Pictures as promised

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I was experiencing technical difficulties but said I had one of the sharpest minds of Saskatchewan working on it.  Well, that didn't work but a change of accommodations did.  We are now at the Creston Valley Hotel and the wifi here seems to be working well.  I'll write more about today's ride later but for now here are some pictures from the last two days.


Tuesday crossing into Saskatchewan from Manitoba on the TCH, a closed visitor centre; what's with that, restraint?

The inland grain terminal just to the west of Grenfell, Saskatchewan. The gravel road to the Tholl family farm is just past here.

This field of wheat is one one side of the driveway leading to Bill's boyhood home;

and on the other this field of canola.

This is the house,

and the barn and grain bins. The bike is just to prove that I was really there.

This is a field of flak; from a distance it actually looks like a lake.

Tuesday, Greg Basky and I had dinner at Brown's Social House on River Street in Lethbridge.

Wednesday Greg and I started our journey on Hwy 3 together we stopped for lunch at the Star Cafe and Grill in Maple Creek Saskatchewan. Those are our bikes in front of the restaurant, the yellow building.

We crossed into Alberta on Hwy 1 yesterday and a guy from Quebec took this picture of Greg and I

This is just a picture of the wide open spaces next to the stop where the Welcome to Alberta sign on Highway 3, the Crowsnest Highway.

A surprise guest In Moose Jaw

OK, so I have been talking about a surprise on this trip and I am about to come good on my promise. But first I have to say a few words about yesterday's ride from Brandon Manitoba to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.  The ride was nice with very little traffic to slow me down.The highlight was a detour to my dear friend Bill Tholl's family farm which is north of the TCH just west of Grenfell, Saskatchewan.  Bill, and his wife Paula, have given me detailed instructions and maps so that I could find the home. The12 miles to the Tholl farm is on the gravel secondary road to Neudorf that is lined with huge golden wheat, yellow canola and purple flax fields on either side. I can't imagine what it would have been like growing up there, though the final product turned out pretty well.

I arrived at the Temple Gardens Hotel and Spa at around 3:30 and spend nearly an hour soaking in the  large hot mineral water pool for which the place is famous.

And then the mystery guest arrived. His name is Greg Basky, a colleague and friend of Jane who is an executive at the Saskatchewan Health Quality Council.  Greg started riding 5 years ago and when he heard from Jane that I was going to be riding west this summer he kindly offered to join me for a few days. He and I introduced ourselves over dinner at Brown's Social House and started off together this morning.  We rode from Moose Jaw to Lethbridge with a stop for lunch at The Star Cafe and Grill on Main Street in Maple Creek. Our very spicy (we were warned) smoked paprika chicken breast salads and ice tea were very good.

The ride from the Saskatchewan-Alberta border in sweltering heat was not very interesting, particularly the long bit where we were stuck behind a line of cars and a tanker trailer truck. At one point Greg took matters into his own hands and lurched out to pass the laggards; and what could I do?  Well, crank the throttle and follow him.  When we reached the Holiday Inn in Lethbridge at 4:15 it was 36 degrees and the asphalt was melting under our feet as we waited at red lights on the highway.

After some down time and a shower we ventured off for dinner at a really amazing establishment, the Owl Acoustic Lounge. As the name suggests this is a live entertainment venue where different groups and individuals perform nightly while patrons drink beer and whatever else, and order from what has to be the funniest menu I've ever seen.  Here is how my $14 1/2 BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich is described: "Savoury pulled pork stacked with coleslaw and Barbeque sauce. We tried pulling the pork apart when the pig is still alive and it turns out their skin is quite tough. We smoke it in-house and it comes out nice and tender after the pig has been prepared by a butcher. Not everyone pulls their pork the same, you have to see what works for you."  While there was no entertainment tonight, except for the reading of the menu that is, our meals and the beer we had with them were great and the service were excellent.  Our waitress gave each of us a menu as a souvenir of our visit. This is certainly an establishment I would recommend to anyone who visits or drives through Lethbridge.  I must say that having someone to ride with, to share meals with, and to swap stories about bike trips is actually quite enjoyable.  As I sit here single-finger pecking out the letters for each word for this instalment, Greg, a former journalist (ink stained wretch) and communications expert is effortlessly typing away on his computer as he completes his own blog post.

Tomorrow the blogging bikers ride to Creston B.C. Let's hope that it's not as hot as today, or at least that there aren't any tanker trailers.

Sorry that there are no pictures with this post but a technical problem, which one of the best minds from Saskatchewan is working on, prevents me from uploading pictures from my iPad to this particular blog application.

Kenora to Brandon

A beautiful day for a ride, 24 to 32 degrees and sun.  As the speed limit on much of Highway 1 in Manitoba is 110 kilometres an hour it doesn't take much time to whip by the endless fields on either side of the road.  The wind however can be an issue as it can push you around in your lane.  The advantage of my Beemer is that it is extremely well designed and holds its line very well.

I discovered this interesting dispenser outside of a gas station along the highway in Manitoba. Live Bait, minnows and leeches, cost just $4.00 a container.

Before stopping for lunch in Portage La Prairie, I stopped to visit the Fort La Reine Museum on the outskirts of that city.  There are many buildings that have been moved there from other communities in the region. Each is full of antiques, books and photographs.  In addition to the museum's own excellent collection there were also two very interesting special exhibitions, one on caribou from Quebec, and a second on the life of Anne Frank on loan from The Netherlands.

This is one of the oldest houses that has been resettled on the museum's grounds

An icebox, like the one sunk in Lake of Bays?

And what housewife would not have wanted one of these modern clothes washing tubs

You could interrupt the daily chores to take a call on your new phone

In the huge Allis-Chalmers building a great collection of tractors and other farm implements including this 1934 Model "U"

A steel-wheeled 1937 Model "U"

A 1926 Model 18-30.

This is the traders cabin in the fort.

An orthodox church that was moved and completely refurbished by members of the local Ukrainian community.

A classroom with tables and seats just like the ones in the first school I attended in Coniston, Ontario

The inside of the grocery store with shelves full of packaged goods.

I arrived at my motel in Brandon around 5:00 and went out for dinner at a Chinese buffet restaurant a few doors away.

Tomorrow it's on to Moose Jaw and I hope you can be there to see what surprise awaits me there.

Wawa to Kenora

Two days of riding that could not be more different one from the other. Saturday's ride from Wawa to Thunder Bay was essentially all in the rain and the temperature which started at 15 degrees slowly drifted down to 11.5 by the time I stopped for lunch in Marathon; it then rose to 24 and was back down to 15 degrees when I rode into the Hampton Inn in Thunder Bay. there was not too much incentive to stop to admire the scenery along the way but I did take the following pictures during one of the few breaks in the rain.

AS I did not want to ride into the city, I had dinner at Timber Restaurant in the Valhalla Inn next door to the Hampton Inn. It consisted of a full rack of cajun spice dry rubbed baby back ribs with mashed potatoes and delicious roasted squash, and a nice glass of Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon.  To my delight both the service and the meal were excellent.

Today's colours were blue, the sky; different shades of green, the grass, the pines and other trees; gray, the rock cuts (though they are often streaked black, slate and pink), and the highway; and silver, the dozens of lakes, large and small on either side of the highway, that sparkle like diamonds in the sunlight and mirror the deep blue of the sky.  How great to ride kilometre after kilometre in mid-20's heat and in the sunshine.

I arrived in Kenora early this afternoon and after unpacking and changing clothes I rode to an early dinner, a burger, salad and a house brewed Sultana Lager at the Lake of the Woods Brewing Company.  The brewery, beer shop and restaurant are located in what used to be the city's fire station.

Pictures for the last two days

And the journey begins, see how clean the motorcycle is; that won't last

Larry's Chip Stand in Sturgeon Falls; there since 1953.

The commemorative memorial erected for the 400th anniversary of Jacques Cartier`s discovery of what was later to be called Canada..

"Picking" wild flowers at a lookout along Lake Superior.

A souvenir for Alexandra, our Wawa.

And for my other granddaughter a flock of Wawa geese:

1- on the roof of a motel:

2- the original

3 - the new one next to the visitors information centre:

With apologies

Sorry for not having posted yet. There was no wifi signal in the second room I was in at the motel I stayed at last night.  I gave up the first room after the lady at reception desk came to ask if I would do so to accommodate a family that needed more beds. So I told a room with a king size bed instead of two queens and lost wifi coverage and a cable/tv combo that worked.  Well that meant early to bed.

I left Orléans at around 8:30 just as the sun was burning through an early morning cloud cover.  As the weather was perfect for riding and since there was a total absence of roadwork, a first for me on this stretch of Highway 17, I made it to Sturgeon Falls for lunch.  I stopped at one of, if not the, finest dining venues there.  Larry's Chip Stand has been in business since 1953, and I bet I've been going there since shortly after that. Right next to the chip stand is a monument, a stone cross in effect, dedicated to Jacques Cartier -"DÉCOUVREUR DU CANADA 1534-1934". One has to wonder why this monument is there. Was it erected by some homesick settler from Gaspésie, like my parents, as it bears a striking resemblance on a somewhat smaller scale to the cross in Gaspé that marks the spot where Cartier erected a wood cross in 1534?

After visiting my father and mother's gravesite I had a great dinner with my young brother, Jean-Yves, his wonderful wife Candace, and my beautiful niece Tanya. Their home is conveniently located very close to the route that I take as I head west.  I am hoping to drop in on my older brother in Garson on my return trip.

Yesterday was another great day for riding; the sun was shining and the temperature, between 18 next  to Lake Superior and as high as 25 in the interior, was ideal.  Again there was little road construction and that which there was west of Sault Ste-Marie hardly slowed down the trip.  Lake Superior along which Highway 17 runs for long stretches is the largest fresh water body in the world, and holds 10 per cent of the planet's fresh surface water.  It is an amazing body of water and its shoreline of rocky coves and cliffs, and sand beaches is truly impressive. I chatted with a couple from Wyoming who were circumnavigating the whole lake, he on a 2003 BMW, and she in a sidecar that he had purchased three years ago.  I can't imagine how sitting in a plexiglass covered mini tub attached to a speeding motorcycle could be fun. But she, a quiet diminutive woman,  professed that she liked it, especially since with their Bluetooth enabled helmets she and her husband were able to communicate constantly.

I arrived in Wawa (you've got to love a town that has the same name as your granddaughter, and has 3 huge geese statues)  around 4:30.  After finding the Mystic Isle Motel, unpacking and changing out of my riding gear, I walked across the highway and had dinner at "Best Northern Restaurant". I personally cannot confirm the claim of "Best" but the fresh pickerel on a bed of wilted spinach with matched potatoes, cauliflower and two small helpings of cabbage salad, ore purple and the other green, was very good; and the cold Tyskie, a Polish beer, was pretty fine.

This morning it's off to Thunder Bay. I hope to sort out the computer/camera situation so that I can include pictures in my next posts.

2017 Sesquicentennial Celebration Ride

What could be more appropriate to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday then to ride across a huge chunk of the country on a motorcycle this summer.  This year's route will take me across Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. While my current destination is Central British Columbia, the situation with regard to forest fires there may dictate changes to the route I take north through the interior. OK, I hear some of you, a subset of the larger group that are thinking it, say that this plan is crazy. While I'll admit that it's different, that's as far as I'll go on the subject for now. For the sake of transparency, I should add that the decision to steer clear of the United States for the foreseeable future (let's say 4 years - heaven forbid 8) has an impact of possible itineraries and destinations.

I any event my bags are packed, and I and the motorcycle, that has close to 165,000 kilometres on it and is clean and fueled, are ready to go. Jane and I are going to the RedBlacks game tonight where our team is looking for its first 2017 regular season win against the Montreal Alouettes. Departure from home is Thursday morning.

As in past years I will post updates with pictures on a regular basis and also put stuff on my Facebook page. I welcome comments from all.

I hope you are all having a great summer.