Arrival in Canada was via my usual Port of Entry Calgary.

Immigration was no issue as we discussed why I was late this year ie after the Stampede.

Witin an hour I was at the Riverband A&W car show selling tickets in the 50/50 bto raise money for MS. I am now part of the furniture after making annual appearances over the past 6-7 years in the Mustang with the roof down.

Saturday saw me up early and at Indian Calgary to claim my free gift, sure is a long way to come for a small gift. Well having made the journey dressed in the free T Shirt from their free trade in offer and on my head the $5 Indian clearance cap from last year that I only got on this morning, in fairness it was waiting for 11months at my accommodation.

I and another customer fronted the counter for our free gift. Sorry there was a few early this morning they have gone and the rest were sent as giveaways to Strathmore. Sorry Lady not good enough, we retorted in unision and stood our ground.

She returned from öut the back"with three sets one each for the other customer ,myself and my friend.

Still not satified I was given two free tickets to the Flat Track Championship round that afternoon. I thanked them and also aquired an official team shirt. Well if I was going to the meeting I had to dressed correctly. You may recall I had the opportunity the week before in Wales to throw my leg over the only official Indian FT750, privately owned Flat Tracker.

We left and arrived at my next function the 95th birthday of the neighbour and the 60th of her son. Lots of the community think I lve permanenty in Calgary they see me at these prime events every year.

After the party time was still on myside so a quick dash to the South of Calgary had me at the Strathmore Agricultural Associations showgrounds which were hosting a round of the Canadian Flat Track series.

I was expecting a large crowd to this prestige event but my friend and I were two of the 50+ people in attenndance. The organisers who I spoke to were very disappointed but the media coverage was almost non existent.

Unfortunately only one traditional 750cc V twin was at the meeting. It was a harley Davidson XR750 ridden by a 60yr old who thrashed the opposition most of whom where on modern modified motocross machinery.

I did see one rider on a classic 500 BSA and another on a late 1970's Can Am 250cc two stroke.

Still it was motorcycling and interesting as it strongly resembled what I competed in during the 1970'/80's what we called short circuit racing.

With such a small number in attendance it was easy to strike up conversations with other attendees most of whom where of a similiar age and our stories relived past glories.

Both the outward and return journeys showed the continous growth of Calgary into what were only last year rich farm lands growing wheat and alfa alfa.

Today was Calgary bikeshop visit day as well as Taco Tuesday so I hit The Old Garage to see some of their inventory. Taking my eye were a couple of Hodaka's a 125 and the 250cc Wombat.

Also a very nice early set of Kawasaki trail bikes in 125cc capacityand a two for one pair of 125cc Harley Davidson two strokes from the Italian connection in the 1970's.

My many visits shows a growth in inventory and restoration with an expansion of the workshop and the general tidying up and provision of customer amenties while still retaining the elegance of a small backyard operation still allowing access to the workshop floor.

Blackfoot Motorsports on the other hand is a ultra modern multi brand dealership heavily into motorsport. The free coffee is always on and staff who are long termers want to quiz me about my latest expeditions and the new staff want to meet me.

So the final leg of this epic trip is underway in the usual busy timetable that still fills the level of excitement and expectation that keeps driving my motorcycle trips.