Oso Blanco rides Panama to Canada

[beechum1]

Now get back to work!!!!

[Motorfiets]

time to restock and head out for more!!

[Oso Blanco]

I pulled up to my motel room parking spot and was intercepted by a creepy hotel customer that made my skin crawl.

Creepy: "Hey man, can you move your truck, I can't get my van out of my parking space."
Me: "Ahh, truck? Huh?"
Creepy: "Yeah that's your silver truck right?"
Me: ~looking around and not seeing a silver truck behind his van~ "What truck?"
Creepy: "That one."
Me: ~confused, realizing he's clearly insane~ "Ahh, no, that's not my truck, I'm riding this bike..."
Creepy: "Oh, you ride a motorcycle?"
Me: ~still sitting on my bike, in full gear~ "Yeah, I ride a motorcycle, this one in fact."
Creepy: "Oh, cool. I used to live in Williams Lake and there was a guy there with a motorcycle."
Me: "Fascinating."
Creepy: "So yeah, if you could move your truck I'd appreciated it."
Me: ~looking over at spot where the non-existant silver truck was apparently parked~ "Yeah, sure no problem. Let me unload my bike then I'll move the truck."
Creepy: ~opens his room door, walks in, closes it then immediately opens it again walks back over to my bike~ "Hey thanks for moving your truck."
Me: ~even more confused than before~ "Hey, yeah, no problem. I shouldn't have parked it there in the first place."
Creepy: "Thanks, apology excepted."
Me: ~with forced smile, quickly scurry off to my room and lock the door~

WTF was that?!

My plans to ride the last 800km in a day were squashed when I woke up and there was a thick layer of frost on everything. I decided to wait a few hours until the sun had a chance to melt it off the road before continuing East. I went back to bed and woke up 3hrs later...oops!

It was 0C when I started out and gradually warmed to 5C by noon. The road was clear and dry with little traffic.

I picked up a nasty habit while riding in Mexico and Central America. Since speed limits are very rarely enforced there, no one follows them. The same goes for complete stops, signalling, passing only in on a dashed line etc. What passes for normal, acceptable driving south of the border would cost you your licence here if caught.

A few times I glanced down to see 140km+ in a 90km/h zone. I need to get that reined in ASAP

I rode into Revelstoke to get fuel and lunch. No shortage of snow here!


Just out of Revelstoke there was a roadblock. Unlike Guatemala, this one wasn't about the price of corn. The military does the avalanche control in the area. Even though there wasn't any avalanche danger, they blocked the road as they were sighting in their new 105mm Howitzer cannon.

Waiting, waiting, waiting. Some motorists busted out a frisbee to kill time (back of the pic).


They have regular locations that they shoot from but needed to determine the site co-ordinates on a clear day so they can shoot accurately at night or in low visibility conditions when required.

The delay was just over an hour. I was getting antsy to get rolling again. It had been a warm day and there was lots of water on the highway. As the day went on, the temperature dropped and I was concerned about the water on the road turning to ice before I could get through Roger's Pass.

Soon enough we were on our way again. Ice hadn't yet formed on road by the time I got to Golden, BC. Time to shut it down for the day.

[crashmaster]

Originally Posted by Oso Blanco

I pulled up to my motel room parking spot and was intercepted by a creepy hotel customer that made my skin crawl.

Creepy: "Hey man, can you move your truck, I can't get my van out of my parking space."
Me: "Ahh, truck? Huh?"
Creepy: "Yeah that's your silver truck right?"
Me: ~looking around and not seeing a silver truck behind his van~ "What truck?"
Creepy: "That one."

Me: ~confused, realizing he's clearly insane~ "Ahh, no, that's not my truck, I'm riding this bike..."
Creepy: "Oh, you ride a motorcycle?"
Me: ~still sitting on my bike, in full gear~ "Yeah, I ride a motorcycle, this one in fact."
Creepy: "Oh, cool. I used to live in Williams Lake and there was a guy there with a motorcycle."
Me: "Fascinating."
Creepy: "So yeah, if you could move your truck I'd appreciated it."
Me: ~looking over at spot where the non-existant silver truck was apparently parked~ "Yeah, sure no problem. Let me unload my bike then I'll move the truck."
Creepy: ~opens his room door, walks in, closes it then immediately opens it again walks back over to my bike~ "Hey thanks for moving your truck."
Me: ~even more confused than before~ "Hey, yeah, no problem. I shouldn't have parked it there in the first place."
Creepy: "Thanks, apology excepted."
Me: ~with forced smile, quickly scurry off to my room and lock the door~

WTF was that?!

That was funny. Actually the funniest part is that you probably had that same conversation in Central America a dozen times, but it was in Spanish and you werent exactly sure what the crazy guy was saying.

[Oso Blanco]

As I sat in the hotel in Golden, on what would be my last night on the road, I sat back and reflected on the previous 5 months. What a rush. I am so fortunate to be about to do what I do, as often as I can do it. My life does not suck.

Other than the -10C temps between Golden and Calgary, and the heavy snow fall warning for Calgary that was promising 10inches of snow, and some beautiful views, the ride home was pretty uneventful.



The Enchanted Forest.






I rode up to my house and was promptly mauled by my dogs. My god I missed them. It's odd being home but not being home at the same time. I have a renter in my house until April 1st so I'm crashing at a friend's house.

Right now I can't really say how I free about being home. I do know it's nothing like I felt last year after the RTW trip.

I remember being in a hotel in Belgium and getting depressed when I realized there was only 6 weeks left in the trip. The last leg of the trip was a depressing one. Not the case this year.

I can't say I'm sad to be home but I can't really say I'm glad to be here either. It will be a few weeks until work is going full speed. Until then I expect I'll have big highs and lows.

I'm excited to see what this year will bring. I'm excited to plan the next trip.

[Oso Blanco]

Trip data:

Days on the road: 154
Total kilometers: 29,487km
Countries: 10 (Canada, US, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama)

Best/Worst

Best Day(s): The 2 days I spent hopelessly lost in the back woods of Honduras.
Worst Days: San Francisco to Portland in the rain, snow and freezing temperatures.
Favourite Country: Can't decide
Favourite City: Guanajuato, Mexico

Bike Data

Break downs/broken parts: leaky valve cover gasket, 1 rear axle bearing, left grip heater, 2 clutch cables, StarCom1 intercom system, Zumo 550, AirHawk sprung a leak (unrepairable)
Flat tires: None, again. 64,000km with zero flats
Bike changes for next time: Narrower panniers, Zumo 660 instead of the 550, sealed rear rim (tubeless). Everything else was great for this trip

Safety and Security

Number of time pulled over: 50-60
Number of bribe attempts: 0
Number of things stolen from me: 0
Number of traffic tickets: 0 Actually got out of one I deserved
Worst border crossing: El Amatillo, Honduras. Drama, drama, drama. Actually, I'd like to try it again now after accumulating 5 months of anti-coruption tactics. I expect it would go much smoother.
Easiest crossing: All pretty easy on the way back north with the exception of bike smuggling incident at La Florido, Guatemala.

Lost gear

Leatherman, skullbeam, towel, 2 Titanium sporks (had to resort to using a tire spoon to eat my ice cream)




I had an incredible trip, saw amazing things, rode ridiculously awesome trails and met fantastic people including some great girls

Thanks to everyone that commented here. Your replies and feedback make the effort and frustration of trying to upload pics from a crappy internet connection to do a RR worth it

Also a huge thanks to everyone that helped me along the way. Whether it was advice, parts, shipping, contacts, a place to crash or just hanging out for a drink in some weird corner of the world, it was appreciated! You guys made it my trip what it was

[Oso Blanco]

Originally Posted by crashmaster

That was funny. Actually the funniest part is that you probably had that same conversation in Central America a dozen times, but it was in Spanish and you werent exactly sure what the crazy guy was saying.

I'm sure I missed a lot more than that due to my spanish level

I'm talking to my spanish teacher from San Cristobal regularly so I should be more skilled when I go back

[604FTODAMTALL]

Thank you very much for taking us along on your ride. This thread has been very entertaining and educational, with your positive attitude you have shared a style of travel that gave me a appreciation for the real people's lives in the country's you visited.
The last few pic's of canada will reinforce people perception that canada is the frozen north.

[yamalama]

Great stuff.
Well done.
Thank you.

[desmodab]

Great Ride Report, and thanks for letting me ride along, at least vicariously.

Cheers, David

[toddbrule]

Welcome Home
Thanks for taking us along for the ride!!

Cheers

Todd

[Skedaddle]

Great trip and awesome RR. Really enjoyed your writing.

[Crazylegs Bob]

Awsome..... begining to the end! Now sit back and have a cold one. You deserve it!

[Oso Blanco]

I'm glad all of you enjoyed the RR. I certainly enjoyed doing it I am not however, enjoying the weather here. Relaxing in Mexico 2 weeks ago, shovelling snow and scraping windows now. Blah. 194 days until I can leave again

[Dachary]

Hey, Cory - glad you made it home! We're sitting around waiting for our flight (we start flying out of BA tomorrow but it's a 24-hour series of flights) and I'm finally catching up on stuff I've missed in the past 10 days or so.

Glad we met up, and I've enjoyed following along on your trip home! Looking forward to your next one. Is it going to be SA next time? Do you have a plan or is it too early? We'll keep watching, anyway, and even though we didn't chat for too long, you're one of our favorite people that we've met on our trip! You rock, and I want to add a +1 to thank you for sharing your RR! I know how much time it takes. But we who live vicariously appreciate it!