Author: Oliver

Sandpoint, ID to Missoula, MT

Blue skies and temperature in the low 70’s by the time we leave. Todays ride was on ID/MT 200, the Pend Oreille (pronounced “pon-der-ay”) Scenic Byway, a scenic route along the Clark Fork river through valleys gradually opening up into large vistas. Nothing technical, just gentle hills and turns – all the while enjoying the scenery. I know, this is starting to sound repetitive, but hey that’s what we are doing ;-). Continue reading Sandpoint, ID to Missoula, MT

Lewiston, ID to Sandpoint, ID

Not a very exciting ride. We rode north on US 95 all day through western Idaho. Mostly farming and national forest. A busy road without much of a shoulder to pull over and take pictures. We stopped in Coeur de Alene for lunch before heading to Sandpoint where we spent the night in a hotel close to downtown so we could walk around.

While traffic was crazy when we arrived, by the time we went looking for a restaurant the place was close to deserted. Ended up in a ‘Gingerman like’ pub with a very good menu, i.e. lots of vegetarian choices, called Eichardt’s Pub Grill & Coffee House. Not much else to report.

Here’s todays route.

La Grande, OR to Lewiston, ID

Having experienced the mosquito attack at dusk last night there was no way I was getting up before sunrise so I just laid in my sleeping bag, waking up, waiting for the sun to rise over the horizon. Even then, there were plenty of mosquitos around – what a PITA. We fought them all morning while getting ready, watching each other to see if they landed on either of us. Killed a bunch but one or two got through :-(. Continue reading La Grande, OR to Lewiston, ID

Bend, OR to Brooks Memorial State Park, WA

We spent the morning in our hotel room catching up on our blog postings and pictures as well as planning our route for the day. After finishing off cold leftover pizza from last nights dinner 😉 we left the hotel at 11:00 and after a quick grocery stop at Safeway were on our way towards Maryhill State Park in Washington. I had called the reservation phone number and although I couldn’t make reservations for the same day found out that they still had five camp sites available. Pretty good odds I thought. Continue reading Bend, OR to Brooks Memorial State Park, WA

Unity, OR to Bend, OR

We spent quite a bit of time planning our route for the next six days since we have to be in Missoula, MT on the 23rd. Weighing all the options/routes, etc. The park host had dropped off a book of all the state rec areas and parks so we scoped out which ones we might want to stay. Since we are in Oregon I wanted to check out Bend. Continue reading Unity, OR to Bend, OR

Now it’s the R1200GS turn to have ‘issues’

Yes, more motorcycle issues. I have been noticing oil weeping at the back of the engine/transmission on the my bike even before we left Austin. I had always just attributed it to excess oil left over from oil changes. Yes, not very smart, actually I thought it was normal. Well, I had cleaned it all before we left on our trip and now after about 2500 miles it’s all covered in a film of what smells like gear oil :-(. Continue reading Now it’s the R1200GS turn to have ‘issues’

Bad fork seal- update

We’ll be spending another day in Boise. The BMW dealer can work on the bike on Thursday morning to replace the fork seal. A big ‘thank you’ to Neil in the service department for fitting us into their busy schedule. No 6k service but we’ll worry about that later. A leaking fork seal is a safety hazard (bad handling, dripping fork oil on the brake rotor if it deteriorates more) and thus needs to be addressed.

Day of Rest – sort of

You guessed it, laundry day 😉 as well as a rest day with some restocking errands around Boise. Traffic in the middle of the day was ferocious. Also did some route planning around the 6000 miles tune-up for Diane’s F650GS which is due in 400 miles. BMW motorcycle dealers are not as frequent as Honda or Kawasaki dealers so we try to ‘plan ahead’. Hah. Continue reading Day of Rest – sort of