We started off the day by heading down to Renton to check out Jimi Hendrix’s grave.

Then had some good food in Kirkland for lunch, and stopped by a beach along Lake Washington to watch the Blue Angel show from a distance.  I don’t know if it is the city, or the heat, but there were a lot of gorgeous girls out all over the city today, and well lets just say I can’t really complain about it.

After stopping at Lake Washington we took the ferry into Bainbridge which is across the sound.  This is a picture of us with Doug, he is host here in the Seattle area.

It was a gorgeous little ride, and a pretty little town right there on the water.  There were neat statues like this all along the water there.

Well after Coer D’Alene we headed to Leavenworth WA.  CDA was one of the places we did not enjoy leaving, it was a beautiful city, with great people, But Mike did take the ride with us from state 46 to 47.  We got into Leavenworth around 4pm, and it was hot pretty much the whole way.  We road with no jackets cause of the heat, and I ended up getting sunburnt pretty good.  Leavenworth was a cool town though, it was a Bavarian style town, really unique, check out this short video.

It was around 100 also today, and there was a lot of traffic, so needless to say we were pretty excited to get into an air conditioned room.  We are staying with Doug, who is related to some good friends of mine, Lynda and Nick, from my home church.  The funny thing is that since it has been so unusually hot here for the Seattle area, Doug was actually staying in a hotel room, so Lynda put us up in a room in town as well.  We were very grateful, cause it is pretty nasty outside, especially for an area where the high is usually mid 80s at most, maybe global warming is real.  Anyway we met up with Doug, had some great food in North Bend, and then went and checked out the Snoqualmie Falls, here are some pictures:

The people we stayed with in Couer D’Alene we got hooked up with because of the church we were visiting, Meet Christ the King Lutheran Church.  We came while they were doing a lot of construction, so it is neat to see the physical changes they are currently undergoing, and Mike and Cindy who we stayed with were also excited about the new things going on in their church.  They were once a larger church that went threw a slow decline, but now they are starting to grow again, so it was cool to visit this church while they are growing again.

Sorry the picture is blurry, I think there was something wrong with my camera.  We actually took a couple pictures and this was the best one.

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Coeur D’Alene, Idaho We left Yellowstone Saturday afternoon after a great morning of white water rafting, and then lunch with a fun family from Northern California.  From there we headed to Butte for the night, and the next day we headed to Missoula.  We were ahead of schedule so we were in no rush to go very far.  We got a tent site in Missoula, but of course it rained, and rained hard.  However we were fortunate because the rain did calm down by the late night so we were able to sleep. Then Monday we headed to Coeur D’ Alene (CDA), ID.  This is a gorgeous town.  The town is all right on CDA lake and surrounded by forests of pine trees.

It is not a big town, but it is a gorgeous one.  We met up with our host family, which we got connected with through the church we visited there, Meet Christ the King Lutheran Church.  Their names were Mike and Cindy, and they were a lot of fun.

They are both retired teachers, and they know how to have a good time. Mike has a small bar he built with a friend in his backyard.  It is simply indescribable, so here is a short video.

We hung out and drank some beers there till 11:30 at night and then finally went to bed. The next morning, Tuesday morning was my birthday.  I did not want to call attention to it, but Ryan let our hosts know during breakfast that it was indeed my birthday.  Mike said we should get some fat tire for tonight, and I said half kidding that I would like to get some La Folie.  La Folie is an expensive beer made my new Belgium Brewery in Colorado, which we visited earlier on the trip.  The beer is very sour, and most people do not like it, it actually tastes more like a wine than a beer, but I really enjoy it. The problem is that it is rare, and hard to find, but as soon as I mentioned it, Mike made it his goal for the day to track down that beer.  So sure enough, before we sat down for dinner that night up at upper twin lake, he brought me out a brown paper bag, and he had found one of only 2 bottles of La Folie in all of Northern Idaho.  What a birthday gift!  I drank the whole thing with excitement, but probably too fast, it is a beer that is meant to be drunk slowly. After some La Folie, I kayaked out on the water, and spent some time just observing the beauty there.  I spent some time thanking God for my travels, and for my 26 years of life.  Then I heard some thunder so I hurried into shore, where we enjoyed the rest of the evening with a good ole beach side bonfire.

Yesterday morning we were in Livingston MT, and we headed to Gardiner MT, which is about 50 miles south, and borders the north entrance to Yellowstone park.  We dropped our stuff off at a cabin here in Gardiner, and headed into Yellowstone.  What a place.

We stopped and saw some hot springs.

Then we saw Old Faithful

More hot springs

Yellowstone Lake

A wild buffallo right on the side of the road.  Also right after Ryan took this picture, a lady fell and broke her leg.  I saw the lady screaming for help, and so I stopped Ryan from taking more pictures and told him to get to work.  He went over and helped the lady with a cold pack, and told her what was wrong.

When we were just about 10 miles from leaving the park and going back to our cabin, it started to rain and the wind picked up quite a bit.  This was all in the curviest part of the whole park. So needless to say it was a little hairy getting back, but we made it back to our warm cabin for the night.

This morning we went white water rafting on the Yellowstone River.  It was a lot of fun, and we met a nice family that bought us lunch afterwards.  No pictures from that yet, but the family said they would email some to us, so we will post those as soon as we get them.

So when I last updated we were in Deadwood SD, and we are now in Billings MT, which is about 400 miles away.  We stopped last night in Miles City MT, after riding about 275 miles.  It was really hot out, and it is the same today.  I have a rad farmers tan, from riding in just my tshirt yesterday.  We stopped at a KOA there and got one of those little cabins again.  It was well worth it cause it had AC, so we pretty much just relaxed in there the rest of the day.

This morning we started heading west again, we both filled up on gas, and then hit the road.  Now what is weird is that yesterday, i got 160 miles to my tank, however today I was not so lucky.  It sputtered out at 124 miles, that is extremely low, cause the average is about 145-150.  I tried to call Ryan on our headsets but he was just out of range, cause he was on the other side of the hill.  I knew I was low on gas, and had my GPS set to take me to the next gas station, which was probably the first in about 100 miles, but I ran out exactly 1 mile to soon.  I got off the bike tried to call Ryan, but there was no connection.  So I started walking to the exit, almost immediately a trucker and his wife got pulled over and offered me a ride to the gas station.  I filled up the little gas tank, and started headed back to the bike.  Again after a couple hundred feet of walking an elderley man pulled up and asked, “Is that your bike over there on the highway?”

“Why, Yes it is.”

“Well would you like to walk back, or would like a ride back?”

“I think I would prefer the ride back sir.”

He laughed and took me back to the bike.  Here is the crazy part, I never once stuck out my thumb, or tried to get anyone’s attention, it was just natural for these people to try and help me.  And the old man, actually pulled off the highway to look for me, to see if he could offer his help.  What a world out here.

I filled up the bike, and headed to Billings where I just met up with Ryan at a starbucks.  I think I am going to savor the AC for a while. We are planning on stopping at KOA tonight in Livingston MT, just north of Yellowstone.

I meant to write this last night but this morning is good too.  I haven’t been feeling 100% for the past, lets say 36 hours or so more like 65% and I think it has to do with missing some sleep but here is the scoop.  Yesterday when I got on my bike and started riding the Black Hills outside of Mount Rushmore, I felt like a new man!  I felt 110%, leaning into the turns, passing up cars.  Then to be doing all this and see Mount Rushmore come up in the distance, it is amazing.  The experience of riding a motorcycle is unlike anything else in the world and I often forget while we are riding, day in and day out, to stop and remember that I will probably only be able to do this once in my life, and to take in every second of it!   I love riding motorcycles and I hope everyone has a chance to enjoy one thing in their lives as much as I enjoy a good ride.

Ryan