Wes's Alaska trip July 5 to Aug 18 2015

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wilcoy02

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Location
Marengo, Ohio
Day 1 Sunday July 5, 2015
Left Marengo and met up with Leroy in Waldo Ohio at 8 am. Hit a sparrow on the fairing on the way to Waldo.
 

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July 5

We did 405 miles for the first day. Camped at RV Heaven on grass on a hill. Ready to leave and I hit a small ditch in the grass and dumped the bike. We rode St. Rt. 23 north to !5 to I-75 to I-80.
Cooler decided it wanted to drag on the pavement for a while.
 
July 6

The trailer with 12 in wheels was wagging and pushing the bike. Stopped at a wall mart and changed out the 500 mile 12 inch tires with new 8 in tires. Some one got 2 almost new trailer tires. Bought a new cooler.
Started to pour rain so we ducked in for gas and stayed under the awning to stay dry.
There was another bike there and had a fishing pole sticking out. I asked where he was headed. He (his name was Ladis) said Alaska. He was from Chicago. So we headed out together after the rain stopped.
WE made it to Minneapolis where a former roommate lives in NW part of the city. We took I-80 to I-39. He bought the 3 of us pizzas for dinner. He had to leave for work at 7 am so we got an early start. We had little traffic as we were heading west out of Minneapolis.
 
July 7

Left Minneapolis and rode to Montana. It was hot and dry. We stayed in a paved Sam's club rv parking. After I took the trailer off I proceeded to dump my bike on the ground again. The 1100 is running real good. Trailer still has a little wag. While riding I felt something hit my left leg. It was my side panel. It had broken one tab. Thank Goodness I had it teathered to the bike.
Since none of us had any room- not even for a can of soup- it was difficult to find a place for the side panel. The back of our site was a fence. Behind the fence was a railroad switching facility. So all night long they were assembling trains.
I decided the hair had to go. So I found a hair salon and got a butch haircut. No more brushes for the hair.
 
July 8

Very warm day for riding. We camped at Glendive Montana at Makoshika State Park.
On our ride Leroy's bike flipped to 100,000 miles. We saw Ft. Peck Bridge and dam. It holds water for 131 miles. Met the sheriff
of Circle. Bought groceries and a farmer told us a different route to go. 200 to 19. We turned wrong and went on 24 past tiny butts. We stopped at a dairy Queen and Ladis had a fit. He wanted to make miles.
Stayed at Havre Mont.
 
July 9

Ladis left early to get to GNP and get our campsite. Leroy and I stopped at a hardware store for some pins in Shelby. I got some u-bolts to help stabilize the hitch.
It was a very warm day and used the wet vest to keep chilled. We stopped by a mailbox for a P&B sandwich for lunch.
Got to GNP at 6PM and Leroy dumped his bike on a turn in the campground.
 
July 10

Leroy left camp at 7am to ride the HWY to the sun. He had breakfast in the lodge. We met up at Logan's Pass 8900ft above sea level. It was cloudy and rainy. We went back to camp to chill out.
Since I lost my camel back yesterday we went for a beautiful ride to wal-mart.We ate at Applebees. Got back top camp and Leroy started a fire as it seemed early but it was light until 11PM. We got a pink slip from the rangers about no locks on our bear cooler.
 
July 11

We went to look for locks to keep the rangers happy. We turned the wrong way and found no stores at all. Turns out it was all Indian Reservation. Ladis decided to leave us and go on up to Alaska. At a gas station there was a fed ex truck there so I got to mail my side cover home. It was very warm and all of us wondered if we really needed the jackets and heaters, and all the warm stuff we brought.
 
July 12

Left camp at 10 am and went to St. Mary's GNP to meet up with Don. He was the only one who said he would do this back in January. Met up with Don at 1:40pm. We drove to the border of Canada. There were 8 cars in line to go through. We had no problem getting across. About 30 miles into Canada the very top of my camper decided to blow off. The top landed on it's top and did very little damage. The tent went out and looked like a parachute. Don had a couple of ratchet straps so we tied it down to the trailer frame. A little further down the road I noticed Leroy was not with us. So we stopped and waited. Well I had left my trunk unlatched and a tablet that had all my contact info was blowing page by page out the trunk. Leroy tried to recover the pages. He got all the blank ones. So I could not contact everyone in Canada and Alaska.
I had brought my pup tent so we could use it on side trips--so I had a tent for the night.
 
July 13 Mon

We made it across into Canada. 10 miles into Canada and I lost the top of my camper not on Sunday. We camped at Calgary West Campground. I used my pup tent to sleep in. It was a cool spotty rain. Don, Leroy and I rode to Deer Creek. I still had Steve's and Lori's phone number. Called and talked to Steve. He left work and met us at a gas station. He led us to his house. He told us there is the hot tub, there is the shower, and here is the garage. He left us at his house with full privileges and he went back to work. We proceeded to fix my camper top. Once the family arrived home from work they proceeded to fix us all a very delicious dinner. After dinner they welded hooks onto my frame for the latches to hook into, to keep the top from blowing off again. Then we all settled outside around the campfire and enjoyed the flavors from mother earth. Around 9pm I said it was very kind of them to have us stay at their place but I was extremely tired. At 9 pm up there it is like 4 pm in Ohio. Sun still shining very brightly. Steve said it was also their bedtime also. I woke up about 6 am and took a pic of the sunrise. We lkeft their place around 7:15 am as they had to go to work.
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July 14 Tues

We headed out from Red Deere for Grand Prarie. I do not recall what really happened this day. I do know Don wanted to get to the Honda shop in GP before they closed. So he went on and we told him to get a camp site for the night. LeRoy I think went to
Wal Mart to get some bracing for the hitch. We got gas and I went ahead as I did not see Leroy anywhere. I left the gas station and that is when my 1100 would not go over 40 mph without the engine knocking. Leroy zoomed past me and caught up with Don who had a campsite at Saskatoon Island Provincial Park. When I did not show up Leroy came back looking for me.
I was going down the side of the road at 40 mph and the bike just up and seized up. The rear tire locked up and The engine was just plain dead. Leroy found me in the grass bawling my eyes out. All he could get out of me was 2 years of planning and it ends with me taking a bus home.

NOW WHAT REALLY HAPPENED.
I was ready to walk away from the bike knowing it was toast. We got the GWRRA gold book out and called several numbers. There were 4 listings who had trailers for help. We got either no answer or I sold my trailer 3 years ago and can not get GWRRA to change my listing. Finally got hold of Ken Purvis. He came out to us on the entrance ramp He had a ball that fit my trailer. He talked me into having the bike towed to AJ cycle's. So I called GWRRA rescue- they would have a tow truck out to the bike. I really would have rather just left it there. Ken would not let me do this.
Meanwhile Leroy led Ken and my trailer to the campsite. When they got there he told Don we would be back sometime. Leroy and Ken came back to me and the tow truck just showed up. Ken told the driver to take it to AJ Cycles. We dropped the bike off out in the parking lot-really hoped someone would steal it. This was about 10:30pm. Ken took Leroy and me to an A&W root Beer stand for some food. He then took us out to the campground. Ken did this all for a very big Thank You. I got the trailer set up and went to bed.
 
July 15 Wed

It rained during the night. Leroy explained to Don that we would be there for a couple of days and if he wished he could travel on alone. He said he had had enough of sleeping on the ground. So he went off to Alaska by himself and said he would see the motels.

Leroy rode me to the cycle shop and talked to AJ. We looked on the computer on something similar to Craig's list and found 2 bikes with in 20 miles. We went to look at both of them and I really wanted the first bike. It had cb, radio, fairing-BUT NO hitch. 3-5 days to get a hitch. Went to Sexsmith and bought the 98 Valkeryie. Called my wife to send money to The seller. AJ had me sign the title over to him for salvage. He said the first person who needed a 83 part gets the whole bike.
So Leroy and I went to eat at Boston Pizza. Spent the rest of the day at camp.
 
AJ cycles got the title to the bike and said the first person who needs an 83 part gets the whole bike for the cost of the part. I gave him a salvage title.

July16 Thurs

My wife called at 8am. The bank just wired the money. Should be there in 3-4 hours. So we fixed some bacon and pancakes for breakfast. Leroy lost it and had to take a shower. We had no Loons for the shower (1$ coin). I went around the camp to look for some change. Found 4 loons for the shower. We also discovered electric plugs in the showers so we could charge our batteries for camera, computer, phone,etc...We went back to the cycle shop and AJ let me strip anything I wanted off the bike. Foot pegs, Trunk, Back flashing lights, and misc things. Then we went to Best Buy so Leroy could get his computer fixed. I walked to a bank to change some money into Canadian money. We stopped at Red Wing to have my boots stretched. They gave me a can of leather dressing at no charge. Went to walmart for a laundry bag, soap dish, and other stuff.
Rode back to camp in a drizzle. The money did not come through in 3-4 hours. So we went to bed.
 

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