ALBERTA NATIONAL T TOUR – Days 13-14

Day 13:   Twin Falls, ID to Lovelock, NV, 353 miles.   Not much to see today, just pedal to the metal heading south and west.  Left the irrigated farmlands of Twin Falls into the high desert and spent a lot of time looking at scenery like this.  Well, maybe that is a slight exaggeration.

Stopped in Wells, NV and snapped a couple interesting signs.  The first one has to do with travelling down the California Emigration Trail to the gold fields as this was a major route.  Click on it for a larger version.

The second just for fun on the side of an old building.  Probably for the tourist benefit. Nothing around the corner.   Shucks.

But you can rent an apartment real cheap here.  Probably by the hour, day or month.

Ray found a truck we all like.   Looked ready to roll. 

Ended the day in hot Lovelock, NV.   Not much happening in Lovelock. Exception is the old restored train station.  Internet connection in Lovelock not good enough to post.

Day 14: the mad rush for home.  Lovelock, NV to Los Altos Hills,  348 miles.  Four trucks towing T’s heading for the barn. Only took one picture.  Stricken by Get-home-itis.

Back into the insane Bay area traffic and those great CA roads, damn near beat the Bronco to death on 580 and 680.  But, we are home.    3137 miles roundtrip.  Amen.

Pat’s last bunch of weird signs:

Lotta Sweat Ranch

Houston’s Space Center   (self storage lot)

This bus runs on solar and waste vegetable oil   (Very hippy looking bus)

El RANCHO CO$TA PLENTE         (my personal favorite)

Belles Hacienda Ranch, Ladies, 24 hours.

Carlin, where the trains stop and the gold rush begins.  (Carlin has the largest open pit gold mine in the world.)

Two Stiffs Selling Gas

ALBERTA NATIONAL T TOUR – Day 12

Missoula, MT to Twin Falls, ID, 380 miles on the scenic route.  We bid the Archers goodbye as they took Route 12 west and we took route 93 south.

Down the Bitterroot Valley, lots of log home manufacturers, and up to the Idaho border at Lost Trail Pass, 7000 feet. 

Cruised the Salmon River canyon, beautiful scenic route.

Passed rockslide after rockslide after rockslide, all different colors.  Curiosity finally got the best of me and had to stop and get a rock.   This is so I don’t gather too much speed on the uphill climbs.  Interesting, the rocks are actually grey underneath and look like they have been dipped in a brown dye,  try figuring that one out.

At a scenic pullout in the Sawtooth Valley, the ladies took a hike up the road to stretch their legs.  Here is some trivia, Chinook and Sockeye Salmon return to the headwaters of the Salmon River in the Sawtooth Valley to spawn, a distance of 900 miles from the ocean.

While the ladies hiked, David did a classical duct tape repair, one strip holds the fender on all day.

Stopped in Ketcham/Sun Valley to eyeball the ski slopes, and found this little out of the way memorial to Ernest Hemingway.

Heading for Twin Falls, we came to the conclusion that the wind can blow pretty hard here.  Can you see why we came to that conclusion????

Our hotel is on the edge of the Snake River Canyon in Twin Falls.  Rather spectacular….

Hard to top all the scenery we took in today.         

ALBERTA NATIONAL T TOUR – Day 11

435 miles today.  Cochrane, AB to Missoula, MT.  Blue birds singin’ a song, nothing but blue skies from now on. Blue skies, smilin’ at me, nothin’ but blue skies do I see.  Rain is gone, can’t even tell that it rained for two days solid.  

From the Alberta prairie hay and cattle country to the mountains and valleys of Montana, all scenic.  It was a long hard day of driving but we saw a few interesting things.

This is a hat fence, it went on for miles.  If you don’t have a shoe tree, you make a hat fence.  Click on it to make it bigger.

Stopped for gas in Lundbrook, AB and managed to entertain ourselves with the local sights, the oldest liquor store in AB, a two story outhouse behind the old hotel building, and this man sized trike which we all had to try.

Two stories, you gotta be kidding me.

Home, sweet home.

We bought Flathead Lake cherries from these enterprising young people.   They had a big black dog who was their business associate.

Ended day at a Cabelas store, what more could a guy ask for?

Patti’s signs for the day:

Report poachers

Horse Motel

More Alberta, less Ottawa    ( we can sympathize with that one.)

ALBERTA NATIONAL T TOUR – Day 11

Guess what it did today, it rained all day. The tour today was to Water Valley (serendipity, don’t you think?)  Harrisons toured in the waterproof coupe, Bratts, Fontaines, Wildmans, Archers toured in modern iron.   I watched it rain.  Finally began to clear about 4.  Knock on the door, Bill, Ray and Glenn.  “Give us the keys to your trailer, we are going to load your car.”  They knew that my winch had kicked the bucket. We went down, pulled the side curtains, put the top down, yanked the windshield off, and manhandled it into the trailer.  That was the fastest loading that little pickyup has ever had.  Many thanks to the guys. Who needs a winch?

ALBERTA NATIONAL T TOUR – Day 9

192 mile loop tour through the Kananaskis,  at least that was the intent.  Day dawned really cold, heavy overcast, winds gusting to 70km according to the TV.  Not mentioning anything about rain though.   Not letting a little thing like that deter us we put on every piece of clothing that we had, we can do this.

Even taped the corners of the side curtains, no popping loose today.

Out in the parking lot, T’s a little reluctant.  Harrisons gave Ed a tow, or two or three, finally got the racer going.

Time to leave, beginning to doubt the weather forecast, starting to rain, figured it was a shower and we would pull out of it in a few miles.  Now raining real good.

This began to take a toll.  Wildmans elected to take a modern, Archers turned back after 2 mile, Bratts turned back after 10 miles, Fontaines and us turned back after 20 miles, just too wet and risky, and water finding its way in everywhere, Patti put her umbrella up to protect her legs.   Harrisons elected to continue and kudos to them they completed the tour, must say they were a little more protected in the coupe.  Fortunately, it did not rain the entire journey, they did see mountain goats and even snow along side the road.

Unfortunately, I am coming down with a severe cold so am going to lay low for the rest of the trip.  May or may not blog, we’ll see.

ALBERTA NATIONAL T TOUR – Day 10

34 miles, leisturely day.   Drove out of town a little ways to the Museum of Making, a rather eclectic collection of mostly machinery that the owner/oilman rescued when it fell into disuse.  Started in the house, which looked like something out of a Jules Verne scenario.   This is the fireplace, a steam engine built into the wall.   Click on it for a larger version.

And a gigantic (15 foot) weather vane built into the ceiling,,,,

A machine shop full of vintage tools all driven by lineshafts,,,,

Pat found a friend or should I say distant cousin of poor Tippy dog who is at home.

I found another truck that I want.  Looks ratty but fresh under the hood, a driver.

This afternoon, a show and shine on Main Street in Cochrane.

Not much shining going on here,,,,,

David went in the Poor David Shop and they gave him a T-shirt.

Tomorrow, long day, 192 miles, hope it doesn’t rain too much.

ALBERTA NATIONAL T TOUR – Day 9

95 miles unless you got lost. (okay, a little lost).   Anyway, off we went, this time Glenn and Vicki are with us, no more flat tires first thing in the morning.

Not to say that there weren’t a few little problems, David had a little carb problem, some dirt requiring a quick fix.    Bill’s muffler decided to depart so he ran a straight pipe all day, says it really moves now.

Our destination for today was Pioneer Acres, an active organization dedicated to preserving the Alberta heritage.

They have a beyond belief heavy truck collection.  This is one of my favorites.   Big mama.

Or how about some Big Macs, shades of Bob Edwards and his tale of driving one of these home from out in the valley.

Or even a couple Pierce Arrows???????

Tractors of every size, type and year,,,,,,

I’ll drive this one, please.

The guys who run the place put on an antique tractor pull for us.

Try this video.   https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5tzXiEnjYovMWZ2RUgxRmQ5R0U

Parked on the lawn.   Pat thought this was a little close.

And look at this, they say it can accumulate on any month of the year in Alberta.

And what do you think we had???   ALBERTA BEEF!!!  Great dinner.   By the way the table cloth is a cowhide.   Nothing but the best for us cowpokes.

At the end of a long day, really threatening, look at those dark clouds, I thought about praying for the rain to hold off, being in front of a church and all, but then decided to put the side curtains on instead. We stayed snug but the speedster folk got a little damp.    

ZZZZZZZZ…….  End of day 8.

ALBERTA NATIONAL T TOUR – Day 8

Cochrane to Banff and back, 121 miles roundtrip if you didn’t miss a turn. (we missed one crucial turn, no idea how many miles actually traveled.)   Day started out as a bummer for Glenn, he drove into our hotel parking lot just as his tire went flat and it’s a clincher, not an easy task to change.  We convinced him to abandon it for the day and take a modern to Banff so as not to miss the tour activities.    

And so we headed west across the prairie, heading for that rockpile in the distance.

Patti claimed there were smoke signals in the mountains, this being Indian country and all.

We parked on the lawn at the Banff Springs Hotel, the place is massive, reeks of money.  But they let us in anyway and we had a white table cloth and crystal lunch buffet.  Mighty fine dining.


Searched out an ice cream shop and Pat found a bear to hug.

David found a T shop,  drat, tea not T.

Stopped for gas, and this gentleman (elderly, almost as old as me) came up to Pat and said, “You seem to be a person who would be interested in stopping at a great quilt store.”   Struck her speechless. (yes it can happen.)   And then, “you are a quilter aren’t you?”  Well, yes. lead on.   And that is how Pat found border collie fabric in Canmore.

Incidentally, on the way back, a Rocky Mountain thunderstorm swept across our path, we got a little wet around the edges.  Bill and Pat Bratt got soaked (speedster) and even encountered hail.   Both of them got nailed on the forehead with hail.  Definitely smarts. Archers also got rained upon in their speedster. This evening we were walking next door to Tim Horton’s restaurant and another thunderstorm swept in suddenly.  Before we could cover the last 50 feet, it totally destroyed our Canada umbrella and hailed up a storm.  Man, gotta be ready for anything here.  That’s all right, still having fun.