It has been a busy couple of weeks ! Since my last note, we have managed to successfully bring the newest addition to the st
able across the border into Canada. The little Yamaha YA6 was given an inspection by the US and Canadian port authorities at the Wild Horse border crossing between Montana and Alberta. I’ll admit, I was really very pleasantly surprised with both how helpful and easy to work with the folks were on both sides of the border. It was such a different experience to that of a couple of months ago when we had some ‘discussions’ on the Canadian side of the border at Midway in BC. The Midway Canadian border agent was quite rude, and appeared to resent the the fact he actually had to do some work ! In contrast, the Wild Horse (and you have to admit it is a great name for a border post eh ?) US and Canadian border folks were great, and they have restored my faith in government employees. The funny thing, is that without Google Maps, we would never have known of the place, and we would have missed out on both a good experience, and also some great scenery. When I pumped in a request for directions on the best way to get from Delaware to Calgary, that was the border crossing that Google automatically selected. It is actually quite an isolated location, and I suspect possibly doesn’t get a lot of traffic as it is in the southeast corner of Alberta, just south of the Cypress Hills Provincial Park area. At any rate, once the paperwork had been completed, the tax paid, etc., we stopped to take a photo to mark the occasion of the YA6’s entry to Alberta !
The round trip from Calgary to the east coast and back again, covered 9,085 km. In contrast to the outbound trip , the average speed on the return was 89 km/hr and the average fuel consumption rate was worse at 12.8 l/100 km or about 22.1 mpg (imperial gallons). The fuel consumption no doubt was impacted by having to cross through the Appalachian hills (they call them mountains, but they are actually just hills when compared to what you see on the west coast), the crawling along for half a day in road construction through Wisconsin, and I have to admit also due to enjoying the pure exuberance of the 7
5 mph limits (the traffic was actually moving along at over 80 mph) in the mid-west states of Minnesota and North Dakota ! The average fuel cost on the US leg of the trip was just over $1/liter for premium, or roughly 70% of the cost of the same fuel in Canada – I’d say the Americans really have nothing to complain about when it comes to the cost of gasoline ! As on the outbound trip, we saw lots of wildlife – many more prong horn antelope (typically in the same fields with the cattle as you can see to the right), but also quite a few deer.
Since arriving home, the Yamaha has had an oil change and a minor tuneup, and is now running a bit better. Over the next few months I will likely pick up a few eBay sourced bits and pieces, as well as talk to the folks here in town at Walt Healy Motosports and elsewhere to see what they have in the way of NOS parts and bits. The Walt Healy shop has been in business here in Calgary since 1931, and the staff have been helpful the few times I have gone in to talk to their parts counter people.
The next project I’m about to start is the restoration of another GT750 Suzuki water buffalo – the ‘home’ site for the project will be here. – busy times !
