Destination unknown...?

[rotor]

Day 16: About and around the destination
Morning is cold, but as the day goes on warmer and less cloudy.

First things first:

Signal Hill. In the age of digital photography and Photoshop, no image is a proof, but this one is a pretty good "indication of destination".

At Cape Spear, easternmost tip of the continent:


Just bumming around the Avalon Peninsula:





You meet the nicest people on a Honda:

At the gas station on the outskirts of St. John's, who would pull up but a rider (our age, of course on an original CB750. 40 years old, showroom condition. He shows me his, I show him mine...

Just like the Signal Hill, not to be avoided:

Quidi Vidi Brewery. Institution.

And the view from inside out is just as inspiring.

(Yes, bike is on this picture too. Can you spot it?)

Tomorrow: long trek home... How long? Very long. Which way? We don't know yet!
Day 17: first leg of the return
I'm quite sure pictures of checker-stripe CB1100 have become somewhat tiring. But the snippets of Newfoundland scenery?




Somewhere west of Gander...

[rotor]

Day 19: Ferry ride

Strapped:

The way my uncle taught me: upright and symmetrical. The only thing that I was taught but didn't do is put a one-inch wide ring cut from old bicycle inner tube on the front brake lever. I'm just not sure that is an OK thing to do with a hydraulic brake and leave on for six hours.

Tomorrow: East through Nova Scotia.

[rotor]

Day 20: Canada Day

First, some decoration is in order:


Leaving North Sydney the weather was hard to read, and the forecast was of no particular help. At this point, I'm on one hand so used to rain that I don the overalls in the morning almost automatically, on the other hand, it is a national holiday and I deserve a break... The optimist prevails. A few drops of rain and then the cold wind on the causeway almost make me regret it; but then as I turn north from Trans-Canada at New Glasgow to follow NB6 along the coast, it is sunny and warm!

As evidenced in Pugwash:


In Tatamagouche, I stop for coffee. Across the street from the coffee shop, there is a beemer with a notice on the wind-shield:

2007 K1200 in mint condition, with panniers and top case, for $5K (Canadian!).
And the plates are Alberta - 5000 kilometers west!

There must be an interesting story hiding here: perhaps a happy one (fund girl, decided to settle in Maritimes...) or a sad one (broke leg, can't continue...). We'll never know...

And finally: two beauties, competing for attention: one just out of beauty parlour, while my Cinderella is dirty and neglected after 10 thousand kilometers on the road...:

(but we know who got the pompous price

PS. I don't want to add to the not uncommon confusion on how to secure a bike on a ferry. We should perhaps have a sticky thread on that topic. So in whatever time I have when writing these posts I want to say only this:

1) I've seen otherwise experienced motorcyclists bring their bike on a ferry with a full tank of gas. When going on a ferry, there should be just enough gas in the tank to get to the nearest gas station when you disembark. And I have yet to see a ferry harbour with no gas station in the immediate vicinity.

2) Have a good look at how is the side-stand attached to the frame and draw your own conclusions...

Tomorrow? still haven't decided. (Toronto? seems unavoidable, but who needs to traverse 401... (been there, done that

[rotor]

Day 22, 23: The short-cut
So instead of going north to Quebec and along the St. Lawrence, I have decided to cut across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York. It is not significantly shorter distance, but it follows the old wisdom: whenever possible, do not return the way you went out. Most of the trip there will have to be via secondary and regional roads, but that is preferable to ripping up or down the trans-Canada or Interstates. Not much in terms of description is needed, so here are a few pictures:


The trip is well into the last third, and the funds are running low: alwas looking for economy-level motel...

Big skies, Vermont:


As good a place to take a rest as any:


Bridge over the western fork of Lake Champlain:


Finally, on the banks of St. Lawrence:


Again, two beauties in close proximity:


Entering Canada, I do stay away of 401 initially. I take the 1000 Islands Parkway, an proceed right through the down-town Kingston. But exiting Kingston, there are several spots of road construction on 33, with single lane alternating traffic, and I loose the patience. I take 4 (IIRC) north to 401, in the hope to reach Toronto before the afternoon rush-hour traffic. It is very hot. In Whitby, I decide it would be foolish to get into Toronto low on gas, and stop for the fuel:



The bike finally get some gasoline not polluted by alcohol (so hard to get in New England states!) and I get a double espresso, cold water and some sugar. I'm ready for Toronto traffic, I think.

From Kennedy to 427 I split the express lanes of 401 between 3 and 4 in the afternoon. A better rider than myself would not think much of it, but for me, it does take all the concentration and skill I can muster at the end of a 550 km hot day ride. However: of thousand of vehicles I filter through, only one idiot honks at me, while two outstanding, cvic-minded gentlemen actually open the space for a passing motorcycle!

There is hope for this country yet!

P.S. the reason for the mad rush was that I'll have to take a couple of days pause and deal with an unforeseen but urgent piece of family business. The trip will have to wait. Stay tuned, I'll be offline for a while, but I'll be back...

[rotor]

Day 24: On the road again...

For a couple of days the bike was in the parkade at Malton, my dry bag was in a locker while I dealt with lawyers, bankers and consular officials. The worst day riding is much better than the best day... (which is all you would be interested in, and which, I'm quite sure, you all knew already

So early on Sunday, in hardly any traffic at all, I pull north on 400.

I am still a better part of the week from home, but I am already in this frame of mind where the most important thing is the safe and speedy return. So, only one photo today, in case someone is interested in a unique business opportunity in the hearth of Northern Ontario, only a few steps away from TransCanada:



Tomorrow, around the North shore of Superior...

[rotor]

Day 25: Superior!

Waking up in Soo around 6:00, I peek through the window: the sky is cloudy, looks like rain. I turn around, and by 8:00 it looks better: sun and clouds, doesn't look like rain at all. However, by the time I brew a cup of make coffee, and pack and strap the dry bag, it is past 9:00. I am late to start this, the second day in a row of approximately 725 km.

Beginning is fine: all the way to Pancake bay, the weather holds. I am again reminded why I always just smile dryly when asked after some trip: "So, did you see any wildlife?" as if that is some particularly desirable occurrence. Wildlife? The less, the better, if you ask me:


Everybody knows there is this stretch of 160 kilometres without fulel on Trans Canada on the North shore of Superior. (At least everybody knows that the second and subsequent time they pass that stretch . While I fill up, I observe the skies on the northern quadrant, and decide to put the overalls on. It turned out to be a smart decision.

I press on to Wawa. Halfway there the road is first in light, and than in heavy fog, with drizzle to match. Progress is so slow... In Wawa, I do the unthinkable: fill the tank without even stopping to take the picture of the bike under the goose. It doesn't really matter: the original Big Goose was thorn down when the road was widened, and a number of smaller birds erected to replace it. What nonsense! Wawa without one (and one only!) Big Goose is simply not Wawa, and Northern Ontario without Wawa is just an endless expanse of mixed forests, granite and lakes.

I consider for a moment to warm up with a coffee, but decide against it. Thunder Bay is still almost 500 kilometres away.

This also turns to be a good decision: the fog dissipates just a few kilometres after I leave Wawa. The temperature dips, but with the overalls on, I can move faster. Besides, I am again enjoying the view of the lake:


It also gets gradually warmer. Ride becomes fast and enjoyable:


Finally, in the mid afternoon, I am by the western end of Superior:


Around 19:00 I am sitting on an outdoor patio in down-town Thunder Bay with the first meal of the day: a pint of "what's local and on tap?" and some other, secondary food groups.

Tomorrow: the last of the Canadian Shield.

[SportsterDoc]

Day 25: Superior!

Waking up in Soo around 6:00, I peek through the window: the sky is cloudy, looks like rain. I turn around, and by 8:00 it looks better: sun and clouds, doesn't look like rain at all. However, by the time I brew a cup of make coffee, and pack and strap the dry bag, it is past 9:00. I am late to start this, the second day in a row of approximately 725 km.

Beginning is fine: all the way to Pancake bay, the weather holds. I am again reminded why I always just smile dryly when asked after some trip: "So, did you see any wildlife?" as if that is some particularly desirable occurrence. Wildlife? The less, the better, if you ask me:


Everybody knows there is this stretch of 160 kilometres without fulel on Trans Canada on the North shore of Superior. (At least everybody knows that the second and subsequent time they pass that stretch . While I fill up, I observe the skies on the northern quadrant, and decide to put the overalls on. It turned out to be a smart decision.

I press on to Wawa. Halfway there the road is first in light, and than in heavy fog, with drizzle to match. Progress is so slow... In Wawa, I do the unthinkable: fill the tank without even stopping to take the picture of the bike under the goose. It doesn't really matter: the original Big Goose was thorn down when the road was widened, and a number of smaller birds erected to replace it. What nonsense! Wawa without one (and one only!) Big Goose is simply not Wawa, and Northern Ontario without Wawa is just an endless expanse of mixed forests, granite and lakes.

I consider for a moment to warm up with a coffee, but decide against it. Thunder Bay is still almost 500 kilometres away.

This also turns to be a good decision: the fog dissipates just a few kilometres after I leave Wawa. The temperature dips, but with the overalls on, I can move faster. Besides, I am again enjoying the view of the lake:


It also gets gradually warmer. Ride becomes fast and enjoyable:


Finally, in the mid afternoon, I am by the western end of Superior:


Around 19:00 I am sitting on an outdoor patio in down-town Thunder Bay with the first meal of the day: a pint of "what's local and on tap?" and some other, secondary food groups.

Tomorrow: the last of the Canadian Shield.

Enjoying the ride report and pics...looking forward to tomorrow's.

[peterbaron]

We keep for safe and enjoyable ride home + whatever was said by SportDoc

[rotor]

Day 26: Goodbye Canadian Shield, hello The Prairies...

Morning is sunny, and unlike yesterday I'm on the way well before 9:00. A look at the map convinced me it would be a smart thing to get west of Winnipeg today, instead of leaving the East-West traverse of it for the morning rush-hour. This means third day of more than 700km. So there is only so many times I want to stop.

This is the first; after all, it marks some level of westward progress:


I know it will be a while before I see my CB1100 in this kind of landscape:


In Kenora, on the shore of the Lake of the Woods:

Despite trying to get to the other side of Winnipeg today, I cant resist passing through the town instead of taking the bypass. Well worth extra half of an hour.

The transition from the Shield to the Prairies on Trans-Canada I always find fascinating. From the Ontario-Manitoba border the landscape flattens, but for a while it is still unmistakeably the Shield: granite, forest, water... Then in a space of just a kilometre or so, right before the intersection with Manitoba 12 - one find himself in the the Prairies, with full knowledge that from this point on, right until one hits the Rockies thousands of kilometres away, nothing will look any different from what one is looking at now.

At 18:00 or so, I am west of Winnipeg, if only enough to know that I wont be affected by the morning traffic into it.

[peterbaron]

Very important those semis. Did the right guys win for you, rotor?

Now even if I have to push the bike across the prairies, I must make it home by Sunday

Now even if I have to push the bike across the prairies, I must make it home by Sunday
Rotor,
We are watching your trip =
To meet your Sunday target , my personal suggestion is: 6th gear and 4000- 4500 rpm will make you do it...but watch out for traps and SAFETY is always priority
Only ride during day light
Good luck