I put the panniers on the bike and started loading everything up, but unfortunately the stock height sidestand is a little too long - as I was filling the panniers and putting the tent and bag on, the bike almost fell over as the suspension compressed. I was running out of time so I just unloaded some stuff and then took off.
The ride was great - it was pretty warm but traffic was light and there was a nice bit of cloud to keep the worst of the sun out of my eyes. Not too interested in adventure this time, I took the Trans-Canada the whole way and it was a very pleasant, if uneventful ride.
I got into town and took care of the paperwork, and as I was leaving, I almost dropped the bike in a low-speed sharp turn. Having all the extra weight on the sides sure makes a difference in handling in that situation, but it's easy enough to correct for now that I'm aware of it.
I got to my parents' place and we had a great visit. It's been a while since I've been there and we took the opportunity to sit down and have a really good chat and catch up on stuff. Good conversations and good food - it was a great time!
This morning we hung around and shot the breeze some more, and then it was time for me to hit the road. It was warm out again (+26C, I think) and I grabbed gas at the Shell station on the way out of town (fuel economy for the trip out worked out to 5.4L/100km or 52.31MPG). I tell you - I sure do like the "pay at the pump" feature. Saves quite a bit of time if you're in a hurry.
I took the Trans-Canada out of Brandon, and figured I'd do a friend a favour and head down Highway 5 to stop by his place and say hi. This year has been horrible for flooding - earlier this year it was the Assiniboine, and now the Souris river is flooding badly. As I rode down Hwy 5, I passed an electronic "HWY 5 CLOSED AHEAD" sign on the side of the road. A little while later, I passed a black and white "ROAD CLOSED" sign on the shoulder of the road. That was kind of strange, it looked very out of place - there were no flags or cones or anything, just a big sign on the side of the road. I stopped for a minute and gave my friend a call, he said there should be a detour just a little bit up the road.
I continued on until I came to another "ROAD CLOSED" sign. This one was in the middle of the highway, had orange flags leading up to it, and there was orange snow fence stretched across the road. I stopped and took a look:
Up ahead, it looked like there was some water on the road. No problem, the KLR would be just fine if there was a little bit of water on the road. A closer look, however, indicated that the water wasn't so much ON the road as it was IN it:
Now, don't get me wrong. I think the KLR and I are a great team, but we are NOT getting across THAT. Sizeable chunks of the pavement and road bed are now in a field or trees somewhere to the left of this picture. The water is moving quite quickly, too. The worst part is that nothing in this picture is supposed to be water. There's no bridge there, no dugout, not even a well... the river is a little way off to the right and really shouldn't be out this far. I suppose that's kind of what they mean by "flooding" though.
I was tempted to ride a little closer (as you can see, the fencing looks like it was either moved recently or put up in a hurry), but I didn't want to chance it. I really don't want to end up being one of those boneheads on the news who figure that they can cross a river or whatever and end up sitting on the roof of their truck, waiting for a helicopter to save them.
I was still trying to figure out how to meet up with my buddy, and with there being zero cell reception, I figured I'd try one of the little side roads or trails and see if I could meet up with one of the other roads and somehow get around the washout. I found one narrow little sand and gravel road that seemed promising. It looked like there had been heavy equipment on it at some point when it was wet, the road was chewed up in one spot. I was trying to figure out where I was going to meet up with another north-south road, when it suddenly became apparent that my master plan wasn't going to work:
Yep, Mother Nature strikes again. My little road ended and there was water everywhere.
I poked around for a little longer but the sky was darkening and I could see a bunch of lightning. As I didn't want to be stuck in the sticks (or on the highway, for that matter) in a thunderstorm, I decided to head back to Hwy 5 and then take the Trans-Canada home and try to beat the storm.
The rest of the ride home was uneventful. I managed to outrun the storm (well, actually, the KLR did all the work - I just sat on it and occasionally glanced nervously at the sky), and traffic stayed nice and light, which kind of surprised me for a Saturday afternoon.
I got home in good time and as I rolled up the driveway, Mrs. HAL came outside to say hello. It was a great trip, but it was nice to be home!
This was the first ride I'd done with the panniers on. They didn't affect the handling of the bike all that much on the highway (I didn't notice they were there for the most part), but like I mentioned earlier, I need to remember there's a bunch of weight hanging off the sides of the bike now when I'm rolling along at walking speed.
The new tires should be broken in now. They're a LOT louder on the highway - above 60kph or so, they start to howl a lot, but I find they handle much better in the sand and gravel than the stock tires did. Hopefully they won't disappoint on tread life, either!
Less than two weeks before I hit the road for the big trip. Excited, yet nervous. A little scared, perhaps...
Safe riding!
Odometer reading now: 10507.1km
Distance since last fill: 261.9km
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