I'm Back!

It's been a  hard month since I last posted, as the ones that are following this blog know I had to cut my trip short after hearing of Mother passing away. As I was about as far away as I could get in the U.S. from where my parents live I had a long journey home of about 5000 kms. which I managed to do in 4.5 days. Ya I am a little obsessive and when I decide I am heading home not much stops me. I must say though I hope I never do that again, I do not like the interstates to begin with as they tend to be very boring plus the many sleepy moments and the pain I was in was a bit too much. After I got home I rested for a few days and then off to Vancouver Island in Beth's Van to my Mother's Funeral. I must say I do a lot better pain wise on my bike than in the Van but glad we took it as the weather was nasty and I brought a lot home from my parents home as my Dad is also in a home I now have a lot of his tools. It's nice to keep things in the family but also hard to see my Parents things.

I have a few days of my trip that I didn't write on so I will try to remember a few things here and post some nice pictures I got.

Off to the Everglades. The weather is warming up now. Apparently I am at the end of the tourist season so they have closed a lot of the campsites in the Everglades as the rainy season will be starting anytime so I am lucky to miss the rain. On my last trip I didn't get to see Alligators so that is a high priority for me this time. Apparently they have panthers also in the Everglades but they are seldom seen.

I camped in a campsite that surrounded a small lake hoping to find Alligators but couldn't see any. There was one other person camping there so I talked to them and they said there was there were lots of gators in the canal along the road, so off I went to get my pictures. I see why they live there, the amount and size of the fish in the canals were amazing, lots of food there for sure.

It was very warm over night so I left the fly off, by morning everything was soaked due to the humidity. So here I am at my pick nick table having some breakfast and I look up and there is an Alligator not more than 30 ft. from me crossing from the bush behind my tent over to the pond, he was so quiet I almost missed him, but I did get some awesome pictures after hurriedly scrambling to find my camera.

    

The other sunny side of the lake was his destination, apparently after they eat they lay in the sun to warm up as it helps digestion.

On to the Florida Keys.

Well I thought $36 was expensive for a campsite, here it $43.

These crabs live in holes on dry land, not sure what they eat or if they even go into the water.

The weather was finally getting nice and hot and I am starting to relax and enjoy the warmth after riding far to many miles in less than warm weather. The Keys are not known for and abundance of sandy beaches, although I did find one and was just heading there as I got the call from my sister about my Mom passing away.

A  few pics from my trip to Vancouver Island at the end of May.

The weather was a little extreme for the end of may, it might have been a little difficult on my bike.

The home where I grew up as a child. For sale - only 1.28 Million!

Well as far as continuing my trip to complete the U.S. states on my bike, I'm not sure at this point as it is getting a little late now, I have a father and son camp out next week with my son and grandson and then that would only leave me a month before the BMW national rally in Salem Oregon which I wanted to be at. I may try head out in Sept., go across Canada and then down the east coast and across the south into Arizona for awhile, just not sure how I would get back home with my bike in Nov.

Journey to Paradise.

A sign posted at the first rest stop a came to in Florida.

I just assumed that there would be lots of beach campsites along the west side of Florida, apparently not. After a few campsites not being open or where they were supposed to be I found one just before dark at a State Park inland. It turned out good as I was camped right beside a couple and there two little girls who were visiting from Switzerland. I had a nice visit with them and even got fed breakfast. I love meeting people from other countries.

The park ranger at this site told me about a campsite on the beach, and it turns out the Switzerland couple had been there also. So off I go to find my Beach campsite.Well I finally found paradise.A little pricey but nice. Supposed to be #1 beach in America, ( I guess they mean in the U.S  )

It's still not all that hot, my bike says 25 but with the breeze still a little cool in the shade.The raccoons around here are brave, one just walked up to within a couple of inches of me while I was writing this.

The rally and on to Valdosta Georgia

Huge wind storm Fri. Night at the rally, two trees fell, one on top of a tent, luckily the guy wasn't injured but had a hard time getting out. The rain started pretty seriously Sat afternoon, in time for the steak barbeque. By this time lots of people had left and lots moved to motels. The food was good and lots of it, more so as so many had left. I ended up with the long distance award for traveling over 2500 miles to the rally, but missed out on any of the big prizes.

 So Sun. morning it's all over and time to pack up. It was still raining and had rained all night so it wasn't much fun packing up. When I left it was 10 degrees C. and continued to rain a good two hours as I headed south. But I must say even with the poor weather it sure felt good to get on the bike again and head down the road after resting for a few days. Crazy that it was colder than at home, way up north. The sun came out eventually and it warmed up to about 25 by the afternoon. Stopped along the way to go to Church and then ended up in a motel again as the Campsite and Motel were both $30. By supper time it had clouded up again and looked a little threatening. On to Florida tomorrow and hopefully warmer weather.

Greers Ferry Lake to Nashville Tennessee to Hiawasee Georgia

Don't quite know why I ended up in Nashville (where I stopped for the night ) when I was aiming for some where near Chattanooga, but I did. After leaving Greers Ferry the twisty roads ended and it became a lot flatter but still lots of trees. Something to note on the pictures I took in Arkansas is that the trees are only about half in leaf so it would get even nicer when all the leafs are out. As I got into Tennessee the roads got more curves to them and there's lots of great roads in this and North Carolina area but I need to rest for awhile so I'm headed straight to the rally in Georgia.

These are at the camsite near Nashville, nice but too many trees for my liking, even though I was near the water I couldn't see out as there were trees in the water as well, so no way at all to see out from the trees or to get any direct sunshine.

At the Rally in Hiawasee Georgia....................4722 kms. so far or 2551 miles.

I thing that's all you'll here for awhile, at least until it warms up a bit.

Harrison Arkansas to Greers Ferrry Lake Arkansas

Arkansas..............Motorcycle heaven. A person could spend 2 weeks just in the west side of Arkansas and ride wonderful twisty roads all day long. It been fun but this body of mine just can't keep the pace I would like on these roads for very long. Beautiful scenery, beautiful roads.

Stayed in a campsite in Greers Ferry Landing which wasn't actually open yet. Had a nice visit with the person taking care of it. He is a Vietnam Vet and pointed out that there were also Canadians there. He gave me a patch saying Canadian Vietnam Veterans.

Baxter Springs Kansas to Oklahoma, Missouri and ending in Harrison Arkansas

Well......................., it's been awhile. Other that the Mount Rushmore area can't say there's much to see in the eastern part of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas and Oklahoma. In Missouri things started to improve a bit with some leaf on the trees and even a few blossoms. Then into Arkansas, finally some twisty roads................ and nice scenery, Yeah!

 

Doniphan NE, Winter Quarters, Baxter springs KS

The day started Very Foggy, Damp and Cold. The tent was soaked with dew. I would take 5 degrees colder and dry and day.

Stopped in a Winter Quarters for a little tour and a few pictures.

These wagon wheel are darn near 6' tall, this one is showing a counter that would measure the distance traveled.

The sun stated to come out and warm up a bit as I traveled Baxter springs KS, passing in and out of Missouri a few times as I travel along the border. The sun disappeared and I could see that it had rained in a lot of the area I passed through later that day, luckily it missed me and didn't really get much colder. I looked for campsites along the way but they were either in the opposite direction down the end of 2 miles of slippery gravel road or just not a good place to stay. They must have had a lot of rain in this area. The country side is getting a little nicer to look at, some of the trees are starting to show signs of life and even a few trees in blossom.


Now in a motel again in Baxter Springs.Hung the soggy tent up in the shower to dry and catching up on my blog.



The next state will be Arkansas and from what I can tell the scenery should be much nicer.

Hotspring SD to a Campsite near Doniphan, NE

A pretty good day weather wise with my bike saying a high of 27, although I thinks that's at least a couple of degrees high. I still had a bit of nice scenery in SD. Not much in Nebraska though other than one place they called the Nebraska state forest.

Nebraska's idea of a scenic road is somewhat different than mine. Most of the area they called the sand hill but to me it just looked like rolling prairies.

Most of it was like the picture above, minus the trees.

Finally found an open campsite, near  Doniphan, NE.

Trying out the new stove and mattress.

This blogging takes a long time, going to bed, goodnight....................Hopefully will do some more in the morning.