A few additional shots from last night show the feast we had prepared by Chef BillyB. Greg drove yesterday and did the shopping during the day . . .

Barbeque chicken, parmesan broasted potatoes and salad  . . . YUMMMMMMM!

TommyH was so excited about Greg’s ‘selfie stick’ . . .

. . . he dropped some of the chicken in his lap and it left a nasty stain right in his crotch. Luckily he had a “Shout Stick’ along and Shouted It Out. Us old people are ALWAYS spilling . . .

. . . but we do try to be tidy, especially Greg who did all the dishes and insisted we ‘air dry”!!!!

The boys take beer inventory every night, usually by sampling, and the G discovered tonight they were ‘dangerously’ close to being dry . . .

. . . only four cans left and we are once again 50 miles from now where!!!!!! I think they tossed and turned all night worrying about it.

No breakfast where we stayed so the G started out on the 74 mile day on an empty stomach. Seemed too darn right uncivilized to the rest of us, so we drove 20 miles to Cranbrook for breakfast and would end up with a 60 mile day.

At the restaurant BillyB met two British Columbia paramedics on the job. They have an interesting system where the province only has one national ambulance service that provides emergency support to the whole province. Every little burg does not need to worry about, recruiting, training and equipping their own service. An advantage to socialized medicine?

Billy and I both had the brisket hash with potatoes and eggs. We could have split a portion!!!

In fact he didn’t finish his . . . I’m riding today so ate every scrap of mine!!!!

TommyH’s breakfast burrito was TOO BIG TO EAT, so he got a cute little to-go box to carry on his bike!

We decided to fuel up before we left civilization. $1.149 for gas . . . not too bad? Canadians price their gas by the litter (approx. 4 liters equal 1 US gallon) so that’s $1.149 PER LITER. You can do the math!

Needed to fuel up on beer too. By asking around, Greg our tour guide, found the best deal in town . . .

Yikes!!!!! We need to do the math to find out if a gallon of beer is more expensive than a gallon of gas. Needless to say, there is more sipping going on at night, than guzzling!!!!

Greg rolls out onto the dry pavement that would quickly become wet. Clouds and rain come and go in the mountains. Greg, TommyH and I road in and out of the rain most of the day while the G never felt a drop!!!

I hope we see some ponies!!!

This guy could read the sign and felt was safe to graze along the road.

BillyB hopscotched with us all day, proving SAG. One nice thing about driving is you can stop and have a nice lunch. Which he did here. In fact he started his dessert . . .

. . . before his yummy hamburger showed up!!!

Sky looks ugly to the south . . . to rain coat up or not, that is the question.

. . . how many more miles to go???

The last 30 miles had some great downhill’s as we headed to our overnight town of Fermie.

British Columbia,  as well as Alberta, are VERY concerned about wildfires and there are signs everywhere . . .

. . . right across the street there was a remote satellite telemetry weather station, just like we use in Wisconsin to help predict the fire weather.

On the way down we came across a 3 kilometer zone where there must be LOTS of problems with wildlife crossing the road. They had cameras about every 100 yards all the way through the zone. That truck is a good example of the type of traffic you constantly have going by you, ALL DAY at 70 miles per hour, only about 6 feet away from your bike!!! It’s numbing . . . .

After having seen no wildlife in the zone, as I approached the end of the Wildlife Alert zone I noticed a deer tail in the road . . .

. . . which led me to look in the  ditch and there was a car killed deer. One of the few dead things we have seen along the road on the whole trip.

It is AMAZING how new life appears in nature from dead life. Natural recycling. If you do not have too queasy of a stomach, click here !!!!

For those that do get queasy . . . look at this yummy creation below!!!!

As I made my final approach to Fermie, the first thing I saw was a DQ. I have not had one on this trip yet, so reliving my end of the day TransAm tradition, I wheeled in for a yummy ice cream novelty. I will only do this once though. Soon TommyH appeared too!!!

Here is the triple room for tonight. The bunks reminded of us the ‘submarine’ we had on our Lake Tahoe bike trip.

We compared the ‘roadside treasures’ we had found along the way today. I found this flag. With fantastic scenery, ‘free’ medical care,  relatively low taxes, no ‘The Donald” and no Hillary, cool weather and no mosquitos,  I am thinking of having emJay and the ‘D’ Fed Ex’ed up here and staying!!!

The G took  the cake today for the big fins though . . . probably $500 worth of had tied fishing ties.

One of his son-in-laws is a BIG fly fisherman so he is going to get on nice gift!!!

We could have eaten in again tonight but decided to go out for dinner.

Most of us went out to a place that catered to puppies too!!!!

Pizza, flatbreads, beer, salad . . . plenty of carbs all around.

Missy was our two-handed server. Five years ago Canada mandated the switchover to these table top machines in any restaurant, convenience stores, etc. Gave vendors 18 months to switch over. After that the old system would not be operative. Works wonderful. Your chip card transaction is done right at the table, your credit card never leaves your sight, it prints out your receipt and you are on your way. We have a lot of catching up to do in the US. We had to sign for every transaction because our banks have not issued PIN numbers yet. What’s the holdup????

So . . . we have seen chipmunks, marmots, I saw a mule deer with a rack today but here are the most impressive sightings:

BillyB 2 grizzly’s, 1 black bear

Greg 1 black bear, 1 grizzly’s

TommyH 3 grizzly’s

TommyH 2 grizzly’s’, 1 black bear

Rick ZERO of any bears!!!!!  (I must be riding too fast!!)