Can't Eclipse the American Spirit

Thanks to Frank Bruni of the New York Times for this post's title.

Target destination: My sister Carol's place, Calgary
Distance today: 314.1 km
Maximum speed: 138 kph
Moving average speed: 109 kph
Temperature range: 20.2C - 26.8C (but over 25 when we left home and the peak temperature was Calgary.

As per usual, days and hours before our motorcycle trip departures, it's a gong show of getting things done. This time, it wasn't about fixing the bike because I did that in the last hours before the last trip, though I did manage to get the rear brake lights to work last weekend. My task the night before last was to get the software updated on our Bluetooth communicators but also, to get them to communicate with the GPS device. It seems they were mad at each other because they weren't communicating at all, a bad sign indeed. As it turns out, just like for everybody else, finding a compromise is a solution to getting everybody happy again and despite the assistance from Garmin, which was to wipe the memory clean on the GPS and re-download it, import all my saved addresses and prior trip data, I managed a work-around and we are all one big happy family again. In the middle of trying to solve this problem, Nan calls me downstairs and says she is trying to watch a movie while she packs her pannier: the screen is green and not much else. Now, with no disrespect to my dear and loving wife, these things always seem to happen when SHE is operating the equipment. What a coincidence. This is of course particularly bad timing because we want our collection of Star Trek shows and movies, Star Wars and Alien(s) to be available to our dog sitter.

Had the bike fully loaded Wednesday night, including all paraphernalia like tent, sleeping bags etc strapped onto the sides, though this came at the expense of our one, lone water bottle. This concerns me because the forecast is for the low to mid 30s the next few days and we don't want to expire or faint while riding. We do have a big Platypus water bag for the campgrounds but I think we need something on the bike. Nan keeps telling me we will just have to take our rest stops at places that sell water but I am looking for a solution to storing water on the bike while riding.

I just checked online at MEC and they have sleeves for water bottles, so we could actually strap the sleeves to the tie-down straps on the gear.

Finally got away from the office at 2:00 p.m., after waiting for my car to be released from the hail storm repair factory. After my car was damaged in the bad storm July 23rd, the auto-body place insisted my car would be ready before our Thursday departure. Seemed they were correct, but only because we couldn't leave until I got the car back. We had targeted a 2:00 p.m departure from home, so that we could make my sis's place in time for a fabulous dinner, so it was a close call.

This is the fullest we have had the bike loaded for any trip. Increasingly, we are about the notion of additional storage, though we will see after this trip. The bike is packed and Nan has taken to calling it the "poor woman's Goldwing", since she is nestled into her cozy spot behind me.

The cozy spot.

We didn't bother to weigh the bike this time but it would be heavier than the last trip. Inside the panniers, we have stuff packed in Ziploc bags with the air squeezed out; this is great for compressing anything soft, though it does leave some gaps.  I was struggling to get my shaving kit to fit in MY pannier and I ended up taking out all the contents, distributing them between two small Ziploc bags, and fitting them into the little spaces. I also had to make sure I brought only my smallest underwear. Both pair. KIDDING!

OK, I think we know what's in the blue bag with the shoes painted on the side, NANETTE.  And, nice lunch bag!

Arrived at Carol's place around 7:20 p.m., so we made good time. To no surprise, she had a fabulous meal laid out and we had the pleasure of being joined by our nephew James, youngest son of my oldest brother Rob. Carol had lamb t-bones marinating,  Caesar salad with home made croutons and gnocchi.  But the rhubarb pie. Check this out:

Now, if you use your imagination, you will see that the stem vents in the top of the pie form a quite distinct Harley shape with a sissy bar and on it's centre stand. She told me it was a Fat Boy but to be honest, I am not sure she can make the distinction since it wasn't abundantly clear to her that we ride a Honda sport tourer. But nice thought, Carol. Thanks.

I had particularly good news Tuesday morning. In my email inbox was a REMINDER that I had a hotel reservation in Ontario, Oregon for Sunday and Monday nights, book-ending eclipse day. I don't normally have too much paranoia of such things however, given that I made the reservation two years ago, there would have been ample opportunity to "lose" that reservation. Apparently, some hotels (in Oregon) HAVE been losing reservations and re-booking those rooms at astronomical prices (no pun intended. Well, not really). I did actually phone them in the early summer and ask them if they remembered me, and they did, but I was happy getting a reminder in the mail.

In that vein, you might remember from the Preamble the note about how motel prices have found ways to go up for next week. In my daily news feed I came across this article from the Times describing the entrepreneurial American spirit.

Situated on a busy thoroughfare and oh so romantically named, the 1^st Interstate Motel in Casper, Wyo., could stand improvement. Eight of its nine reviewer on Trip Advisor gave it the lowest rating possible and they weren’t shy about their reasons. “Absolutely filthy.” “Two empty liquor bottles under the bed.” “Foul smell.” “Horrible smell.” “Hell hole.”

But you can snag a room this coming Sunday and Monday for only U.S. $1,211 a night, according to my recent search on hotels.com.

It's a great, if brief, read. Find it here!