Wednesday, July 28, 2010

FINALLY! About 11:00 a.m., Jesse called me!! He bought a phone card & called from Watson Lake. I guess on Monday AM, he met “Wayne” at the gas station. Wayne is on a BMW F800 GS Bike, and Jess had seen him on the road. They visited some about the trip, and it turns out that Wayne is from Downey, CA, and is driving alone to Fairbanks. Wayne is described as a “young guy…oh, probably in his 40’s”! He is a computer engineer, equipped with a Satellite Phone & a Satellite/GPS tracking system, and is being ‘watched’ by about 15 people. It was decided that they would travel together, and they took off on Monday together, and will probably continue together to Fairbanks. They decided to take a western road to Hyder, Alaska and Stewart, B.C., where they saw glaciers, some bears {Jesse saw 2 bears & Wayne saw 1 Grizzly}, beautiful, clear lakes & streams, and just spectacular scenery. Not quite sure where they stayed on Monday night, but spent Tuesday night in Watson Lake. Planning to drive to Whitehorse, Yukon, today. Wayne stayed in the hotel Tuesday night, while Jesse stayed at an RV park in town. He says he is sleeping well, staying plenty warm, and really is having no problems. The bike continues to run well, and the weather is great with blue, clear skies. Tonight, he called again, this time from Whitehorse, where he and Wayne will share a hotel room. Good day of riding, shorter distance today. He admits yesterday was a pretty hard day of riding, but says that Wayne is a good rider, and they are both glad they are travelling together. Long, isolated stretches of road, with pretty sparse traffic. Beginning to see some gravel areas on the pavement, but no real road problems yet. They have now decided to drive to Skagway, AK, tomorrow, which looks to be about 75 miles. Now, Jesse thinks he may go to Fairbanks 1st, and then drop down to visit Brandy in Kenai. Still a long ways to go! So far, no problems with getting between gas stations.