Getting out on my bike has become less of a common thing the last couple of years. The reasons are not terribly interesting: disruptions in health, work pressures, depression. But I still build up a need for two wheel therapy, probably even more so than when I was riding every weekend. And so Iāve focused on ālong formā road trips to get my motorcycle fix, and this year was a biggunā: a ride to take my 2011 Road Glide āback homeā to where she was born: Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Not the exact route I took, but close enough…
Where to, and Why?
My motorcycle road trips generally follow the principle of āit’s not the destination, it’s the journey”. But I always have some goals, some specific objective: and I also usually over-plan. For 2019, my target was the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, WI. I wanted to ātake my bike homeā: back to where she was assembled, where all the work was done.
I felt like this was something I wanted to do as my bike is reaching its ātwilight yearsā in my ownership: Iām starting to think it is time to upgrade to a newer model. And I also felt like seeing the Harley Davidson Museum would be pretty cool. With the destination in mind, the course was set. I plotted a route that touched on some roads and sights Iād seen before.
This initial plan was extended when my friend Chris told me his family was planning an automobile road trip to the coast at a roughly suitable time for a meet-up. I added that in to my route, and started scheduling things, booking hotels and the like. This is where my āover-planningā comes in: I like to know where Iām going to sleep each night, and that prevents the kind of spontaneity some people would love. One day Iām going to have to try a different process: maybe next year š
I worked out a trip that would take about three weeks, the last week being spent ātaking it slowā with my best friend and his family.
Memories
In total, the trip was a great success. My bike ran flawlessly for nearly 8,000 km, making me doubt whether it really is time for a renewal. The roads and weather were in the whole as close to perfect as can be. Most days were sunny or sunny-adjacent, the occasional bout of bad weather short-lived and manageable. Day after day, I was more than successful at clearing my head and achieving the āzenā state I seek from my rides. I came home a slightly improved version of myself, something which I needed after a tough year or so of depression and health-related issues.
The downsides were fairly minor: I caught a nasty cold that lingered/morphed up until a month after my return home; and I had a bit of an anger management moment one day regarding some failed room bookings. Some āsnapshotsā from my memories follow:
Pre-trip: motorcycle service problems
Every long motorcycle trip starts, for me, with my bike being serviced. The service interval on a Harley like mine is 8,000 km: so starting an 8,000 km trip fresh makes sense to me. My bike got all her fluids replaced and a full inspection, which showed that I needed to have my front tire replaced as it was nearing the end of its tread life. But here is where things went a little bit wrong.
First off, Barnes Harley seems to have recently replaced all of their older service staff with millennials. Not a problem, except it seems like none of them have much Harley Davidson āmemoryā. Things that were second nature for the āold crewā like how to move my bike around from the ground seemed ābrand newā to these guys: they got on my bike and āduck walked itā because they didnāt feel confident walking it from the side, for example. I get that: Iām the same. But the old guys just seemed more⦠confident, I guess.
This lack of HD āmemoryā carried over to a problem with my tire replacement. Iāve had RideOn tire sealant in my tires since pretty much my first tire change nearly a decade ago. This stuff has probably saved several of my trips: on at least two occasions Iāve brought my bike in for post-trip service to get a report that one of my tires has a screw stuck in it, sealed and safe due to the RideOn. My old service guys just knew this about me: change the tires, put the RideOn in.
But not the new crew. Theyāve been trained on newer bikes that all have TPMS sensors built in to the wheels, something which donāt get along (apparently) with RideOn. So despite me specifically asking for it, the RideOn hadnāt been added when I picked my bike up. They even challenged me saying (paraphrasing) “we donāt put RideOn in front tires, but itās your funeralā¦ā The end result was having to take my bike back to get the RideOn added, which wasted my time and theirs.
Crossing the border: delays, relief
I started my first day on the road, June 30th, at 6:30 AM. This is an early start for me: it meant waking up by 4:00 AM to get my final packing done and get out the door. My intent was to get across the border before it got busy. That didnāt work out, and I at least partially blame my choice of border crossing. I ended up sitting at the Pacific Highway truck crossing for over an hour and a half: the line up wasnāt long at all, but a) they only had one lane open; b) some guy with a classic 50ās era European sports car had a break down in the line. It all worked out, but it was exactly what I was trying to avoid- sitting.
But then I was free: free to ride, free to stretch out my mind and become āawareā. It was a huge relief, and that first day ride to Coeur dāAlene was outstanding.
Staying awake: caffeine drinks
Getting sleepy, or more accurately falling face down out of exhaustion, by mid afternoon has been an increasingly common issue for me. This is a tremendous problem when riding a motorcycle, a time when you absolutely want all your attention and wits about you. I struggled with this throughout the trip, and was finding it hard to travel more than an hour or so without stopping to splash water on my face and shake myself awake. If there was one thing I wish I could āfixā, this would be it.
I ended up compensating with caffeinated drinks. I became familiar with all the gut wrenching flavours and various levels of caffeine on offer in things like RockStar Recovery, Mountain Dew GameFuel, and various Starbucks canned drinks. 300 mg of caffeine seemed to be the āsweet spotā to get me back in the game quickly. But I think this state of affairs is sub-optimal: Iām pretty sure it will lead to me planning and thinking about my road trips differently in the future.
Lazy rivers: Minnesota, Mississippi
Most of the rivers and streams Iām used to in my life have been fast-moving things. The kind of river that cuts through mountains and hills, that sort of thing. But on this trip I encountered my first truly ālazyā rivers: the Minnesota and Mississippi. Both of these rivers, at least in the parts where I was riding near them, seem to spend more time looking like lakes than rivers. They give off strange ābanjo-playing hillbillyā vibes, with thoughts of āgators and airboats, even hundreds or thousands of miles from where such things are likely common.
But looking at the map, a southward turn from Red Wing, Minnesota (one of the towns I passed through), and it is only 600 km to Nashville…
July 4 Fireworks in Milwaukee
I arrived in Milwaukee on July 4th, something which I was concerned might present a problem. But as it turned out, traffic was fine and parking/checking into my room at the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino was no real hassle at all. I ended up on the 15th floor and this turned out to be a great place to watch the more or less city-wide July 4th fireworks.
I have never really been in a ālargerā American city on July 4th: they really seem to go all out with the celebratory explosions, though. I was expecting to see fireworks from maybe one or two sources, but there appeared to be at least half a dozen large events, firing the ābigā splashy displays more or less at the same time. It wasnāt disturbing: I could have easily slept through it. But I watched for an hour or so, something I enjoyed but hadnāt planned on at all.
Harley Davidson Museum
This is definitely a āmust seeā for anyone who is interested in the history of Harley Davidson in particular, and in motorcycles in general. The museum is large, so I found it worthwhile taking a guided tour to get oriented, then wandering around on my own after. As an aside: Harley Owners Group (HOG) members get free admittance. I forgot that when I pre-ordered my āwill callā tickets, so I handed my āspareā to a guy in line behind me. He was surprised, but tracked me down later in the museum to (kindly) force me to take the full price in cash.
The museum is amazing. HD is a company that seems to respect their own history- they kept āexemplarā bike of each model fresh off the assembly line from every year- this means they have pristine, running examples of bikes going back to 1905. And on top of this, they have hundreds of unique and special bikes in their archives: racing bikes from the Buell days (full teams!), climbing bikes, bikes owned by famous people like Elvis, protoypes that really show some interesting āmight have beensā⦠a non-stop flood of history.
One thing I found interesting: Harley Davidson produces replacement parts for bikes going back seventy plus years. One way they do this: pull a bike from the museum, scan the part, and CNC mill it to original specs. I canāt think of any manufacturer that can come close to that level of detail.
Also on-site: a pretty good restaurant, and a fantastic gift shop full of stuff for the Harley buff. One thing I really missed: I wasnāt able to arrange a factory āsteel toe bootā tour. These are offered at the motor factory in Menomonee Falls, a bit outside of Milwaukee- the Museum is no longer an active factory site. I should have booked the factory tour several months in advance, apparently, since they are all guided tours and are only offered a couple of times a day for groups of 20 or so people.
Catching a cold
I caught a bad cold⦠it sucked. It turned into an allergic chest condition which ultimately only started getting better this week after steroid treatments. I seem prone to these things when travelling, and wish this were not the case.
Having this cold did damage my enjoyment of the āback halfā of my trip, and Iām sure my non-stop coughing drove Chris and family insane. I ended up having to spend two extra days in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, to try to get feeling better. This meant cancelling a number of earlier reservations, which was frustrating- but it was the ārightā thing to do. Iām slightly wiser about this kind of ātravel illnessā than in earlier years; pushing on is not wise, even if it means disrupting plans.
And I got to enjoy the kindness of strangers, something which was uplifting. The staff at AmercInn in Belle Fourche not only accommodated my change in plans, they also made real efforts to help me by breaking out a stash of cold remedies they keep on hand for sick guests. It saved me from having to go out shopping when I really had no energy to do so, and the thoughtful act on their behalf itself was touching.
Getting (nearly) arrested
I had to make new room arrangements after cancelling several days of accommodations so I could recover in Belle Fourche. In this process I encountered a severe short-coming with using Hotels.com and similar services, a shortcoming that caused me to blow my top and nearly get the cops called on me.
Hereās the dirty secret of Hotels.com and similar web-based booking agencies: they often have no real relationship with the hotels they are booking. Hotels.com will take your money (charge your card) without any real confirmation from the related hotel, even calling the room āpre-paid and guaranteedā. This is sketchy as hell, and I didnāt fully understand this when I started making bookings with much shorter advance notice than is my usual process. The wheels fell off completely when I arrived in Kalispell, Montana, where I had a room booked (I thought) at the Red Lion Inn.
My problem with the Red Lion hotel booking was entirely my own fault: I booked for the wrong day. Iāve done this before when making repeated bookings on Hotels.com; for me, at least, it is easy to miss updating the date. The folks at Red Lion tried to help by calling other nearby hotels; they seemed to sense that I was tired (Iād spent over an hour stuck in stop and go traffic on the way in to town), and were being kind. They found a room for me, but when I tried to call to book it, the room was already taken. Apparently there were several softball/other sports tournaments going on in Kalispell, so things were busy.
At this point, I was out over $300 for the mis-booked room at the Red Lion, and still had no place to stay. I brought up Hotels.com, searched, and found a room available at the La Quinta hotel, five minutes away. I nearly got creamed by a truck on the way there, so my stress levels were further elevated. When I arrived at the desk, the clerks were busy; one had her āangry bitch faceā on while talking to someone on the phone, and was probably having a bad day. Of course, sheās the one I got: it was a match made in hell.
I do the usual āI have a reservation through Hotels.comā¦ā intro, and she interrupts: āNo you donāt, we are fully booked”. I say āOh come on, I have a pre-paid guaranteed roomā¦ā ⦠she interrupts again, āNo you donāt, thatās with Hotels.com, not us.ā I say āOh for fuck sake, you have got to be kidding me, Iāve paid for the roomā¦ā Now sheās angry: āWe have zero tolerance for abuse. You are being belligerent. Get out of this hotel now or I will call the police.ā I say āSeriously? You call this service? This is the most pathetic excuse for customer relations Iāveā¦ā And she repeats her intent to call the cops.
So I leave, fuming at this point, and sit on the curb next to my bike to call Hotels.com and give them hell. And boy am I mad: but Hotels.com manages to calm me down by talking me through the process, admitting that they donāt actually have a contract or guarantee agreement, and finding me a room at a different and better (Hilton) hotel at no additional charge. Like I said to Hotels.com and later, when I called the La Quinta corporate complaints line: if they donāt want to work together, they should remove each other from their respective listings.
So yeah, I almost ended up in a police confrontation: first time in my life anyone threatened to call the cops on me. I wasnāt in the right, but neither do I feel I was entirely in the wrong. Iāll probably not use Hotels.com for āquickā/last minute bookings in the future. Iāll never stay at a La Quinta again, and will tell anyone who asks me to avoid them because, apparently, their staff have no customer relations training beyond āzero tolerance’.
Different approach: touring with Chris and Family
Connecting up with my friend Chris and his family was fantastic. It was like completely shifting gears: I wasnāt āgoingā anywhere, I was āstayingā places. His mode of travel was more destination focused: we spent several days in each of Revelstoke and Osoyoos, partaking of the local sites.
We rode a steam train, visited a beautiful winery, saw a desert snake presentation at a native museum, and spent a day out on a pontoon boat touring lake Osoyoos. Barbecues and fine meals, relaxation, and good company. I love my motorcycle trips, but I think I need to find a way to āshift gearsā more often, maybe reducing the miles travelled, or using a āhubā approach to travelling e.g.: stopping and touring around an area for several days from one base of operation.
Pictures
Over 400 pictures, none of them labelled, for your enjoyment! š
Concluding thoughts
I continue to enjoy my more or less annual motorcycle road trips. The 2019 trip was fantastic, better than last year. As with every one of my road trips, Iāve learned some things about myself and how I āfitā into the world: some good, some bad. I really enjoyed my time sharing the trip with my friend Chris, Billy, Pat, and Richard.
Iāll probably be āchanging things upā next year, and will likely plan on covering fewer miles and having a bit more time in several locations. I will likely also try to figure in some visiting with friends and family. I may or may not replace my bike: Iām still debating that, and it is somewhat dependent on the status of my motorcycle āinvestment fundā. The old girl has served me well for a decade and 120,000 km, but there is no urgency to upgrade; just an itch.