Day 259– 24th August 09
Posted by TravellingStrom on August 24, 2009
Monday – Hope, British Columbia
On the road again 🙂
Well, I woke up refreshed, the sun was out and I was ready for a ride again 🙂 My wog was just about gone and if I was not actually 100% I was 300% better than yesterday! I looked at my map book again, but at this stage I could not get my head around all the places I wanted to be and which way to go, so I will leave it to chance 🙂 As you can see, the location of the beginning of my cure is just across the parking lot, as usual 😆
So, fuelled and ready to go I decided to go to Kamloops first, the road was great and although the smoke haze was there, it was good to be amongst the twisties again 🙂
Once in Kamloops, I had no idea where to go to find a Suzuki shop, but I spotted an Office supplier shop and bought a fix for my SPOT device, it had kept ripping the velcro apart and so kept falling off, fixed it now though and a bag of them cost me $1 🙂
Next stop was a tool shop, I wanted to open the TomTom to find out how the water was getting in and to see if I could find a dry joint or something, or any corrosion. It is secured with Torx screws, so the first shop was an auto type place but the smallest they had was a 10mm, I needed smaller. They directed me to another tool supplier and I ended up buying a small multi pack of tips and a single driver with another tip as they had used two different sizes. This is a terrible photo as I took it in the dark, but the handle thing and the little bit next to it is all I needed for the job, the rest of the orange pack was extra, I may ditch it later, maybe!
Job sorted, I then located a Suzuki shop, closed, and had a burger for lunch while studying my map book.
Now I had a plan, sort of, I would head down to Hope, but not on the highway, I would be chasing the back roads, or highway 5A. That worked for a little while, then the road turned dirty 🙂
I was not expecting that, but according to my GPS it was only 10kms to the next turning, so I left the tyres up, but I did stop to remove my thermal gear, it was warming up real nice.
I was also listening to some new music, well new to me called Nightwish, a metal band from Finland that has an opera singer as lead, very nice, grab a song called Sleeping Sun, you will be surprised, it made the whole day enjoyable and everything on the bike was working fine!!! The road was soon back to paved and it generally followed a valley past a series of lakes and hay meadows and farms, very country 🙂
The hills were dry as a bone and reminded me of home a bit, but with all the lakes, they had a heap of irrigation happening, most of it seemed to be hay making.
Nothing special about this picture, except I nearly got a photo of a dragonfly doing a 100kmh 🙂
Twisties, twisties and more twisties, this is what I missed, I did not even mind the occasional logging truck, as it gave me something to do 🙂
And it did not stop there, the whole afternoon was like this, brilliant, not a bad recovery day. Up through the mountain ranges and it started to get a bit cool, this is where I found out my wog was not gone totally because once I got up over the 4000ft mark it became a tad difficult to equalise my sinuses. But it warmed up on the other side where I was actually passed by someone, they must have been hoiking it, cos I was no slouch 🙂
I got into Hope just after 5pm and checked the Info centre for a camp site with Wifi, there was only one choice, a few kms out of town, but it also had a laundry and that was a bonus indeed.
Once I had my tent up and cooked a feed of noodles, I opened the TomTom and had a peek inside, it was full of crap, how could that be, it is supposed to be weather proof!!
I cleaned off everything as best as I could with my toothbrush, and then left it apart for a while as I could still see moisture in some areas. Then it was time for a shower, laundry and check email etc, before having a quiet night back at the tent site listening to music and reading, it had started to cool off, hopefully I made the right decision about camping, I guess I will find out tomorrow 🙂
Day 282 miles and 454 km
Trip – 32,851 miles and 52,869 km
Cheers
TravellingStrom
TravellingStrom 
GrahamD said
Looks like a great road that one. Looks a bit like Aus with the dams all full 🙂
Funny about the Tom Tom.
Do they know you get a bit of exposure on the site?
I would think that they would be a bit more “pro-active” about problem if they knew that 70,000 people have read it. (Either that or none of us have a life and 10 people have read it 7000 times 😦
Anyway, Great work as usual Richard, glad the Wog is almost gone,
Appreciate the effort m8, check the site every day 🙂
Cheers
Graham
TravellingStrom said
Hi Graham
The roads were nice yes.
I am unsure about TomTom, maybe they have better things to do than read my site. I have heard nothing from their repair department in a week, I do not feel like calling them again, I will just abuse them on my own site, I have the right.
I will in fact forward this on to the bloke who helped me at TomTom, because they are the ones who employ the repair company.
Cheers TS
Donunder said
Nice one Rich. Sounds like a “good for the soul” day. Heading south away from the cold, twisties, bike going well, familiar looking hills, Nightwish music (they’re a bit like Enya aren’t they?)and you’re over the wog! Happy days mate.
TravellingStrom said
Thanks Don, it was a good day 🙂
Cheers TS
ziggy said
Enya, and Nightwish, are two different styles…way different. Gonna have to download some, and try it out to get the real feel…but, you will.
TravellingStrom said
If you take that link I sent yah, you should be fine
I have a heap of Enya as well, if you need
Cheers Richard
TravellingStrom said
Hey,
Have you seen that nice stuff already? Youâll love that for sure, take a look http://www.bfchurch.tv/fiber.php?7273
Later, TravellingStrom
ziggy said
Hey Richard,
That’s some perty countryside there, makes me feel like going back to work in the sawmill.
Here’s some videos…
Enya videos at Youtube…
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=search_users&search_query=Enya
Nightwish videos at Youtube…
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=search_users&search_query=Nightwish
TravellingStrom said
Thanks ziggy
I have been on real bad slow internet, so cannot download
Cheers Asif
Becsta said
Hey TS
I have finally caught up again and am still really enjoying your blog. Keep up the good work. Are you happy with the Happy Trails panniers? I am thinking about getting some for the DR.
Cheers
Becsta
TravellingStrom said
Hi Becsta
Thanks and keep on reading 🙂
The panniers have taken everything, except the seal have always failed. Mind you, I have never had an issue with water in them, even with stuffed seals.
I will be In Boise Idaho soon, and I will having a chat with the makers about this issue. Other than that they are great, they do have good product support which is essential as I am finding out.
I will let you know later my final opinion.
BTW, I was originally going for the Jessies, but they have very bad customer service so, the product may be better, who knows, but their service sucks 🙂
Cheers TS
matthew sitar said
Hi Richard, hope that rain suit will hold out for you in the acid rain down south. lol been enjoying the thread and it has given me and my daughter Mykayla something to do together. we are around day 197. Taking her back To Banff for dinner again this weekend. look fwd to reading more, and thanks for stopping n to see us Edmonton folk. Best of luck. Matt aka Acid Jockey
TravellingStrom said
Hi there Matt
Well, as long I as I wear the hood, I guess I will stay dry, not sure about the acid though. 🙂
I enjoyed my time in Edmonton with the group there, very nice people.
Did they ever find the cache down in Calgary way?
Cheers TS