Wednesday July 13

 Wednesday July 13


Jet lag made for a short night of sleep. Bed at midnight and up at 430. Tossed and turned listening to the radio til 7 and up and at em. 

Finished laundry and then ran some errands. Had to pick up my laptop from flight attendant and friend Kelly after she brought it home from Boston after I left it on the plane. Sigh. 

Zipped over to Southcentre mall for the pancake breakfast but with 5000+ in line, that wasn’t going to happen. Bought some groceries and headed south. Stopped at Canadian tire to get some car and bike parts. Zipped home and did some online banking and house tidying before making a huge breakfast of pancakes bacon and eggs for Jacob and myself. Yum!! 

Jacob went off to work installing some blinds and I tidied the garage and did a few installs on both cars and the bike. Packed up everything and strapped it all down on the back of the Harley and headed east to Langdon. 

Stopped to visit my buddy Murray on the farm and then hit the highway to Medicine Hat. 

Highways were mostly good. The canola is just starting to turn yellow and smells amazing. 

Stopped in Gleichen to top up with fuel. $2.09/litre. Ouch. 

Onto the number 1 hwy to Brooks. Arrived at 5 and had to kill an hour waiting for my other buddy Murray to arrive from Smoky Lake AB before heading into Medicine Hat. Topped up with fuel, lemonades were 3.99 for one or 2/$4. Seriously. Weird. Bought two. Inhaled one. Saved one for Murray. 

Had a long chat with a kid from Ontario who moments before bought a Honda CBR 600 and was in Alberta for the summer working for CP Rail. 

Murray finally arrived at 6 and we busted out for the Hat. Got 5 minutes from Redcliffe and came to a screeching halt. Traffic was backed up for miles as a white car had entered the ditch and rolled and likely involved a fatality as pictures and measurements were being taken. After half an hour, we drove back along the side of the highway to a crossroad and took a parallel gravel road for 3km to get around the accident. 

We met our dear friend Heather in her car and followed her in to our hotel. 

My zipper on my jacket failed and was wide open so I was trying to hold it shut with one hand and drive with the other so my wallet and passport wouldn’t blow away. Sheesh. 

Arrived the the hotel. Ripped off all the leather and changed into shorts. Jumped back in Heather’s car and over to her house for an amazing beer and steak dinner with salad, potatoes and onions, and fresh bread. Wow!! First home cooked meal in weeks. It was perfect. 

Back to the hotel at 1030 and fell asleep in seconds. Long day today and longer tomorrow. Hard ride to Billings Montana and getting across the border. Day 1 in the books! 

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