BC BUDdies Tour

Day 12: Hot Tub Distance traveled: 332.0 km Cumulative Distance: 4,782 km Maximum speed: 130 km/h Moving average: 99 km/h Temperature range: 5.8 - 24.4 C For the trip Maximum speed: 139 km/h August 25th Minimum gas price: $1.139 Spruce Grove, AB, (today) Maximum gas price: $1.509 Ocean Park, BC Maximum temperature: 26.8 C Omak, Washington Minimum Temperature: 5.8 C Pocahontas, Jasper Park It was a chilly one at Pocahontas this morning. While we didn't see it, one of the workers there said he had frost on his car this morning. It seems early to me.  Not 10 days before we were on this trip, I was dying from the heat in BC and other than for two brief periods on this trip, the temperature struggled to get above 20. Fortunately we were prepared for cold. Flowers at Pocahontas. It ended up being a beautiful day for a ride. Sunny the whole time and the temperature steadily warmed through the morning. We had our first and only break at Edson when we were ready for co...

Day 11: Pocohontas, Jasper Park Distance traveled: 413.9 km Cumulative Distance: 4450 km Maximum Speed: 132 km/h Moving average: 91 km/h Temperature range: 6.8 -19.0 C Everything is wet and covered with sand. The only thing about this morning that surprised me was that there was no frost. We were in bed by about 8:00 p.m. last night - there isn't a whole lot to do when it is pouring outside - I was working on the blog and Nan was reading. I packed it in around 9:30 p.m. and apparently, Nan kept reading. However, I was awaken about 1:00 a.m. and in desperate need for some air -  someone had chili at lunch - and it was amazingly clear outside. I'm sure I could see every star in the sky. It had rained hard for hours plus it was soaking inside the fly of the tent from condensation from our breath. Fortunately, there is a good gap between the tent itself and the fly, so none of the moisture was inside the tent. By morning, the condensation had continued to build and...

Day 10: Purden Lake, BC Distance Traveled: 415 km: Cumulative distance: 4037 km Maximum speed:122 km/h Moving average: unknown Temperature range: 11.8 – 15.8 C No cell service last night so I'll post pictures tonight. Just having lunch in McBride, BC. Despite warnings of revelers by our hostess last night, we didn’t hear a thing. What we did hear were trains going through the main crossing in Telkwa and blasting their horn so that everybody all the way to Smithers would know they were coming through Telkwa. It doesn’t actually bother us; we hear the horn but barely wake up in the process and definitely go straight back to sleep. Our hostess’s partner is a coffee roaster. More than an amateur, not quite a “professional”, he buys green beans from all over and roasts them in a roaster outside the AirBnB, with an “afterburner” I’m told, so as not to smell up the entire town. I continue to be intrigued by the prospects of this.   He sells his around the town and th...

Day 9: Telkwa, BC (near Smithers, slightly adjacent to Jeeves) Distance traveled: 385.1 km Cumulative distance: 3622 km Maximum speed: 130 km/h Moving average: 89 km/h It was raining pretty hard when we got off the boat last night but this morning it appeared to have subsided, so as we were loading up the bike I was thinking that we would dodge a bullet. The clouds were low hanging over the city and in the surrounding hills and it had clearly rained most of the night but as we contemplated the day, I was optimistic. Breakfast was being served  "dining room", which was the help-yourself-to-whatever's-there kind that is common now in roadside motels. There is usually an abundance of carbs and sugars but not generally other things, except for apples that were placed in a  basket at the beginning of summer but nobody ever eats. The popular thing now is to have do-it-yourself Belgian waffle makers however, our place has do-it yourself pancakes. Amazingly, the only thing...