Run, Forrest, Run!

After last night's wicked thunderstorm with heavy rain, we checked the weather forecast for the province of Alberta. It was not good. To the west rain was coming. Clouds and rain were moving south from the Edmonton area, and to the east, Drumheller was experiencing rain showers. Our only choice was to make a run to the south, back to Pincher Creek and then into the US.

We got a late start to the day for a variety of reasons, but finally left Cochrane, at 10:30 and headed south to Turner Valley and Black Diamond. As we were entering Turner Valley rain began to spit down. Fortunately, that's all the rain we experienced, but it was cold and verging on unpleasant so the combination of heavy clouds, threatening rain, and a cold wind did not bode well for our day. 

By the time we arrived at Longview, the wind was quite strong and our motorcycles were being pushed around not only by the crosswinds, but also by the strong gusts that occasionally hit us. Nevertheless, I was able to shoot video of the hats on fence posts that I mentioned in yesterday's blog. I figured that from the length of the video and the speed at which I was travelling, there was almost three kilometres of hats on posts.

You can see hats on each fence post for the whole video. Three kilometres of hats.

The almost two hundred kilometre ride back to Pincher Creek was done in strong, cold wind. We stopped at Tim Horton's and reviewed our options for the day. Our decision was to make a run to Kalispell, MT, because south seemed to be the only direction that had tolerable weather. That entailed a return run to Waterton National Park on the way to the US border. We passed the entrance and began to climb on the way to the US border crossing at Chief Mountain.

On the way to Waterton National Park

When we arrived at the border, the Customs and Border Protection officer pointed at the ground and ordered us to, "Stop right there." It seemed to be an obvious ploy to establish dominance, but not having any power in this situation we acquiesced. After the usual questions about alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs, and medical marijuana, we were allowed to pass into the U.S. of A. I really can't comprehend the attitude of CBP officers. They all seem to talk to people as if they are inferior creatures when it is entirely unnecessary. All it does is engender resentment, and if respect if what they are looking for, they certainly aren't getting any from me. 

Even thought he wind was still strong, the ride on the approach to the border was another good one. In Montana, the highway was in rough condition and the speed limit was 45 mph for quite a distance. At St. Mary's we asked the young man at the Sinclair gas station the best way to get the Whitefish, MT. He gave us directions and we rolled south and west on roads that were under construction in several places. Where they were not torn up, they provided us with some more fun riding even with the cold wind.

At Browning, MT, we turned on to Highway 2 which has a speed limit of 70 mph. We covered the one hundred and twenty miles to Kalispell with no difficulty and arrived there at about 7:30. This was our latest day of the trip so far. When we stopped at Starbucks and began to look for rooms for the night, Garry checked the weather for Alberta. In addition to the wind, threat of rain, and cool temperatures there was also a funnel cloud (read tornado) warning for southern and eastern Alberta. It looks like we made the right decision to run south instead of staying to endure more weather misery.

On a lighter note, I saw a large gentleman arrive at Starbucks with a shirt that had the message 'National Sarcasm Society' on it. I told the guy that I liked the shirt, and he said 'Thanks you'. I told him that I was being sarcastic. His response: "Well played." I did tell him that I was only joking about the shirt. It really is a good one.

Now that we are in Montana, we will have to decide how long to stay in the US in order to avoid the lousy weather in western Canada, and where we can go and what we will do while we are here. We hope to be able to wait out the lousy conditions and make it back to Canada when conditions are more tolerable. It amazes me that in the first half of June the weather conditions have been so bad. Hopefully, things will change, and soon.