Day 69, Tuesday, August 23

After a nice start to the day, crossing into Canada in good weather the day took a turn for the worse. Heading North toward Calgary in Alberta, almost immediately after entering the province, the skies got really dark, a monstrous and gusty wind picked up, the temperature dropped to about 40 degrees and the skies opened up. Basically the weather sucked ass. Cold, rainy, and windy. The only way it could have been worse is if there’d been hail or ice on the road.
I’d intended to take some pictures in Calgary for posterity but due to the weather I skipped that and headed straight over towards Banff. Problem was that the weather didn’t let up and by about 4:00 I was shivering so badly I could hardly hold the motorcycle straight. When I pulled into the town of Canmore I decided I’d had enough, was going to give up trying to get to Banff, and was going to have to get a motel for the first time on this trip. What I didn’t know is that Canmore is an EXTREMELY pricey ski resort town. I decided on the Best Western because it looked like the cheapest hotel in town. Cheap it was not. The cheapest room available was $176 Canadian or about $140 US. I’ve NEVER paid that much for a hotel room before. What do you get in Canmore for $140? Damn near nothing. A hot tub that’s out of order, a room with 2 beds with a big bright security light just outside the window, a petulant front desk clerk, and a continental breakfast in the morning. Not even free internet.. I’m extremely unhappy about having to stay here but I was simply in no condition to ride further. I even ended up with a sore throat as a result of today’s ride. My Aerostitch Roadcrafter held up to the first couple of hours of the rain but by the time I’d pulled over, both it and my waterproof boots were getting damp on the inside. Soaked, tired, cranky, and sick. Not a good combination. It took me nearly 30 minutes of standing in a hot shower before I stopped shaking and shivering. I really think I was dangerously close to hypothermia.