Whitefish, Hannah Montana

Wednesday 29 July

Yep...

back in the US of A

day behind again with this, the Whitefish hotel wireless kacked out as well.

Dunno about this lot...

I think they've got a daily packet deal, and once the punters have used the daily allocation

they shut the server down.

Left Banff early

its a town about Taupo size, like Queenstown in character

touristy shops all open till late, a heap of them owned and staffed by asians

lot of nationalities on the street too, incl saried Indians, (from India), well-dressed asian gentlemen, tourists.

I went into one shop trying to find a leatherman multi-tool

the Japanese manager didnt know what one of them was, and when i explained it was a sort of knife with all sorts of other stuff

he gave me a dirty look and remonstrated, no, no, we no sell knifes

oh...

anyway, I was in luck with the sports emporium next door, half the price of the victorinoxes in the gift shops.

Bought a key-ring compass too

we're excellent at driving out of the hotels in the morning, and heading the wrong way.

Found a steak house touting an 18oz rib eye, and was all set to scout back to the boys

when i noticed the price, $50!

I found them at the irish bar, and settled for Canadian lamb shanks

pretty ordinary, could have been coyote.

The irish stew was NZ lamb

pull the other one mate,

at $120 a throw back home it'd hardly be going in stew by the time it paid its way to Canada.

Jasper was smaller still, which amazed me

and so poorly signposted I rode right past.

Anyway, back to aujourdhui

370 miles, we're all sun/wind burned.

Early on the road towards Calgary, then turning south into Kananaskis territory

same deal as yesterday, light rain and mist

rising to reveal masif after masif

its like a line of Mt Egmonts stacked along each side of the road, like teeth on some giant saw

you go up and over a pass into a different valley, and its de ja vu all over again

we're stuffed by the immensity, and getting inferiority complexes about NZ's so called scenic fame.

The roads too....

putting a 4-laner along Centennial Highway, Paekakariki to Pukerua would be a days tiddly winks to these guys

plus room for the train

we are just so effing backward.

I remember thinking when I went to europe in 1974, NZ should have a a 4-laner Auckland to Wellington

35 years later not much has changed.

Well, I suppose as far as Huntly is some sort of progress.

What we need is a Hone Hitler, vote for me when I get home.

Kananaskis was to be our best chance to spot some wildlife

saw 3-4 elk, the others saw a bear down in the water-table

I rode right past it 10 minutes before, missed it completely

then up and over Highwood Pass, 2200m, and rush down to Longview for gas and coffee

country getting better, grassed hills like HB

chatted with a rancher over coffee, hard times for cattlemen, 90c/lb, all they're getting

I shut up about our $3-3.50/kg, which mostly goes US export for burgers

and one of our group is a PaknSave manager, he said he buys-in at $4.

Longview

Unpretentious sort of bloke, faded levi's, tatty jacket, shod in Canadian equivalent of red bands

4000'asl, some snow in winter, but the chinook takes care of it quickly.

We got round to asking how big his operation was

54,000 ac

John's a farmer said one of the guys

but I was already on my way out to my bike.

Then into the Alberta Plains...

speechless again, big rolling country, green with grass 12" high, lim and simm cattle, plus a few angus and hereford

and paddocked herds of mares with foals at foot, by the 50 and 100.

85mph cruising

had a burger combo at Pincher Creek 

then to the US border.

Well..........

as we'd all assembled for lunch, we arrived at the border as one thundering horde

one lady guard turned into 6 glocked-up uniforms, and in we got marched, 2 by 2 for processing

you see, a couple of our people are really fond of their Harley HOG patches, chapter this, rally that

so the shake-down steered to our leader, who had to empty his pockets

and Rabbi and Jan, from PN, had to cough and splutter their affiliations.

Farmer me and the supermarket manager were last to be interviewed

I was a bit worried then about my new leatherman acquisition, and whether the blade met the 3" rule

and you could see they were only just coming round to believing, but not quite, that we were innocents

cant blame them...

but we're here now, US is just a bit tight on assembly and congregation, outside of the sepulchre.

Riding to the Sun Highway

So, on to St Mary, gas up and hang a right into Riding to the Sun Highway, one of the great US rides

bumper to bumper with the tourist season

but I think its great that North Americans have so much to see and do outdoors

and they do it in numbers.

Again a magnificent ride that I have to let the pics describe.

Off to find the blokes now 

lot of pics this day, but will include the rest with next update.