Things have finally settled down a little bit, and I've had time to look back and reflect. Overall the trip was a blast, even though some unexpected events happened. I still feel ok with how much I got to see on the journey, but it still leaves the door open to return and finish the trip some time in the future. My soon-to-be brother in-law offered me his motorcycle to ride for the rest of the 2009 riding season in Oregon. How could I pass on that offer?! It's an SV650s, and it is a blast to ride. It feels great [View Full Entry]

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Today was great! Linda and I drove down toward Paxson to visit a place called the glory hole. It is one place where the salmon spawn, and they are pretty fun to watch. On the way down we saw Duane in his truck going our same direction, and stopped to have lunch with him in Delta Junction. We saw plenty of red salmon swimming upstream, and as the days keep going by they will become even more densely packed in the river. Piffert (Emmert's dog) came along too and kept us company. I'm not usually a dog guy, but this is [View Full Entry]

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Somehow I forgot to publish this one, sorry folks... Yesterday I rode along with Duane in his big rig. He had a day trip down to Tok to deliver some fuel. Let me tell you, I had such a great time going! It actually worked out better to do a day trip instead of an overnight trip to Prudhoe Bay. The bed in the truck only sleeps one, so I would have brought my tent and slept outside. So this worked out even better. We had a lot of time to chat just man to man. Duane has lots of good [View Full Entry]

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I've arranged a way to buy a plane ticket home whenever I want to. Linda was nice enough to sell some frequent flyer miles, and it makes no difference if I book a flight today or 6 months from now. So I plan on riding with Duane tomorrow, we are going to Tok and back here to Fairbanks. So it looks like I'll probably fly out Saturday or shortly after that. They aren't the best times to be flying, but at this point I don't mind. I'm looking at red eye flights. The nice thing is that I may be able [View Full Entry]

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Real quick update... I sold the bike today for $1000. It was a little less than I had hoped for, but I'll take whatever I can get. Now I'm working on a plane ticket home. It looks like I may stay here for a week before I fly home. That will give me time to ride with Duane and get stuff ready to go home. I'm glad things are finally happening. [View Full Entry]

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Last night I talked to a fellow KLR650.net forum member, and he lives down in Wasilla. He told me a shop just opened in Fairbanks about 3 days ago, and that I should give them a call. I checked out their web site, and it said they are open sunrise until sunset every day, and in Alaska that means 24/7. I was looking at their web site, and their shop is only about 5 miles from the Emmert's. I called Shawn at Adventure Cycleworks, the nearby shop, and he said he would throw on some boots and be right over. He [View Full Entry]

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Wow this is looking pretty bad. Just when I thought things had settled down and I would have no more bike problems, along comes something else. I was riding the Denali Highway, and what a beautiful ride indeed! Well then I slow down to pass by an RV on the road, and realize I cannot get below 4th gear. So I have 5th, 4th, then the transmission shifts into a false neutral. Transmissions problems are about the worse thing to have on the road. To inspect things, the engine must be taken out, the head taken off, and the entire case [View Full Entry]

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Over the last couple days, Derek and I made it to Deadhorse and back to Fairbanks. On Monday we drive to Coldfoot. Tuesday we drive to Deadhorse, took the tour of the oil fields and to the Arctic Ocean, and drove back to Coldfoot. We didn't get back to Coldfoot until 1am. Long day, but I think we did it the right way. We left all of our stuff in Coldfood the day we went to Deadhorse, and rode without being loaded down which was nice. Parts of the drive up the Dalton highway are just beautiful. Atigun Pass is one [View Full Entry]

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Thanks for being patient. Enjoy! [View Full Entry]

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What a nice change from being stuck in Dawson! The Emmert's have taken such wonderful care of us, they are some of the best hosts you'll ever meet. They feed us well, we have good times of talking and fellowship, and we have the privacy of one of the sections in their house. It is really a neat setup. There is one main common area in the house, and there are 3 other separate sections. We've got one, their son and his family have another, and Duane and Linda have their own. The separate sections are all built around the common [View Full Entry]

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