Day 7 - Lake Louise, AB to Kalispell, MT

Day 7, Lake Louise, AB to Kalispell, MT. The day began with another beautiful clear sky with temperatures hovering in the low 50's. The weather gods have truly been favoring us on our journey, thus far. Our goal today is to depart the northernmost terminus of our odyssey at Lake Louise and return to the United States arriving in Kalispell, MT in time to do some laundry. One can only turn socks and underwear inside out so many times before one's roommate begins to notice.

We gassed up at $105.9 per litre, you do the math, it's way too confusing for me. I think it's somewhere around $3.00 a gallon, give or take the fluctuating Canadian/American exchange rate. We departed the park via the southern entrance passing through the most scenic examples of the great snow-capped Canadian Rocky mountains imaginable, perhaps even more magnificent and majestic than the Rocky Mountains in the US.

Departing the park at Radium Hot Springs, we headed south on Highway 95 past Columbia Lake and a rather nondescript town called Canal Flats, claiming to be the headwaters of the mighty Columbia River. Who could say it isn't? About 60 miles further south we came across a fully restored western town, Fort Steele. The fort was established around 1890 to control an Indian uprising when the indigenous peoples took exception to the white man trespassing, building, farming, trapping, and extracting minerals on land established for the local Indian population in the form of a reservation. Sound familiar? Well, the good King of England sent Captain Steele to restore order and put the rebellious Indians in their place, wherever their place may now be. He did it in short order. One year later the fort was closed, but the white settlers flourished. Again, sounds awfully familiar doesn't it? I think I've heard this story somewhere before.

About an hour out of Ft. Steel, we arrived at the US border. "Passports please. Any weapons, sums of money over $10,000, carrying anything for anyone else? Welcome back to the United States, we missed you." Not really; they have no sense of humor. Scott wanted to test the system by wrapping turbans around our helmets, but we thought better of it.

We arrived in Kalispell around 5:00 PM and headed directly to the local Harley-Davidson dealer of our daily HD fix. You may recall that we had been ragging on Bob over the baby-butt smooth configuration of his rear tire, so Bob bit the bullet and inquired about purchasing a new tire. The good news was that they had one, the bad news was they were closing and we would have to return tomorrow at 9:00 AM to have it installed. We groused a little about having to return tomorrow, as we planned to be 70 miles down the road by 9:00 AM. However, the good chaps at Montana HD Shop took pity on us and they had the new tire mounted in record time. Thanks guys, much appreciated.

After checking into the hotel we promptly set up a make-shift patio with borrowed tables and chairs outside our rooms, ordered four pizzas, chicken wings, and a case of beer, started laundry and began cleaning our bikes, talk about multi-tasking, which I have to admit drew a small crowd interesting of people who smoke non-filtered Camel cigarettes, no longer have most of their own teeth, and travel the country by Greyhound bus. We really need to start staying in nicer hotels.

I think Scott is getting used to riding his motorcycle everywhere we go. Rumor has it that he even loaded his dirty laundry on it and drove it the fifty paces from his hotel room to the laundry room. Maybe he just really likes to ride. Well, that's quite enough for one day. Stay tuned, the fat lady has not sung the last tune on this adventure yet.