Mary and Maurice World Tour 2023

When planning the movie Cars, the director, writers and relevant crew cruised Route 66 looking for real locations and characters on which to base the fictional town and inhabitants of Radiator Springs. That fictional history added an extra layer of interest to the real history of the route.  The warm hearted generosity evident in the character of Tow Mater was especially evident on the Route.  Our first day started casually, getting all the group set up with the bikes etc.  Then it was on the road! Which proved to be historic, interesting, and hot. Very hot: The second day by contrast involved quite a bit of rain. Having finished the first day racing to get cooled off in the hotel pool, we finished the second racing to get warmed up in the hotel pool.  There have been so many points of interest and quirky incidents that it's not possible to catalogue them all. Just a small sample: During the prohibition era ...

When we told people we were going to Cleveland, the reaction generally was 'Why?' Clearly Cleveland has an image problem because it rocked. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is huge. Six storeys of history, memorabilia, sound and video clips was expected. Unexpected was the 'Garage', which had guitars, drums and keyboard so visitors could get in touch with their inner Rock God. Some of the other visitors had great skills. Us, not so much. Topping it off was live karaoke, which was a 'garage band' that allowed visitors to join in, be it lead vocals or on one of the instruments. Those who we heard having a go were fantastic, and would not be embarrassed playing a gig. We had been advised that three hours would be enough for this attraction. In reality, if you have any interest in music then that is not enough. Having failed to keep really up close and personal with wildlife in Alaska, we thought ...

Oscar Wilde in 1887 observed that Britain and the US really had everything in common except language. That proved to be true when we drove to Chicago.  The first example was in Cleveland, where the rental car desk attendant instructed us to tell the car park attendant that we were "M Row". There was no M Row in the car park, so I was a bit lost. The attendant translated for us - we were apparently "Emerald" customers...  The second example came at a diner, where Mary was asked if she wanted a "super salad". Mary felt it was unnecessary to have a giant salad with her triple deck club sandwich. The waitress clarified "Your meal comes with either a soup or salad".  Other than the language barrier, and the enormous size of the meals, the drive was uneventful. Wonderful, fast flowing interstates, followed by remarkably calm traffic in downtown Chicago.  We had been advised of the 'must see' attractions, so started with the usual ho...

Alaska is almost six times the size of New Zealand yet has only one seventh the population. That's a lot of empty wilderness for wildlife to occupy, and everywhere we went were helpful signs advising of the perils of getting too close.  Our first experience was a bit fishy.  After settling in with our fabulous hosts, Barbara and Ian, we were intrigued to hear that just down the road was a creek where one could catch rainbow and dolly varden trout, plus coho salmon. In the middle of the city! We duly purchased 24 hour licences,  headed to Campbell Creek, and caught nothing. Basically, we were stood up on our date with Dolly Varden.  Never mind, perhaps we were just too late. We therefore tried again at dawn the next day - and quickly got a large coho salmon each,  plus a small rainbow. Cue fresh smoked salmon, and fresh caviar!  Having succeeded in catching iconic wildlife in Anchorage, we had high hopes for seeing more iconic wildlif...