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 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 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!

Day 13- Glacier NP to Calgary.

260 miles.

We left our campsite and made the trek over Logan Pass. They have been doing tons of construction along the Going to the Sun Road, so we got to sit in traffic. By the time we got to the top it was starting to rain and getting really windy and cold. It took about 2 hours to do the 40 or so mile trip.
We fueled up and got our paperwork ready to cross into Canada. Rudi was asked to pull in for an inspection and it took forever, I figured he was getting a cavity search or the Canadian Welcome. They searched me too, but they just wanted to make sure I was carrying bear mace and not human mace.
We took our obligatory photo in front of the welcome sign and headed on our way, we finally made it!
Alberta is like the Midwest. Pretty flat and very windy. We got pounded. It is very beautiful, but the wind was miserable. We made it into Calgary and started looking for hotels, they were all super expensive, just like the fuel. We ended up at an overpriced dump, but it was the cheapest. Rudi went out to buy some more oil and I stayed in and caught up on stuff. We only had one queen bed, but it was still twice the size of our tent. I slept like a baby.




Glacier NP "Jammer"



Last US Divide crossing.



Eewwww Eeesssss Aaaaayyyyy!!!!! Vee luuuv eeett!



Border wait.



I'm in two countries at once!!!!



More border wait.



Rudi mad. Me glad.



Alberta. Canada or Kasas, USA?

Bug Report.
9/10
I fucked them up again. I even got some smears. I think the national bird in Canada is the mosquito.