiful. We could see them very well which I guess is rare. Talked to a biker who hit a moose and he had broken his leg bad and could hardly walk anymore so we watch very carefully for moose on the road. Had one run across the road right in front of us this morning. They are huge. I wouldn't want to hit one. Shelly fixed sockeye salmon, broccoli, and potatoes for dinner. Way better than freeze dried dinners we have been eating. She even washed our dirty clothes. I didn't have much because I have been wearing the same clothes the last 8 days. They smelled fine to me, but I noticed that the cars that got up behind me would drop way back or pass me and give me a dirty look. I am going to hang out here all day tomorrow and let Shelly spoil me and take off on Saturday morning for the Kenai River.

July 7

Evening of July 7th. Had a great ride today. Covered 411 miles. Incredible scenery again with lots of snow covered mountains, rivers, and lakes. Saw a big ole grizzly bear next to the road eating berries. We stopped and he just kept right on eating. I turned my bike off so as not to scare him and started taking pictures. He looked up at me and started walking towards me. I think he was thinking, "I wonder if that thing tastes better than these berries." I started thinking options. If he starts running to me, do I throw the camera at him, drop the bike, and run over behind Glen or try and get my bike started and into gear and buzz off before he reaches me. About then he started eating berries again so I decided I had enough pictures. He was really close! Also saw some moose and another black bear.
My squeak turned out to be my rear brake. I had new brake pads put on the back before I left and they were a little close. I used my rear brake a bunch today and no more squeak. We went through a long section of road today that was built on permafrost and the road has lots of places where it has heaved. Makes either a speed bump or a big ditch in the road. It was hard to tell how much to slow down so I followed Glen back a ways and when I saw him airborne I slowed way down. Worked good.
Bunch of construction as well. I hate going through construction on a motorcycle. All that loose gravel and mud. I slipped and slided around a lot. I kept crying out, "help me Jesus" and managed not to fall.
We are in Tok, Alaska tonight. The campground had some nice little cabins that were $5 more than a tent sight so we are in one of those. I should stay warm tonight. That will be nice. We will be in Fairbanks tomorrow so I will get to see my grand kids and daughter Shelly. Philip her husband is gone on a river float trip.

July 7, 2010

Very cold last night. The only way I can stay warm while I sleep is to wear all my clothes along with my motorcycle coat. Slept very sound though. Headed for Tok, Alaska today. We will be going through customs at the border. Hoping to see a bunch more wildlife today. The roads have been in good shape with occasional stops for construction. Traffic is not an issue. We ride along at 55 to 60 most of the time and most of the RVs do about the same. I rarely see any rigs in front of me or behind me. At road construction stops where we will wait for 10 minutes only half a dozen rigs will back up. Very overcast this morning but the lady who checked us in said the forecast for today was no rain. Hallelujah!

July 6, 2010

Today is July 6, Tuesday evening. We are camped at Whitehorse in Yukon. We rode 400 today. It was windy and cold but no rain, Praise the Lord. We saw a big grizzly bear rooting around about 10 ft off the road. We stopped to take some pictures of him. Left the bikes running in neutral in case he decided we looked better to eat than the bugs he was chasing. Another car came up behind us and pulled up right between us and the bear. The lady on the passenger side rolled down her window and said they were shielding us from the bear. We thanked her for her thoughtfulness and assured her we were fine but we really would like to take some pictures. I think they will be great pictures. We were very close. Saw several other black bears and lots of buffalo. We saw a big bull buffalo dead beside the road. I assume someone hit him. I bet that wasn't a pleasant experience. Again the mountains and the lakes and scenery were amazing. I have developed a squeak in my back wheel. I am not sure if it is a wheel bearing going out or my brakes. I hope it goes away or at least holds together until we get home. Getting in lots of reading and writing.
Several have asked me the difference between going on a trip by myself as I did last year when I went to all lower 48 states on my bike, and riding with someone else like I am this year. The benefits are the safety issue of having someone to help and be able to go and get help in case of an emergency breakdown especially on this trip where garages are so far apart and email is so rare. Also the friendship issue. It is nice to travel with someone and be able to visit at the camp, especially if like Glen, we have lots in common being close the the same age and both being pastors. Glen is about as deaf as I am so our conversations are loud. The negative side is the convenience thing. I can't just do what I want. I need to check and see what Glen would like and then we need to hash it over.
I also need to consider his opinion of me as a real biker dude, so some inconveniences result.
Mosquitoes like to bite my bald spot. Must look like a good target. While I am riding the top of my head will start itching like crazy. If I were by myself I would just pull over, take off my helmet and have a good scratch. But with Glen I have to shake my head back and forth as fast as I can so my helmet scoots around and scratches my head, a poor substitute for a real scratch. I couldn't stop. Glen would ask my why I had stopped and I would say because I need a scratch. He would know I wasn't a real biker dude right there.

July 6, 2010

We are camped at Laird Hot Springs. We went down and sat in them for an hour. They remind me of the bubbling hot springs at Yellowstone. The water bubbles up at 142 degrees in this big pool. They have steps going down into it about 8 locations. You start at the lowest one where the water is about 100 and then work your way up to the hot end as you get acclimated. When I got out I thought I was going to faint! I am planning on sleeping very sound tonight.
We had a great ride today. Sunshine all day long. Went across the northern Rockies. Spectacular scenery. We saw 2 bears, 2 moose, about 100 mountain sheep, and a chipmunk. I learned a new biker dude skill today: how to pick your nose while riding a motorcycle. It is harder than your think because you are wearing gloves and you can't pick your nose with gloves on. Talking the left glove off is easy. You just pull on the fingers of the glove with your teeth. Once off you push the glove under your right leg with your left hand so it won't blow away. If you don't get it shoved under far enough it will be gone. I know. Now your left hand is free to clean out the bugs and dirt that has accumulated for awhile in your nose. Now comes the tricky part: getting the glove back on the left hand while the right hand is steering and keeping the throttle open. Retrieve the glove from under your right leg if it hasn't already blown away. Take the thumb of your right hand, hold the edge of the glove against the handlebars while you continue to keep the bike going.

July 5, 2010

Whooeeeee!!! Woke up this morning to blue skies. Thank you Jesus!! Stayed last night at Pink Mountain Campground. Real manly place. Lots of RVs that are here for the summer with guys and families that are working on the road. The Alaskan highway constantly takes upkeep. The locals here got quite a kick out of me. The sign in the shower said it took one Looney for 5 minutes of hot water. A Looney is a Canadian dollar. You probably knew that but I didn't. I did finally get a nice hot shower.
We rode almost 4oo miles yesterday and got into camp at 9:30 and boy am I dragging this morning. Riding about 350 today and we will be staying at Laird Hot Springs. Supposed to be real nice. I have been missing my hot tub! Probably will be in more road construction today. Hope we don't get in at 9pm again, but I am not grumbling or whining! Hope to see more wildlife today.
Yesterday Glen was trying to put his rubber boots on over his shoes and while he was standing on one foot he lost his balance and fell over on his bike and knocked it over. Bent the brake handle. Took both of us to lift it back up. I am still getting to know Glen so I am kind of feeling him out to see how much ribbing I can give him about that one.
We are having a great time in spite of the weather. Challenges and near death experiences are what make life fun. Hope you all have some fun today.
...OK I guess the gloves come off. Glen has been razzing me about the fact that I said it was 350 miles to Pink Mountain and it turned out to be 390 miles. 10% error he said. Ex-engineer types.
I may be in trouble today. I put my gloves in the dryer to dry out and they shrank. Hopefully they will stretch back out before I lose all feeling in my hands wearing them. Oh the trials of a biker dude!

July 4

Went to church this morning at a little Baptist church outside Prince George. We decided that if we saw a church between 10 and 11am as we rode we would go. About 40 people; really had a good time. Felt a little consipicuous because everybody was dressed nice and Glen and I came in with our motorcycle clothes on. Generated alot of conversation. Rained all afternoon super hard and super cold. Lady at a store we stopped at said whe thought it was going to snow. I was froze to my inner organs!
Saw a bear and a moose today. Lots of bikers and it is fun to talk with them at the gas stations and viewpoints. One guy was from Missouri. We all whined about the weather. At one of the viewpoints I took my helmet off and set it on the back of the bike while I took some pictures and talked. There were a bunch of little gnats flying around and they got into my helmet. After I put it on and started riding they started biting me. I about ran off the road trying to scratch them. Awful experience. That happened to me on my ride last year, in Mississippi I think. I think I will spray the inside of my helmet.
Tried to spit today with my face shield down. Real messy. Gotta remember to put that thing up when I get the urge to spit.
Glen installed his windshield on his bike too high so he has to look through it instead of over the top like I do. No problem when it isn't raining but once it started raining hard he couldn't see. So I rode in the front and he followed my tail light. Lots of excitement for one day.

July 4, 2010

Rained hard all night. My bowl that I left on the picnic table was half full of water. My tent does good unless it gets alot of water underneath it. I left one corner of the tarp I put under the tent outside the tent and water ran down the tent fly onto that small piece left out and ran under my tent. My pants and shirt that were rolled up in the corner of my tent were wet. My pad is plastic so only the foot end of my bag got wet. Got up to take a hot shower because I was so cold and I had forgotten to put my towel away so it was wet. Looked around for Glen's to steal, I mean borrow, but he was smart and took it into his tent with him. So I unrolled about a mile of paper towels in the shower room and used them. A man's gotta do what man's gotta do! The campground has a laundry room so everything is getting dried with $5 worth of quarters. I am writing this as I sit on a nice chair in the warm laundry room. Looks like the rain has stopped. Praise the Lord!

Beautiful weather today. Sunny but not to hot. Holiday here in Canada. Their Forth of July is the First of July so no road construction for the last couple of days. Nice. We only road 310 miles today because we had to stop every 20 miles. We had stopped this morning at a stand and bought a little box of cherries and had some home grown apple cider to go with them. Whoooooeeeee. Fresh cherries and apple cider must not agree. We stopped at every store and gas station after that for most of the day. I am still not feeling to good. We are camped near Prince George at a nice campground with a heated pool. I am going to go for a swim as soon as I get done typing this blog. My freeze dried dinner tasted really good tonight. Glen has freeze dried dinners as well. He forgot to take out the little oxygen absorber and when he started chewing on that he thought his freeze dried dinner might be out of date!! Have been meeting lots of nice people along the way who are interested in who we are, where we are from, and where we are going. Another motorcycle rider camped right next to us tonight and we swapped tales. Well tomorrow we are headed for Pink Mountain, about 350 mile ride. We will be going over the Rockies which will mean lots of curves and hills and also some beautiful scenery. Saw a black bear cross the road today and also say two nice bucks. Tomorrow we should see some Buffalo, caribou, and some more bear. Love ya

We are camped tonight at Spence's Bridge in British Colombia about 300 miles South of Prince George. We rode about 330 miles today. We wanted to ride 400 but we got delayed over an hour by an accident. Two motorcycles collided with a pickup. Not sure of the details. A helicopter was parked in the road. It happened about one hour before we arrived on the scene with traffic backed up. We finally got let through and two bikes were still laying in the road pretty mangled. Caused me to ride the rest of the day extra cautious. We got delayed about one hour while we were getting some lunch. The restaurant was really slow. I grumbled a bit about it, but if we hadn't we probably would have been there right when the wreck happened and we might have been in it. I think God was working that one out. I will find out for sure when I get to heaven. Glen lost one of his bags off the back of his bike today. Bungee cords!! I was riding behind and thought he had run over a tire fragment. I thought to myself, Glen needs to watch where he is going. It isn't good to ride over those tire recaps, you could get in a wreck. Then I thought, maybe that came off the back of his bike. I signaled for him to stop and sure enough he lost a bag. He might have been kind of cold if we hadn't found it. We came to this camp sight and there were literally hundreds of motorcycles. There was a big off road motorcycle rally. There was a camp sight left for us and now we have crazy motorcycle riders all around us. Even got hamburgers for dinner at their barbecue. Great weather today. Hoping for more of the same tomorrow.

First Day Out

First day on the road to Alaska is over. Camping at Lake Chelan in Northern Washington-very beautiful. I rode 448 miles today. Rained over the Cascades and once I started north on hwy 97 the wind blew terribly hard. Felt like I was riding a horse instead of a motorcycle. Met up with my riding partner here at camp. Glen Douglas. He is 58, almost as old as I am but with way more hair. Married to Mary with three daughters; the youngest is in High School. Glen was an engineer for years and became an associate pastor near San Francisco where he stayed for 11 years. He started a church from scratch 5 years ago in Port Angeles, WA. I thought it might be wise to have someone go with me on this trip. I prayed about who for several months. Glen is in one of my pastor accountability groups. He expressed interest when he heard about it and so here we are riding motorcycles together to Alaska. I believe we will have a very good time.

Started out bad. Got my bike all packed tonight and decided to give it a test ride to see how all the stuff I packed on the back was going to ride. I took off forgetting that my helmet was sitting up on top of the stuff on the back. Got it into 3rd gear before it fell off on the road and rolled along with me for a bit. Scratched the face mask all to pieces. Hard to see through it. Used some buffing compound that I use after painting my pickup with a little foam ball in my cordless drill and managed to get it looking pretty good. Whoooeeeeee!! I am glad I didn't break it. I have to remember not to do that any more. It is tough to get old and lose your mind. Well, I am all packed and ready to go. Going to bed early tonight and off in the morning. I am looking forward to all the adventures I am sure the next three weeks hold. I will try and blog most every day. Love ya. Dee

I got my motorcycle back. New front tire. New spark plugs. New oil. New back brakes. New starter. Tune up and a wash!! Time to get it dirty again. I leave tomorrow (Thursday) morning at about 7 am. I will be camping at Lake Chelan, Washington tomorrow night. Just above Ellensburg if you are looking on the map. I am heading to Redmond and then will drive north through Washington and into Canada on highway 97. I will ride about 400 miles tomorrow. I am going to try and ride 400 to 450 miles each day. That will put me into Fairbanks sometime on July 6th. I will head to Anchorage on July 8th spend the night at Jay Goolds place. Head to Soldotna on July 9th and fish there for Sockeye salmon for 5 days. I will head home on July 15th and should be home on the 21st. I will try and find a WiFi spot on the road most days so I can tell you about the falls that I have taken, the bears that I have outrun, and the beautiful scenery that I have seen. Love ya all. Dee

I just finished checking the weather in each town in Canada and Alaska I will be in on the day that I will be there, and it looks like rain all the way!! Every motorcycle trip that I have gone on it has rained most of the time. I am getting used to it. The first couple of times I road in the rain I had the idea that it was pretty much like riding on snow. That my bike was going to slip and spin and go out from under me at the smallest wrong wiggle, so I rode with fear and trembling which is quite exhausting after awhile. I am getting more confident in my motorcycle tires to hold the road even if wet, even sometimes very, very wet. My prayer life goes up a lot while riding in the rain. Praying that God will send some big angels to guard me and protect me from a wreck. My riding suit is waterproof and even in a very hard rain I stay pretty dry. About the only place I get wet is right at the top of my coat. The worst part of the rain is setting up camp in the rain. Everything in my dry bags gets wet as I drag it out, set up my tent, get my pad and sleeping bag into the tent and attempt to cook on my little stove. Most of the places that I camp have washers and dryers so I spend some quarters drying everything out the next morning. Works.

I took my motorcycle in last Thursday to get new plugs, valves adjusted, brakes worked on, new front tire, oil changed etc. Went to pick it up today so I could leave tomorrow morning bright and early and they told me my starter had about 2 more starts in it and then copluey! $500 for a starter and it wouldn't be ready until Wednesday. I bought an extra warranty last year for my motorcycle that would cover everything but brakes and clutch before I left on my 48 State tour last year. I handed the paper to the guy and asked if this would cover the starter and he said 100%. So I will leave bright and early on Thursday morning with a brand new starter. Way better hear than hours from nowhere up on the Alaskan Highway!! That means two less days fishing or 400 miles each day instead of 350. We will see how my rear end holds up with 350 miles a day before I decide that one. The cost of the trip was going to be $800. $500 for gas figuring 45 miles to the gallon and I got 48 on my last trip, $200 for camp sights for 15 nights at $12 per night and staying with friends the other 6 nights. $100 for fishing licence, candy, etc. I got a check in the mail this morning for $801.49 from IRS because I made a mistake in my taxes!! Whoooeeeeeee!! Now it is a free trip to Alaska on my motorcycle, sort of!

Wow, I only have one more day before I am off to Alaska. I am getting really nervous about the trip. It is always a puzzle to me as I think about it, what causes that weird feeling in my stomach before events like this. Is it fear? I am sure that the nervousness last year was fear being a total novice at motorcycle riding and not having a clue about what was going to happen having never gone to most of the places I was going. But this year I have 30,000 miles of motorcycle experience this past year and Patty and I drove the exact route last year in our car so I know exactly where I am going and what to expect. I think it is more anticipation than anything. One of the reasons I do so much planning, research, reading, and writing about these trips before I go is that I enjoy what anticipation does to me. It seems to give me more enthusiasm and energy and just makes life simply more fun. I like fun and it is nice having learned how to create a lot of it in my own life by doing those things that builds anticipation.

I have learned at this stage in my life that thinking a lot about going to heaven and imagining what that is going to be like creates a lot of anticipation and the benefits that go along with anticipation.

I am going to spend a lot of tomorrow packing my bike. Love ya all. Dee

The question that gets asked often of me is why ride your motorcycle to Alaska. Here's the answer:

I believe very strongly that God speakes to us. You probably all do as well. I believe that God speaks to us in His Word, but also through the Holy Spirit that indwells each Christian. We hear Him primarily in our thoughts. I also believe that a lot of messages that we think are from God probably are not. It is a very difficult thing to sort out all the thoughts in our mind and decern which are from God and which are not. The primary discipline to figure that out for me is solitude. Solitude would include a number of things. Quiet would be an obvious one. Our brain is constantly recieving input from people, books, TV, radio, CD players etc and it overwelms the input of the Holy Spirit. I become confused with all the input that comes into my brain in a normal day. Another key is being alone. A motorcycle for me is a perfect place to travel and see the creation around me yet be alone inside my helmet, on my bike. Also being away from responsibility for a season. Being responsible as a pastor, husband, father, and friend is very important to me. It takes up a lot of my thinking time figuring out what to do and say in the various roles that I am so that others are blessed by my life and leadership.

Another discipline besides solitude is writing. I seem to be able to hear my thoughts and sort them out much better as I write reflectively. It works like the old cream separator that I used to crank by hand as a kid separating the cream from the milk. There are so many thoughts that I have that are mine. They come from my past, my education, my prejudices, etc. I want the thoughts that are the words from God to be very clear to me as coming from God, not from me, from you, from the world, or from the devil.

So that is my reason for these seasons of motorcycle trips that I started on last year and hope to continue as long as I can keep a motorcyle upright, and then I will get a three wheeler! Love ya all. Dee

Dee's Motorcycle trip to Alaska

I am off to Alaska on another motorcycle trip. I am going with a pastor friend from Washington named Glen Douglas. I went by myself last year as I toured the lower 48 States but there is very little cell phone service on this trip and I thought it would be safer to have someone with me in case my bike had problems.

We will be riding a total of 6000 miles in 24 days. Last year my total trip was 12000 miles so this one is much easier in terms of miles ridden. We will be heading for Fairbanks, Alaska where my daughter Shelly, her husband Philip and my two grand kids live. We will stay with them for two nights and then head to Anchorage and stay one night with Jay and Marsia Goold, good friends who used to live in Jefferson and attend JBC. Then we will be off to Soldotna where we will stay with a friend who has a cabin there. We will fish on the Kenai river for about 4 days. My friend, Chick Fisher drove up in May in a pickup and will be driving back here in the Fall, and he said he would can my salmon for me and bring it back with him when he came. I plan on catching a lot of sockeye salmon.

When we get done fishing we will head home. I plan on being home on the 22nd of July. I am going to try to stay in campgrounds that have WiFi so I should be able to do some blogging every night of our days adventures. We are taking all of our camping stuff with us on our bikes. I will be eating 10 grain cereal in the morning and freeze dried dinners at night. Just heat water. My kind of cooking. For lunch I will pick up whatever at service stations when we get gas. You know, health food like black licorice and snickers candy bars.

The big challenge will be making sure we don't run out of gas. Gas stations are farther apart on this trip, and motorcycles don't have very big gas tanks. Mine is 3.7 gallons and I get about 47 miles to the gallon. 170 miles per tank. My goal is to fill up every 100 miles. I am carrying 2 gallons of gas just in case. The other challenge will be not hitting any wildlife. Patty and I drove this same route in our car last summer and saw lots of deer, elk, caribou, buffalo, bears, and goats right in the middle of the road acting like we were trespassing. I am thinking it will hurt if I hit any of them. With the bear it will probably hurt twice.

Well, I hope you have as much fun reading the blog of our trip as I will have writing it. Love ya all. Dee