Day 99 ended at the Sahara in Vegas. After a long roll up the Strip in the relentless heat and a stop to take in the popular Vegas sign photo, Garmin decided the Sahara was 13 miles and ¾’s of an hour out into the ‘burbs. Because I was leading, I missed the actual Sahara, … More Lower48Mate Part 11

Day 88. Crescent City, just inside the Californian border on the coast. Dennys luncheon. We had started up a conversation with our server. Of course we knew we must be coming into the land of large trees, having just ridden down the Redwood Highway from Oregon. She asked if we’d seen the large trees, not … More Lower48Mate Part 10

Yeah, I know it’s not typically an entrancing topic, it’s up there with discussing income taxes and how bad the traffic is on your daily commute.  However, maintaining enough clothing in a reasonable state of cleanliness while on a lengthy motorcycle expedition is a matter of necessity. Our current 5 month trip to all Lower … More Airing our dirty laundry!

Rawlins Wyoming. Day 75. We were in the second perfectly rectangular state of the nation, with the one we’d just left (Colorado) being the other one. Because their borders are actually based on longitude and latitude lines, they of course aren’t rectangles, damn you curvature of the earth. We’d heard about a pair of shoes … More Lower48Mate Part 9

Mobridge, South Dakota. We love North and South Dakota because their state initials are ND and SD. None of that is MI Mississippi, Michigan, Missouri, or Minnesota? nonsense. Day 66, and iPhone recovery euphoria still left a faint glow on the shiny forehead. Righto, let’s use that luck and tackle the Mo Bridge over the … More Lower48Mate Part 8

Out of Punxsutawney on Day 59, having done Gobblers Knob and learned all about the Groundhog. But first a mechanical crisis, a bolt had come out of the front of my bike, with noticeable wobbling of something that shouldn’t wobble. A bit like virtually every part of one’s post-middle-age body, but unfortunately none of those … More Lower48Mate Part 7

Salem. The Puritans decided that Jeru’ was a bit artsy so went with ‘salem. Over time, it was capitalised and the shortening apostrophe was dropped, and through the next 399 years it prepped itself for our arrival, this time at the end of a day rather than the start of a new one. We lobbed … More Lower48Mate Part 6

There was a reason for stopping in Boone, North Carolina on Days 37 to 40. Yes there was an appetite for Appalachian awesomeness. But the reason was 7/4, or everywhere besides the USA 4/7. This year the 4th of July fell on a Friday so we were very nervous about travelling on what we expected … More Lower48Mate Part 5

Everyone has a destiny. But I had gone one better, and had a Destiny. Norleans Moto Julia’s Destiny said they had a tire for me. Mid-morning, roll up, and we’ll get you sorted. A bit of Garminising, the GPS wanted to go over Lake Pontchartrain. The longest over-water bridge in the world, which is direct, … More Lower48Mate Part 4

Dodge City Kansas. Day 16. We were taking the TV show Gunsmoke advice, which was to “get out of Dodge”. We got out of Dodge. Kansas is famous for lots of reasons, but the corner in the road is not one of them. There are almost none. The Karoo 4 rear tyre was starting to … More Lower48Mate Part 3