What a miserable @#$%^&* day! Departed from the little
town Leduc just south of Edmonton at about 6:15 am with sunny skies and high
hopes of getting to the USA and on to Billings, MT (about 700 miles). The list
of things that went wrong after that is long:
1
I forgot that the large cities in Canada don’t
have by-passes (at least the cities I’ve been in). I had luckily got to the
south of Edmonton the night before but I had to go through Calgary. You guessed
it; rush hour and I’m in the middle of it. I have to admit that I did get
through without much problem but it did slow down my progress.
2
The highway signs in Canada are not easy to
understand. They don’t give you a good indication on where they go and when you
need to change for a certain destination. I had a confusing time at several
spots trying to get on the right road to the border.
3
My GPS didn’t help because it kept trying to get
me to take alternate routes and get off the 4 lane roads; I have no idea why.
It’s not a setting issue because it has worked perfectly for 6000 miles.
4
I had about 380 miles to get to the USA border.
Of course it started raining about 150 miles from the border. I don’t mean a
little sprinkle, I mean rain! I’ve never had to ride that long in that hard of
rain. It was not fun.
5
I got to the USA border and it was still
raining. It rained when I entered Canada from Alaska and it rained when I left
Canada. I think Canada was saying “Yankee Dog, go home!”
6
I had planned to make another 300+ miles and get
to Billings. I could have made it even in the rain until the wind started
blowing about 40 miles from Great Falls, MT. I don’t know how hard it was
blowing but it almost blew me off the highway several times. It was still
raining and the temperature was 43 degrees; the chill factor had to be below
freezing. I finally pulled behind a semi-truck going about 60 mph because I was
afraid to pass him due to the wind. I rode the last 20 miles to Great Falls in
this position and even then every time I went behind a hill the wind would
reverse then hit me full blast as I came out from behind the hill. I was
actually a bit worried because the tires on my bike are great for off road and
do ok on pavement but they are not rain tires.
7
Finally took the exit the sign said to take to
get to a hotel and I ended up going completely through town and had to stop at
a dozen stop lights in the rain. Everyone in cars just stared at this crazy
biker riding in this weather.
8
When I parked and went into the hotel I’m
dripping water everywhere including all over their counter.
9
They had a room; they didn’t know that I would
have paid any price for the room. I was drenched and freezing.
10
I took off all my rain gear and found that my
pants were wet from a pocket I had left unzipped on my rain jacket. One of my
water proof riding boots was soaked (inside). One of my sleeves was wet; don’t
know how that happened. My waterproof gloves are soaked.
11
I have everything hanging all over my hotel room
trying to dry them out for tomorrows ride.
One good thing was the Shoei helmet. I’ve been somewhat unhappy
with this helmet but it did great today and more importantly, it did not fog.
All my other helmets fog when it rains so you have to crack them open a little
then you get water spray in the face. This helmet stayed shut and dry inside
and no fog.
The bike once again ran perfectly. I covered 482 miles today
until the weather kicked my sore butt. I still have 1,458 to go to be in Tulsa
to see my folks and kids. If the weather will just break for two days I can be
there on Friday, if not then Saturday. That of course is based on me getting
out of Montana and its crazy weather.
As a side note: Our original plan was to ride through
Glacier National Park on our way home. I’m actually not that far from the park
but the weather I’m in right now is worse over the park and it looks like they
are getting ice/snow. Same thing happened in 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment