Ottawa – USA Trip 2009 Part 6 of 9

USA Here We Come!
Colfax, Washington
The Big Sky State

USA Here we come!

We rode to the Canada-US Border at White Rock, BC. We had no problem crossing although I was concerned that the Yamaha might conk-out on us in the long line-up, but it didn't. We drove on the A5 Interstate (Motorway) through Seattle and on to the state capital, Olympia. I told Brad that I didn't like driving on the A5 Interstate because it was too busy and too noisy and I suggested that we start heading east on route 12. This turned out to be a mistake on my part. On route 12 there were miles and miles and even more miles of nothing. No people; no buildings; no gas stations, no towns; no villages. I was afraid that we would run out of gas in the middle of no man's land but we came across a lonely isolated motel, not unlike the one used in Alfred Hitchcock's “Psycho” movie and stayed there for the night. The next day wonderful things started to happen. The mountains of Washington State are out of this world. The scenery is breathtaking. Petrol stations were few and far between so we had to monitor our fuel very carefully because we never knew when the next gas station would appear. At one gas station in the mountains I told Brad that we would skip getting gas because there was another gas station about 80 miles down the road. When we got there, we discovered that that gas station had been shut-down and abandoned and we didn't have enough gas to go to the one after that. Consequently, we had no choice but to turn around and re-trace our tracks for about eighty miles, barely making it, and losing more than half a day's travel in the process. It was cold in the mountains and I did not relish the thought of having to go back up them. The scenery was breathtaking however and very similar to that of Alaska. Brad took lots of pictures. Washington is a huge state but not as huge as the state of Montana, as we were about to find out.

Colfax, Washington

We slept in a small campground just before we left the state of Washington. We couldn't get the Yamaha started easily the next morning. We both tried over and over again until we finally got it started. We came to a small town called Colfax where there was an auto supply store and I ordered a new battery but it would have to come from Spokane and would take four hours or so to get there. Brad wandered around the small town and I rested in a kid's play-park where I met Christine. She talked with me for about two hours. She was telling me that her husband was suffering from a degenerative nervous disorder and that his locomotion abilities were becoming limited. Although he had never ridden a motorcycle, he had always wanted to do so. She convinced her husband to follow his dream and take a safety course. Then, they both bought new Suzuki motorcycles. They now go for short rides together when he feels strong enough - usually on weekends. She struck me as a very special, kind and caring person and I felt richer for having met her that day. She is, indeed, the stuff that angels are made of. The battery finally arrived, but it made no difference at all to the Yamaha's poor starting performance, so we continued on, into Idaho - the Potato State. We got through the Idaho pan-handle in half a day.

The Big Sky State

They say it’s easy to get into Montana but you can't get out of it. They're right. I call it the state of highways without end - its huge. They say that travelling in a straight line east/west across Montana is the same distance as travelling from New York to Chicago. But, you can't travel in a straight line because the Interstate dips 100 or so miles south and then the same distance back up North, so it’s actually a little longer. If you look straight north as you're about to leave Montana, you'd be looking at Regina, Sask. We were driving long and hard days now and we were averaging six to eight hundred Kilometers per day. I was starting to get a bit tired. Brad was loving the ride. We looked around for a campground in Southern Montana after a hard day of riding but we couldn't find one. It was starting to get dark and our nerves were getting a little stretched. I pulled into an RV (Recreational Vehicle) Park located up on a hill not far from the Interstate because RV Parks usually have a few campsites reserved for tents. Brad came into the office with me and we asked to pitch our tents for the night. The lady running the place said No! She couldn't let us put our little tents on the ground because they had had to evacuated the tents already there due to a recent infestation of rattlesnakes. We left in a hurry, watching very carefully where we trod. We found a motel a bit further on.