Bike snags already!!!

It is 1 September and I have now finished riding the divide and staying with friends in Scottsdale.  I am very conscious that the blog is well and truly out of date so I will try to update it over the next week or so whenever I have internet connection.  My plan is to head east towards New Orleans and then north to Halifax.

I will pick up the story on 7 August.

We left Camilla's relatives and headed towards Calgary.  This was the first time that I had ridden the bike for quite some time and I became quickly aware that the steering was stiff and notchy.  I suspected that my steering head bearings were kaput and needed replacing.  I found GW Cycleworld in Calgary and they were extremely helpful.  David their service manager told me that to get a Suzuki replacement bearing would take at least a week but he could get hold of an aftermarket part and have it fitted the next morning.  Happy with that so the people in the Days Inn pool were subjected to a couple of adventure motorcyclists as we ran rampant on the indoor water slide.  Awesome!!!!!

The next day (8 August) parts were fitted, Maria had her haircut????? and we continued to Canmore and passed Cochrane wit its Olde English style tearoom and then to stay with Camilla's friend Ella who looked after us royally.  Nowhere at their house to stay so Ella's husband took us to his parents house and since they were away we stayed their.  How trusting is that?  Just to say that on the way we got caught in the mother of all hailstorms.  Every car pulled off the road and we followed suit where we stood in the pissing rain for the next 40 minutes.  Thank God for my new waterproofs.  They were so good that we even turned down 2 offers to shelter in peoples cars  where we could have give their upholstery a good sponge wash.