Bye Bye Edmonton... for now!

I finally left cousin Rosemarie in peace at about 8.30 this morning. In spite of us both being up by about 6am I just couldn’t find the oomph to rush about for an early get away. So I pulled away from the Lion Apartments straight into the melee of the Edmonton rush hour. To be honest “rush hour” is somewhat of an exaggeration, as nobody seems to rush anywhere and compared to the frenetisism of say, a London or  Hanoi rush hour, it just sort of ambles along… First stop was to be the Elk Lake Provincial Park to say hello to the buffalos. Then north to Warspite before turning… well either east or west! I still hadn’t fully made up my mind. Even though I had spent the best part of Tuesday planning my route east back to Halifax, I had this nagging within me of unfinished business. So far I had missed out on Route 66, The Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore and even the entirety of Alaska; it was not a good feeling after spending so long planning and dreaming, then spending so much money on getting me and the bike across the Atlantic; no, I definitely wasn’t a happy bunny.

Whilst in the Park, I pulled over to have a look at my maps just as another biker pulled in from the opposite direction. I couldn't believe my eyes; it was another BMW R100 GSPD, just like mine. It even had the Touratech panniers. Ted, who was from  Medicine Hat, BC, had spent the night in the Parks camp site and was on his way to Labrador where he was going to scatter his mothers ashes. The coincidences just kept coming; He worked for the Canadian Defence department at a facility adjacent to a huge British Training base. His work involved research into the effects of IED’s in terms of the non-lethal trauma caused by the blasts where there has been no significant injury. We must have talked for at least an hour before exchanging emails and saying our good byes!

Ted had in fact just come down from northern Alberta, the area where the forest fires were at their worst. He told me that although there was plenty of smoke around, most of the road were OK to use. I really didn't need a second invitation; west it was to be! So tonight I am camped at Hilliard’s Bay Provincial Park, north west of Edmonton and just shy of High Prairie after a day's run of just over 350 miles.

I struggled a bit with dinner, as in spite of stopping at 4 supermarkets, including a Wall Mart, I just couldn't find any salad stuff, fresh vegetables or even fresh meat other than 1 onion and two tomatoes which were just about OK! In the end I also found a large smoked sausage, so it was a slightly strange mixture of onion, garlic, sliced sausage with chopped tomatoes and pasta in a curry sauce,   washed down with a cold can of Canadian beer and rounded off with a few fresh cherries which Rosemarie had packed me off with it should do me nicely till breakfast!

Tomorrow will see me onwards and upwards and back into the northern reaches of British Columbia before dropping down a little and then swinging north into the Yukon.