Breakfast at the Chateau Lacombe in Edmonton didn't start till 6:30. Good thing it was complimentary because they charge $16.00 for the buffet. The
sky's were overcast when we hit the road at around 7:15am At least it wasn't raining. The downtown roads are very confusing in Edmonton, but with a little help from the GPS we made it out of town, heading South towards Calgary.
There was a bit of fog along the way. Visibility was about 1/4 to 1/2 mile at best. There wasn't too much traffic and it was still moving at 70-75 mph. Because we hadn't filled up last night, our first stop was for gas. We had to go about 2 miles off the highway and when we pulled up to the pumps found that the station wasn't open yet at 8:15am. The lady was there so she went ahead and opened a few minutes early for us. Probably the cheapest gas on the trip as well.
I needed to get rid of all of my Canadian money, most of it change, so I went in to pay for a 21.00 gas bill with a Canadian five dollar bill and gobs of change. She even counted it out for me and I still had 85 cents left. Back on the road, the fog continued for another hour.
The weather eventually cleared and it was time to stop again. The rest stop was one of the nicer Canadian rest areas. It even had a burger joint in the parking lot. We were talking to a guy and telling him our route. I guess he had travelled it before because he knew where we were going. He told us we would get awfully bored after Calgary. He said, "when get South of Calgary, you can watch your dog run away for three whole days". Well, he wasn't lying. We stopped for gas had lunch at another A&W at around 11:30am. I wonder if they have a frequent visitor discount program? Back on the road again, we had to stop after about 45 minutes because we were starting to fall asleep. It seemed like it was a hundred degrees out. I think it was in the low to mid 80's. After some water and movement we felt good enough to continue.
There was one point where there was no traffic, and the road was absolutely arrow straight. I kept creeping faster and faster till I got the Harley up to about a buck 15. I could have done more, but that was good enough for me. Jon passed me like I was standing still.
We were putting through the little town of Nanton when I saw a couple of airplanes on pedestals along side the road. Some one complained that we weren't doing enough site seeing, so I pulled in. Turns out it was a Canadian World War II
Air Force Museum. We unloaded another $20 in Canadian as a donation and spent about 45 minutes looking around. Pretty cool museum. I took pictures.
As we rode through town, we saw a large collection of black leather bikers. I think we passed some of them just South of Calgary. Anyway, the town was having a town-wide garage sale and everybody was there. As we left town we saw more bikes coming from the south toward Nanton. I guess there isn't much else to do on a Saturday around here.
More riding finally brought us to the US border at Coutts/Sweetgrass. As predicted by the Rand McNally 2014 road atlas there was a 30 minute wait. Of course Jon decided that the other line was moving faster and pulled into it just as it came to a halt. It was blistering hot already and there was NO shade to be found. Typical border crossing, the guard tries to make you uncomfortable and then sends you on your way. We stopped for the night at the Comfort Inn in Shelby, Montana.
Lots of miles left, but new experiences.
Now who would want a 4 door Porsche?
Lots of open space
Copyright (C) 2004-2013, Larry Manka. all rights reserved.
