This will be an accumulated post - because most nights I am too tired to post. Truthfully though, one night I was tipsy and decided to practice safe blogging - which means no drunk blogging!
The days have been long, covering 300 - 450 +km per day, which doesn't sound like much to my car driving readers (all 3 of you) but is a lot for my butt, back, shoulder.... to handle. Three tanks of gas per day is enough.
Along the everything is relative theme - the temperatures have varied. Some mornings, or through the mountain passes its been down to 12.5C, which is a bit nippy at100+ km/hr. It's also been HOT. Once it passes 25C I start to feel the heat. Past 30C I start to get grouchy. We hit a high of 40.5- I went straight past grouchy all the way to bitchy! When you are riding along at 40C and the temp drops to 35, due to altitude change or whatever, all of a sudden 35 feels great, when it drops even further into the 20s, all of a sudden I'm thinking about bypassing the afternoon ice cream.
Now I'm going to tie road memories to child birth... Ready? Last year we went on a highway in California we call DH8, based on a series of motorbike road grading maps. My husband thought it was the best road he's been on. I thought it was pretty good too. Today we went on that road again...when we reached the halfway point and stopped for a Rockstar Energy drink (no they don't sponsor me, but I wish they did), First Lobster had a gigantic cheesy grin on his face - the road was everything he remembered and more. He was blissfully happy.
Me? Well, there's a reason women have more than one child. No matter how horrible your labor is, once the nurse hands you that beautiful baby you created, you forget everything bad that just happened. You get caught up in, "That wasn't so bad". When you start labor with the second child, all of the bad memories come crashing back at once and you suddenly remember that labor in fact is called labor for a reason. So at this halfway point, I'm thinking this is the worst road I've been on for a long time. It has everything I absolutely hate! Blind corners, blind corners with elevation changes, no warning signs, tar snakes...the list goes on, none of which mean anything to you non motorbikers. The road I had remembered as pretty good was absolutely horrible. But - the second half was everything I love - high speed sweeping corners with good sight lines, smooth elevation changes, blah, blah, blah. The memories of the second half had totally overwritten the memories of the first half of that road and all I was left with we're the good memories, which totally skewed my perception. Hmmm, maybe that's why First Lobster went on a second date with me...
The best of the misread business signs so far: "Cremation Society of the Cookies", which, on second reading was actually, "Cremation Society of the Rockies", which isn't really much better.
Best sign I have no idea what it meant: "Mosquito Signing at 7 pm" .....? I didn't know Mosquitos sang...
Friday, August 15, 2014
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Ride to Mullholland Drive Day 1 & 2
My husband First Lobster (FL) and I are riding to Los Angeles, specifically Mullholland Drive. Why? Because if you YouTube search for rnickeymouse you will see a corner that has some spectacular motorbike crashes on it. Apparently FL wants to see if we cansurvive the corner without crashing.
Motorbike holidays are all about the journey - the destination is just where you turn around and head home. The fun starts the moment you leave your driveway. In fact we made it just over an hour from home when we hit a huge traffic jam on the main highway to Calgary. We detoured - hello Millet and Wetaskiwin. Even when we could have returned to the main road - we stayed on the smaller highway. We drove through many small towns I've heard about and have never been too...and probably will never return to. It's odd to realize I've travelled to two other continents and haven't really explored my own province. Of course the fact that a large portion of my province is covered with farmer's fields and dead straight roads explains some of the lack of exploring.
Low point of the day... We passed a cattle hauler and were sprayed with green liquid coming off the back of the truck's slipstream. Yes, we rode through cow poop. Road kill count for the day, two foxes, a young deer and a skunk - only one of which we could smell.
Distance covered: 592 km, with a moving average of 96 km. Ate at Tim Horton's twice.
Day 2 - for some unknown reason our bodies have not gotten the message that we are on holidays - we woke up just after 5 am. We actually rolled out of the hotel around 9:00 am with clear skies and 12.5 C as a starting temperature.
We crossed the border at Careay without any issues - except FL got asked, very politely, to keep his hands out of his pockets while speaking with the border agent.
Montana has a "fake" speed limit on the open highway, more of a suggestion than a hard and fast rule. We sometimes obeyed it....
As the day went by, things heated up - literally...we reached a high of 35 C. For over an hour we travelled through the Missoula Valley baking our brains out and getting dehydrated. We stopped three times for second breakfast, elevenses and afternoon tea. Two of these stops involved highly caffeinated beverages.
Road kill count for the day- one deer and .... A cow....I have never seen a cow as road kill before...I wish I still hadn't.
Distance covered: 539 km, some of which were on very curvy roads. we crossed the continental divide.
Interesting fact of the day - I thought we drove by the shell of the space vehicle astronauts return from the ISS in, actually it was a metal frame of a teepee on its side....I think....
No Tim Hortons, but we did eat at one of FL's favorites, Famous Dave's BBQ. I think FL is doomed to suffer through the meat sweats tonight...
Motorbike holidays are all about the journey - the destination is just where you turn around and head home. The fun starts the moment you leave your driveway. In fact we made it just over an hour from home when we hit a huge traffic jam on the main highway to Calgary. We detoured - hello Millet and Wetaskiwin. Even when we could have returned to the main road - we stayed on the smaller highway. We drove through many small towns I've heard about and have never been too...and probably will never return to. It's odd to realize I've travelled to two other continents and haven't really explored my own province. Of course the fact that a large portion of my province is covered with farmer's fields and dead straight roads explains some of the lack of exploring.
Low point of the day... We passed a cattle hauler and were sprayed with green liquid coming off the back of the truck's slipstream. Yes, we rode through cow poop. Road kill count for the day, two foxes, a young deer and a skunk - only one of which we could smell.
Distance covered: 592 km, with a moving average of 96 km. Ate at Tim Horton's twice.
Day 2 - for some unknown reason our bodies have not gotten the message that we are on holidays - we woke up just after 5 am. We actually rolled out of the hotel around 9:00 am with clear skies and 12.5 C as a starting temperature.
We crossed the border at Careay without any issues - except FL got asked, very politely, to keep his hands out of his pockets while speaking with the border agent.
Montana has a "fake" speed limit on the open highway, more of a suggestion than a hard and fast rule. We sometimes obeyed it....
As the day went by, things heated up - literally...we reached a high of 35 C. For over an hour we travelled through the Missoula Valley baking our brains out and getting dehydrated. We stopped three times for second breakfast, elevenses and afternoon tea. Two of these stops involved highly caffeinated beverages.
Road kill count for the day- one deer and .... A cow....I have never seen a cow as road kill before...I wish I still hadn't.
Distance covered: 539 km, some of which were on very curvy roads. we crossed the continental divide.
Interesting fact of the day - I thought we drove by the shell of the space vehicle astronauts return from the ISS in, actually it was a metal frame of a teepee on its side....I think....
No Tim Hortons, but we did eat at one of FL's favorites, Famous Dave's BBQ. I think FL is doomed to suffer through the meat sweats tonight...
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