Leg 5

6/1/2014
Norm's Ride
Jasper, AB to Dawson Creek, AB

I was freezing cold all night last night even though I had my heavy down sleeping bag.  It was a restless night trying different things to stay warm. When everyone else awoke, they were as cold as I was.  We broke camp and packed up as quickly as we could and headed into Jasper to fuel up and have breakfast.  The temperature was rising and after a hearty breakfast we started to Dawson Creek and the beginning of the Alaska Highway. 

I was following behind GoRo (Roberta) and not long after we got on the road I started seeing patches of something yellow flying out from underneath her bike.  Did she run over something?  Then I saw the same yellow “thing” wrapping itself around her rear wheel.  Maybe a snake?  She must have felt it, too, because she pulled over.   We jumped off the bikes and discovered that the yellow t­-shirt that she had stuffed down by her seat had flown off and gotten caught in her wheel.  She was very lucky.  It could have been a real disaster.  Cliff, her husband, cut off the t-shirt and I stuffed it under my spider web.  Back on the road again.

The day was uneventful until after lunch when we started down the road. Cliff pulled over and discovered his brake line was rubbing against his front tire.  He fixed that and we resumed riding.  Further down the road we discovered that both Roberta and Cliff were missing in action.  Rain clouds were looming so we decided to keep riding and let them catch up to us.  Before long sprinkles began falling, then rain, then hail.  Ouch!  No Roberta, no Cliff.  Mike turned around and rode back some distance looking and waiting for them, while Jeff, John and I waited at a gas station.  Then Mike returned to the gas station without any sign of them.  We waited.....and waited...and waited.  Eventually we saw headlights and then Cliff and Roberta appeared.  Thank goodness.  Cliff’s muffler had vibrated loose and he had stopped and was trying to fix it.  It needed more repair, but we thought he could make it to Dawson Creek, so off we went again. This day is turning into a comedy of errors!

Finally, Dawson Creek. Hotel here we come.  We stopped at a Super 8, but they wanted $180 a room.  Not gonna happen.  John, the youngest one of the group and most tech savvy, pulled out his cell phone and started searching for another location.  He found one just down the road, so off we went. Well, the hotel clerk was Chinese and didn’t speak very good English.  Jeff and I tried to explain to him that we wanted to share the cost of a room, so we gave him two credit cards.  He understood that, but he also did the same thing for Cliff and Roberta who paid in cash, and John and Mike charging them half price each. They didn’t realize that.  My paper map was falling apart so I returned to the front desk asking for some tape to repair my map.  He wanted to know where the other people were that didn’t pay.  I looked at him questioningly trying to figure out what he meant.  Roberta’s an accountant, so I left to find her and brought her back.  The short of it is, she figured out what he was saying and got everything straightened out.  Whew! What a struggle.  Good job, GoRo.
Cliff still needed parts to fix his muffler so, mistakenly, he asked the clerk if he knew where an auto parts store was.  The clerk stared at him blankly.  Didn’t know.  So Cliff took off searching for any place that might carry parts. He found two places, but they were closed.  Now the plan was to be at the parts store exactly at 8:00am the next morning when they opened.  We all hoped that would happen and that we could be on the road again at a reasonable hour.

- Ed Note: The crew is so far north now that communication is difficult. Photos are not being sent. The posts may come several at a time, then nothing for a few days. As soon as I receive the posts I will post them, but pictures will follow at a future date. -KB