8/2 Niagara Falls ON to Boston MA, Albany NY or Tupper Lake NY

We were up early and made our way to Attica NY to meet Eric's friend Tim Fisher who had been bicycling from the west coast since late June. See Tim's blog at http://fishericross.blogspot.com . It's a great blog. Tim's observations and adventures and his accomplishment is incredible. Lou and I are going to peddle across in 2010! It was great to meet Tim and hear his stories over breakfast first hand. We stayed together until mid-afternoon when we separated at Exit 34 (Utica) on the Thruway. Eric and Lou, it was all I expected and more. It could only have been better if brothers Dave and Al were with us. I love you guys. Hope to Tupper and my lovely wife Sadie by 6:00 pm. 6653 miles for me from Alaska to home. I hope you've enjoyed my posts. Your comments are appreciated. If you have any questions about going cross-country on a motorcycle we can certainly advise you on what to do, what not to do, what to bring and what to leave behind. The most important thing is to allow enough time and don't become an intinerary zombie. The ride is at least if not more important than the destinations. At some point I will put a powerpoint together that illustrates these blog entries. Finally, I want to thank my wife for the understanding and freedom to let me embark on this adventure. She OK'd the sale of the old bike, purchase of the new bike, and 21 days away from home while she dealt with all the domestic situations. Sadie, you are the best!

8/1 Mackinaw City MI to Niagara Falls ON

Another 500 mile day that was quite wearing. The road conditions were not uniformly good and the traffic was incredibly dense especially in the lower half of Michigan and all the way through Ontario to Niagara Falls. We tried to stay along Lake Huron's western shore as much as possible, but did finally jump on the interstate to get to Port Huron and across Ontario quickly. Niagara Falls is a place that is a must stop just to see the falls. Their color, sound, and scale force you to focus only on them. I can get hypnotized watching the water fall much like staring into a campfire on a cool night. But the rest of the downtown, although clean, had little to offer as were were not into carnival rides, criminal and monster wax and World Wrestling Federation museums or chain restarurants. We shared a great meal and a bottle of red at Mama Mia's and went back to the motel for our last night together on the road. This was the only motel along the entire route that charged us for parking spots. I understand this is beginning to become the norm and they should be ashamed of themselves.

7/31 Neebing ON to Mackinaw City MI

Our good weather held and over the north shore of Lake Superior it even cooled off a bit especially when the wind came off the water. 500 miles this day that went very quickly as the roads were in good shape, traffic was light, the vistas were incredible and the bikes ran smoothly in 6th gear. We stopped for lunch in Marathon at about half way and took some time to walk down to the lake shore. We are rockhounds and that cobble shore was a mine of incredibly colored, smooth stones including several different basalts and agate. We crossed over at Sault Ste. Marie and settled in at Mackinaw City. We had Guiness in an Irish pub with dinner.

7/30 Bemidji MN to Neebing ON

These next posts to the end of the trip will be shorter than most of the previous posts. The days were longer, I took fewer notes, and we were moving through more familiar territory. So, you get just the highlights so we can remember where we were. Bemidji into Duluth in the morning. We stopped at the HD dealership and dropped our oil in the parking lot (into drip pans of course!) and did the 5000 mile service. We gathered a crowd with the three Alaskan bikes. After the service we went down town Aerostich. This is a company that makes and markets high-tech riding apparel and gear. Unfortunately, their catalog is much more user friendly than their retail outlet which is really just an afterthought corner in there manufacturing and warehousing space. After lunch we moved north along Lake Superior and stopped at Gooseberry Falls State Park viewing incredible stone work by the CCC, and Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. The latter is a famous and picturesque lighthouse that Eric has on his list of places to visit. He'll provide more detail. We ended up in Neebing just over the border in Ontario late that night after having perhaps our only and closest call with a deer at dusk in Minnesota.