Motorcycle Adventures

After putting out the camp fire last night we went to bed. It was chilly, but we didn’t feel too cold. By the time we woke up in the middle of the night we were freezing! The rest if the night sleep was
spotty.

We think that the overnight temp was probably somewhere around 5 degrees – a little cold for camping! At least too cold for our gear.

I got up at 5am, and went to the wash house to take a hot shower, only there was no hot water! As it turns out, the plumber was there the night before, and forgot to turn the hot water back on!

I climbed back into bed, we put our sleeping bags together for warmth, and we were able to sleep until 8am.

I had emailed Mary on the morning to ask about the hot water, and by the time we got up again, there was hot water! Yay!

Well with it raining all night, and after our cold night, we decided it was time to go into town and find a motel. Mary was very kind and let us keep our tent and gear set up at the campsite while we went into town to get some warmth.  We told her we would return in a day or two. I had emailed all the motels during the night to see about price, and so we had an idea of what we needed to pay and where to avoid.

After a wet ride into town, and a stop at the Nelson Information office, we found the Alpine Motel. Its a wonderful place, just out side the center if town. We have a wonderful clean room, with a kitchenette,
and parking for our bikes just outside the door. We also gave wireless internet, which is great for a little Internet browsing on my itouch.

After a hot bath we went into town to find a place to eat. We found the most wonderful place called the Red Fish Cafe. The food is fantastic, and we can eat almost everything on the menu.

We are totally enchanted with Nelson! What an amazing place. Its clean, super friendly, beautiful location, and has great shopping. Its just big enough to have a lot of the stores you would find in a big city, but in a wonderful little package. We are enjoying it so much that we are talking about the possibility of moving here in the future. Prices are not totally cheap, but for the price of our place, we could buy a nice house with a big lot.

After lunch we walked around, bought a couple things from Save On Foods and Walmart, and then went back to have a nap.

We just got home from another wonderful meal and a walk. Time for a bit of TV before bed.

We will stay here another night as weather us supposed to get better on Wednesday. It will be great to explore Nelson more tomorrow.

Our night in Princeton was uneventful. We enjoyed watching TV – it was terrible, but as we don’t have cable, even the ads are entertaining.

We slept well. I got up early as I often do, had a relaxing bath, and got ready. Nicole got up not too much later. We had our leftover pizza for breakfast, loaded our bikes, and off we went.

Mother nature was a little confused. We had a random offering of beautiful sunshine with clear sky, light and heavy rain at times, but always just for a few minutes, and temperatures that went from as low
as 12 degrees, and as high as 25!

Its interesting riding though the mountains – each area has its own weather.

The roads were fantastic. I have never ridden on such beautiful roads. Perfect for motorcycles! Always interesting and though breathtaking vistas. Incredible! From lush forested areas with snow on the sides
of the road, to twisty climbs up the side of a mountain.

We stopped for lunch in Osoyoos, in smitty’s. It was a nice Denny’s style lunch – the service was great, and it was really warm, so we sat on the patio.

The Road between Osoyoos and Nelson is beyond incredible. As soon as you leave town, the road climbs and twits its way high into the mountains. We stopped at a view point, where we took photos and met a group of three guys, who live in Vancouver, who also ordered their BMW (the same bike as Nicole’s) from the same dealer we did. We traded stories.

The road doesn’t disapoint at any point for the rest of the way to Nelson.

We arrived at the Toad Rock campground around 6:30pm – almost 8 hours after we left, and about 450km later. We started setting up camp after meeting Mary.

The campground is amazing! Its a big place – big enough that in a couple weeks they will host thief annual rally with more than 1000 attendees. They have a great setup, complete with hit showers, flush toilets, and an entertainment pavilion that has a bar, projection TV, tables and couches, pool table. And even a stage!

There are many other sitting areas and places to relax. Everything is clean, and Mary, the owner is very friendly and helpful.

Now if were only a little warmer. We are currently around 12 degrees, and the night is getting cooler. We are enjoying a couple drinks from the bar, and soon we’ll head to bed – ready for another adventure.

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.

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!

Well I picked up my bike from service today. I’m always a little worried whenever someone else works on my bike. Not everyone, OK, not most people, use the same kind of care that I would.

The bike looks good though, and I’m happy to have the fluids changed. There are a lot more of them on this bike. The engine, transmission, and final drive all have oil in them.

Tomorrow we are planning on a great ride together and I’m so looking forward to it.

I’m always nervous when one of my important possessions goes in for service under other people’s hands… It’s the only time I will let anyone ride my motorcycle… I can’t say it’s a comfortable situation, but there are few options… So, tomorrow I go in after work to pick her up again…. and then the fun really begins…

I just got notification that the last package we’ve been waiting for is now at the post office ready to be picked up.

My service is booked for Friday, Nicole’s is booked for the following Wednesday. We are almost completely set!

Planning for our Camping trip is well under way. The idea is that we are going to have a very spur of the moment type trip, but I also wanted to make sure that although we won’t plan exactly where to go and when we go, that I have information ready, so I’ve put together maps of the towns we’ll be going through, as well as information about those towns so that if we want to stop, we’ll know what the options are. This give me a little peace of mind while still making it fun and free!

If the weather isn’t raining, we’ll be leaving on June 7th, in the am at some time. We’ll lead towards Nelson, and see how long we feel like riding before we want to stop.

We would like to stop off and explore as many of the little towns as possible, so we’ve decided that we’ll just Read the rest of this entry »

Our wonderful friends Eryk and Michelle are bringing back to life a bike that hasn’t been ridden in a couple years… This last weekend, Eryk was able to get the bike running again – so although there is still many little things to be done to the bike before it’s ready, we are excited that they might soon be joining us in our adventures…

Stay Tuned…