Homeward Bound

It's been over three weeks since I left and I'm about 7 hours (one more day of riding) from home as I start to write this.  I arrive home on Friday.

I was able to stop and visit friends in Manitoba and that allowed me to return to a place that I
worked more than 30 years ago...Pinawa, MB.

On the way there, I made sure I went through Tyndall.  This is where the rock was quarried for the
Parliament buildings in Ottawa.  The good stuff is behind the trees.

I worked in Pinawa for Atomic Energy of Canada.  My assignments were all in the Waste Management
Branch. Here's the plant.  It's down to 500 people and the reactor is decommissioned.

 

I lived in Kelsey House (below), three times.  There were lots of students and single adults because of the

housing challenges in the small community.  Thus, the dormitory approach.

I washed my windshield in the Winnipeg river...there are always lots of bugs on the windward edge of

the bike.

Picture three more days of riding to get from the Manitoba border to...

I was just working out some of the facts and figures.  The odometer says:  12426 km, so it will be

about 13,000 when I pull in the  driveway.  I've used 540L of fuel, which at about $1.25/L avg., is

about the cost of a return plane ticket to Whitehorse.  I've seen mileage at about 5.5 L/100km over

the whole trip, with a high in the mid 6s and a 4.9.  It all has to do with speed and headwinds.

Actuals:

What a marvellous life opportunity this has been.  Some of the highs have to be:  Whitehorse and

everything and everyone in it and the glaciers, wherever they were.  Low points:  I've left a few

articles behind (!) and then the day coming out of Montana and facing the 4.5 days of slogging to get

home.  It was nicely punctuated by a visit with Jimm and Aileen in Stonewall, MB though!

How affirming that everytime I stopped somewhere and took off my helmet, someone was there to talk

to.  Either I began the conversation or they did.  It was often biker-to-biker, but similarly

cage-drivers, who may have once had a motorcycle, liked to talk about their rides too.  Like

Jerry...next door at the campsite in Bark Lake, MI...south of Mackinac.  He had a Gold Wing and

wondered what temperatures were like up in Alaska.

There'll be some work to be done when I get home.  The centre-stand is kaput (it was repair-welded

before I left).  I'll need to do the tires again, too.  The front was cupping, though I thought I was

checking the pressure frequently enough.  That'll all be after the big scrub.  I can't even imagine

how bugs get splattered all those places.

I wonder what my mileage would have been if I wasn't

carrying all that extra weight?

I've really had a wonderful opportunity to see how grand and glorious our country is.  I used to

think we were big, now I think it's a massive place.  There's lots of empty space, in the north, on

the Prairies, around Superior.  But, there's something in being able to stop and talk to people,

anywhere here that is so inspiring.

Thanks for following along.  Time to step back on the escalator.