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Deane, Norm, and Kay's Motorcycle / RV Trip to Northern Canada and Alaska | |
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September 29, Tuba City, AZ to Albuquerque - 328 Miles |
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Home Again! Well, home again for Deane at least, and for Norm and Kay, back to the starting point of the "2004 Great Alaska / Northern Canada Adventure". From Tuba City, we rode across the Navaho and Hopi reservations observing the normally arid landscape with homes dotted just here and there. And would you believe that in this whole ride of over 300 miles in one of the driest areas in the Southwest, we had rain chasing us all the way! We started out in light rain, and while it let up, roads were still wet, and whenever we stopped, the rain would catch up to us again. We stopped at the historic Hubble Trading Post, near Ganado, since Deane had told Norm about it before, and Norm wanted to visit. If I remember the correct date, Mr. Hubble started the trading post in 1868, and used it as a springboard to found many successful trading posts on the Navajo reservation. Hubble Trading Post is now a National monument, and has been run for many years "as close as possible to its actual trading post days", by government and/or contractors. So it had various goods that the local people still really want, as well as being a gallery for rugs, jewelry, and other Indian made items. It was interesting that on the day we were there, an army of inventory people were going through the myriad items on regular sale and recording them. We didn't discover whether it was only a routine audit or whether some change was to be made in how the trading post was run. Then it was on to Albuquerque, where Diane greeted the weary travelers, including husband Deane who had been "lost" for almost two months. It was good to be home, even though the trip was a lot of fun. Trip Wrap Up and some Ride Statistics. After arriving home, Deane and Norm got Deane's Suzuki V-Strom out of the trailer, and emptied all of Deane's clothes and other items. It took Deane two days of cleanup to get the V-Strom back into good shape. One item caused quite a lot of work and disassembly of the V-Strom. That was to get extraneous rocks out of various recesses in the plastic fairing where they had been rattling around for some time. That required taking off almost all of the plastic fairing parts to find the rocks. All in all, about a dozen rocks had come home with the V-Strom. (Cleanup of the Gold Wing still awaits Deane.) After a couple of days of visiting, Norm and Kay have left for home in Ohio, with Kay driving the motor home, and Norm riding his Gold Wing, rather than putting the big bike in the trailer. Statistics of the Trip Number of days on the road, in Canada and Alaska Deane - 45 days (Deane went down to Boise in the middle of the trip.) Norm and Kay - 50 days (They did some visiting while Deane was gone.) Total Miles Traveled Deane - 11,440 (8,800+ on Gold Wing, 2,600+ on V-Strom) Norm - (Yet to be reported - Norm rode some gravel with his Gold Wing, when Deane rode the V-Strom, and, Norm is riding home from Albuquerque) Kay - 11,500+ in the Motor Home and Trailer (Kay and Norm did some traveling in the motor home while Deane was gone.) Cost of Gas Canada - Average - $1.00 (Canadian) PER LITER! (A liter is 1.057 Quarts) High - $1.15 (Canadian) per Liter ( in U.S. Dollars - Average $2.80 per Gallon; High - $3.20 per Gallon) Alaska - Average $2.10, High $2.50 Miles per gallon for vehicles: Deane's Gold Wing - about 44 mpg, average - Deane's V-Strom - about 40 mpg if on pavement, drops to 36-37 mpg on gravel roads (in lower gears, and higher rpm). Norm and Kay will report later. Well, guess that's all - We all agreed that we'd had a GREAT Trip; it was a real Adventure in some places. Thanks for reading our story. Deane |
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Next day |
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