MarkandNic

Left Madison for Milwaulke in the morning and was looking forward to a shorter easier ride east. Not so, it seemed that everywhere I tried to go, had roadworks! Ended up at a dead end more than once, was on the wrong side of the unmarked road and tried to go up an off ramp! All in one day, which should have been straightforward travel. Finally reached Milwaulke where we locked up the bike, changed, showered and just took the bus to downtown. Then took another to Millar Valley brewery, where they make over 150 different beers! This is a free tour and they give you three different beers and pretzels at the end! Other brewery tours could learn a lot from here! Interestingly, this brewery and very many others are owned by 'South African Brewing ... read more

Left St. Louis around 11am. Had the usual continental breakie and gassed up the 'beast'. As St.Louis borders two states, we had left Missouri and were back in Illinois within around ten miles. Felt weird to be back in the state where we began this massive tour! Headed north through Springfield, which has a wonderful lake, but no yellow people called Simpson! On through Peoria, we stopped in 'Kickapoo' for lunch and fuel! Love that name! We could now stop whenever we wanted, as the eastern temperature was much cooler now. (a bit like a great summers day in Scotland!) Within four or five hours we passed the state line into Iowa: Cornfields everywhere! We had reached a place called Davenport, part of 'Quad cities', which is four cities in close proximity, sharing the Mississippi river. ... read more

Made a very early start this morning, on the road for 7.15am; just to beat the heat and get out of Oklahoma city. Drove through Tulsa which looked nice, especially at that time in the morning. Went through Arcadia, stopped in Chandler and ploughed on through Sapulpa. Then the sun really started to shine and the temperature around midday read 110. I had to stop every 45 minutes or so, just for shade and fresh water from the camelback. Went through Catoosa which has a huge blue fiberglass whale attraction from the '66' heydays. Stopped in Miami, where we found a hotel with an outdoor pool. We were in the water around 30 seconds after check-in! Took a walk later on, to the main street area. Nobody walks in these towns so we were spotted as ... read more

Left the Tucumcari Inn on the '66' a little later this morning as we didn't have to ride quite so far. Filled up the tank and headed east towards Adrian, which is exactly midway between Chicago and L.A. This would take us out of New Mexico and back into Texas. Stopped in this small reminder of what a town on the route 66 used to be like (before the interstate ruined the businesses.) Had some lunch in the apt, Midpoint Cafe, took some pics (all of these cafes, resturants/pubs all have gift shops within them!) We got on the bike in the seering Texan heat (the dash was showing over 100 degrees) and set off for Amarillo. (Singing the song, obviously!) We pulled in at the most inccredible tourist attraction 'cadillac ranch', where 10 graffitti'd cars ... read more

It had to happen sometime, but it picked a lousy day to do it! Got up early again, had an alfresco breakfast and set off north for the Grand canyon. Around 40 miles north of Williams the sky turned black and we pulled in to put the waterproofs on. (good job I packed them ) The sky up ahead looked even worse, you couldn't see the car in front, let alone a massive canyon! This scuppored the plans to go further north through monument valley. (No one wants a picture ofthere, with a grey sky) At 10,000 feet up the weather became impossible to ride in so heading back south, I pulled in to a forrest park for some shelter, and then powered back to Flagstaff. Here we had a hotdog with slaw and chilli! While ... read more