Well, after all the weeks of planning and then the 'week from hell' this week, we finally climbed into our bike gear and headed out of 'Dodge' at about 11:20am! First, we had to get the girls to the kennels - that went remarkably easy. I'd expected all sorts of commotion from one or both, but they were good as gold. This is the first time we've tried this kennel, but on first inspection it looks great. They have a large indoor/out door pen,. and can let themselves in & out through a flap. They looked quite settled before we had even left, and that makes us feel heaps better. The kennel also has a web cam in the run, so we can check up on the girls while we are away.
When we got away from home, it was a bit 'cool' - actually about 12'C cool! Fortunately Wend had bough us both windproof jackets to be worn under our existing bike gear, which turned out to be a star buy. I swear Ewan & Charlie had less on their bikes when they made the 'Long Way Round', and 'The Long Way Down'. Ours was the 'Short Way Across', but we still managed to load down both bikes. With two metal panniers and a large roll bag on the back saddle, it made things 'interesting' for me to get on the bike. The usual swinging the leg over the saddle was just not going to do it. So I put the bike on the main stand and rocked it - well it had worked before hadn't it. Not this time, I looked like a kid on one of those ruddy spring rides in the play ground. You know the sort, they often look like a small animal, mounted on a bloody great spring, kiddy rocks furiously back & forth! That was me!!!! Try as hard as I could, I just couldn't get it off the main stand - obviously to the great delight of Wendy who just neatly stepped onto 'Sydders'. Eventually I moved it, and away we finally went, making a mental note that I had to try a different method next time we stopped.
We managed to do a swift photo shoot before we left home, so we will have a 'before' and 'after' shot. Once I work out how to load it into the Blog, I'll get the 'before' shot on the main page. After the photo call, we headed into Stony for fuel & raid the bank - well the ATM at any rate. At the gas station I tried the 'new method' of dismounting, which was a lot more amusing for Wendy when I came to get back on the bike. If you remember the Monty Python ministry of silly walks sketch, my mounting technique was similar to the John Clees walk! Basically try to throw my right leg horizontal, enough to clear the saddle and over the other side. Sounds easy if you are a fit younger man. However, I am neither of those, and I have a 'tin' right hip, which does not allow for that range of movement. Net result on the first few attempts, I was kicking the crap out of my new, quite expensive saddle! Again, much to the amusement of W, who accused me of not being able to get my leg over!!!!!! Time to move on I think.
With the risk of this first day becoming a 'War and Peace all on it's own, I will try and condense the remainder of the day. Heading west along the Yellowhead Highway, our first rest stop was in Edson. Here we pulled into 'Tims' for lunch. For non Canadians, I will just say that Tim Hortons is as quintessentially Canadian as the maple leaf. Here Wendy declared that she didn't like the food at Tims! If the boys at Greyhound hear that, I will be drummed out of the garage, buttons ceremonially ripped from my tunic and my drivers license torn into a hundred small pieces........... We'll avoid Tims in future - don't want to risk that happening! Lunch eaten, Sydders refuelled, on we went.
The remainder of the trip was pretty uneventful, and it was getting steadily warmer. By the time we arrived in Jasper, temps were in the mid 20's C. Our first overnight stop was exactly one hour from Jasper along a stunning piece of highway - very motorcycle friendly! We rode down the side of 'Moose Lake' whose waters were mirror calm, reflecting the heavily wooded and snow capped mountains. Simply beautiful - not much else to add to that really. The GPS took us to the door of our overnight lodging, the beautiful Mountain River Lodge. We dragged our bags to the room, showered and got ready for dinner - home cooked fresh Salmon! At dinner we met other guests, four of whom were Brits on holiday. It felt like home from home - were in in BC, or Esher Surrey?? The other two guests were from Germany and when dinner conversation turned to the world cup..................... Well, it was difficult not to mention 1966!
Ok folks, that's it, hope this wasn't too laborious, tomorrow is a new day and more form our 'Letters from Canada'.
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