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My adventure starts

5K views 51 replies 28 participants last post by  Dingo. 
#1 ·
The moving truck has packed up my house and left, my bike is packed in the trailer with a ton of ammo and firearms and booze to keep it company and my four year adventure in Canada's Northwest Territory begins. New roads to ride and new vista's to explore. Thank God I can still access technology and stay connected.
In 10 days I wiĺl be in Yellowknife. If it's not too cold I will be riding. If it's too cold I will be winterizing my bike. I hope to get a few more in.
 
#18 ·
IF you encounter any Lovebugs, Keep them!!!
:D

Share your adventure here, we`ll be in touch this way,
D

Prayer lifted

EDIT>
I`ll keep the rear pegs down as you & I ride while your can`t....
 
#22 ·
Thanks all!

First day was 6 hours to see the mom in law in North bay. Next day was 8 hours to Wawa. Now, coming up on 12 hours and five to go. Currently stopped in Dryden with our eyes on hitting Manitoba. Takes a long time to get out of Ontario when North bound.

Dingo.
 
#25 ·
Wawa?
I passed through there with my sisters and parents in 1965.
I was only 2 at the time.
We crossed Canada towing a trailer. Rhode Island to Washington state via the Trans Canada Highway then settled in California.
We have a picture of my sisters in front of the giant goose in Wawa.
 
#26 ·
Well at 0300 Central we finally got a room. After 16 hours of driving and looking for a room. Winnipeg was a no go, same with Brandon. Don't know where this rinky dink town is but only an hour to saskatchewan. I hate manitoba-waste of a province-let it sink.

Dingo.
 
#29 ·
So we got out of manitoba, drove to saskatoon and got the last hotel rooms in town. The holiday inn was booked, the hilton booked, but they called the travel lodge and we ended up in two theme rooms-both "under the sea," kids loved it. Made it to Edmonton the next day. We are staying in edmonton for a couple days-been to cabela's, the amusement park and range in the mall, costco for beer tomorrow as it's super expensive in yellowknife, then leave saturday morning for the last leg. May take 2 days for the last leg as they advise not driving at night due to goats, bison, caribou on the road. We don't have to be there till tuesday anyway.

We had two large dogs put down before we left, one 15 and down 45% of his body weight and hip dysplasia, second one 13, starting to get hip dysplasia, never not been with another dog especially his buddy, starting to get tumours and used to having a yard which we don't have now. He would not have been a good apartment dog. Neither would have liked the temperature, and if we couldn't have walked him he would not have heeled for the kids. I hated to do it, and have no wish to do it again and would not wish it on anyone (I have to admit that tears were shed, they were our kids before we had kids. We had the older one since shortly after my wife and I married). But, our poor cat is sleeping on my bike in the toy hauler as we couldn't find a pet friendly hotel. Weather has been good and he's got food, litter, and water. We check him a bunch of times during the day, and the vents on the trailer are open and keeping him ventilated and the weather is mild. At least with just the cat if we feel the need to leave for a couple days we can leave food for the cat and go. Not so with the dogs. We will have another, but not 100+ pounds this time and certainly not two ( I say this as my kids talk about an authentic husky while I think of a good deer beagle) but that will wait till we have a house with a yard again.

Military works this move business wierd, we have a date to leave and a date when we have to arrive. If we miss the arrival they figure out where you stopped and stop your compensation on the first night you arrived there. You are then responsible to get to your destination on your own dime (you are paid mileage, accomodations and per diem otherwise). You can't stop your trip and take leave, pay your own vacation and then resume your travel on the government dime. However, you can bust your hump driving all day over a couple thousand km, then stay a couple days somewhere on the government dime-as long as you arrive at your destination on time. It makes no sense to me but that is what we did.

So far we have logged over 4000 km. My brand new truck has over 5000km on the odometer. It is covered in bug guts and looks like it has survived a war zone. Same with my wifes Journey (mini-van/sport ute/crossover???). The tires on the toy hauler look good, the tires on the boat look flat even though we both checked and they are at correct psi and tread looks good. We will replace those before we leave as I can't trust them.

The only issue we had was that the wife kept telling me over the radio that her tires were making a wierd noise. I asked if her tire sensor light had come on and she said no so I told her it was probably just the road. Then we stopped to wait for a pilot vehicle at road construction and she jumped out of her vehicle and looked her tire over shrugged her shoulders and jumped back in. As she took off, I could hear a bad noise. I knew it wasn't the trailer bearings as I replaced them before we left including the bearing buddies. I made her pull over, checked her truck tires and underside-good. Checked the trailer tires-looked good. Made a secondary check and there it was, on one side, the nuts were all loose to the point the wheel was wobbbling and whacking the side of the hub. I tightened them when I replaced the bearings, torqued them properly and again the day before we left. This time I used the tire iron I had and tightened the cr*p out of them. Glad we didn't lose the wheel on the highway and hurt someone or the boat. Now I probably won't be able to get them off to replace the tires:eek: .

More to follow as we finish the journey, so far we have travelled through 4 provinces and two time zones. One more province to go and we will be "home."

Dingo.
 
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