.....take three

Suffice to say we have made it to Kelowna....a few days ago.  As we prepare to start the third leg of our journey, I remembered that I have not blogged in those few days.  I also have some picture updates that I must complete, which I will do.

We had a huge breakfast, packed up our stuff and out of the condo by 10:45 a.m.  Quick stop for gas and we were off...Tofino is just one way in and one way out so we got to enjoy the ride a second time all the way back to Parksville then we went south towards Victoria.  There is always something to be said travelling roads in both directions...what you see travelling the same road in another direction is another perspective! As we rode through Cathedral Grove we did not stop this time to walk through. This time we rode through and I was overcome by the feeling of riding through a natural tunnel mixed with little trickles of sunshine...the trees are tall but close, the freshness of the air can not be ignored....it was an unexpected pleasure.

We encountered a bit of road traffic again as we approached Victoria.  We did find a road that allowed us to bi-pass Victoria and made our way to Saanichton.  We stayed at the "Super 8" in Saanichton, which was again, not so super. 

We walked across the street to the Waddling Dog Pub at the Quality Inn which so happened to be the place we stayed at when we arrived by plane in Victoria only 10 years earlier for our first trip to Tofino.  The really cool thing about this place is that they have a basset hound as their mascot and he actually lives there.  The dog's name is John...this particular John is John VI.  He had already retired for the night so we didn't get to see him but John V was available 10 years ago when we stayed there and thoroughly enjoyed the attention of all the guests.  I would assume the same would be said of this generation of John.

We got up early, gave wake up calls to all our friends and then walked over to McD's to get some coffee.  There should be some reward for an early morning call and I can't imagine that Super 8 coffee would be that.  We managed to pack up the bikes, ride down to the ferry and catch the 8 a.m. crossing with minutes to spare...not very many minutes but minutes none the less.

The boat cruise through the islands in the morning was again beautiful...the water was calm and blue, the sky was blue, the sun was bright and warm.  Patti and I went down and picked up some coffee and bagels for the boys.

We disembarked and headed for Hope...we stopped in Fort Langley for a quick bite and coffee. Fort Langley is this great little historic village which I think is part of Langley. Lots of trees line the streets, with quaint little coffee shops and retail shops. 

Our intention was to ride to the other side of Fort Langley to take a side road that would get us around the highway.  Unfortunately this road ran through a reservation which had barricaded the road and was not allowing through traffic, so back to the highway...contrary to the song title of Tom Cochrane and Red Rider, life is not a highway, at least not on the way through Chilliwack!   More traffic stops in really hot sun does not equate to happy riders!  The upside is that at some point when you get off the highway you are rewarded with great roads...Hope....springs eternal and so does her roads.  From Hope we took Highway 3 through EC Manning Provincial Park and up to Princeton.  YES! I have gone to Princeton...and stayed in Princeton.

After a hot day on the highway, it was nice to jump into the outdoor pool and cool off before we headed over to a little Irish Pub...or at least a bar with an Irish Pub name. Princeton is a very small town.  We came back to the motel after a few drinks and another meal and met up with some of our "neighbours" who happen to be working on the pass we had travelled on earlier in the day.  Great guys and turned out one was from Newfoundland (we had a chat) and the other was best friends with a girl that Pat used to babysit.....small world.

Next morning we take off with a quick ride around a loop that was...you know, I don't know how often that I can say WOW or breathtaking before it becomes cliche but...WOW..great roads along a beautiful river with lots of beach stone and rapids.  Back out on the main road for a short while then onto another back road.  As we moved along the sweeping turns, a black bear popped out and across the road.  That is as close as I have ever been to a black bear in the wild...it was cool to watch him run from one side to the other.  We encountered another further down the road but I did not see that one as he was coming out of the ditch from the opposite side and the on-coming traffic had to swerve to avoid...which is probably why I didn't see the bear when all I could see was the car.

We came out in Penticton and stopped to see Heather who lost her husband earlier this year.  It was a bit of a surprise visit as we didn't know when or if we would be in this area.  She was happy to see us and I was happy to see her....it is hard when you know friends are suffering or sad and they live so far away. It doesn't matter how many times you type the words you want them to hear, hoping that the sentiment in which they are intended are also conveyed, it only matters that you can hold them..words are not needed.

We stopped for a quick lunch and then arrived back in Kelowna by mid afternoon in the middle of a REALLY hot day.  First thing we all did was strip off our motorcycle equipment, right in the middle of the floor. Later we all piled into the car to stop over to see Tom and Kathy at the pub, have a quick bite and then home. 

The next morning we all had breakfast together before we had to bid farewell to our new and good friend Brad.  He was heading back to Calgary.  Brad lost his Dad a couple of weeks ago at the young age of 93.  The thing about riding a motorcycle through mountains, valleys, over to oceans with friends is that it has a way of healing.  Be it your mind, your heart or your soul...those hard to reach places....it soothes and heals without you even knowing that you are in the process.  We have a new and dear friend and I know that we will get together again very soon.

In the afternoon we visited with our good friends (family) Doug and Jane, spending the afternoon catching up and cooling off in their pool.  We always enjoy our time with Doug and Jane...when they get together with Larry, I always love to sit and listen to their stories of days gone by.  I don't mean days gone by in the traditional sense because there was nothing traditional in what they did.  They were all a bunch of hooligans...harmless hooligans with heart!  Pat and Buddy joined us later and the stories continued.

Yesterday we picked up our bikes, changed and headed out to Quail's Gate to look for a wine that I had tried the last time I was here.  I found it...and then some.  A quick snack at another winery and we headed back to the Cole house for an afternoon siesta.  We had an invite to Tom and Kathy Keyser's for supper and we were excited to spend some time with them as well as Kathy's sister and her husband, Joyce and Doug, who were visiting.  We had a absolutely wonderful time and the meal was amazing....mussels, chicken, ribs, corn on the cob, baked potato with sour cream and chives...all flavoured by herbs from Kathy's garden or Joyce's garden. Everything was delicious, including the conversation and company.

This morning we prepare to leave for the third leg of our journey...the one that will take us across Canada.  My heart hurts....I have been looking for ways we could stay longer, come back and do this leg of the journey at another time but the issue is not with leaving today, it is with leaving.  This part is inevitable unfortunately.  Even my new furry friend Tucker knows that we are leaving today.  I will miss my little friend a well.

Today we will ride to Calgary to visit more friends....Rick and Linda.  I always remember telling my girls, you can never have too much family.  You know, you can never have too many friends either.

I will remember every bit of this trip including the welcoming face of Bud when we met up with him just outside of Kelowna for the drive in.  That is the face I look forward to, the happy one when we arrived...not the sad one that I will be wearing as we leave.

Thank you friends, for all the new and wonderful memories.  I will carry them home with me.

...and yes I still have pictures to post.

Tofino

We have been indeed fortunate to spend two great days and evenings in this wonderful village. It is certainly much busier than I remember but that could be because we stayed just outside of town the last time.

The condo we rented had a great deal of room for all of us. We each had our own bedroom/bathroom ensuites.  Kitchen had all of the amenities you would need and they even had really cool rubber boots!

After a good breakfast Patti and I headed for a "walk about" stopping into a couple of shops along the way.  We were told of a Saturday Market happening in the park so we went back to see if the boys were interested in joining us....I picked up a couple of small items as they have to fit on the bike for the journey home.  Back at the condo we changed into some beach clothes and headed to Chesterman's beach for an hour or so.  Water was cold and the wind was cool yet it was refreshing and rejeuvinating at the same time. The Ocean has a way of recharging your soul, offering its gifts in bits and pieces....crashing waves, sand art in the trail the waves leave behind, shells and living creatures attached to the rocks.  I didn't get to see my starfish this time. I will have to wait until the next....the ocean had other things for me to see today....a raven with a full size crab, hopping higher on the rocks as I moved in closer, finally taking flight while still firmly holding it in his beak. He apparently didn't understand that I just wanted a photo, not to share his lunch!

We came back, had a quick lunch and then headed to the Sacred Stone Spa.  Hmmmmmmmm.  Who could want for a better day...Dinner at another local restaurant, watching a resident eagle, Sobo for more cookies.....sunset...it just can't help but get better.

Today we head out, back to Kelowna...still taking our time as we go.  Tofino has become a sacred place for me.  Not because of the special times we have shared here but because there is still so much here to explore, to be a part of, to witness, to be one with....to be.....It is small in size but vast in its' offerings.  Until next time Tofino....next time I will visit with you longer!

Happy Anniversary Baby!

Today was a long, often painful ride, to Tofino...I say this because first of all there was a lot of traffic....car traffic, camper traffic, truck traffic.....the kind that needs to move over and let the faster vehicles, like motor bikes, move through.  What many cagers (what we bikers call people in cars) don't understand is that we can't roll up our windows and turn on the AC...we can't coast along at intermittent speed (slow to slower) because we have to keep shifting gears.  MOVE over and let us pass thru. It is the only way we have the keep from over heating.

Despite the long painful ride we picked up our keys and headed over to our rental place.  We were not even a little disappointed with our rental place. Wow, wow and wow again.  Everything we thought it would be is that and more.  We did a quick shower and then off to Sobo for supper.

Sobo is owned by a cousin of a guy we work with...not even 7 degrees of separation.....we had a fabulous meal dessert, wine and conversation. On our walk home we stopped by the co-op and picked up some breakfast groceries. Now we are just sitting on the deck, overlooking the harbour waiting for the next meteor shower and enjoying the sunset.

Today is a day that I easily recognize how blessed I am....to have such great friends, wonderful family, amazing husband and all the opportunities we have to witness the greatness of this planet in our travels. We need more people to see what we see..because traffic aside, this is one freakin beautiful planet...and I get to see it, and share it with my partner in life and adventure. Happy Anniversary Baby...here's  to many more!

Sunshine Coast

Well it has been a busy two days indeed.

Before actually leaving Pemberton we had a great visit with Maurice at his shop where he showed us all of the tools and machines he works with. He really does some amazing work.

He also showed us a smoker he has been working on and sent us off with a little smoked salmon for the ferry ride.  A long good-bye to he and Hubert who he was working with on a huge floating staircase and we set off for breakfast.

We made a quick ride through Whistler on our way to Horseshoe Bay to catch the ferry over to Langdale, more great riding over to catch the ferry at Earl's Cove over to Powell River.  We just missed the Earl's Cove ferry so we had to wait for the next one. Put us in a little late to Powell River but we had reservations at the Marine Inn so we had a place to stay at.  We had already reached out to our good friend Graham Duff.  He met us and we went out for a late supper and catch up with each other.

After a great supper we parted ways and agreed to meet for breakfast. Breakfast at Magpie's was unbelievable!  Farm fresh eggs, great selection and a wonderful server made for a great start to the day. Graham took us for a tour down to the lake which reminded us a lot of Western Brook Pond in NL only warmer!

We left after many hugs and headed for the last ferry ride before Tofino.  Pemberton to Comox ferry was a little longer than the others....and provided some beatiful views of snow capped mountains on Vancouver Island. We arrived in Qualicum, checked in and headed down on foot to the Shady Rest for lunch and a few drinks. Before we headed back to the hotel, Larry and I had to go for a quick "dip" in the ocean. It was enough to wake us up, refresh the senses and take away some of the heat from the sun.

Back to the hotel, changed our clothes and sat around watching the sun set. We then walked down to the beach to wait for the space station to pass over the dark sky as it becomes visible in this hemisphere. We also got to see some of the Perseid's meteor shower.

It was a beautiful end to a fabulous day!  I love our vacations!

Pictures will follow later folks.

North of the Border

Note:  Running into issues with wifi and will have to add pictures later. Sorry!


We crossed over and are now riding on the Canadian leg of our trip. We met up with our friends and a new friend Brad, one day of down time to regroup and we were off again!

We rode the day through the mountains with some real good "Thelma and Louise" turns and some beatiful sweeping turns. Stopped in Merritt for a fabulous breakfast at Lynda's Cafe (highly recommend) and we were off agin through Lilooet, over the Thompson and Fraser Rivers.

This country is beautiful, majestic, gentle and harsh at the same time. Often times we have said to each other "can you imagine discovering this land or travelling it before there were roads?"

We have seen some real beauty along the way, beauty in many different forms but beautiful none the less.

We stopped in Pemberton for the night, meeting up with an up with an old friend of Larry's, Maurice, who went to school and travelled out west with Larry.  We celebrated Larry's birthday with a great meal at the local Chinese restaurant and back to the motel for a few drinks.

Maurice does special order metal work for new homes and other projects. Here is a couple of pictures of some light fixtures and sconces he made for a community gathering hall in Pemberton. Amazing!

Off to Powell River today, through Whistler...looks like it is going to be another beautiful day!

Sunset, Sunrise and Going to the Sun

Today's blog is brought to you by the sun......



Let's begin with where we stayed last night.  We camped in a tipi on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation on the plains in Montana.

After a great meal provided by our hosts at the Lodgepole Gallery and Tipi Village, we had the pleasure of watching the sun set over the mountains.  It created a wonderful backdrop for the tipi village and a beautiful hue of color on the mountains we would visit today in Glacier National Park.














As we settled into our tipi for the night, we lit a fire in our fire pit...the smoke flaps were opened and all of the smoke rose to the top of the tipi and out.  It got very warm in there very quickly.  We laid on our mattress talking about our trip so far.  As we spoke we could see the sky lighting up.  We went out to watch the most spectacular lightning show about 36 miles south of us.  It moved across the sky all around us changing from a streak of lightning to sheet lightning, to chain lightning and even seemed to go across and up through all of the clouds a time or two.  It was quite a show.  The only affect for us was the wind.  As the fire went out, we closed up the smoke flap and the doorway and settled in for the night...sometime during the night we woke to the sound of coyotes and dogs calling to each other.  It was really comforting in a strange way I guess, but it felt very normal.


We woke around 6 a.m. to the sunrise just ready to make its' debut.  Again, the sky was red from the fire of the sun.  So focused on the sunrise that I almost forgot about the mountains.  As I turned around to face the mountains that we had watched the sun set on the previous evening, I was amazed at the color the sunrise was creating on the mountains.  It reminded me of Sedona.  Washed in red tones, it was spectacular yet again.

Our fire.

We packed up and headed out with the intention of riding to the East Glacier Village to find a place to eat.  We saw a sign for one place and while looking for it found another and as soon as we found a place to park the bikes, we found yet another that we stopped and had breakfast in.  Two Medicine Grill is a small counter and restaurant that caters to an adjacent hostel.  They use all local sourced products for their meals and we had one of the best breakfasts we have had so far.  The omlette made from farm fresh eggs and veggies, hash browns homemade from grated potatoes and the bacon...omg! Larry had the sour dough pancake stack and bacon.  We couldn't even finish it all!



We took off with our bellies full and headed to route 49 which would connect with 89 which would take us to Glacier National Park.  Route 49....yes, route 49.  Filled with up and downs, quick turns and what I came to call Thelma and Louises which are essentially turns with very steep drop offs that if you missed you would sail out and over the valley.  As I am essentially not fond of these type of heights as we passed them I would just Thelma and Louise...almost a form of swearing.  Larry however seems to be a BIG fan of Thelma and Louises.  The other interesting thing about Montana is that there is a lot of free ranging of horses and cows.  As Larry rode ahead, I would get the advance notice of ground squirrel (he started by yelling squirrel and I thought he was joking), coyote, and then the odd horse grazing on the side of the road with their butts stuck out on the road...and of course the cows, doing the same.  Now this particular thing brought back memories of cows from another trip which you can find on our blogs from our 2011 trip.

By the time we reached Hwy 89 we both had big smiles and it wasn't even noon.  This however was just the warm up, or the appateaser to our afternoon.

We rolled up to the gate of the park...we paid our bits (actually we got a family pass for a year so who knows), and now we are off to the show!  After a frustrating 15 minutes behind a group of vehicles led by someone who was already obviously nervous about the drive  (and the fun hadn't even started), we pulled over to take a couple of photos and let the traffic get ahead of us.  I will only say this...I am posting some pictures, none of which will do this park justice.  I could give you a description of everything we saw, but there really are no words....Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park is spellbinding, spectacular and has the ability to move you to tears at it beauty, make you giggle like a child at the wonder and forever be a memory that will never be erased.  I know this because I experienced it.  It is a highly recommended drive for anyone who ever travels close to the southern borders along Canada/US in Alberta and Saskatchewan.  Waterton Lake Parks I am told is another great place to see.

We finished the day with our stop in Libby, MT.  Nestled in the valley it is a quiet town.  A quiet night will be good...we have a long day tomorrow and will be in Kelowna by supper.  Looking forward to some down time, friend time and the next part of our adventure...not necessarily in that order or even that there needs to be any order...just looking forward to it all!

Evergreen 

City of Eagle

Montana - Big Sky Country

We get a lot of people interested in knowing where we are travelling from and to.  Most of the folks are our age or older.  It is interesting that they often refer to us as adventuresome, one lady even called me brave.

We have answered this question a few times when faced with what most folks call a "big" trip...the trick to it is just one day at a time.  Like anything else, once it is broken down into small pieces, or in this case days, you can enjoy each day for what it brings or what it has in store.

This morning we left a little later as we planned an easy day.  The ride this morning did not include the "internet" as Larry sometimes mistakenly calls it (I think he is having social media withdrawl). We hit all the back roads going in and out of the mountains, disappearing roads as you come over blind knolls and twists and turns that always make the ride on our bikes a ton of fun.


The biggest difference this morning was the change in landscapes over a very short time....we rode through farm or range country, then into mountainous areas with a lot of sage and just around the corner like a change in a movie set, we were into a valley of pine and fir.  Now the big difference between riding a motorbike through this kind of road and driving a car, can be measured only by the senses...obviously driving a sports car through these roads would be just as thrilling for the driver as it is for the rider...the scenery could be enjoyed by anyone...the biggest difference is the smells....the fresh air, the scent of pine and fir, the clover really took me by surprise as it is very much like lily of the valley or lilac, that kind of perfume that is sweet and almost tasty too.  That is where you smell the difference....then you also get to feel the difference.  Temperature, humidity, coolness as you rise over a pass or into a shaded valley....these are things that can't be enjoyed in a car (usually because the windows are up and the air conditioning is on).





















We saw a lot of different landscape today, and tonight we are staying in the Blackfeet Reservation...just having had a traditional meal of buffalo, wild rice, refried beans and vegetables, we are content to sit and wait for the sun to set over our room....there is a promise of a beautiful sky.  I guess maybe we are a bit adventuresome....and that, for us, pays off in a big way. It is beautiful here in Browning....