It has been a long time since we went on the road together, and ALOT of stuff has happened since August 21st, 2016.

Both Bill and I suffered some health issues, ironically both related to toes. I won't bore you with the full gory details of my experience but I endured 89 days of IV antibiotics and missed the amputation of my right big toe by the slimest of margins!

Bill had legionairres disease shortly after our trip, infect by the stagnant water in his fountain, then a rare form of Melonoma; Acral Lentiginous, the same cancer that killed Bob Marley at a young age. Bill's case had a better outcome, the amputation of the little piggy who had roast beef.

Ultimately the lesson I learned was twofold; one I am not 25 anymore and I need to actually take care of myself, and two, without your health, you got nuthin! Fat bank account? Garage full of toys? Doesn't mean s*** if you can't get out of bed in the morning.

So the Summer of 2018 has been greatly anticipated, and it is finally here. My last event was The taste of Edmonton, FMAV did the band stage, videowalls, site audio and site network infrastructre. Ended up being 15 straight days, outside, in the elements, 10 -12 hours a day. By the time it ended I was ready for a break!

I should also mention that The Rocket had been in the shop for 5 weeks prior with an ignition problem. It went in on a hook June 26 when it inexplicably went dead key one day as I emerged from a business I was running an errand at. As I had not made an appointment they kinda had to look at it when they could, and it was fully 2 weeks before they could.

They identified a short in the bundle of wires going to the ignition module, plus it needed tires and fork seals, both victims of the 2016 'North to Alaska!' ride. The AL & YK roads took their toll on hardware as well as the soft ware. Ultimately I got it back the day prior, on time and under budget.

Bill had come to Edmonton from Penticton earlier in the week for a Doctors appointment (cus he takes care of himself!) and we met at the Dechant Compound at 1430 ready for a preplanned 1500 departure. I got home from work at 1400 and packed the bike, gathered my cameras etc and after shooting a short departure video we left on time, mostly.

Taking the Anthony Henday we were about 10 minutes and 5 km into our journey when the 'Check Engine' light illuminated on my tachometer dial. WTF? I called Echo Cycle and my good friend and service manager said come right over. Well, they are about 45 km away at that point but while I might drive the last 500 km home with a warning light, I don't want to drive the first 500 KM like that.

We got to Echo about 45 minutes later and they took me right in. Kurt shot the diagnostic code and ithe computer came up with; the secondary throttle body thingy was frammin at the jim jam and fripping in the krotz. An obscure reference to the Wizard of Id, but accurate. What makes that even more accurate is that The Rocket doesn't even have the secondary throttle body thingy. So Kurt had to reprogram the bike's computer to ignore the error.

Now that is not the kind of fix I like, the work around, especially when I am on the cusp of embarking on our journey. But, we are literally on the cusp, bikes are packed, we're leathered up, we're stoked. Took a couple of hours but we were ready to go by 1800. Chris sent us on our way without charge and we departed into a light rain.

I asked what to do if the warning light returned and he confirmed I could ignore it. I have been ignoring a check engine light in the Lincoln for 6 months now, so I am prepared to do that. I find a strategically placed peice of electrical tape can set the mind at ease!

We followed the Henday around until we got to Highway 2 and headed southbound. We were in sunshine, and rush hour traffic, but we were, wait for it: "On The Road Again!" We were hoping to get to the Lazy J Mo'tel in Clareshold, about a 4 hour ride from Edmonton.

As we approached Lacombe you could see a large dark rain wall ahead. As I am now a grown up I pulled over to don my rain suit. OK, OK, maybe I wouldn't have actually put mine on, but I didn't want my poor judgement to prevent Bill from putting his on. Surprisingly Bill declined to put on his rain suit as well, he also surprised me by suggesting we stop in Red Deer! I hadn't thought of that, and never would have suggested it myself, but I was game for it!

We were gonna get wet, but only had about 20 minutes of riding left. 30 seconds after sdtarting off we were in the rian, more vicuous was the wind, hard from the right, down low, trying to push the bike out from underneath you. Driving straight was accomplished by leaning hard to the right. Sheets of purple lightning filled the sky overhead. It was pretty scary! The rain abated somwhat as we passed by Red Deer, ultimately stopping by the time we got to Gasoline Alley, stopping at a mo'tel advertising rooms for $60.00. A welcome sight as I was shivering violently. Having driven in rain all over North America I would have to say Alberta rain is the coldest! By way of comparison Gulf Coast rain is toasty warm!

The nice check in lady, I noticed Bill opened our conversation with my line "Hello, nice lady", recommended a nearby bar that we went to and had great pizza and wings, alos brewski's and wineski's in great abundance. Wobbling slightly we made our way home and were in, separate, beds by 2200ish! The plan was for an 0900 departure, our negotiated Crack of Bill.

Day One

Edmonton, AB to Red Deer, AB

5 hrs, 271 kms