too much white in here lol feel all brand new and a liitle shy lol what the feck is going on here?
chris sanfilippo
Welcome
This site is dedicated to our biking friends: most, but not all, of whom rode Route 66 with us in June 2009, and subsequently travelled north to Alaska in search of adventure. Yes, there were breakdowns and accidents, personality issues and, eventually, a split within the group. But, for all that, we had a great time. This blog is our gift to you all. Use it as you will to spoof, winge, make future plans, share links, insult each other and, generally, keep in touch.
Click on the “The Small Print” link (top right) for information on how to use the site.
Until next time, ride safe.
Brigid & John
August 24th – Two steps forward, one step back
I suppose the very fact that we are struggling to find activities to keep Mum amused in her incarceration, is a sign that there has been some progress. Some. Days after I wrote the last blog entry, she was diagnosed as having something called Critical Illness Neuropathy, a neurological infection affecting patients with critical illnesses, in case you hadn’t guessed. It knocked her back a bit, to say the least. The infection prevents signals from the brain reaching the muscles, thus affecting the function of the heart, lungs and, well, practically everything else. She became incredibly weak, even losing the power to hold a pencil.
A lesser person might just have turned up their toes, but it seems Mum is made of sterner stuff. A week later, with no sign of being able to wean her off the ventilator, the surgeons operated to put in a trachyotomy. That evening, for the first time, they propped her up in bed and she sat reading the paper with the doctor. Seeing her the following morning, I was hugely relieved to see her looking more recognisably like my mother, albeit with a gaping mouth and lop-sided face.
Over the next week or so, the muscle tone came back and she was able to smile again. The improvement continued day by day until, greeting her old friend Margaret, she put her arms up and was almost able to manage a hug. Almost.
Then, calling the hospital on Saturday , I was told that Mum’s infection markers were up, she had had a bad night, and had been taken down for a CT scan. Not the news I was hoping for, particularly as her friend Fergie had come all the way from Norfolk to see her. John and I went to meet him at the hospital and he kindly bought us lunch, while we waited for the sedative to wear off.
That afternoon, while Fergie sat with my mother, the surgeon gave me the bad news. The CT scan had shown up a fistula in Mum’s gut. Normally they would operate to close it, but owing to Mum’s age, the high levels of infection and the awkwardness of the site, they felt it would not be in her best interest. Instead they would change her antibiotics and hope that the leak would seal itself, as they sometimes do. I was visibly shaken as I rejoined John in the hospital reception. He tried to put his arm round me to comfort me, but it had the opposite effect and I burst into tears. So I put on my bravest smile and we sat like two bookends at either end of the sofa waiting for Fergie to finish his visit.
Poor Fergie. He was longing to know what the surgeon had said, but I couldn’t repeat it all without crying, so I left out the most depressing details. Fergie had been staying with my mother when she collapsed at the beginning of June, so he has become almost family over the period of her illness. It felt like a lie, but he seemed so encouraged that she had opened her eyes and smiled for him, that I didn’t want to dampen his view that “she is going to make it”. We saw him into a taxi, and then I had to ring my sister, my aunt and uncle: Mum’s sister and brother.
Although I was told that Mum was in “no immediate danger”, the infection is a nightmare. While MRSA grabs the headlines, and provides a perfect excuse to hurl abuse at our beleaguered health system, it is eminently treatable. There are far nastier things out there. Acinetobacter, for instance, has been identified among casualties of the Iraq conflict, but is becoming increasingly common in mainstream hospitals on both sides of the Atlantic. It is resistant to all but the widest-spectrum antibiotics and can live for weeks on skin and dry surfaces and, yes, Mum probably did acquire it at Newport’s, unusually excellent, NHS hospital.
So, what now?
Well, actually, in the days that followed Fergie’s visit, Mum rallied again. By Monday, the antibiotics seemed to have the bacteria on the run, and her signs were returning to normal. Within a few days, she was bright and alert and smiling again. I have started to take a “talking book” in with me, which we can sit and listen to together. I chose Dirk Bogarde’s autobiography, “A Postillion Struck by Lightening”, the title of which, I know, will mean nothing to our American friends, who refer to a “pillion” (short for “postillion”) rider, simply as a “passenger”. Anyway, Mum hates it: not my choice of book, particularly, just having to sit in a chair and stay awake for half an hour. But the doctors say it’s good for her, so I tell her she just has to put up with it and, as she cannot talk, she cannot argue.
Today, after much negotiation on the part of Mum’s nurses, I got the IT department to lend me a small projector so that I could run a little slide show of holiday photos. When I told her that I was going to show her my photos, I could have sworn I saw a twinkle of excitement. I duly set up the laptop and projector, and Mum looked at the first two or three photos as I sat close to her right ear and told her what they were. Then, as often happens with slide shows of other people’s holiday photos, the audience dozed off. I let the show continue in silence, then packed up the projector and left Mum fast asleep with her mouth open. Only the ventilator prevented her from snoring
Intensive Care
Our lives are, for the time being, dominated by daily, sometimes twice-daily, trips to the hospital, where Mum continues in Intensive Care. Her recovery from a life-saving operation on July 18th is slow: sometimes to the point of being imperceptible. Each day seems to bring a new challenge: high temperature, low blood pressure, high sodium, sleepless nights, restless days Since she still requires support from a ventilator, she cannot speak, which tends to keep our visits short. On a good day we will get a beaming grin and, if she is feeling strong enough, a hand wave. But not being able to communicate soon becomes frustrating and, as the banks of monitors behind her head warn us that her heart rate and blood pressure are rising, we reluctantly leave. On a bad day, she might open her eyes for us but then again, she might not.
Every input and output is measured and recorded by a devoted team of 3 or 4 nurses, who have, over the last three weeks, become like family to us. Other patients come and go from this dimly-lit subterranean world within a day or two, but, for the most part, Mum has the entire staff of the ICU to herself: one nurse permanently stationed at the end of her bed, diligently plotting her progress on a giant chart. And, while Mum concentrates all her efforts on breathing, around her others busy themselves adjusting drips, checking lines, taking bloods, resetting alarms
No five-minute visit seems to pass without some activity on the part of the medical team and, yesterday, I witnessed Mum’s physiotherapy workout. As she has spent so long lying down, there is now a concerted effort to get her used to being upright again. This is an undignified process, by which Mum is strapped to a tilt table and gradually inclined to an angle of 45°. Then two physiotherapists, aided by a couple of nurses, help her raise and lower her arms, touch her forehead and squeeze their hands. It is painful to watch the disproportionate level effort and exertion required, but the team seem delighted by her progress. Occupational Therapy brought her a large television so that she could watch Coronation Street, and asked about her hobbies
Friends and relatives call every day to ask if and when they might visit. Some seem shocked when I tell them Mum is still in Intensive Care and unable to speak. I don’t give it too much thought. There are few other places in the country where she would receive such dedicated care. To some extent, I have become desensitized to discussions around care plans and interventions: topics that would have previously left me faint or weepy. I find myself being almost alarmingly matter-of-fact about Mum’s condition. But the doctors are upbeat about every small improvement, so why shouldn’t I be?
Postscript
Most of our friends and family reading this blog will, by now, understand the lack of updates. Speaking to my mother on Monday 13th, from Cranbrook, BC, it became evident that she was extremely unwell. Our group having begun to split up, John and I made an immediate decision to cut our trip short, possibly flying back from Detroit instead of Halifax. As it happened, I received a call on Wednesday morning, telling me that Mum was dangerously ill and had been readmitted to hospital in a critical condition. We flew home on Friday from Chicago to be with her.
Holiday memories are apt to fade all too quickly. Even more so, in circumstances such as these. Sitting on my 81-year old mother-in-law’s sofa in Coulsdon on Saturday evening, watching a Kevin Costner movie with a glass of wine, I began to mull over the last days of our trip. The film was set in Alaska. Our hero is having some communication issues
Me (having had a little too much to drink): The trip was tough. Alaska is not that easy to conquer.
Betty: I was not ever that much of a fan.
Me: Uh?
Betty: Michael Jackson. I never really liked his music.
Me: No. Alaska. It’s not that easy to conquer. A lot of us didn’t get there.
Betty: I mean, lots of people like him. But I never really saw the point.
Me:
On a motorcycle, I mean.
Betty: Oh, yes. Of course
. Oh, I’ve just remembered, I’ve got someone coming to service the gas boiler on Tuesday
Since leaving Kelowna, we had been assuming that George’s Alaskan crew were still on schedule, so it was a relief when I called the hotel in Watson Lake to find they were still booked in. With all the delay and disappointment, it would be good to ride with friends again for a few days, and we were glad to see a few familiar bikes in the Belvedere’s parking lot.
George and Annie greeted us like prodigal children returning to the fold, and tables were hastily pushed together in the dining room so that we could join them for dinner. “Them” being George and Annie, Jenny and Nelson, Jo and Cathy, and John Stoughton. The others had apparently been delayed on the road. However, it quickly became evident that there was a little more to their absence than George was letting on An incident the previous day had pushed the already tired and stressed group to breaking point, effectively bringing about a mutiny.
As if in confirmation, George approached me the following morning to ask which group we would be riding with. To have altered our plans in order to catch up, only to be forced to pick sides, seemed unfair. But there it was. The road from Watson Lake to Dease Lake is notorious: unmarked, uneven and partially unsurfaced. Received wisdom suggested that riding the Cassiar Highway as part of a large group might be hazardous. And, since George’s group was notably smaller than the breakaway faction, we chose to ride with them. In the event, the Cassiar was as about as savage as MGM’s toothless lion.
Dinner at Dease Lake was a protracted affair. The food was mediocre and overpriced, and the service, appalling. So, after a congenial evening of beer and bike washing, we left early the next day to seek breakfast elsewhere with the mutineers: Willie, Jim, Chris and Flo, Bill, Greg, Julie and Johnny Higgins.
With no deliberate decision on our part, the pattern was now set for the rest of the week. There being no published itinerary to adhere to, we got up late and ate breakfast when and where we chose to. We exceeded speed limits, stopped whenever someone saw a bear, or suggested a point of interest, for a Kodak moment or just for a fag break. And, when we arrived at our destination, we stayed up late, drank (too much), played pool, laughed (a lot), and generally had a good time. We were, after all, on holiday.
It was not that we didn’t regret what had happened. Our conversations revolved around little else: what might have been or how we would have done things differently. We tried to organise a group dinner at Prince George but, by that time, too much water had passed under the bridge. Our leader was reportedly heartbroken that we didn’t want to ride with him. Unfortunately, it never occurred to him to ask himself “why?” .
The fact was that, having been on the road for over three weeks since leaving Chicago, the whole group was exhausted. Leaving behind the heat of the desert in California, no one needed 6am starts or 5pm dinners. Perhaps the worst crime of all, was the rigid adherance to a daily timetable to which no one else had any input. There was simply no time for relaxation, sight-seeing or technical issues. Deviate from the schedule for any reason, and you were on your own.
Much as George wanted to keep the group together, that has never been the ethos of the Mother Road Rally, for which he acted as Rallymaster for the first time this year, and from whence the Alaska ride originated. In our experience, one of the nicest aspects of that 2,448-mile ride, was the tendancy for the main body of riders to disperse into smaller groups over the course of the week. The trip is never without problems. People regularly have flat tyres, oil leaks and flat batteries. They take detours, run out of fuel, drop their bikes and lose their wallets. Sometimes, this year in particular, they hurt themselves. Always, they can count on the support of the friends they make on the road and, despite the Rally’s disclaimer, no one is ever left behind.
Non-biking friends often fail to understand the appeal of a motorcycle road trip. To them it is all dirt, discomfort and black leather. An attempt to recapture one’s youth: a poor man’s answer to the mid-life crisis. But those people forget that a trip of this length is not lightly undertaken and is never cheap. Add together to cost of a full spec touring motorcycle, fuel, lodging, subsistence and, for us Europeans, travel, and you could probably buy yourself an off-peak timeshare on the Costa Brava. Hence, every one of our travelling companions on this trip comes from a professional background of one sort or another. And, since Americans are almost unique in having no statutory right to paid holiday, they either need to be retired or in a position to dictate their own leave.
None of us are children. When things go wrong, we manage. It’s what we do, or have done, every day of our working lives. It would be arrogance to assume otherwise.
July 5th – Toad River, BC (BST -7hrs)
Neither of us fancied using the unisex shower block with its, rather too public, cubicles. So we made do with a change of undies and quick dab with the anti-bacterial wipes that I had bought as a precaution against swine flu. Needless to say, the restaurant was closed on Sunday, so we would have to look elsewhere for breakfast. But we had more immediate problems. John went off in search of jump leads while I brewed up some coffee and began to “strike” camp.
Once the Triumph was started, we didn’t dare stop for anything until the battery had had a chance to recharge. Luckily, the first convenient breakfast stop was 50km down the road at the Buckinghorse Ranch, and we had enough fuel to get there. The café only had 3 or four large tables and, unsurprisingly, was doing a roaring trade. The lone gas pump was out of service, but there was another service station across the dusty road.
Refreshed and refuelled, we rode on.
To be honest, there was not much of note. Fort Nelson was not much more than a blob on the highway. We pulled off again for fuel and a milkshake at A&W: again, being Sunday, it was practically all that was open.
100km or so on, the road became more scenic, weaving through mountains with stunning views over forestry and lakes until we arrived at Toad River, our overnight stop.
We had intended to camp again, but since it there was a little rain in the air, we were glad to find that they had a cabin still available. It felt good to be warm and dry, so we did our best to ignore a distinctly stale smell wafting in from the basin waste pipe in the bathroom. We unpacked, showered, and wandered back over to the café for a burger.
July 4th – Pink Mountain, BC (BST -7hrs)
The various disappointments of Grand Prairie made us all the more determined to camp out this evening. We had two more days to get to Watson Lake, so we didn’t need to achieve more than about 340 miles in a day.
After last night’s experience, and our dislike of continental breakfasts consisting of donuts and lurid-coloured cereals, we decided to have breakfast in Dawson Creek. So, having taken the obligatory photos of “Milepost 0” and the “Start of the Alaska Highway” sign, we found a nice little diner serving a traditional breakfast of
quesidillas and fajitas.
We felt a tinge of regret as we started out on the Alaska Highway. It seemed a bit of a sham to have photographed ourselves at the start, knowing we wouldn’t be going further north than Watson Lake, barely into the Yukon, let alone Alaska.
In true Route 66 spirit, we found an historic cut off that took us across an original timber-built curved
bridge on a section of the old Alaska Highway. In reality the road is now just a loop off the main highway, leading to the Kiskatinaw Provincial Park and a campsite, but it was an interesting detour involving a surprise section of deep gravel.
We passed through Fort St. John, stopping only for gas but, 100km further on, we were parched and needed a break. 
The Shepherd’s Inn seemed to fit the bill. The Milepost book had a tempting advertisement for lunch and dinner menus of homemade fare and “refreshing fruit drinks from local fruits”. May be it was just the wrong time of day, but we found only a rather surly waitress and a choice of coffee or commercial bottled soft drinks
Oh, and a bookstand full of worthy titles like, “Seven Secrets to Preserving Your Virginity”. Seven? Clearly, the facts of life are more complicated than I thought!
We arrived at our campsite at Pink Mountain just before 6pm, at the same time as two BMW riders from Alberta, and a Frenchman, who we had earlier come across on the side of the road. They were just stopping for dinner and fuel, so it seemed the sociable thing to do to eat with them and just as well, as the place was about to close up for the day.
The meal was unremarkable, save for the fact that John left his auxiliary lights on while we ate, and came back to a flat battery. Luckily, the parking lot for the restaurant was above the camp site so, even though we couldn’t bump start the bike, it was easy enough to push across the highway and up to our tent site.
The Pink Mountain camp site bills itself as “one of the nicest on the Alaskan Highway”. I beg to differ. Perhaps I am spoilt, in that I expect separate Ladies and Gents shower facilities or, at the very least, a private cubicle. And, though I appreciate, we are in the middle of nowhere, a flush toilet would have been preferable to the single, revolting, privie that passes for a ladies lavatory.
Having had an interminably boring conversation with a German, to whom John had unwisely offered a can of beer, and two young cyclists, we made our excuses and retired to our tent.
July 3rd – Grand Prairie, BC (BST -7hrs)
I apologise for the lack of updates. I have, in fact, several unpublished pages written, awaiting upload. But the fact is that, on the nights we actually have Internet access, the network speed is generally so slow, that I am unable to upload more than one page at a time.
We really couldn’t fault the location for our first night under canvas. We woke up to blue skies and clear views of the snow-capped mountains all around. The rain I thought I had heard, turned out to be the sprinkler system on the putting green. Most of the other campers had already left by 8am, but we weren’t in any particular hurry. Since there didn’t seem to be anyone cooking breakfast in the clubhouse, we put our little gas burner together and brewed up a couple of cups of coffee. A few minutes later, the cook turned up with a huge tray of eggs.
We took Hwy 16, the Yellowhead Highway, from Tête Jaune Cache to Hinton, through the Jasper National Park, riding for about 20 miles beside Jasper Lake. Spectacular scenery but, surprisingly, we saw very little in the way of wildlife. Just a few odd coloured deer that John thought were goats and turned out to be neither: mountain sheep. We had a cup of coffee and fuelled up at Hinton, before joining Hwy 40. “The scenic route to Alaska”, the signpost said, followed by “No services for 140km”. The road was indeed scenic. We saw a black bear and several deer. And there were no services until we reached Grand Cache, 140km further north.
If Kelowna was the highlight of the last week, then Grand Prairie was definitely the low point. The nice lady at the tourist information office in Grand Cache had recommended the Tamarack campsite, about 5km south of the town. However, when we got there, it turned out to be an RV (motorhome or caravan) Park. The owner was welcoming, nonetheless, and offered her own lawn for our tent. Unfortunately, it would have still meant a 10km return journey into town for a meal, so we declined. We asked if she could recommend a site a little closer in, so she made a couple of phone calls on our behalf. It quickly transpired that, for whatever reason, “tenters” are not welcome in Grand Prairie. RV owners have the choice of half a dozen well appointed parks, but they don’t provide tent sites anymore. Neither do the more central Provincial Parks, who mainly advertise “Day Use Only”. We did try to find the “Happy Trails” campsite to the north west of town but, having ridden for several kilometres, we came to a gravel road and a sign showing 1.6km further to go. Since we had still not eaten, and there was an ominous-looking dark cloud on the horizon, John suggested we scrap the idea of camping tonight and check into a motel instead.
Dinner was an unsatisfactory affair: dry roast chicken with a barbeque sauce, for which we were overcharged.
In the end, we couldn’t wait to leave.
July 2nd – Valemount, BC (BST -7hrs)
Much as we liked Kelowna, it felt good to be back on the road. On our way to Kelowna last weekend, a café owner at Cache Creek had warned us against using Hwy 97C, the east-west four-lane highway over the mountains. He had taken that route only a week or so before, and rounded a corner to find a car overturned in the snow. “Not the sort of place you want to be taking two wheels”, he said. And, to give him his due, although we had not been in the ideal frame of mind to make the most of a scenic drive, the old north-south Hwy 97, had proven to be a very enjoyable route.
Departing the city today, however, we felt brave enough to take the advice of Chris, SWMotorrad’s expat British service manager. We had a rather chilly ride over “The Connector” to a place called Merritt, where we turned north onto Hwy 5A, for a beautiful 99km ride through open countryside. The only habitation we passed between Merritt and Kamloops, were the tiny communities of Nicola and Quilchena.
It was gone 2pm when we reached Kamloops, so we started looking for a t
ruck stop or diner to grab a bite to eat. Conveniently, there was one signposted on the turn-off for Hwy 5 towards Jasper. But there was no sign of a restaurant. Retracing our steps, we followed the signs from the main road to the clubhouse of a new golf course. “All Welcome”, declared the sign outside. So we parked our bikes next to the golf buggies and had lunch on a sunny terrace with panoramic views over the town.
We kept the golf theme going with our choice of campsite that evening. The best bet seemed to be the Valemount Golf Course, which allows campers to pitch their tents next to the practice area, after hours, and use the members’ washroom and shower facilities.
July 1st – Kelowna, BC (BST -7hrs)
It is Canada Day today. The last time we were in Canada on July 1st was 2006, and it rained. Today, we awoke to blue skys and the world and his wife seemed to be heading to the lakeside for a day on the beach.
Actually, we were more concerned about our laundry. But, as the coin-op was closed for the day, we will have to do our washing tomorrow. Instead, we spent the morning backing up the computer, discussing our plans for the remainder of this trip and thinking about the next time
Being realistic, we had already dropped the idea of going to Alaska and the Arctic Circle. This comes as a bitter disappointment as we had been planning that part of the trip since last year and, theoretically we could still make it. But at what cost? If we had left today, we could have been in Fairbanks on July 6th as per our original itinerary. But, assuming no further hiccups, we would have had to turn right around after our Arctic Circle trip and head back east. We would miss most of what we came to Alaska to see. On the other hand, if we spend an extra day here and then meander slowly up to Watson Lake, we stand a good chance of hooking up with George’s group on 6th instead presupposing, of course, that they are still on schedule.
But, for now, we just headed into town to see what was going on.
Most of the action seemed to be occuring down at the waterfront parks. There were market stalls and musicians, hot-dog and candy floss vendors, belly dancers and face painters, clowns, jugglers, the eccentric, the artistic, and the just plain weird
We took an hour out and booked a scenic lake tour with two slightly drunk ladies enjoying an extended weekend break from Vancouver.
Then there were the belly dancers: remarkably graceful, despite some of them being rather more endowed with belly than others. We gave the ‘alternative rock’ a miss. The expression “if it’s too loud, you’re too old” came to mind, but may be we were just being too British. Young and old alike had Canadian flags stuck in their hair, their button-holes, their handbags, or their rucksacks. Some wore the national colours of red and white, others had a Canadian T-shirt or a maple leaf stenciled on their face. The last time I remember anything similar in England was the Royal Wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981. Foreigners must find us an odd lot.
Eventually, we needed to take a break from the heat and retired to our motel room until the evening. After dinner, we ventured back in briefly for the fireworks. But we made our getaway almost before the final salvo had dimmed. We had an early start planned the following morning if only to do the laundry! Within half an hour we were in bed, asleep.