July 10, 2006
Red Deer Alberta
We have now sold our home and my car. We just have a bike and the truck to sell. We are one month from our departure. We are fortunate enough to be staying at my brother and sister-in law's home while they are away to Austraila and New Zealand for July.
Kelly has one more day of work left. He is so ready to be done. I have been done since June 30. It is hard to imagine that I;m not going to go back to the school on August 30 to start another great year. It is so bitter sweet.
We are list making like crazy. There are so many little items to finish up just prior to leaving that a list if a must at this point. We have just a few more adjustments to make on the bikes and they should be ready to go. Sleep is interupted on a nightly basis now. We have a pad of paper sitting on the table so that when we are laying awake at 3:20 in the morning, we can jot down the thought and try to get some sleep.
We are also making plans with our adult children to meet us in Costa Rica in late November, so we are planning a mini holiday during our trip. We are looking forward to seeing Kane and Nicole for and early Christmas.
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July 28, 2006
Kelly has been finished work since July 11. Our truck sold today... so we are now without a vehicle with a roof. It has rained so hard tonight... the weather has been so beautiful the last few weeks, this is a small vision as to what we are going to have to be preapred for on this trip. We are still working the bikes.. doing the wiring and waiting for the last top box to arrive from Happy Trails . We are leaving on August 3rd for 5 days for a family reunion with the Graham's at Christina Lake B.C. Once we return there are the final details to take care of and we should be off. Sleep is now interrupted nightly... too many thoughts to write it all down. Lists are growing with each day. There are all of the people that we "must" see before we leave. Hopefully we are going to find time here and there to accomodate all of the requests for a visit. If there is anyone that we missed seeing... so sorry. We will be in touch upon our return. I'm not sure if most people realize how much work there really is to do in order to leave everything behind for two years. We certainly didn't know all of the details.... learn as you go, and smile a lot.
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August 17, 2006
We are now just a few days from our departure. We have left Blair and Lyn's home, to spend a few days with my father before we go. We are so grateful to have had the last month at Blair and Lyn's. They were so good to have us stay our extended time. We were able to spend some time with my nieces, Hayley, Emma, Sarah and Kate. It was a lot of fun experiencing all of the girls busy schedules and their individual personalities. We will miss all of the laughs and "egg" fights.
We had the communication system installed by a great company called "Anderwerks Motorrad Spezialist" in Calgary. Dave Anderson and his crew certainly treated us fairly. They did an awesome job. We also need to acknowledge Nigel Malyon and his mechanic Chris at "Retro Cycle" in Red Deer. Nigel has been a huge support in finding tires and masterlinks for the bikes. When there was no hope in finding the tires in Central Alberta, Nigel came through for us. He runs a amazing shop in West Park in Red Deer. Thanks Nigel, and Chris.
I guess this installment is a "Thank you" one. There has been so many kind well wishers that we feel fortunate to have so many caring people touch our lives.
(Here is a story that is "once in a lifetime" experience. While in Calgary we had to rent a car while the bikes were being set up at Anderwerks. I had a envelope with a large amount of cash in it. I thought I slipped it into my purse but must have missed and it fell between the seats of the car. I didn't realize that the money was gone until we had a phone call from the car rental company to call the next gentleman that rented the car. So when I called "Blake Hartley" he asked if we had left something in the car. I checked right away for the money and it was gone!! Mr. Hartley and his family were in Alberta on vacation from Toronto. They met us back in Calgary to give us back the money. That does prove that there are angels here on earth. This is a very big THANKS TO BLAKE AND HIS FAMILY FOR THEIR HONESTY!!
We are going to depart in the very early hours of Monday August 21. So the next entry will be from the road.
Once again... farewell to all and we will see you soon. So sorry to all that we missed seeing face to face. Please drop us a line and let us know how things are going in your world.
for now
Kelly and Della
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August 22, 2006
Well here we are. This is our first posting from the road. We left yesterday, Monday August 21. We haven't made it very far... we are taking the "long way round", no pun intended. We made it to Ft. Steele B.C. last night. Kelly asked me if I wanted to go through the Crows Nest or to Radium Hot Springs. We had just went through the Crows Nest in early August so I thought Radium would be a change. We ended up way too west in order to cross at Roosville. We back tracked over to Roosville border crossing this morning. You could just call it a long ride with great roads and company. We crossed the US border today. No problems. The guard just asked us why we had sooo much stuff on the bikes. Our reply was.. we need it all. I think we may only need about half of the items were packing. We are going to have to lighten the load at some point. Maybe it will just be our body weight!!. So here we are in Kalispell Montana at a campground that includes internet. Yahoo!! We even were able to Skype call family tonight.
We may adjust our route over the next few days. Kelly is thinking that we should head west over to Idaho into the mountains. I think I have had enough "dust" from following Kelly over the back roads. We have more time than anything else so we will continue to plan the route as we go. This is half the fun of this trip.
This is Kelly preparing the bikes for a days ride
until then.... Kella
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August 24, 2006
We rode Hell's Canyon today. From Lewiston Idaho we rode south via Hell's Canyon. Oregon. We had lunch in a pretty town called Joseph Oregon. This was such a beautiful ride, Kelly asked if we should do it again. The twisties were so many that I could hear Kelly having the giggles in his helmet. The weather was awesome. Not too much heat today. We have not made the same amount of time that we do on the ST 1100's. We are riding at about 100 kms per hour. For those of you who have ridden with us, this speed seems slow. We generally do a pace a bit faster. Kelly is a bit frustrated that we aren't making as good of time as usual. We are just having to adjust to this pace. I'm sure that we'll get into the groove of things in the next week or so. We ended our day early, 4 p.m. Our evening will be spent washing the bikes, clothes and ourselves.
We are now discussing whether we go through Las Vegas or L.A. We have to head south, we're just not sure of which route we want to go. After a good meal and some sleep we will decide tomorrow. Pictures are still to come. I'm experiencing a steep learning curve with this darn program.
Until tomorrow,, or the next day
kella
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August 28, 2006
Well here we are in Las Vegas. After a VERY hot ride yesterday we arrived at 3 p.m. We are staying at a huge casino called the Palace Station. It's just off the strip. We got the tip from a lovely lady in Ely Nevada who spotted our our Canadian Flag on the back of our bike and was so excited to see a fellow Canadian that she just about jumped on top of us. Hallie had just moved to Nevada from New Brunswick. She was feeling a little home sick we think. The tip she gave on the accomodations is great. We are going to spend three nights here and then head south into Arizona. We went to the Cirque Du Soleil performance called "Zumanity" Oh my God!! The theme was totally adult. It was a very risky look at the human sexuality. We laughed and we totally amazed for the entire show. If there is a visit to Vegas in anyone's future we would recommend this show. We are off to try our luck at the slots today. AND Kelly wants to dine at the Mandalay Bay buffet today, we hear that it's the best in town.
until next time, we aren't going to blow all of our funds..
kella
August 30, 2006
Mexico here we come!! We left Vegas this a.m. at 6 a.m., we tried to beat the heat. It caught up to us at about 1 p.m. this afternoon. The temp hit 115 degrees so we shut down for the day. We road south from Vegas through the Needles on highway 95. From there we headed south further to Vital Junction and then west to the Salton Sea. Kelly read on his GPS that we were 205 feet below sea level. This is when the temp stated to soar. The air on the bike felt like you were putting your face into the furnace. We are lucky to have a couple of cooling devices... a neck scarf that you soak in water and a vest that is the same. You just submerse them into cool water and the air while you ride helps to keep you cool. We had to soak them several times today. It was such a dry heat in Vegas, now we have hit humitity that is around 75%. We are going to loose weight this way FAST.
We are going to get up early tomorrow (5 a.m.) and ride to Tecate Mexico. From there we'll ride to Ensenada. We are going to ride highway number 1 down the Pacific side of the Baja. We're hoping that being on the water that the temp will be not so tough of a ride. The bikes are working great. They are humming along with no problems so far. We haven't found that we have too much stuff as of yet. Once we start to move down the Baja we'll see how that luggage situation goes.
We'll post pictures in a few days.
until then, kella