This morning was sunshine and just a little bit of cloud cover … so started the day with no long johns, no chaps, no fleece vest, light-weight socks. Was great. We did get some wind, but not too bad.


I am having the same problem I have every trip, though. My nose takes a beating. No matter how much sunscreen and make-up I put on it, it gets burned. What can ya do?

Grain elevators are all over.  They always have a name of
some sort on them.  Cool architecture.

Rode Highway 16 to Saskatoon, and figured we'd visit the shop there. Plenty of flowers, little yellow ones, and some wild roses along the way. Makes it look pretty. The ride today was mainly farmland and pasture, gently rolling hills, barns, silos. No mountains. Overall pretty flat but green, and lovely. In several places there was a lot of water off to the side of the road where you could tell water normally was not. There has been flooding down in some of these areas, and lots of rain. Glad we missed that. It must have rained really hard, though, for there to still be so much in some places. The wind blew the entire time, but we're used to that due to our training on Turnagain Arm.

Barns can be truly beautiful buildings, too.

What's been interesting in the farmland, is there are never crops planted, hardly any farm equipment and no irrigation equipment. There were only a few cows, and some horses. I don't quite understand all the land, but nothing growing.

We did pass through some oil country. There were a few little derricks, or whatever they call those things that look like those little bobbing birds, dipping their heads up and down. You could smell it as you rode by. Where we stayed last night had a lot oilfield people, too.

Saw a flock of cranes. Knew they were big birds from a distance, but couldn't tell until we were right under them. Then you could see their little legs sticking out behind … don't look up.

Stopped in Battlefords, starving. Had breakfast/lunch at a place called the Country Cuisine. Great food.

I had a Mexican skillet that was absolutely awesome.

We each parked in a different spot, with one left in between us. A couple of different cars parked in that spot at various time. The only thing I could think of was, “Do these bikes make their car look good?”

So, what do you think?  Does it look better?

We also picked up the French word of the day. Pure orange marmalade = marmalade d'orange pur. What I'm wondering, though, is if it were a licensed dining room. The other day I saw a sign on the outside of a restaurant that said that. Of course, that restaurant did not appear to have any patrons, or even be open. Our restaurant today did not appear to be licensed, and was excellent. So what is in this licensing thing?

Riding down the road you see things that no one else would even look at. Jaz and I were riding the right-hand lane. Up on our left came a little blue car … model unknown. A little white-haired lady was driving. In the passenger seat was an old white-haired guy. The seat was laid down and his head was lolling against the back, his mouth open. All I could think about was the movie “Weekend at Bernie's” which was about a couple of guys invited to a rich guy's (Bernie) house for the weekend, and then he dies. So they end up carting Bernie around even though he's dead so they can have their weekend of fun. Anyway, the car with the guy (probably sleeping, but who knows), made me think of that silly old movie.

There are other little tricks to riding … for instance, how to put on chapstick while rolling on down the road. Cruise control is very useful for this, if you have it. I keep one hand on the handlebars, and with the other open the zipper in my jacket and remove the chapstick. Sometimes I can get the top off; sometimes I can't. When that happens I use my teeth to remove and hold the cap while I chapstick up around it. Then reverse to put the cap back on and return it to the pocket. You can do the same with water bottles. I usually have one behind me bungy corded on that I can reach behind and get. Of course, I can't get it back under the bungy cord, so I just put it inside my jacket, my shirt, or the back of my jeans. It's much more difficult when you're riding in wind. Do not attempt this stunt. Only licensed professionals are trained to perform these acts.

We stopped for photos and the bikes were leaned over pretty far on a slanted piece of highway. The only way to get them back upright is to give the old road goddess war cry and heave them up straight. I would expect one could get a hernia. But hollering while lifting helps a lot. Any holler will do. But only females can do the road goddess war cry. Sexist? Yep, you betcha, ya sure.

Made it to Saskatoon. As we were pulling into town I was listening to the radio and they were talking about a fund-raising event. Wayne Gretzky was to be there, and Scotty Bowman, the coach of the Detroit Red Wings for years. You could skate with the guys and all. It was going to be at the Credit Union Center. Cool. Then we passed right by the place. Scotty is originally from Montreal, but was going to be around Saskatoon and do the benefit. At least that's what someone at the Harley shop said. Would be a fun thing to do if you're into hockey at all. And this Canada place is all about hockey. Go Red Wings!!!

Jaz and I went in the shop and were looking around. As usual, we talk to people. I was talking to a guy who said he works at the Harley Tomahawk plant. He said he had a couple of shirts to trade, so I ended up trading a new shirt I'd not worn yet from Soldotna. I now am the proud owner of a Tomahawk Plant shirt. The shirts he had are only available to employees, so I truly am proud to be a recipient.

Tomahawk Bill is pointing to the label that shows the number of the person who has completed that job.  Jaz and I were so disappointed to not find his number on the places we checked.  That would havejust been to cool to know that he had done some of the work on our bikes.  But we still have other places to check once we get the bikes totally unloaded at some point.

Tomahawk Bill (so he is not confused with my Biker Bill) and his wife, Debbie, were doing a little traveling, too. We talked some more and he said that he was trained to do nine various jobs at the plant, including painting, pinstriping, buffing and assemblying saddlebags. Each person has a number and it's on the little labels inside each piece of the bikes. So we went and looked at some of Jaz's and my bags, but his number was not on any of the ones we could get to. However, he recognized one of the numbers and said he knew that person. Tomahawk Bill's number is 64409. So you can all go look at the white labels inside bags and tour packs and such to see if he has done one of yours.

The young ladies at the shop were very helpful, and even got water for us two old gals who looked desperately in need of a drink. It helped us cool down so we could continue shopping. Shopping is hard work, too, and it's easy to work up a sweat in power-shopping mode.
From the shop we headed to a gas station so we could continue on toward Regina. While we were getting the credit cards loaded, up pulls a motorcycle policeman on a white bagger police bike. He had seen us and noticed our yellow license plates. He knew they were from either Alaska or Oregon, so followed us in. He, Constable Al, was very nice. We had an excellent visit and off he went.

Constable Al and me with his beautiful police bike. 

Once we left Saskatoon it got way more windy. But the fun did not cease. We were riding down the road and this vehicle pulls over and two guys get out, on a run toward a hill. Wondering what they're doing, of course, we're watching. One gets to the side of the little hill and starts piddling. So, we knew what they were up to. What we don't know is why they had to get to the hill, why they had to draw attention to themselves, and why they didn't just go behind the vehicle, like the guy we saw yesterday. I'd thought that guy had a car problem when I saw the big wet spot by the car. Then realized it wasn't a car problem, but a bladder problem. It's difficult not to do things like that along side the road here. The few rest stops there are don't have washrooms. So ya do what ya gotta do. I do not have photo support for this, and am thankful for that.
We stopped at Craik, the “friendliest little town by a dam site.”

You can't see the entire name, "Craik, the friendliest place by a dam site.l"

We had an ice cream and decided to go down Highway 2 to Moose Jaw to spend the night. We liked the name of the town, and it was also larger and would have hotel/motels.

I saw another coyote today, just a few miles from Chamberlain on Highway 11. This one was laying down about 10 feet from the edge of the road, where the mowed grass and the unmowed meet. His body was in the longer stuff but you could see him. He was just laying there watching traffic go by, cooling off. Was very neat to see.
Turned south on Highway 2. The wind was way worse than it had been, and to make matters worse, it appeared to be a truck route, so we had to fight the wind as well as the turbulence thrown up by the trucks. At one point, we had two oncoming trucks one behind the other. It made for a white-knuckle moment being tossed around by it all. Then we crossed into a little valley and it was peaceful for a few seconds, then out into the wind and onto a bridge where whitecaps were whipping up the water on Buffalo Pound Lake. It made for an exciting ride. I've now got an over-developed muscle in my left arm from fighting the wind all day.

This is in a park near the hotel where we stayed. 
It's part of a little amphitheater.

Here we are in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

Flower photos are always a must for a post.  These were in the park.

It's a beautiful little town, and we went for a walk prior to coming back to the room to do the blog job. We save some of the best fun for last.  I have heard that we are not moving quickly enough on the Spot Tracker, we are not riding out early enough in the morning, we are eating too much, spending time shopping when we could be riding, and not getting the posts up quickly enough.  So, does that make us slackers.  Nah!!  This riding and blogging is a hard job; you work up an appetite for both eating and shopping ... but Jaz and I are truly up to the task, no matter how long it takes us, or the sacrifices we have to make when stopping for ice cream.  Seems like it's been midnight every night for me to get it all done.   But we have deadlines to meet. 

There's a little waterfall in the park, so you know who had to have
her photo taken. I'm wearing my new Tomahawk Plant T-shirt. 
Thank you, Tomahawk Bill and wife Debbie.

Some of the benches in the park are in memory of people.  I liked
this one because she was their 'bright star forever shining.'  What
a beautiful tribute to a loved one.

I cannot pass up an opportunity to take photos of ducks. 
Especially a lovely mama with her young ones.

They're just really pretty birds.

My favorites have always been the mallards, greenheads.

And yet another duck photo.

Last one for tonight.

Welcome Judy K, Kathy F, Alvin, Robin. Rode with Judy K last year and she had a Spot tracker, so that's why we have one. And Kathy F a former Chugach Electric co-worker and my wonderful biker friends Alvin and Robin.

I also want to thank the others of you who started following this earlier, before I even knew the path it would take, Biker Bill, Daisy Korn, Dave in Texas, Jaz, Jim, Jo Ann, Kendra in Georgia, Rachael in Hawaii, Rebecca, Rosie, Sabrina, Uncle Glen.

And so, dear friends and family, we are all in for tonight.