Switzerland?

I want to do these posts in some kind of order. However, today we are in Brissago, Switzerland, and here's a sight I never expected to see outside my Swiss hotel!

Our Intrepid Guide

Our amazing guide for the tour is Ewe Kraus. Ewe began is writing career while on a six-year around the world motorcycle tour. Now he writes for RoadRunner in the US and a number of German travel magazines. He is married to Danika, and together they have two children, a boy and a girl.
He's a great guide a lots of fun!

Pics From Orcas Island

The newest boat at Outer Island Expeditions, Blackfish III, and Mike, a Salish Sea resident male Killer Whale.

If It's Tuesday Night It Must be California

I had high hopes for Patrick Point State Park in northern California, and I wan't disappointed.  The view was amazing and the raccoons were clearly Harley fans.

Sunday, May 24: Dreary in McCleary

Sunday was cold and wet.  Big surprise, right?  After all I'm riding the largest temperate rain forest in the world.  Finally, I decided I needed a break in McCleary, WA, home of the Bear Festival.
Stopped at the Rain Country Restaurant for pie and coffee.  The name says so much.
I asked my waitress about the Bear Festival, the community's annual mid-summer gathering.  "Well," she said, "it's not as big as it used to be.  There's a competition for the best Bear stew and a nice community gathering. (I'm sure local bears are grateful that it's diminished in size).

Monday Night on South Beach (not that South Beach!)

It took less than 15 min to set up camp Monday night at South Beach State Park, near Newport OR, and the jet boil brewed the coffee flawlessly tues morning. Of course I got a nice dousing of rain just as I was making my breakfast.  There was plenty of room in my campsite, not so much inside my tent.

Wednesday Travel - May 27

After leaving Patrick Point State Park, I was gifted by incredible vistas, sweeping curves, tight twisties, sun, wind rain, more rain and fog.  The Avenue of the Giants transported me to another place as I was surrounded by majestic redwoods.  The road extends around Hwy 101 for 32 miles and it feels like you become a character in the kind of fairy tale that has an enchanted forest, inhabited by giants.  Luckily, I had my trusty steed, with 96 cu in of American V-Twin power, and I galloped through the forest without encountering any troublesome creatures.

Life has no shortage of forks in the road.  Most of them are metaphorical, but this trip had a substantial choice to make just outside of Leggett, CA.  Would I stay with Highway 101 through the mountains and redwood forests, or pick up the Pacific Coast Highway--the "PCH?"  I had originally planned to travel the PCH to San Francisco, but on this day the mountains were calling my name.  I chose the 101; the Redwoods were amazing, it allowed me to ride through one of my favorite places, Sonoma County, and I wasn't sure how the cloud cover would be on the coast.  For the first time since riding out of Seattle, I was warm on the bike, in fact I even took off my jacket and rode in long sleeves and vest.  What a welcome feeling!