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Ride with us to Daytona via five states and Key West at our new weblog.

An excellent adventure

E.B. Chester scoots along US26 on the approach to Idaho Falls and Grand Teton Harley-Davidson & Buell, the conclusion of our 2,700-mile adventure that started 10 days earlier at Chester's Harley-Davidson in Mesa, Arizona. Photos by Carole and Roy Timm. Click on any image for a larger view.

Silver Dollar Sam, a bear from the famed Wort Hotel in Jackson, rides home with Craig Chester, a gift for his two-year-old daughter.

It's hard to tell who little Ava was happiest to see, Daddy, Grandad or Silver Dollar Sam.

Day 10, the 86 miles from Jackson, Wyoming, to Idaho Falls, Idaho, was the shortest leg of our excellent adventure.

Another great day, another great ride

The 350 miles to the Grand Tetons from Devil's Tower took us across Wyoming in all its variety, from grasslands and desert to canyons and mountains. It was an exceptional ride, following so many other exceptional rides on this trip. Photos by Carole and Roy Timm. Click on any image for a larger view.

E.B. and Craig enjoy the sweeping curves and superb scenery of Tensleep Canyon at the beginning of our seven hours in saddle.

Tensleep Canyon demands to be ridden and it demands to be photographed. Here, E.B. and his Electra Glide Ultra pause for the camera.

Halfway across Wyoming, we rode through rugged Wind River Canyon. Although the photo shows us approaching a slow switchback, much of the canyon presents broad sweeping curves that can be ridden as quickly as one wishes. Riding the throttle of the Harley V-twin on such roads is a addictive.

My dear Dad rides with me

The Grand Teton Mountains, in all their jagged splendor, are more impressive than I expected after years of seeing them in photographs. They signal the end of Day 9 on the road just outside of Jackson, Wyoming. Photo by Craig Chester. Click image for a larger view.

I rode in sadness for a while today. It would have been my dear father’s 97th birthday. He died last year at age 95, very much alive until the moment his heart stopped.

In the last year of his life, he learned to operate a computer, and had he lived, he would have been the most frequent visitor to this blog, reading every word, looking closely at each photograph, studying the maps.

I got my first ride on a motorcycle because of my father--when my mother was seven months pregnant with me. That was back in Latvia, our native land, where my father was a national champion road racer. In those days, you rode during the week what you raced on the weekend. Thus, my first ride was on his 350-cc racing machine, an AJS.


I have with me on this ride the medallion he was awarded as the 350-cc class national champion of Latvia in 1939. It’s a trophy the size of a postage stamp, all that was affordable in the days before the Second World War. It was his favorite victory, he used to tell me. In his last year with us, he kept it on his desk above his computer. Tonight, it sits by my computer in a hotel room in Wyoming, where I can touch the raised image of a motorcycle racer and shed a loving tear in his memory.

Sturgis, farewell

Just before leaving South Dakota, we had a chance to ride Spearfish Canyon, with E.B. and Craig winding their way through the scenery. Photos by Carole and Roy Timm. Click on any image for a larger view

Devil's Tower in Wyoming is one of those iconic American landmarks that demands to be photographed, as Craig and his Road Glide demonstrate.

Hauling across the grasslands in Wyoming is a blast. From Devil's Tower, it takes about three hours to reach Buffalo where one can dine well at the not-to-be-missed Occidental Hotel.

Day 8: Rapid City, South Dakota, to Buffalo, Wyoming

Blue skies in Wyoming

Is it just me, or is the sky in Wyoming bluer than elsewhere?

I first noticed the blue in the sky at Devil's Tower, after a morning ride of three hours from Rapid City.

The world's largest Harley-Davidson flag flies against the blue sky at Devil's Tower.