Back at Pembroke

July 25     A cool clear day takes us from St. Hyacynthe towards Montreal.  Fortunately, on a Sunday morning, even the big city has light enough traffice to quickly sail through towards Ottawa.   A stop at Masson-Angers for a Montreal smoked meat sandwich and coffee also gives us some conversation with another couple on a Suzuki Boulebard - a nice charcoal gray with black highlights.

An attempt to bypass Ottawa leads us to discover the town of Kazabazua, and a direct ride to Pembroke, ON, across 3 bridges to the peaceful town on the Ottawa river.  The owner of the RV storage place is in on Sunday and says we can pick up the truck and trailer first thing Monday morning.

Pembroke on the Ottawa

Even leaving out such interesting things as giant stuffed anacondas stretched across fields (hay tubes) and the idea that one could spend a couple of months touring Gaspe, taking pictures of churchs for a book (like in Bridges of Madison County we could have Churches of the Gaspe) we are a little sad that the motorcycling part is done.   We do a few errands (like changing the oil in the truck and getting keys cut), load up the bikes and head west.   The windows have to be down as it seems strange to be moving along without the wind on your arms and face.  Barry says to remember: 4 wheels and you don't have to lean in the corners.

By the time we get home we'll have 10,000 km on the truck, 8,000 km on each bike and 70 hrs on ferrys.

As we head back to Vancouver, we'd like to thank all our friends who shared our adventure by reading this blog and look forward to seeing you all soon.

Bye for now.

July 21 After staying in Sackville, NB, it’s a short 60 km drive to Confederation bridge. It’s totally impressive, rising up over the water, jogging left than right and rising to a high point near the north end. (Does anyone know why it jogs?) It is a weird feeling, riding along high over the water as far as you can see with the land just visible at the far end.

Prince Edward Island is very picturesque – quite flat with lots of farms. In fact we followed a truck with the plate BRN2FRM.

Of course there were a few fields of potatoes, all in bloom, but it seems that what PEI farmers like best are lawns. It seems that every farm has a huge lawn between the house and road, and it is neatly cut at least twice a week.

We cruised up to Charlottetown and stopped to pick up a few things, then road to Georgetown, on the far east end of the island. There wasn’t much there, particularly gas, so we rode over to Montague and had lunch in a small pub called: Sir Isaac’s Restaurant and Mr Garth’s Pub. Another short ride took us the PEI National Park which is the beach on the north side. The nicest one we’ve seen so far. We ended the day at a nice motel in Summerside.

July 22     The weather gods frown again, a light rain when we start turns cold and driving. The Confederation Bridge is even more weird in a stormy fog. It just kept getting worse, until we stopped early for the day at Miramichi, NB. Thank heaven for hot showers and warm rooms.

July 23     Another beautiful day. We could even see the graceful double-arch bridge behind the hotel.

Leaving NB at Campbellton, we head along the south coast of the Gaspe peninsula. The land is fairly flat with farms and quaint small towns every 5 to 10 km.

Each has it’s own immaculately cared for church, each a little different. One of the more unusual is at Sainte-Anne-des-Monts.

The famous Perce Rock, and we are there.

The north side of the Gaspe (St Lawrence) is very similar to the Cabot Trail in NS – mountains with steep. winding roads. Barry says he likes this part even better than the Cabot Trail. The north side must be the windy side as we saw several wind farms, including one with an ‘egg-beater’ style wind generator.

A night at Mont-Saint-Pierre, where we talk to a gentleman who specializes in pictures at sunset and sunrise, when ‘ the light is special’. He says it takes patience and perseverance – like so many things in life.

July 24     Mostly riding, stopping occasionally for pictures, food and gas. Tonight we are near St. Hyacinthe, only about 200 km from Montreal.

New Brunswick - Hopewell Cape

July 20   Unloading from the ferry in Saint John, we tour around a little.  With directions from an information specialist on the ferry, we find a Suzuki MC dealer, we steers us to a locksmith who cuts 2 sets of keys for Barry's bike.  Moving down the road, we pass through Fundy National Park, a rolling set of hills covered with a mixed forest carpet leading the the bay.  We stop for lunch at Alma, proclaimed as having the 'highest tides in the world'.

The broad seabed shows how far the water goes down at low tide.  We read that the water flowing into the Bay of Fundy exceeds all the water in all the rivers in the world, twice a day.

The Hopewell Rocks show the effect of the 40 to 50 feet high water washing back and forth.  Some strange shapes result.

Cruising up to Moncton, then over to Sackville, we are set for the night.

Yarmouth, then to Saint John

At Bridgewater, having supper at the River Pub, we talk to a couple of guys on bikes who had just done the Cabot Trail, then followed us down the east? (south? )coast. They are brothers from Niagara Falls and out on their first longer bike trip. We met them again on the Digby ferry and enjoyed talking to them about their trip. They are heading south to Bangor, Maine, then home by way of New York State.

Travelling down the coast we stop for a home-style meal at Cape Wayne. Baked ham with mixed veg. Barry has his new replacement camera and we play around with getting it set up.

We get a picture of stately giants, waving us on our way.

We take a break at Yarmouth, NS – I sit around in shorts and enjoy the sun, while Barry replaces more stuff (like rain gear) and talks to good looking pharmacists. We hit the road at 5:30 am next morning to catch the Digby ferry to Saint John, NB.  Nova Scotia has been unbroken sunshine - what next?

Thieves

While we are at the Swissair memorial, some low-bred whose  mother barks stole Barry's suitcase.  They obviously saw us go to the site, and grabbed the bags and ran.  Besides clothes, Barry had some back-up credit cards, MC keys and truck keys as well as other papers.  Barry took the event with considerable calm and equanimity.  He filed a police report, and proceded to acquire what he needed to carry on. 

Halifax

July 18 A leisurely ride into Halifax. At Dartmouth, we stopped to get out bearings. There was a seabus coming across, a bridge (toll, 75 cents) and a nice older couple to talk to. The lady was from Cobalt, ON and they met on the internet. They got married and moved to Nova Scotia and loved it (4 years so far). Also, our handsome fellow traveller.

Halifax gets us to another citadel. This one was the British Stronghold and was never taken. It has a Scottish flavor – uniforms include kilts and bagpipes are popping up everywhere. It was impressive the amount the British spent on building to preserve their power in the new world.

A cruise down Quidpool Rd had about 6 blocks of classic cars in a Show n Shine – some beautiful classics. My 79 Granada never looked like that.

It was a relaxed ride to Peggy’s Cove, intending lunch, but a thousand other people seemed to have the same idea, so we’ll look for lunch further down the road.

 We also stop at the nearby memorial for SwissAir Flight 111. It was touching – especially the appreciation for everyone who tried to help.

Cape Breton Island

July 16   We arrived at North Sydney, CBI at 6:30 in the morning, unloading from the ferry, the Joseph and Claire Smallwood. The ferry was very comfortable and fast, although we spend half of our time sailing along the Newfoundland coast.

Our first stop (after breakfast at Tim Hortons) was at Glace Bay (because it’s there) for fuel, then on the Louisbourg. This was the main French centre to protect the French access to the fisheries and the Gulf of St Lawrence. It was very authentic, with people in costumes both doing and describing how things were in the early 1700’s. We even saw a demonstration on how to load and fire a musket (didn’t get it on video – darn).

After Louisbourg, we headed down to the south end of CBI, the back to Baddeck, in effect circumnavigating Lake Bras D’Or. At Baddeck, we stopped to see the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. He was a powerful character, besides inventing the telephone, he worked on aviation and hydrofoil ships, but his greatest love was working on methods to help the deaf to speak.

I especially liked the exhibit on flying and the Silver Dart, even though I was a year late ;^)

At Baddeck, we had a lobster dinner at the Baddeck Lobster Suppers (next to the Legion ;^) which included all you could each seafood chowder and mussels.

July 17 We are doing the Cabot Trail. Starting from Baddeck, we head out counter-clock wise. We see a lot of Gailic even on the official signs like town names, etc. At the start of the Cabot trail, there is a school of “Gailic, and Celtic Studies”. In other places, there was a lot of French.

The trip around the Cabot Trail is beautiful, as advertised. We took our time, even took the diversion to Meat Cove (recommended by a rider on the ferry). It included about 8 km of gravel road, that got increasingly steep, twisted and narrow, until we thought we would start hearing banjo music ;^).

After surviving Meat Cove, we encounter actual mountains – slow, twisty and steep, just how we like them. I think we went right over the top of Mt MacKenzie. Stopped at one look off and talked with some people from North Carolina. They loved the scenery and the relative coolness.

After travelling north to south twice and seeing everything, we should be honorary Capers, at least for a couple of days.

Down the west coast of CBI, across the Canso Causeway and we are on the Nova Scotia mainland. We planned to stay at Antigonish, but a NASCAR race meet meant we moved on to New Glasgow for the night.