The final blog? Monday July 19th (we'll see!)

Hey! This is the FOTB finally getting around to his wrapup. Wow, what an amazing trip, if you haven't noticed by now, we are extremely grateful to be able to take a trip like this. What started out as a "what if ?" turned into a "why not?" and ended up a resounding "let's do it". I've read for years about the Al-Can highway, the Yukon and Alaska (too many Jack London books as a child I guess) and always saw it as a challenge. Albeit one that I never really thought I (we) would attempt.

There was never a day that I had the thought "Oh man, do I have to do another day on the road". It just never happened, day after day, mile after mile, it was always about the beauty of creation and the wonder of what was around, over or beyond the next hill or curve.

On the last day heading home, Gayle asked if I was looking forward to getting home, I replied that if someone called me and told me I couldn't go home for a couple of weeks, I would have said, "right or left, pick a direction" and kept right on going.

I did notice a few things, there were a lot of Harley's on the road all the way through central Canada, over 50% of the bikes. However, the farther northwest we went the fewer there were. By the time we hit the last stretch of road from Canada to Alaska the percentages were in the neighborhood of 50% BMW GS Adventure bikes, 30 % Harleys and the remainder were Goldwings and other assorted manufacturers.

As far a repairs, thankfully I did not have the need for any. However, the "gravel" they use during the road construction is really crushed granite or crushed shale. It is about the size of a cherry tomato and has lots of sharp points on it after it is crushed. This nice little sharp rock is just the right size for the Harley guys to run through the belt drive, which promptly punches a hole through it, runs another 100 miles and then shreds. We saw a lot of guys replacing drive belts on their Harley's and virtually every group of riders had at least one or not two spare belts with them.

People have asked me "Did you get bored? What about radio stations?" Well, on the first day out, we hit the Canadian border, I turned the radio off and never turned it on for the next 6000 plus miles. Truly, silence is golden, I never missed it for a minute.

The grand total, drum roll please, was 6799 miles, I should have driven around the block to make it 6800 even, but it is what it is. I did not keep track of every gallon of gas, it was just to darn much work with the liters and all, but the running average according to the bike trip meter was at 43.7 mpg for the trip. Not bad at all.

I met a lot of riders who were either on or had completed the "top of the world", Arctic Circle or other trips to the northern hinterlands. (Think Ice Road Truckers in the summer.) I have already warned Gayle, I AM doing this again, and this time I am heading "north". It will not be on a BMW K1200 LT full dresser, I would not want to attempt that trip on a bike this big. I don't know when, but it will be a few years.

Right now we are working on organizing/deleting the over 700 photos we took. Thankfully they are digital and easy to work with. Once completed, I'll throw them on a DVD etc. and you can look at them at your leisure.

For those of you who read this and get the "itch", call me, I'll give you all the pointers I can, but you better know that I will PUSH you to take this trip, using the mode of transportation of your choice. It is one you will never forget.

Again, thanks for your prayers, thoughts, concerns and encouragement. Also we thank you for "going along for the ride". It was enjoyable writing this and attempting to let you see with your imagination, what we were blessed enough to see with our eyes.

Til we talk in person, God Bless!