After a few cups of wonderful coffee at the campground, I headed south to Balfour, BC, to catch the ferry across Kootenay Lake. I'm told that it is the longest fresh water ferry ride in BC. Plus it's free! It was a 35 min ride with a nice breeze blowing across the water. Followed by a 50 km twisty downhill run to the border crossing near Creston, BC. I was the only one vehicle there, no line, a couple of simple questions and got waved through.
The Ural is a real magnet for other riders with roughly a third of them knowing what it is but have never seen one. There was even a couple of Russian tourists taking a picture of it since they have never seen a nicely painted Ural before. They said that they alway seemed to be green or grey or some other military-type paint job. Not much to take pictures of at this point. Mostly farms and straight roads with too much traffic after the border crossing.
From that point it got hotter the further south that I went. By the time I arrived in Spokane, it was 105°F so I hopped on Hotels.com and looked for a room deal. I sort of found one but it wasn't near the highway. It shouldn't be so bad going through town tomorrow morning (hopefully). It is the July 4th holiday weekend so I'm not looking forward to a very pleasant ride tomorrow. With luck I may be in Corvallis tomorrow and can take the rig to Raceway Ural on Monday.
Posted with Blogsy
Welcome back to the states and another holiday! It will be in the 70's here, but smokey.
ReplyDeleteAt least it isn't smoky here!
DeleteYou've made quite some progress since leaving home. I hope all is well with your rig.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see on Monday...
DeleteCool encounter with the Russian tourists.
ReplyDeleteNot so cool to be in hot Oregon. Take it easy with holiday drivers!
More than one group of Russian tourists!
DeleteWow, hot weather ... in the east we are still a bit below seasonal average. I am enjoying your trip. BC and now Spokane; you're bringing back so many memories Richard, glad to be following you.
ReplyDeleteBC was wonderful. Not too hot and very scenic. Though it did rain quite a bit...
DeleteIt's a shame you have to endure such heat. It sure makes for miserable riding. But a day sweltering on the bike is always better than a comfortable day indoors.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good way to put it. The stop and go in towns is the only bad part with the heat. Out on the highway is no problem. At least there is no humidity!
DeleteGood to know the ferry is still free. We'd take it when we lived in Creston back in the mid 90's. Pretty scenery through there.
ReplyDeleteAnd the area is crawling with motorcycles. It must be all of the twisty roads...
DeleteRiding in hot weather sucks, currently the area of Europe I'm in is going through a heat wave....I am ready to quit riding by early afternoon!
ReplyDeleteSnow is so much easier to deal with, eh?
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