I got up looked out the window and it wasn’t raining. It looked like a promising day. I grabbed my bags and went to load my bike. I no more than touched the cover on my motorcycle and it started raining. I loaded everything and left. The last time I stayed at this hotel was on the way up to the Northwest Territories. Yes, I stayed in the very same room. It’s the motel where my gas cap wouldn’t vent and it took me four hours to sort this problem out. I won’t forget that little memory. I thought my Alaskan trip was over. As I drove to Watson Lake my decision to stay the night at Teslin proved to be a wise decision. It was a winding road with fog when you drove thru the higher elevations. I stopped in Watson Lake to fuel up and eat breakfast. I met a guy traveling from Georgia to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska on a Honda Gold Wing. I’d say it might have been a 2007 model. I filled him in on the availability of gas, hotels and price of things. He was really surprised when I told him I have been traveling since the 13th of May and had traveled around the world. He couldn’t believe I rode my Kawasaki. I get a lot of reactions like that. Anyway, I left for the Sign Post Forest to take pictures. This area is where people hang all kinds of signs i.e. country, state, hometown, license plates, family names from when they drove the Alaskan Hwy. Since 1986 when I first saw it, it has grown at least three or four times larger. It’s huge. I’d say it’s almost a half an acre in size. There are signs from everywhere, all parts of the world. Before I left I met this British guy riding to Prudhoe Bay. I also filled him in on the details of the Dalton Highway. When he finishes with that he is riding down to the tip of South America and if he has any money left he’s going to ride from Cape Town, South Africa to Egypt and then back to Great Britain. What a great guy. He’s living proof people in this world are always moving around and looking. He also told me he rode through Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia last year. He then flew his bike to Vancouver, British Columbia and left it with friends. Then this year he came back and picked it up and continued his journey to Alaska and then to South America. He also had a Horizons Unlimited sticker hanging on his motorcycle. It is a popular website for people seeking travel information and help from other motorcycle riders who’ve been there and done that. I left him saying, “Safe journeys, my friend” and departed for Fort Nelson. The rain never seems to go away. The farther south I travel the more rain and fog there is. As I drove through the Muncho Lake area, the rain continued into the higher elevations and included fog. As I worked my way through the pass the rain changed to sleet and then to snow. Several vehicles pulled over and the girls got out to take pictures in the snow. The snowflakes were about the size of a quarter or 25 cent piece (dollars). My helmet visor was of no help because it was fogged up and covered with snow. My glasses were the only eye protection I had and I had to wipe the snow off of them about every 30 seconds so I could see. I probably drove 10 or 20 Mph/16 or 32 Kph through all of this. Once I was back into the lower elevations it was back into the rain and fog. Twice during the day there were buffalo/bison standing on the road. I passed them cautiously. I also saw a caribou standing in the road. He looked at me and walked off. I arrived in Fort Nelson about 8:00 p.m. with hardly a drop of daylight left and soaked to the skin. I pulled into the first hotel I saw and wasn’t too fussy about the price. I got off my bike and left it running. I wanted it to warm up before I shut it off. It had rained all day with hardly a hint of warmth showing on the heat gauge. Even with the radiator taped off (Polish Thermostat) so no air could pass through it, the engine ran cold. Just the rain and the road spray kept the engine cool. I got off my bike, dropped my hands to my side and my left glove instantly filled with water. I was a little ticked off about that. I immediately raised my left hand about shoulder height and removed my glove. I then lowered my hand and let the rest of the water drain out of my rain suit sleeve. I think a coffee cup of water drained out. How my rain suit arm fills with water like that I don’t know. My Aerostitch jacket didn’t allow any of that water to soak into any of the clothing I had on inside the sleeve. I walked into the motel looking like a drowned rat again. The Philippino girl working behind the registration counter had to provide a towel for me to wipe my hands before I could fill out the registration form. I was dripping wet. She gave me the key and told me if I need a dryer to dry my clothes one was available. I went to my room and removed my rain suit only to see that my red Aero Stitch riding suit was soaking wet on the outside. I immediately started looking for the furnace thermostat and turned it up as high as it would go. I went back outside and moved my motorcycle up to my door and unloaded my bags. I didn’t open any of the boxes because I didn’t want any rain in them. So I wouldn’t be working on my blog tonight. By the time I had my cover over the bike the room furnace was blowing hot air and warming everything up. I strung a bungee cord between the furnace grill work and a post in the room and hung all my riding clothing up to dry. I also placed my helmet, shoes and boots in front of the furnace to dry out. My helmet smells like a wet dog when all the padding gets wet around my face. So I dried that out too. I then crawled into bed with the television on and warmed up. It took about two hours before the room was so hot that I had to get out from under the covers and sleep on top of all the bedding. I woke up again sometime around 1:00 a.m. and checked my clothes to see if they had dried out. Everything was dry. I left everything as it was until I got up in the morning.
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