(Leah) Day 1:
Oi! Mad rush to get ready for the trip this week, I also had a mad rush to finish a large project at work. My brain was “activating” by approximately 4am every day this week, today was no exception. It didn’t help that Cascade (cat) decided to walk all over me and demand attention at that time as well. I ended up sneaking out of bed at an ungawdly early time this morning and (quietly) going onto my computer to finish up a few work tasks that were going to keep me awake at night. I really wish I had the ability to just ***boop*** and turn my work-brain off. Sadly, I do not have that ability. So….three or four hours later Keith was awake and not-so-gently encouraging me to turn the computer off. I logged off at 9am and went into mad chaos packing mode!
The goal was to leave the house by 10:30am, I was putting on my riding boots at 10:34am, so pretty darn good! Let’s not forget that I work in the estimating department so we only ever strive to be CLOSE. Close enough for me. 🤪
Keith was very optimistic and started out from the house in his vest and a T-shirt. We made it to the gas station down the block when he decided it was jacket weather.
The Alberta weather is ever unpredictable and we had a good amount of cloud cover on our ride West towards Jasper National Park. We had a few dark, ominous clouds that really threatened to ruin our day/. Luckily enough, we skirted around them without feeling a single rain drop! We stopped in Seba Beach for lunch, ate at a lovely greasy spoon style pub, warmed up with coffee and soup, then headed west on the Yellowhead highway. The drive got fairly chilly for a while, and Keith and I both ended up donning extra layers.
We live in Beaumont, AB (outskirts of Edmonton) and the drive between Edmonton and Edson is torturous! I always feel like I’ve accomplished something by the time we make it to Edson, just knowing that we’ve survived the worst part of the drive. Last road trip when we stopped in Edson had a few challenges, (we may do an extra post about that trip later) and Edson delivered another challenge for us again today! While gassing up, Keith wanted to check in on the new battery/inverter setup that was just installed on the trailer. As it turns out, the 90 degree connector going into the battery unit must have been tosselled around a bit and the socket was pushed too far into the battery unit. We stopped at a couple places in Hinton to look for extra component to fix the issue. Pat’s Auto / Bumper to Bumper was wonderfully helpful and and the part we needed. I was really starting to feel fatigued by this time, but a quick resfreshment at Folding Mountain Brewing helped to elevate our spirits.
We checked into our campground in Jasper, turns out that the site we reserved does not have a fire pit. 😥 We are only here for one night so the lack of fire will be missed, but we still managed to cook our smokies for supper. The setup of the trailer worked like a charm!
We had to indulge in a couple of fancy beer from our favourite brewery, Trail & Ale (check them out! They are based out of Edmonton). They make an assortment of weird and wonderful beers that will appeal to everyone!
Good start to the trip, stay tuned for extra excitement to come!
Keith and Leah's travel on 2 wheels 