51 Days behind bars

Well we're almost home and we have the motorhome in sight. Ha Ha time to think about were we want to go camping. It all worked out great we were out of the campsite by 6:20 am and had breakfast at the Rooster Cafe where we had to do the U-turn to leave Country Maples Campground, they open at 6:30 so that worked out well. It sure is nice going on the ferries with the bike as you go on first and off first. Once we got to Powell River we fueled up and headed for Lund. We needed to see the sign that states that the Highway 101 starts here in Canada and not in the USA as afew people at the Rally were trying to tell us. Yep we found it and it tells of it going from Lund all the way down the Pacific Coast to the tip of Chili. That we never knew. It was sort of a wecome sight to Horseshoe Bay and know that we were only an hour from home after 51 days and 10,887 KMS.

One last shine!

Thanks Dick!! I believe I may have rode too many miles with you and shining up the bike has rubbed off. Oh well that's perhaps a good thing. The weather has been great so no excuses for a dirty bike. We spent a rather leisurely day rode up to Nanaimo this morning and picked up some grommets from the Honda dealer so that our side panel of chrome would stop falling off. Spent a little time in Chemainus and of course made a Timmies run. Later this afternoon we went back into Duncan for another visit with Irene's cousin Sandie. After dinner we will pack most stuff up and be ready to pull out before 7:00 am tomorrow for Comox/ Powell River.

Rode the Pacific Marine Circle Route

Yesterday afternoon we went to visit with Irene's Aunt Joyce and caught up on family news. Then we stopped over and had coffee with cousin Sandy and her family too. She has had a couple of years of bad medical problems which aren't over yet.A biker on the ferry was telling us about the road from Sooke to Port Renfrew and over to Lake Cowichan. He said it was all paved now and that it was a very scenic bike ride so we decided to take it today. The road was in fairly good shape with lots of switch backs and one lane bridges. Being an active logging road from Lake Cowichan to Port Renfrew you had to be on the look out for those BIG guys and of course give them the right away. The total route was 231 kms but it took us 5 1/2 hours with a few stops. We passed a lot of bikes doing the circle tour from the Sooke end. Now we are back at the campsite, relaxing and working on the blog.

Back in BC!!

WOW!! What a great time we had south of the 49. Our reservations on the Blackball Ferry to Victoria sort of got all messed up but in the long run it turned out better for us. When I made the booking they booked us from Victoria to Port Angelas instead of the other way around. They told us that we were on the 7:30 pm sailing as that was all that was available for and to be there Sunday and to be there 1 hour ahead. No problem! When we got to Forks for lunch ( this is where they film the Twilight movie series) I picked up a ferry schedule and noticed that the 7:30 sailing was from Victoria. We phoned the ferries and gave them our confirmation # and they changed it to the 5:15 pm sailing. That was a lot better for us. When we showed up they never knew it was a trike nor did they know we had a trailer. The girl was real nice about it when I told her that we had booked it with a trailer. She charged us for trike only and no trailer about a $10 saving for us. We came through customs in a breeze and drove up to Duncan and took a MOTEL as we were beat and it was 8:30 pm. Time to relax and get caught up with news. Yes we have TV and Internet!!

At Long Last! Found the Internet

Brian Davis sent some "Cocktail Glasses" with us to give to Tom & Pam Knowels. The long and short of it is that we had a fantastic time at our rally in Myers Flat CA. We did a lot of rides around in the Giant Redwoods as well as a ride out to Shelter Cove. We thought the "HILL" to Bella Coola was crazy until we went down this one. The only good thing was that it was paved and only about half the distance. Irene won one of the fifty fifty draws and got $100 AMERICAN, not too bad EH! This the first International US rally we have attended and are looking forward to next year's at John Day, Oregon. Last night we camped at Bandon, Oregon, it was a dump but the price was right $15 for the three of us. Gerry travelled with their friends Ollie and Mary Jane in their car. Dick Carson travelled the Oregon Coast with us to Lincoln City before heading off home to Salem. We appreciated having him with us and we had lunch at Mo's Seafood House at Taft, Oregon. Tonight we are in Chinook, WA just across the Astoria Bridge. Nice campground! Tomorrow we head up to Port Angeles to catch the ferry to Victoria. Will spend a few days on the Island before catching the Comox ferry to Powell River and travelling down the sunshine coast before getting home.

Some time to relax

Today is Friday and we are finding some time to relax and play Seniors jokers and Saskatchewan Rummy. Dick has a funeral to officiate at and wow look at him all dressed up in a suit! Rick got the bike all cleaned and shined. He will get some wax at Wal Mart and really shine up the bike. Going out for dinner with Dick & Jerry today. We hope to be on our way to the Oregon Caves early in the morning with Dick & Jerry and Ollie and Mary Jane.

On to Salem, Oregon

We headed out of Idaho at 8:30 a.m. on a beautiful morning for riding! What scenery, it was just like being on the prairies in Canada for a while. I had the camera and took a picture of a dust tornado, boy was it ever big. We stopped in the tri-city region at the Panda Express for chinese lunch. Continued on until 10 miles west of the Dalles, Oregon and camped in the Melamoose State Park in the Columbia Gorge. Their parks are great with showers and full hook-ups. Had a good sleep. We leisurely got up and left at 9:30 and took Hwy 25 south at Hood River into the Mount Hood National Park. The orchards and grape wineries could match any we see in B.C.The ride was great and with all the nice weather Mt Hood was as clear as a bell. We stopped at Calamity Jane's for lunch and it sure was unique, they even served the Hamburgers in Lodge Cast Iron Fry Pans! We noticed that they were real big so we split one. We arrived at Dick & Jerry's around 2:00 p.m. Rick and Dick are going out to what Jerry refers to as the "old farts coffee clatch". I have got the laundry all caught up once again.

Have you ever been GARNET mining?

What a great day! Vicki packed a picnic lunch and away the four of us were off way out in the country to a forestry site where you dig in a tailing pile, fill buckets, screen your load and then take the rocks and wash them and pick any garnets you might find. Rick and I got three ounces. Boy did we get dirty! It was fun because it was not too hot a day. Then we got to shop at Cabelas on the way back. Now we are heading out to dinner.

Wild Ride to Hayden, Idaho

WIND!! coming into Spokane we got into a dust storm. We thought at first that it may have been some kind of pollution but found out it was dirt and sand being blow around by a huge wind storm that was blowing. We were being hit from the side with 50 MPH gusts. That's 90 KPH and boy does that knock you around. At one point Irene held onto my shoulders just to hold me down! Irene spotted a "Golden Corral" buffet restaurant which we really favoured when we were in Yuma in 2008 so we stopped for lunch. It is still the best for the $'s.
Got to Steve and Vicki's in Hayden around 2:00. Going rock hounding looking for star garnets. More later!

Great day for a ride!

We left this A.M. around 10 full sun in our shirt sleeves bound for Trail and beyond. About 30km's out of Christina Lake we got stopped at some construction for 20 min, boy was it hot sitting on the bike waiting. We turned off onto Hyw 3a to Rossland & Warfield and it was a beautiful ride, you really climb through the Strawberry Pass. We couldn't find any place decent to eat at in Trail so we went on to Castlegar. We had lunch at the Black Rooster Bar & Grill and the food was great. When we left it looked like a few dark clouds were forming in the direction of our travel but we hoped to miss any rain. NOPE!! we ran smack into a hail storm, lightning and all that goes with it. We stopped long enough to get our Frogg Togg jackets on but we were already wet, oh well! By the time we got almost back to camp we had dried off fairly much and then got hit with a rain & wind storm just short of camp. Our friends Mark & Willy had closed up our tent trailer as we had left it all open when we left due to the hot weather. Just another day of biking. Then the four of us walked down for ice cream which was yummy what a treat. And the sun was shining for the walk back to camp.

And the winner was?

We had a great day traveling around with Mark & Willy. We left around 10 am stopped in Grand Forks and went to a thrift store and the farmers market, both were very interesting. Our next stop was Rock Creek for lunch. We were meeting a sales person near Osoyoos who was selling 2-3 acre lots on Ridge Estates. They started at around $140,000 up to about $400,000. A little out of our grasp but then you never know when a lotto might come in. It sure was great to have a look at some of them and to be able to DREAM BIG. It was a time well spent on a Friday afternoon. After coming back to camp we made supper and played cribbage.