OH CANADA!
Today is Canada day!, but in a cruel twist of fate, we left Canada this afternoon unfortunately.
Last night the punks across the way at the motel decided to run amok at half past one in the morning. As I have been known to sleep through smoke alarms, I didn't hear a thing, but they kept Megan awake for about half an hour.
Unfortunately she thinks she heard and Australian accent among them. I am really not surprised anymore. How things have changed. It seems that going abroad and getting shitfaced and acting like a total douche bag is now an national sport.
You could make a great advert for contraception just by showing footage of the "Travel Bogans" I've seen at Oktoberfest for example. Or National service. Or maybe euthanasia :)
anyways... enough about dipshits abroad..
We left Canmore about 9am after choking down some cereal. As it was Canada day, the roads were busy with Canadians getting out and about. (aboot). Boats, quads and side by sides were on the back of trucks going here there and everywhere. The side by sides seem particularly popular. Not sure how expensive they are over here, but at home, they cost roughly $20,000 to buy. Not sure how you could justify the expense. I don't think they are $20,000 worth of fun.
We skirted around the western side the Banff mountains, and they faded away into the distance behind us as we turned south. Alberta flattened out and we rode through fields of crops, mainly yellow canola by the look of it, and we saw agricultural life passing us by.
We were riding down highway 22 south also known as "The Cowboy Trail" which is well known by bikers as being a great ride for both scenery and twisties, and it did not disappoint.
We rode past lots of cattle ranches and funnily, lots of ranches with restaurants or cafe's attached, and of course loads of places offering horse riding and farm stays.
I saw a shop just outside a town called 'Black Diamond' that just sold Jerky, but by the time my brain had registered what it was and "hey - that would be a cool place to stop!!" - we had gone way past it. I was too busy looking at all the bikes parked out in front of it before I realised what they had stopped at.
We kept pushing further south, until the cowboy trail ended, and we finally turned west towards the US border.
As we rode on, the mountains of Glacier National Park loomed up before us, and pretty soon we turned off for the US border crossing and entry into Montana.
We had an easy border crossing, the customs office was a biker himself, and was a bit surprised we had shipped our own bikes all the way there. He said he had bought a Yamaha instead of a BMW the same as mine, but it was a tough call.
After that it was only another 60km or so to our stop that night at a place called St Marys right on the edge of Glacier National Park.
We checked in to our hotel, got changed and headed to the restaurant for a beer and some late lunch.
After a few inquiries, I found out that we had passed a fireworks truck just 100m up the road from where we were staying.
Being robbed of fireworks by the bastard government in 1986, and having like all men, a deep genetic desire to play with fire... coloured fire.. that goes bang... and flies... I hastily found the fine establishment and handed over some cash for a few excellent crackers.
I bought Ball shooters (roman candles) that you have not been able to buy in Australia since about 1979, mostly because people used to shoot them at each other. Which is exactly what they are for. And a large assortment of Bungers. These have not been available in my living memory, even before the ban.
I also found at the local supermarket, strike anywhere matches. I have always wanted some of these, just so I could strike a match off my boot just like all those cowboys in the movies!
Having had a great afternoon I took a walk around and took some photos of the nearby river and the fading sun on the mountains. Tomorrow we would ride the Sun Road!
Today is Canada day!, but in a cruel twist of fate, we left Canada this afternoon unfortunately.
Last night the punks across the way at the motel decided to run amok at half past one in the morning. As I have been known to sleep through smoke alarms, I didn't hear a thing, but they kept Megan awake for about half an hour.
Unfortunately she thinks she heard and Australian accent among them. I am really not surprised anymore. How things have changed. It seems that going abroad and getting shitfaced and acting like a total douche bag is now an national sport.
You could make a great advert for contraception just by showing footage of the "Travel Bogans" I've seen at Oktoberfest for example. Or National service. Or maybe euthanasia :)
anyways... enough about dipshits abroad..
We left Canmore about 9am after choking down some cereal. As it was Canada day, the roads were busy with Canadians getting out and about. (aboot). Boats, quads and side by sides were on the back of trucks going here there and everywhere. The side by sides seem particularly popular. Not sure how expensive they are over here, but at home, they cost roughly $20,000 to buy. Not sure how you could justify the expense. I don't think they are $20,000 worth of fun.
We skirted around the western side the Banff mountains, and they faded away into the distance behind us as we turned south. Alberta flattened out and we rode through fields of crops, mainly yellow canola by the look of it, and we saw agricultural life passing us by.
We were riding down highway 22 south also known as "The Cowboy Trail" which is well known by bikers as being a great ride for both scenery and twisties, and it did not disappoint.
We rode past lots of cattle ranches and funnily, lots of ranches with restaurants or cafe's attached, and of course loads of places offering horse riding and farm stays.
I saw a shop just outside a town called 'Black Diamond' that just sold Jerky, but by the time my brain had registered what it was and "hey - that would be a cool place to stop!!" - we had gone way past it. I was too busy looking at all the bikes parked out in front of it before I realised what they had stopped at.
We kept pushing further south, until the cowboy trail ended, and we finally turned west towards the US border.
As we rode on, the mountains of Glacier National Park loomed up before us, and pretty soon we turned off for the US border crossing and entry into Montana.
We had an easy border crossing, the customs office was a biker himself, and was a bit surprised we had shipped our own bikes all the way there. He said he had bought a Yamaha instead of a BMW the same as mine, but it was a tough call.
After that it was only another 60km or so to our stop that night at a place called St Marys right on the edge of Glacier National Park.
We checked in to our hotel, got changed and headed to the restaurant for a beer and some late lunch.
After a few inquiries, I found out that we had passed a fireworks truck just 100m up the road from where we were staying.
Being robbed of fireworks by the bastard government in 1986, and having like all men, a deep genetic desire to play with fire... coloured fire.. that goes bang... and flies... I hastily found the fine establishment and handed over some cash for a few excellent crackers.
I bought Ball shooters (roman candles) that you have not been able to buy in Australia since about 1979, mostly because people used to shoot them at each other. Which is exactly what they are for. And a large assortment of Bungers. These have not been available in my living memory, even before the ban.
I also found at the local supermarket, strike anywhere matches. I have always wanted some of these, just so I could strike a match off my boot just like all those cowboys in the movies!
Having had a great afternoon I took a walk around and took some photos of the nearby river and the fading sun on the mountains. Tomorrow we would ride the Sun Road!
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| Yeah well the Jerky store called - and They're running out of you.. |
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| Cowboy Trail - open roads, green fields, cattle and ranches |
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| For some reason the 1km of this fence had Caps on all the fence posts. |
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| 'Big Chief' Mountain coming up to the border |
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| Welcome to Montana |
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| round the back of the chief |
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| Coming up on the Mountains at Glacier national park |
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| Hotel and the river at St Mary |
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| Mountains in the evening light |
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ReplyDeleteSadly, drunken idiots are not just isolated to traveling abroad - we get those same a-holes in downtown Wyoming, wearing the same BINTANG singlet; they just got back from contracting some horrible STD in Bali and want you to know it ;)
ReplyDelete