What Made Me Do This? - Epilogue

This blog documents the motorcycle trip I took Between May and September 2009. As you read this blog you may wonder where I got the idea to ride my motorcycle around the world. Anyone who knows me knows I have been riding motorcycle since the spring of 1970. Except for the four years I spent in the military, I have never been without a Harley-Davidson under me. I have motorcycle riding experience in North America, Europe, South America, Australia, and Africa.
In early 2007 my girlfriend Mary brought home a DVD movie called “The Long Way Around”. We watched it and liked it. After we watched all the episodes I said to Mary “you know I could do that”, and that’s where the idea was planted in my head. I asked Mary if she would support my attempt to ride around the world. She said she would, and in September 2007 I bought a 2007 Kawasaki KLR 650 to carry out the task. I requested a four month leave of absence from work and set my departure month as May 2009. After the initial meeting with work, a follow up meeting was held every six months until December 2009, when I received the official go ahead for my big adventure. At this point I made the final decision to go for it. I began to apply for letters of acceptance and visas for countries I was planning to visit. I researched and prepared my motorcycle for the trip and read three books about motorcycle travel around the world. The first was “The Long Way Around” by Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman, the second was “Riding The Edge” by Dave Barr, and the third “Two Wheels Through Terror” by Glen Heggstad. Each of these books provided me with reference information which would help me through this trip. “The Long Way Around” provided me with route, border, and availability of services information in the Russian Federation. “Riding The Edge” assured me that starting out with an old motorcycle was not a good decision and no matter how difficult my days could be they would never be as difficult as they would be for a double amputee motorcycle rider. “Two Wheels Through Terror” gave me some insight into how I might survive should I be captured or taken hostage in a foreign country. January 2009 started out like any other new year, but it took a bad turn when I had my physical for the trip. The doctors discovered an illness which required immediate attention and literally put an end to my trip planning. I would not do any further trip planning until the middle of March 2009. Again I was faced with a difficult decision; whether to go or to bail out. I decided I would proceed again with my trip planning, since if my illness re-occurred later I would never get a second chance to ride around the world. From this point on I slept about 4 hours a night during the week due to handling affairs related to insurance, licenses, shipping, air fares, letters of acceptances into countries and visas. I felt very insecure about whether I would receive a Russian Visa and despite all the assurances that I would, I never really believed it until I had it in my hand. I was terrified of the “no” word. Once I had all my support people in place, copies of all the paperwork, and motorcycle loaded up, I was ready to leave on the adventure of a lifetime on 13 May 2009. My trip took me from Saint Paul, Minnesota, through Wisconsin, Upper and Lower Michigan into Toronto, Canada. I flew my motorcycle and myself from Toronto to London, England. I then rode my motorcycle to Dover, England and took the ferry to Dunkirk, France. From there I traveled thru France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Ukraine, Russia, through Siberia to Vladivostok in Eastern Russia. I traveled by ferry from Vladivostok to South Korea and then flew my motorcycle and myself from Seoul to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. From there I rode to Seattle, Washington, USA. In Seattle I refreshed the motorcycle. I drove back to British Columbia, through the Yukon Territory and up to Inuvik, Northwest Territories. I then drove to Fairbanks, Alaska, north to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, then south to Anchorage, and east to Tok, Alaska. From there I drove down the Alaskan Highway to Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Edmonton, Alberta and Shelby, Montana, USA. From there I rode east through Grand Forks, North Dakota and home to Prior Lake, Minnesota.
I was asked many times, “did you feel vulnerable traveling by yourself”? Yes, but I would never intentionally expose myself to dangerous situations or perform unsafe acts with my motorcycle. I tried to be as non-confrontational as possible and drove as safe as possible because injuring myself was the last thing in the world I wanted to do. From the get-go, my philosophy about this whole trip was, “people are basically good all over the world” and I still stand by that. It seemed like anytime a situation developed where I would need help beyond my ability to communicate, a Good Samaritan emerged from somewhere and offered help. I cannot express my thanks enough to these people.
One perception I encountered throughout my trip, was that I was “a rich American”. This could seem to be the case, depending on whose eyes you were looking through. Although I funded my trip myself, in the USA my present job is Journeyman Machinist, which is a skilled blue collar job. After arriving home from my trip on a Saturday, I had to be back to work the next Monday. That’s not something a wealthy person would need to do.
I hope my blog will provide information and encouragement for people willing to live a dream or who just want to escape the daily routine of life. Before I watched “The Long Way Around” in 2007, I never would have considered circumnavigating the world. That video provided me with the inspiration to think large, build a motorcycle, plan every detail, draw on all my motorcycle riding experience, and undertake the adventure of a lifetime - my way.
David L. Reinhold

Aftermarket Equipment List

Changes I made to my 2007 Kawasaki KLR 650

Aftermarket Equipment List
By Manufacture/Vendor

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Happy Trails Motorcycle Products
Happy-trail.com
Doohickey (Balancer Idler Lever and Spring Upgrade)
Rear Master Cylinder Guard
Aluminum Skid Plate
Pivot Peqz Mark 2
Engine Guard Highway Pegs
Coolant Reservoir – Radiator Guard Combination
Carburetor Vent Kit
Aluminum Top Box
T2 Top Plate
Oversized 320 mm Front Disk Rotor
L.E.D. Tail Light Conversion Kit
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Motorcycle Accessory Supply House
KLR650.com
IMS 6.6 Gallon Fuel Tank
Acerbis Locking Gas Cap
Air Filter Skins
Odyssey – No Maintenance Battery
Spare Brake and Clutch Levers
Maier Aluminum Brush Guards
Maier Faux Carbon Fiber Hand Guards
420 Progressive Fork Springs
420 Progressive Rear Shock
Mirror Vibration Isolators
Front and Rear Heavy Duty Inner Tubes
Axle Wrench
Spare Clutch and Speedometer Cables
Sub-Frame Upgrade Kit
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TPI Motorcycle Wholesalers
TPI@Comcast.Net
Stainless Steel Head Light Guard
Heavy Duty Head Light Harness
New Style European Light Switch
New Mirror and Choke Mount
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Totally Wired Cycles
Totally Wired Cycles.com
DSR – 15 Weather Proof ATO Fuse Upgrade Kit
DSR – 17 Weather Proof ATO Fan Fuse Upgrade Kit
Weather Proof Accessories ATO Fuse Kit
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Dual Star
Order: 1 – 800 – 466 – 7433
Tech: 1 – 425 – 776 – 7433
Billet Oil Filler Cap
Muffler Guard
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Eagle Manufacturing and Engineering
Mike@eagle-m-e.com
Mike Cowlishaw
Shark Fin - Rear Disk Rotor Guard
Billet Aluminum Rear Brake Mount
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Whitehorse Gear
Whitehorsepress.com
KLR 650 Clymer Service Manual
SAE Tank Bag Electrical Kit and Other Electrical Wiring
KLR 650 Big Foot Shift Lever
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Aerostich/Rider Wearhouse
Aerostich.com
Panel Mounted 12V Outlet
BMW Plugs & Sockets
Motofizz Thermo Clock
Moto Compass
Cycle Pump Air Compressor
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Big CEE Engineering
Chris Krok
bigcee@bigcee.com
Manual Petcock Conversion Kit
Mini Dash
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Touratech – USA
Touratech-USA.com
Zumo 450/550 Handlebar Mount Moveable Lock
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Jesse Luggage Systems
Jesseluggage.com
U.S. Distributor of Jesse Luggage Systems
Xplorer Moto, LLC
1-520-743-0638
info@xplorermoto.com
Kawasaki KLR 650
Odyssey II Saddle Bags
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Tires
2 each Front Tires
Bridgestone
Trail Wing TW – 301
3.00 – 21
Mileage before changing for each tire 10,000+ miles/16129+ kilometers
Quality of tire – rating 1 thru 10
9+
Excellent tread wear
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1 each Rear Tire
Bridgestone
Trail Wing TW – 302
4.60 – 17
Mileage/kilometers before changing the tire 1500 or less miles/2419 or less kilometers
Quality of tire – rating 1 thru 10
1
The tire threw the lugs off the tire casing (see the end of May Blog entries and pictures)
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2 each Rear Tires
Michelin
T63 Dual-Sport Knobby Tires
130/80 – 17 65S
Mileage before changing for each tire 8500/9500 miles/13710/15323 kilometers
Quality of tire – rating 1 thru 10
9
Excellent tread wear – If I would travel around the world again under
similar circumstances these would be the tires I would choose.
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1 each Rear Tire
Continental
65T Twin Duro
130/80 – 17
Mileage/kilometers before changing the tire 5000+ miles/8065+ kilometers
Quality of tire – rating 1 thru 10
9
Personally I didn’t want to buy this tire but I was out of options. It’s a soft tire
with a short life expectancy. I was told it should last 3500 miles/5645 kilometers.
That’s the distance from Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA to Anchorage, Alaska, USA.
I felt uncomfortable about taking a chance on getting back to Saint Paul, Minnesota
with this tire because it may wear out before I got home. I would then have to buy
yet another tire. That thought did not make me happy. When I arrived home the
tire still had enough tread on it to ride another 2000 miles/3226 kilometers.
For that reason I gave it a 9 rating.
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3 Manufactured Parts I Created for this 2007 Kawasaki KLR 650
1st part
The changes I made to this motorcycle are not that obvious at first glance. If you look
you’ll see a Happy Trails Motorcycle top box on the luggage rack. I removed the plastic
luggage rack/plate form and manufactured an aluminum one. It was way more involved
than I originally thought. Here is an example: all the drilled holes have to be drilled in at
6 degrees in order for it to mate up with the tapped holes in the side rails. That had me
scratching my head for a while. I then bolted the Happy Trails T2 aluminum plate to the
top of my new aluminum luggage rack. I now had to design method to attach the top
box to the T2 aluminum plate. I wanted it securely attached yet mounted on rubber vibration
isolators. I found rubber vibration isolators in an aftermarket Harley-Davidson catalog.
They were used to support the battery box on the 1960’s, 1970’s and early 1980’s Harleys.
I then created 2 rails with 4 counter bores per side about ½ inch deep. One rail per side
on the luggage rack. I then could screw in 8 vibration isolators and lock them in with a
lock nut. I drilled 8 bolt holes in the box to match the 8 vibration isolators. I bolted the
rails on to the top box and figured out the bolt hole locations I needed to bolt the rails
to the T2 aluminum top plate on the luggage rack. When I figured out the hole locations
to bolt the box down I added an extra hole so that I could slide the box forward 3 inches.
I thought that would be a nice feature if for some reason I needed it. You just never know.
All the fasteners used to mount this box are stainless steel to hold down the rusting in
lengthy wet and rainy conditions. I also added an SAE electrical outlet to the box to provide
electricity to charge my cell phone and laptop batteries.

2nd set of parts I created for this motorcycle
I’m still not sure how Jesse Luggage designed their rear signal light relocation bracket
or how it was to be attached to the motorcycle so I built my own. It took a little
head scratching but I finally came up with a bracket which bolted on to the saddle bag
mounting hardware. I used the original signal lights and extended the wiring and plugged
them back into the original sockets. When I finished they almost looked like the
manufacturer's original equipment.

3rd part
I relocated the license plate. I found some 1/16 thick sheet stainless steel and sawed out a 1 inch wide stripe about 12 inches long just in case I made a mistake. I took some rough measurements, bent up a bracket to fit over the hump on the end of the rear fender and sawed it off to length. I found a small sheet of 1/16 thick aluminum in the aluminum scrap bin and sawed out a backing platefor my license plate. I put wings on it to mount two license plate lights to keep everything legal. I drilled holes in the aluminum backing to match the drilled holes in the stainless steel fender bracket. I bolted the two together with stainless steel fasteners. It was still too flexible for me so I put another spacer between the backing plate and fender at the top. I centered it up at the top, drilled a hole and bolted it down. It was a nice firm backing plate to bolt a license plate to. I wired in the license plate lights and plugged them into the same socket the original license light plugged into. I then went to the Harley-Davidson dealer and
purchased a license plate reflector and double faced taped it to the old license plate
bracket and I was done. I later lost this reflector when I drove thru a pothole in Russia
which was 3 feet long X 2 feet wide and 6 inches deep. I thought I was going to crash
on that pothole. The old KLR drove right on thru it.

1st change
I added a storage tube in front of my front foot pegs.
The first time I saw this storage tube on a KLR 650 was up in Goose Bay, Labrador. I thought it
was a good idea and always remembered it. So when I was building this bike I thought I
would install one on it. I went back to the pictures I took of the guy and his motorcycle to
see how it was installed. I could also see what type of tube to purchase. The tube is black 4 inch
sewer pipe and I bought it down at the ACE hardware store. I bought 24 inches of it, a
cap and a screw on end. I later cut the tube so that it would be shorter than the width
of the foot peg hinge. That’s so if I crashed on the bike the end of the tube would not
be digging in to the road and possibly prevent it from being ripped off the bike. I sawed
the tube to length then glued the ends on and allowed it to cure. I fastened the tube
to foot peg and engine guard using hose clamps that also can be purchased at
the hardware store. I used some of the hose clamps to pull the tube back and others
to pull the tube down. That would keep it in the restraint state and prevent it from moving
around. I used it to store my spare inner tubes and my emergency gas siphoning hoses.
Something about my emergency gas siphoning hoses always brought up a lively conversation.

2nd change
I added screens in front of the Radiator and Coolant Reservoir
I specifically bought the Coolant Reservoir – Radiator Guard Combination from Happy Trails so I could stretch screens across the bars to protect the radiator from insects, flying mud
and stones. The aluminum window screen kept out the insects and slowed down the flying mud.
The ¼ square screen in back of the window screen slowed down the flying stones from
oncoming traffic before they would hit the radiator and do damage. Some of the semi-trucks
and car traffic I met would cause me to pull off to the side of the road, close my visor on my helmet, hold my breath and turn my face away from the flying stones. I held my breath so I didn’t have to breathe in the dust. The only disadvantage to these screens is the difficulty of cleaning the radiator with a low pressure hose or a squirt bottle. I cleaned my radiator daily when I was riding in extremely dusty conditions with a squirt bottle because no high or low pressure hoses were available. I have yet to regret having installed those screens.

13 September 2009 Back Home Again

My job from here on out is Mary, finding out what my job status is???????????, paying bills and tying up loose ends involving my trip around the world. I will write some more about my motorcycle and websites I used to help me plan this around the world trip. But today I’m going to chew on AT&T.

12 September 2009, Home in Prior Lake, Minnesota, USA

I didn’t exactly get out bed early and by the time I finished breakfast I knew I would be having a late start. I wanted to be home by 7:00 p.m. but by the way things were shaping up it would be closer to 9:00 p.m. Before I left we took a bunch of pictures of my brother and his wife and his son and grandchildren. A hundred million years ago his kids were standing around watching Uncle David leave. Now it’s his grandchildren standing around watching me leave. I said to myself "Where did the time go?" I shook hands good-bye and hugged Alverne. I told them I’d do a drive by and to wait and watch. I drove out of their yard and down the road about 500 yards/500 meters and turned around. I got my speed up to about 40 mph/65 kms and just before I passed their property line I stood up on my foot pegs. I turned and waved at them as I passed their driveway while they were standing in their garage. All too soon they were gone. I often wondered what they thought when they saw me standing up on my foot pegs and waving. Maybe someday I will find out. I drove into Grand Forks, North Dakota, filled up with gas and purchased a bottle of Cherry Pepsi. I sat around a bit, had a drink of my Pepsi and then got on I-29 south to Fargo, North Dakota. I drove into Fargo and picked up I-94 East to St. Paul/Minneapolis. I will never forget the time I drove thru Moorhead, Minnesota and Fargo, North Dakota on I-94 in three lanes of traffic. I was fast asleep. It wasn’t until my girlfriend Mary pulled up alongside me that I woke up. She asked me why I missed the I-29 exit to Grand Forks. I couldn’t give her an answer because I didn’t know where I was. I drove another twenty miles until I found a place where I could lay down and sleep. After a catnap I got my bearings and continued up to Grand Forks. Was Mary ever mad at me. I bet the Motorcycle Safety Foundation would love to hear that story. I have long known that when you’re tired or sluggish and you eat greasy or hard to digest food it will put you to sleep. And that’s what happened to me. We stopped and ate some ice cream and it shut me right down. I kind of got onto another subject from days gone by. Anyway, I filled up with gas again in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and the sun had disappeared. I was hoping that I wouldn’t run into rain on the way back to St. Paul/Minneapolis. It wasn’t long after I left Fergus Falls that I was back in the rain. I put on my rain suit and continued on. Just prior to Monticello, Minnesota the sun came out and provided a beautiful rainbow. I stopped and took a picture of it hoping it was a good omen. I stopped in Monticello, took off my rain suit and filled up with gas again. It was 7:00 p.m. and I had called Mary on Friday that I’d be home at 7:00 p.m. or earlier. I grabbed my cell phone to give her a call and it wouldn’t work. Now I’m mad. When I get home the first thing I’m going to do is give AT&T a piece of my mind. I arrived back in my neighborhood about 9:00 p.m. I drove the circle thru the neighborhood just because it seems like ages since I was here. I pulled into Mary’s driveway and beeped my horn that I was home. She came walking out of the house asking me why I was blowing my horn. I said to let you know I’m home. We hugged and smooched a bit. I told her I officially had to mark the time that I arrived home. I pulled out my SPOT and pushed the button saying I was at home ok, and the time was officially 9:10 p.m. I finally reached the end of the road and am a little road weary.

11 September 2009, Arvilla, North Dakota, USA

I got up late and ate breakfast with my brother and sister-in-law. They wanted to hear the highlights of my trip. I then went out and checked over my motorcycle and clothes. I wanted to make sure my clothes were drying out for the ride back to Minnesota. I adjusted the chain and oiled it. When I got my tools out to adjust the chain I found my saddle bag had leaked again. I checked the other side, and it had also leaked. That was no surprise with the amount of rain I rode through the night before. I took all my tools out and dried them. By 5:00 p.m. most everything was dried out and could be put back. I loaded my bike with everything except the clothes I would wear the next day. During our conversations we figured out that the rain I was caught in Thursday night was the same weather front that I drove through the last three days on the Alaskan Highway. It was a slow moving weather front that was moving south and east. When I drove straight south to Shelby, Montana I drove out of it. When I left Shelby driving east on Hwy 2 I drove back into it. How lucky can a person get? That night Alverne prepared supper and their two sons came to visit. Steven and his fiancée from Fargo, North Dakota and Joe, his wife Lori and their two children from the Arvilla area. We talked about diss, dat and the udder ding and my around the world experiences till they left. It was great to see those guys. The reality that my around the world trip was one day from being over was increasingly on my mind. My thoughts were turning to the home front and what my work situation is or is not. The last words I heard was work is slow. We closed the night with some television.

10 September 2009, Arvilla, North Dakota, USA

I didn’t set any records for getting out of bed today but I was back on the road by 10:00 a.m. this morning. It was about par for the course. I was going to be driving East on Hwy 2 across Montana into North Dakota. I was hoping to make it to my brother’s place in Arvilla, North Dakota sometime today. It will probably be very late. Rough figuring the mileage, it was over 700 miles. I got about 10 miles down the road and I felt something hit my foot. I looked down and realized my aerosol can of chain lubricant just fell off my bike. I stopped and turned around. I drove back to where I thought the can fell off the motorcycle. I drove slowly down the shoulder of the road looking in the ditch for any signs of a white spray can. I didn’t see anything in the east bound ditch so I turned around checked the west bound ditch. It wasn’t long before I spotted what looked like a white aerosol can. I stopped my bike and went to investigate. Sure enough it was my chain oil can. It had a few dents in the top and the bottom but the spray nozzle was intact. I bent down to pick it up and saw a small pinhole leak in a seam that was dented. Well, that was a new can of chain oil that just went down the toilet. I just paid $16 dollars for it and used it twice. That sure didn’t make me very happy. I turned my bike around and took off. I had a long way to go before I reached my brother’s place. I reached Williston, North Dakota sometime around 6:00 p.m. Earlier I had to drive thru a rather lengthy stretch of road construction. They actually didn’t recommend motorcycles drive this road construction and to find an alternate route. I drove it and it wasn’t that bad. It was very dusty with wind blowing. I made it through ok. I gassed up in Williston and cleaned all my lights because I will be driving in hours of darkness. By the time I finished cleaning my visor and lights it was dark. I drove out of town and continued driving East on Hwy 2. Sometime around Stanley, North Dakota the lightening was getting closer and closer. I stopped in another truck stop and put on my rain suit and boots. I figured if I put on my rain suit I’d get lucky and it wouldn’t rain. Well that was just wishful thinking. It started raining sometime before Minot, North Dakota and continued to rain the rest of the night. I stopped somewhere after Minot to fill up with gas. It was a Cenex gas station that was closed with pre-pay pumps. I prepaid at the pump and checked the valve in the gas cap to make sure it was venting. I just filled my gas tank with gasohol which seems to make my vent in my gas cap sticky and not vent. I continued east on Hwy 2 and the rain started coming down harder. I had to slow down to 40 mph/64 kph in order to see. I could only see the width of one lane and about 30yds/30 meters ahead of me. When the lines on the highway disappeared I had no idea where I was on the road. I continually watched for reflectors, guard rails and lines on the road to keep me on the highway. Those last 150 miles/240 kilometers were a tough ride. It required 100% concentration on the highway. Somewhere in that 150 miles/240 kilometers Matilda drowned out. She shut off and turned black. My heart sank again knowing she might be gone forever. Probably the last 50 miles/80 kilometers I had to go to the bathroom. I sat there hoping a rest area would show up. You would be surprised how something like that won’t let you fall asleep. I was really tired and my eyes wanted to snap shut. I couldn’t because it would be seconds and I’d be in the ditch. Having to go to the bathroom helped keep me awake. Something else I had to be ever vigilant about was traffic. I was only driving 40 mph/64 kph the traffic that passed me usually was going 60/70 mph/96/115 kph. If I saw them coming in my rear view mirror I would turn on one of my signals to let them know I was there and traveling rather slow. Hopefully I wouldn’t get rear ended. Just when I thought I could wait no longer to go to the bathroom a rest area came into view. With all the glare on my visor I missed my left turn and drove up the wrong side of the road till I found the West bound entrance to the rest area. I pulled in and parked by the nearest sidewalk into the rest rooms. An SUV was parked two spaces away and when they saw me they left. I don’t know why, just more mysteries. I shut my bike off and dropped my hand off the handbars. It instantly filled my left glove full of water again. That put me in a foul mood instantly. I put down both of my kick stands and headed into the restroom. I used the electric hand drier to warm my hands and dry out my wet glove. I probably worked at drying out my glove for 15 minutes before I headed back out to my motorcycle. I started my bike…………..guess what…………Matilda was back. Hurray my day just got brighter. I let my motorcycle warm up until the fan kicked in and then left. I took Hwy 18 south to Larimore, North Dakota. I was in no rush as I was only 10/15 miles/16/25 kilometers from my brother’s house. I drove into Larimore and then turned left on Hwy 4 or 17th Avenue to Arvilla, North Dakota. I pulled into the yard and the whole house was dark. I blew my horn three or four times hoping to wake them up. No luck…………It was still raining………..I got off my bike and went and knock on the door. Alverne comes to door and lets me in. She’s backed her car out of the garage so I can put my motorcycle in. I look up and here’s my brother standing in the doorway. He said I was a little late. I asked him "How late am I?" He said it was 4:30 in the morning. My how time flies when you’re having fun. They said they waited up until 1:00 a.m. for me to show up and then went to bed. They always laugh when I show up because it’s either raining or snowing. Again they were right on the money. I believe it was their kids who first said that when Uncle David comes to visit it is always raining or snowing. I undressed and hung all my wet clothes up to dry in the garage. We talked some and then went to bed. I was tired.

9 September 2009, Shelby, Montana USA

Edmonton, Alberta, through Leduc, Alberta to Shelby, Montana………Lots of flat land with small towns and grain elevators. It was wheat growing country in the foot hills of the Rocky Mountains. It was a blustery day blowing me around on my motorcycle. The wind was strong enough to blow me out of one lane into another. I had to be careful not to get blown into oncoming traffic. As I drove through the wheat fields you could see oil derricks and smell the crude oil. It was sunny when I got up and it stayed sunny all day. You have no idea how great it was to feel the warmth of the sun after days of cold and rain. I also forgot to say how nice it was to be able to see out of my visor with no fog and to be able to breathe inside my helmet and not fog up the visor. I was running cross winds and head winds which maxed out the power out on my KLR 650. I could barely pass a slow truck or car. Flags were flying straight out and the grass in the ditches was almost laying flat on the ground. I was passing a semi-truck and was stopped by wind coming around the nose or front of the truck. He finally let off the gas so I could break through the wall of wind he was pushing. I made it through the border ok. I was only asked to take off my helmet so they could see if I was the person in the passport. It took me longer to put my passport back in my shirt than it did to get thru customs and immigration. While I was stashing my passport away several women customs and immigration officers were going through a late model Corvette. They were opening all the bags and compartments looking for contraband. I left before they finished. I stopped in Sweet Grass to exchange my Canadian currency for U.S. dollars at the duty free store and purchased a large chocolate bar. It cost me $6.25. I stashed it in my bags and ate it later. I took several pictures by the Montana sign and then departed for Shelby. I arrived about 7:00 p.m. I got myself something to eat, gassed up and found a hotel for $45 a night. It was as good or better than some of the $100/$200 dollar hotels I paid for on the Dalton Highway in Alaska. I put on a lot of miles/kilometers today and I really needed to adjust my chain and oil it. It was the first thing I attended to after paying for my room. I was in the process of adjusting my chain when a police officer pulled into the hotel with his police cruiser. I had to move my motorcycle because I was directly in front of his parking spot. Come to find out he also owned a red KLR 650 just like mine. We talked about changes I made to mine, small things he could change to improve his bike and about my experiences as I traveled around the world. He helped me put my bike on the center stand so I could spin the rear wheel while I oiled it and then left. I finished with my bike, put it in a parking spot, covered it and spent the rest of the night in my room.