Long Ways Home Blog

Bellingham (WA) to Columbus (MT), 861 Miles on the Interstate to get to the North East corner of Yellowstone and the Beartooth Pass Highway.



That's Yellowstone Park up ontop of that ridge, do you see all that snow? It's June, right - should be no problem, right?














OK, no problem Pan B is make a bee-line to Thermopolis and the hot springs, except there's like 1 hotel room left when I get there as the Hot Spot Car Rally is in full swing...but I had a nice breakfast.



And found my new favorite canyon ride - the Wind River Canyon.





mmmmm, tunnels



At least one pass I hadn't been over before.




June 13 Bellingham to Butte



June 14 Butte to Thermopolis



June 15 Thermopolis to Price

So its getting on to the end of May and I realized that its getting on to the end of May and I have put something over 10000 miles on the new bike over the winter and I haven't gone anywhere... New bike? Oh ya, I got a new (well slightly used), 2007 BMW (no surprise), 1200RT - pretty nice ain't it?



There is an annual rally in California that I have has a hankering to go to for some time,



and with what looked like the return of winter fast approaching the PacificNorthWest and warm sunny skies promised farther South I was off.



But first I had to stop and pick up a few things



And what just exactly did I need? Maybe I've been hanging around Brian too long but some things just need to match.



Once all was packed away it was down I-5...actually it was all downhill on I-5, Seattle was one big f'n parking lot from Northgate almost through to Olympia - un-freakin-believable! I thought with gas prices like these people were supposed to be staying off the roads!



Sad thing is that as I write this entry a few weeks after the fact that is actually looking cheap

Once I got up out of second gear it was clear (OK maybe increasingly cloudy), sailing to Portland. P to the D to the X yo, up in the hood!



Subject:Re:Knock Knock
To:ian@longwayshome.net

Hi Ian,

Yup, we'll be home - how does the best pizza in Portland sound?

Erin

----Original Message----

From:ian@longwayshome.net
Sent:Thursday. May 23, 2008 6:00 AM
Subject:Knock Knock


Hi,

You guys home this evening? I was going to get up real early this morning and ride down to
California today in time for dinner... but that didn't happen so was thinking about maybe
stopping in Portland tonight.

Thanks,
Ian


And it was the best pizza in Portland with cold beer and the last quarter of an NBA playoff game. Thanks guys!

I think I mentioned something about warm and sunny and California...ya right! It started raining Friday morning as I left Portland. I eventually pulled into Auburn and found a place for my tent.



There were already a lot of bikes there (wet bikes)



and wet bikers.



Did I mention this was a BMW rally?







With it being a little too wet to do much riding I wandered around and picked up some new stickers (would have liked to say they were free - but they weren't)




Have I mentioned that it is now 80 and sunny back home - well it was.

One of the highlights of this rally is the English Trials event for dual sport motorcycles.

A couple of young friends of mine suggested that that were not enough pictures of me on the web site. While I have all the respect in the world for the both of them that was a foolish, foolish, foolish thing to say. Steph and Morgan – this posting is for you, to everybody else I apologize in advance.

Waiting for the train to Vesoul


The little tupperware barge


Ian on the Moulin Rouge


Safety Third!


Elevators in France are small


Getting around Paris is easy - if you don't take the bus.






There's a bunch of art, and stuff here.












And a church or two









There's some famous people you can visit

Chopin


Edith Piaf


Jim Morrison


Oscar Wilde


Victor Noir - apparently rubbing a certain part of this statue is some sort of fertility right, take a close look at where the brass is showing


Lots of old buildings









Dancing Girls!



I even found a Frank (Gehry)

Paray le Monial to Digoin
7.6 Miles

As we floated along this morning it was quickly realized that a lot of the rental boats out of Digoin were the same as the Moulin Rouge and that maybe the quickly approaching port was as good as spot as any to stop for some needed repairs and talked about upgrades. And so it was, and that was that.

Genelard to Parail le Monail
12.4 Miles




The day started out lovely (and early), enough.

We made it to the lock at the promised hour and shared the ride with another boat for the first time, a nice old barge with an equally nice couple from Australia ...just how nice was to be proven around a corner or two once we made it out of the lock
The engine speed started to oscillate down and the water temperature warning light came on so we shut it down and drifted to shore. As we looked towards the stern (back of the boat), great clouds of steam were to be seen pouring out of the engine compartment. That nice Australian couple tied up ahead of us, had some helpful suggestions as to what the problem might be and then promised to inform the local canal master of our situation and location – which they did as the local canal master did show up shortly shaking his head muttering “...n'est pas bon, n'est pas bon”. We identified a large gaping hole in the 3” primary exhaust hold off of the manifold,



which was easily replaced as there just happened to be an extra 4 feet of that particular hose onboard.



But that was not the problem, and neither was blockage of the water intake for the cooling system. We eventually figured out that the really old gasket on the water filter would only seal if the cover was cranked down a lot more than just finger tight, otherwise the suction was not sufficient to draw in the water to cool the engine. Problem fixed – this one anyways. Made it to the next lock, no canal master but the VNF had not gotten around to “upgrading” this particular lock to the “automatic” system, so we got to turn some wheels and open some valves old school style. We were not so fortunate at the next lock as all the mechanicals had been “upgraded” but the controls were behind a locked door, so we shut down the engine (a mistake), and waited. The canal master did show up but much to our surprise the engine would now not start. So again we tied off on the side of the canal and started to fuss around like we new what we were doing – well sort of new what we were doing. We were pretty sure that it was probably the solenoid, we just weren't all that sure where the solenoid actually was to start banging on it with a hammer. The far to helpful canal guys eventually found a car mechanic who would come out and help us – after lunch that is, we are still in France after all. The car mechanic knew where to put that Texas screwdriver to use and after some hammering the engine started up – with another item added to the to-be-fixed list.
A short float later we reached what would penultimate port on this trip

St Julien sur Dheune to Genelard
22.7 Miles




Having passed over the summit of the canal the scenery changed slightly more industrial



but not really anywhere near the degree we had been told, and in fact it is down right pastoral.

Chagny to St Julien sur Dheune
15 Miles





Brian made contact with the proprietress of the Chateau de Chamilly, a winery whose product he has some familiarity with. Arrangements were made for a visit. Stopping at St Gilles, we walked the 3km up over the ridge to Chamilly

La Moorage


La Roue Up


La Roue Down


All along I felt like we were being watched.

Les Cows


And yes, I waved.

Once through the village we spotted the Chateau and made are way over.

Le Terrior


Le Chateau


La Cave


What a great place, and the wines were fanatastic...

Le Damage

Seurre to Chagny
36.7 Miles




Good day today as we left the Saone and entered the Canal de Centre – the first lock was a monster.







Once we got up, it was into the actual canal.



France has a transportation solution for everything.