Harley2004's Travel Blog

Minot, North Dakota, May 19th, 2004 - Minot, North Dakota

 This place was Great visited May 19, 2004

A real nice day today. Not so good last night though. The highspeed internet was not working and MSN doesn’t have a dial-up number so I couldn’t get on line. We were back on line early this morning. It rained last night and this morning, but they had an excellent, hot continental breakfast at the motel, so we didn’t have to go anywhere. They were taking in "walk-ins" at the Air Base from 1:00PM to 4:00PM for ID cards so we didn’t really have anywhere to go anywhere until the afternoon. By 12:00AM the rain had stopped and most of the pavement was dry so we made the trip through Minot and the eight miles North on Highway 83 to Minot Air Base. Had no probem getting on the Air Base and we both had new ID cards and were back off the Air Base before 2:00PM. From there, we stopped by the Dakota Harley Davidson in Minot to have the rear brakes checked. Peggy could hear a squeek and I though maybe we needed new brake pads. Dakota Harley Davidson is a another real friendly dealer. Rode my bike through a storage building and into their Service Department and remained with the bike while they worked on it. That doesn’t happen very often. Anyway, didn’t need new brakes but the mechanic found the squeek, greased it, and I rode it back out through the shop. They wouldn’t take any money, but I did take care of the mechanic and really appreciated the great friendly service. Wish they were all like that. More storms coming up this afternoon, so we were back into the Motel (shopping mall) for the night, after a real warm, pleasant ride and visits with some fine Air Force personnel at the Air Base and Harley Davidson employees at Dakota Harley Davidson after a ride of only 46 miles today, 11,602 miles this trip, 133,262 total miles.

posted Apr 14, 2005 | Comments (0)

Minot, North Dakota, May 18th, 2004 - Minot, North Dakota

 This place was Great visited May 18, 2004

Finally a warm enouth day to get an early start and get some decent mileage. Out of the motel in Glasgow, at 9:30AM, not much wind, lower 50 degree temperatures and almost no clouds. Continued East of Highway 2 the whole day again. I think the last mile marker in Montana was 656 miles and we rode a least 600 miles of it on Highway 2. As we crossed into North Dakota, we stopped and got the picture of another state sign, 85 points now. Also, just a soon as we crossed into North Dakota, we pick up a strong wind from the South. It had been so nice to ride the last few days without any wind, but at least it was warm today. The motel in Minot is a beautiful new Sleep Inn motel with free highspeed internet and is connected to the Dakota Mall, don’t even have to go outside. Anyway we’re going to be here for three nights. Plan to get Peggy a new military ID card at the Air Base, get some new rear brake pads for the Harley and then make a circle up into Canada and pick up pictures of two more provinces. Should be a nice ride since it’s supposed to be warm with only isolated thunder showers predicted for Wednesday. Into the motel at 4:30PM after a nice warm, but windy ride of 267 miles today, 11,661 miles this trip, 133,221 total miles.

posted Apr 14, 2005 | Comments (0)

Glasgow, Montana, May 17th, 2004 - Glasgow, Montana

 This place was Great visited May 17, 2004

And the last full day in Nevada. Getting stuck for 4 days during the snow storms East of Kalispell sure has drug this part of the trip out. Anyway, it was a right nice day to ride today. Clear, not much wind, and almost no clouds. It was actually warm whenever we stopped. Somebody had to spoil it though. At Chinook, Montana, we had about two miles of "pavement ends". I hate those, especially when they are rebuilding the roads. I know they have to rebuild the roads at times, but I don’t see the need to tear up both sides of the road at the same time. Usualj activites, "Flag Man", long wait, "Pilot Vehicle", and a nice dry gravel road until the water truck runs through it and makes mud. I backed up traffic intentionally and made the "Pilot Vehicle" wait for me. Two more areas of road construction, but not too bad at those. We just followed Highway 2 East all day again, through a different kind of farming communities and almost no traffic. The motel at Glasgow was a pleasant surprise. This is a small farming community, but a super nice modern motel, The Cottonwood Motel, with free high speed internet access. I could hardly believe it. Into the motel around 3:00PM after a pleasant ride of 159 miles today, 11,294 miles this trip, 132,954 total miles.

posted Apr 14, 2005 | Comments (0)

Havre, Montana, May 16th, 2004 - Havre, Montana

 This place was Average visited May 16, 2004

Held off until right at the 11:00AM checkout time before departing the hotel in Shelby, as the temperature was still 47 degrees. At least it was partly cloudy, light wind and only a short ride today. Not making many miles these days in the cold weather and the cold weather seems to be following us. At least today turned out to be a great day to ride, not too much wind and finally just a cool ride, not cold at all. The posting yesterday where I said the temperatures were in the upper 70s should have read upper 40s. Haven’t seen anything in the upper 70s for a long, long time. The route today is East on Highway 2, through an area called Sweet Grass. They grow a lot of wheat here, almost nothing but wheat fields the entire way today and actually the same can be said about the ride to Alberta yesterday. We left most of the snow behind except for a few patches at the higher elevations. Peggy saw a couple of herds of deer today, other than that, just a straight road and plenty of farms. Tomorrow we will not have internet access. So no posted messages for May 17th. Will post again on May 18th. Into the motel today, early, 2:00PM after a short, pleasant ride of only 107 miles today, 11,135 miles today, 132,795

posted Apr 14, 2005 | Comments (0)

Shelby, Montana, May 15th, 2004 - Shelby, Montana

 This place was Great visited May 15, 2004

Another cold day and still some snow on the ground, but not much wind. Out of the motel around 11:30AM with partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the upper 70s. Today would be a short trip into Alberta, Canada for a picture with the Alberta Province sign for the ABC’s of Touring (84 points now). This is the same border crossing we used coming out of Canada 10 months ago and I knew it wouldn’t be an easy one. It was under construction last year and still under construction this year and from the looks of it, it will still be under construction next year. Anyway Alberta doesn’t think too highly of bikers so I wasn’t surprised when they would not let us pass without a trip into Immigration where we had to present our driver’s license and passports and answer a bunch of questions. After making a large copies of our drivers license, they took both licenses into a another room for a few minutes before returning them to us. Answers to the questions they asked us were written on the copy of our driver’s license. I don’t think they believed our story about taking a picture of the Alberta sign. Plus they had to wonder why we had no luggage! Luggage was left at the motel in Selby. If I have no luggage, they have to luggage to go through! Anyway, they let us through and we got out ABC’s of Touring picture and headed back into the good old USA. Even got a picture of Peggy with a large snow ball. Actually, it was easier to get back into the United States than was to get into Canada. Back into the motel after a cold, but beautiful ride of 76 miles, 11,028 miles this trip. 132,688 total miles.

posted Apr 14, 2005 | Comments (0)