Mile 1039

 We wake up to another gorgeous morning with blue sky and some cotton balls here and there.  After having a strong breakfast we have the bike filled up and find Hwy-2 again to bring us from Moncton, NB to Truro, NS, continuing onto the Canso Causeway where we depart onto Rt. 19 to find our way up to the Glenora distillery.  I have been looking forward to that visit since the beginning of the Covid pandemic which killed the original plans to come up here to collect some bottles of single malt whisky.  That's right, Glenora is Canada's only single malt whisky distillery.  After having my package wrapped in dimple foil and securely stowed onto he bike we continue a little bit North to join Rt. 30, the Southeastern  section of the famous Cabot Trail until we hit Hwy-105 aturning North again, passing through Baddeck, NS  moving on to North Sydney, NS not Australia.  We find a nice camp site and settle for the day.

Here we learn that the ferry service to Port-aux Basques, NL is since weeks fully booked and people are waiting for weeks to get a place on it.  I get handed a phone number from the owner of the camp site for calling the ferry line directly rather than doing an online booking and we are lucky to secure a berth for Thursday night.

Herewith ends another great day, good riding, nice scenery, ideal weather, nice people along the way, one can not ask for more.

                                    Crossing Canso Causeway

                                            No words needed

Mural and brewery along the way on Rt. 19

 Along the way

Last minute change in equipment, our new lightweight tent from Reactive Outdoor

"I have traveled around the globe.  I have seen the Canadian and American Rockies, the Andes, the Alps and the Highlands of Scotland, but for simple beauty, Cape Breton outrivals them all." - Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer
 

Mile 683

 After a late night we take it easy this morning.  After sleeping in I join Jimmy on the porch with a fresh coffee to enjoy the morning tranquility, only broken here and there from the cry of an eagle, or the splashing of an osprey when diving for a fish.  That is how a Sunday morning should start, and the sun between the trees provides just the right amount of warmth to wake up.  This place reminds us very much about our place we had in South Africa, the right spot to relax and recharge.  After more story exchanges and a hearty breakfast (Chelsea you're right, he makes a great breakfast), we pack our stuff and saddle the bike.

We say goodbye to a new found friend and head back to Hwy-1/Hwy-1A and make our way to Calais, ME to cross the boarder into New Brunswick, Canada.  Here we take Rt. 1 through St. Stephen, NB to Saint John, NB.  This time we pass through as the tide is not right to visit the reversing falls, and continue to Moncton, NB.  Weather is nice, just a couple of clouds up in the sky, temperatures at a pleasant mid sixties, and some breeze to keep the smoke from the wildfires away (even though one could smell it here and there).  There is hardly any traffic and the ride is one of the most relaxing ones I ever had and time flies at an ease.  We call it the day in Moncton, NB, settle in a motel and make plans for the next days.

A very special and big THANK YOU to Jimmy for your hospitality, and we both look forward to see you again.

Today will be no quote, but instead a link to a singer / songwriter of extraordinary talent, incredible fun, and a lovely person we had the pleasure to meet a week ago and are looking forward to meet again.  I think her songs and lyrics are the perfect quote to this page.  

Meet Chelsea Berry at https://www.chelseaberry.com

Mile 413

5:30 AM, the alarm clock goes off and we are up in no time as this morning we will start on our trip up North.  Breakfast is done quickly and then it is to get the last duffle bag strapped to the top rack and out the door we go.  We follow I-91 north to Brattleboro, VT to join Rt. 9 to bring us over Keene, NH to join  Hwy-202 to bring us Concord, NH.  We continue East toward Portland, ME to quickly enter I-95 and a short section of I-295 to joint Hwy-1 to bring us up to Gouldsboro, ME.  Taffic is for a Saturday rather low, except for the many bikers all traveling towards Laconia Bike Week in Laconia, NH.  But this is of no big deal to us, and neither are the occasional showers we get bathed with.  All that was fine till we hit Belfast, ME, and a single huge cloud gave a deluge.  Klim riding gear passed the test, and all was good.

Penobscot Narrow Bridge, ME

The Penobscot Narrow Bride is one of only four bridge observatiories in the world.  The other three are in China, Thailand, and Slovakia.  The observatory is at 420 feet in elevation - which makes it the tallest public occupied structure in Maine and the highest bridge observatory in the world.

In Gouldsboro, ME we found a bed at a friends place and we spent the rest of the evening sipping beer, G&T and Whiskey, having dinner and exchanging stories.  A perfect ending to the first day of travel.

"There are friends, there is family, and then there are friends that become family." - unknown

15 Days till Departure

This week has been pretty hectic with me trying to keep too many balls in the air.  The work load has suddenly increased, and in trying to please everyone I’m running myself to a point of exhaustion I shouldn’t be in to start our trip.  So time to slow down, and perhaps this Memorial Day weekend will help me with that.

Preparations for the trip are running smoothly, Elke and I have gotten some more miles under our belts and becoming more comfortable again riding two up, and the new tires are getting a better grip too.  The last new gear has arrived and is getting tested, older gear is getting inspected and repaired as needed.  The study is filling up with stuff to stuff into and onto the bike, and I’m a bit worried if it will all find a place.  I figure we will find out shortly.  I have started studying the weather forecasts, silly thing to do, as I can’t do anything about it, but reading it gives me a sense of having control over it.  Silly, isn’t it?

  

For now all is on track and only two more weeks before departure.  Can’t wait to turn North and to go with the flow as my wife uses to say.

“Travel is my therapy” - unknown, but could be from me

Lost and Found 2023

  

It is this time of the year again when plans are made for big trips and sights to see.  As for us we have had this trip on our agenda for many years, but as the best plans of mice and men can go, it had to be put off many times for various reasons.  And even this year, external forces were on the works to do their best not to have us going onto this trip.  But here we are now, getting our gear together, doing the last repairs and checks, and sorting out the essentials from the nice to have with us.  It is amazing, it doesn’t matter how often you’ve done it already, one is always tempted to take the one or other thing with you on the trip which is just for comfort but not needed.  Space on the bike this time will be scarce again as we will carry two canister for extra gas with us in the side bags, as we will venture into a region where gas stations are not as close as we may need it.  Also we both will be traveling again, so I have to share the space with my wife which also calls for more thoughts into what to carry with us.  But that is part of the preparation, and I’m sure that till we leave the assortment of goods to carry with us will have changed several times.  It is called “optimized” packing.  

The bike has undergone some basic service, oil and filters are changed, new spark plugs, new rubbers front and rear, brake pads, bearings inspected, seat heating repaired, and some adjustments here and there. All in all in as good as it can get for a ten year old work horse, and that is good for us.

The overall travel plan is already set.  We will go Northeast, crossing the border into Canada respectively into New Brunswick, moving on to Nova Scotia, from there to Newfoundland, then Northwest onto Labrador, before circling Southwest to Quebec and Montreal, and back home.  That’s more or less the plan and any detour is welcome, and part of the plan too.

So there are just six weeks left before our departure and still plenty of work to do.  But time will fly, and before we know it we will be on the road to another great adventure.  Can’t wait to report of it.

“Let’s wander where the WiFi is weak and the connection is strong.” - Unknown

Epilogue

Once again a great cross country trip has come to an end.  I'm grateful having had the opportunity to do this and like to thank my wife for giving me the freedom to pursue my dreams.  The next time we will be traveling together again, promise.  I’d also like to thank Michael, Ludwig, and Matthias for joining me for a little while and I hope you enjoyed the parts of BC and AB we traveled through together.  I would have wished for better weather to show you more of the great splendor this part of the country has to offer.  Perhaps a good reason to come back.  And last, I like to thank Mike, Kim, Janet, Bob, Arkansas, George, Christine, Erika, Brad, and all those other people whose names I can't remember anymore, but you know who you are, which I met along the way and who shared their stories about the land and their own life with me.  Without you I would only have pictures, but meeting you created stories.  

I have raked up many miles, 10,490 miles per my tachometer, and have traveled from the East to the West and back.  This country is huge and offers enough space for everyone here to live to his/her likings, in peace and harmony with others, enough space to be tolerant towards people with other opinions, religions, being of other race, or whatever they are.  But it also showed me that there is a great part of population in this country which has been forgotten, left behind in all those advancements our society has made, socially, economically, and otherwise.  Those people are in no way stupid or lazy, they just live in the wrong part of the country, deprived of opportunities, a section of the country so vital to our survival and economy, yet we look at this stretch and their people with petty.

I have in part followed the routes and steps the pioneers of this country have taken more than 200 years ago, the Santa Fe Trail, the Pony Express Trail, the Oregon Trail, the Lewis & Clark Trail with the comfort of a motorcycle.  Hard to imagine what the people in that time had to endure making those travels on horseback, plan wagons, or on foot.  Their tracks are full of history and stories, and I was happy to have become part of it even if it was only for a little while.  The parks and the regions I visited were just breathtaking, an endless landscape in all its beauty the forces of nature can create.  It is those visits which remind me, us, that we have to preserve those beautiful landscapes for our children, and their children, and the generation which follow for them to enjoy and awe at those wonders.

The wolve will continue to travel and I hope that you will join me then again.

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”  -  Heraclitus of Ephesus fl.c. 500 BCE, Ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosopher

Mile 10490

This morning I wake up to a cloudy sky and temperatures which would make you crawl back under the blanket again.  Nevertheless my plan is clear, written on a piece of paper no more trust in Mr. Garmin, Tom-Tom, or Google,  and it means raking up the miles, because I'm going home.  I leave Columbus, OH and go North toward Cleveland, OH on I-71, then turn onto I-76 East toward Akron, OH which leads ultimately into I-80 to Wilkes-Barre, PA and from there over I-84 and Scranton, PA back home.  A route very well known to me, could almost drive it blindly, but better not.  The sky remains still cloudy, an occasional sprinkle comes down, and temperatures are not much more than the lower 40th, feeling more like the lower 30th.  My grip heating is working overtime, and I start to see some sun only late afternoon well into Pensilvania and too short to really warm me up.  But what do I care, I'm going home, and all what matters is eating up those miles and to stay calm passing all those construction zones.  I finally arrive back home late evening, put the side stand down and switch of the engine.  A long day comes to an end, a great trip too.  In the next days I will reflect on all I have seen, all I experienced and will try to put it into words to close this trip.

"A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it."  - George A. Moore, Irish Novelist