This post will be a little shorter that the last few as you can't see much when it is raining. Woke up at 5:30 and it is still raining, the computer shows it to be over a large area, it is not moving and not raining too hard. but could rain all today and tomorrow. We think it will be dry about the time we get to the border 125 miles to the north. So we load the bikes and put on the rain gear and hit the road. It is not too bad when you are riding and have to stop on put on the rain gear, but when you have to load the bikes in the rain, that is a bummer. We are a little slow at the beginning but find our groove and are up to speed pretty quickly. It is a pretty steady rain and at 250 miles we start to see a little dry road on the traffic areas and another 20 miles the roads are dry. Customs at Sweetgrass is easy and we are out of there in 10 minuets. The customs guy told John that the road was closed before Lethbridge due to flooding. He also told John that there was a little place up the road 12 miles or so to stop and get breakfast and wait for the road to open. We stopped at Milk River, had breakfast and decided to hit the road. When we got to where the problem had been the road crews had the road open, I think it was just a blocked culvert and the water came up over the road. The south bound side still has some water on it but was open to traffic. We did a fuel stop at Fort Macleod and changed some US dollars into Canadian. We got to Calgary about 3:15 and traffic was a mess, due to some construction and the time of day. It took close to an hour to go the 30 miles through Calgary. Stop and go traffic on a motorcycle isn't very fun. Glad to be through that we went another 30 miles and stopped for fuel, put the rain coats away and headed for Red Deer, our stopping place for the night. Of course it starts spitting a little rain before we get to Red Deer but just enough to spot the windshields so we luck out. The rumor had it that we would be clear of the weather after we passed Calgary. I guess the weatherman didn't know that as he is forecasting 80% chance of rain at Edmonton tomorrow. We will know more tomorrow. Our Goal for tomorrow night is Dawson Creek, the real beginning of the Alaskan hwy way. Yesterday our ride was about 430 miles and on one tank of fuel I got the best gas mileage I have ever had on the bike, right at 50mpg, it was the ride through Yellowstone when we had to ride slow for so long. This morning the first leg from Great Falls to Sweetgrass I got the worst mileage I have ever gotten, about 31mpg. I think the water on the road contributes to that a little but we had winds that were unbelievable and that really make the bike work and suck up the petro. Our ride today was another 430 miles. I think tomorrow will be a little bit longer.
Soggy Doggie and the wet donkey aks Traveler
No comments:
Post a Comment