Let's catch up Aug. 27- Sept. 1, 2013

The next day was another hot one as we took hwy.#5 to Canora where we ran into a detour which took us all the way to the Yellowhead (16) at Yorkton on hwy. #9. Straight east on hwy. #52 which turned onto Manitoba hwy.#5. Temperature climbed through the afternoon and a water break took us into a wheat field to check on the crop.

   Gayle was saying that it is not as tall as in the old days.

Finished the ride of the day by checking into Dauphin MB. While Gayle had a nap I went for a swim to assist in cooling off before pizza for a late supper.

The next morning Wednesday Aug. 28th it was heavy fog for over a hour as we headed towards Lake Manitoba. I missed a hwy.#68 sign and stayed south on hwy.#5 and ended up in Neepawa at the junction of hwy.#16 (Yellowhead) Hey, I didn't want to be here. What to do what to do? Well we retraced 90km to Ste. Lac du Rose and hwy.#68 and drove to the Narrows at Lake Manitoba before we pulled off to have a "top bag" lunch at a lakeside park.

                 The Narrows at Lake Manitoba (marina) in front of the bridge

                                      Must get this gear off "it's HOT"

                Packed up again and ready to ride all the way to Selkirk, MB

We went for a walk before supper then I went out to wash the bike. ( hard to imagine to bug cover some days) It can make looking through the windshield a challenge.

The next morning before a light breakfast I took a 5km plus run before mounting up for the day. Not a big deal, but now I can say I have had a run in all of the provinces in Canada. We ran into road construction on hwy.# 44 near Whitemouth and chatted with a really friendly young first nations guy who told us that he had just started on the job the day before. He had come over from Brandon because "no one like the long hours" standing out in the heat! Gayle took the opportunity to get ready for the rain, and good job she did because it began before we connected with the TransCanada by West Hawk Lake and rained heavy at times. 

I could see a bike rolling towards us at this point and it followed us right into Tim's on the west side of Kenora. It turns out that this Winnipeg couple were riding a white Victory tourer and had just begun a 6 day vacation that morning. They told us that their daughter had just moved to St. Stephen, NB. When I asked why, they answered "her husband took her" :) They chatted with us while we had something warm to drink then were on their way. We changed our travel plans from the road to Thunder Bay via Dryden because of the weather radar shot they shared off their iPad and it rained at sometimes HEAVY  on the run back down hwy.# 71 to Fort Francis. (we had done this ride on the way west, if you recall) We saw the Victory riders several times on this run as they stopped more than we did and their initial plan was to only make it to Fort Francis for the night anyway. By the time we rode out of the rain, just 50 or 60km west of town Gayle was pretty wet and ready to call it a day. We checked into the Super 8 again and began drying out before enjoying a before supper nap. We noticed that the Victory was parked beside our bike and had an opportunity to speak with them again in the morning as we all readied to ride to Thunder Bay.

Rain and the threat of more later in the day had us holed up in Thunder Bay hoping beyond reality that the  storm would blow itself out! Heavy overcast resulted in more rain after we were settled in. Many parents dropping their children off for the school year at Confederation College and Lakehead University it would seem, as the place was full. 

August 31 and the weather was a factor once again. We took the opportunity to pull off east of town for a quick visit to the Terry Fox Monument.

                    Canadian flag stuck to the flag pole even in the breeze.

We haven't seen much game from the saddle lately, but today was our lucky day. Somewhere around White River a young gangly moose came out of the ditch from the left and walked to the right side of the highway and stopped to face us as I geared down. I reved the engine and he turned and pranced away from us staying on the centre line for quite some time. (no other traffic either way) Then he decided to return to the bush on the left side of the highway. Sometime later a bobcat came out of the woods\ditch on the left and took its time walking across the highway in front of us. It does my heart good to see wildlife in good shape.

Rain at times heavy and a low ceiling because of fog in the hills north of Lake Superior had us return to the Mystic Motel just east of Wawa for the night. (we had stayed here also on our way west) We had a DVD night while the rains turned into a full blown thunder storm by morning. 

We were awake ready to go to Elliot Lake, but let our departure time pass while sitting on the bed whose headboard was up against the outside wall. You know it is not a good sign when you can "feel" the bed shake with every thunder clap! I went to the office to return the movies and had the chance to talk to an older rider like myself from Richmond, BC who was packing up a new Yamaha Super Tenerré. He was riding out on 101 with plans to make it to Timmins, although his ultimate destination was to ride the Trans Labrador Highway and return as far as Kitchener, ON. He said he had no desire to ride the prairies, so would ship his bike home from there, sometime in October. He agreed with me that pavement is taking over and wanted to get the Trans Lab off his list before it too is all black. We wished each other well and Gayle and I mounted up to ride much of the way down 17 to Sault St. Marie in the thunder, lightening and oh did I mention that it was still raining! Boy.....do I know how to show a girl a good time on her 44th wedding anniversary. Hey, she was hardly wet when she said enough for the day! :) Good job most motels have air\heating units that allow us to dry things easier on these wet travel days.

Few pictures again, this time due to inclement weather. I will try to be a braver chronicler in the future.

Trouble on the Prairies........Monday August 26th

After leaving Bob we turned north on hwy.# 2 to again pick up hwy.#5. We then ran into major seal coating operations between Peterson and Carmel which slowed down forward motion in a big way. Dustiest riding to date. As we finally arrived in Humboldt, I followed the GPS instruction to by pass on a gravel road. 

It led us out of town and was about 5 km long heading south then east. As I pulled up onto the pavement I felt the bike wiggle a little and immediately looked at the digital display. It confirmed we had 0 psi pressure in the rear tire! When I pulled over the gravel shoulder made it impossible to put down the bike side stand. So Gayle got off to try and help but to no avail, we were unable to move the bike in the soft gravel and I could not get off without putting the bike over!

No problem, we are not far from town and someone will stop to assist us, we'll wait? Well it seems that all the friendly people of Saskatchewan (near Humboldt that day) had forgotten that you should stop to check on someone stranded on the side of the road! We lost count of how many drove by without so much as slowing down!

Gayle finally decided to get passing traffic's attention by waving and after many tries, Charlene in her black VW turned around and came back to see what was up. She agreed to get a tow truck to come and pick us up when she got into town. I thought Kal Tire would be the best shot, so off she went. 

Some time later she came back "to keep us company" until the pick up arrived. She told us that Kal Tire suggested Discovery Ford would be better equipped to pick us up as they had a Powersport Bike and Marine service. So we waited, did I say waited? I am sitting on the bike all this time (the better part of a hour) and when Andrew a service tech. showed up he had a closed in bike trailer in tow! Good job Charlene had hung around, because it took all four of us to get the bike up the trailer ramp (remember the rear flat tire).

Off to town we went to off-load the bike in the Discovery Motorsports service bay. Now what are the chances of them having a rear tire to fit a BMW K1600 GTL? I talked with James and Andrew and James thought they might be able to find one if they checked in Saskatoon. So I suggested I could call Gayle's bother Bob and see if he could help out. Wouldn't you know it no Rogers phone coverage. So I went back inside to find someone and Stan told me the guys had gone to lunch!

I asked to use the parts department phone and connected with Bob, now back in Saskatoon. He made some inquiries and called me back saying " Harley to the rescue". Just what every BMW rider wants the hear on a hot prairie afternoon! He found a Michelin 73W Pilot 190\55ZR17 at Proline Motorsports and Marine (the last of 20 they had purchased earlier at a good price) and sold it to Bob for $141.70 taxes in. So then Bob asks Lynn whether she would like a two hour round trip to Humbolt (I neglected to mention when I called him earlier, the seal coating that was going on that day on hwy.#5) Lucky for us they agreed to deliver the tire and we waited again!

In this period of time, we took the tire off the the rim and found a 3\4 inch cut in the centre of the tread, but not a rock which I suspected of being the flat causing culprit! Actually we found nothing in the tire or inside once it was off the rim!

I looked at every marine motor, boat, motorcycle, quad, and chain saw they had in stock more than once as the afternoon wore on! Sure was counting on Bob to show up before closing! When they did pull in I had the tire in Andrew's hands and we had the tire on the rim in a jiffy. But he could not speed balance it for me. Darn. Then he thought "they have a five hole machine over at the Ford  garage, I'll be right back." He was impressed with the other garage's balancing machine and that the BMW wheel fit on it perfectly. When he returned we looked up the torque specs on Google and we're finally done. I loaded up the saddle bags and gear while Gayle and Lynn went next door to the Canalta Motel to secure us room for the night. Bob stayed with me until the ladies returned to pick him up. 

When I went in to pay up I got a major surprise. I owed them $140.95!! I had made arrangements earlier to have CAA pay Discovery Ford for the bike pickup just outside town south on hwy.#20. Ernie filled out the paper work and had us sign the CAA claim. That was $80. Now the people were friendly enough, but I was not happy about the financing on the whole transaction. Bob did more on the day and onIy took the price of the tire and supper as payment for his full afternoon helping us out.

The last goodbye after supper was really a BIG thank you to both Bob and Lynn. Family going above and beyond the call to help us out on our journey!

Where are the pictures you might ask? My mind was elsewhere after the flat happened. I have only one on the afternoon and it is of the guys at Discovery Motorsports. My apologies to Gayle, Charlene, Lynn and Bob.

                            James, Andrew, Stan and Jeremy busy on the phone.

Time for some shuteye it's 12:30am!! Keep the rubber side down and the shiny side up!

Saskatoon

It seems like Saskatoon has become our home away from home on this trip. We spent 5 days here this   time. Quite a layover to wait out some hot weather that has set in this past week. We have found that riding in the heat is the hardest travelling that we have done in the last 10 weeks. 

It certainly didn't hurt to have such great family that encouraged us to stay each day that we lingered. Gayle's brother Bob and his wife Lynn not only fed us and entertained us but we got to spend more time with our niece Jennifer and her husband Jay and their daughter Olivia.

We did a variety of activities while here: brunch, lunch, supper seldom breakfast because we seldom got up early enough to consider the first meal of the day a "Breakfast"

                                      Mia the laundry helper (in the hamper)

            Olivia Bridges watching her DVD player

  Jay and Olivia on the beach to see Bob and I off. She would not wave goodbye until after we left.

   Bob on the North Saskatchewan River, leaving The Berry Barn launch, in his home built kit kayak.

    Lunch on the sandy shore of the river. The red kayak is the one I borrowed from Lynn.

Lynn did this a lot, while we waited for the delicious results.

                           Heat and sunshine makes for a sleepy cat, right Mia?

                              Reading to Papa

                Playing at home with Gayle

Entertaining Papa letting Glass "stones" slide into Tupperware container.

                       Jay, Jennifer, Lynn and Bob relaxing in the Bridges backyard

Live music at one of the largest car Show and Shines in western Canada, in downtown Saskatoon.

  It was said that 900 cars, trucks and some motorcycles were at this show covering 10 city blocks.

I was lucky to touch bases with my cousin Ann Louise and her husband Doug Peters at this event. I can see why they choose not to miss this time in their downtown. Doug has rebuilt some cars in his day and  is really knowledgeable on this topic. Wish I would have had more time with them. Will have to make it next time. :)

                               Does this lifeguard look ready to dive in?

       This one is rather relaxed, wouldn't you say?

While Olivia was in the pool, Mom was busy painting pieces for her (Olivia's) kitchen under construction in Papa's garage.

                     Last story time with Olivia

               A Harley rider led us away from Saskatoon on hwy.# 5 as far as hwy.# 2

 We thought that this was our last goodbye to Bob on this day! It was good to ride together.

Back to Alberta....... and on to Saskatoon.

We were greeted by Markus in the morning as we readied to ride out of town, our last HH goodbye. We took the opportunity to ride highway # 29  to Chetwynd to complete the tour of "where we used to live" and went back to Dawson Creek on hwy.# 97. We then left BC by going to Grand Prairie, AB on hwy. # 2 (in BC) which changed to Alberta hwy. # 43. We stopped for a quick lunch there then headed south on hwy.# 40, along which I was hoping to see some game before reaching Grand Cache, AB. The animals obviously knew this because the ride that afternoon was completely devoid of everything but some small birds!

We stopped at the tourist bureau here and after checking the mileage to Hinton decided to ride on and stay there for the night. I knew I would want to stop for a lot of photos on the ride through Jasper and Banff National Parks, so this destination would accommodate this activity the next day. 

The sight of two mountain goats greeted us even before reaching Jasper National Park on Aug.18th.

      The stopped vehicles along the roadside are like flags indicating possible photo ops.

It began raining as we got to Jasper, but we just pulled over long enough for Gayle to pull on her rain pants (that she got from Jacqui Shaw earlier on our journey) and rode on. We did not stop in the town site and play tourist, but rode on until the rain stopped.

                     What a trooper! Becoming a real Adventure Rider on this trip!

    Cloud cover was in order for this part of the ride down the Icefields Parkway hwy.# 93

               Traffic of all shapes and sizes flows through the National Parks in Canada.

                         Rock formations and colours never cease to amaze out here.

Rustic cabins like this one were found in abundance, but I was surprised at the often small parcel
of land that came with it and of the limited furniture supplied for ones creature comforts once inside. A substantial "stove pipe", but absolutely no place for a stove! What's with that? This is Canada after all.

I did look for real estate listings for those interested, but came up short.! Perhaps if you contact Parks Canada directly you may be able to procure one to fit your property and budget!

On we rode stopping frequently (as I thought I would) to marvel at the scenery changing around every turn.

                                  Now here even the birds posed for "the touristas"

                        Athabaska River flowing almost milky in colour today.

                                     Did I mention that it was cloudy today?

The Athabaska Glacier (part of the Columbia Icefield) in the Winston Churchill Range in Jasper National Park is still in retreat! It amazed us both just how much since we were last here in 1984, with our children.

                              Sitting on a rock by a glacier ..........wasting time.

                           The Glacier is now way up over the hill behind Gayle!

      The climb to the face of the Glacier from the public parking lot begins at this little bridge.

   The walk down from the hill that separates the Glacier from the parking lot looks like this.

Who would not like to ride this highway? Amazingly beautiful!

    Pointing to Mount Coleman.      Altitude 10,262ft

   We saw this family of mountain sheep on the run into Rocky Mountain House from Saskatchewan River crossing on highway #11, for an overnight stay.

The next day it was on to the flats again and not as interesting photographically speaking as it has been of late.  No dash to the main highways for us though! We took these highways to Camrose to revisit Quilting from the Heart: 11 to 760 to 53 to 2A to 13 through small town and village Alberta. 

After lunch and ducking some rain showers we rode Highway 21 south again to visit overnight with Jacqui and Ron Shaw in Three Hills. We took the opportunity to walk "downtown" to eat out and returned to chat and watch a video that their daughter Danielle made, after completing some missionary training in Machakos, Kenya. (Daneille is now serving in Uganda) Who knew that the Lord's work could be so entertaining and fun? The video had us in stitches. Well done Dani and Nate.

The next morning saw us rise late enough to miss Jacqui (off to work) but early enough to say our last goodbye and thank you to Ron, who stayed home later to prepare for a service later in the morning at the hangar.

We rode hwy.# 21 farther south to Alberta hwy.# 9 which took us east to the Saskatchewan border then turned into Saskatchewan hwy.# 7 which linked up with # 14 just west of our destination for the night, Saskatoon. No photo stops today as we pretty much both just sat there waiting for Saskatoon to appear on the eastern horizon. We've seen it all before. We did, however, stop for a cool down Blizzard at DQ in Rosetown. :)