August 19th
06:00-19:15
Fernie BC to Whitewood SA
1012 kilometers
I got packed up and out the door at 06:00. I stopped next door at the gas station to top off and was out of Fernie at 06:15.
I went down to Crowsnest Pass and discovered that it’s not a town but a couple of towns that are in Crowsnest Pass. I wanted to stop at the Triple S RV Sales (local Harley Dealer) but couldn’t find them.
I stopped at the Frank Slide historical stop. I read up on the event. They were mining for coal with the town of Frank in the pass. A limestone slab a kilometer wide broke loose and slide down the mountain in 100 seconds.
I continued on to to Lethbridge Harley-Davidson. The place was a few blocks off of the exit. It was largish but the folks were basically just standing around. I used the bathroom and checked out the shirts. I picked up an orange one with Alberta on the back. On the way out I passed another Lethbridge H-D. Maybe this was original shop or it’s the main shop or maybe it’s the service center.
Just past Medicine Hat I stopped in at the dealer there and snagged a liter of oil. I’d used about half of the quart and didn’t want to dig it out of my bag. I topped off the bike and then chatted with Rich who was coming from Montreal. He was doing 1000k days (about 650 miles) and thought I’d make it to Montreal on time since I did a 14 hour day yesterday.
I crossed over into Saskatchewan and stopped for gas. The old guy in front of me was paying for 71 liters of diesel. The place only had 87 octane but I needed a refill. She seemed to handle the lower octane with no problems.
I headed out and stopped in Swift Current for lunch. The old guy stopped by just as I was finishing up. He and his family were seated behind me. He commented that he had seen me at the last station and that I had shot by him after the stop. I said that I was on my way to Montreal. We chatted for a few minutes and then I put my tray away and headed next door. I snagged a soda from the store and called Rita. When I bailed I realized I hadn’t filled up and checked the tank. I was a bit over half full and figured I could make it with no problems.
I got about half way to Moose Jaw (Chaplin) and checked my tank. A bit less than a quarter of a tank. Time to start looking for a pump. At the next town (Parkbeg) the gas station was closed up and the pump was gone. For sale. This is not good.
The signs that lead up to the towns have symbols under them which indicate what services are available in the town. Mortlach showed eats and lodging but nothing about gas. I muttered to myself that they _had_ to have gas and turned off the road to check. Of course they didn’t have any pumps. I turned around and headed back to the main road and promptly died at the stop sign.
This is really not good. She started right up and I moved into traffic. 14 Km to Caronport. I wasn’t sure I was going to make that and prepared to pull off. The bike died on slow downs and down hills and caught again when speeding up or after it died (it rocked forward and back possibly sloshing gas into the EFI). I also rocked it side to side trying to get gas over the hump. I died and restarted for the next 14km. As I’m coming around a curve I can see a sign for a pump ahead. “Please don’t die within sight of a station.” I get to the left turn to get to the service road and don’t see any traffic coming from the other direction thank goodness. I went across and behind a white pickup headed to the station. As I got to the pump it died one more time and I coasted in.
By the way, she takes 17.372 liters of gas (although the dealer page says 18.9 liters) 🙂
I headed on my way patting lucky thanks.
I headed on to Moose Jaw. I really wanted to stop and get a Moose souvenir but decided against it. The place looked like a big tourist trap 🙂
From Moose Jaw I headed east until I got to Wolseley, my designated stop. Since it wasn’t that late I figured to continue on for a bit longer and finally stopped at 19:15 in Whitewood. The lady said she didn’t have any rooms with air conditioning. After a quick check it turns out she did have a room with AC. I unpacked my stuff and cranked the AC and watched the news.