CA99 a new favorite road

Leaving Cache Creek in the A.M. we take Canada Hwy 99 towards Whistler. I now have a new favorite road. It is a great motorcycle road all the way until just before Whistler.

 They have a weird way of mining. They cut away at the mountain from the outside.

 The canyons are beautiful before you get into the Mountains.

 Right in this area, a couple of sport bikes went screaming past us. I was up for a little playing, so I took after them. We had a great time for about 10 miles. They kept looking back, not believing a full dress tourer could keep up with them. I had the radio cranked up and was having a great time. After a while, I stopped to let the others catch up. 

 All the bridges in the area are wood decks. Not a great thing on a wet day.

 A stop at Lillooet for a picture

 Getting out of the dry and into the mountains

 Following the river

Beautiful Duffy Lake

 Great riding!

 We stopped at Whistler towne center for lunch.

 We stopped at Shannon falls for a picture

 Almost down to sea level again.

 The toll bridge in Vancouver. We got off of Hwy 1 and went through Stanley park. What a mistake! Traffic was aweful. We finally just stopped in the China area of town and had a great Chinese dinner. By the time we were done the traffic was no better. There was something going on in the arena and the whole area was packed solid.

We finally got away from there and went south to Surrey and stopped at the Comfort Inn for the night.
Tomorrow morning we head for home. It is time. We are tired and really miss the dogs.

Thank you for following! It was a great trip but a long one.

Exploring and west through the Rockies

This 4th of July morning Lori and went exploring. We wandered back towards Calgary a bit and headed south into the mountains. We wanted to see Kananaski village where the 1988 Winter Olympics were held. It is a beautiful place, but it was hit hard by the recent floods. Some of the roads were washed out and there was a lot of construction, but it is still a beautiful area. They are not real busy with the main hwy by them closed, but they will recover.

 There is a nice little wishing well along the hwy on the way out. We stopped for a minute as it was right by a small waterfall called O'shaunessy Falls and there was a nice bench placed there to relax.

After this we headed into Banff for lunch and Lori has a favorite little jewelry store there she has to stop in everytime we are in town.

We saw a lot of animals in the area. They are displaced because of all the flooding.

Leaving Banff we headed back to the room to relax and wait for John and Gina to arrive. When they got in, we wandered back into Canmore for dinner then to bed. We have a lot of miles to make Friday...

Leaving Canmore this morning we headed west. We wanted to make as many miles as we could towards Whistler. Lori has this bug, and I am OK with that. It is a nice area. 

There is not a lot to report about the ride, but I did take a couple of hundred pictures, so I will just let them tell the story for me. The Canadian Rockies and beyond;

Through Calgary and into Canmore

Leaving Medicine Hat after a very pleasant evening at the Imperial Inn, we headed west at a leisurely pace as we only had about 250 miles to go to get to Calgary where we had planned to spend the night. The highway is about like the last two days in that there is not a lot to see. 

We did pass one sign that I was tempted to stop and take a picture. I figured you could visualize it well enough so I didn’t. Picture this; Straight highway ahead and behind you, not a bend in sight. Grass fields all around you, and nothing else to see except maybe an occasional passing vehicle. No tree’s, or building’s and just one small black smudge on the horizon that I believe was an oil pump, but I can’t be sure it is so far away. Now along the side of the highway is this big yellow sign saying  “Rural Crime Prevention Area”

Say What???  What do they think is going to happen out here?  

By the time we got into Calgary the temperature on the dash of my bike was bouncing between 99 and 100 degree’s. We were cooking! The skin on my arms is a nice golden brown, kind of what you are looking for on the Thanksgiving Turkey to know it is about done. I was done and I know Lori was worse off. She does not do well in heat at all. We got checked in and just crashed on the bed for a while to try and get cooled back down.

After the sun did a high dive over the horizon we went out for dinner. About 1 block from our motel was a fish place called Joey’s that had a reputation for good fish and chips. Seeing as it was Tuesday and they had all you can eat that night we wandered in. They were right, the fish was outstanding. Lori and both ate our fill and left there in a painful condition. Too much good food…

We slept in this morning because we were going to stop at Calaway Park (amusement park) and they didn’t open until 10 and it was only 8 miles west of town.

If you are ever in the area with kids, it is a must stop. It is big enough to have fun and small enough to let the kids go by themselves and there are enough activities to keep them entertained for the day. Lori and I wandered around for a while and watched a show and a magician and had a good time watching all the kids. We stayed for lunch and then got back on the bikes and drove into Canmore. We are staying here for two nights waiting for John and Gina to meet us.

It was so nice to leave the plains and start to see mountains again. That means we are getting closer to home...

We ate dinner at a Boston Pizza and that is a first for us. The pizza was great! It had a thin sourdough crust and was very tasty. The only bad thing is that the whole town is under a boil water alert because of all the flooding last week and the high water tables. That means no soda from the tap and no ice either. I made do with an ice cold Beer. LOL…

We are staying at a place called Rundle Mountain Lodge and they have wooden duplex cabins that are real interesting. It is cooling down now and it is pleasant outside. We are going to go outside and watch the world go by from the couples swing. A nice evening…

Until later… :-)