Football Card

Kamloops to Edmonton is about 800Km. 800km on a motorcycle - especially for a passenger on a sportsbike - is really about 1100km. Kenda knew that going into the trip. I knew that she knew that, and I admire her for even agreeing to attempt it.

It was a pretty cool (sunny) start and we stopped in Clearwater to get some warmth back in our hands. A lot of the ride to that point is in the shadows. It's killer scenery all the way to Edmonton, and the highways were quiet. We stopped at Mount Terry Fox Park for a well deserved break just to chill for a little bit. We stopped an hour later for lunch in Jasper. We were getting pretty sore at that point. We were staying in Hinton for the night, and we cruised the rest of the way there - finally onto a four line highway. We spent a lot of time in the hottub that night and enjoyed stretching out :)

We headed out the next morning and promptly saw a deer get smoked by a huge semi. It was pretty gory... Thankfully it wasn't us. We pulled into our hotel three hours later after my first ride through downtown Edmonton. It was piece of cake - and a thrill to be able to ride there with my gal on the back.

Unlike the day before - the ride towards home was crazy wet. I have rain gear - but Kenda does not and she got crazy wet on our short ride to her aunt and uncle's house in Spruce Grove. Wet weather riding on a highway is hard on the riders and the bike. Everything is wet, cold, dirty and sometime terrifying. Thankfully it was a short 40km ride.

The next day was a loooooooong ride back to Sun Peaks for a family reunion. It was sunny and kinda warm. We ended up stopping at Tim Hortons for a hot cup of hot chocolate (for me) and coffee for Kenda. Ick! Coffee, blech :( We bombed it all the way to Mount Terry Fox for lunch and enjoyed Mount Robson in the background. We could see the top, which is quite rare. We saddled up and bolted for Sun Peaks.

We made good time at a pretty enjoyable speed (heh heh), although we were stopping every hour towards the end to stretch, and both of our Ipods were out of juice. Kenda became a true motorcyclist on this trip. She became a pretzel, and she was nailed in the head by a bird at full speed. I get nailed by birds a lot on my travels. Anyways - her helmet had bird blood and guts on it for a week after. Poor kid.

We chilled at the reunion for three hours and headed down the mountain in the dark... with tinted visors on. Easily the most dangerous part of the whole trip - 60kms from home. Home safe and sound - and sore. Needless to say, I was back onthe bike the next day :)