Monday, September 14, 2009

Canada is tough now for us but rewarding.

the first flat tire in our 20months trip.

Mary and John's home. relaxing time.



Mary and John of Denver, Colorado.







friends around.




friends around.





friends around, Peter Kiss.



Grant Johnson.





friends around.


The Ladies team of HUMM 2009 Colorado.




friends around, keeping us warm.













Mr Clem, the BMW mechnic at Denver. they charge US$99 per hour for work. i was there to collect my tires, Luckily.







it had been days where we did not stop to rest. I am writing now in the 1st campground we stayed with internet, shower and nice weather for the past 1 week.

Canada is huge! very nice riding routes and lots of campground for the RV site, not very motorcycle friendly. we have to pay C$15 everynight just for a tent space. toilet is a cabin with a shit hole, without water. there isn’t any water supply to wash up the utensils or hands. not to mention getting a shower. coming to north Canada and Alaska now is a WRONG time as there will be rain everyday, except these 2 days where we rest here and have shower and internet. its really F-King cold.

what happened?

after the horizons unlimited meeting at Colorado, we stayed with Dr Greg, where we met in Chiangmai, Thailand in 2008 January. got our tires changed and set off towards north west.

for the past 21 months of our trip, we had our 1st and 2nd flat tire. 1st was towards Colorado, Gunnison, where the horizons meeting was. the 2nd was out of Gunnison, 90km away.

I have lots to tell you but it’s freezing cold here. I can’t write properly.

Main point:

we got a S$1300 fine at the custom of Canada. they wanna seize Hope Too until we pay the fine. will update later.

Hope Too is not running well. it is still burning engine oil like the last engine. then it had some cranking sound when I give more throttle. the front disc brake is giving weird sound. I DO NOT have confident in this bike.

then, I am doing up a lot of paperworks. for the carnet I have to produce to Australia. For the shipment to Australia. For the new engine number I have to register with Singapore, to Starhub which is still accusing me for that S$3500 data bill, to renew my roadtax and insurance for the automobile association of Singapore that require me in order I have to get the carnet from, to the Canada border agency that had ‘fine’ me for S$1300. headache.

so now once I had internet connection, I am dealing with all these paperworks.

with samantha’s new sleeping bag, it is still cold. the sleeping bag specification is
‘alibaba’. so call -12degress celcius. darm it!

we are looking at a place to stay in Los Angeles, around 1 week before 26 november 2009.

cold and nothing but cold.

we are now at: N60 35.908 W134 51.227








Aaron, fellow senior biker from singapore. staying in Texas that hosted us for 2 nights. this is the first time we stayed with fellow singaporean. he is really a great host!




First flat tire. on the way to Colorado.




The our savior, Mr Bill, that helped us to changed the tires and followed us for 400km making sure we are ok with the new tube.








that is how our tire becomes when we had the first change. it lasted till the bikers meeting in colorado, Gunnison.



CJ, from Alaska. he gived me his used tire, which is much better than the tire shown above.








changing the tires at Colorado, Gunnison. the tires from CJ.




90km after the bikers meeting, with CJ's tire, i had flat again! shit.







then had the final change of new tires in Denver. for the past 1 week, i had done 3-4 tires tube change.





3 comments:

Daniele Ciccone said...

keep going my Singaporedream. We spending a lot of time jumping from a hospital to another here in USA too. Hope to see you on your way back to LA.
Big Hug.

Daniele

heartache said...

glad to see Hope is on the road once again. sad to see Hope is "hurt" once again.

yes you are now 18hrs younger than any of us now in spore! keep up the "young" spirit! hahahahaha....

it is approaching year end now - presumbly cold weather will gradually comeby.

keep yourself in good health and shape. hope Hope will be able to "pull through" and continue with the journey with both of you!

singaporedream said...

Daniele: all the way to go! u will have our support!

Heartache: thanks for the words. we know that u will be there.