Beautiful start this morning. The sun was in the perfect position to make the river next to us shine a silver so bright it was hard to look at. This was one of the most rapid filled rivers we’ve seen. It must have been pretty dangerous because we saw zero people rafting or really anywhere near it.
We didn’t gas up this morning because we knew there was a station near the edge of our range. Also, when we start the day with a full tank we typically don’t make our first stop till we are almost out of gas. This makes for a long first leg of the day, sometimes too long. So we are feeling pretty good about our genius plan. What could go wrong?
We find the gas station, the pumps have a sign on them.. Never good.  They say check inside with the clerk first. Right as I notice the pumps have no power, Swampkat sees the reality sign in the window.  Great. We’ve come to far too go back.  Our only hope is a sign we saw prior to pulling into the station. Next gas 30 miles. I’m down to 3 chicklets of fuel. Remember that gum that tastes like soap called chicklets?  That’s where the name comes from. We can probably make it we decide, not as though we have a choice.
As we ride I almost immediately lose a chicklet and my reserve light comes. Now I’m counting the miles, who cares how pretty this is I need gas. Another chicklet gone. Oh shit. We’ve now driven over 30 miles. Pucker factor, engage. Another chicklet gone. I’m reading bingo fuel. I let Kat know. He’s bad off as well, but still has a fuel reading. Now I’m looking at every bit of road judging it’s ability to support the bike with kickstand down. Lemme tell you, it is not looking good. I make a plan with Swampkat. He can’t stop when I run out, it’s too risky.
About 20 minutes go by, Orion is giving me her best. Then on an incline the image of a gas pump appears.  30 miles? Try around 60+. We turn down this dirt road and at first see nothing. After a few longgg seconds we see the back end of a fuel truck and he’s currently filling the pump. It was a Sinclair station, we were saved!
We ate while the truck emptied both of it’s containers. While eating we were looking out the window at this big pine tree nearby. It looked like dust was being blown off of it. It wasn’t dust though, it was pollen, f*cktons of pollen.  It was coming off of this tree in sheets,  almost like how hard rain looks. Both of us laughed, we both have allergies and beyond the trees near us were literally thousands more. This morning when we loaded up we noticed both bikes completely covered in yellow pollen so we shouldn’t have been surprised, but I’ve never seen a tree shed pollen to that extent.
Bellies and tanks full, we set off. We followed rivers almost all day. We made it into Montana today,  it’s my first time.  So far it’s been beautiful and the roads were mostly fantastic. The forecast says there will be some rain, so routes will have to be adjusted but we got this.
Internet is hit n miss, so the data heavy uploads will be a bit sparse till we get nearer…well anything.
Your week is almost done,  you guys hang in there.

As you may have guessed, today kicked ass for us. We started the day rounding lake Coeur d’Alene. It’s huge and what surprised me was how almost it’s entire shoreline was ringed with docks. They were everywhere. The road was excellent, nice and curvey, and without a soul in site. That’s the beautiful thing about riding during the week, especially on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Everyone is in hell I mean at work, so the roads are empty. Especially way out here.
Around lunch time we stopped to eat at this place called the Hoo Doo Mountain cafe. Once we got or gear off we noticed the place was closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. As we were taking a little break in the parking lot, we heard the rumble of a bike starting up. A few minutes later from around the corner of the cafe appears this big blue bike. He rides directly up to us and turns off the bike. We chat for awhile, it turns out him and his wife own the cafe. You’ve probably by now figured out why the cafe is closed. This guy has it figured out. His cafe is on a known motorcycle route, so it’s open for the busy days and closed on the amazing driving days. Needless to say we were both a bit jealous. He gave us the name and location of an amazing route, that we will save till we are joined by our third. You will meet him in a few weeks, his work name is Aaron, but I I’ll call him Trip from here on out.
As we continued our day, now on the hunt for food, we stumbled into this place called Fuzzy’s B&G. Sitting near the door.. Treasure maps!!  It is called Come Ride With Us and is full of motorcycle roads and businesses that cater to people in our situation. Look it up if your interested, there is too much stuff in it to get into here.
In the afternoon we rodeback passed WSU and into the hilly windy area. Still windy, but a lot more mild when there isn’t a storm. We dropped down to the snake river valley, then rode along Lewis and Clark trail. I kept seeing the signs for this historic trail, but kept wondering how active they were in the actual trail breaking aspect of their adventure. I don’t know, but I can’t help but think they were back in a tent somewhere sippin tea making their worker’s lives miserable. Every now and then stepping out of the tent with an aweful idea of which way they should go.  Eh, who knows.
Thanks to our newest treasure map we found this great motel in Kamiah, Idaho. When we walked in the room both of us said Wowww, this place is nice and the price is right!
While writing today’s story, one of the hotel owners just happened to walk by and asked us, “How’s the room?”  I said awesome, but when Swampkat answered ‘fantastic’ the guy got a confused look on his face and said, “Fantastic? Fantastic is extra, we under charged you!”  It was hilarious. We wouldn’t have even found this place without that map, we would have surely stayed at the first hotel with ground floor rooms. As an additional bonus,  there is a Sinclair gas station up the street and it has the Dino statue out front.
You guys take care. We’re on our way Sinclair’s!

That’s right, today we were just 10 miles from the Canadian border. We both have our passports, but neither of us felt like dealing with border nonsense.
Today was a good one. We left the dam this morning and almost immediately found ourselves surrounded by trees and enormous lakes. Up until about an hour and a half ago we had only seen a few cars in our lane. By cars, I mean 2. You couldn’t ask for better riding. It was a cold, but manageable. It rained a few times, but who cares we’re on a motorcycle trip.
Early in the day we refueled in a small town called Inchelium. The people were so friendly. It’s common that people wave at us, heck even cops will just wave at us, but in this town the number of random smiles and waves was off the chart. By the time we were back on the road I had a smile on my face from their good will. Eastern Washington was full of great people. Maybe it has to do with how beautiful their area is. I couldn’t count how many times the word beautiful came to my mind today. It was the perfect end to our time in Washington.
We’re now in Idaho and looking forward to tomorrow. One thing we’ve noticed since we’ve been in state.. Idaho has no friggin clue how to set up stoplights in it’s cities. Now, we’ve only driven through two of their ‘cities’ one was about 10,000 people and the other 40,000, but both had traffic like cities 10x their size. It was gross. We asked each other questions like: Why is there a stop light on the highway? Why are they all timed so that you can’t make more than one? Oregon seemed to have actually thought out so many aspects of their transportation system, the opposite seems to be true for Idaho.
We had a good long day today. We’re looking forward to some Arby’s and brewskis to put a cherry on top of this mofo.

Hi guys. We don’t have a lot to report today. We spent the majority of the day in hilly, treeless farmland. The weather was cold, real cold. Then it rained.
Everything changed once we got close to Roosevelt lake. It got a bit warmer, the wind finally died off, and blue skies were on the horizon.
We have a surprise 360 break video for you today. Don’t get too excited, it’s not going to change your life but it was a great experience.
We’re staying right next to the Grand Coulee dam. We’re going to try to catch a damn tour later. Hopefully we’ll get to see some cool stuff and take some sweet pictures.

I want this shirt!

This is how we get more trucks!

The day started in Ontario, Oregon. I woke up to the smell onions. Initially I thought maybe I forgot to wash everything, but that wasn’t the case. Apparently we were in onion country. This little area exports 1 billion pounds of onions every season. Occasionally throughout the morning we’d pick up the scent. It was pretty cool.
Early in the day we crossed into Idaho and what a treat it was. Being the weekend there were more people, but not enough to ruin the experience. We saw these enormous treeless rolling hills that were the most beautiful green. The color completely covered these hills. Swampkat will try to find a good picture of them for you guys. Behind these hills and off in the distance were snow capped peaks surrounded by clouds. I was glad when the road swung away from these monsters, I wasn’t mentally ready to deal with the temperatures that riding through that terrain brings.
After getting some gas at Sinclair’s, it’s the gas station with the Dino on the sign, we followed the Little Salmon creek down this epic canyon. The 360 video today was taken next to it. It was turbulent and it had a couple of water falls. Later it joined the Salmon river. I couldn’t believe how wide and slow moving it got. There were a few tourist towns along it’s banks which caused a little chaos because we were still in the canyon and everything and everyone were jammed together. We had to be extra careful around those jag offs. No one was really paying attention. Luckily this didn’t last long.
We drove past our first reservation on this trip. It was the Nes Perce. It was a beautiful area, but it’s hard not to think about the b.s. that brought them there.
We crossed into Washington at some point, I missed the sign, it was around there that the wind picked up. Big time. We were riding through hilly farmland where giant tractors with tank treds were doing tractor things and I couldn’t believe the dirt just didn’t all blow away. The wind was crazy strong. As for how it affects the bikes, the less I say the better. Those of you who have ridden in wind know how much concentration it takes and when the wind shifts how it affects the bike.
We ended the day in Pullman, Washington. Home of the WSU Wildcats.

We’ve been without phone service for the last 2 days. We use two different carriers so you know we were wayyy out there. We’ll try to upload what we can tonight, who knows what the situation tomorrow will be.
We’re spending the night in Ontario, Oregon. They have a Dq and both of us are stoked about the blizzard royale, or whatever ridiculous name it has. It’s the fancy blizzard with a terd of goodness at it’s center. We’re also doing laundry for the first time on the trip. We’re both thankful for that, you all are lucky the cameras don’t pick up smells.  🙂 It’s actually not that bad, we’re just running low on clean stuff.
The day started in the painted hills, which were awesome. Hopefully the 360 video shows it off. I also rode with it turned on, we haven’t had time to process the footage yet so I don’t know if it’ll be too shakey. Maybe we’ll put it up regardless of quality so that you guys can get an idea of how that sort of thing could work. It’ll be like you’re riding behind me.
It was another day of virtually no people. I loved it. The roads went from colorful canyons, to high forests, low scrub, and ended with farmland. We are at about 5000 ft in elevation. This coupled with the scrub land we rode through, my brain wouldn’t stop referencing Beastie Boys, High Plains drifter.  Drifter. See, still there.  We ate a lot of bugs today. They were everywhere. Another creature that was everywhere were these little squirrel like beasts. They had a death wish and would wait till right before we rode past them to either hide, or attempt suicide. Suicide squirrels is what we call them. No deaths today, but that wasn’t from lack of trying.
A great day. We wish you were here.

It was a phenomenal day. A day of almost all amazing motorcycle roads. In the 7 or so hours we rode today there were literally less than 10 cars in our lane. You can’t ask for better. We saw our first plateau and I killed my first tumble weed (yeah, on purpose). There were roads that were switch backs for miles. You know it’s good when that smile slowly starts to spread across your face and just stays there. The scenery was unbelievable.. this was all thanks to a treasure map.
Last night Swampkat and I went and had dinner at a place with one of the most questionable Yelp reviews I’ve seen. We considered taking our knives. I’m not kidding.  There must be a big difference in what happens in this bar at 6pm compared to 10, because we had a blast. I had the best French dip in 10+ years and Kat’s food was excellent. Well, right behind us, on the bottom shelf of a mostly empty bookcase was this note pad with large sheets of paper. It looked innocent enough and I was just looking for something to read. So I grabbed one. Listed on the front were the 7 wonders of Oregon. Interesting enough…but on the back was a map! On this map were Oregon’s scenic byways. It was like we discovered treasure. We immediately started scheming, there are days and days of roads available/recommended,  how much of this can we cram 😉 into these remaining 2 days?
Like I said, today was outstanding. Finding the map and talking to locals has always been an exciting dice roll we’ve both come to love about road trips.  We are both beat up after all the amazing, but grateful.
Internet will become more hit or miss from this point on. We will post when we can, but expect some delays. No 360 today, the roads are too good. See you guys later.

Long story short, the plan worked. We didn’t see a spec of rain!
The day started with tiny roads and small towns. There were so many flowers, it was unbelievable. Entire fields completely white, it looked almost like snow.  There were vineyards too. It was an interesting contrast to the wine country in California. In California the plants are green and everything else is typically dry. Not here, the fields were surrounded by green. It was beautiful. I haven’t ever seen a grape vine flower, but I did today.
After that we started gaining elevation. I think around 2500 feet, so not too high, but friggin cold. Holy moly cold. We were riding through the clouds and all of a sudden there was Mt Hood. It was only there for a second, but I’m glad we saw it.
The weather changed almost immediately after seeing the mountain and we followed a stream through a sweet valley. We took a little breaky poo and got some video for you guys.
The terrain changed again, the trees were smaller and the land pancaked. In front of us was this enormous valley running perpendicular to our path.  This was the Colombia River. This was one of my favorite parts of the day. We were going to ride next to the river for a bit and had a choice, the Oregon side was highway and the Washington side was 2 lane amazing. I think you know what we chose. To get to the Washington side we had to cross a bridge that had a toll. I’m used to bay area prices so when we found out it was 75 cents per bike we were blown away. The bridge was metal and the road was metal grate. It was amazing to see the river through the grates.
In Washington we followed a stream north then dipped back down into Oregon. The landscape opened up, there were no trees but instead windmills everywhere. We beat the thunderstorms and ended the day Condon. The motel we decided to stay at hasn’t had any guests in 2 days. Goodtimes.