To the land of potatoes... and blue bombs

June 26th

i got up late. real late. riding a lot in one day takes it toll on me. it burns me right out.

i'm still trying to get to work on time, and might be able to make it if i make up the miles, but on this adventure i want to at least see some things in the states. i'm very ignornant of the country. I, like a lot of canadians, don't actually go out and see for our own eyes the beauty of the countryside. it doesn't matter what country. Canada, the US, others. people need to travel more... they need to look in their own backyard, and then travel more. it does give you a better perspective, and a better bigger picture. my god it's a huge freaking picture. it's getting bigger by the day.

actually seeing the landscape change as the miles get eaten up is quite the awakening.

back to the program;

I left the motel room at about 10:45. like i said. late. I blasted across and stopped at this lookout looking west. this is at about 3000ft elevation. doesn't look high, but the rest of the land has quite a high elevation.

After the lookout was the a pass. Nice enough road, but the right lane is the trucker lane and you sometimes bounce around in the two ruts there. you feel like a bowling ball in a gully sometimes. this is what i thought all of oregon looked like, not like the picture before.
I needed food so about an hour or so of riding, i stopped off in La Grande, OR

This was the first town permanently settled in northeast Oregon. this was in 1862. heh. canada wasn't even a country then.

I didn't want a chain place, so i went to a ma & pa shop. instead of Ma and Pa, i found Joe and Sugar's place. It's a little coffee/sandwich shop. cozy. wifi there too i think. there's wifi everywhere in the states. i loves it. i didn't use it though.

I got a blt and salad instead of chips with a coffee. the food was really good. if you're in town, go there.

a view of the street. looks like a typical small town usa place. i like that.

More mountains? hmm.. could only mean one thing. I'm going to Idaho.

yup. idaho. I'm so ignorant about the US. i always thought it was flat and all they did was grow potatoes.

From the first rest stop in idaho. I needed a break and wanted to get some info.

inside there were free maps, and all the scenic byways maps. score! not going to use them this trip, but i shall be back. maybe. it's a nice place.
A picture of the allstarsok, maybe i should preface this by saying i went to an air museum. It's your typical small town museum all in one hanger, but this cost 8 bucks. i thought it was a little steep, but i love old war things, planes, etc.

this was kinda need, things made out of various artillery shells and bullets. lamps and vases. you can turn anything into one of two things usually. a lamp or an ashtray.

Hell, you can turn a plastic leg into a lamp. oh wait, that's been done before. (please tell me you've seen the movie)

more shells, but i love the war era posters and shells. maybe it's time to make more lamps. or vases.
love propaganda posters. this place had a lot of them.
this should please someone.

perverts, you thought bad thoughts. i meant the bombadier.

these two bombs were in a cute blue color. heh. a pair of blue bombs. (i know what you're thinking)

This will be my next bike, that seat sure looks comfy.

Seil Heil!

they had german, japanese and Indian memorabilia there too.

gives riding shotgun a whole new meaning. does this mean when you're running to the jeep, you yell out "Riding the 50!"

the old jeeps were cool... problem is that many soldiers broke their backs and tailbones riding in them. hope the hummers are a bit better on the ass.
pew pew

cool looking p40 warhawk
a p36 hawk i believe. i'm no sure really. it looked stubby.

The p51 mustang this was painted in boise idaho's WWII ace duane beeson's colors. cool.

the torpedo is at half scale. no clue what scale the sub is in. hah.

fokker triplane. same type the red baron used in WW I

an old packard.
not sure what kind of plane it is...
Link trainer. i want one for home. i think it would be fun.

the p51 mustang
a ton of displays to go through. just don't touch anything.

that's where i was. nampa idaho. where's nampa you might ask? that's what google maps is for. hah.

it's near boise.
I left nampa and bypassed boise. didn't even go through the city, i stayed on the interstate.

It was really bad traffic leaving boise. really bad. people in idaho just don't know how to drive. most stay in the left lane and don't go to the right lane after they pass. what i like about idaho is that the speed limit is 75 mph. woot. you can do 80-85 and probably won't get bothered by the troopers.

i stopped over in some small town because i needed gas and food. not much of a choice , but i went to a chain i hadn't gone to before.

can you guess where?

yup. jack in the box. and they're right. there was jack in the box. just a burger. it wasn't even that good either. meh.

My route was taking me to my destination for the night. i didn't want to ride at late, but it was already around 7pm, so i decided to get to a motle and shack up for the night.

the landscape may be boring to some, but i found it interestng. desert mixed with farming i guess. not really a desert though.

zoom. me going way too fast. i hope my GPS is wrong because it said i was going 204 km/hr. that's 127mph. i don't think my bike can go that fast.

there's a neat lookout before crossing the bridge to get into Twin Falls, ID. this is not what i thought idaho looked like

more views


the bridge to twin falls

I checked into a no star motel. it's 45 bucks has tv with HBO, clean, A/C and best of all WiFi. hey, it's clean and has (i hope) clean towels, soap and shampoo.

good enough for a few hours of rest

once checked in and unloaded i wanted to see where twins falls got it's name.

the sunset was awesome. looked better in person.

i found it. these falls were huge. damn camera doesn't take good pictures when it's dark.

i almost got dizzy looking down.

the falls threw up a ton of mist. the river goes back towards the bridge in the earlier pictures.

on a stone in the park. this area was given to the city on the contidtions that it may be used by all people. how cool is that. The adams family, 1932. hah.

I was looking for a coffee/donut shop. i couldn't find anything in the city at all. wtf. a lot of restaurants were open 24/7 but i just wanted a coffee and a bite. bah. restaurant time again.

I had seen a few of these on the interstates so i decided to pop in.got a coffee and strawberry crepes. surprisingly very good.

good looking twins, big things and chef womper

June 20th

I packed up the bike (as usual) and headed back up the highway where i saw a sign for Twin Falls the day before when i came into town.

Got up the road, and up this path. uphill. ack. i need to get in shape. round is a shape. hah.

I was intercepted by this sign.

a trail (left) which would take 1-2 hours each way, or look at the falls(right)... a few minutes walk.

I chose right. it was uphill the whole way and i got winded. smoking doesn't help i guess.

looks like i'm getting closer.

Huzzah! what a pair of twins. nice to see, worth the short walk.

wouldn't like to walk 2 hours just for this though. heh.

closeup

Rode down south a bit more and got to Houston. crap. too far south?

When i was pulled over someone pulled in behind me and came to talk to me. they just wanted to tell me that my backpack was blocking my tail light and couldn't see when i braked! oops. Good thing they told me, wouldn't want someone to rear-end me because of that. adjusted the backpack and off i went into town.

where i saw this, a relic of the 16th through early 19th century of New Spain (now mexico). The grinding wheel was used in mining to crush ore while beasts of burden pulled it around in a circle. The fine particles were then separated to extract the silver by mercury amalgamation. This was presented to the town of houston from the town of Real de Angeles.

now you learned something. heh.

looked kinda neat/creepy. it was in the same park.

Looks like the fountain was off that day. looks like a bunch of salmon trying to go up river perhaps?

A giant fly fishing pole! more towns should have stuff like this.

Seems like Houston is cowboy country after all. they had a few like these around town

I rode for a bit more and was pretty hungry, so i stopped in where there were a lot of cars (they all left by while i was eating) This is in Burns Lake

I had the lunch Special 'A'. it was fairly cheap.

came with a cup of soup. really good soup.

almond chicken, chow mein and sweet and sour pork.

seriously, one of the best chinese dishes i've ever had. the almond chicken was crispy and done properly, the sweet and sour pork was actually sweet and sour and the chow mein was... different. never had that before, like that and it was really good. upper left corner was a shaker of roasted sesame seeds. more restaurants should have that. hah.

I rode back south and headed to the visitor info place. I knew i'd see something big there. hah. Mr PG, the wooden dude in prince george. I didn't stay in town long, since i just wanted to make a lot more miles and head south, i just took the picture and ran.

A bit further south, saw this. Quesnel gold pan. More roadside attractions. love these things, and by the looks of it, they work. i'm at the roadside, taking a picture. didn't stay in town though. wanted to get to a campsite before it got too dark.

I got to the campsite at about 9:15 or so, quite late by camp standards. It was raining quite a bit for the last few hours mostly on and off, but my olympia suit was starting to get wet. i hate putting on the rainsuit when it's light rain because i start to feel like Ralphie in the movie "A christmas story".

at least i can't shoot my eye out.

I set up the tent, put everything inside that i needed to, put all the other stuff i needed in the vestibule of the tent (it works!) and put the bike cover on the bike. I put on my rain jacket on instead of the motorcycle jacket and got the boonie hat on. it started raining even harder.

earlier in the day i had picked up some supplies too cook over an open flame. one problem, i had no wood. I walked around looking for the camp host. In B.C. the park host comes to you to register you for the campsite. I couldn't find the host, so i just had to wait. I looked around for some dry wood i could burn and couldn't find any, but started a small fire with sticks and anything else dry that would burn. no luck on dry stuff, but i did manage to start a small fire but it was a pain keeping it going since everything was so wet.

By this time the host came around and i paid her for the site and bought a bundle of dry wood from her. hurrah!

At 10pm it was pitch black and i had to cut the wood to make a fire. I needed to use my headlamp to see anything... oh vin diesel, where are you...

I got a good fire going, and made a simple camp supper.

ingredients:

1 rib eye steak

2 small potatoes

1 stick of garlic butter (with chives)

garlic ms. dash

hot sauce

Cut potatoes and put in tin foil. add a lot of butter. wrap up the tin foil.

put steak on grill. heh. i'm a chef.

end result

quite enjoyable, the steak was cooked medium. kinda hard to cook in the dark, over an open flame without cooking implements.

lessons learned. when cooking over an open flame, a long pair of tongs would be very useful, to turn the steak and potatoes. it would also help when you accidently drop the steak between the grill and it lands right onto the hot coals. heh. yes, i admit, i dropped it right into the fire. I should have put the steak on later, letting it cook less, and put the potatoes on for longer, to soften them up more.

all in all, not bad for a first attempt.

It was dark since 9:45 so at 11:30 it was complete darkness and time to go to bed. it had stopped raining by then, but you could tell more rain was in the forecast. ugh.

at about this time i was letting the fire die out and was heading to sleep when i heard this bone chilling howling. no clue if it was just dogs, or coyotes or wolves or something else.

you hear the fire more than anything, but around the 1/2 way mark you can hear it faintly in this video. in person you could hear it clear as day. creepy.