August 1 saw us return to Jamie and Jennifer's place to see our niece Jenny and say our final goodbyes of this trip to my brother Jim and Melody and Jennifer and her girls. Gassed up before pulling onto the TransCanada for the run to Regina. Took Hwy 33 down to 47 over to 13 and followed it until it turned into Hwy 2 in Manitoba. We followed 2 to 21 then back onto 2 before turning north onto Hwy 10 for the run into Brandon for the night.
Stopped in Fillmore, SK at the United church for a snack\break, Carlyle SK for a quick lunch and in Redvers for gas and then in Souris MB to find St. Paul United Church, where my Uncle Elton was minister back in the day. (August 1, 1965 till Sept. 1, 1969.........the day we got married😍)
St. Pauls United a great place for a stop on a hot afternoon
Pulled into the Lakeview Inn in Brandon near HWY 1, the TC. Had supper and pressure washed the bike before bedding down for the night. It is always good to get the bugs under control when you have a windshield that I use, when riding two up.
August 2 while loading up for the day's ride we chatted with two Harley riders from Ontario. Gayle mentioned to me that one of them looked familiar. Did this biker chick hang with another crowd in an other life? ( It turns out she had recognized him from TV Reno type shows on HGTV ......she did a Google search later in the day) Had I known that when we chatted, I would have had lots of questions for him😃
We deliberately rode south out of Brandon on Hwy 10 and took 2 east to Hwy 100 around Winnipeg to hook up with the TransCanada for the remainder of the run into Kenora, ON.
The biggest excitement of the day happened when we stopped to gas up in Hadashville MB. We were chatting with a guy on the other side of the pump who was driving a large RV and towing a fancy boat. He was on his way to the lake for some R & R, but when he pulled away from the pump, he creased the fiberglass hull just under the deck on the top edge of the pump housing and then the spare tire on the pump side of the trailer caught the pump boxed housing and fetched up. Not a pretty sight. 😥Our hearts went out to him!
We checked into the Natures Inn, where I had quite a chat with the co-manager about motorcycles. Turns out he has a full time job as a mechanic at the saw mill in town, that is under reno and is quite knowledgeable about older BMW's
August 3 saw us on the road at 7:10am for the TransCanada run to Thunder Bay. I was hoping to see some wildlife today, however, the wildest thing I saw was a ground hog on on the side of the Hwy. Gayle made the observation while we had a late breakfast at a Husky Restaurant, that Dryden smelled too much like the mill town for her to want to live there. I found the priciest gas of the trip when I pulled over in Upsula, ON. $1.499\L for "regular" fuel. The temperature got up to 31.5C today, so we checked into the Best Western Crossroads as soon as we arrived the Thunder Bay. Not long in getting the AC on.
Had a quick chat with a BMW R1200ST rider from Anaheim, California as we were loading our bikes after breakfast the next morning. She and her husband had ridden to Ontario to do the "Circle Superior Tour" before returning home by way of Seattle, Washington.
This stretch of Ontario is a long haul at the best of times, but seems longer when you simply want it behind you. I booked us into the Makiebares Cottages before leaving Thunder Bay because Trip Advisor was telling me there were no rooms anywhere around Wawa, our next stop. These cottages looked great on line and were located just short of our destination.... Good fit right!
This is what we found when pulling in off the Hwy.
But when I walked up to the office door I was informed that they had cancelled my "CONFIRMED" booking. " We sent you an e-mail" and that was supposed to be good enough! Best stay clear of this place. What can you say to someone who is tired and just wants to get into a room with AC but "let's head into Wawa and see what we can find". We were lucky enough to get a room at the Wawa Motel for the night (hey...... they even gave me a complimentary plastic side stand foot for the bike) and I cleaned up the bike and had to replace the cover over the bike 3 separate times through the night. How can it be windier than on the prairies? Lightning\thunder and wind like we might have a tornado! WOW! Noisy night In Wawa.
I sent e-meals to both Goodtime Center BMW dealer in Ottawa and BMW Motorrad Montreal to see if they could fit me in on Monday Aug.8, for an oil change and new tires, before retiring for the night.
August 5 saw us on the road early and often faced very strong winds off Superior and even inland as we made it to Sudbury by 2:15pm. Seems early, but we were played out from the wind and traffic. I actually had an afternoon nap,😎 once we checked into the Comfort Inn. An uneventful ride but at least the scenery is more to our liking, which is good if you ride 528 km a day!
Saturday Aug 6 and no response from either the BMW dealer in Ottawa or Montreal. So we rode hard to make it to Goodtime Center BMW in Nepean before they closed up shop for the day. We were able to secure a Monday morning appointment for the oil and tire change I was wanting! I told them we were travelling through and would appreciate the help. I had to settle for Metzler Roadtec Z8 Interac tires, as they had no Michelin Road Pilot 4 GTs in stock.
So now we had to spend a day and a half in Ottawa. Found a room at the Kanata Comfort Inn and went out to supper after cooling down from a hard run down the Ottawa Valley. August 7 was a relaxing day overall with a short trip to checkout the HUGE IKEA store in Nepean. Hard to believe the number of broswer\shoppers in one store on a Sunday. We country folk are just not used to the big towns I guess.
