Next morning after breakfast we are off. Our goal is Ft Nelson. A campground, laundry, clean shower facilities and of course, internet access.

Thirty minutes later we arrive at a scenic view turn off known as Smith Falls. We pull in and walk down to the falls and take a few pictures.

Next stop, Liard Hot Springs. An hour later we arrive. Very nice scenery along the way. The way I understand it, this is the last hot springs that is situated in a natural setting. In other words, a wooden deck alongside the hot springs with stairs leading down into the ponds is all that is man made. No concrete pool to catch the water with a filtration system. This is all natural. You walk down the stairs directly into the pool of hot water heated by mother nature. The temperature of the water varies from 105 deg to 125 deg and sometimes hotter. The closer you get to the source, the hotter it gets.

While I was there a surprise visitor showed up at the pool. Yogi, a big Black Bear, walked right up to the edge of the pool where the people were in and looked around. No more than twenty five feet away. It was as though he was checking to see if the stew (people in the Hot Springs) was done. Nobody panicked and no one got out of the hot springs. My guess is the bear doesn't like hot water? By the time I ran to get my camera from my pants and back, he was gone. My first bear sighting and I'm caught with my pants off. Literally! But I'll have that mental picture with me forever.

Two hours later we're cooked. So off we go to Ft Nelson, British Columbia.

Now this was a ride! British Columbia is a very scenic province, lush forests, enormous cliffs and mountains. What a pleasure to ride through it. And if that wasn't enough, wildlife! I can't believe how much wildlife we came across. Mountain Sheep, Caribou, Elk, Deer, Coyote, but alas, no bears. Except for the one back at the hot springs. Roads for the most part were Ok. Maybe a total of twelve miles of dirt, broken up from as little as five hundred feet to one mile.

Ft Nelson. We have arrived! Checked out the facilities, found a site, set up camp and head to town for a classic meal.

Hot shower, laundry, charged up the batteries and a little minor repair for Ed. One of the mounts on his tour pack broke off. Some mechanics wire, tie it up here, tie it there and he's ready to go. We're off again this morning, actually this afternoon. We didn't get on the road until after 2:00 p.m. We were dragging. Got to check my e-mails though.

Today we are headed to Dawson Creek, British Columbia. The end or beginning of the Alaska highway, depending on which way you're heading.

Not to much to see on this run. We are starting to enter into the prairies. Nothing but wind and wheat fields Stopped at a campground that I read about in the Mile Post. Only open one year ago and it's closed already. I find that a lot on this highway. Business that were opened last year are closed this year. On occasion I have found a business open on the way up and out of business on the way back. Turned around and started back towards town and happened upon an RV site. It was getting dark and as you recall, I have no tail lights so I didn't want to be running around town. The price was right. Whatever we wanted to contribute. Sounded good so we stopped there for the night. No facilities here for tent campers, but we survived.

What a night! Sometime around two a.m. it began to rain, a heavy rain, and windy too. Very windy. Good thing I was in the tent otherwise it might have blown away. Now that I think back it would have blown away if I wasn't in it. I'm not in the mountains any more, I'm in the prairie where there is nothing to stop the wind. I'll need to start staking the tent down. During the storm the increased wind caused the fly over on the tent to shift. Oh yeah, then the rain started coming in. That was special. Ten minutes later the wind stopped for a brief moment which gave me a chance to go out in the rain at two in morning, re-adjust the tent and pull the flyover back into position. Jumped back into the tent, Ok, I crawled very smartly, and into the sleeping bag. That task being accomplished, I quickly fell back to sleep. Camping in the outdoors. You either love it or hate it.

Up at 7:00 the next morning ready to start again. I have an uneventful ride into Grande Prairie, Alberta. It's mostly a flat and not very scenic at all. We stop for lunch. It was here that Ed decided to head down through the East side of British Columbia towards Banff. He feels the same way about the scenery as I do. From there he planned to ride into Montana and then Yellowstone National Park. After lunch we took some pictures and parted company. Me heading East towards Saskatchewan and him heading South to Banff. Next stop for the night was Mundare, Alberta a City Park campground with full bath and shower facilities. Nice and clean too.

Next morning I'm up and on the road in less than two hours. Talked to a couple from Vancouver who also spent the night at the campground. They were vacationing with their two children for the next month and heading towards Ontario. We talked for a while and then we parted.

Not much to see traveling across the prairie. No animals along side the road like British Columbia. Riding through Alberta is very much like driving across Kansas, except with this section of the ride it was windy. Very windy. My plan tonight is to stay in a hotel in Regina, Saskatchewan. Catch up on the budget entries and update my notes on the trip. I'm also separating my Canadian receipts. I've discovered while traveling through Canada that when you arrive at the US border, stop first at the duty free shop on the Canadian side and if you have saved your receipts while purchasing items in Canada, you will be reimbursed for all of the GST tax that you have paid. You must have the actual receipts as proof. Of course I don't learn about this until I'm on my way back from the Yukon. Now I only have half the receipts. Oh well at least I'll recoup some money. I hope.

Tomorrow night, Sturgis South Dakota.

Up at 7:00 a.m., packed and ready to gas up the bike before heading out. I might try and stop at the local Harley dealer and maybe pick up a t-shirt. It all depends if they're on my way. Turns out, they weren't.

USA, here I come!

Stopped for breakfast at junction 35 and 39 in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. This is where I head South for the border. The US border that is. Sounds funny saying that. South to the US border. I have a little less than a half a tank of gas so I'll fill up when I get to the border. NOT! Once again I figure wrong. Not a gas station in site for the next sixty miles. I must have ridden through a least four towns. Where do these people get their gas?

Well I make it to the border. Just before I cross over I inquire about the Canadian Duty Free store. I'm going to try and recoup some of that GST money back from Canada. The three locals I speak to who are standing at the border, I assumed they were locals and knew about this procedure, shame on me, tell me it's over there, behind the Canadian Customs building. I head over there. Now this building looks like it hasn't been open for years, but during my travel through Alaska and the Canadian provinces, many of the buildings look like they've been closed for years but they're actually open. I park the bike and start walking to the building, only to find that it really is closed. Oh, did I happen to mention that behind the Canadian Customs building I am now in the United States?

As I walk back to the motorcycle, two ICE agents are heading towards me telling me, yelling at me actually, to bring the bike over to the Customs building which I gladly do. I ride over to customs where four agents and one with a very large dog, promptly surround me and the bike. Two other agents then escort me inside the building.

It's during this quality time I'm spending with ICE, that I discover the building I thought, and was told, was a Canadian building, when in fact it was on the US side of the border. Oops. So now I guess I'm some kind of suspect. I get the full treatment. Fill out this form. Take off your jacket and pants, empty all of your pockets. What were you doing at that building? It's been closed for years. Where have you been, how long, why did you go? Etc, etc. Seems I made a slight error. After I answer all of their questions and the bike with all of the gear is cleared, all is Ok. Now we're buds. We start swapping stories about life's experiences and working for the government. I inquire about the distance to the closest gas station, say my goodbys and I'm off, for a quarter of a mile. I am now out of gas. Totally! This is the first time I have ever run out of gas since I've owned a motorcycle in over thirty nine years. I have just traveled 9,500 miles without a fuel issue and a quarter of a mile into the United States I run out! Oh well. I walk back to customs and ask the location of the pay phone. No pay phone. What happen, they ask with a smile, run out of gas? One of the agents says he thinks he has gas in his truck. Two agents walk out with me and sure enough he's got ten gallons. I only need one of those to get me to a gas station. While walking out to the agents truck I notice on the backs of their coats one says ICE and the other says IBET. I know what the ICE stands for but not the other.

As we drive out to the bike I ask. Turns out that he is a Canadian Customs Agent. One agent from Canada works with the United States and one agent from the United States agent works with Canada. This way if someone from Canada attempts to run past the border and into the United States The ICE agent can go after him, since Canadian agents have no authority in the United States and turn him over to the Canadian Agent. The same for Canada if someone from the US attempts to run into Canada.

After the tank is filled, I offer to pay him. He won't hear of it. He says to me no, this is courtesy of the Canadian Government. Now isn't this something. I run out of gas in the USA and the Canadian Government bails me out. We both have a good laugh over that, shook hands and I was off to Sturgis.

I had originally planned to spend the night in Williston, North Dakota. However the roads were great and traffic wasn't that bad, it was still early enough and I had this urge to ride, so I went for broke and rode to Sturgis. Pulled in around 9:00 p.m. and secured a campsite for the week. I have completed the trip as planned.

I am back in the good old USA in one piece!

By the way, remember back at the border when I made that little honest mistake, attempting to find a Canadian Duty free shop? Well later on when I returned home, I did some research. It seems that not all of the GST tax is refundable. Food, gas and a few other items are exempt. And not all Canadian/US border crossings have a duty free shop. Now you tell me! In order to receive a refund, you need to request the refund at a duty free station in person, in Canada and not by mail. Figures. Next time I'll make it a point to cross the border where this duty free station is located.

By two o:clock I have a new tire mounted, installed and balanced along with an oil and filter change. They even installed a spring for the kick stand that I lost back in Watson Lake.

Later on in the day I head out to locate the Center of the United States to get a few pictures. I've been to the Southern most point in the United States. Coast to coast and up to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska with the Harley. Since I'm this close to the center, I need to stop. Well I have a map and I know how to read it, but I don't see anything in the area that suggests this is the center of the United States. I'll have to research this further.

Oh well time to head back and meet up with a friend from work. He's left Denver around eleven this morning so he should be pulling in real soon. We meet up downtown Sturgis on Main Street, hang out for a few hours checking the sites and vendors and then we stop for dinner. He wants to head back to Denver early in the morning so after dinner, he's calling it a night.