Motorcycle Adventures

Our eyes opened to warm sunshine through our window. Off we go for hopefully a great dry ride!

Oh we had a wonderful first day! After dropping off our Keys to our Friends Eryk and Michelle (and seeing his motorcycle) we tried hard to get out of the house quickly.

One of the things we have learned about traveling with motorcycles is that it takes a lot of extra time to get gear on the bike, put on the jackets, layers, gloves, pants, shoes, helmet, connect everything, and then go…

We spent a little bit of time making sure all of our gear was secure on the bikes

We had originally wanted to leave by 10am, but in the end we didn’t make it out until just after 1pm!

Our ride out of Vancouver was uneventful. The morning had been raining on and off, but by the time we left it had stopped, and the sun was making an appearance.

The heavier loads on our bikes didn’t turn out to make any difference to the way our bikes felt. Unfortunately by the time we got to Chilliwack, the rain returned. This time we were prepared, or at least I was. Nicole didn’t put on her Gortex pants, so when we got to the gas station in Hope, she was more than a little wet!

We stopped at a great little Diner in Hope called Darren’s Cafe, and had a nice warm lunch.

It was super windy in Hope! Nicole put on her Gortex pants, drained her boots of water, and on we went.

As we left highway 1 and went on to Highway 3 it became more and more misty and the highway rose higher in altitude. It was quite cold as we went higher up, and it wasn’t long before we saw snow at the side of the road.

The rain continued for a while, mixed with periods of sun and cloud. Eventually, the sun became more frequent than the rain and clouds. Soon we were riding though wonderful sunshine.

The roads were incredible. Almost empty, and perfect roads for riding. Wonderful windy roads in the midst of incredible mountains. It was a wonderful ride.

We decided that we would stop in Princeton for the night, and found a wonderful little motel in the middle of town. It has two rooms and a fridge, a TV with cable, and a DVD player. Its great, and only $65 night.

We had a nice warm bath to thaw, and then went for a little walk around town before going for a great dinner at a little Greek Restaurant. We shared the most amazing Pizza made with goat cheese.

Now we are just about to go to bed – after watching the rest of Finding Nemo of course!

Oh we have had a wonderful day so far!! We have arrived safe and happy in Princeton, and are goimng to go out and explore in the sun!

Weather is not fantastic, and there is a little bit of sprinkling going on, but the roads are drying around here, and we could sit around for the next couple of days debating whether we should go or not… So we had one final talk to see what we thought, and decided to go ahead as planned…

We leave shortly. The bikes are packed and ready to go – just a few final things to wrap up before we leave.

Thanks again to our wonderful friends Erin, MIchelle and Eryk who have so kindly agreed to look after our Kids while we are away… Thank you thank you thank you. We’ll keep you updated as much as possible through this site.

Off we Go… We’ll keep the rubber side down

Well we have gone over the weather for our planned route, looked at the long term forcast, the trends, and everything is still a GO for tomorrow morning!!!

There are lots of things that still need to be prepped today and tomorrow morning, so it will be a busy day time until we leave.

Nicole’s new topcase has finally been installed. It looks fantastic. Now we are set!!

My bungee Pegs fit perfectly and will help keep thibgs secure when we go camping.

I’m excited to pick up my Bungee Pegs today.  Suzuki had originally ordered the wrong ones, but the new ones are now at the dealership for me to pick up.  It will be a little bit nicer to use these to tie things to the back of my bike.

It was our first day long ride together, and we decided to go to Merritt BC, where Nicole’s parents have a new piece of property they are building a house on. The weather was wonderful and warm, and although we had intended to leave early, around 9:45am, by the time we really got going it was 11am…

Merritt is about 250kms from New Westminster, and takes the number 1 highway to hope, and then the number 5 Coquihalla Highway (toll highway) to Merritt.

I had remembered there being many places to stop and rest of the Coquihalla, so one of my goals for the day was to stop at a beautiful lookout and take a great photo of Nicole and I and our bikes.

We stopped for fuel and lunch in Chilliwack (White Spot – our Favorite) and then continued on. The sun was shining, barley a cloud in the sky, and the weather was pleasantly warm without being too hot. To Coquihalla was much more pleasant than I had remembered when driving it by car. Normally it’s quite a boring highway by car, but we really enjoyed the ride. Although it’s not a twisty highway by any definition, it is surrounded by beautiful landscape, and it’s an easy ride with wide lanes and often 6 lanes accross, we could go at any speed we wanted easily without slowing down traffic or feeling like we were going to slow. It was, looking back on it, also a great highway for us to go on our first long ride with our new bikes.

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Yay, we just got news that our close friends have been able to get their bike back on the road… Today our friend Eryk went for a road test and everything works well – so now some new parts that need replacing and then they can join us on the road! We are very excited… I’m looking forward to having another riding buddy as well, even if Nicole and Michelle don’t join us!