July 12, 2022 - Roseburg, OR - 287 miles

We started off the day packing and straightening up the Airbnb. All of us then met for coffee, said our fairwells and hit the road. I have been following a coffee/ motorcycle shop in Portland for a long time and decided to stop there on our way out of town. We had a chance to chat with Thor Drake, the founder and owner of See See Motor Coffee Co. It's a different kind of motorcycle shop with a kitchen and coffee cafe plus motorcycle gear.

After talking with Thor we decided to ride out to Mt. Hood and Timberline Lodge. Timberline Lodge is a mountain lodge on the south side of Mount Hood in Clackamas County, Oregon, about 60 miles (97 km) east of Portland. Constructed from 1936 to 1938 by the Works Progress Administration, it was built and furnished by local artisans during the Great Depression. Timberline Lodge was dedicated September 28, 1937, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. (Wikipedia) 

Next we headed south to our hotel in Roseburg. The next 2 nights we will be staying in Prospect, OR and visiting Glacier Lake. After that we don't know what we are going to do other than probably start heading east.

Mt. Hood

CD, Connor and Mary coffeeizing 

Amy, Rebecca and Joe enjoying some joe

Axel trying to not have his picture taken

Poor picture of Thor Drake of See See Motor Coffee Co.

See See

See See 

Snowboarding at Mt. Hood

Timberline Lodge 

Timberline Lodge 

From our hotel room in Roseburg 

July 11, 2022 - Portland, Oregon

Tonight is our last night in Portland before we head south to Crater Lake. Our niece CD and her wife Mary had a beautiful wedding at Camp Coltin southeast of Portland. The wedding ceremony was held outside with a wonderful reception in a large meeting area. There were 120 attendees. 

CD and Mary wedding dance

https://youtu.be/QNUqJKjRzss

The happy newlyweds 

Susie and her brother Joe

Sam, Max (acting goofy) and Sooz

Part of Camp Coltin 

Before the wedding ceremony 

Before the reception 

Sam and his girlfriend Miranda 

Mt. Hood from the Portland City Grille on the  30th floor 

CD's grandmother Juanice with Miranda 

Sooz and me on the dance floor 

July 6, 2022 - Portland, Oregon - 170 miles

We landed at our Airbnb in Portland at 4pm today. We will be here for 6 days attending our niece's wedding and goofing off. I'll take the bike in for a 6,000 mile service Friday to the local BMW motorcycle shop. We have put a total of nearly 10,000 miles on the bike so far since leaving Gainesville and it needs an oil change and checkover. The tires look good.

Our Portland Airbnb 

July 5, 2022 - Packwood, WA - 240 miles

Our stay at the Sun Mountain Resort was great. The entire property is beautiful. It rained most of yesterday which was fine since we didn't need to do anything but rest up, which we did. Yesterday was the first day since I left on May 24th that I didn't ride the motorcycle. 

Tomorrow we ride to Portland where we have rented an Airbnb for 6 days. Our son Sam and his girlfriend Miranda arrive tomorrow night and our son Max gets in early Friday morning on a red-eye flight from Orlando.  Our niece CD is getting married Saturday so we will have a nice family get-together.

The evening skies at Sun Mountain Resort were beautiful 

Lobby of The Sun Mountain Resort 

From our dinner table last night

Now we are looking out for rattlesnakes instead of moose

Resort property 

We are in the land of Bigfoot and I am on the lookout

July 3, 2022 - Winthrop, WA - 220 miles

Back in the USA! It's nice to be back where I don't need to translate speed limit signs but I also can't believe our time in Canada and Alaska is over. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there. It was exactly as we hoped, an adventure. 

Alaska and northern Canada are rough places that require full attention even in the summer. There is no "put it on cruise control" there - road conditions, weather, wind, bears and other unfriendly animals, dust, dirt, gravel and vast, beautiful wilderness. I'm really glad I went and I know Sooz is also. 

It feels like we are entering a new phase of our trip. We are staying 3 nights at the Sun Mountain Resort in Winthrop,  WA and it is a really nice place. We're considering this as the official celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary which was in 2020 but due to Covid we couldn't go anywhere for 2 years, like everyone else. After staying here we will ride down to Portland, Oregon and spend nearly a week attending our niece's wedding and having a bit of a family reunion.  Both of our sons will be sharing an Airbnb with us and other members of Susie's side of our family. It will be a lot of fun.

Only 2 pictures today but they are good ones.

Ground shot of the Sun Mountain Resort 

View from our second story room

July 2, 2022 - Merritt, British Columbia - 270 miles

Today's weather was great, until we pulled into Merritt for the night when the dark clouds rolled in but this time we dodged the rain and didn't get wet.

We rode through beautiful green, rolling countryside then passed through desert like highlands and then back into green grass horse country. In the dry area we went by a massive open pit copper mine that had a huge tailings lake and drying area.

When we were about 30 miles north of Merritt we saw a woman in motorcycle gear in our lane of traffic waving at us to stop. We stopped and saw that she (Sheila) and her husband Al had a flat rear tire on their 1999 Honda Goldwing motorcycle. Long story short, I was able to help fix their tire using tools and air pump I carry on the bike and get them on their way. By way of thanking us, instead of buying us dinner, they graciously agreed to make a contribution to GNV4ALL. Much appreciated. 

For lunch we made an unplanned stop at The Sugar Shack thinking we might have pancakes or waffles with maple syrup. It turned out the only served poutine with maple smoked meat. Their poutine had a base of french fries, mixed with gravy and cheese topped with the meat. It is not a light dish so Sooz and I shared a bowl. All of their maple syrup products were not local so we didn't buy any but we did have a nice conversation with a young couple from Vancouver riding their bicycles on local trails.

Tomorrow we leave Canada and head for the Sun Mountain Resort in northern Washington state. We have reservations there for 3 nights which will be nice R&R after several fairly long days. It's hard to believe the Canada and Alaska portion of our trip ends tomorrow. 

Susie getting ready to enter The Sugar Shack 

Wild flowers early in the day

The desert-like portion of the day's ride

Our 2018 BMW R1200GS fully loaded

We followed Sheila and Al on their temporarily repaired rear tire until they were near their home

July 1, 2022 - Quesnel, BC - 300 miles

Happy Canada Day. From Wikipedia - On July 1, 1867, Canada became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain and a federation of four provinces: Nova Scotia; New Brunswick; Ontario; and Quebec. The anniversary of this date was called Dominion Day until 1982. Since 1983, July 1 has been officially known as Canada Day. 

It was a nice day riding on good roads and nice weather up until the last half-hour when a decent thunderstorm unloaded on us. We had stopped at a rest area and put on our rain gear.  It always seems to rain just before the end of a ride, here and in Florida. 

Although we are still in relatively rural area, it feels like we are back in civilization. There are plenty of gas stations, large farms, better roads, more variety of food alternatives and more traffic. 

Today is the first day since Anchorage that our room has air conditioning. It has been unusually warm up here so it would have been nice to have A/C the last week or so. 

We took no pictures today so I caught up with a couple of pics and a video. 

 A video clip of Dall porpoises leading our boat on the way to Juneau a couple of days ago. 

https://youtu.be/IHr5XUKnOW4 

Getting sunburned on our way to Juneau 

Susie thought this lonely fire hydrant she saw as we rode into Atlin, BC was pretty funny. 

Inuit boat at the Alaska Museum 

Susie checking out the competition in Haines Junction, Yukon 

Mastodon tusks at Alaska Museum 

Inuit goggles to protect their eyes from snow blindness - Alaska Museum