International

by Belt Drive Betty

What do you do when you find your entire riding season all but cancelled due to Covid-19? If you are a Canadian writer and moto journalist in northern Alberta, you get to work on creating motorcycle tourism products!

We are working with our regional tourism office to create a riding the north website complete with touring maps and information on the services that the various routes north offer.

One of my favorite day rides in my backyard is the Shaftesbury Ferry.

Located near Eaglesham Alberta the Shaftesbury Ferry takes you across the Mighty Peace River.  The riding in the river valley is wonderful with nice twisting roads and sweepers that for a few minutes make you feel like you are in the BC mountains.

Here in Northern Alberta Canada, we have a lot of amazing things to offer people who ride, but few outside of our region seem to know about them.

One of the things that is hard to express in marketing materials like brochures is the number of hours that the sun shines. The sun starts rising in the north at around 4:30 am and sets around 11:30 pm. 

That much sun can put you in the saddle for a lot of extra hours of exploration compared to southern riding.  Another thing that we have an abundance of, is open roads and a small population.  There are places here in the north where you can ride for two and three hours and see maybe one or two vehicles.

Beyond big skies with lots of sun and open roads with truly little traffic what does northern Alberta offer the rider?  We in Grande Prairie Alberta are approximately one hour from BC and the mountains, we are your gateway to the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Alaska.

If you enjoy getting off your motorcycle to explore, the north is filled with historical places, museums, trail rides, canoeing, river rafting, hiking and so very much more.

Good food, warm hearted people and wildlife and some exceptional landscapes Northern Alberta is here for you to explore when the travel restrictions are over.

We would love to see you here!

Renee “Belt Drive Betty” Charbonneau

Hugs and holding hands, handshakes and sharing a meal all seem like distant memories.

I watch the Colorado riding community spurred on by Laurie and Chomper Montoya and I wonder what this community would do without such dedicated, hard working volunteers. Laurie is just everywhere responding to the needs of her community.

Every community has their champions, the people that always seem to be there when someone needs them, Laurie is one of them.

The latest thing that I watched take place was with the guys from Dirty Dogs Roadhouse, BikerDown, Rider Justice and the riding community of Denver was the feeding of 30+ frontline responders and others in need – on short notice!

I am humbled to be a part of a community that does such compassionate work.

So how do you stay human and connected while social distancing or self isolating?

Since there has been zero business, none, not even a little bit, I have been grant writing for Veterans Memorial Gardens & Interpretive Centre and trying to do good for others.

My biggest pleasure during this whole pandemic thing so far was last week when I had a local delivery company take some very special donuts to our hospital, RCMP station and all 3 Fire halls the other day.  Donuts made by the ladies of the community called Crooked Creek are known famously as Crooked Creek Crack – think Krispy Cream but better.

Knowing the smiles that were had by our frontline responders made me feel good.  The next biggest pleasure was giving my postal delivery gal a baggie of individually wrapped mints with a note that said thanks. Her smile made my heart happy.

I am trying to stay connected to humanity, but the way some people behave and talk to each other makes it challenging.  Finding other things to focus on and be grateful for is something I find myself seeking out regularly. It takes some of the sting out of the behaviours of some.

I’d love to know what you are doing to try to retain your humanity and your sanity! I am holding on for true social distancing season to start.

A little wind therapy right about now would go a long way to making me feel whole again.

But, just like this Virus has changed plans for everyone around the world, Mother Nature and Father Winter are making things mentally a little rougher for us Northwestern Alberta.  

Hoping where you are, you are safe and warm!

Please reach out to me on Facebook @ BeltDriveBetty I’d love to hear what you are doing to cope and stay human.

By: Belt Drive Betty

This central Alberta community has lots to offer! 

Lacombe is located in the QEll Highway corridor, with access to hundreds of kilometers of additional secondary routes making the city of Lacombe a natural stop when touring through Central Alberta.  Situated in the beautiful parkland district between Edmonton and Calgary Lacombe is the perfect weekend or day trip destination!