From the last few nights

So I've been blessed to say the least that over the last few nights I've been able to stay with people I've met along my trip. I've also had a chance to hang out with David who offered up his very nice heated garage so I could install some Touratech parts on my bike.

Here is a picture of the very kind Rick and Kelly in front of "old blue." If I recall correctly this is a 57 Chevy truck that has been in the family for awhile.

I completely forgot the name of their horse but when I walked up I was quite surprised to see this sequence of tricks....I suppose it was time for a back scratch! 

This is the road that leads to house...

And a few pictures of the this perfectly still pond allowed me to capture some great images of reflection on the still water...

Leaving Rick and Kelly's place on route 101 north rain clouds were hoovering above but thankfully never let get go of any precipitation.

A few sections were of forest had appeared to be cleared of timber by a local company but after reading some of the signs it become more clear that this was caused by some server weather. 

I eventually made it Seattle after stopping at Touratech. Touratech imports adventure touring motorcycle accessories so it was a must see on my trip. They were even nice enough to toss me a free T-Shirt and post a pic of me in front of me at their shop! After arriving in Seattle I didn't seem to keep in mind that I should get gas at one point. It just seems when I'm in a city area I don't bother to worry about it but before I knew it I was almost out! The tank on my bike holds 8.7 gallons and this was an 8.585 gallon fill up. Pushing it a bit huh? :-) 

Every Thursday night a group of adventure riding guys get together to chat about life, motorcycles, mud and whatever else comes to comes and it was great sitting down with such a nice group after being on the road for awhile. Lots of laughs and one of the guys was even kind enough to let me stay the night with him. Much appreciated! 

The next day I headed South from Seattle and stopped at South Shore BMW Motorcycles. I was just hanging out at the shop taking in the free coffee and wifi when I started chatting with another customer named David. We were talking about travel and my trip a bit and he offered up a place to stay and/or a garage if I needed to do any work on my bike. I delightfully accepted as I had picked up two parts from Touratech that I was looking forward to getting installed. I had picked up a anti-glare shield as I was running Touratech's headlight protector but the glare produced from the light hitting the guard was awful to say the least and after dealing with it for the last 5,000 miles or so I decided it was time for a purchase. I also picked up the handguard spoilers that help to deflect wind over your hands and block some of the elements. These were actually designed for the 2008 and older models but with a quick test fit I was able to make a small modification to the left and right guard and voila! They now fit the 2009 and newer model :-) I'll post up pics as soon as I find where they are. I'm sure they are either on my phone or my camera! David was nice enough to give me a tour of his bike and man, here I thought I was cruising in comfort when he showed me all the amazing features of his ride. I was just thinking how much more comfortable I would have been on his ride! I wonder if I could get a set of TKC 80s on that awesome rig????? :-) 

After leaving David's place and forgetting a few small items on his workshop bench I headed down to Portland. My last planned stop on this adventure across the country. What a great time its been too. I can't say enough about how nice everyone has been over the last few days. Its been a real treat to have made some friends and met some new people. I suppose it just goes to show that there really are nice people out there and you should never worry about finding help. Just looking back over the last week from my break down in Redwood National Park and meeting Mark who happily drove 4 hours in the middle of the night, to the great guys at Hansen's Motorcycles who had be back on the road, a wonderful lunch with Allen who I met at the dealer, making the ride up to Rosburg, WA to connect with the very delightful Rick and Kelly (who also by the way took me in even though I was soaked from riding in the rain all day!), to meeting up the friendly group of adventure riders in Seattle, to David who was great company while I installed some new parts. Its people like this that you meet and you just can't help but feel good about the world again.