Familie Hindahl - A dream became true: July

The idea of this unusual trip came some years ago while I was traveling in Iceland. Step by step I made it become true: In 1995 I bought my first chaps. In Dec. 1996 I got my motorcycle drivers license. In Jan. '98 I boked my flight. On July 29th my airplane took off for Seattle, WA. I just had finished University a few hours before, so I was very tired and drained. In Seattle I stayed with a wonderful retired couple and their Japanese friend. They really helped me to acclimate to this strange city and they became my first American friends.
It took just one day to buy that BMW 650 ST motorcycle with the two aluminum panniers and to get the paperwork done. As you can see on the top it was heavy loaded and I was sitting in the middle of my luggage like the meat in a burger.

After five days I started the first loop to Canada and Alaska. Though I was not experienced in driving a motorcycle I did well and felt wonderful.
It was great to be on the road. Vancouver Island was my first stop - rainy and with winding slippery roads. With a companion from Saskatoon it was nice to ride and he showed me the Nairn Falls State Park.

The forest fires in the area of Kamloops, BC were really big, but for the people around the town it seemed to be kind of normal. While waiting for my 600 miles check-up I stayed with Skylark, a nice Canadian woman. She phoned all over the country to ask relatives if they were interested in having a german guest. I was really blessed with friendly people along my way in Prince George, Kitwanga, Steward and Watson Lake. Thank You all!

Banff and Jasper National Parks were my first impressions of the rough but breathtaking wilderness of North America. I saw my first black bears walking across the road right in front of me.

The first days passed like a dream and the untouched nature with it's spread out forests helped me to refresh my soul and to calm down after the stressful last year with all those examinations to pass.

The Al-Can Highway was really "winding in and winding out" and "filled my mind with serious doubt, if the builder was going to hell or just coming out" as you can read in a poem on many postcards.

When I was entering Alaska it started to rain and did not stop before I reached the border again. I survived the daily ride of 300 to 400 miles only by wearing everything I owned - just like a Sumo ringer.

In that pouring rain it was not possible to take many nice pictures - but Alaska is a wonderful country and really worth a visit! Again I made a lot of friends - in a restaurant, on a bus tour at Denali Natl. Park, at Portage Glacier, in Fairbanks, Anchorage and Boundary...

While riding the "Top of the World Highway" from Tok, AK to Dawson City, YK, I had a beautiful view over red bushes and fall landscape.

The gold rush happening a hundred years ago was still very present in that historical town.

Mosquitos, the Alaskan State Birds, were very rare during my travels (because of the rain...), but some people must have had other experiences, I think.

Sometimes I felt homesick, when everything was really strange and different from what I was used to, just like the roadworker during the fourties, when he was building the Alaska-Canada Highway. He had put up a sign showing the distance to his hometown somewhere next to the road. Today there are millions of signs from all over the world at Watson Lake, BC and the place is called Sign Post Forest.

Life must be very hard in the wilderness out of nowhere. Abandoned places and houses are often found, telling a romantic but also sad story.

After 7200 miles and nearly five weeks I reached Seattle again. I had a checkup done on the motorcycle, got my real license plate and on September 2nd I went off for the "lower 48".

I was happy to be "back on the road" but when I entered Leavenworth, WA I felt like in Bavaria, Germany. Somebody had it made like a typically German village and it is very popular among Americans. For me it was just awful and after I had taken some pictures I left immediately.

It was always very easy to make new friends. I was very interested in the so called "American Way Of Life", not really knowing what to expect. I took part in a pottlach. A pig was grilled, every woman brought salad, pie or cake, games were played and the main attraction was a big water basin with a seat above. Someone threw a ball and tried to hit a button to make the person on that seat fall into the basin. Pooh, there was always cold water in it!

The Lewis and Clark Caves were really fascinating. Yellowstone National Park was worth a three days stay, even though it was rainy and cold. The sinter terraces were supernatural and looked very fragile.

I have never seen such a wonderful natural artwork before.

One was named 'The Elephant' and this was really what it looked like. Well, you must see it in reality, it is so big, with geysers, fountains, chalk white sinter terraces, a colorful canyon and lots of deer and elk, musk, bison and bears. For motorcyclists the Bear Tooth Highway to Cooksville north-east of Yellostone is a real Eldorado of switch backs, curves and mountain summits - over 10.000 ft elevation! I really enjoyed that day!

Between Yellowstone and Grand Teton Natl. Park I nearly got a ticket for speeding. I was about 20 mph too fast but when the cop saw that I was a German woman, traveling all by myself, we started a nice talk and I did not get a ticket neither a written warning. Thank God!
On my way to Salt Lake City I saw a wonderful building from the beginning of the century. History is not very old on the West Coast.
At Salt Lake the Mormons (it is better to say "the latter days saints") have a big temple. It is real that You can feel a special spirit at their temple square. I wanted to visit the world's biggest daylight copper mine but after two hours of searching I gave it up - no road sign, and everybody I asked for directions told something different! I also got my next ticket for parking on the sidewalk during a heavy hailstorm. Writing to that office I explained my situation and I did not have to pay the bill. That was nice of them! At Salt Lake I had the most expensive campground of all: 20,84 $ for a simple campsite between a stinking mattress, some other litter, a big road, the airport and a railroad track. I was really fed up with that town!

Arches National Park was my next destination. Though the only campsite in the park was usually full at 8.00 a.m. I had the chance to find a nice woman from Canada, traveling by herself on a bicycle, who shared her campsite with me. Arches Natl.

Park was really supernatural - deep blue sky, wonderful red rock formations and bizarre natural arches like "Delicate Arch".

Newspaper Rock (a rock with petroglyphes from up to 2000 years ago) was my next stop. I stuck in a terrible hailstorm, where the motorcycle did not want to work after I stopped to put on my rain gear. I lost my water bag, went back into the hailstorm to look for it but all I found was a little black pulp with 5 holes - impossible to repair. From that day I used an old milk canister and was also fine. I met a very impressing woman from Switzerland, traveling from Anchorage to San Francisco on a bicycle - also by herself! It was fun, having her as a company and we slandered about everything for hours...

We met again at Mesa Verde, a historic place from the 11th century with cliff houses. They could only be reached by climbing very steep ladders and narrow paths.

From childhood on I knew the characteristic rock formations of Monument Valley -

they were on every Marlboro advertisement. Monument Valley is one of my favorite places in the US. I could not believe that many Americans (especially Utah citizens) did not know about it! I slept out on a picnic table to make sure that I got up in time for that wonderful sunrise (and to be safe about the tarantulas and rattlesnakes). I really feel blessed that I saw this wonderful place!

Four Corners Monument wasn't more than a long line of shops and a few rock plates - expensive and disappointing. Grand Canyon south rim could not excite me as well. Someone bumped my motorcycle from behind, it was crowded and really hot. The walk into the canyon took a whole day and I was totally exhausted when I finally made it back to my tent. There was a nice big boy making big soap bubbles on the campsite next to mine - we had a nice time drinking beer and telling stories. The north rim was more interesting: It had just stopped raining and clouds like cotton balls drifted through the canyon. I watched a polygamous Mormon family - four wonderful young woman with special robes and tuft. All their children were barefoot, even though it was really cold and rainy.

To come to Zions National Park was like a day in paradise! It was so sweet, lovely, mild - words cannot describe what I felt.

Bryce Canyon was beating all my expectations. It was a very cold morning, I slept somewhere out in the woods and left my camp at 6.30 a.m. to see the sun rise over the amphitheater of standing rocks. During the one-hour-ride I thought I must die - it was so cold! But all that freezing was really worth it: Bryce Canyon welcomed me with clear blue sky, colors like in a Kodachrome advertising and nice winding paths into the small canyon.

In Salt Lake City I met a wonderful couple from Cedar City. They had invited me to their home and we were glad to meet again. In their backyard there was an idyllic collection of old VWs, little Fiat cars and also many ducks and chicken. I enjoyed the time with them. They made real apple pie for me and told me many interesting places in Las Vegas, where to have the less expensive "all you can eat breakfast", where to see free shows and other crazy stuff.

Because of their tips I had a wonderful time in Las Vegas - without spending more than a few Dollars! When I drove through the streets of Las Vegas late in the evening somebody stopped to tell me that my rear light was not working. I thought it was too dangerous to drive on the freeway by night and decided to pass the night next to my motorcycle on a parking lot in Downtown.

Though there were many suspicious people nobody bothered me and the next day I replaced the bulb and went on to Death Valley. Though everybody told me that I would melt in the heat of that valley it was just nice warm. The play of the colors in that desert sunset was amazing and the valley was everything but death!

I did not stay very long - Sequoia Natl. Park and Kings Canyon were calling. Their huge Redwood Trees were really impressive. I did not know that the oldest and biggest living thing on earth is a Redwood tree, did you know that?
Taking the small back roads I had switch backs, narrow curves and many mountain summits for days. With nearly no signs showing me the directions I lost my way more than once. But there was always somebody, friendly and helpful to show me the way. On my way to Kings Canyon I saw my first tarantula!

There you can see how my home looked like - I mostly stayed somewhere in the woods and wound a cord around the motorcycle and a tree - if a bear comes and shakes it he would not throw it!

I don't know why but I did not expect Yosemite Natl. Park to be that nice. It is a paradise for hikers, free climbers, bicyclists, kayaks and motorcyclists.

The Half Dome was really impressive and I could hardly believe that the whole valley was a flood area just two years ago.

From there to the California Coast it was just a day ride. Near Big Sur I found a nice State Park Campground, walk in, but only three bucks a night. For this, I was witness of a big spectacle: Raccoons were everywhere in the bushes and they seemed to be the real owners of the campground. I was absent for only two minutes - enough for them to get into my food and make a terrible mess out of everything they found. They properly unscrewed my containers, opened tupperware boxes and chewed other storage boxes. I love dried gummy bears - I had still a box of them left from home and I was really disconcerted about their respectlessness. There were no storage boxes on that campground. I had to empty and use a litter barrel to keep my stuff away from the raccoons!

A stop in Monterey was really disappointing: There is nothing to see or feel about the flair of John Steinbeck's "cannery row" anymore.
San Francisco was my next destination. To make it short: It is my favorite place in the whole US! I felt like in a great romance, like to be in love even though my boyfriend was some thousand miles away. Twin Peaks was so romantic, the Castro Street Gay District was just normal (it was me, feeling abnormal in that area) and Ashburn and Height really gave me a feeling of the Flower Power time (even though I saw many wrecked people there, too). I walked the streets for hours, wondered about all the fantastic murals, catched one of the famous cable cars - four days were too short to find out all the wonderful places! The Golden Gate Bridge catched my eyes over and over.

Sweet bakery with fantastic artwork was shown in many shop windows (Many Americans are very unhealthy and really fat. Sometimes I could not believe my eyes - and they all wear sportswear...).

The final meal request was exhibited in a little artwork park near the Market Street. It was really touching, to see that prisoners have human needs like you and me.

The less expensive parking meter I ever found was in the center of SF! A nickel for a whole hour - that will be 8 Pfennig!!!

At the end of every day I made a pilgrimage to the sunset at the Golden Gate Bridge. It was hard to leave that wonderful town!
It went very cold in the middle of October. I was glad to come to Klammath Falls, OR, to be a guest at John and Margie Dark, the wonderful couple I had met at Prince George, BC. Margie showed me around and decided to take me to Crater Lake, known for it's unusual blue color. Instead of the blue we only saw white - it was snowing up there!

Thank God I was not on my motorcycle on that snowy road. I also could stay with Tom an Cathy Silbernagel and with John and Mona Dark - all very nice people with wonderful children. I watched my first Football game!

The last days were counted - I felt wide open and tried to keep everything in mind. I got used to those typical American town centers with their wide roads, huge department stores and big signs.

On a sunny, nice day I went to the Olympic Peninsula, walked down the seashore and felt like a king - I had made it! 14.200 miles, all by myself, all the good times, all the bad times, all the wonderful people I met!

Getting back home was double faced for me: On the one hand I was looking forward to see my boyfriend again but on the other hand there was another possibility: To settle, find a job and stay in that big land of many possibilities.

But when I arrived at Hanover airport and saw my wonderful boyfriend waiting for me I knew: the "beamer girl" is back home!

This is just a little "Thank You" to all my wonderful new friends in America!