Day 23- Tahoe.

Rudi and I met our friend Jonas for breakfast at Firesign and then headed over to Mickey and Wendy's to say hi. We stayed there for a couple hours and checked out his MG he's been restoring for the last year. I forgot to take a photo, but it's awesome.
Went into town with Zach and checked out the thrift store and bout some coffee.
I figured now would be a good time to was the tent and sleeping bag, as i won't be camping anymore on this trip, plus my sleeping bag was tarting to get a funk. After that we went swimming in the lake, at Buck's Beach. I jumped into a tree branch and stabbed my lip open. It now looks like I got a sweet lip piercing in late '90's.
We met up with Mickey at the Bridgetender and rode up to the top of Blackwood Canyon. Sweet views and wildflowers up there, again I forgot my camera, but snapped a few shots with my iPhone. We stopped by Mickey and Wendy's again and I got to take the MG for a spin, it like riding a moped; quirky, cool, fun, weird brakes, and kinda slow. I loved it.




Top of Blackwood Canyon.



Bike crew doods.

No Bug Report today.

Day 22- Crater Lake to Tahoe.

355 miles.

The mosquitos ate our asses off last night. We headed out early towards Klamath Falls, along Klamath Lake we hit a shit load of little green bugs, it looked like we were covered in guacamole. It was awesome.
We crossed into California and rode on some super fun roads through some little podunk logging towns. We eventually made it into Tahoe and to our dad's house. It was awesome riding, but a long day, I was wiped. We went and smashed burritos at T's.




30 minutes of riding.



Best state in the Union. California.



BFA in BFE.



Mill towns everywhere.

Bug Report.
7/10
Nothing crazy except this morning, but I had to clean it to see. No major juicers.

Day 21- Portland to Crater Lake.

315 miles.

We met up with Zach an hour late, 'cause we're bad with time management. He's gonna join us for the next couple of days and then we're going to the moped rally in Sacramento.
We left and headed into the mountains to ride some fun roads. They were some great, fast river roads, my favorite. Near Bend, in some mountain pass I was passing some cars and had one left until I was in the front of the pack and passed him in a double yellow. There was an unmarked cop car behind me. Needless to say I got us pulled over and I got a ticket. Shit.
We made it into Bend and had to stop at a shop to get Zach a new clutch lever because he likes to drop his bike in parking lots. From there we headed to Crater Lake. We got there in the late afternoon, checked out the lake and headed to their campground. The campground was pretty shitty, expensive and full of chemical white trash, so we opted to find a spot in National Forest land.
We found an epic spot of the first fire road. It was perfect. We built an epic fire that made us sweat and Rudi made dinner. We sat around the fire and drank some beers and ate candy.



Busted.


Crater Lake.



A man with a sense of humor.


Epic camp spot. Some fire road south of Crater Lake.

Bug Report.
6/10
I forgot to take a photo. It was an average bug day. Nothing special.

Day 20- Seattle to Portland.

190 miles.

Got breakfast with Rosanna and Veronica and updated my blog. I hit the road around noon. It's a pretty boring ride on I-5 to Portland. The only excitement I got was putting on my rain gear in a Wal Mart parking lot.
Rudi was already in Portland and picked up some oils for our bikes. I met him at his friend's Joe and Mary's house We changed the engine and final drive fluids and then got some burritos. We crashed out early.

No photos or bug report today.

Days 18 & 19- Whidbey Island and Seattle.

We got to stay at an epic beach house with Joel and Rosanna. It's owned by a family friend, the guy who invented Frappucinnos and Starbucks VIA instant coffee (which we've been living on for the last 3 weeks). So needless to say it was a gorgeous house in an awesome location.
Rosanna's dad, his wife Julie, and her sister Veronica came out during the day. It was awesome just hanging around, kayaking, paddle boarding, and eating food. It was truly a treat to be able to do this.
The next day was the same deal, lots of maxin' and relaxin'. Rudi boogied on down to Portland to hangout and Joel and I did an epic puzzle. I headed out in the late afternoon to meet up with my friends Hillary and Billy in the city for dinner.
Two solid days of hanging out was the perfect way to arrive in back in the USA and the West Coast. Thanks doods!!!







Minor repairs.






Dead jelly fish.






Whidbey Island.





Island life mon.





Useless Bay.









Puzzle time. Photo by Joel.



View from Billy and Hillary's apt.

No Bug Report.

Day 17- Nakusp to Whidbey Island

510 miles.

We stayed until about 10am talking with all of our new friends. I was really bummed we couldn't stay for the weekend. It's an awesome rally, put on on by super nice people, and I will be back next year. Alberta may hate us, but BC loves us.
We made a wrong turn leaving Nakusp and went about 29 miles out of the way, whoops. We got back on track and headed towards Grand Forks to cross back into America. The roads there are amazing, super twisty, fast and scenery that will blow your mind. We got to the border by about 2pm and got onto Highway 20.
20 is another super fun, fast, backcountry highway. We made it to the eastern side of the Northern Cascades in the late afternoon and the road just got even better, I couldn't believe it.
The 20 took us straight into Whidbey Island right as the sun was disappearing. We went over Deception Pass and blasted through the Island to the southern end to meet Joel and Rossana. We made it to the beach house by about 10:15. We were pooped.
I didn't take many photos today, mainly because I wasn't in the mood and the riding was so epic.



USA!!!!!


Washington. USA!!!!!
Bug Report.
9/10
I slayed them. Adios suckers.

Day 16- Banff to Nakusp

248 miles.

It rained throughout the night, but not back enough to leak through the tent. We packed up early and got outta there. It was freezing going up towards Lake Louise and we stopped a few time to warm up. Another great thing about the old Airheads is you can set your throttle lock and reach down and grab the engine to warm your hands up.
We stopped by Lake Louise and walked around, the color of the lake is insane and my photos don't give it justice. It looks like Baja Blast Mountain Dew, it's insane.
We blasted into BC and the scenery changed almost immediately. It gets super green, lush, and the mountains are insane. We went through the Canadian Glacier Provincial Park, also unreal.
We took a ferry across Upper Arrow Lake and met a few people on their way to the BC Beemer Rally, we passed a few people earlier near Banff and asked why we were holding our engines. We told them the sweet heating trick.
We made it to the rally and set up near a couple other Airheads, ate a fantastic dinner, and met and talked to lots of people. I was so blown away with the cool bikes and people that I totally forgot to take many photos.




Rain stain.



Banff.



Lake Louise.



Bro time.



Tourists at Lake Louise.



Catching the wave into BC. Last Divide crossing of the trip.


Upper Arrow Lake. BC.


Arrow Lake Ferry.


Rolling out.





The trailer is his sleeping pod!!



Homemade EFI.



Homemade turbocharger!!



A couple of beauts.

Bug Report.
I forgot to take a photo. It wasn't super buggy, I'll combine it with tomorrow's.

Day 15- Banff.

41 miles.

Today just started off shitty. I went to the bear box to get cooking stuff and dropped and broke my 3/4 full bottle of Jameson. Alright, no big deal. We make coffee and Rudi decides he's gonna fix his leaking valve cover. No big deal.
I'm in the bathroom with diarrhea and I hear him yell out my name. This isn't good. As he was tightening the center nut on the valve cover gasket the stud stripped from the cylinder head. This isn't good.
We were pretty much packed up and we talked to the rangers about leaving our stuff for a couple hours while we sorted it all out.
I headed into Banff and went to the only shop in town, they didn't want to work on a bike, but they gave me the name of a shop in Canmore, about 15km east.
I find a pay phone and talk to Greg Waldner at Summit Motorsports, www.bsummit.com. He says he can do the heliocoil, but probably not today. I arrange with Progressive to get towed to the shop. $5 a year for 5 tows is the best deal ever!!
We wait almost 4 hours for the tow truck to arrive at the campground and we finally make it to Greg's shop. He has the right size heliocoil in stock and agrees to do it today, so we get the bike ready for him to install it. He's a super nice guy with a new little shop and he also rents bikes and does tours. If I ever make it back up here I'm gonna hit him up for sure.
We stop by a Safeway for some groceries and they fly off my rack on the freeway. Now it's starting to rain. I like Canada and the people here, but Canada hates us. Like Southpark said, "blame Canada". I hope the next few days are better.

No Bug report today. Sorry.




Hiking around, waiting for the tow truck.



Do not eat.



One mad Rudi.



Working in the back of Greg's shop.

Day 14- Calgary to Banff.

258 miles.

Tim Hortons is awesome. We stopped there and had donuts and coffee before heading to the Canadian Badlands to visit the Royal Tyrell Museum. It's about 170km northeast of Calgary and is one of the largest dinosaur museums in the world.
We got into the town Drumheller, where it is located and were immediately swarmed by dinosaur stuff everywhere. They take dinos very seriously in this town.
The museum was pretty amazing and they had tons of complete skeletons, many which were found in the nearby badlands. Even Queen Elizabeth has been there, I wonder if she braved the boring ride there or got to take a chopper.
From there we headed west once again and made a beeline to Banff. We eventually got there, stocked up on food and got a spot at Two Jack Lake campground. The Provincial campgrounds are expensive ($21.50-$40.00), but they are really nice and have hot water. Chef Rudi cooked up an awesome meal again and we headed into Banff to check the town out.
Banff is like any other resort town, tons of tourist shops and "resort wear" shops, but we're tourists right now so we soaked it up and bought postcards and other crap. We also found a coffee shop with free wifi, so we caught up with our emails and internetting since our phones are off here.




Rudisaurus Rex.



Tyrannosaurus Rex.



Don't pay the fish.



Some kind of Dino.



Another Dino.



Downtown.



Not a safe neighborhood.



Proof that man was around with the dinosaur.


Wheat County. Alberta.


Middle of nowhere.



Two Jack Main campground. Site 2G.



Lake Minnewanka.



Lake Minnewanka.



Bears fucking.



Dream car.

Bug Report.
9.5/10
Another day of smashing bugs and today was great. I even caught a little yellow butterfly on my forks. Take that jerks!