Day 27. 27 down, one more to go

Salut from Sudbury. This should be our last on the road blog entry, and if I may, I would like to take this time to thank everyone who has followed our journey and especially to my mom who has kept the home fires burning, and the kids for helping out.
Our start from Wawa was not without it's own little glitch. Apparently the Tim's in town takes special care to lightly oil its parking lot just after every rain so unsuspecting half asleep travellers can get in that weight lifting practice they have been missing. After I picked my bike back up, we had a quick breakfast then it was out to the highway and off for the day. One of our first scenes was one of the clouds trying desperately to clear the hills

As we continued down the coast, both Linda and I remarked at how similar the scenery is to the West Coast. This picture was taken from a road side lookout near Agawa.
Lunch saw us in the town of Bruce Mines where Linda spotted a German restaurant. A couple of schnitzels later and we were back on the road. We made pretty good time until just outside Espanola. We watched HUGE storm clouds roll in and were debating whether to put on our rain gear or not, when Linda saw 2 lightning flashes in quick succession.

That was all the prompting we needed, and sure enough within minutes we were riding through a torrential downpour. We even had a lightning bolt strike the hydro poles right beside us. But ever the brave (or stupid) adventurers, we struck onward.
Now for those who have been following us, you will no doubt realize that our blog has been missing one very important tourist icon. Yes the big nickel. Well fret no more. I even managed to get Linda to lift it up so we could get a better picture of it
We are hoping to be home by this time tomorrow, so if you are in the neighborhood please feel free to stop by and I promise I will show you way more pictures of this trip than you could possibly imagine existed. No problems. It's just the kind of guy I am.

Day 26. Goosed again.

Well hello from Wawa (again). Day 26 was a nice day for us both. We started off waking up late, we visited every motorcycle dealership in Thunder Bay, and we pretty much dawdled until almost noon. When we finally pointed our trusty steeds eastwards, we knew we had some distance to cover and we knew we had rain in the forecast, but we have never let simple fear and common sense stop us so far..........
The first glitch in our plan was the tail end of that all too familiar road construction. At our first stop, I decided to snap a couple of pictures of the view
and the people enjoying the view
Okay. Enough hanging around. Time to make tracks. We pushed fairly hard until Terrace Bay. With the clouds closing in fast, we decided to stop at Wah's Chinese restaurant again and enjoy some of the best Won-Ton soup we have had this trip. After lunch we put on our rain suits and hit the dusty trail.
Just outside Marathon, we passed through this area of re-forestation. There had been a fire in the area, and a major re-forestation project. Pretty impressive results if you ask me.
The only problem today was this feeling I kept getting that I was being followed by someone (or some thing Duh duh duhhhhhh)

Oh, never mind. That is just my guardian angel making sure I don't do anything stupid like try and take a picture while I am riding down the road. Evening found us safely harboured back at the Sportsman Motel in Wawa and dining at the Viking. On, by the way, Dianne at the Viking said to say hello to Danny Debrie. Seems she knows the family. With this day behind us, we hope to hit Sudbury tomorrow and then.......Oh I don't know, maybe we will plan a trip somewhere ;)

Day 25 and back to T.Bay

Fond greetings from Fort William. Or Port Arthur, I can't remember which anymore. Either way, hello from the road and our latest installment. We are definitely in the home stretch now. Both Linda and I have noticed that we aren't stopping as much, we aren't taking pictures as much and we aren't dawdling down the road like a couple of tourist as much. Our butts are still square at the end of the day, but we seem to have this riding thing down to a bit of a fine art.
We left Baudette this morning at a leisurely 9:30 local time. By the time we got through the road construction, the pee breaks, the fuel stop and the border crossing, we both sort of did the old "holy cr@p. Look at the time" We were in Fort Frances and it was after noon already! We stopped long enough to get some lunch and grab a couple of pictures of the bridge over Rainy Lake.

It is one long sucker of a bridge, let me tell you. One of the interesting things about the Fort Frances/International Falls area is that it has probably the only international Wood and paper mill in the world. It is pretty neat to see the plant on both sides of the border and the remote locomotive that runs between them. I am sure it gives the US Homeland Security guys fits, but I thought it was pretty cool.
As you can see from the pictures, we were lucky with the weather again today. It was warmer (16) and sunnier than it has been for a while. Lets see if this holds for more days. The drive across the bottom of the province was uneventful, so we managed to make up some of the time we lost this morning. By 5:00 pm we were at every one's favorite, Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park admiring the Niagara of the north.
Unfortunately, like all provincial parks, you have to keep a wary eye out for shady characters lurking around the attractions, waiting to prey on pretty, unsuspecting tourists. Ha!
From the falls to our hotel was a short ride, then it was off for our ritual evening walk, supper and computer work. Hopefully we should be in Wawa tomorrow, and one day closer to home. See you all soon.

Day 24. The home stretch.

Well hello there. Today is the official start to the homeward stretch. 24 days on the road and we are close to calling this one done. With any luck (and some decent weather) we should be home early next week.
I don't know what it is about the weather, but all our riding days lately seem to start with..... cool and cloudy, or.......windy and rainy. Well today was no exception. We woke early enough to be able to enjoy breakfast with Jeff and Gloria, (who surprised everyone and showed up in Brandon the other day) and Mom and Dad. Fresh bagels and coffee rate among the best ways to start a day. Thanks Gloria. After too many coffees, we loaded up and headed out.
Shortly after leaving Pelican Lake, Linda decided she needed a pit stop (remember all those coffees?), but there was nowhere civilized to be found. So my honey, who is ever the adventurer, decided to duck down a side road and use a surprisingly well placed hay bale as a privacy screen from the road. She had no sooner finished and was in the process of replacing all the layers of clothes, when a Manitoba Hydro truck came down the side road........from the back. I have to admit, I don't know who was more shocked. Linda, or the Hydro guy. I just howled.
The skys were threatening rain all day, but we stayed ahead of most of the wet stuff until after lunch. We came out of the Husky restaurant in Morris, Manitoba to rain drops on the windshield. We decided to ride a little south and east to see if we could skirt around the front, but to no avail. We were forced to stop and dig out the rain gear beside a rather non-descript river.
Imagine my surprise when we cross the bridge and read the sign on the opposite side. Hmmmmm. I always thought it would be a little more, shall we say, impressive?
From here it was a relatively easy (and not too damp) ride out of Canada and over to Baudette, Minnesota, were we found lodging for the night at the Americ Inn (you gotta love that name!) Nice place. We took a couple of minutes to play tourist along the down town main street. It is a charming little town. Tomorrow we will cross back into the True North, strong and free and head for Thunder Bay. Hope you can come along.

Day 21. Back to Brandon

Good evening sports fans and welcome back. We have made the leap from Saskatchewan (and home of the mighty Roughriders) to Brandon (home of the less mighty Wheat Kings). It was a long, wet cool ride today. We said farewell to Saskatoon fairly early this morning under grey, threatening skys. It wasn't too long on the road when Linda decided that a break was in order. We wheeled in to Lanigan, only to find ourselves in the centre of a long weekend speed trap. It was kind of fun watching the local boys keep the RCMP hopping.
Not too long back on the road we came across a sign we had to stop for. I wanted to go in to the town and see if I could find my sister, but Linda would have nothing to do with it. She said it looked dangerous.


We made Yorkton by lunch time and we were lucky enough to find some friends to dine with. Gary and Claudia not only opened their house to us, Claudia served us some fresh, homemade Borscht. I mean really. What more could a cold hungry traveller wish for.

After the delicious lunch, we did a little touring around Yorkton and found Linda's Baba's old house

I think Linda enjoyed the reminiscing more than she would admit. We also had the privilege of visiting the Yorkton cemetery and finding Linda's Baba and Geida's grave site. It is so important to know one's history, and little trips like this help keep the memories alive. I am glad I was there.
The after noon ride to Brandon quickly turned into a training exercise on riding in wet windy weather. We went through storm front after storm front for 3 1/2 hours battling some pretty treacherous side winds. We finally made the last gas stop just after 6:00 pm and will settle in with Baba and Papa for a couple of days. We plan to be back on the road on Thursday, so look for us soon.

Day 20 and off to Auntie Roxy's we go

Salutations from Saskatoon
Well the day got off to a bit of a bleak start. It was lightly raining and 7 degrees when we left Red Deer this morning. Good thing we planned this trip for the summer. I wouldn't want to do this thing when we were cold and wet. Oh wait a minute........
As I have said before, one of the things about our trip that truly amazes me is the speed at which the landscape changes. Yesterday we were standing on glaciers and today, the topographical highlight of the morning was this

Pretty far cry from the mountains, but if you are a flat-lander like we are, this is just as beautiful. It was really quite an uneventful ride other than it was cold. And damp. And did I mention cold?
That reminds me. I will have to figure out a way to introduce the Saskatchewan Minister of Goat Paths and Cart Trails to his counterpart in Alberta. Yes I know they have more money over there in the land of oil, but come on. Gravel highways?
Late afternoon saw us checking into our hotel for the night. Lets just say the interior decor was, uh, interesting. Watch out for the hallway gnomes!

After a nice supper, we went over to visit Linda's Aunt Roxy. Linda was all set for a one-on-one visit so imagine her surprise when we opened the door and there was Linda's cousin Cindy, Cindy's husband Harvey, and Cindy's daughter Zinovia (I hope that is spelled correctly). What a special treat.

We spent the evening catching up and telling stories. It seemed like we had just barely arrived, when we noticed our time was getting late, and we had to start saying our goodbyes. Tomorrow is a little ambitious, we hope to get from Saskatoon, through Yorkton, and on to Brandon, so we need to get a decent night's sleep. Wish us luck and we will talk to you then.

Day 19 and back on level ground

A hearty hello from Red Deer. We are back on the bikes and heading east. We only had a couple of days in Jasper, so Linda and I went into the town of Jasper and did the tourist thing. It is a really nice little place. Very tourist oriented (no duh!) but pretty just the same.

From Jasper we went to the Athabasca Falls,
and on to Mt. Edith Carvell and the glacier trial. Definitely very worth the walk. We have both decided that this is one magnificent part of the world. We are very lucky to have been able to see it.All to soon it was time to repack and get back on the road. Besides, Jeff and Gloria needed their shower back, and seeing that that was where our luggage was stowed.
Shortly after heading down the highway, we came to the Columbia Icefield. Talk about amazing. Just the mountains and the sheer size of the glacier, and the beautiful sky and on and on. Probably one of my biggest regrets is that I can't take pictures to show all the beauty and grandeur.

Too soon we were saying so long to the glaciers, and hello to the foothills. We stopped in to Norbegg for some gas, and left with full bellies and some new-found respect for the coal miners and loggers we read about in the museum at the Miner's Cafe.

Just after we left Norbegg we saw what we think will be the last glimpse of that awesome aqua-marine coloured water this time in the Saskatchewan river reservoir near Rocky Mountain House.

Amazingly enough, we were right back onto the prairies in the blink of an eye. Actually it was about an hour of driving, but the transformation from mountain to flat prairie was surprisingly fast. A short time later we were snuggled up in our Holiday Inn bed, and looking forward to tomorrow and Saskatoon. See you then.

Day 17 and camping has never been better.

A hearty hello from Jasper. We are live and on the net thanks to Linda's brother and his fancy air card. It is hard to believe that you can sit in a camper in Jasper national park and surf the net on a laptop. Man has camping ever changed.
Well the day got off to a wet start this morning. We were only 20 minutes down the road when we saw our first sign of impending rain
We decided that discretion would be the better part of valor especially today, so it was rain suits on and a couple of sumos were soon rolling down the highway. We had lunch in Valemount and the soup was delicious.
After lunch and a fuel up it was back on the road, and on to Jasper. Not a lot of stops today because the temperature was a tad lower than we are used to, and stopping wasn't helping us warm up. Shortly outside of Valemount, we were treated to Mount Robson. Unfortunately there were clouds, but not a bad view

Soon enough we found Jeff and Gloria slumming at the Fairmount Jasper Park Lodge. What a nice place (thanks Cheryl).
We went back to the trailer and had buffalo steaks for supper. Man what a feed. I am afraid it will be lots of exercise and walks for me when I get home. We hope to spend a couple of days here with Jeff and Gloria and then we are off again toward Brandon. Hopefully we will get to the icefields while we are here. Until next time.

Day 16 and (back) on the road again

Well if Willy Nelson is reading this, I have to apologize. We butchered his song this morning and I am glad nobody else could hear us. But to catch up, let's go back to Cloverdale. Mike, Karen, Vanessa, Brandon and Jazz the dog were the best. From the open arms, the hospitality, the food (oh man, the food..my bike whimpers when I sit on it now), the friendship, and definitely best of all the warm acceptance and welcome. It was truly the high point of the trip. Many thanks to Karen for taking time out of her busy schedule to tour guide us around. Our first visit Monday was a walking tour of Cloverdale. Vanessa and Brandon were very good tour guides. Next we were off to the waterfront community of White Rock. We had a great afternoon walking on the pier, scoping out the local architecture, and keeping an eye out for giant squids!

Tuesday we got the bikes out from under the garage, and Karen very adeptly led us to one of our chosen focal points. After all this riding, we wanted a picture near the Lion's Gate Bridge and Stanley Park in Vancouver. Those who know North Vancouver will hopefully recognize Ambleside Park and it's view of the bridge.
After the bridge and inner harbour tour, it was off to Metrotown mall. Apparently, one cannot visit Vancouver without checking out this 3 storey homage to modern shopping. Man would Kate ever love this place!

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and so it was with our visit. Wednesday saw us loading up again, despite the threat of rain. After all the hugs and kisses poor little Nolan could stand, some last minute tears and hopefully some lasting memories, we struck out for home. The first stretch is along the the mighty Fraser river, past Hope and up the Trans-Canada Highway to Hell's GateTo say it was windy there is an understatement! Apparently Linda has some history here, so rather than dredge up the past, I just made sure she was well secured to the rope, and stayed away from the edge. Shortly after we left the Hell's Gate area and less then 60 Kms north of the very verdant Hope, we stated to notice a definitive change to the landscape. Gone were the lush trees and green everything, and back to sage and desert

I still think some of these places look more like Arizona than Arizona does! A little late and low on fuel we pulled into Kamloops and collapsed for the night. Tomorrow we should be in Jasper and visiting with Jeff and Gloria. Unfortunately, we will be without internet access for a couple of days so our next post will be a couple of days late. TTFN.

Day 14. Yeah I missed a day. So sue me.

Greetings from the road. This is the view of the south end of Penticton and the terrian in the area. Surprisingly very arid and desert-like. Good for growing grapes as this is the heart of Okanagan wine country.

More scenery on the way to Princeton. By now we are back on the Crowsnest highway (BC Hwy 3) and are making our way over to Hope. We stopped in the little town of Hedley to tour a gold mine. Well the tour itself was over 4 hours, so we didn't do the tour, but we did visit the museum and look through the displays. Very impressive. This is what the surrounding mountains looked like
And this is the mine head Lunch was in Hope and with the help of some local people we had made up our minds to run up to Hell's Gate. When we came out from the restaurant we were greeted with this scene of good old BC liquid sunshine heading our way. We no sooner abandoned our plans for Hells Gate and got into our rain suits when the skys opened.
We made it safely (if a little slowly) down to Cloverdale and shortly after 3 in the afternoon, we were treated to.......................................................................

Our happy little Nolan baby. A great night laughter and fun followed and all too soon it was into bed for the next days activities. We walked through the town of Cloverdale with Brandon and Vanessa, we visited White Rock and it's amazing beach with Karen providing the tour guide services, and we ended the day with a campfire in the back yard. Whew. I am glad we are doing all this relaxing. Tomorrow will see us off to the big smoke for a tour of Stanley Park and the Lion's Gate bridge. Wish us well. More pictures are coming, I promise.

Day 12 and a big Happy Birthday to Kelly

Well it is not much of a picture day today. We left Golden early in some fog and it wasn't until we climbed up to Roger's Pass that we got above the fog (hey dear, I think we are in a cloud) and into some sunshine. A little cool this morning (8'C) and the threat of rain. Roger's Pass was very interesting. I am constantly in awe of the people who explored this land, the men and women who made the roads and rail lines and who settled and cleared the land. When you see the challenges they faced up close, it makes their achievements so much more incredible. We joke back and forth as we are riding about ...."you want a railroad where?????", but I could not imagine the sacrifices they made.

The trip on into Penticton was uneventful but busy. The road just keeps going downhill so our mileage is way up and so is the volume of traffic. This country is nothing if not beautiful and no sooner were we in Sicamous than the mountains receded, and the Okanagan valley stretched out all around us. The ride down to Kelowna is very reminiscent of the Niagara region. We stopped in to check out the new BMW touring bikes at Southwest Motorad in Kelowna (www.southwestmotorrad.com), but Linda didn't see anything she liked, so it was back on the road and into Penticton at the bottom of the Okanagan valley, and home to the Penticton Ironman being held......you guessed it, tomorrow! Roads are a mess, cyclists and runners are everywhere, events are happening all over the city. It is a very feverish, almost festival feel to the town. We are planning to be up early to try and clear town before the roads close for the bike and run portion of the race so we won't be around for the race, but our best wishes go out to all the participants tomorrow.

After a delicious supper at Earl's, Linda and I went on a walk through some of the neighborhoods. Not only did we spot an original Honda CVCC (the original Civic), we came across an electric motor repair shop. If you look closely at the motor, you should spot a familiar name.

Now on a personal note, I would like to take this time to wish my sister Kelly a happy birthday tomorrow. For those who don't know, she is in Afghanistan as a civilian support employee for the Department of National Defence helping the soldiers. I believe it is already tomorrow there so Happy Birthday kiddo. Our thoughts and prayers are with you especially on this day. We love you.

Our plan for tomorrow is to reach Cloverdale and NOLAN! If all goes well, we should be there around 2 in the afternoon, and hopefully, someone (i.e. me) will stop a little more to take some more pictures. As always, your emails and comments are much appreciated. So long from Penticton.

Day 11. B.B.C. or Norman, I can see your house from here

Greetings from Golden and according to Anna at the liquor store, home to the highest restaurant in Canada. The Eagle's Eye at the Kicking Horse Ski Resort is 7700 feet above sea level! Take that Pizza Hut!



Well as I said yesterday, the Lethbridge Viaduct is a sight to behold, and it is. I don't know whether it is cooler that the bridge is almost 100 years old, or just that it is sooooooo big.



After leaving Lethbridge and climbing ever so slightly , we happened along Pincher Creek and probably our best, first look at the foothills



Lunch was in Fernie, and I gotta tell you, they take their trucks very seriously here. I have never seen so many 3/4 and 1 ton diesel pickups in my life. And not old pieces of sh-t either. We are talking about nice equipment here.


From Fernie it was onwards and upwards (really) to our evening destination of Golden. Along the way we passed Columbia lake - the head waters of the mighty Columbia river and home to some of the worlds rarest wildlife - the grizzzly bear, the big horn sheep, the Osprey

the north Cavan cougar

Just outside of Golden, we stopped at a rest area to try and un-square out butts, when we discovered what appeared to be an abandoned cabin. A little investigating shows why it was abandoned. The stream nearby evidently flooded and washed gravel over the banks almost completely covering two sides of the cabin including the door.

Oh well, as they say in real estate......location, location, location. From the rest stop into Golden was only a short drive, so it was out to supper at Apostles for some Greek salad, and back to the room for some well deserved rest. Tomorrow is Kelowna and the Okanagan Valley, so stay tuned.