Day 12 – Babb, MT – Banff, Alberta, Canada

Welcome to Canada, eh! It was only 30 miles to the Canadian border which we crossed without a hitch.    

 

 

 

 

I had the GPS set to avoid highways so we can stay more on the secondary roads which are always more interesting and enjoyable than the super slab. The GPS did such a good job of avoiding highways, it managed to avoid pavement all together for around 70 miles!    

 

 

 

    

 

 

 The bikes got a good workout in the dirt and so did we. The views were amazing and we had them all to ourselves. I had the first of two tip over’s today. I stopped to let air out of the tires to ride the dirt roads, and just when I went to get back on the bike tipped over the other way. No damage…just knocked the mirror loose which I easily tightened back up. An hour later we stopped just after getting back on the pavement to air the tires back up…it tipped over again when I was getting it down off the center stand. This time the right side pannier rack got bent in a bit, but Paul and I are going to see if we can straighten it tomorrow. With the bike loaded, the kickstand is just a bit too long…and I’m contemplating having it cut down and welded….we’ll see. After that it was a straight run into Banff, which is a great town!   

 

 

I’d never been here and it did not disappoint. Paul has a friend Andria that has a friend Webble that has lived in town for 25 years, so we gave him call. It turns out by chance that he was having a beer across the street from where we parked the bikes…great! So being no strangers ourselves to drinking beer, we joined him and some other friends for a drink.   

 

His friend Carl hooked us up with a sweeeet lodging deal with the company he works for. Thanks Carl! After that it was off to check in and then out for a bite to eat.   

 

 

We settled on a $25 all you can eat sushi deal which was very average. However, at the end the waitress wanted to charge me extra because I didn’t finish the three teaspoons of rice on my plate.   

 

I told her politely that I am full and not going to eat the rice…nor will I pay an extra fee.  Well, she became indignant and insisted that I either pay or finish the rice. I told her I will not clean my plate like a 3 year old, and I will not pay the fee, and I’m happy to sit here all night or talk to the owner, but I’m sure as shit not paying extra or eating the f—king rice. Well, she brought the bill…with the fee…so Paul and I paid cash, less the fee and no tip. What a hoser.