Well…..we are home now.
It’s been a few days and I’ve gotten a chance to relearn what it’s like when the sun goes down. I can sleep again and I’m back to work.
I have had to recount the hole trip so many times now that I think it would have been easier to just film it and pass out DVDs. Thanks to those of you that have followed along it was neat to be able to share. I don’t think that there are any other details that I missed in the daily posts…..but there a few things that I want to mention about the trip in general.
First I have to say that the intercoms were the most useful things purchased for the trip. It takes motorcycling to a whole new dimension. Gone were the hours of silence and then the recap at each stop. We were able to have conversations while on the run which might not seem like much to someone who doesn’t ride motorcycles but just imagine riding in a car with no stereo no one to talk to and all the windows down…..and then do that for 16 days. They were also a great thing for safety…..we could point out hazards and wildlife without trying to figure out hand signals.
The other thing I wanted to mention was the lack of night time……I had no idea how much that would mess with my head. It’s weird to not get much sleep but not miss the sleep. I can’t explain it….just go there and try it out.
Here are my three favorite pictures…..there are more…..o so many more. Between the two of us there are 21GB of pictures……but I only picked three
O yeah….this happened today…
Note the date……I’m cursed with bad weather now I guess.
To finish up we put together a list of random things we learned along the way. I will leave you with this.
Subway doesn’t have pepper jack in Canada
Canadian bills are extremely flammable and also transparent
The Canadian coins are called looneys and twoneys
Moose kill more people than bears
The sun never goes down……ever
It always rains….always
“eh” isn’t used nearly as often as Americans think
Crossing the border is not nearly as big of a deal as people tell you
Kilometers is long for km which is long for k…….but miles is not shortened to m..and that’s unacceptable
Fuel in Canada is sold in liters and costs WAAAAY more than in the US.
The alaska highway is in much worse shape than the cassiar highway
Canadian birds are all suicidal and fly in front of anything that drives.
Tok is actually pronounced Toke…not Talk
road construction in Canada and Alaska means tearing up the asphalt and putting dirt in its place….or sometimes just putting dirt ON the asphalt
Seafood in alaska costs way more than it does back home….but it’s fresh.
Motorcycles really can fly….on the alaska highway
Canada doesn’t really have any police….you will never see them anyway.
Grizzly bears are a lot less common than people will tell you…..black bears are everywhere.
Alaska is NOT the frozen glacial wonderland you picture in your head.
The Scenery along the highway in Canada is much prettier than that of Alaska.
Alaskas interior is surprisingly flat.
There are gas stations, resturaunts, and stores everywhere you need them to be…you are not as far from civilization as you think.
The Canadian news talks more about American news than Canadian news.
No matter how many people tell you….you do not need “The Milepost”……it was a waste of money and I managed just fine with my gps.
North Pole is a terrible place…..just picture the sappy greedy Christmas “spirit” in every store around Christmas…….and then it’s all year.
Super sport bikes CAN go in the dirt!
The speed limits in Canada are a lot lower than in the us.
The first time you see a speed limit of 100 kph you will get way more excited than you should.
The signpost forest in Watson Lake is GIGANTIC and very hard to take a picture of.
You will see more motorhomes, campers, and trailers than you will cars and trucks.
People in Canada travel their country a lot!
People in Canada seem to be collectively more relaxed than people in the US
The food on the ferry is not very expensive.
It’s pretty much impossible to take pictures of whales…..stop trying and just enjoy the sight for yourself.
You won’t get as close to a glacier as you might have thought you could.
Alaskas wildlife all moved to Canada.
Singing “on the road again” after every single fuel stop NEVER gets old.
Washington is not just rain and forests……it also has flat plains….and rain.
Never ever ever forget to bring headphones on a ferry
Don’t always trust the locals at the gas station on diner advice…..or any other advice for that matter.
When you first get in to alaska you will meet Walter an official ambassador…and he will give you all kinds of information about alaska….and it will all be wrong…..and then he will ask you for two dollars.
It will always rain…..always
2/18/19 Edit from the futuuuurrrrre!
I finally got around to putting a video together from this trip! It was really fun getting to relive each day of the trip and remembering some things I had forgotten. It was also eye opening to see how bad we were at using cameras….at least 50% of the pictures and video were not usable. When I go on trips now I try my best to make the cameras as passive as possible while still capturing usable content….TRY to anyway.