Route update:

An early start out of Havre (Harve), and as we ease out of town, it appears that the roads have gotten a bit twisty, and we’re in for a different kind of riding.

Our riding scenery for the late morning hours.

Not.  That dream lasted fully 2 miles before the road lay out before us in one long, straight, flat line.

We didn’t think it could get more wide open.  It did.  Today’s vistas were the biggest and best so far.  We could see forever.  You can actually see several weather paterns playing out across the horizon as entirely visible trains plow their way through the deep colors in perfectly straight lines.  Have you ever seen an entire 100+ car double-stacked train snaking it’s way through the wilds?  Today we did.  Awesome.

Our riding environment for most of the day.

The day was more of the same until turned north in Shelby and found ourselves on the most desolate stretch of interstate I have every seen – I-29.  We would literally go 5-10 miles without seeing another car.  It was tempting to wave at cars the way all motorcyclists wave to each other – sort of a recognition of an shared bond.

The ride through Canada to Calgary was actually very pretty, but we are DONE with the planes.  Get us to the mountains!  There was one nice element to the drive – the seas of yellow flowers were truly amazing.  Check them out:

Fields of yellow.

More yellow.

We finally found our way to Calgary with plans to get to Jasper later in the day.  On the far side of Calgary, we stopped at a Starbucks (those wily caffein fairies) because rain was coming and timed it perfectly.  As we stopped, the skies unleashed, and by the time we were done with coffee, the skies were mostly clear again welcoming us to move onto the mountains.  This was a big relief as the skies had looked incredibly ominous just half an hour earlier.

Calgary, is a seriously rocking town these days.  EVERYTHING was under construction, and there is clearly a massive suburban boon going on with all the usual high end US suspects plus uniquely Canadian stores including Boston Pizza (does Boston do pizza?) and Tim Hortons, which are everywhere.  It’s sort of a bummer seeing that kind of development going on up there, but such is life these days…

We decided that we’d have a relatively easy day (still over 420 miles) and stay in Banff.  We pulled off of Trans-Canada Highway into Banff.  Wow has it changed since I was last there.  It looks now like the Dells, Niagara Falls and

Ok, I admit, this one is slightly doctored. No, we are not in some post-armageddon netherworld. Just Canada.

Aspen got together for some kinky threesome while they were all at Bonnaroo, and Banff was their unwanted love child.  We took a run down the street with thought of staying, but we just couldn’t do it.  Why do people go on vacation and then shop in the same cookie-cutter stores that they have at home?  So strange.

So, we decided to plow ahead to either Jasper or somewhere in between if we found it.  And find it we did.  We saw signs for Lake Louise, and I remembered stopping there shortly on a fly fishing trip back in 1995 with some friends, so we pulled off the Trans-Can and headed up to the main lodge, and wow were we glad we did.  The mountains opened up and poked through snow-capped tops as we curved our way back to the lodge.

The ride up was pretty magical.  It had started to drizzle just enough to coat the road and trees and bring out the evergreen smell – it hit us both with wild open eyes and amazement.

Welcome to our world for the night.

As Brad said, “it smelled like Christmas dude!”  Totally did.  And we drive past all those poor saps with their windows up missing out on this perfect moment.  Suckers.

The lodge wanted $700 for a room, which, if you can believe it, was slightly more than we were willing to pay, so we found a great little place about 1 k from the lodge and did a quick change and headed back to the lodge for a romantic dinner.

Our humble abode for the evening.

While we were there, we met Kathryn, who was very kind to us, but due to the lodges very strict rules against guest fraternization, she was unable to join me for a drink (or she just didn’t want to, we’ll never know – hi Kathryn if you’re reading this!).  I bring this up not just because I enjoy looking the fool, but also because it reinforces the rules culture that I am always stunned by in Canada.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Canada and the people, and I mean no disrespect, but I get that nanny state feeling a lot.  For example, while in Banff, I rode a couple block without my helmet on, and people on the street were yelling at me!

Say hello to Kathryn.

What?  There seem to be fences around everything so that people don’t hurt themselves, and there’s just a general ethos of protection.  And at the lodge, there are these fantastic patios overlooking the incredible view of Lake Louise.  Well, because it had rained earlier, no one was allowed to sit out there.  Yea, the lodge is full, everyone is there to see the view, and no one was allowed on the patio.  I asked a server if we could just take drinks out there, and he looked at me like I just peed on the floor.  He said, “Well, if we let you out there with a drink, people will go order their food at the bar and take it out side.”  No.  The horror.  Could you imagine?  Cats, dogs living together.  It’s unimaginable.  Well, being the jackasses we are, we made our way out there anyway and enjoyed the view to ourselves.

Bikes in front of Lake Louise Lodge

Well, we enjoyed ourselves a bit too much that evening. But the great room in our hotel was just awesome, and the wine tasted really good.

The romantic evening continues at home. Jennifer, you can have him back.

This morning came early as I was testing Brad over and over to beg for another hour, but my texts wouldn’t go through.  Oh well we were burning sunlight anyway.

Unfortunately, not a lot of time to write today.  I do promise more stories, but we’re trying to get in some miles.  At least the updates are coming through.  I’ll wrap up with some views from Lake Louise.

From the empty patios.

Awesome.

The dudes.

Today was yellow day.

Slightly altered, but you get the idea. Amazing view.

You know how I am with self-portraits.