Saturday – Cache Creek, British Columbia

Well, more electronic problems plagued me overnight. The TomTom got water in it during the rain storm yesterday arvo. I noticed it when I was going to update it online, the water came out of the lid at the bottom 😦 It would not even turn on, so I had sat the hair dryer in front of it and that seemed to work after an hour or so. There was more water this morning, it is supposed to be waterproof, I think the water got in through the on/off button thing on the side because there is no way water can go upwards through the bottom flap! Anyway after dealing with this and packing all my now nearly dry gear away, I headed south, I did not know where to, just south at this stage, my flue was worse and I felt like crap.

Between traffic delays and another electronic problem it took me ages to get to Quesnel. My Camos Bluetooth transmitter kept switching off and of course my GPS was not looking good at all, it kept losing satellites, so it was next to useless. Not my best day on a bike yet, but I got into Quesnel around lunch time and found a bank that was open and got some Canadian cash for a change, better than using US dollars and getting ripped off 🙂 I stocked up with food at a supermarket and then while looking for a servo found a fish and chip shop, and they served proper fish and chips, not what they call chips in the states, it was real good 🙂

Fuelled up again I went on south with some reasonable scenery, but I have been spoilt by now 🙂 There are a lot of lakes around here and I stopped at Williams Lake to check out some info at the Visitors centre.

Now, I had a choice here, I could go west to Bella Coola and then take the ferry to the north end of Vancouver Island, or head south to Kamloops. Now, after checking out the prices, the decision was made for me. I would have paid the $150 for me, just a chair to sleep in, I mean I had done it to cross the Tasman back home, but no way was I paying another $150 for the bike, that is an extreme rip off , sorry I am not doing it. If it was around $80, then it may have been worth it. I was also in need of an oil change so this diversion would not be a good thing, so, I headed south into the road works and smoke haze, after emptying more water out of the GPS!

I got into Cache Creek and was not really interested in going any further, I needed to have a rest, so I found a cheapish motel and settled in. This is where I found out it is Saturday, and I am too late for any bike shops around, that also means no bike shops open until Tuesday probably, so no oil change. The Mounties were not after me, they were maybe going to buy up the remaining rooms for evacuees from the fires that are burning out of control near here.

So I sorted out the GPS by doing some more drying out, hopefully that will be it with no lasting damage(I doubt it, wet and electronics equals death sooner or later). You may be thinking it is all doom and gloom lately, well there has been a nice ray of sumshine over the course of the past week or so. Remember me saying that PacSafe sent a new tank bag base to Anchorage but it was not there, well after some more emailing back and forth I got a pleasant surprise. I had mentioned to Jen that California is my last chance of a ‘reliable’ mail drop before going into South America. I had also said if I could pay some money I would like to get a new tank bag as the top lid zipper was failing as well, I posted a picture the other day on the 17th when I first mentioned this possiblity. Well, Jen came through with the goods and at no cost to me is having a brand new bag sent to Ziggy in California, how cool is that 🙂 Thanks very much Jen, a great company to deal with and great products too.

After answering all the emails and comments I had some dinner and decided to fix the flue with my old remedy, only they had no rum worth drinking over here! The bar was empty, everyone had gone to the drags up the road about 5kms, I did not feel like seeing the inside of a Canadian court, so I stayed here and had a couple of beers chatting with Chris the bargirl, soon some more people turned up and it turned into a good evening. So, part one of the flue buster was working anyway 🙂 Part two tomorrow 🙂

Day 290 miles and 467 km
Trip – 32,569 miles and 52,415 km

Cheers
TravellingStrom