The worst stretch of the ALCAN is on this leg of the trip.  There 75 mile stretch where the road is awful.  From what I’m told, frost heaves are what cause the damage.  I guess the frost under the ground lifts the asphalt up, or it thaws and the road sinks – whatever it is – it’s ROUGH.  On the way up we were trying to keep the speed around 70 mph and got killed, on the way back through, we were closer to 60 mph and it was much less painful.

We ate at some pretty nice Italian place just up the street.  The drinks were good as well as the food and the service.  We were lucky to get in there when we did – they were absolutely packed 35 minutes later.

I did mention that the ALCAN was a rough road didn’t I.  Today we discovered that Rich’s rear pipe was torn in half; right behind where it mounts to the transmission.  We thought it was just a crack but after we investigated further – it’s in two pieces.  Not too sure what we’re going to do at this point.  Time to go to work – in the rain.

While we were out in the parking lot here at Canada’s Best Value Inn we heard a commotion across the street; the cops were there trying to get a drunk off the roof.  It was pretty sad but in a funny kind of way.  This neighborhood ain’t the greatest but we aren’t worried, we can take care of ourselves.  While we were working on the bike some drunk girl came over and asked us if we had any cigarettes – all the while holding out a package of rolling papers.  John calls them all chronics – I guess because they have a chronic addiction of some kind or another.

We got the exhaust pipe off the bike but were pretty much at a loss for anything to do.  I called welders but nobody was available this late.  There was one guy that did 24 hour service but he was 600 miles away and in the wrong direction.  Having made absolutely no progress, we are turning in for the night.