Distance: 456 km
Elaspsed time: 4:59
Moving time: 4:21
Moving average speed 104 kph
Overall average: 91 kph
Maximum speed: 145 kph
The title reminds me of a great blues album "Homesick for the Road" by Tab Benoit. For those who ride, you can't beat getting out on the road, getting the fresh air and elements all around you and having the incredible views 360 degrees. Or maybe 180 but more about that later.
Not surprisingly, not the day I planned yesterday nor today. However, we are on the road and that is all that counts. (My words, not Nan's as I was the victim of the odd remark as I was getting ready and she was cooling her heels waiting on me.)
Spent my day at the office yesterday then got home at 7:30 to start packing, working on the bike and prepping for the trip. I walked in the door and my first view is a glass of pomegranate martini; Nan knows that I am conscious of "men issues" so antioxidants are a big part of my diet. Thanks, Sweetie. Unfortunately, a pomegranate martini does more than provide antioxidants, it provides a disincentive to do anything, just like a deferred sales charge mutual fund. However, I resisted the second glass and did a minor fix on one of the panniers and then an install of a new fuse block that would allow me to have all the electrical accessories "switched", which means that they would only operate when the bike is running.
I am always a little intimidated by tasks like this because I really have very little experience with such things and so my usual solution is to look at stuff and try to figure out how it works. If I am really desperate, I might read some instructions.
But I am not that desperate. Besides, time is a factor. I am, however, desperate enough to call Stan from Stan's Used Bike Emporium, Home of the Limited Lifetime Warranty, and vendor of my two bikes. "No problem" Stan says, "just look at the electrical diagram from that book I gave you". That's quite the warranty, Stan. I describe the wires I see and through the process of elimination, we narrow it down to at most, three wires and make a reasonable deduction on which is probably the solution. I am hoping that neither of us is colour blind because the wires appear to have a complicated pattern of colours which probably means something. If you are thinking "black and red" or "black and white", you don't know half of it. See photo:
Nice, new fuse block:The next fix is to the signal and brake lighting on the top case of the bike. Just to give you some background, I had been having some intermittent lighting issues on the top case, which is an add-on after-market accessory and the previous owner of the bike had added some signal (brake and turn signal) lighting for added visibility and safety. This issue had gone on for a while and was slowly deteriorating with time; when I met the owner of the company, Admore Lighting, that supplied the product at the motorcycle show in January, he told me to just give him a call and he would send me the replacement part.
Well, that didn't happen. I needed to wait for a more pressing time to complete this task so I phoned the company on Tuesday this week to get the part shipped. I give those guys credit so let me shout out to them: the part was only $25 but before sending me the part, at this point at which I am almost prepared to pay a taxi to drive to Calgary to pick it up, they offer a no-cost fix that might solve the problem. They are keen believers in their product so they are convinced that it is fixable (normally they would say to send the part back) problem and give me the steps to try to solve the problem. I think I understand the instructions but I can't improve the intermittent signal so I call back on Wednesday and they ship me the part Priority Post and it arrives on Friday. They are stunned their part has failed so they absorb the cost of the shipping. I didn't whine. Well, not too much but if you are looking for lighting for your bike, you should call them. Hard to believe they are in CALGARY. I am almost humiliated. I got the part installed, which you can see for yourself. See how bright that light looks!? Before: flickering. Thanks, Admore guys Monty and Dave.
This took me to 1:00 a.m. I go to bed with my phone and I am looking up online how to attach these fancy packing straps a friend from Minnesota has sent to me. I fall asleep with the phone in my hands.
This morning, I wake at 6:00 a.m. and immediately I think of all the things I could be doing to get ready but my loving orange tabby Obi Wan is on top of my chest trying to purr me back to sleep. Success... and I wake up again at about 9.
Now, I had said earlier that our plan was to be on the road by 11, have a pleasant and leisurely ride to Nordegg and have lunch at the Miner's Cafe at the museum, then have a relaxing ride on to Field where we were eagerly anticipating dinner at the Truffle Pigs restaurant.
Or, I would be punished by sins in a former life blah blah blah and get on the road by 2:30 p.m. Fortunately, I did forego the office (and divorce) but not the 2:30 part. I tried in vain to fix my headset on the intercom system and made a bad situation unusable so I ended up having to call the Canadian distributor for the parts and have them sent priority post to a friend's place along the way, where we will pick it up on Thursday. Oddly enough, this didn't impress Nan since she was waiting around while I tried to solve this intercom problem. I thought it would be nothing to beat it and I even called my friend the electrical engineer, person with a gift for completing thought experiments and thinking through problems start to finish but when I described the wiring that I had ripped out, he figured there were about 500 permutations for solutions. However, we discussed possible solutions but it was really a shot in the dark. Amazingly, I tried what we thought was the obvious solution and when I plugged the headset into the system, it produced the correct sounds. When I plugged Nan's in, my headset failed, never to be reactivated. 1 down, 499 to go, according to Rod.
Then the new fuse block failed, so I had to bypass the "switching" feature.
I never did figure out the tie down straps so I will do that later in the trip. In the mean time, I will tie down our rain gear with string.
It's 1:30 and time to pack. Here is what I am bringing:
O.K. the bike is pretty much loaded, I have changed the oil and filter, had new tires installed this week and washed the bike. It looks great and I want a picture of the yard in the background so here it is:
Not surprisingly, the temperature cools off as soon as we leave the yard and storm clouds are all around and threatening us but we escape rain. Clearly, others have not.
For the driver of the motorcycle, we always have to take one for the team and keep our eyes glued firmly on the road. There is little opportunity for us to look around and gawk at the surrounds, having to be content with the sheer glory of handling our steeds on the open road. For the pillion, there is ample opportunity to look around and see what is going on in the world because the bike and it's riders are open to world, not protected by 2000 pounds/920.2 kg of glass and metal: we are out there in the elements, view in almost every direction, feeling the wind, the sun, the air, smelling the pines and being nailed by bees crossing the highway hitting us at 140 kph. Here is proof:
I am making fun here but the reality is that while I am driving the bike, Nan is sitting on the back taking pictures and often, I see things that on the road, I may have at best, only glimpsed. It is a treat for me when we get to our day's destination and I get to see what pictures she has taken. Today, riding through Banff National Park, we saw a mama black bear and her two, new cubs. You just want to cuddle them! Fortunately, we refrain, though we did stop to have a closer look.
We are passing through some of the most beautiful country in the world and in a fashion that allows us to really appreciate it. The notion of motorcycling is foreign or unappealing to some people but let them experience a ride like this and even the hardest heart would be hard pressed to not experience the beauty.
I mean, this:
It takes us five hours to get to Field and we only stop once to layer up, once in Nordegg to get gas and then a few minutes later to check out a campground we hope to visit on the August long weekend. Not. A total of about 30 minutes tops and probably less. It is a long time to sit on the bike without much of a break but we are excited when we arrive because we are having dinner at Truffle Pigs, one of our favourite roadside diners. Of course, they would be shocked to hear us refer to them as such but that is how we think of it. I am especially anticipating it because our last time through, I was way to sick to eat and ended up going to bed at about 8 after a gruelling ride from Kelowna. Not this time. Our appetizers are nothing short of stunning: Nan has pork dumplings and I have scallop salad with flying fish roe. It is choke full of avocado, scallops and roe and has a great wasabi dressing. Unbelievable!
Nan's appetizer:
Sadly, though very good, the main course doesn't quite match the appetizer and I send mine back to be warmed up. I go from envisioning buying drinks for all the kitchen staff to being just satisfied. It is still one of our favourite restaurants and one average experience has not tainted me but after 14 months of anticipation, after they totally delivered on the appetizer, I was ready to be overwhelmed. We did have a great bottle of BC wine, though.
O.k., that's enough for one day. I will post extra pictures on Picasa in the next day or so.
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