I got back Thursday July 13 from St. Louis - 4500Km (2800 mi) overall - by far the longest bike trip I've done. I left Wednesday the 5th and rode down through Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana to Missouri. I had always wanted to see the place and my wife was indifferent so it was a good destination for a solo ride.
The triumph performed flawlessly. This is just an amazingly great bike. I was pawing for 6th gear once in a while just to see if it had grown in but I honestly don't think I would change the gearing. I was cruising mostly at 75 mph and I could always twist the throttle and pass without having to worry about gearing down. The gas tank capacity was the single greatest annoyance (well, that and the chain!).
On the way down I stayed one night at my sister's in Toronto and for the other nights I just fell into whatever motel I could find at 3 or 4 o'clock. My best bargain was the Five Star motel in Greenup Illinois on the embarass river that came in at $29 - perfectly nice and clean but on a back road.
Speaking of roads, the US Interstates were just a dream to ride on. Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana are pretty flat but except around the big cities they were uncrowded, fast, and generally at least a bit scenic.
St Louis itself was great. The things that I knew about it were the 1904 world's fair, the Gateway Arch, and that Lewis and Clark had left from there to find a route to the Pacific in the early 1800's.
The gateway Arch is really quite something. I know it's just another monument but when you see it framing the city as you come across the Mississippi river it almost takes your breath away (maybe especially if you've ridden 2000 km to get there).
Under the arch there's something called the Thomas Jefferson Museum of Westward Expansion. Just an amazing US history museum with a great treatment of the Lewis and Clark expedition. These guys left from St. Louis in 1803 following the Missouri river upstream - they wintered on the western plains (brrrrrr) continued on to the Rockies through what is now Yellowstone park, and followed the Columbia river down to the west coast in what is now Oregon. All the way they were cataloguing the resources, drawing maps, and making contact with the indians so they could go back later and talk them out of their land. The museum is pretty upbeat but you do get a sense of how the North American indians were treated - not a nice story. The map below shows their route from St. Louis to the west. Quite a story - no better or worse than you could tell about Canada but a magnificent telling of it.
The world's fair in 1904 was held as the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase where the American government bought the middle third of what would become the US from the French (who had previously swindles the indians). The fair was a truly amazing event coming at the turn of the 19th century. the first world's fair where electricity was used and so on. There's little left of it today, of course, because most of the fairs and exhibit halls were built for a season or two only. The site has become a huge park (over two square miles) with pools, golf, playgrounds, etc. including another excellent history museum with a big section on the fair. I got my fill of fair memorabilia and I was greatly reminded of expo 67 in Montreal - for example, some of the exhibits included what were called "stockholder booklets" with photos for admission all season - it reminded me of the passports my wife and I still have from expo.
One other thing about St. Louis is that it was on the old route 66 that ran from Chicago to Los Angeles (Come to think of it, if you flipped that Lewis and Clark route upside down it might follow route 66!). There's a fair bit of memorabilia about that and one preserved section where it crossed the Mississippi - now converted to a recreation path.
Coming home I went a different route through Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The most striking thing on the way home was the skyline drive through the Shenandoah national park (pic below). Not something you think of a few hundred miles from Washington DC but I saw three deer and a bear! There's a shot below from an overlook.
I had great weather all the way except on the last day as I came through Syracuse NY the skies opened and it poured for an hour - I just got drenched (see below).
Overall I had a great time. I had a good look at St. Louis and saw some possibilities for trips I would do another time. For example, the Skyline Drive & Blue Ridge Parkway are stunning locales and really just a day and a half from Ottawa. From there it's maybe another day to the fabled Mammoth Caves!
As far as the long, solo, bike trip thing goes, I loved it. The triumph isn't really set up for touring so I may look for an alternative but it's an astounding ride none the less.
