A Rough Start To A Great Day

Sometimes the best days get off to a rough start and today was one of those days. We are continually moving north and west. As you can imagine the days are getting longer and our body clocks keep wanting to rise earlier and earlier. We’ve been waking up around 5:15 AM Mountain but as of today we are Pacific time and we expect to rise at 4:15 AM. All that to say, we were both ready to ride bright and early.Our first stop was for fuel. Most non-USA countries have started using credit cards with a chip embedded in them and the pump readers at service stations won’t take standard US cards. So, we often have to go in the station to pay. Somewhere in the mix I dropped my credit card and unknowingly kicked it under a display rack of antifreeze. At the same time Dave realized he had laft his gas cap at the last fuel stop. We were both focused on solving our separate issues and after directions to a local auto parts store and the lady in the car next to me (who found my credit card for me) which helped me tremendously, we set off to see if a car gas cap would fit a Harley Davidson.

The good news is the auto parts store had what we needed and the cap fit just fine. The bad news is while we were at the auto parts store the gas station attendant called and asked that we return and pay for our gas (or else she would report us to the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police). It wasn’t just raining, it was pouring. We stopped right there and decided this day needed to get better and we needed to leave these troubles behind us.

We went to the station and gave the attendant a 10 dollar tip, for which she was extremely grateful. Needles to say, we felt bad for driving off without paying.

So, how was the rest of the day? Perfect. You couldn’t ask for a better day for which we were very grateful. We left the mountain areas behind us and were now in the frontier wilderness of British Columbia. It is beautiful in its own way, and the only traffic you see are semi trucks headed to the oil fields. At one point in the day Dave pointed out that we hadn’t seen a car all day long.

Another milestone this morning was crossing the 2000 mile mark. Always a reason for celebrations. (as seen below)

Thanks to so many for their prayers and encouragement. We read the numerous emails, text, tweets, and instagrams and are deeply grateful for so many that supported us on the South America trip where we raised monies for charity. As I said earlier, while this is a personal goal to complete the ride from Antarctic to Arctic, we feel like we are continuing our original mission and enjoying so many fond memories of what we were able to accomplish riding from the tip of South America back to the USA.

Miles With A Mission

USA | South America | Central America | Cuba

As always, we are posting videos and other interesting photos on Instagram and Twitter.

@GeraldSmith

@DavidClouseUS