Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Well, I met up with Phil this morning to get some parking lot practice in before his test.

We weren't really in a parking lot, because they've got a vehicle mega sale going on in the CN centre parking lot. :P So we ended up at the end of this dead end road. It worked o.k. but there really wasn't enough room. He's doing really well though, he had the slalom down within a few tries.

We did go for a bit of a ride along old summit road. Its a nice and twisty road, which is always a lot of fun.

Start: 35,223 km - End: 35,320 km - Total Distance: 97 km

Trip Statistics

So now that I'm home from my trip to Edmonton, I thought I would calculate a few statistics about the trip. So here they are.

Length of trip: 7 days
Distance traveled: 2186 km
Gas Consumed: 133 L
Average Fuel Consumption: 16.4km/L or 38.6 miles/gallon
Average Price for Fuel: $1.41/L

Monday, June 23, 2008

I am so very glad that I spent the night in Hinton. I woke up this morning at about 8:00 am to dry roads and sunshine. The weather was still a little cold and windy, but not being wet makes a BIG difference. I even stopped a few times to take some pictures.

These were taken at mount Robson. As you can see, it wasn't a perfectly clear day, but none of the clouds were rain clouds. I was very appreciative of that. So now I'm home and unpacked (mostly) and spending some much needed time with my hubby. I do need to pick up some of my riding gear, since its all sitting in a pile near the door.

I think my kitty missed me too. He also does this with luggage. He thinks that if he lays on our stuff we can't leave him again. Oh well, I'll leave him be for now.

I also should mention my animal count for today. I saw 3 (1+2) bears, 3 (2+1) deer, a herd of elk and one eagle. I like to think my daddy sent him to check up on me ;)

Start: 34,764 km - End: 35,223 - Total Distance: 459 km

Sunday, June 22, 2008

So today I got a very late start. I didn't get on the road until about 11:00 am. (Could that have something to do with that fact that I was up until 4 in the morning?) The day started out the same way this trip started, with rain. I went to Edmonton in the rain and I left Edmonton in the rain. My spirits were not very high. It was only drizzling when I started, but the farther I went, the worse it got. It was wet and cold and miserable. I decided that with the late start and the wet, there was no point pushing all the way to Prince George today. So I decided to get a room in Hinton. So here I sit, in a hotel room, and now the sky is clearing and the sun is out. Go figure. Oh well, hopefully the weather will be nicer tomorrow.

Start: 34,460 km - End: 34,764 km - Total Distance: 304 km

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Today was a pretty quiet day. I spent most of the day in the hotel room. I did venture out over to West Edmonton Mall. I had to exchange one of the DVD's I bought. The weather was absolutely beautiful. I think the high was 28^C. I took a different route home and went through down town and along River Valley Road. Its very pretty along there.

Start: 34,421 km - End: 34,460 km - Total Distance: 39 km

Friday, June 20, 2008

I woke up to warm weather finally today. I didn't have to worry about cold or wet, it was great. The day started out very much like yesturday. I met up with Dan at Timmy's at 10 am. We also met up with Dan's friend Russ. Actually, Russ and I got there early, so we had about 10-15 minutes to chat before Dan showed up. We headed out to Fort Saskatchewan to go and see Dan's sheep. They're not really Dan's sheep, they're his aunt's but that's another story. The black one is Olive, she was in "Love according to John" when she was little.

After that, I'm not really sure where we went. I was just following Dan and trusting that he would get me back into the city at some point. We did end up around antler lake, which is where the black part of our day occurred. We were in a residental area near the lake and the road was pretty windy. I came around this one corner and Dan was in the ditch. He was mostly o.k. (just a bit of road rash) and the bike was mostly o.k. (a few more scratches than before, and a bent brake lever), but it was pretty scary. No one's really sure exactly what happened, but we're pretty sure he took the corner too fast and didn't make it. But we re-grouped and carried on our way.

We pretty much came back into town at that point. We did stop at a little antique shop and looked around. We thought there was a tea shop there, but it was closed. So after that we went to Denny's for lunch with Russ' family. I had a really great time.

After lunch, Russ went home and Dan and I just hung around town. We headed over to West Edmonton Mall to do a little bit of shopping. We were there until about dinner, where we went over to Red Robins for dinner with Jason and then over to South Edmonton Common for a movie.

When the movie was done, Dan and I were sitting in the parking lot comparing bikes. We decided to switch for a little ride. It was just back to my hotel, but its always interesting to ride someone elses bike and compare it to your own. So that was pretty much my day. All in all it was really great (other than the black cloud).

Start: 34,204 km - End 34,421 km - Total Distance: 217 km

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Today I met up with Dan at 9:00 am at Timmy's. It was an early start for me (only because I stayed up too late the night before). We headed out to Two Hills. Its about an 1.5 hour ride out there. There is a grave yard there where my grampa and uncle are buried. My uncle's headstone had just been put in so I wanted to go and see it. I knew how to get to Two Hills, thanks to good old Mapquest, however getting to the grave yard itself was a bit tricky. I had only been out there a couple of times and neither time was under my own terms so I was really not in the state of mind to remember directions. However, it wasn't that bad, we only had to turn around once (although I did second guess myself a few times).

It was really good to be there and spend some time there on my own terms. The first time I was there, it was the first time I had seen my grampa's grave and we had to go with the entire family for what they called "green holiday" and it really wasn't a very good scene at all. And the second time I went it was to bury my uncle, also not fun. So this time no one made me go out there, I chose to go, which was much better.

I still think that this last headstone is very odd, but there were more like them throughout the graveyard, so I guess its just what people do. (Note: This is a double headstone for my grandparents. My grandmother is still alive)

Anyway, we spend about 45 minutes to an hour at the grave yard itself and then we headed home. We got spit on a little bit and it was pretty windy but all in all it was a good trip.

After I said goodbye to Dan, I headed back to my hotel for a nap, and I went over to Irene's for the evening. That's about it for the day. After all is said and done, another good day of my holiday.

Start: 33,853 km - End: 34,204 km - Total Distance: 351 km