Its only been a month or so since we came back into the States but it feels like an awful lot longer. Since getting a caution for speeding we've completely ignored it and ridden round the country like to people possessed to take in all the sites we can as we head south for the sun. We pretty much rode through Washington State without stopping until we hit Oregon. Oregon must be one of the best kept secrets in the States as no one told us how beautiful it is. The coastal road (Highway 101) is spectacular all the way to California. Every bend reveals craggy coves, tree lined beaches or beautifully colourful marshes. We could have spent a month alone just riding up and down the coast dodging the RV's there. However, we had a date with Crater Lake so made our way inland. The roads in this part of the world are full of twists and turns and having ridden a particularly steep and twisting gravel road we got stuck in Bend, Oregon for four days waiting for a new rear tire. To say it was as balled as a Buddhist monks head would be an understatement. The side-wall was down to the thread and we weren't going anywhere. Still, the boys and girls at 'Bend Recreation' got us back on the road and it was a short hop to Crater Lake National Park. We didn't know much about the place other than every other person we met told us we should go. As we entered the park we wondered what all the fuss was about. It didn't look any different to the rest of Oregon (which is impressive in itself) but as we crested the West rim of the volcano a mirrored sky blue lake opened up before us a 1000 feet below and our breath was taken away. For 7,500 years this lake has nestled in the rim of the volcano and has been the subject of Native American folk law all that time. For us it was awe inspiring. We camped there overnight huddled round a fire as the temperature fell to -5C and shooting stars shot across the sky. Not bad at all!

From Crater Lake we rode south to Redwood National Park stopping off at a State Park over night. Here we met Pete, a strapping ranch owner from Stockton, California. Pete's a colourful old guy who tells a good story about mad days on the farm building hotrods and generally getting into trouble with his poppa. In his days of semi-retirement he's now given the ultimate two fingered salute to his farther by spending a good deal of his money on an all singing, all dancing RV. This RV is the size of a large bus and dam near drives itself. Self leveling systems, rear facing monitoring cameras, retractable sides and a state of the art 360 degree entertainment system. Rightly so, Pete was very proud of his RV and enjoyed showing me round it. After an hour or so of walking up and down the corridors inspecting the walk in wardrobes and trying the drivers seat out for size (it was huge) we sat down to a banquet of lamb and all the trimmings with his wife Donna and their friends. There's no such thing as a free meal so we gladly gave a slide show on the laptop of our trip to date. That night we went to bed with full stomachs (we were planning to have soup and an old roll) feeling tired out. It had been a long day. We totted up the number of people we'd met on the road that day and stopped to chat to, or more often the other way round, and it came to 26.

Redwood NP is in fact a chain of several State Parks along the Northern coast of California shrouded in fog this time of year but all the more impressive for that as you look up at the giant trees disappearing into the mists high above. Often the saying that things are bigger in the USA is a misnomer but in this case its true. These giant redwoods are huge. As we walked through the parks and rode the bike down the dirt roads in amongst them, and sometimes through them, literally we felt pretty insignificant in the grand scale of things. (No smart ass comments there thanks!) Riding through we played 'Into the Hall of the Mountain King' through the intercom and the whole experience became surreal. We went to bed that night, Liz dreaming of strapping lumberjacks and me dreaming of really big chainsaws. Yosemite National Park was the next destination for us. We know this was to be a fantastic place but couldn't visualise it any more than the clip from one of the Star Trek films where Captain Kurk is struggling to climb one of the cliff faces and Spock comes up to meet him on a pair of jet boots. (Sad but true). Arriving at Yosemite things didn't go to plan for us though. By the time we'd climbed the pass through the park and ridden through freezing rain and hail we descended to Yosemite Village to find a camping spot only to find it was the weekend (apparently) and there was no room for us. Time was getting on and we ended up riding into the night looking for somewhere to stay. During the day the elk, bears and any other wild animal in the area are lovely to see. At night they become basterd things that come out of the dark with the sole intention of separating rider and bike from each other. Having had a couple of near misses we finally found a cheap motel and retired for the night with Yosemite 80 miles behind us and having taken not a single photograph. So much for that then!

Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks were next on the agenda and we hope would be more successful for us. It was. Redwood NP has the worlds tallest know trees, Kings and Sequoia have the fattest. Arriving on a Tuesday we booked into a cabin to play it safe and having made a base we took on the appearance of demented tourists and ran round the park photographing everything in sight. We did however have to return to the cabin having only covered half a mile to download the 230 photographs we'd taken in under an hour and a half. (Digital's great!) Off we set again, now on the bike, to ride down into the Kings Canyon. In some ways the road into the canyon is more impressive than the view. Twisting and turning as it goes down on good tarmac we had a good go at getting another balled tire. Adding to the exhilaration of the road was the wind. It hit the canyon wall with a force that had us struggling to lean the bike over in the bends while picking up grit and dislodging stones to then hurl them in our path. We returned to our cabin that night to then take on Sequoia the next day as we rode out of the parks. That was the plan anyway. Having underestimated the sites of Sequoia we ended up spending another night in the park. If we can't be flexible then who can. We did the usual stuff, riding the bike through 'Tunnel Log' - a fallen sequoia hollowed out to 15 feel wide and an 8 foot high clearance. Then onto 'Auto Log' - another fallen sequoia that has been the subject of visitors to the area driving their vehicles onto it for a photo. Since the '80's the log has been cordoned off to stop people driving onto it though. However, little consideration was given to the age of the motorbike and while no one was looking we rode onto it, took half a dosen photos and sped off before anyone was any the wiser. Much of the day went in that vein in fact. It seemed we took on a slightly irresponsible streak for the day, riding off the roads, upto huge trees and taking photos of the bike or ourselves dwarfed by the sequoias. (Wasn't us Gov' if anyone ever asks though.)

The Canadian border down to California has been the USA we originally came here to see. This being our 4th time in the States we're now really fulfilling our objective and loving it. The States has many faces but this is the face that appeals to us the most. As McDonalds would say "I'm Lovin' It". (All rights reserved, The Golden Arches logo and bla bla bla are the property of the McDonalds Corporation bla bla bla