Chance HU meeting leads to Alaskan Adventure

[Watchwldr]

I am a relative newcomer to the motorcycle scene, having been bitten by the bug 4 years ago at age 58. I met Dave U at last year's HU Va event when we both attended the Tom Asher rider training in the rain. Small talk led to bigger plans and at the conclusion of the meeting Dave and I decided to ride the MABDR together. We had a good time and got along great. Fall was approaching and we decided to do the NEBDR so Dave headed East again from his home in WY and we met at a friend's cabin near the start of the BDR. Again, a great adventure that took us to the far north woods of Maine where Dave continued into Canada and I returned home to Pa. We had spent about 14 days riding the NEBDR with a day trip up Mt.Washington and caught the fall foliage colors just a week or so before their peak. It was awesome. Dave made the comment that now that we had done the Eastern BDR's, it was my turn to go West. He threw out an idea about Alaska but I never thought I would be able to pull it off. Still it was a place I always wanted to see so the idea simmered over the winter and I even upgraded my ride from a very capable Kawasaki Versys x 300 to a 2023 Aprilia Tuareg 660, "just in case". I gently mentioned the remote possibility of the trip to my wife and she was shall we say not receptive to the idea. But a few other items were purchased here and there--maps, a new GPS, a mosquito repeller, a headnet, little things like that to supplement my kit. As winter turned into spring and summer approached, a large hole appeared somehow in my schedule. After attending this year's HU Va event where I kept looking at my name tag, with the little note on it that told everyone that my dream trip was to Alaska, and wearing last year's T-shirt that carried the words "Do all you can, while you can, before you can't", I started telling everyone that I was PROBABLY heading north this summer. My motorcycle friends were jealous, my uninitiated friends were skeptical, and about half of them thought I was crazy. My wife was having none of it but I didn't think she would change the locks on the doors or anything while I was gone. Dave had been working on plans and developing an itinerary and routes which he kept me abreast of and I chimed in here and there. He would be two up with his wife and at this point I simply had to go to provide support, etc.
So we went!
I set off from my house on June 14 determined to stay off interstates as much as possible which I succeeded in doing. I took advantage of Bunk-a-Biker and TentSpace for camping and spent a couple of days at our daughter's house in Indianapolis along the way to Dave's place in southern WY. I had spent some time working in WY years ago but this was now the furthest West I had ever been. Dave had some things to do when I first arrived at he and Lesley's beautiful home so I had a few days to change oil and tires and rest up and then we were off! This is supposed to be a picture thread so I'll sum up by noting that we visited(in no particular order) Grand Teton National Park, Denali NP, Banff (Jasper was, sadly, on fire when we were in that area), Wrangle-ST.Elias NP, Glacier NP, and others too. We went all the way to Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic Ocean on the Dempster, drove as far west as we could to Homer, rode the Denali and Top of the World Highways, rode to the end of Telegraph Creek Road and visited Chicken and Eagle, Alaska. I did the Going to the Sun Road after Dave and Lesley headed home when Lesley had to return to work. I got home on Aug 14, two months and 15,000 miles, 16 states, and 4 Canadian provinces after I left, and only spent two nights in motels, camping the whole way. I took hundreds of photos and now wish I took more. We saw awesome sights and rode some challenging roads and Dave and Lesley did an amazing job two up on their Tiger 900 RP.
But we did not see everything so maybe I should consider this a scouting mission of sorts.
MODS: Can you please rotate images as needed? Thanks!