In a Hotel for the night.... no parking lots or picnic tables...

I left from Hyder, AK this morning and it has been an absolutely gorgeous day. I definitely like coming out of Hyder down to Prince George during the day instead of at night. 37a and 37 are beautiful roads. Gorgeous scenery and the road surface is as smooth as a baby's butt. It was hard not to open the throttle up and let that big 6-cylinder engine run. Yes, I know... cops.... but there weren't any. I have seen two RCMPs the whole time I have been in Canada and that was in Prince George. I guess the rule up Hyder way is run as fast as you want and there will still be someone who wants to pass you.

I stopped in Prince George for an oil change. I went to Canadian Tire and they were still holding my oil that I reserved before starting this trip but they wouldn't change it or let me do it myself in the parking lot because of environmental issues. However, Guy (and if you pronounce his name the way you think you should, you are showing your lack of Parisian culture (it's "Gee") oui oui - was very helpful and made some calls to motorcycle shops for me. ALL of the metric places are closed on Sundays and Mondays. The only place that was open was the Harley Davidson dealership and they said to send me over.... WOW!  I got there a few minutes later and talked to the manager (Len) who also works in the service department and he said "I don't know if we are we have filters for this bike." I said not to worry because I had everything with me to do an oil change except a funnel and a catch pan. He asked me if I change my own oil and I said yes, several times. He said the bay is all yours, shout if you need something. So there I was changing my oil inside a HD service department much to the amusement of some of their customers. Everything went smoothly. I made a bit of a mess on their floor but cleaned it all up. I asked Len how much I owed him and he said "well we really didn't do anything but we did make our facilities available to you". I agreed and asked him how much. He asked me how much I thought was fair. I said, "No sir, not my call - it's your place", so he charged me a 1/2 hour of labor and I agreed to buy a t-shirt so he said the deal was fair. So, Joe LaGrave, if you are reading this, you have a t-shirt coming your way if you want it. All in all, the folks at the HD dealership were extremely nice. Harley owners in Prince George are well-served.

I pulled the bike out of the service bay and rode around front to pay and get a t-shirt. Like a goober, I left the key in the ignition with the lights on. No harm because it wasn't that long but when I came out there was a guy checking the bike out. I made some comment about the silliness of leaving the lights on and he commented that he thought the bike was running.... I damned near wet myself from laughing. (For those who don't get this.... Goldwings are quiet, Harleys are generally louder, so he got me good on that one).

Well, off to bed and getting an early start tomorrow. I have been told that when I get to the Jasper National Park, I need to get off the Trans-Canada and run down through what is called the "Ice Roads" which will then drop me into Calgary. I understand the scenery is quite nice. I think I will give it a shot.