Brasil Tour Dates Change !!!!

Hi , I have just learned that , they have now decided on having a competition on the week I wanted to run the tour, so I will run the tour after the comp. New dates are March 10-20 In Valadares , come on out let's go flying someplace warm and fun. Lots of x-c potential , great night life, excellent food and lots of pilots from all over the world to chat with . Please let me know if your interested asap , Remember to get your travel visa early.. good for 5 yrs. cheers

What day is it ?

I woke up this morning and i don't have a clue what the date is and i don't care, how cool is that !
It has been a couple of days of driving here and their and lots of phone calls ! The end results are the bike ran low on oil , i guess it pushed out thru the exhaust and the top end over heated ! So something must have let loose to cause the oil to run low , i just did an oil change 10 days earlier. I didn't check the oil the day i left but had done 3 days earlier , so where did it all go ? Well Kawasaki covered the problems and said they would rebuild the top end but not everything ... I was not happy with this ... it over heated and i still have to ride this bike down into South America. I decided to buy a new bike with a fresh engine . It's funny but i have been complaining to peachly about this engine since before the trip started, saying that something did not feel right with it . It would pop alot comming down hills, backfire many times and run rough in some sections . It was like the valves were not shimmed right or timming was off . I took it to a dealer in Carson city and he said not to worry about it , that the valves don't need adjusting and it was probably the altitude. hmmmm So today i bought a new bike and will ride the old one back to Canada in the springtime... today i swap everything over and put some breakin miles on it. Fun Fun . Now i'm holding us in Las Vegas... thanks peach and gabreille for being so patient .... so it continues !

Pissedandbroke on Route 66

Unbelievable ... we finally left the grips of Las vegas, the ride south was smooth sailing untill about 3 hrs into the trip . We stopped to check directions as we exited the Mojave Desert , just outside of Amboy , and i noticed my bike sounding louder than normal. Driving done the rd another couple of km we stopped again at a Gas station being rebuilt and that as far as i wanted to go with her. I put a quart of oil in and it just barely reqistared on the window , holly shit ! where did my oil go ?? The knocking did not go away so plan B ..... one of the locals offered to give us a ride anywhwhere we wanted to go ...he had a truck and a trailer!! Dave was his name nicest guy you could meet, probably in the whole of the USA! We were so lucky to have broken down here of all places if you have to break down .. loaded up the bikes and headed back to Las Vegas . Dave had a couple of rules , he likes to drive slow and you had to tolerate his smoking.... ( the good stuff ) shit . 3 hrs later we were back at Gabrielle's house ! The ride was great driving in the desert, clear night stars were out , things aren't that bad we had a good buzz on and were in the desert with our new friend who makes Diesel motor bikes in his spare time !

Seems like were stuck here !!!

Las vegas has us , well peachly anyways ... peach has so much to do... change tires, upload new maps, send crap back to swizerland etc. I am waiting to leave but it gives me time to do this blog and set up the photo's , I don't know how i will manage the photo's from the road but will try to update things as i go along , be patient ,we will now leave tomorrow for Joshua Tree National park then Mexico ! My photo's can be looked at via my website or on the link , hope you enjoy !http://picasaweb.google.ca/paraglidecanada/MotorbikeTrip02 cheers everyone !

November 10th

After working on the bikes this morning and cleaning the dust of of everything, we headed north toward Coral sand dunes and Zion National park. This is one of the most beautiful parks that i have ever been too. The light was great , the fall colors were out , yes it i warmer down here and some of the trees are still green , Another creation beyond belief . It makes me feel small and insignificant this place is timeless . We had a long ride back to Las vegas about 3 hrs on the hwy , boring !! Hope to head to California tomorrow? well see ...

Heading east ?

Well being we are so close to Grand canyon , I thought we had better check it out while were down this way. We visited Lake Mead, then camped the night at valley of Fire, could not see the valley as we got in after dark , but in the morning it was amazing.. I will try to post some pctures soon as i figure it out ! Valley of fire is a small area but do neat red rocks of sand stone and scuptured by wind and rain ... over to the townof Mesquite afterthis and over the Mtn range heading south to Grand Canyon , met up with some locals whom asked how we found this road ,, we told them good ole GPS they were suprised , it was really rough and technical riding for the next few hrs , good work out. The rd then turned to dust and i had to stay back aways to avoid eating peacly's dirt . We arrived at Toweap in the middle of nowhere Grand canyon ... no tourists here , no busses , no facilities , no gaurd rails !! We walked up to the edge and looked 2oooft straight down, it was incredible ! We left the canyon at about 4pm and headed north to Kanab , which is just over the border into Utah. My bike started to act up on the way i could not go over 70km /hr , this was by far the dustiest part of our trip so far ! Peachly was behind so it was not problem for me , while driving i just missed hitting a horse doing about 60km /hr . It was running across the rd in front of me and i had to swerve and hit the brkes hard , holy shit ! Wild horses night time and dausty rds , a recipe to an accident , if my bike was not acting up i probably would have hit it . Anyways , solved the problem by washing out my airfilter, it was clogged with a fine dust ... cleaned it up , we did find about 3 - 4 bolts missing from peachly bike , 1 frame bolt, 1 rack/ carrier bolt, 1 exhaust bolt ,, went to the local bike shop and got replacements in the morning, I told him to use Blue loctite !

Las vegas bound !

I called peachly and he has tickets (KA ) cirque de soleil http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/KA/main.htm?bandWidth=Hi it was cool . Good show and pricey but what the hell it not very often i get to Vegas . The ride over down from Carson city towards Bishop on hwy 95 we incredible paved rd but scenic , if we road overland on dirt roads it would take us days ! At Bishop i take a secondary rd over the pass back into Nevada . arriving in Las vegas at dark about 7pm . Show time is at 9;30 .... We are now staying in Las vegas . Fixing the bikes and taking day rides, buying some gear and planning our ride south into Mexico. The Registration for peachly's bike has been screwed up from Valley motor sports in Kelowna . they gave him the wrong reg. when i bought it and now as they go to sell the bike in Kelowna realised the problem ! So we had to wait here for a few days untill the problem gets fixed and we get new papers sent out for the bike . We are staying at a friends of peach's from the days he was living here working at the local ski area . Thanks Garrielle for letting us use your place as a flop house , it's been fun ! Now on too bigger and better , we are heading over to Zion National park and area to have a look around . This area is amasing Red Rocks canyon , High desert, dry and warm right now , back to sunscreenand riding in shorts . Climbed to the top of redrocks one day and a rough ride over a few passes to pass the time here... cheers

Cold morning start !

Frosty this morning ice on the tents , we are east of Fallon air Navy base and the jets are flying high over us at night and in the morning , practicing for the heal thing, the machine never stops. Peachly and i break camp dry our gear out best as possible , he heads towards Las vegas and i head towards Virgina city to see my buddy Dan E. I follow the road west past fallon and see planes taking off from the base here and cruising skywards east and south chasing each other , so cool , every kids dream i guess, is to fly one or fly in one ! I get into virgina city mid afternon contact dan and go for beers with him in Carson city just down the road. Virgina city is an old western town being rebuilt and Dan my friend is part of this , he has and is rebuilding these old buildings quite amazing really some are over 150 yrs old . The next few days are spent fixing and cleaning the bike reading my books and paragling , riding the bike around Lake Tao. We did manage to scoop an ride one morning in a 1940 CB amphibian Navy plane. Dan 's freind has restored it and we head out over from Carson city too California to Lake Tao . We practice touch downs on the lake and fly the whole circumfrence of the lake , sweet their are so few of these flying in the world right now, part of history. Back at the airport in Carson we look into many of the hangers . their is a real collection of old jets and prop planes being restored and flown her by retired millionaires... must be nice !

Winnamucca to Eastgate...

We started the day a litle late, it was raining all night and still wet in the morning , it was a good idea to turn around last night , not that i don't mind roughing it but ...why ! We headed out into the middle of nowhere again , opening and closing gates as we cross private property, so many side roads amd cross roads to chose from. We road all day again and only seen 1 truck pass in the opposite direction , he stopped us and asked for directions, ha that's a good one ! We have no idea where we are except what the GPS tells us. It was raining on and off today , so incredible light shows ,sun beams and squalls all around us as we ride south. The road gets slippery we are riding on dust which is about 10 inches thick and the bike weaves all over the place, its like riding on snow , you have to keep your speed up or you won't make it through . I came around the corner and see peacly picking up his bike , i liltte wipe out, nothing damaged and peach is not hurt , but the pace has slowed down now ! I just about bite the dust a few times trying to keep control and stay on my path through this , it really keeps the adrenaline pumping for the next few hrs. We arrive at hwy no. 50 called the Loneliest hwy in the USA and we came off of a side road of this, so where were we then ? We ate supper in a small truck stop in Eastgate , great food from riding all day , the guy running the place tells us of a hot spring down the road a few km so we head out. Belly's full of beer and food and ready to campout , we ride and ride and being as it's dark out now cannot find thi place , roads go everywhere , we finall camp on top a hill on a pass , start a fire , set up the tents and drink Jack Daniels whiskey ahhh , life is good!

Whitehorse springs to Winnamucca, Nevada...

Wow, again a nice ride we are riding along the steen mountains in the Alvord desert... peachly's Gps is so accurate, we can travel on roads barely seen with the eyes as were going along . This is one of my most enjoyable days , technical riding , raining , mud ,spilled coffee , wipeouts . As we were trying to figure out which road we were on a heard of Antelope went running by us about 40 of them, full speed about 300 ft away . I rode ahead over the rise and scared a flock of grouse off the rd then saw the Anelope being chased by a coyote , he bolted when he seen my bike . I have been looking for the Antelope for days and finally got a great veiw of them .. Alot of these roads we are on we have not seen anoyone else for days at a time or just the odd hunter or farmer , it is just how we want it , out their and remote. If we have a breakdown which we can't fix ourselves we have a lot of riding to do to get out ,with one bike at least ! We finally came out to pavement and rode for 1 hour into Winnamucca , Visited the travel info center and eat lunch at a casino , terrible food ! bought some groceries for the road and headed out into the desert again. we were going to camp out again . As he headed south a huge storm was comming toward us, we decided to turn around and ride 30km back into town, i sucks setting tents up and cooking in the rain when you don't really have too, unkike those whom have travelled this route in the past years , we have bikes ! this is cool !

Day 8 Hotspring here we come !

Long day of riding today again in the middle of nowhere is southeast Oregon , Wow what a big state this is hrs of riding and seeming to get nowhere from nowhere ! We actually were on parts of the Idaho / Oregon/ Nevada stage coach trail for a better part of the day , It was weird thinking about all the people whom had travelled this counrty years ago over this barren rocky dusty area , no water for miles just sage bush and dust ! We did see some wild hores today , some coyotes and managed to find the Wild horse hot springs Sweet !! undeveloped inthe middle of gravel rds , had some beers with a few young students at the springs. They are hitting all the springs on the area to try them out ! cool ! Water temp 102 .. peachly had to get up in the middle of the night to take a dip as he was freezing in his tent , as for the past few nights he has been cold , his sleeping bag he bought is not warm enough, and the mat has not insulation in it ! I slept well after the hot bath !

Day 6 starting to warm up now a little...

Day 6 , It was freezing out today but not as bad as the other days ...we are heading further south now ! Went up a cool rd this morning along the snake river canyon, wound up about 2oooft to the top of the canyon .. then got lost for a bit , lots of forestry rds , then basically found a paved rd out finally and set towards Boise id, we had to get to a motorcycle shop before it closed friday afternoon now . We spent the few hrs doing oil changes and such , ran into a guy in the shop whom is also riding solo down south to Costa rica had supper with him and talked about voodoo and zombies from Haiti! Slept good in a hotel again ! Day 7 , Left early to get out of Boise , had a hard time starting the bikes this morning had to figure it out , push started one. Rode towards lake Owhee , real nice riding windy rd and an mix of canyons and flat open spaces . Today me and peach got lost from each other ! Took us about 1 hr to find each other again, we learned a good lesson both of us , i was trying to stay back out of his dust , and he turned off of the main route as he did this i went by him , he didn't see me, i thought he has riding real fast so i sped up too catch him about 10 km later ... i found no more tracks and back tracked . we finally found each other ! we were in the middle of fricking nowwhere.... Camped a few hrs later , had a beer and some whisky offered to us by a hunter ! cheers for that ! Camped and burned sage bushes on the fire !

Day 5 funriding ...

We broke camp early , it was warmer than usual down by the snake river, nice area some place i'd like to come back too . headed south to Lewiston and had breakfast . We rode south along the snake river , wow lots of fishing for Salmon and sttelhead here , i wanted to stop and fish for the day but ... we headed up some steep canyon roads following along the snake river towards Hells canyon ! we had to cut inland and only seen 1 truck for the next 4 hrs. This area was nice , but it was cold , hit another pass and caught up to a cold front moving south ! Back too the heated vest and all the cloths again . Views form the canyon wall were incredible and a few snow squalls were around . We headed out onto some open country finally started to see some game , our 1st heard of elk about 20 in the herd running away from us. Earlier in the day we saw a few bighorn sheep on the otherside of the snake river on the indian reserve. We were in full on hunting season in Oregon , wow lots of hunters down this way ! We ended out comming out at Enterprise near Joseph ore. another nice area i'd like to see in the summer , out of the way but so beautiful . We wanted to get over the pass so we decided to try before it got too dark we found paved rd which took use over a 6000ft pass to a town called Halfway. Riding at night sucks, always worried about animals wlking out , but it is hunting season , so we did not see much , the rd was great super windy . Stayed in a hotel... too f*&%8king cold out too camp, we were frozen from the riding today , but it was so much fun !

Heading out of farm country !

Day 4 , cold start to the morning... weather clear and frosty ! Took a while to warm up ! Full on grip warmers and electric vest for the past 3 days , now ! Were now in farm country, flat land and it's getting harder to find dirt roads , everything is paved around here ! we passed into Idaho towards Moscow and thur and ended up driving at night again after supper and a few beers , wound our way down the snake river canyon, to a campsite north of Lewingston city , wow nice country now ! Things are looking up and were getting back into some good riding ! sweet!

Trying to catch up now !

Day 3 , relaxed a bit in Winthrop and visited lots of coffee... By mid afternoon we headed overland on what road we could find to arrive in Grand Coulee dam and ate supper in Electric city . Cool riding on side roads late at night , had meican food and drove around town to find a decent place to have a beer , no such luck it suck's to live their! So option 2 go find a place to sleep , drove south and slept in the ditch on the side of the rd. wa hoo ...

Viva las vegas !!

Well after a very cold rainy/ snowy start we are now in Las vegas getting some sun again , sunscrean as well ! We left 2 weeks ago today and i have not been in a spot where i could get on a computor and log in yet . After travelling from my house in Vernon we rode the top rd , over King eddy rd. and hit snow comming down into Winfield , then it turned to rain and lots of it... all the way to Oliver , we stayed at friends thanks, Russ and Daphnie . Had supper with them and was good to catch up again and warm up ! Crossed the USA, border without much problem, even with the swiss boy with me ! From here we really started our journey off pavement we tried to stay mainly off rd or as they say in the USA primative roads ! The highlite of the day was Boldy pass at 7100ft and their was about 6 inches of snow on it . It was tricky , and i did come around a corner and saw peachy picking up his bike .... nothing broken but we started riding slower and with our legs splayed out like a tripod for the next hr or so . I guess we had been the only ones over this rd in a while. It ws nice to be back at lower altitudes where we got onto dirt again. We ended up dropping into Winthrop wher we stayed at friends of peachly's, larry and susie. Thanks guys it was great to meet both of you , hope to see you in vernon next summer !
Man me and peach have had it good the last few days sleeping in beds and eating like kings !!