Day 17 - August 14, 2017 - Carlyle, SK to East Grand Forks, MN
Day 17 - Monday, August 14, 2017 - Carlyle, SK to East Grand Forks, MN
Distance: 559km, Time: 10:00hrs
Sunny, Warm 27c to 8c
Overnight: Fairfield Inn and Suites, 514 Gateway Drive, NE, East Grand Forks, MN (*****) Almost new, great pool and breakfast was very good, plus it had a on-site washer and dryer. Walking distance to a good Mexican restaurant, called Casa Mexico.
Today's was a day to do a fair distance on the bike, it will be over 500km (+300miles), so an early start was in the plan, and yes 8am is not too bad of a start giving that it was only 8c this morning, but it warmed up fast - to "hot".
I am still following the Red Coat Train (Sk Hwy#13) along the southern part of Saskatchewan, but this road will become Manitoba #2 in about 1 1/2 hours when I cross into Manitoba, road is still paved and in good shape. Traffic is very light.
I stopped at Reston, MB to get some more US$ Cash and went into the Sunrise Credit Unit, this place was Sooooooooooooo Slow that i though i was in the Sunset retirement home, what would have been about 2 to 3 minutes in the Bank of Montreal at home took, 20minutes - never again.
O'h, it gets better, how about a Petro Canada (in Reston as well) which hand wrights the sales slip and calculates all the taxes manually. Yes, I needed gas before I headed into the US, as there is far too much ethanol being used, and my bike does not like ethanol mixed gas.
After these various delays I decided not to care when I arrive in East Grand Forks. Next stop was Melita, MB, also home to "sunny the banana", a historical landmark - OK, Niagara is known as the banana belt in Ontario, what is this?
Turns out that Melita gets the most amount of sunlight than any part of Manitoba, so check out this link: melita banana days
After a brief stop for lunch is was off to North Dakota and the Border Crossing of Coulter, MB or(Bottineau, ND). This is not a major crossing point, in fact this place is only open from 9am to 6pm, then they close the Border. Anyway this is a single vehicle at a time place, and you pull into a garage, and they close the doors so you can't escape - all very strange. The Officer asked more question of where i stayed in Sturgis then why I was entering the US, took great interest in my MC Vest until I showed him my US50 pin and seeing he rode a Vulcan 1500, had he done the "Loneliest road in America", he said no - so I started to ask him 500 questions, he got the idea to send me on my way, with a hand shake and ride safe.
Distance: 559km, Time: 10:00hrs
Sunny, Warm 27c to 8c
Overnight: Fairfield Inn and Suites, 514 Gateway Drive, NE, East Grand Forks, MN (*****) Almost new, great pool and breakfast was very good, plus it had a on-site washer and dryer. Walking distance to a good Mexican restaurant, called Casa Mexico.
Today's was a day to do a fair distance on the bike, it will be over 500km (+300miles), so an early start was in the plan, and yes 8am is not too bad of a start giving that it was only 8c this morning, but it warmed up fast - to "hot".
I am still following the Red Coat Train (Sk Hwy#13) along the southern part of Saskatchewan, but this road will become Manitoba #2 in about 1 1/2 hours when I cross into Manitoba, road is still paved and in good shape. Traffic is very light.
I stopped at Reston, MB to get some more US$ Cash and went into the Sunrise Credit Unit, this place was Sooooooooooooo Slow that i though i was in the Sunset retirement home, what would have been about 2 to 3 minutes in the Bank of Montreal at home took, 20minutes - never again.
O'h, it gets better, how about a Petro Canada (in Reston as well) which hand wrights the sales slip and calculates all the taxes manually. Yes, I needed gas before I headed into the US, as there is far too much ethanol being used, and my bike does not like ethanol mixed gas.
After these various delays I decided not to care when I arrive in East Grand Forks. Next stop was Melita, MB, also home to "sunny the banana", a historical landmark - OK, Niagara is known as the banana belt in Ontario, what is this?
Turns out that Melita gets the most amount of sunlight than any part of Manitoba, so check out this link: melita banana days
After a brief stop for lunch is was off to North Dakota and the Border Crossing of Coulter, MB or(Bottineau, ND). This is not a major crossing point, in fact this place is only open from 9am to 6pm, then they close the Border. Anyway this is a single vehicle at a time place, and you pull into a garage, and they close the doors so you can't escape - all very strange. The Officer asked more question of where i stayed in Sturgis then why I was entering the US, took great interest in my MC Vest until I showed him my US50 pin and seeing he rode a Vulcan 1500, had he done the "Loneliest road in America", he said no - so I started to ask him 500 questions, he got the idea to send me on my way, with a hand shake and ride safe.
Next stop will be Rugby, ND on good old US#2, but first gas at the Tesoro in Bottineau, North Dakota, they had a sign out front "bikers welcome", and non-ethanol gas.
So why Rugby? it is the Geographical Centre of North America and there is Monument which is a great photo op. Plus I was joined by a husband/wife team on a Harley, coming back from Sturgis (in one piece I may add). Plus Rugby has a good Amtrak station (x-GN) so all worth stops.
After Rugby it was off to Great Falls Air Force Base that has a good collection of B52's and assorted stuff.
With the sun setting it was time to head for the east side of the Red River (which flows North into Lake Winnipeg), there was construction on the bridge so I am glad for daylight.
Arrived at the hotel at 7pm, not a bad day on the road - in fact enjoyable.
So why Rugby? it is the Geographical Centre of North America and there is Monument which is a great photo op. Plus I was joined by a husband/wife team on a Harley, coming back from Sturgis (in one piece I may add). Plus Rugby has a good Amtrak station (x-GN) so all worth stops.
After Rugby it was off to Great Falls Air Force Base that has a good collection of B52's and assorted stuff.
With the sun setting it was time to head for the east side of the Red River (which flows North into Lake Winnipeg), there was construction on the bridge so I am glad for daylight.
Arrived at the hotel at 7pm, not a bad day on the road - in fact enjoyable.
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| Land Registration Office - Reston, MB |
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| Happy Banana - Melita, MB |
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| Rugby, ND |
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| Hound Dog Surface to Air Missile |
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| B52 |
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| Frank and Gordon were allowed loose in a store and found Old Dutch chips which are from Manitoba, they did mange to bring them back home uneaten, which was a gold medal event for these two creatures. |
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| Mexican Restaurant in East Grand Forks, MN |
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