Hubbard Motorcycle Adventures

How do you summarise a motorbike trip around the world from Tokyo to Los Angeles?. With difficulty!   Well we are not into record setting. But we believe we are the oldest couple in the world to ride a motorbike “ two up” ie with pillion passenger, right round the world on one season  Let’s start  off with the statistics for the little trip  -                                                                    Total mileage.        34,416 km *                                                        No of days travelling        165                                                      No of countries visited       29                                                     Max temp on bike               41 deg C                                                     Min temp on bike                0 deg.C                                                          No of punctures.              One                                                          No of breakdowns.         One                 

And here it is - Los Angeles and  Los Angeles lighthouse at Long Beach with the Pacific Ocean! But let’s go back a bit first. We leave Kansas state with its endless cattle ranches and feedlots (enough to put you off steak for a while) and we head into southern Colorado. It is a trifle flat! We stay at the town of Trinidad. The Elk shooting season starts tomorrow so there are hunters and guns everywhere. Not a good time to be an Elk, I think!  Then next day the fun starts. The weather forecast shows sunny and cloudless at our starting point of Trinidad. It also shows that it is sunny and cloudless at our destination of Durango. But in between is Wolf Creek pass. As we get closer to the pass the black clouds roll in, the temperature drops and the rain starts.  The pass itself is 10,800 ft high. As we climb it starts to snow. And then it really snows as in riding thru a blizzard. Visibility becomes a problem as the helmet visor and glasses fog up. Snow accumulates in about an inch layer

Our pants  are on fire- we are belting across America. It must be the pull of home. We are not tired, we are enjoying it and don’t really want to stop. And of course we want to make the most of the good weather  And we reach a milestone. We cross the mighty Ohio river then 5 minutes later the mighty Mississippi. During that 5 minutes between the rivers we were in Illinois. The Ohio crossing  The mighty Mississippi  Now we are in Missouri  Then we ride along the levee on the other side. Never saw a Chevy on the Levee though. And then it is through the cotton fields. The cotton is just being harvested and there are cotton fluffs a’blowin across the road  We stay at a town called Poplar Bluff Next day the weather forecast looks a bit dodgy  Fortunatly  we only have about 30 minutes of light rain  It is pumpkin time in America  This little number below is called a “Hubbard Warted Squash “. Truly !  Not to be confused with a “Watered Squashed Hubbard “! Is’nt beautiful? Warts and all you m

Yes, we are now back in Almaty and ready to roll again. Just as well  We have now bought three spare tyres back with us from Auckland. Three ?   Yes, two for the bike and I have over the last two weeks in NZ started carrying a new spare one around my waist  But let’s go back two weeks. As soon as we got to Almaty and found that née tyres and wheels would take 5 to 6 weeks to get here to the BMW dealership. I yelped and said that won’t work. So we got thru to Cyclespot in Auckland by phone and they were able to fast track new wheels ( and other spare parts ) down from Malaysia  to Auckland. And they got to Auckland in 5 days. I ordered new tyres atthe same time ( which was always part of the master plan ) and got them fitted on the rims. Then a little bit self consciously we fronted up to the Emirates counter at Auckland with hand luggage and a 26 kg bag containing new wheels. We almost got rejected because the tyres had air in them which is a bit silly as I have airfreighred my bike a

It is time to leave Canada. We catch the ferry across the river ( ‘Tis Diana who payeth the ferryman!) and we head to the US border. This border crossing is at a place called Thousand Islands and at the border they do apparently check your dressing! Anyway we get thru the border crossing OK - thank goodness- the next one will be Auckland  South of the border the trees are still in glorious colour  We get to the small town of Watertown. There on a corner of the Main Street was the very first Woolworths store  That night we have dinner in a diner complete with chrome trimmed bar stools and it looked as if it had come straight from the sixties. The waitress greeted us with  “ Howdy folks. Ya’all just holler when youse are ready to order”.  Must be in America. Then the gentleman behind us really clinched it. He proclaimed in a voice that would penetrate armour, that “ he loved his country , his president loved his country and his president loved him”. My soup suddenly curdled on me ! We a

But firstly London . We get the Redhead’s front shock absorber replaced at the BMW service centre at Battersea in Central London. Then it is a ride out to Air Canada freight depot at Heathrow. As every airline in the world has a freight depot at Heathrow finding the Air. Canada freight depot was an “interesting” challenge !  Actually Air Canada have an interesting deal. If you travel on the same flight as the bike they will airfreight the bike from London to Montreal for just 750 pounds. ( about Nz$1400 ). That is very cheap !  So the Redhead is handed over at Heathrow  And hey presto afrw days later it is in Montreal  Then we are ready to get going again towards West Coast USA. We did think about crossing Canada to Vancouver but this little weather forecast clarified our thinking a little. Winnipeg is on the trans Canada highway.  The weather forecast shows a ginormous polar blast heading down into the mid west and Rockies. So we are going to head down into the orange bit  We find ou