Nova Scotia Legislature and then More Nova Scotia - In the Sun!

Got up to the classic weather for this trip - it was 7 C and cloudy. Off I went to downtown to see the legislature.

And - just for a change of pace - no church pictures - instead a picture of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. I bet I could have spent the day in there.  But - will have to leave that for some other time!

Then - off  I went for some more riding. I loved Hw 7 so much - and I wanted to end the day at Antigonish - so back up 7 with a loop up 316 and 16  just to make things interesting! I really like the river view at Sherbrook - so another picture.

Did anybody know that Prince Alfred visited Nova Scotia is 1861?

Or - had anybody heard of the claim that Prince Henry explored North America in 1398? Sounds like lots of debate on the validity of that one. Fake News!  ;-/

If I had stopped to take a picture of every piece of pretty coast line - I would still be on the road. But - I did really like Isaacs Harbour.

The entire ride was really great. From noon on - blue sky and double digit temperatures - for awhile it got up to 16 C - loved it.

From a touring point of view - a great route selection. I really like number 7 and was glad I did it a second time. As far as 316 and 16  - also fantastic choices. I highly recommend them. BUT - they do seem to be pretty relaxed about warning you when the road is torn up. Twice I came to a place where the pavement had been torn up for a 3 meter strech - the road bed drops 5 cm - and you are in gravel. On a bike - you do not want to hit that at the speed limit (80 kph - so you figure it out - doing about 84 I guess). The 1st one - I got to test the bike's ABS - and my personal sphincter control.  So - yes - take this route - and keep the pace to brisk touring - not lively sprint.

Checked in to the Claymore Inn and Suites in Antigonish, laundry is in the coin laundry, 1st beer has been drunk, daily blog entry has been written, about to open my 2nd beer, and expecting Laurance to arrive for rendezvous in about a hour. Life is good.

PEI North & East; The Nova Scotia East Cost

When you pack for a motorcycle trip,  you need to be frugal with what you bring. I chose to pack a Hawaiian Shirt -which I wear a lot around town - every Friday. I skipped bringing my thermal underwear. While spending the entire morning this morning riding in 7° C - I came to the sad conclusion that I got that one wrong. What I thought was funny - this afternoon - when it warmed up to 13° C - I thought that was pretty nice - I guess it is all relative - yesterday - I thought 13° C was a little bit cold. Thank heavens for heated hand grips!


This morning was all about the north shore and the east end. Straight up Brackley Road for a look at Shaw's Beach on the Gulf Shore Parkway - and the dunes. Had to stick my boot in the water for a photo - and of course that was the moment a wave chose to break a bit high and gave me a damp boot for the rest of the day.Just what you need on a cold day. Grrr!

The dunes were fantastic.I am a bit chagrined to realize I did not take a photo of the dunes - just of the ocean. But- trust me very pretty. The entire coast was very nice - including Saint Peter's Bay

I went east all the way to the East Point Lighthouse - very pretty. Plus - pretty good coffee - and it was nice and warm in the cafe while I drank it and warmed up.

Then, back along the south coast to Wood Islands - to take the ferry across to Caribou.

Good ferry ride - all the route decisions today were good. But - they were about to go from good to great. Looking at the map - I had decided that the best way to Dartmouth was Hw 347 and Hw 7.  So that is what I did. Wow - what a great choice. Just a great bike road - lots of fantastic views, tons of curves, elevation changes, and the occasional road snake :-). Since I was riding by myself, I kept it down to a touring pace - but it would have been a lot of fun to pick it up the brisker pace that I used to ride at with two different groups (with some overlap) of friends. 

BTW - one of the things I wanted to do as part of #Canada150 - was to honour our history.What better way than to stop at a Cenotaph near Oyster Bay?

Just to top it off - after I check into the hotel - I walked over to Sam's Seafood and Grill - and had the most amazing fish and chips  - fresh haddock and fresh cut fries - wow - so good.

So - tomorrow - back up the coast and tour around on Cape Breton -might be even better than today - but any bikers out there following this blog - ya gotta put the 347 and 7 loop on your list.

The Seat of Confederation!

Sunglasses? I don't need no stinking sunglasses! Rain gear - that I need. But to be fair, it was another day of intermittent sprinkles of rain - not a downpour - so really - you would have to be a real whiner to complain.

Up and and at it fairly early -and off to downtown Fredericton to see the NB Legislature.

Nice! Then - I think I made about 4 wrong turns before I got across the St John River to the north side where I headed east / south on Hw 105. Another one of those fantastic roads which follows a river - very pretty - glad I did this. It looked to me like the water was still very high - and in a few places - you could see flood debris literally washed up on to the shoulder of the road. Yikes!

Yesterday on the St Lawrence, today on the St John river, and then later on PEI, I spent a ton of time within 12 meter of sea level. A bunch of it even less than that. And it is all beautiful. When you read reports like the IPCC, and realize that we are already committed to at least 1  meter of sea level rise - and that good solid science warns of much more - it really comes home.So much amazing country would change hugely even with 1 meter - let alone some of the worst case scenarios.

Anyway - had a great ride on 105 along the river and through the bush - even saw a deer!

Then - back on Hw 2 to get to PEI.  Sometime around then- stopped at a Tim Horton's (Thank You Ian, Thank You Bev - You have bought me lunch most days via the Tim Horton's gift card you gave me as a retirement gift) for coffee and donut and put my rain gear on - since the sprinkles were getting pretty steady. Then - off to the bridge - and WOW- what a bridge.

I admit it - a few times when the wind had me veering around my lane - the knuckles started to turn a bit white. But - mostly it was just a spectacular view - even though the drizzle limited the seeing.Would love to see it on a clear day.

Then - off to Charlottetown - the seat of confederation! The Legislator is under renovation.

And - yes - you guessed it - a very pretty church!

BUT - I bet you did not know - two John Hamilton Grays involved in the Confederation Conference - and they were willing to share their secrets with me!

So - that's it for today! I had a great dinner at Boston Pizza. Yes - I know -  I should have got seafood. But - I wanted a cheap hotel, and I wanted to be able to walk - so I could have a beer. So - Boston Pizza - and the Pizza Burger was fantastic!

Look for more news tomorrow.

A Great Ride to Fredericton

I seemed a little disorganize this morning - but still got away in reasonable time - and headed downtown to see the Quebec Legislature - which is called the Quebec National  Assembly.

Then - on to the slab to get across the river and a few miles east on Hw 20. My first good decision of the day - jump off the slab at Levis - and go down to the river. Just fantastic - so much pretty stuff to see - highly recommend Hw 132.

If I had stopped for all the pictures that wanted to be taken - I would still be on the road. I drove this years ago when we went to Gaspe. I remember it being pouring rain - and did not realize how pretty it was.

I hopped back onto Hw 20 to get to 289 - went south on that. My second great decision of the day. This road and the road in New Brunswick which is called 120 - was just fantastic - hills, rivers, curves, forest,  churches - some protestant, some catholic - just a great ride.

So, about the time I got to Edmunston - it started to rain for real. So far on this trip - a few showers each day - but this time the showers turned into hard steady rain. SO - I hopped off the highway, pulled on all the rain gear,and then jumped on to HW 2 - and headed for Fredericton. The rain gear all worked well.

I had booked a hotel this morning - the Prospect Inn. It worked out perfect! A good price, plus a good old fashioned small town restaurant with cold beer, and a great ribeye steak with all the fixings.  Plus - very friendly staff to made it a great stay. Two Thumbs way up!

So - off to see the Legislature in Fredericton in the morning- then - off to PEI - the only province in Canada I have not been to before!

  

Welcome to Quebec City

I had a great visit with Laurence and Lynn is Kingston. Laurence and I discussed trip plans this morning, and I have exciting news from that. We are going to do a few interesting things. We are going to add the trip to Anchor Point, AK back in - so we are going to go as far west as we can. We are going to add a ferry ride down the coast in. Details to be sorted out - but something like Fairbanks down to Prince George. We are going to see if we can get Kim & Lynn  to meet us in Vancouver the week of the Aug 7th long weekend. Laurence needs to be in Milwaukee late in August, so we will reroute to go to Milwaukee. This means that on the westbound leg -we will reroute slightly to include Regina - the current plan says we will hit Regina on the eastbound leg. Since we are going to go to Milwaukee, we think we will drop south of the border in BC / Alberta - and take in the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park. Lots more replanning - stay tuned - I will  update the trip planning spreadsheet once this firms up a bit.

Today's travel was great. I left Kingston and stayed down on the St. Lawrence all morning. Such a pretty ride. No way to share it really - Blue Heron's, Black Birds, Red Tailed Hawks, unidentified birds, flooded marshes, nice turns, pretty farms, great little villages, and a few memorial plaques.  So much to see.

Today's feature is the Crysler's Farm Battle:

I got to Lancaster about noon - and decided to hop on the slab (the 401 /any expressway) and get through Montreal - so up to the 401, Highway 20, Highway 30, and then Highway 40 through Montreal. Yikes - what a nasty drive through Montreal.  Folks here in QC tell me that is one of the worst routes through Montreal. I believe it.  Once clear of Montreal, I decided to stay on Hw 40 to at least Trois-Rivières - since it did not look like a good river road existed.

By the time I got to Trois-Rivières - I was starting to get tired of  riding through off and on rain - and I still wanted to make a few miles. SO - I decided to stay on the slab. Looking at the map - it looks like the route 138 route along the river might have been really nice. Well - we all have to make choices. The upside is I have a few extra hours to enjoy Quebec City tomorrow, and then off to Fredericton.

One last thing. I checked in to a Comfort Inn out in the suburbs. I figured it might be pretty slim pickings for dinner. I walked across the street to the Archibald Microbrasserie and had a fantastic meal - a really nice dish of mussels and a fantastic local IPA (OK, 2 of those - I was walking - the bike was parked) surrounded by your classic room full of stylish Québécois of all ages. Gosh - every time I visit Quebec I love it more - and I regret more the fact that i do not speak French,

Talk to you all tomorrow!

Day 1 Was a Blast

So - pulled the trigger a day early - and hit the road this morning. Laurence is going to be delayed a couple of days - so wanted to touch base and synch up before heading east.

So - off to Kingston I went -first thing this morning. Pictures are all in album "Three Ocean Tour".

Off to the legislator to visit. Bingo - that is checkpoint number 1 - tomorrow - I will affix the provincial crest sticker to the bike. Then - Lakeshore Rd and Kingston Road up the 401, and 401 to about milepost 448 - then down to all the back roads. If you have never driven all those back roads down by the lake - you are in for a treat. Take a look at https://www.waterfronttrail.org/ for some tips.

The Lake Ontario flooding is very evident - in particular - at Bath the big old  white house in the bay looks like an island - surrounded by water.

Got to Kingston - and went to visit Laurence at The General Wolfe Hotel out on Wolfe Island. Laurence and his team are doing a great job on this - and it is already a nice place for a meal - and I expect that full function hotel accommodation will be available later this summer.

So I am off headed for Quebec tomorrow. I am going to stop in Lancaster and visit some family heritage sights.

Oh - I intend to stop and read things like this when they catch my attention! Stay tuned!

Final Preparation is Nearly Complete

Tuesday May 24th, 2017

Final preparation is nearly complete.

We have decided to skip Labrador and Hudson Bay. We needed to drop a few miles off of the trip. this version of the plan also says we will not go Anchor Point AK. But - as we head out that way - you never know. I think we might add it back.

The current plan is detailed in the Spreadsheet at this link. This is a sketch - we will not be ruled by the plan - the plan will give us an idea and we will be flexible.

Only a few of the dates are solid. The dates too Newfoundland, across Newfoundland, and back to the mainland are solid. Hotels and ferries are booked. The date for the air tour from Dawson to Inuvik, then boat up the Mackenzie to Tuktoyaktuk and back, then fly back to Dawson is also solid.

The rest of it - we are going to play it by ear!

The plan is to leave Toronto Friday June 2nd.Stay tuned for updates. Cheers!