Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Rain, heat and the bear
I am writing this from Penticton, BC. Since I last blogged Doug and I have ridden from Hyder, AK to Penticton. We started out yesterday from Hyder. The night before we had a nice Alaska seafood dinner at the Bus. No kidding you ordered from the side of an old bus which is also the kitchen. You then go into another room where the food is brought to you:
The morning was so depressing because it was the first day that we awoke to pouring rain. We have encountered plenty of rain on this ride but never a full downpour as we loaded the bikes.
However the further we got from Hyder the better the weather became until it was actually quite pleasant yesterday. The trip is getting a little boring now because we are so homesick and we just want to get home. Doug forgot his cell phone at the Hyder hotel but I told him we were not going to ride back for it! He called the hotel on the sat phone and arranged for it to be sent to his home.
Even though we are focused on getting home, still we saw some beautiful scenery. A couple of interesting things happened on the road yesterday. The first was really fun. A black bear crossed in front of Doug. In fact he only missed it by about 10 feet or so. The bear was big and was running from right to left across the road in front of us. It was lucky that Doug didn't hit it.
The other thing was not so fun. As we were riding along a car stopped and a man jumped out and waved us down. He asked if we had seen a moose carcass in the road. A car crashed into a moose up the road from us and they could not find the moose. We saw the car and it was severely damaged. The driver was being loaded into an ambulance. It was a reminder to us to watch for animals on the road.
Another interesting thing happened that we really didn't have anything to do with but I want to write about it here just for fun. Do any of you remember the television show M*A*S*H? The character BJ Hunnicut was played by an actor named Mike Farrel. He was stuck in one of the towns on our route. From what we heard he was riding a BMW 1200GS with a white tank and was having battery problems. Doug thought it might be the alternator belt and we just happened to have two with us. So Doug set out on a mission to rescue BJ Hunnicut. We came to the town and there was a GS with a white tank. However it was not Mike Farrel's bike; he had fixed his problem and moved on. This bike had a rear end failure and was ridden by a guy from South America who rented it from a BMW dealer in Vancouver. The guy did not speak English so he was having problems. Unfortunately even Doug McGuiver could not fix this problem so on we went.
We spent the night in a Sheraton hotel in Prince George. It was simply luxurious compared to the hotel in Hyder.
This morning we rode to our current location and complained as the weather got hotter and hotter. It was a great ride but got a little to hot for me. Two examples popped up today on how lucky we have been regarding our constant speeding through Canada. Today we rounded a curve way over the speed limit. Actually if it says 70 we just drive 70. The problem with that is they mean 70 kilometers per hour and we mean 70 miles per hour. Anyway we were met by a trouper who turned his flashing lights on. We slowed down and Doug even motioned with his left hand to slow down to me. Low and behold, no ticket!
Another incident happened when Doug passed a slow moving vehicle. The problem here was it was a double yellow line. As he passed another vehicle came towards us so I did not pass. As luck would have it the vehicle coming towards us was a trouper! Doug has just passed on a double yellow line in front of a trouper. Once again no ticked. I hope we continue our lucky streak.
Tomorrow will be even hotter. There is a record setting heat spell up here. We are debating riding the Oregon coast but we are mindful of our goal to reach A&S between 3 and 4pm on Saturday. We still feel we will be able to be there. I asked Doug why he wants to return to A&S rather than just ride to our homes. Doug feels that by returning to where we started it will bring closure to our adventure; we will have completed the loop.
I am so anxious to see everyone again.
Dell
