I was quite excited to be leaving in the morning to Calgary where the stampede is being hosted. The stampede is one of Canada’s biggest events where rodeos and country parties fill the city for a week. After solo travelling and staying in Regina I am excited to be in a lively city and seeing my family. The ride to Calgary was a cold and windy ride where the northern winds forced me to stop for more coffee breaks just to warm up. Coupled with the lack of “anything” in the prairies to stop the wind from blowing my bike around made riding a bit of a challenge making a 7hr drive turn into 11hrs of riding.
I decided to play a bit of a game during my last day in the prairies and forced myself to stop at the side of the road and take a few photos to see how the landscape changed every hour of travel. It was no surprise that I couldn’t sort the photos and identify where the photo was taken after a few days. The local small towns were filled with some of the nicest people I have met. Most of the people in the small towns are retired folks that moved from a big city or couples that are keeping a farm nearby and want that sense of community from living in a small town.
After riding for 11hrs in the cold I was excited as I pulled into Calgary. I noticed my bike was acting strange and making weird sounds as I pulled into Calgary but I decided to limp it there since I was only 30mins from my cousins house and after being cold and tired I just wanted to arrive, have a beer and sit on a couch. After I arrived I did a full gauge check on the bike when I realized my bike was run dry on oil. After swearing many times I poured more oil in and tried to turn over the bike to make sure it wasn’t seized. That’s when I realised my bike was leaking oil from the top head and almost caught fire as it was dripping onto the exhaust. Looks like I will be here for a bit longer than expected however I am very grateful to be in a big city where I can get parts and at my family’s place instead of a crappy motel or campsite.
Below are a few photos for my journey approximately every hour. Can you spot the differences
