The Tunnels of Moose Jaw and Flying Bike Parts

We left our hotel on the outskirts of Swift Current and then had difficulty finding the actual town. We cruised through the historic downtown, though it didn't seem very historic....we left for Moose Jaw. There we took a tour of the Tunnels...which explained how a small Saskatchewan Town earned the nickname "Little Chicago".  Public enemy #1, Al Capone, had his goons, his guns, his gals and his secret world in the underground Tunnels of Moose Jaw.  All this happened because there was a railroad from Chicago to Moose Jaw and during prohibition Capone manufactured whiskey used stills in the basement of Moose Jaw buildings and used the town as a hide out when things got too hot in Chicago....alas, they would not allow pictures.  It was an interesting tour because the guides were in period costume and acted their parts.  We the guests were to assume the roles of bootleggers who had come to buy Al's production booze.

We headed south from Moose Jaw on Hwy 2 toward the US Montana border...the road was great with no traffic until we reached Assiniboia when all road hell broke loose.  The road was full of great pot holes....there was a sign which we should have taken more seriously..it warned vehicles to travel slowly. Dave hit a monster pot hole at about 80 km (he WAS going slow) and the impact caused the plastic piece covering his right speaker to fly into the air.  He stopped the bike and went back to search for the missing piece of fairing; while he was slowly pacing the side of the road with his head down any vehicles passing stopped to enquire what the problem was...now, you have to realize that there was only one vehicle about every 5 minutes!! One person even offered to help with the search. People in Saskatchewan are very nice, unfortunately that can't be said about all their roads.  With no luck finding the missing pieced, they soldiered along the road to the border.  The road now offered wide rows of loose gravel which was great navigating fun.

We arrived at the border at 5:45 only 15 minutes before it was due to close for the night.  Had we been too late, the road would have been closed off and we would then have to retrace our steps along that awful road. Being the only vehicles at this rather desolate crossing, we approached the customs office at about 20 km per hour. We were promptly chastised by the customs official for speeding and were told we had to circle back and approach through the sensors at only 3 miles per hour.....driving a bike at that speed is trickey!!  Eventually we were admitted.

We headed to Glasgow Montana.  As to be expected the US road was far superior to the disaster on the Canadian side....BUT unfortunately Bev had underestimated the trip by about 100 km and so both bikes arrive on fumes with fuel lights flashing.

It was a loooong 500 km day.......time for cold beer and hot dinner.