Day 9 - Calgary (192 km) : LONGVIEW

Today was to have been a rest day for me. Which would have been good since I drank too much wine last night and not nearly enough water = a bit under the weather this morning. My planned errands were to: replace my watch battery, buy a pair of cowboy boots (I did get Ariats which I probably could pick up in Fredericton at the Northstream Tack Shop - but this IS Calgary, after all), do some laundry and clean my bike. The very last thing I wanted to do was to get on that bike to ride! However, the day started with a ride to the soft-wash place to hose the bikes down. Mine was the most dirty it's ever been so I have to admit it was nice to restore its beautiful shine. I did a quick Plexus polish later but there's still a lot of bug residue that will have to wait until I get home.

The best laid plans.... Back from the bike wash, Mary then took me on the shopping errands. Last night, the guys had very kindly invited me to ride with them to Longview, specifically to the Twin Cities Saloon which is popular with bikers. I knew I'd be late for their date (and, remember, I didn't particularly want to ride today), so I gently insisted that they not wait for me. They insisted they would ;-). When Mary and I returned, Bob & Chris had just arrived so I figured "what the hey". It was a beautiful, sunny day - 24 degrees - and the ride to the carwash hadn't been THAT bad. And heaven knows, I hate to miss something - or think I'm missing something.

It was a great little ride to Longview (through the town of Turner Valley which is known as the birthplace of Alberta's Oil and Gas industry). We had lunch, saw singer Ian Tyson's cafe (he lives in East Longview) and took some photos for auld lang syne. The guys agreed this group ride took them back 30 odd years :-). The players: Jim and I; our host, Tom on his 1973 BMW R75/5 (it was great watching him kick start it!), Chris on a 2007 'Paul Smart replica' Ducati (loud!) and Bob on a 1979 BMW R100/7.

Bob, Mary & Ellen had a prior engagement they attended at 1700h, and Jim had taken off with Chris to get oil and finalize the logistics for getting Jim's bike to the local stealer er, I mean dealer for service while he's back in Fredericton. I had a few hours alone to do laundry and load a route into the Zumo - which, so far, has had about a 50% success rate for me. At first, I was giving it the benefit of operator error. You know - garbage in, garbage out. But, I don't think that's the case. The mapping software is MapSource and the people who use it call it Mapsucks. I now see why. Suffice to say, it took a couple of hours (!) and more than a little frustration - but there IS a route in my gps. Taking me clear to Tofino. I'm just about sick thinking about striking out on my own tomorrow but I'm sure that once I get on the road, I'll be fine. The anticipation is always worse than the actual event, right?

Mary very kindly offered me their unlimited long-distance phone minutes so I made 3 calls: to Barb in Campbell River to make arrangements to meet up with her to ride to Nakusp; to Lynne Swift in Banff - I'm excited to see her store and to meet her daughter; and to Melanie & Peter Russell in Golden who have very generously offered me their spare bedroom. I thought I'd try to make tracks further west (at least 500 km) but I may just stay in Golden. Peter told me about a canyon road I have to travel on for 5 or 10 minutes just before Golden and I'm thinking that may traumatize me for any more travel right after that! They've also told me about the possibility of snow on Rogers Pass about half an hour the other side of Golden so I'll have to check road conditions anyway. No worries about me riding through that.

Jim flies out in the morning for Fredericton (Julia's prom is Monday and high school graduation is Thursday) and will fly back on Friday with Pat and Julia. Pat will rent a car and visit her brother in Edmonton; Julia will ride with Jim to Nakusp.

I'm not planning a particularly early start so by the time I visit with Lynne and stop at Lake Louise, I may be ready for an overnight in Golden.

Don't forget..... Monday, June 15th, is Ride Your Bike to Work Day. Don't let a little rain deter you ;-)