After a tough time back in the UK we crossed the Atlantic once again to resume 'The Trip'. Landing in Miami we stayed a few lovely days with Chris's brother and family bringing the bike out of hibernation and doing the Florida tourist bit which was just what we needed. Florida has no shortage of things to do but Disneyland and beaches aren't us so its an advantage having family there who know what we like and came up trumps every time. Diving on the corral reefs of the Florida Keys was incredible, Airboat rides in the Everglades and watching the wildlife there was exhilarating and dinning out at the local favorite places was, well, filling!After four days or so we were back on the road again with a great family send-off and the work began. It’s been our aim to get as far North in Canada as we can before the winter arrives (which isn't long) so its meant we've ridden North-west across the States as fast as we can. Doing anywhere upto 450 miles a day we are now in Teton National Park. The hard riding began with trying to outrun Hurricane Charlie (which we did manage to miss) and riding through the middle of Tropical Storm 'Bonnie' which was extremely wet but the lesser of two evils. It hasn't all been hard riding though. We spent half an hour in Nashville, that was nice as we only ended up there due to a map reading error and we saw Denver by night. A pleasant surprise was the Great Plains. We'd previously looked at the Plains as being nothing more than a boring obstacle to cross before getting to the Rocky Mountains but it turned out to be very beautiful and breath-taking, not least for its vastness. Settlements called 'Last Chance' and 'Hiawotha' both spurred us on and reminded us of its history. Without a doubt thought the high-light of the region was seeing a herd of several hundred buffalo (although we only managed to get four of them on film!).

Having crossed the Plains we soon reached Denver and the Rocky Mountains. The change in scenery was abrupt going from flat grassland to snow-covered mountains in the space of a couple of hours. On the Plains we were cooking in our clothes and now in the Rockies we're now wearing our heated bike jackets. (Great invention!) The change is amazing. Colorado, Utah and Wyoming have all been incredibly beautiful but also incredibly windy and wet at times. Now that we've reached the Teton National Park though we feel we've reached the part of North America we really wanted to see and have decided to step down a gear or two. The Tetons and Yellowstone deserve a good few days to look round and as for Canada we'll ride as far as we feel comfortable with and take our time. It would be nice to get up to the Arctic Circle, that was our original goal but we're ready to relax now so we'll see.

Given that generally the roads in the US either go North/South or East/West and we have been riding North-west we've covered 12 States and 3,500 miles in 12 days, given the bike a full service and a new set of tires.

Finally, we'd just like to say a VERY big thank you to everyone who's given us their support over the last few months while in the UK, friends and family alike. We'll never forget it and always appreciate how lucky we are to have you.