Prince Rupert, with apologies to Harley Davidson riders

Day 9
Distance travelled 61.6 km
Accumulated distance travelled 2484 km
Maximum speed 110 kph
Moving average: 46 kph
Overall average: 40 kph
Moving time:1:20
Total time: 1:34

View from our hotel room in Prince Rupert.

We are still catching up on sleep because even though we slept two hours on the boat yesterday, we wake up at 10:40 a.m. It is a beautiful morning with the sun shining over the harbour. I cannot think of the number of times when describing our route that I was told it would be raining here. We laughed at ourselves because we recognize that we are getting a myopic view, that we are being fooled into thinking that Prince Rupert is a summer wonderland and probably is sunny all year long but we know that we have just hit the sweet spot for summer weather. In fact, that has pretty much been the whole trip.

We walk down to Cow Bay, so named for an order of livestock brought into the harbour about 100 years ago. It is an historic part of Prince Rupert and many of the buildings are reclaimed fish markets or processing buildings, though the restaurant Smiles has been a restaurant since the 30s. Breakfast for us is actually lunch for everybody else and stop in at the well known Cow Bay Cafe for belinis and pasta and admire their wine glass chandeliers, then go for a walk around the marina. I like to walk around marinas and look at the boats, imagining that one day I might own my own to scuba dive. Also imagining that I would never get sea sick.

After walking around the marina, we opt for a local display, a museum of sorts that is operated by the port authority. It is a thoughtful, well organized and inter-active history of the region describing the local history of the past 15,000 years, focusing on Aboriginal trade and dwellings and concluding with the history of the port, including container movement, trade arrangements and security. It was the first North American port to have 100% screening of every container that comes into port.  There is a sophisticated radiation process that once discovered that a shipment of Prada bags coming into the port were in fact, fakes.

Next is the museum of natural history and some of the displays looks suspiciously similar to the displays we have just seen but there is a multitude of Aboriginal art both historic and contemporary. I am often inspired by Neil Peart, consummate drummer for Rush, chef, author and of course, motorcycle rider and how he likes to ride from town to town and visit every one room museum along the way. I imagine this is me today.

After the museum, and Nan poking into the shops in Cow Bay, we decide we will get on the bike and look around town and tour the totem poles. We gear up and go down to the bike and it's dead. Jim. It turns over once but that is it. No problem, I have jumper cables! Still, it is discouraging and it tells me that my electrical problems are worse, not better. Just at that moment, a couple of guys are walking up to check in and one guy identifies that we are having... issues.... and offers to give us a boost. They work for Sirius Satellite Radio and they are up in Prince Rupert to check the signal in the north.  It is then I see the "Harley Davidison" shirt he is wearing and I think I am going to have suffer the indignation of getting my Japanese bike boosted by a Harley rider. Now, I confess I have at times made fun of Harleys for their propensity to require quite a bit more service than other bikes and getting a boost from a Harley rider is a dose of humility for me. That's o.k., it doesn't hurt too much and I am thankful. The bike fires right up and after, we are chatting about our trip. He asks if we have been to Sturgis and I tell him I don't have the right kind of bike but he insists that it is no longer necessary to ride a Harley there. He is from Ottawa and I ask him if he is going to ride down. No, he is going to go with three buddies and they are going to trailer their bikes down in case they have a breakdown. Aha! Vindicated! I feel somewhat relieved that I don't have to suffer the indignity that I thought I was getting. I don't point this out to my Good Samaritan.

We do our tour, now making an effort to give the battery a good charge so not turning it off anywhere. We ride out to Port Edward and as far as the North Pacific Cannery, which will get described in tomorrow's blog.

When we park the bike back at the hotel, I disconnect the battery.