June 25th, 2005

By popular demand of a multitude (well, no one really but to pull Allen's chain and the fact that no one took any pictures today) I am featuring more detailed pictures of my "Mad Max Meets Bavaria" industrial strength home made (clearly) but incredibly effective hand grips. Please note the clean but purposeful lines, the economy of design, the manly substance of the materials and most of all, the dead bugs, proof of their efficiency and need. Why, I don't know ANY self respecting adventure rider that wouldn't be button popping proud to have a set of these on his or her bike. Proof positive that the person with these guards is no poseur'. I may not have a microwave, refridgerator or a Dali print on my bike, I do have "killer" handguards. Allen, envy is a poison, I'll make you a set when we get home.

Today we head to the southeast on the way to the crossroad of our trip in Canada, Prince George. In Canada we are doing sort of a crazy eight pattern. Going up we crossed the border at Cascade and went up the west side of the lower part of the eight to Prince George, where I got my new tire, and then headed northeast up to Chetwin, then on to the Alcan and headed north west to Watson Lake and beyond. Coming back, we came down the Cassiar Hwy on the top left side of the figure eight and are today headed through Prince George to then start the eastern side of the bottom of the eight. (Clear as mud huh.)

Before we left we met the owner of our motel in Burns Lake, Kim Tran, who is Vietnamese and has a facinating story. He wasn't able to get out of Vietnam before the closure and so built his own boat and took off. He suffered incredible abuse and threats from pirates and various countries in S.E. Asia before he was allowed to immigrate to Canada. He now owns two motels, a restaurant and is building another motel in Smithers. He has sponsored over 100 family members to come to Canada, most of whom live in Vancouver. Just a great story and fine individual, one of the reasons that traveling is fun. It gets you out of your rut and you meet new people, most of whom have interesting stories.

We left Burns Lake and went to Prince George ahead of John and Hayne to check out the shops there for parts and help. All the dealers were closed as it was Monday but a peek inside the windows of the KTM dealer showed no 950's so we called John and so advised them that they needed to concentrate on Calgary. It was about noon and they had just rented a truck in Smithers, loaded the bikes and were headed towards us.

When we got gas in Prince George Allen noticed that he had stiky stuff all over his coat and pants. It was like someone had thrown syrup on him, and those of you that know Allen can guess how happy he was. He complained subtely, (ranted) and was really quite the mess. When we went to a NAPA dealer to get some parts he used their bathroom to wash himself and his coat, and now there is a warrant (local, not out of jurisdiction) for him for abuse of restroom facilities. (It's a Canadian thing ;>) Later he figured out that he had some cough drops in the pocket of his coat and while at the car wash in Burns Lake asked me to spray the mud off of him and his coat. The coat pocket was open and there's your syrup. As we left town he had to stop a couple of times to re-rout the cords to his microwave, big screen tv and hot tub that he has on his bike which put him in an even better mood. Frank and I were following and the sight of Allen flailing around all wound up like an over-caffeinated Robin Williams, was so funny we almost fell off our bikes. Tears were streaming down our faces we laughed so hard. (Allen it really will be funny for you,...... someday.)

We had planned to go to Jasper this night but they were all full so we stayed in Mcbride, about 350 mile day. Mcbride is a little railroad community that sits in a very pretty valley flanked on both sides by some very substantial mtns.

The picture above is the one that disappeared from yesterdays post and is for Anthony, as I know that he can't get enough of them. Didn't take any pictures today. Rolling hills, lots of green, and yep, more trees.

I want to mention here that the bags on my bike are Jesse bags and I can't say enough about how good they are. Good looking, solid and tough as nails. These are prototypes (yes, I did pay for them, and this is not an advertisement) and Al, the only suggestion I would make is to brighten up the logo some. I had a bike almost run into me trying to see what kind they are. Lots of really positive feedback. Thanks for pushing to get them done in time for this trip.