Sunday, July 4th - Day 1 - Edmonton - "I'm Going Vegan"

Finally, after many months of preparation and planning, I've hit the road. And WHAT a road! lol, No, highway 63 is not that exciting... despite being coined "Death Highway", but it was nice to be out there doing more than a half hour tooting around. Some corners had some fresh pavement on them and I was taking them at about 180 kph occasionally cause, well honestly, it's just funner that way!


Forecast had said 'thunderstorms in the afternoon'... so my original intention was wake up early, watch the Moto GP race, and then pack and hit the road. Of course, the night before I went out with friends to Earl's as a sort of send-off/birthday dinner on account that I'd be gone a while. I got home that night and although I wasn't intoxicated, I felt really tired. Could it have been the nightshift I had finished that morning and not slept after? Yeah, I'd say being up for 31 hours will do that to a person. So rather than start the trip off on the wrong foot, I turned off the alarm clock and let myself sleep as long as possible.


10:30, I was up and at 'em!! lol Got everything packed and organized, realized regretfully that I'd have to bring a backpack for this trip, which puts a MAJOR damper on the riding. You have even MORE weight up high, and it wears on the shoulders, restricts air flow through your jacket, etc. So I'm definitely gonna thin out the kit here in Edmonton.


Even so, the clouds, and the palette of greys and blues were absolutely beautiful on the way down. The farther south I went, the more farm land opened up, and the expanse of rolling hills and changes from green flax to bright yellow canola were a lovely contrast or complimentary to the dark skies. Pictures never capture what the eye sees, but I'll do my best on this trip.

Anyway, being as I still took the estimated 4 hours to get ready that I figured it would, take I was on the road by 2:30. And the weatherman was pretty damn close. Thundershowers in the afternoon were just torrential downpour lol, intermittent though. Nothing like a monsoon to keep you  on your bike, and dirty up your freshly cleaned/waxed/shined bike. Oh well, them's the breaks.


I let my couchsurfing host know that I'd be waaaay off schedule and sadly most likely miss Fort Edmonton. I wanted to see the train that was used for a scene in The Assassination of Jessie James which starred Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck.


My host was great, really nice, talkative, and after much deliberation, we decided to skip the whale blubber in her freezer from Inuvik, and find something near Jasper Ave as she lived downtown. End up going to a place called "The Blue Plate Diner", a vegetarian's delight!


Being as I've NEVER had a veggie burger and figured this should be a trip for firsts, and maybe lasts, I ordered one. I knew not to expect a taste replacement for beef, but was pleasantly surprised by the texture of the beats and other things that when mashed and ground together, form a pretty hefty, and delicious paddie! So, after all these long, hurtful, selfish, years of killing cute, innocent, cows.. I now know I can still live a meaningful and enjoyable existence never eating animal products again.. PSYCHE! Yeah right, I've said it before and I'll say it again; anyone who's ever been to a cattle ranch and witness cows doing nothing but eating and shitting on eachother will agree, some animals have no purpose but to be eaten. Even when cows or oxen or whatever were first roaming the wilderness waiting to be used as a food source, they still probably did little more for their ecosystem than provide food. That being said, I'm gonna enjoy some great burgers this trip along the way. Some may however, be 'veggie'


And after that we came back and watched a show called Camille starring James Franco and Sienne Miller. Ya know when a movie isn't that great buy might still have some redeeming qualities and you call it "a renter"? Like "oh that movie in the theaters is a renter"? Well this was like.. not even a PVR'er... horrible movie. Hardly coherent. Might have been based on some ridiculous novel which inspired the writer and director to try and recapture all the imagery from the book on film. Not always possible. Just watch the last twenty minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Weird..


Okay, time to get the bike serviced before this thing begins.. Can't wait for another  horrible example of customer service by Argyll Motorsports.