Blogs from North America - page 8005

On Wednesday, June 27, we powered out of Bodega Bay at 5am. We passed the base station of our four new friends, United, States, Coast and Guard, and continued out into the sea, where we met the winds and the waves we had anticipated: 20 knots of wind on the nose and 4-6 feet swells. It’s good that we ate early, because it was tough going. Still, we were prepared for that because that’s what had been forecasted. What wasn’t in the forecast, and continued to not be in the buoy reports, was the 40-knot winds that kicked over the bow from about noon to four in the afternoon. This was extremely hard to get through. The swell wasn’t as bad as it had been on The Night Of The Coast Guard (we were getting ... read more

We arrived in Ketchikan at 7:00 A.M. and had an early breakfast to be ready to disembark for our tour of Ketchikan. Ketchikan snakes for several miles along the southwestern shore of Revillagifedo Island, facing Tongass Narrows. With 14,000 inhabitants, this fourth largest community is known as"Alaska's First City" because it is the first town travelers reach when ferrying north. After having our pictures taken at the gangway with bald eagle and Ketchikan's fisherlady we boarded our tour bus. Driving through the city we saw the Creek Street Historic District (notorious red-light district from1902 to 1954), the salmon cannery, and typical homes of the loggers and other business people of Ketchikan. Then we went to Totem Bight State Park and our guide showed us many totem poles and the reconstructed Clan House. Each totem pole ... read more

Cripple Creek Route Cindy Dietz I participated in the Ridin’ the Rockies HOG Touring Rally that was held June 25-28, 2007. The plan for the week was to spend some time with my cousins before the rally started then take the long way home after the rally. I rode my 2005 833 Sportster from KC to the rally and back home. The following is a ride report of the ride. It is divided in to parts because of the pictures. Wednesday 27 June 07 Slept in until 8 am this morning, hey I’m on vacation! One of the neat things (few neat things) about this Days Inn is the carports. They have a bunch of car ports that are first come, first serve for the hotel guests. I managed to get a car port every night ... read more

.... read more

Yay! We left Cedar Falls this morning and headed to Minneapolis with my dear friend and co-worker, Doris as chauffeur. We checked in for our flight to Washington DC, switched our seat assignments from the exit row (since Owen is not yet 15!), grabbed a sandwich from Caribou Coffee, and got on the plane. Then we sat for about an hour while a faulty jumpseat was repaired, and Air Traffic Control contemplated the bad weather in the DC area. We were kept up-to-date on things, though, which was good. After an uneventful flight, we arrived in DC 40 minutes late, grabbed our checked bag of baby clothes for Conor, and met Tim (our brother-in-law) out front. We spent the evening rocking and holding baby Conor--he was having a rough day! We are all packed up ... read more