Day 16
May 30th 2004
I had a feeling it might be a good day when one of the first things to happen to me was to find a $ 20 bill in the hotel. I was thinking about returning it to the front desk, but then I got into the 'finders keepers' mood. The Calgary sky was overcast but dry. Off to the south I could actually see some blue ! Imagine that !
About an hour into the ride, I was so thrilled that I just had to take this picture
Just look at that ! Nice blue sky ! It has really been a long time since I've seen this. Might it be an actual day without rain ? Let's cut to the chase and say 'Yes' right away. But before we rejoice, there's more to it than that, but I'm saving it for later...
I'm sure glad I don't live in the prairies. All the roads are flat, straight and featureless. Not the greatest qualities for motorcycling. About 3 hours into the ride I got to the US border. This was one of my easiest border crossings yet. The guy didn't even ask to see my ID, just asked where I was from and where I was going and a few questions about firearms, alcohol and tobacco. too easy.
After starting out in Montana, mountains came into view after an hour or so. So did rain clouds. By some miracle, my route escaped showers all the way until Yellowstone. At one point, I was surrounded by rain clouds but remained dry.
As I was making good time (with Montana's 75 mph speed limits), I decided that after I got to the hotel I'd go for a little loop ride through some mountain passes that surround West Yellowstone. After all, today's distance was less than 1 000 km. Too easy.
Shortly after this picture was taken, it started to snow. Quite lightly at first but the nearer I got to West Yellowstone the heavier the snow was. It never accumulated on the roads, so it was never dangerous, but the weather conditions as I got into town could best be described as "snow, with blowing snow".
I asked some locals if this was normal, and they said no, we were about 10 degrees below average. Great. West Yellowstone is at an altitude of about 6 000 feet so it is cooler here than in other places. So much for my explorations of mountain passes tonight. Oh well, the hotel that I'm staying at has a coin-operated washer and dryer, so I'll do some laundry tonight and take it easy. This will be the first time that I do laundry during this trip. I've been wearing mainly my running clothes under my suit, so most fabrics are dryfit, so they don't get too stinky.
I think my body has finally adjusted to this lifestyle. I'm functioning well on about 6 hours sleep per night, and all the different parts of my body that were complaining have stopped doing so. The full list from the beginning includes: Numbness in hands, toes, buttocks, pressure sores (at first I thought they were infections) in both ears from the earplugs (both ears were bleeding a bit a week or so ago), and pain in hands (skin and joints). I now have nice callosities from the handgrips. All is well now, and I feel that my body could continue on like this until the money ran out.
I'm now back to the route that I had originally planned. These last few days might not have been the best quality, as the main goal was to "reach Alaska". Beginning tomorrow, I'm hoping for for a bit more cool stuff. I still have a full day of 'Flex Time' remaining, and if I don't need it, I may return home on Friday instead of Saturday, to give me a bit more time to wind down before starting work on Monday.
The weather forecast for tomorrow is a bit more optimistic. It should be warmer and dryer, but I'll believe it when I see it.
Day Stats:
Total Distance: 953 km (Calgary, Alberta to West Yellowstone, Montana)
Total Time: 9 h 06 minutes
Overall Average 101.7 km / h