Today was a pretty easy day. We are definitely getting out of the boonies and back into civilization. The first half of the day we started on the highway toward Edmonton. It was a nice divided 4 lane so were were able to go a bit faster than we have the past few days. We stopped at a rest area after about 100 miles and all we could see the entire way was blue skies and the temperature rising. We peeled off some layers, talked about our route and planned to stop for gas in the next town.

Blue Skies at the Rest Stop

Bill putting on some sun screen

Meanwhile, Lee and Sheri were still in Grand Prairie getting that tire fixed! I saw the screw later, and it was quite a doozy and was wearing the inside of the tire when it got low because it had been bent as the tire went flat. Luckily they were able to patch him up and fix a bad oxygen sensor and get him on the road by 12:30pm.

Today’s route was the first time we had to actually navigate and take a couple different roads to get to our destination. The GPS tried to route us the fastest way through Edmonton, but we wanted to avoid that city so we had to take some back roads. The first exit we needed to take was for 22 South which was in Mayerthorpe. Paul was leading today and I was behind him. He had seen 22 on a GPS about 6 miles through town, but I saw the road sign right before we got into town, so I exited and the whole group followed me. Paul was going too fast and didn’t see us exit, so on he went. Finally after we all pulled over on the side of the exit Paul came rolling back. There may have been an additional route to 22 but we all managed to make it this way.

Waiting on Paul when he missed the turn

At lunch we planned to make one last stop for gas before we got into Red Deer, in a town called Rocky Mountain House. When we got into town, the traffic was pretty thick and Barry and Glen and Cherrie got separated from us. We all pulled off for gas, but they missed us and kept going. We waited for awhile but didn’t see them so we decided to head towards our hotel. We planned to let Taren from HD lead us into Red Deer since it is a bigger city and she had the hotel in her GPS. As we approached the city Paul was going really fast, which he likes to do and got too far ahead of us. Taren knew the turn was coming up so she hung back with the group and led us into the hotel. Luckily, Paul had seen the sign for the Best Western and made it here ok.

The hotel gave us some wash supplies, and some of the crew got their Harleys all shined up.

Motorcycle parking and a bike wash. Good job Best Western Red Deer!

We had a big group dinner and shared stories from the road. There are quite a few of our group that are not staying at the same hotels or towns as me, so hopefully we will all catch up tomorrow in Kalispell.

Group Dinner

The weather forecast is showing thunderstorms late tonight in Montana, I just hope if is after we get settled in for our party. We will also be joined by Lorie Muench from Harley-Davidson, she is a good friend of mine and is our Service Operations Area Representative. More to come tomorrow! If you have any questions about our journey send them to us on facebook and we will try to answer you!

Last Stop for the Day

-Dia