Last day of the trip

Day 14 – Keith

Today we started out well rested. The hotel that Leah booked was not as flea bag as we thought and actually had some comfortable beds. I woke up first and had a shower followed by Leah and we were ready to go for breakfast.

We heard the night before that the restaurant in the parking lot of the hotel was good and it seemed they did breakfast, instead of having to travel anywhere we decided to eat there. Online it said they open at 8 so we arrived after 8 only to find them closed. Our second option was to go to a little bakery on the NW side of the traffic circle that also said they would open at 8. Guess what they were closed as well. We decided that the Wells Gray conference centre at the bottom of the hill must be open and sure enough they were, thank goodness.

After having a bite we hit the road on our last leg of the journey. As I have gone the entire trip without wearing my jacket and the outside air temperature being a little cooler I changed into a long sleeve shirt and my vest.

About 10 Km down the road from Clearwater we were greeted with our first pipeline construction site where the speed would lower to 70, then down to 50. This would be way the road was every 5 km or so. Leah even started to count the construction zones all the way to Valemount and I think she counted 27.

We made quick time to Valemount and stopped off at the Gathering Tree for a coffee. This was our second choice as my first choice to stop at would have been Three Ranges Brewing, but they are never open at the times we are passing through Valemount.

Caffeinated we hit the road with the next planned destination being Folding Mountain brewing for lunch. Traffic moved quite a bit quicker once outside of Valemount. I think they had finished that spread of the pipeline the winter prior. We bypassed Jasper as it was a Saturday and we knew what that would mean, super busy with crowds.

We made really good time to Folding and found ourselves on their patio enjoying the sun and the last glimpses of the mountains before heading east for the long boring haul.

I have to admit I prefer highway 16 over highway 2 south of Edmonton but this day I found myself spacing out with the long straight boring stretches.

We made it home around 7:30 giving us plenty of time to snuggle our kitties. We ordered pizza and called it a night with another successful motorcycle trip under our belts.