Day Twenty Three

This morning I fully expected a downpour as predicted but instead it was just cloudy with a little fog. I was very grateful because it's never fun packing up in the rain. I wanted to leave early because I needed to put some serious miles on the board today if I was going to get home by Sunday night. I jumped on the bike about 8:30 am, fired up my Garmin GPS and hit the "Go Home" button. I have programmed it to tell me the time of arrival at my destination. It said that if I were to ride steady that I would be home at 4:45 am on Saturday, about 19 or 20 hours of continuous driving. No thanks.
I was cooking along just fine when about noon the rain finally arrived. It was very intense to the point that I couldn't see. My faceshield was fogging up too so I kept riding until I saw an overpass up ahead so I stopped for a little shelter from the storm. There happened to be another couple on their Harley parked there too trying to wait out the downpour. They had those little black half helmets that all the Harley people wear and having ridden in rain with an open faced helmet myself I know how painful it can be on the face. It literally feels like tiny pins are hitting you.
After the rain I stopped and took some photos out on the Trans Canada Highway.

I was fighting a strong head wind and the speed limit was 110 kph and I was trying to maintain the speed limit. As a consequence I was only getting about 25 mpg and with a 5 gallon tank I was constantly stopping for gas. By about 6:30 pm I arrived in Perth-Andover on fumes and found a lovely camp site by the river.

I had ridden 766 kms. (476 miles) and I was pretty whipped. I had my camper set up and Kraft dinner on the stove in 30 minutes. After I finish updating my blog I will shave, shower and get to bed early for another day on the road.