Sometimes the best part was arriving at our campsite, quickly setting up, and just staring at the view over a cold beer. When we arrived at a campsite, groups of folks would walk over, look at our bikes (and Illinois plates), their eyes would get wide, they would hit us up with questions, and we would find ourselves in some fun conversations with our new friends.
Brad: I was on the bike for 45 days; we saw and experienced a lot. The natural scenery changing in front of us with every turn is like a never-ending movie. The constantly changing visuals, the smells of the roadside flora and farmlands. It was amazing. Traveling through the North American countryside on a motorcycle provides a constantly changing sensory-gasm. You want to take it all in, but at times it’s just too much. Aside from the visuals, etc., we met some really cool people. When traveling I prefer to interact with locals and have a hard rule to avoid all fast food places whenever I can. One of the best interactions was in a town called Carmacks in the Yukon Territory. We set up camp along the
Yukon River and went into town, which
consisted of four buildings along the two-lane winding highway: a gas station, a general store, a hotel and a restaurant. I hit it off with a guy named Bill who was admiring my bike. He ended up sending shots to our table at the restaurant. So I sent him a shot back. One thing led to another and we ended up drinking and
sharing stories with his friends for an hour or so,
then he invited us all to go back to his house to keep drinking. Bill was a Caucasian Canadian, and his wife was a First Nations woman from the Northern Tutchone tribe. I asked Bill if he smoked, and he said he smoked all his weed in college, to which I replied, “well, I only smoked half of mine.” He suggested I offer it to his wife, which I did. But she offered one better and she and I ended up sitting in their backyard smoking her native grass out of a peace pipe.
ML: With all of the beauty and great experiences, I’m sure there had to be some challenges. Any tough times or lessons learned you care to share?
Lake Louise Alberta, Canada