RTTMS June 9, 2011 Going Northwest

Let me try this once again. I guess I had "Happy Fingers" and posted before I wrote the posting.......

Today was a good day and a bad day. The good was a pretty nice day of riding and the bad is it was without John.

I headed out from Yorkton, SK., and tried to get fuel right away...guess what! They do no open the pumps until 7am!!. I didn't know that I had crossed another time zone so it was even earlier than I thought. I am already screwed up on what time it is and what time zone I'm in. Maybe it will get easier.

Start of the day.
Any how, I headed out toward Saskatoon and found fuel at a small town.........like one short paved street and not real gas station. I did find a general store and inquired about where to get fuel and the reply was "Right out side next to your bike." They have a large white above ground tank and dispenser but I didn't know it was the gas station. It seems that in the smaller towns, the general store has these tanks to service the locals. I quickly got fuel and headed out before they finished laughing at my lack of local knowledge. They were actually very nice and helpful.

The fuel stop.
The road was more of the same from yesterday only the elevation increased from about 850 ft above sea level up toward 2250 feet at Lloydminister but more on that later.

The sky was very blue and then high clouds started to fill the sky but the sun still managed to shine through.

The temperature was 52 when I started out and hit a high of 72 when I got to Edmonton, Alberta, so the ride was very comfortable.

I passed this old church and the design was interesting.
At about noon, my old friend the south wind, started to make it's presence felt in the form of a 15-20 mph breeze from my left side. This seems to be the standard situation here. I talked on one guy when I stopped and asked him if there was always a wind and he said, from the south in the spring and summer and from the north in fall and winter. He kiddingly(is that a word?) said if the wind would quit, stuff would fall over because it is used to leaning into the wind.

The bugs were present in full force and cleaning my windshield is a regular job.

I also passed these blue little coop looking things. They were on both sides of the road but no idea what they are used for....hunting, animal houses.....no idea.
Apparently, Saskatchewan is a major provider of Potash which is used in fertilizers. I passed a couple of very large mining operations along the way.
Another thing the have here in Saskatchewan is oil as I saw may pumping stations and storage tanks along the road. Also, Alberta has a very large oil refinery system to handle the oil produced.

This brings my to Lloydminister. I stopped at the Alberta Tourist Information Center that is actually located in Saskatchewan and found that Lloydminister has some of the cheapest fuel in Canada since it is produced here. Most 87 octane was about 1.24 CN (Canadian Dollar) per liter and in Lloydminister, it was 1.12 CN per liter. Much lower price.
Another strange thing is that Lloydminister sits directly on the boundary between Alberta and Saskatchewan. Right in the middle of town is a sign marking the border. Kinda interesting.


Also, as I was driving through Alberta, I found this large wooded area. I was out of place as just about everywhere else was farm land. Also the forest was very aromatic which is what caught my attention first.
Finally as I was approaching Edmonton, I passed a huge oil refinery and this again I smelled before I saw it but then this is very large oil production area.

Rode 551 miles today and a little tired but it will be a shorter day tomorrow and I hope the weather continues to be favorable for motorcycle riding.

Onward to British Columbia!!!

Mike