July 9: Kindness of Canadians on the Way To Winnipeg
Whew! Three Canadian provinces, two time zones, and over 800 miles later I am happily settled in my hotel room in Winnipeg. After arriving in Calgary last night and taking the bike in for a service this morning I decided to get some miles under my belt to put me closer to some of the amazing scenery in eastern Canada with the time I have left on my summer adventure. There were a few challenges as usual but being in such a friendly country as well as having great friends back home made all the difference.
The new tires I got three weeks ago back home were already worn down from traveling over 5,000 miles on such hazardous roads. Thankfully John Rotheisler, the service manager at Calgary Harley Davidson, set aside a pair of tires for me and made the time in his schedule to put them on this morning. After the bike was serviced and I was getting ready to go we noticed that my primary phone charging port was no longer functional. I am so grateful that John diagnosed and fixed the problem (way too much dirt and debris inside the battery adaptor), allowing me to continue to use the cord to power my phone for navigation while riding.
Since I wasn’t able to leave Calgary until 2:30pm and the ride to Winnipeg is 12 hours without stops I planned to pull over as few times as possible. Unfortunately, I hadn’t accurately estimated the miles put on the bike riding to the dealership and on the test drive and I ran out of gas at the entry to the first gas station. I could have pulled the bike over to the pump but several kind guys in front of me offered to push the bike over, helping me to clear the parking lot for other cars more quickly.
Right from the moment I entered Canada I have noticed a propensity for kindness, from my first Bunk a Biker host to fellow travelers to workers in all the service industries. Just last night I had a hard time leaving a gas station to meet my host for the night because a friendly local at the pump was so interested in where I had been on the bike.
Today when I made my hotel reservations, Sydney at the Park West Inn reserved a ground floor room for me, got me the address of a 24-hour gas station near the Inn, and agreed not to charge me if I wasn’t able to make it to Winnipeg tonight. Then while I was waiting at the dealership, Mark Bayer from Montreal took the time to give me some tips about traveling through New Brunswick and Newfoundland.
The kindness extends to bikers back home as well. Steve Krawse, a Facebook friend biker from New Jersey, also spent time today giving me several valuable suggestions for my travels for the next few weeks. Also, Grant Myers, who is always operating behind the scenes, came through for me tonight when I realized how had it was to find gas station in the middle of the night on this stretch of road, finding gas for me at two crucial stops.
In any case, I feel blessed to be traveling through such a wonderful country and to be the recipient of so many acts of kindness from bikers in general.
