America the Beautiful

Yesterday was our 365th day on the road.

We arrived back on American soil 22 days ago and despite having all the internet we could want and the ability to easily place domestic calls, we have been almost completely incommunicado.

Part of the reason may be trying to deny the fact that we’ve left the International portion of our trip behind us. The other part may have to do with filing every waking moment trying to cram in as much exploration as humanly possible as we finally see the trip coming to its inevitable conclusion.

Whatever the reason, we’ve explored the US with the same enthusiasm we’ve had for every other country: In the last 18 days we’ve ridden 4226 miles through Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington.

We weren’t sure what to expect from the ride home. Neither Anjel nor I had ever really explored the states we were going to ride through and there was some concern that we were going to be disappointed.

Technically we were still on our adventure, but we’d left so many of the challenges behind (different languages, different cultures, different sides of the road…) that we were definitely feeling that the trip was already winding down.

There was also the fact that we’ve been everywhere from the surreal glacial landscapes of Iceland…

…to the staggering scale and beauty of Nepal’s Himalayas…

and we weren’t exactly sure how the Great American West was going to hold up.

Well, we needn’t have worried as our trip through the States has been absolutely fantastic. Wonderful. Inspiring. Amazing.

It began with a few day rides through Colorado with my Uncle Dave where we crossed back and forth across the Continental Divide…

…twisting through the mountains…

…and stopping occasionally for Rocky Mountain Oysters or other less “challenging” fare.

In South Dakota we visited Mt. Rushmore

…the Classic American car show at Custer, Wyoming’s Gold Discovery Days…

…Sturgis a week before the huge annual rally…

…and the geographic center* of the United States in Belle Fourche, South Dakota (*the geographic center when one includes Alaska + Hawaii)

In Wyoming we visited Devil’s Tower…

…the Grand Tetons…

…and Yellowstone’s Old Faithful.

But not before catching a county fair in Jackson Hole and visiting the 4-H tents where we found a very fuzzy Scottish Highlander…

…a Watusi with absurdly huge horns,

…and a grumpy looking Holland Lop.

After that we spent the evening drinking Bud and watching a night of figure-8 races.

From Wyoming it was Westward Ho! into Montana where we passed though some gorgeous country and great little towns

including a quick stop into Glacier National Park

Hey, does this look like a fantastic bridge?

If you said “yes!”, then you and the American Institute of Steel Construction have something in common. They declared it the “Most Beautiful Bridge (long span)” in 1972.

Idaho came and went with nothing much to show for it besides a wicked chili dog / corn dog lunch (Anjel went for the burger).

(to be fair it wasn’t really Idaho’s fault – we were crossing at the very Northern part of the site where the state is only about 50 miles wide.)

From there it was on to Washington where we stormed through the Cascades…

…took one last off-road detour to solidify Anjel’s Ducati Monster as a true dual-sport (she’s got over 100 dirt road miles on it by now)…

…and finally arrived in Tacoma, Washington to visit Anjel’s Mother and Sister.

We’re not home yet, but just a few short days away. Our time traveling through the States, stopping at little diners, funky motels and National Park campgrounds has been fantastic.  We were shown so much hospitality as we traveled around the world, that I didn’t think our trip home was going to match it. But get out of the cities and into the small towns along the way and you meet fantastic people and hear great stories.

The night we spent at the fairgrounds, removing our caps for the playing of the National Anthem, watching the Figure-8 races and listening to a succession of Bruce Springsteen (“Born in the USA”), Elvis (“All Shook Up”), Aretha Franklin (“Respect”), Boston (“More than a Feeling”) and Bon Jovi (“Living on a Prayer”) blared over the loudspeakers between races was one of the best nights we’d had in a long time.

We’re sad that the trip is coming to an end, but not nearly as bummed to be back in the States as we thought we’d be. America is awesome and while we’ve been to 20 foreign countries on this trip, we’ve covered 10 different States too – and it’s been just as fun to make our way through all of them.

Tagged as: adventure, Colorado, heartland, idaho, montana, Motorcycle, nebraska, oregon, south dakota, the west, USA, washington, wyoming