Ridin' Dirty - A North American Motorcycle Tour

We got through the border without any problems in the morning. Although the guy gave me some crap cause I told him I went to Purdue. I think he was a Notre Dame fan or something. We only had 100 miles to ride to Cyrus' sister's house. No one was home when we got there, so Cyrus tried to get in through the back door and ended up setting off the alarm. His sister texted him the code and shut it off, then he got some beers out of the garage and we started playing frisbee in the yard.

A few minutes later a cop pulled up. I wonder what was going through his head, responding to a possible burglary to find two dirty bikers standing around, playing frisbee. He seemed relaxed enough, and asked for our IDs. Cyrus explained that it was his sister's place, but the cop couldn't get a hold of her on the phone. Then he gave Cyrus some attitude because he didn't think his IDs looked like him. In one of the pictures he had a shaved head, and in the other he had a mohawk, but now he's got long hair. There wasn't much we could do about that, but he seemed satisfied and left us alone.

His sister Alyssa was married to a guy named Nathan, and they had 4 boys. That was a lot of noise for one house. They were pretty cool though. We spent two nights at their place and got some great home cooked meals. Coeur D'Alene was an interesting town. It had a big lake, with lots of rich people's summer homes. We left on the 4th of July, heading south through Idaho. The wheat fields out there were beautiful; it looked like that old wallpaper that came on Windows XP, with the green, rolling hills.

Highway 97 dropped quickly in elevation and we rode along the Salmon River, which was cluttered with white water rafting companies, though I didn't see much white water from the road. It warmed up quick, and we stopped somewhere near New Meadows for lunch. There were a lot of tourists there for the 4th of July weekend. Things were quieter along the Payette River, which snaked through a gorgeous canyon with steep cliffs. The campsites we saw were all packed, but we found a primitive campground that had lots of space in between sites that worked great. Cyrus caught a few fish, but nothing worth keeping.

The 5th was another beautiful day, so we rode without helmets. We continued east through Idaho, which was consistently beautiful. I could easily live out there. We made it to Wyoming that evening and rode a little past dusk.

We pulled off on a random dirt road and followed it until we were out of sight of the highway. We camped among a bunch of sage bushes, near a dry creek bed. It was perfect. There were more stars out that night than I'd seen in a long time. That was the one thing I didn't like about Alaska in the summertime... no stars. The Milky Way stretched right over our heads from one horizon to the other; it was spectacular. I left the rain-fly off my tent that night and watched shooting stars until I fell asleep.

I was woken up during the night by howling coyotes. There seemed to be two packs howling back and forth. One of them sounded really close. I know coyotes don't usually bother humans, but their sound is so awesome and haunting.

The next day was a very hot day as we rode through a bit of Utah, then through Dinosaur, Colorado. We had to go over a mountain pass towards Grand Junction, where there were some rainclouds. Turned out to be hail. I didn't think it would last long, so I didn't bother putting on my helmet. That was probably a mistake. Hail really hurts when it hits your nose, lips and ears. It turned back to rain after a while, but once we got over the mountains the temperature went right back up and we were dry shortly afterwards.

We made it back to Cyrus' place in Montrose that Sunday. Luckily, they had just changed the law, allowing liquor stores to sell alcohol on Sundays in Colorado, which couldn't have come at a better time. We got some beer and went to his friend Jake's house for a barbeque that night, which was a great time.

In the morning of the 7th we got breakfast with Cyrus' sisters before I hit the road, taking 285 south into New Mexico. It was a nice, hot day. After Santa Fe there was nothing but dry fields, stretching to the horizon. I was looking for a place to pull off and camp but it was all fenced off. I decided to just keep going. After nightfall there were three thunderstorms, complete with lightning in three different directions that seemed to be closing in on me, but I wasn't sure. I finally made it to Roswell very late after 602 miles. I snuck into the same RV camp I stayed at last year, pitched my tent and went to bed. I was out of there at 7am before anyone asked me to pay.

I had a pretty nice ride through Texas that day. I went through a really bad storm on my way into Austin with some intense wind that nearly knocked me off the bike a couple times. I stayed with my old marine buddy Lamar for three nights, which was a great time as always. He was going to school during the days, but we were able to hang out afterwards. Austin is a great city; a little too humid though. After that it was a quick ride to Houston where I stayed with my step brother Sean, who'd recently taken a job there.

I had a long way to go the next day, so I stuck to the interstates to make better time, which I usually try to avoid. It was incredibly hot. I got stuck in a couple traffic jams, which sucked; my bike always gets close to overheating when I'm not moving fast enough. I went through one small rain cloud that day, which felt fantastic. Got to Alabama and considered going all the way to Decatur, where my friend Justin lives, but there was a bad thunderstorm to the north. Luckily I'd gotten in touch with a girl on Couchsurfing.com that lives in Tuscaloosa. I found her place pretty easily after my longest day of the trip, 677 miles. She was really cool, like everyone I've met through Couchsurfing. We watched South Park for a while and then I went to bed.

I got a little lost on my way to Decatur the next day cause I wasn't paying attention, but found it eventually. I had more hot weather on the final stretch home the next day, which was a nice ride. I didn't take many pictures after Colorado because I was excited to get home. I made it back after almost 2 months on the road and a mere 14,235 miles.

Overall, the trip went great. It was actually a lot easier than I expected. I'm really happy that I was able to commit to the journey and make it happen. I hope I can inspire someone to go and do something they've been thinking about. If there's something you want to do and you're avoiding it, you better have a damn good reason, because you'll hate yourself down the road.

Thanks for reading.

Never stop wandering.

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