I’ve been on the saddle for 929Km today. That’s my new record on a motorcycle, or in a car; for a matter of fact, in a single day. The original tentative final destination of the day was to spend the night in Wolseley, SK. However, since the prairies are straight and flat, with not much to see, I didn’t book any rooms in advance, as I thought I might be able to ride a little longer towards the end of the day, and perhaps spend the night in one of four towns that are 25Km, 50Km, 75Km and 125Km East of Wolseley, SK. Finally, I’m spending the night in Whitewood, SK. And I didn’t have much choice, I’ll explain later!
In the morning (late start!), before leaving; I swung by downtown Calgary, to snap a couple of shots, I fueled up, then off I went.
Once I got on the Trans-Canada Highway, I encountered relatively little traffic, and it’s straight and flat as far as I can see (most of the time). So, I slowly start to increase my speed, while keeping an eye for radar traps, in particular when approaching or leaving small towns. At one point, I did pass by what appeared to by a white cruiser parked on the side of the road, so I immediately slowed down. I thought the cop surely would have clocked me already. However, as I passed by, I didn’t see the old red & blue in my mirrors. That’s two cops dodged so far, since the start of the trip three days ago! Anyways, I continued ahead, and started to speed again. Later, while I was riding and enjoying the time I’d be saving, because of the extra speed, my bike tells me that I must switch to the reserve fuel! I’m like crap! As I would be ~100Km short on my regular tank mileage. Nevertheless, I switch the lever to “reserve”, and as I started looking for the nearest fuel station on my GPS, I see in my mirror what seems to be a black sweater or something in my side rear view mirrors. I found that odd, as I didn’t recall passing anything on the road. Then I guess that sweater must’ve fallen from my luggage. Again, I found that odd as all my tail & saddle bags are zipped, and have rain covers on them, and its unlikely that even if they got undone, only one item of clothing would fall, nevertheless I started to slow down, and what do I saw in the side rear view mirrors, one of my 2 1.5L spare fuel red bottles hits the road! Luckily, the vehicles behind me were quite far, and the bottle rolled to the side of the highway into the ditch! I stopped on the side of the highway, I looked at my saddle bags, and realized what had happened.
I usually put the rain covers on my saddle, tank & tail bags, even if there’s no rain; for three reasons: I won’t waste precious space by storing the rain covers inside my luggage. If it starts to rain, I won’t have to stop on the side of the road to put the rain covers on my bags. And lastly, the rain covers also help protect my luggage from dirt, dust and sand from getting inside my soft cases. So, what has happened is that those rubber (elastic) bound, fitted rain covers came off. This has never happened to me before, well because I never rode at such high speeds on previous trips, as I was doing today. So, I walked back ~100ft, and grabbed the rain cover. I started looking around for the red spare fuel bottle (which I didn’t see get damaged in the fall in my mirror) but I couldn’t find it! I start walking up and down the highway covering distances of ~200ft, on both sides of the highway. The ditch had very long grass, and some sections were filled with water. Being very low on fuel, and that the one spare fuel bottle left won’t be enough to get me to the next fuel station, I was determined to find that lost spare red fuel bottle. As I would walk up and down, the moment I would see something red, I would think that I’ve found it. But no, it would be either a coke can, a cigarette pack, or some other junk. Finally, I found it. I inspected the bottle, and even though the bottle sustained some damage from the fall at high speeds, it was still functional. The cap was not broken, and there were no leaks. I head back to the bike, empty both fuel bottles in my tank. I grabbed a cargo/bungee net I had, and placed it over one saddle bag (so to not get a repeat of the incident). I had some rubber bands, so I used them to secure the bottle & cover rain on the second saddle bag, hoping for this solution to hold until I make my pit stop in Montreal in a few days, where I would buy another cargo/bungee net. What I’ve learned from this incident: If you drop something on the highway, as you’re coming to a stop, keep an eye on the object in question to see which side of the highway it rolled towards (left or right), as this would cut your search time in half. Also, try to see if there’s some land mark (or anything) that might help your get a rough idea of where the object fell. As I was about to take off (to the next fuel station), I noticed that I had forgotten to turn on my GoPro camera mounted on my bike in the morning! I have been recording all the way on my trip, hoping to edit some montage, someday after I complete my cross-Canada trip!
I got to the fuel station, I filled up the tank and the two spare fuel bottles. I was trying to keep myself calm, as I had a late start, wasted time when I dropped the fuel bottle, and it was getting freaking hot!
As I passed through Medicine Hat, AB, I took some shots of the world’s tallest teepee. At this point it was ~1PM, and I was a couple of hours late on my schedule!
Not too far after, I rode into Saskatchewan. I stopped at the small rest area, to take a shot of the sign (and with my bike in front of it), and to remove the jacket liner I was wearing, as it was really hot! Now, my Bluetooth headset is a little different; that it has wired headphones. This allows me to have the Bluetooth module somewhere on me, while still being able to use the wired headphones under my helmet. As I was removing my jacket, I had forgotten that the Bluetooth module was still clipped to the inside of my jack, and that I still had the headphone mounted in my ears. So, the little spring holding the clip onto the Bluetooth module goes flying and lands somewhere! Crap! Today is not a good day!
So, now again I found myself searching for a lost item. The little spring is ~0.5cm in size. As I’m busy looking for it, a family (SUV) stops in that rest area also to take pictures of the Saskatchewan sign. However, I was so focused in my search I didn’t realize that they were too shy to ask me to move, so that they can take some pictures. It’s when they got back into their car (after walking around, and me unable to take a hint!) I said to myself “that’s funny why did they stop here, and not take a picture in front of the sign?” DUH! I felt so stupid, as I called on them, and started moving my bike and myself out of the way! Anyways, they took their pictures, go their way, and I go back to looking for that darn spring! Again, a couple of young ladies stop for some pictures. They asked me to snap some for them, then they asked me what am I looking for. I explained, and they started helping me look for it. I urged them not to waste their time! They wished me good luck, and off they went. Sometime later, I managed to find the stupid spring, I placed it back where it belongs, I removed the jacket liner, took some more photos, and off to Regina, SK I went.
While on my way to Regina, SK, I made a fuel stop somewhere. As I was fueling up, I saw another rider grab the squeegee (used for cleaning cars’ windshield) and just rub it against his helmet’s shield/visor! I was like “whoa!”, wondering to myself how could he do that? Risking scratching the shield/visor. Well, let me tell you why he did that. Later during the afternoon, as I rode through Saskatchewan, one would go through a shit load of gigantic flies, mosquitoes and all sort of bugs! There was this giant bug that hit me in the helmet, and my head swung back a little from impact! By the time I stopped for my next fuel-up, I too grabbed that squeegee and started rubbing off the dozens of bug splattered across my shield/visor!
I reached Regina, SK ~6PM. I hadn’t had lunch yet. I was hungry and tired (of the mishaps of the day, not to mention the bugs!). I headed towards downtown, looking for a quick bite. Most places seemed be closed for the day. So, I did a little ride around downtown, and off to my destination of the day I went.
Now before the start of my cross-Canada trip, I had already booked all my hotels for the duration of the trip, with the exception of three days/places, where I thought I might be able to do a little more riding in those days, as the roads were straight and with nothing much to see around. The first of those three places was in this stretch of the Prairies. Even though I hadn’t made any bookings, I still had with me a map/listing of the motels/hotels within ~100Km of the final stop area. Initially, I had planned to spend the night in Wolseley, SK. However, as I got closer to that town, I figured I still had enough time before sunset, and that I could make it to the next town over to Grenfell, SK. Now, Grenfell is a very small town. As I was riding through the town, everybody would be staring at me. I went to the first of two motels in that town, and they had no vacancy. I went to the second motel and it was a very shady bar-restaurant-motel place, with loud drunk people outside. No way! Now, it was getting dark, and my visor was full of bugs. I turned around, and I headed towards Broadview, SK ~25Km East.
I got to Broadview, SK, and again it’s a very small town, with both motels in this town being shady restaurant/bar motels. There were some teenage girls outside the motel that asked me if I’m looking for a room to stay. I said yes, regretfully. After which she attempts to call someone over her cell phone, so that they can come and show me the room. During which I tell her, to not worry about it, and that I’ll head to the next town over. There was no way I would have spent the night there! I got back to the bike, and I hurriedly swapped my visor with my clear one; for night riding as the first visor was dark-tinted and full of bugs, with only a very small clean area left that I was able to see through (all this while a bunch of teenage girls talking loud, where one of the girls crying and another telling her that “he doesn’t deserve you. You’re better than him. He’s just jealous ’cause you’re pretty” outside that bar/motel!). I got on my bike and headed to Whitewood, SK, ~25Km East. When I got to Whitewood, I went to the first of two motels. The first had no vacancy! So, I headed to the second one; hoping they would have a room. They did! I got the last room. I got into my room (where I’m sitting now) and it stinks of vomit. It was late, dark, and the next town over is 50Km away, so I decided to stay! Someone previously obviously got sick on the carpet. Even though they cleaned it, it still smelled very nauseating! There were multiple fans in the room to help clear the stench. After I got all my gear & luggage to my room, and having cleaned my helmet, jacket and shields/visors from the dead bugs, I headed downstairs to get a small bag of chips and a bottle of fruit juice. That would be my only meal for the whole day!
This was indeed a very long day, and not so much fun! While researching for this trip on several motorcycle forums, people have warned that going through the Prairies is hot, boring, and filled with bugs! And that you’d want to go through it as fast as you can. And that you’d never want to go back through it again. They were right! I’m glad that I got most of it done, with a little bit left for tomorrow.
Today’s expenses were $69.03 for fuel, $5.00 for food, and $87.95 for lodging. The motel was acceptable, if it wasn’t for the vomit smell. If I’m ever passing through this area again, I would plan to spend the night in Moosomin, SK, which would have been my last option for the night, had it not been late/dark, and that I hadn’t had a meal for the whole day, and that it was ~50Km away. Then again, what would’ve guaranteed me a room once I’d’ve gotten to Moosomin, SK! Moosomin, SK is a bigger town, with wider selection of motel/hotels though!
I hope tomorrow is a better day!
