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here is the word file pasted for the last few days
SpineRide Canada
June 30th
We left full of energy from CPA BC office in Vancouver at about 10:30 am. Ted and Fernando rode their bikes with us showing us the way out of Vancouver. Brian’s bike had a hub problem soon after which we had a friendly bike shop owner, Wenting’s, look at in Mission. We arrived in Hope at 7:30 pm and had dinner. Reg cooked up some chicken steaks and pasta. We had ice cream cones at Diary Queen and hit the sack. We decided to save a little time and head up the Coquihalla highway through Merritt to Kamloops instead of going through Kelowna on 3. I put in my ear plugs but even though I didn’t hear much it was very hot in the RV.
July 1st
We woke up around 7:30 and had breakfast at Rolly’s pancake house in Hope. They were great with blue berries and lots and lots of cream!! We headed up and up the Coquihalla Hwy leaving Reg behind to meet us at the toll station. We heard bikers could not cross the toll. However, we met Reg with the RV about 20 km from Hope. The RV was miss firing, back firing and running very hot to the red line! We had a little disagreement about what the problem was. Everything from a oil pump problem, rad leak, timing problem, stuck thermostat, sparkplug failure, stuck valve, blown head gasket, low oil, to water in the gas was discussed. We then argued about wether to keep driving or tow the RV to Merritt. I called CAA only to find out that I had no RV coverage in BC. After a desparation call to CAA Ontario chapter I was able upgrade my coverage and have the RV towed. The tow truck driver had to disconnect the U-joint in front of the differential. He lost a washer and also the cap with about 20 small bearings came off. Canadian Tire refused to service us because the RV is too big. We were dead in the water so I had to attempt to reattach the U-joint. I crawled under the RV in a very tight space. With the U-joint reattached and my manhood still in one piece we stumbled to Walmart with the engine sounding half dead with no power. Brian got out the light and went under the hood. We discovered that a sparkplug cabled had blown off. Hopefully an easy fix in the am with new distributor cables and maybe new plugs. Brian and I are hoping to ride at least to Salmon Arm about 175 km tomorrow so we can stay on schedule.
July 2ndToday brian and I left Merritt at 6:50. Brian’s bottom bracket had to be pulled, regreased and reinstalled because it was creaking with every pedal stroke from merritt to kamloops. This was done at Spokes in Motion in Kamloops. Later we bought a bar of soap and jumped in shuswap lake near Canoe for a skinny dip, very refreshing! Reg was back in merritt all day waiting at canadian tire to fix the spark plug wires. Another $400, new wires and distributor cap and he was on the road again. We met at Salmon Arm at 8pm after about 194.6 km. I had two flats today. We ate at East side mario’s and it’s time for bed at 23:09.
July 3rd We left Salmon Arm at about 900 am for the bike store. Brian needed a new gel seat with a center hole to help his lower departments. We met Reg and the RV about 3 hours later at Craigellachie where the last spike was placed in the CPR Rail. Brian fried up left over east side mario’s and we took off for Revelstoke. We got caught in a thunder storm with lightning at Three Valley Motel. We had tea, coffee, blue berry pie and ice cream while we watched the storm go by for about an hour. We continued our course only to be caught in sever thunder storm just before town. We raced in the RV soaking wet. Tonight is laundry night in Revelstoke. We hoped to get to Albert Canyon hot springs today but thunder and lightning stopped us. We were 100 km ahead of schedule but no longer. Tomorrow hopefully we get to Golden.
