AK1 Day 3

MS Day 3 – 6 Jun 12, Wednesday

Sioux Falls, South Dakota to Brandon, Manitoba

Mileage – 588

WX – sunny and very warm

States – South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Canada Manitoba

Side trip to Minnesota state line for HOG picture

I-29, Canada 75, CA 1

Note 1: Our original plan was to use this day to achieve the 1000 miles in 24 hours to qualify for the Iron Butt Association. Jim was already a member so it was to get me qualified. I finally had to admit that I was not up to the task so we went to plan B which was to stop somewhere west of Winnipeg. As it turned out, latter in the trip I was ready and able to do the 1000 miles in 24 hours but the opportunity just did not come up again. I guess it takes training to get your body in the mode of long-distance riding.

Note 2: We stopped at the Grand Forks, ND HD shop because Jim spent 8 years in the Air Force here and bought several motorcycles from this shop. I had spent the last year of the Air Force here also. Though it did not hold any good memories of North Dakota, I still wanted to see the downtown area. We had a good time talking to the HD shop owner about the old times.

Note 3: We crossed into Canada on I-29 south of Winnipeg. This was a busy crossing compared to where we re-entered the USA later in the trip. We were directed to a closed entry point where a young lady asked lots of questions of Jim first then asked me the same questions to see if I gave the same answers. I couldn’t hear his responses. Guess I must have given the same answers because we were both allowed into Canada with no searches or delays. Only documents they asked to see were our Passports even though we both had all the required documents including a Canadian endorsement on our motorcycle insurance forms.

Note 4: We immediately found that the roads in Canada were not nearly as good as the ones in the USA. We had been advised at the HD shop in Grand Forks, ND to stay on US Hwy 2 as long as possible before going into Canada for this very reason but we elected to do our own thing.