Epic Ride, Here I Come!

After a ten month absence from the blogosphere, it's time to get back up to speed again before I head out on the highway to Kamloops next Monday.  This summer's ride is a bit earlier than the previous two and the weather is looking kind of sucky for the weekend with a high probability of rain/showers until at least Tuesday.  But faint hear never won fair damsel, or got started on a what promises to be another epic ride, so come hell or high water (or at least light rain) I plan on making it to my friends Jim & Sue's place in Kamloops on Monday.

The plan is to leave Campbell River around 6 a.m so I can make the 8:30 ferry from Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay, then head north on Highway 99 through Squamish, Whistler (of 2010 Olympics fame) Pemberton, over the Duffy Lake Road to Lillooet, then to Cache Creek and Kamloops, a distance of about 600 km.  A good start for a road trip.  Gets the blood flowing and puts Big Red in the mood for a long run. ;-)

I have known Jim since September of 1974, have ridden motorcycles on and off since 1971 or earlier, have done a lot of day rides around the Okanagan Valley with him over the past three years, but we've never done a road trip. After 39 years it's about time.  I'm stoked! It will be good to ride with him and to see some new country.

The plan is to ride south to the American border somewhere, cross into the US and then just ride wherever we feel like going for ten to twelve days.  As you can see the plans are a lot looser than those I have had for my last two trips.  We don't have to be anywhere but back home sometime after the first week of July.

I've started putting all my stuff together but no matter what I do I always seem to be able to fill the voluminous tour pack and panniers with more than enough stuff. Prominent among the things I'll be taking though will be my GoPro Hero2 camera and my Nikon DSLR. I'm nothing, if not a prolific picture taker (I hesitate to use the word 'photographer' because it implies a level of skill beyond what I feel that I possess.)

As a warm up to the ride Garry, (my riding partner for the Sturgis trip last summer) and I rode to Parksville to meet another riding friend, Jim Knight, with whom I rode to Alberta in 1973. (He was sidetracked in Calgary for a while before making it to 'beautiful BC' a few years later, but that's a story for another time.)   ;-) The plan was to meet at the Parksville Timmy Ho's at noon but, true to form he and his three buddies arrived about an hour late after stopping at the Timmy's in Langford, Duncan & maybe Ladysmith.  I'm sure that if I talked to the other guys, they would lay the delay on Jim. Garry and I were on time.

Jim has a hard time acknowledging 'Big Red' my 2009 Sunglo Red H-D Ultraglide. Says it has something to do with some horses named Man-of-War and Secretariat, the horse of the Craig Ferguson Show I think. I don't get it myself, but he gives me a hard time about the name on a frequent basis.

Anyway, he arrived on his black Electraglide, with his friends two of whom were riding a 250 Yamaha and the other a Suzuki Volusa while the third guy, Al, was riding a 2012 H-D Fatboy in Harley orange and Tequila Sunglo - a beautiful bike that looks even better than my Ultraglide if I'm to admit the truth.

The Sooke boys' rides at Timmy's in Parksville, BC





Al's Tequila Sunrise/H-D Orange Fatboy with wannabe rider.

 

We had a good visit over coffee, then did the obligatory walkaround of each others' bikes (when riders get together and do this, it kind of reminds me of when dogs meet and sniff each other's butts.  But I digress.)  Jim even took video of 'Big Red' and when I fired her up with those big V&H Monster Ovals, even he was impressed.  I was expecting to finally relent and begin bowing to 'Big Red' while chanting the mantra, "I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy. " But things didn't go that far.  He did post the video so I guess that's a tacit admission that she is worth seeing.

Jim Knight admiring 'Big Red'

 

In any case, we enjoyed the visit and headed back to CR with both of our bikes running flawlessly, as new H-Ds do these days.

So, four more sleeps until I head to Kamloops to meet up with Jim Urquhart and start to think about where we'll go. We have about twelve days, we're geezers now so we can ride as far and as fast as we want, or not, and then park for the evening.  And there may occasionally even be a Scotch or two for us at the end of the day.  It doesn't get much better than this.