Saturday, July 21, 2012

Canada

Weather being sunny, road in good condition and the motorcycle running perfect, eventually I made my way to the border with Canada sometime in the afternoon. The border crossing went on smooth and  after answering questions and showing the passport I was allowed into Canada; in less than five minutes. I stopped at the Canada welcome center and asked where I can exchange some money or use an ATM. The girl working in the office with no other visitors at the time advised me to use a bank in the next town, Estevan. Just as I was cherishing the beautiful sunny skies, I started approaching a deep gray area of clouds and wind really started picking up speed. Shortly I realized I must stop and perform my now well exercised roadside dancing to get into my rain gear if I didn't want to get drenched in the next five minutes. It was as if I had been purposefully prompted by the nature to take notice of entering Saskatchewan’s prairies where road would stretch on for many, many hundreds of miles of windy, infinite grasslands as far as horizons stretched. This was to become the leitmotif of the days to come while I started slowly to make my way North West across this vast country.

As evening came I found myself in a small campground on the outskirts of Regina. There was nothing fancy about it but I noticed it being full with pickups towing camper homes. I learned that evening having conversation with some folks that the town is booming with newly extended potash mining industry or some such mineral and plenty of new jobs are being taken by Canadians coming from out of province but there is no more available housing to accommodate them so they all stayed in campgrounds except for the fortunate lucky ones who grabbed the few remaining apartments for rent. My thoughts went back to USA and the current economy where many people are still suffering in a poor job market and I found it odd this area being so close geographically yet things being so different if this was indeed the reality.

Crossing this huge landscape of nothing but green pastures and blue sky dotted with occasional rains gave me a whole new meaning to the word meditation. As miles ticked by slowly but scenery stayed pretty much the same I stopped looking at the odometer and mentally marked my trip progress only counting the gas tank fill ups knowing my GS1200 BMW’s range was 200 miles before reserve. This is a bit more than standard due to a modification I made to pull out the plastic overfill neck which allows for better tank filling, it’s holding close to 6 gallons now. I also had with me one gallon jerry can securely mounted in place of right passenger foot peg, as emergency reserve.

Although sun was shining and sky was clear, the wind and temperatures made for a chilly ride and soon I saw necessary to use the Gerbing electric jacked I had packed to stay comfortable. Since I had just a pair of summer gloves, I stopped in Saskatoon and purchased a pair of Goretex lined cold weather gloves from the local Harley Davidson dealer. They were having a huge demo ride and sale and the lot was full of Harleys and people dressed in typical cruiser fashion. One person stroke a conversation asking me if I had any more places to strap additional luggage on my bike, and I concurred that my motorcycle had probably never been so loaded with gear.

Passing through Edmonton of which I have been advised to avoid for the night, I needed to make a quick decision as night was falling and populated places with hotels or camp sites are few and far in between in these parts. I followed a sign indicating “Alberta Beach” which was also marked to supposedly have a hotel, so I went searching for it. I arrived on the shore of a large lake surrounded by forests but no hotel or camping was to be found, the area appeared as a local’s weekend destination waterfront resort. Eventually I discovered a restaurant bar which had also the sign of hotel, quickly entered and booked a room before (as I knew by now all too well that this is not the US East Coast where businesses run 24X7) the establishment was going to close it’s doors and keep only the bar open. The room was less than what I had expected but it had to do being the only available option. To top it all off, all rooms were located just above the bar where a large crowd had gathered for a good time and karaoke was blasting and continued to do so all night. This time I had the earplugs handy and amazingly I succeeded to fall asleep while the room and my bed were literally shaking with the screaming madness going on downstairs.

After several long tiring days, I decided to make next day a shorter one and only reach Dawson Creek, where Alaska highway begins, about 350 miles or so. I wanted a nice hotel room, with good bed and a proper shower. Just when entering Dawson Creek I immediately noticed and stopped at a brand new Holiday Inn Express, being a member received a great upgrade for same price to a suite which included fridge and had almost twice the usual room’s living area. The two girls at reception could not have been more helpful and nice. One of them was from Australia working the summer there. I made myself comfortable and the first thing was to check Internet access, which worked OK, but too slow to upload most of the large videos which I had collected from my GoPro Hero helmet camera.  Anyway, there wasn’t anything spectacular captured until now as the interesting part of the journey was just beginning to start tomorrow so I uploaded only a handful of small ones for my folks at home. I had dinner at a somewhat upscale restaurant with good food, after past few days of gas station sandwiches and fast food. The restaurant did not have too many clients. In fact the whole street block had few hotels and a  casino but I did not see a large affluence of people. I must be used too much with the hustle of the populated area where I live. Out here, everything moves at a different pace, and it seems better.

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