Woke up to numerous Spidermen crawling around the walls along with Incredible Hulk's angry mug so inspired to get up and go. This room is definitely a man cave. The shower is this swanky Scandinavian thing with too many knobs and valves but really cool looking. The shower door was a big slab of glass but it kept sliding itself open, no match for the spare bungee I packed.
The dine next door did not open for a couple hours so no coffee for you old man. It was misting out as i packed the bike so I just did the rain gear thing to be safe (smart, as it turned out). I should have taken the nice lady up on "motorcycle rags" she offered last night as this bike is filthy with road grime. She said she started offering after the first year when motorcycle guys were using the towels to clean their bikes. She went through $800 worth of towels the first year. Jeff....
I got 10 km out of town and realized I did not fill up with gas and i was heading to the great unkown so turned around and went back to the gas station next to the motel (Bye Spidey). The guy running it said it was supposed to be a perfect day so don't worry about eh weather (he lied). A guy and his wife were gassing up behind me and was going fishing. I say gazoodles of boats being towed this morning so fishing must be a big deal. He went through all the great roads I could go on today and the route the trucker gave me last night was voted the best (Rt24->Rt97->Rt99->Vancouver). Finished my much needed coffee and back on the road by 7:00. OK now I am on my way. And 20 minutes later it strted to rain lightly, but the pessimist already had his rain gear on (take that you optimists).
The trucker mentioned steep roads (they remember things like that) and he was right on the money.
Saw lots of 11-13% grades today on the way west and then down the coast. Stopped several times to hike down to the rivers(s) and a nice waterfall or two. Rt 24 and Rt 97 are kinda Alaskaism with lots of open wooded areas, much of it cleared (logging) but some haying and some grazing, but mostly wild. Rt 99 turns south and the top part before Pemberton (Indian reservation?) I had all to myself pretty much with pretty relaxed drivers when I did see some. A bit arid and lots of twisty urns and 20 km/h turns (not mph!) just like the trucker said.
When I hit Pemberton it got busy with more traffic, but relaxed traffic. This must be the town they shoot for when they decide to do a day trip from Vancouver. As I went further south and got toward Whistler, it went from busy to busy and trendy. Lots of shiny Audi and Mercedes. Whistler is definitely the post Olympics hip place to go and it was crawling with people. I drove up to base of one of the ski areas, but it is hard to get near with all the big hotels.
Once I left Whistler it went to bury trendy to busy trendy frantic traffic and stayed that way all the way to Vancouver. This seems to be the only road down the coast (I call it a coast but it's really a sound. I hit Vancouver about 4pm and decided to find Rt1 East and go east until the traffic died down, and it did after about 50 km. The last part of Rt 99 is the worst since it is single lane with occasional passing lanes where everybody turns into Mario Andretti and then back to single file. At least on the 4-laner, you can park in one of the 2 to 5 lanes and go any speed you want, people will go by safely.
There are a bunch of border crossings and the big one at Vancouver had a 1 hr delay so I decided to skip the border tonight and give those nice Canadians a little more tourist money. Ended the day in Abbotsford BC. Walked next door to a sports bar and had some bar grub with a local guy who old me how great the Canadian health care was. He was 30 something and just had his cataracts replaced (damage from sun lamps or something?). He also had a couple bikes (crotch rockets) and was pretty impressed that I had gone coast to coast on the X300.
The bike has 23,369 miles on it tonight and is working great. I will need to find a shop this week to do the service and might need a new fron tire since this one is cupping. Not too bad but I have long way to go back home.
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