A beautiful day for a ride. We set off around 10:30 heading west along Rt 189 through towns whose names sound very different to the American ear. Towns like: Imst, Mils bei Imst, Landeck, Grins, Pettneu am Arlberg and St Anton. The valley became more narrow and lush and seemed almost otherworldly to us Americans from the mid-Atlantics.

We stopped at a Gasthaus in St. Anton (also on the Arlberg River) for lunch. St. Anton is known as a rather famous and pricey ski area.

The Gasthaus was quite fancy inside; the outside where we sat seemed to attract bikers and hikers. So naturally we met 3 younger riders from Munich, Germany riding smaller off-road bikes; and an older gent from Innsbruck wearing cowboy boots, leathers and riding a tricked out Harley Davidson Dynaglide, of which he is immensely proud. There were a number of big Hondas gliding on by with geezers on board, and crotch rockets by the dozen.

After lunch we headed north through the winter resort towns of Stuben, Zürs and Lech on Rt 198. We traveled through part of the Zugspitze Arena again. It was heavenly (again!). We then wound our way back through the Fernpass and Fernsteinsee as we did yesterday. We don’t push the speed, yet the twisties, especially the switchbacks, are so much fun and very satisfying. This is such good prep for our tour next week.

Connie has taken a ton of pics and vids today. Hope those she shares give you a taste for what we saw.

A note in passing: I’ve used words like quaint, cute, neat and charming to describe the towns and villages we’ve ridden through. It feels sometimes like we’re encountering a country and people frozen in time and neatened up for the benefit of tourists like us. The truth is very different. The towns and homes we see are filled with hard working people who are raising families and building lives just like we do. We sometimes ride behind big farm equipment and construction vehicles and transports who together are making their country work and grow, again just like in America. We are so aware that we are guests who stay for a short while and revel in the wonders of their land. And we’re grateful for the kindness and generosity with which we are met. Acting like guests in someone’s home. That’s the ticket. And a big hint.

Today we became riders again! I picked up our rental from Edelweiss Tours this morning. They were really helpful and a capable young man named Lukas walked me through all the details and got me on my way. The bike is a BMW R1250rt, newer but nearly the same as my bike at home. Of course I had to make sure of it so I rode a little out of the way back to pick up Connie. Well, maybe more than a little.

Eventually I made it back to our pension. Connie was ready and off we went, heading east back towards Innsbruck. Riding back roads we turned north and made our way to Garmisch – Partenkirchen in Germany. Some friends of ours, Bob and Bernice, have family and have vacationed there many times and rave about it. Now we know why. When we stopped for lunch, we found Garmisch to be pretty, quiet and relaxed. And we were treated to truly majestic peaks all around. Still. Again.

We left Garmisch heading west on Rt 23 with an idea to mosey home. However, as we neared a town called Grainau, the bike suddenly and inexplicably turned left toward a pretty little lake called Eibsee. We spent only a short while at the lake because it’s a big tourist and recreational destination. (We try to avoid those when we can.) Still a pretty ride.

The Zugspitze Arena is just breathtaking. German Rt 23 turns south to become Austrian Rt 187 at the border. Some great switchbacks near Fernpass and more stunning geography. Still heading south, now on Rt 179, we passed next to (Lake) Fernsteinsee which surrounds an island with the ruins of a castle, Ruine Sigmundsburg, and Schloss Fernsteinsee to the right. Schloß Fernsteinsee dates back at least to the 12th century.

We kept heading south until meeting Rt 189 which took us back to Obermieming and our beautiful room. It was so wonderful to ride again with my Queen and get acclimated to the roads here. A beautiful day

Hi! Not much to write for today. We packed our stuff up and moved about 20 miles to a Pension in Mieming. We’ve unpacked our stuff — or more accurately, it exploded out of our cases. So we took a walk, ate some food and will head to bed shortly. Seems climbing the Kafelekar yesterday did us in.

We met and had a great visit with a man from southern Netherlands by the name of Arno.  He and his wife and four kids are vacationing in Innsbruck.  His family is fascinating on many levels.  Arno is a polyglot, being fluent in at least four languages, though it may be six.  The rest of the family is also multilingual, and the oldest son who is twelve is so fluent in English that his primary concern at present is his accent.  Everyone plays instruments: Arno (French Horn) well enough to lead several regional orchestras.  He’s also a horticulturist who publishes a journal for fellow farmers across Holland.  We had a chance to satisfy some of our mutual curiosity about each other’s country and the bits of the world we have seen.  Great time with some thoroughly impressive folks.  

That closed out the day yesterday.

Tomorrow, we pick up the bike and start getting acclimated to riding in Austria. Can’t wait! And that’s it for today.

We enjoyed another low key day here in Innsbruck.  Took a bus into town to buy some sundries and then back to Hungerburg to begin an excursion to the top of Hafekelar, a beautiful mountain overlooking Innsbruck to the south.

Hafekelar is resplendent with hiking, bike and ski trails and is really popular for locals and tourists alike. During winter, most of the slopes are really challenging with some inclines (declines?) of up to 70%. That would be a “no” for me, by the way. There’s a gondola from Hungerburg that reaches the top in two stages, climbing quickly to about 7,400 feet. With a little more climbing the old fashioned way, we got to an overlook for a huge swath of the Inn Valley to the south, and a tutorial on how glaciers work to the north. To the west were sure footed sheep with bells around their necks, grazing away and studiously ignoring the humans. And it’s neat to be suddenly engulfed in a passing cloud – it really cools you off pretty fast.

We scrambled about for a while taking lots of pictures. We also sat a bit, caught up in the wonder spread all around and before us. We feel very grateful.

Tomorrow we move up the valley a bit to Obermeeming from whence we will commence our motorized adventures. We will continue, however, to stop at likely looking cafes for a coffee and maybe a Strudel. We are getting to really like this treat!

This was a day of rest and a wee bit of sightseeing. Our destination was the beautiful city of Hall-in-Tirol, about 10 miles east on the Inn River in Austria. The Inn continues to flow mostly eastward until it joins the beautiful Danube River at Passau, Germany.

Hall, as it’s called, became an important city in the 13th century because of the salt mines close by. Salt was long a precious and strategic commodity throughout Europe and remained so for centuries. (Kind of like oil is now.) Salt was often used as a form of currency and generated a lot of wealth for those who supplied it. Hall supplied salt to Switzerland, and much of the lower Rhine valley and the Black Forest in western Germany. So Hall and much of the region became prosperous and vibrant. That meant great buildings including churches, financial and trade houses, and so forth. Which helps explain the impressive historic city we visited today.

We took a local bus this morning and arrived in Hall around noon. Nearly all businesses are closed on Sunday, so there was very little traffic and no crowds to speak of. Of course the museums and most historic buildings were also closed. But the churches and many gardens were open. There are flowers everywhere in well tended gardens and window boxes galore.

We visited the Parish Church of St Niklaus, first built in the early 1200’s we think. It has survived many wars and renovations and is a now a beautiful – and maybe a little overwhelming – Baroque church. Connie has some wonderful pics of the church and it’s environs. One note – there’s a medieval chapel on the church grounds. This Chapel of Ste. Mary Magdalene is austere by comparison to the cathedral, but dignified and respectful. There is now a commemorative stone fixture set into the front facade dedicated to the many men of Hall who were killed in the First and Second World Wars. It reminded us of markers dedicated to lost soldiers in towns across America. Another reminder of war’s horrible cost.

On our way back, we stopped for a coffee (of course!) and rested our feet while a procession of marathoners ran/trotted/stumbled by. Judging by their expressions, I’m not sure they were really having a good time but we enjoyed it.

Back at our apartment we’ve just finished supper and are enjoying some more quiet time. Later this week, it will be time to ride!

We are back on the road! Some of the time will even be on a bike! We’re currently in Hungerburg, a small village up the mountain a bit from Innsbruck, Austria. We used mundane planes and trains to get here and are now acclimating ourselves to a new time and environment. And what an environment! If you like rugged mountains and green valleys and quaint (though modern) villages, this is hard to beat.

In a few days we will rent a motorcycle and begin getting used to riding here. The language and signs and roads are different from the States – a kilometer is NOT a mile, so going 80 means something very different here. We will be riding a newer version of the bike we already ride so the equipment will be similar. All-in-all we are so excited!

End of the Line

On the 28th we rode long and hard to get to Beaver Falls, PA, just northeast of Pittsburgh. Then on the 29th we ground out the entire PA Turnpike to home. We’re sort of sorry to say we didn’t stop to see much. On the other hand, we’re not too sorry. After 8 weeks we were eager to get home, sleep in our bed, and have no need to keep track of our stuff that has to be repacked each morning. So on Monday the 29th, we hustled until we pulled into our driveway, parked, and fell off the bike in exhaustion.

Well, not really. There was no falling, though we were hot and exhausted. So we scrambled to empty the bike, get into the A/C and take long, cool showers. And start the laundry, especially the bed linens. And pick up the yard after the last storm. In a word, we were glad to resume our normal, everyday lives.

We are so grateful we had the wherewithal and opportunity to take another magnificent trip across the continent. And we’re so blessed to have a nice home to return to.

Over the next couple of days, we got the house in order, changed our road weary duds into clean clothes, slept in beyond hotel checkout, washed the bike (OMG – 2 months of accumulated bug carcasses!), lounged and took naps. Busy few days. Yup.

It’s now a week later and I’m finally around to closing the blog. Thanks for your patience, gentle reader. We’re back on track in the grandparental role, ready to welcome a new grandson into the world (Ben and Aabha) and spend some time with granddaughter, Cora (Tim and Anna). We’re in touch with our volunteer groups and are almost acclimated again (not) with Delaware Valley summer heat. So the beat goes on.

Just a few random thoughts and impressions that have been rattling around my brain pan that haven’t made the blog until now.

Remembering Crater Lake in Oregon is a recurring pleasure. The stunningly blue waters of the lake we saw on June 23rd and 24th are as vivid a memory as any we’ve had. This 1949 foot deep body of water is contained in the caldera/crater of a volcano that will become active again. So below the waters is a cavern of superheated magma that will one day boil the lake away. Sitting on top of such immense fires, the lake and its environs suffer under temps as low as -40* F, and receive up to 44 feet of snow every winter. Let that sink in for a second. Forty-four feet equals 528 inches. That’s as tall as a four-story building. Spring, summer and fall last all of 5 months from min-May to mid-September, and the rest is winter. Shall we all now complain about our winters? That would be, no.

Tolls. As in $56.50 from the western terminus of the PA Turnpike to the Rt. 1 interchange. Really? That represents almost 5 hours of gross income at the PA minimum wage of $12/hour. Long trips by car are affordable to fewer and fewer people. I know I couldn’t have afforded such a toll structure in my early years. Yet the cost of maintenance and upkeep is significant and rests largely on the States. There’s been some talk about a federal infrastructure program. Hoping.

We have mentioned meeting some exceptional people during our travels. There are a lot of wonderful folks in all areas of the US and Canada who hail from all backgrounds of religion, politics, socio-economic status, so forth. Those things don’t matter so much when you meet someone face to face, shake their hand and listen with an open mind and speak with kindness and humility. We realized we were guests in each town we rolled into and tried to act that way. Of course there were some crumb-bums along the way who had a problem with a stranger. (Mark would say there’s no one stranger than we are. But I digress.) Not unlike the crumb-bums who live on the streets in our towns who are our neighbors. We need to get over the inevitable fact that we are different in many ways, but have much more in common.

For our part, we are constantly amazed at the doors that people open into their homes and hearts because we see persons instead of caricatures. It is our choice how we decide to see our neighbor. Just saying.

It has truly been a pleasure and an honor to share our story with you. It’s a little humbling to think you all actually wanted to follow along on our journey. Your interest and kind comments have added so much to our pleasure.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you, and so long!

So we passed from Wisconsin to Illinois to Indiana today. Our journey around Chicago was long. How long was it? It was so long, we melted away to a shadow of our former selves. Oof. The major highway we wished to take was backed up for 20+ miles. Google cooperated with us today and helped us to navigate away from from the mayhem and into the country side where we passed miles of farms and car dealerships. While we could have rejoiced with its familiarity with Business Rt. 1 in Pennsylvania, instead we cursed fate that took us away from snow capped mountains and roads with s-shaped curves.

And when later we found ourselves in yet another Wyndam chain motel, we beat our chests and cried that we are tired of living in hotels. So what were we to do? We drank vodka and ate Doritos to comfort ourselves. Clearly, we are stuck in purgatory.

Many of you will think that we are nervy and ungrateful. Well we are, dammit. So we will turn down the air conditioning at the Microtel and go to sleep.

The end of a trip is never so exciting as its beginning.

Good night!

We left Minneapolis this morning and the welcoming home of brother Jeff and Rosemary. What a wonderful time getting reconnected and sharing memories and stories. There’s not a lot to share about our time – the usual family shmoozing and eating and drinking and laughing and crying at remembrances. It was a wonderful gift to stop and share with them. And they are so smart and well read that we have a list of books that need to be read RIGHT NOW. Well, maybe over the next month or so.

Jeff and Rose treated us to a show at the Guthrie Theatre in downtown Minneapolis. We saw “Guys and Dolls” with a fantastic cast including actors from local repertory companies and Broadway. It’s a bit old fashioned for some, but the cast had such energy and skills that they brought the house down. Or brought us out of our seats. Tough to choose the image, but we had such a fabulous time.

Jeff and Rose have a lovely dog named Romi who is a mix of huge Labrador, German short-haired something or other and what looks like wolf. He is big and goofy and loving and goofy and thinks he’s a lap dog. We loved him. Despite our inability to breathe with him nestled in our laps, we loved him so much. And I can assure you we’re carrying a bit of him with us as we travel. (Maybe a pound or so of his fur.) We are full to overflowing love for the family we’ve been with and the remembrance of nephew Joe who died this past January. Sharing was wonderful. Leaving was rough, but it’s time to head home.

We covered about 300 miles today reaching our lodgings outside of Madison, WI, home to the University of Wisconsin. We crossed the Mississippi River at La Crosse and shot east on I-90. Tomorrow we’ll do a bit more with the goal of racing home on Monday. Though if the heat index remains over the boiling point, we may divert to the Atlantic Provinces of Canada. Prince Edward Island maybe. 😀

Curious as to what we would have found if we turned here.

Sorry not many photos. I personally found Wisconsin very beautiful. As we traveled I90, we saw rolling hills and farms everywhere. I believe “bucolic” is the word.

Connie here. Hank is taking a break this evening.

July 22 – Theodore Roosevelt National Grasslands National Park

We stayed in Dickinson, ND so we could visit this park. In 2017, we bypassed it due to fatigue. Well, despite the fatigue, this time we did the loop around the park anyway. This area of North Dakota was considered desolate and inhospitable until ranchers came. Cows, it seems, don’t mind grass mixed with desert scrub and rock.

We took some time to tour the visitors center when we arrived and learned about the different striations in the exposed rock, which you’ll see below. This entire area used to be sea bottom. There are many artifacts in the stone of mussels, alligators and dinosaurs. Who would have thought. As a consequence, much of the rock is compressed sand; hence the sand color. There are also layers of a type of coal called lignite. Lignite is a low rank coal and is not used for energy. But it does burn. There is evidence that lightening strikes have set this layer of rock on fire. In the park, there is evidence of a long burning fire (1951-1977!). Another layer of rock, called clinker, is colored red after lignite is burned underground. It’s truly a beautiful color. There is also bluish grey layer of rock, which is formed from ash from long ago eruptions of volcanos. It’s really amazing.

The park is also a preserve for bison, wild horses, long horned sheep and many prairie dog towns. We caught a glimpse of a bison and a bunch of wild horses. And we were mesmerized by the prairie dogs. They seems to be observing the park visitors as intently as we were observing them.

July 23 – A long trip across the state of North Dakota to Fargo.

Today, we traveled 281 miles from Dickinson to Fargo along razor straight I-94. Thanks to the residents of ND adding roadside attractions to this long trip. We visited a couple of steel sculptures on the “Enchanted Highway” (pictures below).

We saw New Salem Sue – a huge Holstein Cow model in New Salem of course. There, we met a nice family from Iowa (Josh, Trish, Wes and Nick). I joked that they must see lots of cows at home. They responded: no, just corn. Josh was very kind to take our photo in front of “Sue.” We also saw the world’s tallest Sand Crane and Bison along the highway.

Later we met Rick. A heck of a nice guy who recently retired and is aching to take a cross country motorcycle trip with his wife who will retire next year. We had such a nice time talking with him. It was hard to break away.

Otherwise, the roadside was marked with hundreds of miles of green fields: corn, alfalfa and other very green plants. A lot of hard working folks put in thousands of hours a year to put food on our tables.

We got to our hotel and settled in for a relaxing evening only to get a call from the front desk. Our bike was lying on its side in the parking lot. We aren’t sure it there is any structural damage aside from the cosmetic. This is quite distressing to say the least. As of this moment we are waiting to hear from the hotel manager in response to our request to see the surveillance footage. Tomorrow morning we’ll have a local motorcycle shop take a look at her. Note: it’s really uncommon for bikes to all kickstand down.

Oh well, there are worse things in life for sure. Working on attitude adjustment now. 🥃

Leaving you with a little ha-ha. If ever in Fargo, ND, be sure to visit the UFO serving pizza and burgers on 45 Ave W.