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.