Our road trip is quickly coming to an end. It's kind of funny in a way, that when I start a journey like the one we have been on it stretches out before me and the end seems far away. When the journey is almost complete I am astounded by how quickly the time has passed and by all the riding, scenery, reminiscing, laughter, and conversations that have taken place over the past eight days. As with any experience like this, there is an impending sense of loss. The camaraderie of the road, which the four of us have enjoyed for the past eight days, will continue for a while longer, then it will evaporate as we go our separate ways.
Kerry will leave us first and ride on to Vancouver, while Jim, Garry, and I will ride to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal where Jim will take the ferry to Patricia Bay and then ride home to Sooke, while Garry and I will take the ferry to Duke Point then make our way back to Campbell River. The past eight days will become part of our memories and while some events may in future be shrouded in the mists of time, this blog at least will serve to keep us honest about some of the things that happened. The typical occurrence of, 'The older I get, the better I was,' will be moderated somewhat, I hope.
I any case, we got off to a leisurely start this morning because the plan was to visit Beaverton Honda Sports where Jim wanted to buy a new Tourmaster jacket. I programmed in the destination and led the group up I-5 to Tigard where we turned off the main highway, through a maze of turns until we arrived at the dealership.
Jim and Garry went to check out the jackets while Kerry and I looked at the old motorcycles that were on display above the showroom floor on a specially built rack that encircled the building. While there were some older motorcycles, including a 1914? H-D and two 1930s Indians as well as some British bikes, most of the motorcycles were Hondas. the earliest dating to 1957.
There were some BSAs on display downstairs, but upstairs was where the most interest motorcycles were. There were several Matchless motorcycles, a Norton, several Triumphs, including a 1973 X-75, a three-cylinder 750 that had never been ridden and had been assembled out of the crate and put on display. In addition there was a 1970 Royal Enfield Interceptor with a chrome tank, only the second one I have ever seen. In all there must have been more that two hundred motorcycles, most dating from the early 1960s and most of them Hondas, on display.
1973 Triumph X-75 750 cc triple
1970 Royal Enfield Interceptor 750 cc.
Meanwhile, Jim had made his decision and bought the jacket. He was surprised when he went to pay for it, because they were on sale at 20 percent off. What was a good deal became even better, and to top it off, there was no sales tax! That got me thinking about buying one as well because the price was right and it is a great touring jacket. When I went to pay for mine, the sales person was surprised because it was priced at twenty dollars less than Jim's. Same jacket, just older stock and a lower price. Sweet! As I was making the purchase, Garry was trying on one of the jackets as well and he bought one as well. We went in the front door of the dealership expecting to come out with one jacket and came out with three.
Jim is looking at new Hondas and today he had the chance to sit on three of them to see how they felt. After buying a 1977 shovelhead he might not have much room left in his garage and Kim may have some input as well!
Jim on the 660 cc Honda.
Jim on the 1300 cc Honda
Jim on the 1800 cc Honda Valkyrie.
When we got back to our motorcycles all three of us immediately put our old jackets in our saddle bags and wore the new ones. They were great! The jackets are comfortable and were great for the cooler temperatures we had today so we wore them all day.
Twice in the last two days I have had problems missing a turn in the maze of highways that go through Portland. Kerry, on the other hand, has never had a problem, but Garry and I apparently convinced him that it was easy to miss a turn because he asked me to lead. Once again my Zumo GPS was perfection itself and we breezed through Portland and crossed the Columbia River into Washington State without any problems at all.
It was time for our daily coffee fix so we pulled in to the Starbucks in Kelso, WA. I pulled up beside an SUV with a large, friendly, brown dog hanging it out the car window. I started a conversation with the owner who said it was OK to pet the dog. This dog was one of the friendliest dogs I've ever seen. he loved being scratched under the chin and when the woman, Brianna, asked if I'd like to pet him outside the car I agreed. This dog was great. He just loved contact. Jim came over and asked if the could get his 'dog fix' and the dog loved him too. And top it off, as I was telling Brianna about my son Ian's dog, I asked her the name of her dog. She replied, 'Atlas.' I was astounded because Ian's dog is named Atlas as well. We had to go so we said goodbye and they headed off to Portland.
Me with Atlas in Kelso, WA
Back on the road traffic was quite heavy but flowing smoothly. Jim and I stopped at a rest area while Kerry and Garry carried on. Back on the road we made good time to Seattle. The ride through Seattle was one of the easiest I have experienced and we made good time north. On a whim, I made the turn to Sound Harley-Davidson because I like the dealership and because Garry and Kerry might be there. They were. We checked out the bikes on the showroom floor and were amazed at how much less, even with exchange factored in, American H-Ds are. Deeley Imports must be taking a good cut of each H-D motorcycle they bring in to Canada.
We left after listening to a salesman try to sell me a 2014 Street Glide with 400 miles on it for a ridiculously low price and made it to Burlington and our motel for the night after covering 434 kilometres today. After settling in we walked to The Outback Steakhouse for 'The Last Supper'. Once again it was a great time with lots of reminiscing, conversation, ribbing, and laughs. These are some of the best parts of this trip. There's a reason that the three of us have remained friends for more than forty years and Garry fit right in.
Tomorrow we cross the border and go our separate ways, but I suspect there may be more rides like this in the future.
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