St. Anthonys, NFLD

Total Km = 380

Last evening we went for a walk along the harbor at Rocky Harbor, mainly seeking out a laundromat. We have included some really neat pictures of the fishing boats and an old wooden sailing boat (German registry) as well as the fishermen cleaning their catch. When we got there the fish inspector was making them weigh their catch and record it. They are pretty slick at filleting, removing the cheeks and tongues (NFLD delicacy) and skinning them. They then just threw the carcass into the ocean. It was our evening entertainment.

This morning we woke to dark clouds again, but no rain and the sun broke out on several occasions. The wind was pretty weird though as you couldn’t predict which angle it was going to hit you from. It made for a pretty cool ride and active ride. Doug even had to put on his long underwear and electric vest and Norma broke out a pair of hot paws. It was a very pretty ride though along the coast, with numerous little fishing villages in nearly every cove.

We stopped at the Arches Prov. Park along the way. The trees have all died from the salt spray. We did a self portrait under the arches – pretty cool!

Along the side off the road we were seeing lots of gardens planted in the middle of nowhere. The lady at the B&B tells us this is where they find the best soil and if they find a good soil space they go for it. Also along the road there were wood piles that people have collected for their winter wood supply. They collect their wood mostly in the winter and use these neat little wooden sleds to pull the wood out. It is an honor system to not touch someone else’s wood pile but not always foolproof.

We rode to the Lighthouse Park in St. Anthonys to check “Iceberg Alley”. It was very foggy when we got there – fog horn blasting every minute – but by the time we had walked along the walkway and gone into the visitors center the fog had lifted and we could see an iceberg way out there. They apparently are floating down from Greenland and it takes about 2 years for them to get this far. Norma had hoped to see one closer to short but no luck. They say the best time for sightings is late spring, early summer.

We keep being told the temperatures and weather is unseasonably cool. It was +6.5 at 3:30 this afternoon. They were expecting minus 3.5 last evening!

We just got back from dinner - seafood again but enjoying it very much. Remember our comment above about the fishermen cutting out the cod cheeks (Doug tried these on the ferry) and cod tongues, well our appetizer was cod tongues with scruchions which is fried salt pork. Pretty salty but not bad.

Saw a beautiful big black bear on the side of the road on the way back from dinner. Later on a moose walked through the B&B yard just outside.

Rocky Harbour, Gros Morne Nat'l Park, NFLD

Total Km = 560

We decided we needed to sit down with our map and the tour guide the NFLD tourist association had sent us this winter, prioritize where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see as we are finding we could probably have used more days in NFLD. With a plan in place – neither of us are much for planning as you all know – yah, sure you say- we were ready to set out.

Woke to overcast skies and the weather man telling us it was going to rain but as we got going we actually had a bit of sun. The skies stayed pretty overcast but we only saw a few minutes of minor sprinkles. The temperatures are on the cool side though so between the scenery and the temperatures we are reminded of Alaska.

We set off following the Trans Canada Highway (aka TCH in NFLD) and even though it wasn’t our usual choice for travel we had a great day with lots to see.

There are thousands of lakes/ponds and the scrubby trees so good moose habitat but again today the only ones we saw were the cute little moose family in front of the Gander tourist center –see picture. Norma had to do some grandchildren shopping – after all there is one entire empty saddlebag to fill! The only wildlife we have seen today was a beautiful black fox that tried to run into us at full speed across the highway.

We have decided that Gros Morne National Park of NFLD equates to Banff National Park of AB– lots of touristy things and at touristy prices. We rode to the end of the road along the harbour and found the fish market so are having fresh halibut and scallops for dinner. Sure getting our load of fresh local seafood this trip.

Oh yes, please meet Priscilla the Atlantic Puffin. She has recently assumed her duties as trip mascot, dutifully hanging on to Raindancer’s handlebar.

Clarenville, NFLD

Total Km = 430

Our first night in a B&B (ever) was OK, I guess, in spite of the fact that Doug was feeling like he was a home invader. There was another couple we chatted with last night from Chatham, Ont. that gave us a few pointers as they had been here for a couple of weeks. They even spoke Canadian (we are having a few issues with the “downhome” accent and terminology)! They found out after they returned to the B&B that their ferry going out Tuesday evening had been cancelled due to mechanical problems and they had been booked to return from the other end of the island. Not happy campers about that one.

Started out under sunny/white cloudy sky. Not as warm as we have been used to but at least no rain and it stayed like that all day. We kept hearing all day that rain was expected but still no sign of it.

We saw two moose today. The first was a very large dark brown guy standing at the side of the road while a second crossed the road some distance ahead of us.

We made our way to the village of Trinity, an old fishing village that has had many of its buildings restored and opened for visits. The one brick house had been built in the early 1700’s and was recently restored. They left the brick/rock hearth area unrestored so you could see what the original base had been.

We rode along the ocean up to Bonavista. There are numerous small fishing villages along the way and in fact a nearly every bay you would find a small establishment. As we rode along to the Bonavista lighthouse Doug had to play the song “This Land is Your Land” (from Bonavista to Vancouver Island). He had been waiting the entire trip to play it. We also stopped to see the replica of “Mathew”, the ship Cabot arrived in on June 24, 1497.

We keep losing track of time. Before we realized it the time was 4:30 and it was time to start looking for accommodation so here we are in Clarenville.

Witless Bay, NFLD

Total Km = 265

Slept in this morning. We were both pretty tired after our all night ferry experience. Woke to overcast foggy skies and “mist”. Started out over the moors of Scotland – whoops, wrong country - but it sure did look like that! On a minor road again, pretty bad potholed pavement. Needed to eventually stop and put rain gear as the mist turned to rain. Commented on the lack of traffic and how we could have been there stranded for days with no one coming along. Along the way we kept seeing the telephone poles fenced in and supported with lots of big rocks. Our guess is the ground is either too boggy or too rocky to get a good hole.

Saw lots of vehicles on the side of the road. We guessed most of them were stopped fishing in the small streams or maybe off picking berries. Stopped at an out of commission cement bridge built in 1928 and watched some fellows fishing for Atlantic salmon. It is restricted to fly fishing so Doug was ready to give them some pointers.

Rode into St Johns downtown area and had a view of the harbor. Several ships in.
Went to Bay Bulls and took a whale and puffin viewing boat tour. It was great. They took us out to Gull Island. There are supposed to be over 300,000 puffins breeding there. We also saw auks, gulls, murrs, etc. The sides of the island were solid with puffin nests. There was an area where an area of the island had sloughed as the puffins had built so many nests it destabilzed. No trees grow in this area due to the 6 foot burrows they have built. There is also a research camp set up on the island to study them. We learned that they are not very good flyers. They need to dive from the hill and catch the air flow to get airborn, they dive up to 50 feet to fish and have “teeth” on their beaks to hold up to 10 capelin fish at a time. When it is time to take flight from the water they need to ride the waves and flap their wings until the air current gets them going again.

After viewing two different islands of bird habitat we went whale seeking and were lucky enough to view a humpback surfacing/blowing and got a very good view of his tail. A great ending to our tour.
We are now at Armstrong’s B&B in Witless Bay for the night

St. Brides, NFLD

Total km = 52 + ? nautical miles from N. Sydney, NS

Our day started very early as we finally departed N. Sydney ferry terminal at 3:15 am (1 ¾ hrs late). The check in and loading procedure was very disorganized in comparison to what we have experienced on BC and Alaska Ferries. Luckily the traffic load was very light (less than 1/2 capacity) or we would still be there. We were talking with a NFLD biker and apparently Marine Atlantic (the ferry corporation) is a standing joke. The only ferry workers that seemed to have it on the ball were the 3 “Hi-Up” operators. These rigs are the little tractor units that run around loading and unloading trailer units that have been left for transport to/from NFLD (makes sense not to have to transport the whole rig across, just have the trailer picked up on the other side). Anyway these 3 Hi-Ups were buzzing around like bees hooking up and unhooking.

Once we were on the ferry it was pretty comical watching four bikers from NB who had never ridden on a ferry before trying to tie down their bikes for the voyage. They each had four to six tiedowns and were still worried, instead of using a bit of basic physics and counter pulling against the side stand with a single tiedown. We had had previous experience so were pretty quick once we had Raindancer in position (NOT where we were told to stop by the ferry worker!). (written by Norma!!!)

We had been led to believe we needed to book and pay a fee for a reclining chair in the quiet area for the voyage so had done that with the hopes of catching a bit of sleep. The chairs did recline with a foot rest thing to pull out (too short for Doug but OK for Norma) but the nicely darkened area was freezing. Norma had on two fleeces, ski neck and motorcycle jacket as well as using some hot paws and was still shivering so we moved to another area where it was a bit warmer. At least in the new area there were tables to use as well. We will know for future if we ever do this trip again. We did manage to sleep for a little while and woke to blue skies with some fluffy clouds and a gentle roll to the sea.

We were surprised to discover we had internet access on the ferry and had a Skype call from Bruce, Holly and Ciaran. What a surprise! We are looking forward to hooking up with them in Maine on our return trip.

The ferry arrived 4 hours late (an additional 2.25 hrs lost in travel). We have heard that there was something wrong with an engine. This, of course, put us way behind schedule to the point where we were forced to ride the last 30K on an unfamiliar, pothole filled road in the dark. But we are safely here in St. Bride’s at the Capeway Inn, a converted convent, and very comfortable.

Newfoundland Ferry Terminal, N. Sydney, N.S.

Total Km = 541

Another gloriously sunny day – hardly a cloud in the sky. Can’t believe how lucky we have been with the weather.

Didn’t need to start as early this morning as we knew we were going to be putting in time waiting at the terminal for out 01:30 am departure time.
Rode numerous back roads enjoying the lovely morning, seaside views, etc. Found that as soon as we got off the main roads onto the back roads the pavement was very bad. Doug had to spend the entire time really watching the road and one of the bumps actually sent Norma airborne for a second! We rode along Marine Drive to Canso, where a transatlantic cable was landed on May 23, 1881 (see picture of cable station under restoration).

One of our many breaks was at a dock where we talked to a fisherman who had to show us his catch – a mackerel. We were amazed by the birds flying and diving for feed. They repeatedly dove, surfaced, flew and dove again. Never did see them with anything in their beaks but they must have been catching something with all the energy they were expending.

Have been seeing lots of the red stars that indicate Acadian residences as that is how they mark their homes. Stopped at Larry’s River, an Acadian settlement where they have dedicated a park to their heritage. Someone has done some wonderful painting on big rocks to go along with the stories the placards tell.

Stopped at the Alexander Bell museum in Baddeck, NS. Found it to be really well done. His two daughters had donated all sorts of artifacts and old photos which Canadian Heritage society has done a wonderful job putting together.

As we write this Raindancer has his “Argentia” sticker on and is waiting with a couple of Suzukis for company until boarding time.

Truro, Nova Scotia

Total Km = 294

Woke to overcast skies and fog with the weather man predicting rain. There was evidence of rain overnight but nothing at the start of the day.

We decided to seek out one of the 62 wooden covered bridges that are in NB – 59 of them are still functioning. Most of these date back to the early 1900’s with the newest one being built in 1983. We got careful directions from our faithful internet connection and off we went, riding some back roads to the bridge pictured here. This is the Cocagne River Bridge built in 1942 measuring 146 feet long. We looked up some of the history of these bridges to try and see what the reasoning was behind building them covered and all we could find was the stories of how when the guys were taking the gals back home after a dance or whatever they would steal a kiss in the darkness of the covered bridge!

We then rode a little further North to the town of Bouctouche pronounced “booktoosh” where there is an Acadian village called Le Pays de la Sagouine where we were very well entertained with stories and music from the past. The village is accessed by a wooden walkway to an island in the middle of a river. We attended an English presentation on the history of the Acadians and it has given us a better understanding of why we are encountering people fluent in English and French. They have such an uncanny way on of knowing we only speak English– Doug thinks we must have a big E on our foreheads. We are, of course, virtually nonconversant – what a waste of all those years of high school French 40 + years ago.

One of the village “houses” contained Mathilda, the cook who provided samples of what she was making – the only condition of a taste was all males had to give her a hug. She was getting pretty desperate to find herself a man and kept trying to make a deal for Doug! She really did make some very good treats – we sampled two different items.

We had lunch in the village and tasted Acadian fare which included “poutine frappe” which is mashed potato/shredded potato with salt pork in the middle, formed into a ball and boiled then served with brown sugar and molasses – obviously an acquired taste but we thought we needed to give it a try. Not too bad, although fruit in the middle would be better?

While we were at the park one of the workers pointed out a large green tailed Luna moth perched on a post. Pretty spectacular.

Rode further south into Nova Scotia along the freeway, specifically over the Cobequid Pass tollway. We dutifully got ready to pay our $4 but were summarily waved through by a protesting first nations group (Micmacs we think). The skies started to clear and the rain predicted never did materialize. We are really noticing the humidity now though.

Dieppe, N.B.

Total Km = 13

Woke to another sunny day. As Raindancer went to the shop yesterday afternoon for a routine servicing and a new battery (prophylactic replacement) we are having a down day of relaxation and not riding. Walked down to Atlantic Motoplex to look around the new shop (they have changed locations since we picked up Raindancer originally) and see Troy – the fellow we picked up Raindancer from 5 years ago. He remembered us or at least he remembered the bottle of Bermuda Gosling rum we had given him as thanks for meeting us on a Sunday.

We decided to take the bus to the Champlain Mall. It runs right in front of the motel. Had a stroll through the mall, had some lunch then made our way back here to find the bike was ready for pick up. Then, once wheeled again, we did laundry and were chased back to the motel by a predicted rainstorm.

Just returned from a wonderful seafood dinner at Fisherman's Paradise (right across the street - see pic taken this afternoon before the showers began).

Interesting how most New Brunswickers are bilingually fluent - some without a trace of an accent (either way?). They seem to have built in radar to detect whether you are an anglophone or a francophone and address you in the proper language.

We sort of have an extra day coming up. “Sort of” because we have about 450 km to the ferry to do in basically 2 days-our ferry leaves at 1:30 am (yup, you read that right) Saturday. We have some ideas about how to occupy our time including: http://sagouine.com/. We will let you know how we made out tomorrow!

Dieppe, N.B.

Total Km = 466

More excellent riding weather. Temperatures in the mid to high 20s. Spent most of today moose hunting in the wilds of Maine and N.B. No luck with a sighting but we are hot on their tracks (see picture). We found this at one of the roadside stops.

The country we saw today was dominated by coniferous forest, in contrast to the deciduous landscape we have been in the past few days. Lots of great spruce wetland moose habitat. Learned an interesting fact in one of the tour books. Moose are often seen in the wet lands as they are finding aquatic plants rich in sodium to replenish the sodium stores they have lost over the winter – not to keep cool and away from the bugs as previously thought.

The small towns were typical New England with the “saltbox” housing design very prevalent (see pic). The very friendly borederguard (yes, he looked bored) at the small crossing of Calais, N.B. has the driving times to anywhere in the area memorized and recited several to us just in case we were interested or in need. Our initial impression of Maritime roads was as we had remembered from our previous trip – very poor/rough pavement but this did get better as we went along.

We spent the last couple of hours on the freeway past Fredericton into Moncton (Dieppe, where we are staying is a suburb of Moncton). The freeway was virtually deserted. The major intersection where two lanes peel to the left for the province’s capital and two lanes peel to the right for Moncton was like a scene out of the Twilight Zone: not another vehicle to be seen anywhere. We have decided it is better to enter urban areas on the freeways as the secondary routes often dissolve into back streets in the cities (we found this in Pt. Erie/Buffalo) and at least on the freeways there are billboards giving directions to most of the things we are looking for.

Raindancer has now been dropped off for servicing and we have a non-riding day tomorrow. Norma has spied a seafood restaurant nearby, so that will be on the agenda. We need to do the lobster comparison while the Maine Lobster is fresh in our memory – taste memory that is! Then again, we may need to try some other seafood fare.

Bangor, Maine.

Total km = 510

We and the white puffy clouds floated easily through the northern countryside of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine today. Staying off the freeways as much as possible prolongs the trip but makes it infinitely more enjoyable. We do run into the odd bit of construction, however (this morning we abandoned one route because of detours associated with a bridge being out). The weather gods have really been with us so far. We even contemplated breaking out the cooling gel vests!

Stopped for a break in Lancaster, N.H. and was asked if we were part of the motorcycle rally. Putting 2+2 together it was realized that we were arriving in New Hampshire at the end of Laconia bike week which explains why we saw so many bikes coming toward us in NY yesterday. The old Lancaster Hotel has drop down fire escapes (see pic) – something right out of the old movies.

Right from the get go this morning we kept seeing signs to watch for moose, but the only ones we saw were wooden statues in front of businesses or on people’s lawns. There really must be a huge population around though as every second business had moose in its name – Mooseview Lodge, Moosehaven, etc, plus there were advertisings for moose sighting tours and we saw several “Moose Road, Moose Avenue, etc”!

Stopped at a really neat little country store for lunch and had the best salad and sandwich. Had a good look around the store while lunch was being prepared – mostly health food items but some pretty interesting things. Sat outside and enjoyed the fresh air at the picnic tables they had under the trees.

Have just finished our dinner of Maine lobster. We just had to do it so we would have a means of comparison when we hit the Maritimes! It was really cheap compared to what we would pay at home.

St. Albans, Vermont

Total km = 515

T-storms moved through last night –thunder and a display of lightning during the night, but the morning dawned clear and warm. There is so much moisture in this eastern air that atmospheric instability seems to be the norm rather than the exception. Although the black clouds won a round in Ontario yesterday, with us having a good soaking, we won today’s round by outfoxing a thunderbanger with a change in routes at the last minute to barely skirt the edge of it. It also provided us with more country riding.

We spent all day riding through rural upstate NY as a continuation of yesterday afternoon. The house in the picture was built in 1846 (we know this because we chatted with the owner as we took its picture). This is only one example of the hundreds of huge mansion like homes we have been seeing. Having said that, we started to encounter the other extreme of the spectrum as we got further north – much poorer areas but also some very nice and tidy little towns.

The lake scene is from Lake Skandeateles, one of “Finger Lakes” (in case you are wondering it is pronounced SKIN- DE - ATTEL – ASE). Very nice ride today. Some very lovely country smells amongst some pretty bad ones as well. We even managed to be stopped by the border patrol at a road block as we rode north east along the American side of Lake Ontario – Doug said “they will just wave us through” – wrong – we were pulled over and had to show our passports! Not really sure what that was all about but no matter, we aren’t illegal immigrants so off we went.

With regard to the horse and buggy – they have highway warning signs for these! This is the second one we have seen in as many days. Not sure they were OK with us taking their picture, but here it is.

We crossed a series of bridges into Vermont at the end of the day and ended Father’s Day with a session on the webcam with Bruce, Holly and Ciaran and got to watch Ciaran running all over the living room - pretty cute, then a telephone conversation with Norma’s parents. Contacted Stu and Danielle and kids and had a nice conversation with Braxton about his day. A great way to finish the day

Skandeateles, New York

Total km = 494

After a late start out of London (was great to see Margaret and Ivan again – our visit was only marred by the sad news of Margaret’s Dad passing away last evening – it was an expected death but still hard).

We confined ourselves as much as possible to secondary roads through S. Ontario. After about two hours on the road riding along in mostly hazy sun all of a sudden a rainstorm moved over us more quickly than I have ever seen before. It was “where did that come from?’ incredulity. We suited up to ride in a downpour for about an hour before it finally let up. We suspect it was a present from Lake Erie which is typical of the unpredictable Great Lakes weather.

After crossing the Peace Bridge at Port Erie/Buffalo (the border guard liked Raindancer) we promptly got lost (i.e. Doug missed a FWY exit in spite of his copilot telling him where to go – well not literally!). We wandered about aimlessly for 15 minutes getting caught in several off ramps hoping to get turned around when serendipitously we stumbled upon the exact road we were looking for. The rest of the day was spent in muggy haze riding through the neatest NY countyside and small towns (Upstate NY – Finger Lakes area) with splendid architecture – we will try to get some shots tomorrow. The yards and homes were huge and we wondered if they all had gardeners and housekeepers to help maintain them. This area is pretty touristy due to the Finger Lakes. Reminded Norma of La Jolla in California.

London, ONT

Total km = 480

Another great riding day, although if you were listening to the weather channel over the past few days you would think we had terrible time of it – tornados, T- storms, flooding, etc. Sorry, we seemed to have missed all of that “interesting weather” in ND and MN. Today’s ride was a mixture of freeway/industry and peaceful MI and ONT farmland. The two pictures will illustrate that contrast to you. We crossed the border at Port Huron/Sarnia and had a short chat with the border guard who had visited Nelson and loved it.

This evening finds us enjoying the hospitality of Maggie and Ivan Listar, relocated Nelson friends/neighbours. Ivan heads the City of London urban forestry program and Maggie is a teacher. Tomorrow we will head down into upstate New York, a very nice riding area and are hoping our nice weather will continue to lead the way.

Gaylord, Michigan

Total km = 655

The weather gods have blessed us once again with motorcycling sunshine. Today found us mostly on the upper peninsula of MI, following the shorelines of Lake Superior and then dropping south to follow Lake Michigan intermittently (called the Lake Superior and Lake Michigan circle tours and the Veterans Memorial drive). Along Lake Michigan there were long stretches of beautiful white sands beaches with people swimming. Brrrr. Lake Superior averages 34F and I suspect this one is not much different.

We have a yet unproven theory. Every time we come across deer they stop, listen and go the other way. We are beginning to wonder if it is the sound of Raindancer’s stereo. They typically ignore engine noises. But this would be a different sound for them and represent an alert. It could by our choice of music, I suppose. Whatever it is we are happy to see them display this behaviour. We are not trusting our theory though and remain very cautious.

Saw a very interesting sign on the back of a truck when we stopped for lunch. Didn’t meet these people but would have liked them and had to agree with their sentiments - sorry Bruce and Stu!!!

We rode through the somewhat dilapidated community of Christmas and stopped to take a picture of the large wooden Santa outside one of the only stores still in business.

The freeway riding isn’t the greatest as even though the posted speed for trucks is 60 MPH none of them seem to heed that making it tricky to keep out of their wind tunnels and keep a decent speed.
Winds were light most of the day, probably not the norm in many locales we went through. Doug remembers the high winds during the trip across the Mackinac Bridge in 1980, The bridge connects the city of St. Ignace on the upper peninsula with the village of Mackinaw City on the southern peninsula. It is the longest suspension bridge between anchorages in the Western hemisphere (8.0 km including leadups). Today was an easy ride across this monster although the metal grating on the (permanently?) under construction part made Raindancer a little squirrelly (it is easiest not to fight and let him find his own way across these things). Norma’s role was to sit very still and just enjoy the scenery.

Ashland, Wisconsin

Total km = 715

We were in 3 states today: North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. First time visit to these states for Norma. Started out in the North Dakota sunshine which turned into heavy cloud in Minnesota (no rain of any note) and ended up in sunshine in Wisconsin. For the most part a very pleasant ride, except for the industrial Duluth area where the highway weaves it’s way through the industrial section on overpasses, narrow barricaded single file roads, and lots of traffic.
Saw two long neck turtles making their way across the highway – pretty slow and scary trip for them. Didn’t see any squished ones so guess they must move faster than we think. Also saw a herd of buffalo with the cutest little calf.

One of our frequent stops was at a golf course in Proctor, MN. They obviously use the hilly part for winter time sledding as there is a sign warning not to stand at the bottom when the sleds are coming down.

Stopped in Superior, WI on the shores of Lake Superior (surprise) at a memorial for the Great Lakes mariners complete with a “whale back” freighter. Several encounters with jealous men who wished they were out riding with their wives on the back of their imaginary motorbike! Everyone’s very friendly and inquisitive as to our travels.

Ashland, our overnight stop, is a very pretty town of 9000, on the shores of the Lake Superior. Went for a walk along the lakeside after dinner and found some large, spectacular ladyslippers. They must be at least ten times the size of the tiny ones we find wild at home. The city has done a really nice job putting in a walkway that goes for miles along the lake with frequent plaques explaining what you are seeing in the lake or on the shore.