A song is in order

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSt0NEESrUA

 

I always liked that song, and his other two hits, Sink the Bismarck and Battle of New Orleans. I tried to find that CD in Des Moines before we left but no one had it in stock. So I ordered a copy from an eBay store and received it in the mail the day before we left. On our way up to Alaska, each morning as we packed up, I played North to Alaska on the Ultra. We were so pumped for this trip we even had a small banner made that said 'North to Alaska' and attached it to the tailbag on the Tour Pac luggage rack. Chriss, after hearing the song in the morning and seeing the banner when he was behind us, said he had that song in his head all day.

 

I did get both my front and rear tires replaced at Prince George HD on my return trip from Alaska. The price for the rear tire was $221.95 which is the Canadian MSRP from Harley. I also had my engine and primary oil changed so the labor was all together. It was either there or Calgary for me as my rear tire had some nasty cuts in it from the Dalton trip. Len Hall, the owner, did take the time to do, by himself, the tire & oil change on a Sunday afternoon for me. I thought that was great service from a dealer and I was happy to pay for that kind of service!! I just found that everything in Canada was so much more expensive than the US. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me when the US and Canada dollars are about on par!

Web link to my daily blog and pics:

http://powhatanfarm.spaces.live.com/

 

Hey Doug, You played that song when you were getting ready to leave our place. It sounded good. When I came in I chuckled and said to Rhonda you were loading the bike, tunes were playing you must be close to hitting the road again Hello Jim.

 

Hello Hermann!! Funny, I had this same song on my bike too (along with a lot of others!!).

As a side note, they were mp3s on a SD card on my Zumo 550. My Zumo failed on this trip so I lost hearing all my tunes!! Had to use my ole paper maps, which wasn't all that bad. Looks like the touch screen digitizer is bad. I have a new one ordered to try and replace myself.

 

Jim, the parts guy at Prince George told me their cost on that $221.00 MSRP tire is $138.00.

 

I know it’s supposed to be back in the USSR, but that Beatles song was going through my head all day. We got a good start out of Merritt, getting on the road at 7:30 am. We took 97 south and then 5A to Princeton. 5A is a great road. Not much traffic with lots of curves. The road goes through small mountains dotted with lakes, a few B & B’s and a couple dude ranches. We hit Hwy. 3 and drove through Osoyoos. This is fruit country and we stopped at a fruit stand and bought some apricots, peaches and cherries. Fresh, delicious cherries were $1.00 a pound.
We arrived at the border and found only a ten minute line of cars. Here at this border crossing point the border agents were opening the trunks of all the vehicles. When it was our turn, she just asked a few questions and let us pass. It’s kind of sad; years ago they would have looked through our saddlebags and stuff. How it has changed, at least for these two Harley riders. I guess now we’re just a couple of harmless looking middle-aged bikers. Gas on the American side was $3.35. We went another 30 miles to Omak and got gas for $3.15. Omak is on Hwy. 97 and 97 follows the Columbia River. The whole area is fruit country and where there is fruit, there are Mexicans picking the fruit. So in Omak we looked for a busy taco trailer and we each had a taco, a tostado and a bottle of Mexican pop. The total for both of us was $9.00. Cheap.
We got back on 97 and drove along with orchards and vineyards on both sides of the road. We could smell the fruit as we rode along. The road was fairly smooth and the traffic wasn’t too bad. The speed limit is 60 mph; I met a Highway Patrol doing almost 70 and he kept on going. The temperature was in the low 90’s, a big change for us. At Wenatchee we followed 97 west towards Hwy. 2 which comes over from the Seattle area. We were in a mountainous area and we must have met a 1000 vehicles in a 50 mile stretch coming up from Seattle into the mountains. Another big change from the 21 vehicles we met in that 150 mile stretch of the Cassiar. Back in the USSA for sure. After passing the Hwy. 2 junction, 97 goes south again eventually out into high desert. We got on I-82 and ran with the traffic for a while at 80-85 mph. But that worn out rear tire worried me and after a while we slowed down. Eventually we popped over a hill and there was the Yakima valley. And far in the distance to the west were the snow covered peaks of Mt. Adams to the south and Mt. Rainer to the north.
We met my wife’s sister Brenda in Selah and they took all of our luggage to Brenda’s house. That morning after crossing the border I had called a place in Yakima called Looney’s Customs and set up an appointment to get a new rear tire. I went into Yakima, found Looney’s shop and they got started on changing the tire as soon as I got there. They gave me a couple Coors Lights to drink while I waited. The cost was $189.00 out the door, mounted and balanced. But I shouldn’t have pushed that tire the 8100 miles I did. It had a small cut in it that I did know about and a puncture from what was probably a nail that I didn’t know about. The puncture was through the rubber and was just barely into the cords but wasn’t leaking. And I had picked up a quarter-inched sized piece of broken windshield glass in my drive belt. It was trying to push out to the outside of the belt like a pimple. I was so embedded into the belt we couldn’t get it out. The guys at Looney’s agreed it will get us home ok.
The next day, Saturday, we spent the afternoon driving around the valley in Brenda’s car going to wineries for wine tasting. Her boyfriend was the designated driver so the three of us had a good time, going to about ten different places.

 

I think. Neat town though, lots of history there. GPS works fine in Canada but cel coverage sucks. If you are an early riser watch for animals. Hotels are basically only in towns but shouldn't be any problem getting a room. There is a Harely dealer in Whitehorse and Grand Prairie.

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Auto Parts
Car Parts

 

XRN .....I will try to do that as well.

Tom- Did you take the ferry back? You have ridden a ton of miles. I don't know anyone personally who has that many.

Hermann.. Seems like it was a long time ago when I played that song that morning at your house. Today is our 25th day on the road.

 

Great thread. Hope to see some pictures, but the travel-log is great!
I'm new to the forum and the camaraderie here is simply amazing.
Happy trails!