Day 33:Th Sep14 : Dryden ON to Arcola Sask

Len and I got up about 07:30 and got ready and packed up and hit the road after toast and coffee...( Len drinks Tea ). We stopped at a place just west of Dryden about 20 miles and did some shopping. The place is a sheep ranch that has a big store where they sell wool and sheepskin products. They have some really nice stuff and I bought some cabin slippers for Mom and Judy. We continued west to Kenora ON where we stopped for gas and then went downtown so I could get a picture of the Big fish by the Harbour. We had missed that on the way east because we took the by-pass.
We stopped for lunch a bit further west and then headed for Winnipeg. We took the by-pass around Winnipeg and stopped for gas at Headingly on the east side. While we were gassing up a guy came up to look at my bike. He was the Chief of a First Nation's Reserve north west of Dauphin MB. We had a good visit and when we were talking about our kids I told him that Nancy and Terry lived on leased land on the Tsu-Tina Reserve. He then went to the trunk of his car and came back with a braid of sweetgrass. He gave me the sweetgrass to give to Nancy and Terry for good medicine in their new house. When he gave me the sweetgrass I gave him my tin of Skoal. He was quite impressed that I knew that when someone gave you sweetgrass you had to give them tobacco in return as a sign of respect and gratitude for the sweetgrass. Sweetgrass has great spiritual meaning for First Nations people and they make smudge with it in their religious ceremonies. I was very honored to be given some by a Chief. His daughter is taking her Nursing degree in Calgary and he is going to stop in for a visit with us when he comes out to visit his daughter later this fall.
My brother Gene called me from Arcola just as we were leaving Headingly at 15:00. He was finished work and said he would ride east and meet up with us near Whitewood. We headed west and made good time. We stopped for fuel and a bowl of soup in Brandon because it was starting to get cold and windy. We continued west and finally saw Gene sitting on a pull-out just east of Virden MB. We rode into Virden and had coffee. I introduced Len to Gene and after coffee Gene and I headed for Arcola and Len headed west on #1 with hopes of making it to his friends place in Dysart SK.
Gene and I headed south from Virden for about 30 miles where we got on to #2 highway that heads west to Arcola through Redvers and Carlyle. We got to Arcola about 21:30 but it was a cold windy ride. We had to be very watchful for deer on the road. We stayed up and had a visit for a while and then went to bed. Gene and Joanne both had to work the next day.....

Day 32- Wawa ON to Dryden ON (solo)

I had agood sleep and got up about 07:00 and packed up and headed out after breakfast and coffee. The weather was good and the traffic was light. The road from Wawa to Thunder Bay is a great motorcycling road with lots of hills and sharp curves. The traffic was light so I had a chance to try the bike out with a bit of speed ...The ride along the lake was very scenic and quite fast...I was in Thunder Bay in mid afternoon. I fueled up and had a coffee and continued on to Dryden. Somewhere near English river (out in the middle of nowhere) I pulled over to put my jacket on. As I was standing there another bike came around the corner towards me. The bike pulled over and the rider got off to see if I was OK. After I told him I had just stopped to get my jacket we had a roadside visit. His name was Len and he was from Edmonton. He had been on the road since July 23rd and he was on his way home too. We decided to run together and stop in Dryden for the night. We got underway but had only riden for about an hour when all west bound traffic came to a halt. We pulled up and waited for a while till a police car came by to tell us there had been an accident ahead involving a big truck and the road was closed to recover the wreck. We waited there for about two hours before we got going again. By that time there was traffic lined up as far as we could see. We visited with a couple of truckers who were parked on either side of us. One of the guys was with Deck-Ex and had driven for Mullen back in the early 80's when I was running "Spare Board" there. He knew most of the guys I knew from those days. We finally got going again about 21:00 but the traffic was bumper to bumper all the way to Dryden. We got there about 23:00. After a couple of trys we finally found a motel with a vacancy. Len and I shared a room and after having some supper we hit the rack. Tired again...

Day 31: Arnprior ON to Wawa ON (Solo)

I got up about 06:00 after having a good sleep and hit the road about 07:00 local time. The sun was up but the temp. reading on my bike was 34 degrees F. It was COLD! I rode northwest for about an hour and got to Pembrook where I stopped for breakfast and to warm up. By the time I was done that it was a lot warmer outside and the rest of the day went pretty well. I got to North Bay in the early afternoon. I stopped in Sturgeon Falls for fuel and a coffee at Tim's. While I was there I chatted with a couple who lived just west of Sturgeon Falls in Cache Bay. Dan and Jan were a very nice couple and Dan showed me the electric center stand he had designed and built for his Gold Wing. He is presently trying to market it.
After finishing my coffee and visit I saddled up and headed west again. My route took me along the shore of Lake Nipissing towards Sudbury. I took the By-pass around Sudbury and continued west on #17. Somewhere around Blind River the road was shut down to one lane alternating while some big cranes were at work doing a recovery of rail cars on the tracks next to the highway. I had a visit with an OPP officer who was there directing traffic. He was stationed at Thessalon which was near there. I have his card but I can't find it right now so I will add that later. I told him I was trying to get to Thunder Bay that night but he said that was too far and Wawa was probably a better place to stop so as to avoid the moose traffic. He was right.
I got to the "Soo" in late afternoon and headed north along the shore of Lake Superior. Shortly after stopping to take a picture of the sunset it started to rain and it continued off and on until I got to Wawa about 21:00. I had supper and got a room and went to bed pretty worn out. I had done 707 miles the day before and about 630 miles today...

Day 29:Sun Sep 10:Sydney NS to Fredericton NB

Judy and I spent the night at a less than 5 star hotel in Sydney after getting off the ferry from Argentia NL. We packed and left early and met our friends Myles and Jane for brunch. We had a real good breakfast and visit. When we left their house in Sydney River it was raining lightly. The rain continued for most of the trip to Halifax. there was also quite a strong wind so the trip was not all that enjoyable. The day was also greatly saddened by the call I received from my brother Tim in Saskatchewan informing me that our Grandmother had passed away in the early morning after a lenghty and courageous battle with cancer. She was 102 years old and fought a hard fight. She was very dear to me and our whole family and will be greatly missed and fondly remembered. I will dwell no further on this event other than to say that I am on my way back home to be with my family to mark this chapter in our history.

Judy and I arrived at the Halifax airport at about !8:00 and we booked her in to a room for the night. She is flying home tomorrow afternoon. I headed west on the bike by myself. I stopped in Sackville NB. for a tank of gas and a quick coffee and continued west. I arrived in Fredericton about 23:45 local time and booked in to a motel. I hope to get an early start tomorrow and get a long day in. Hopefully the weather will co-operate.

Day 28:Sat Sep 9:Placentia NL to Sydney NS

We were up at 06:00 this morning to get packed and head to the ferry terminal at Argentia. Had aquick coffee and loaded the bike and were off at 07:00. Drove to the terminal which is only about 10 minutes from Placentia and got in line. We boarded first and tied the bike dwn and went topside to start the 14 hour ride to Sydney. We had breakfast on board and then spent most of the day wandering around the boat as we cruised to Sydney. We had more cod fish for lunch and then sat in the bar for the rest of the journey except for a couple of hours spent at the bow watching for whales. We saw about 6 or 8 of them over about an hour but didnt get any pictures because they just came up for air and dove again. We listened to a pretty good two man combo in the bar. They sang mostly Newfy tunes and we bought one of their CD's.
We docked in Sydney at 22:00 and got off the boat and headed for the city. We got a room in sort of a dump motel but we were too tired to look any further for a better one. We are going to meet up with my buddy myles again tomorrow for a visit then start out for Halifax.

Day 27:Fri Sep 9:Salmonier to Placentia NL

We spent the night at the "Wilds", a golf course resort about an hour from St Johns. It was fairly nice and not too bad of a price. We had breakfast there after calling ahead to book a place in Placentia NL. to be near the ferry at Argentia for the Saturday morning departure. After breakfast we started out and got to Placentia at about 12:00. We wandered around town for a bit and waited till 14:00 to book in to our room. We took a walk on the sea wall and looked around the town. After we booked in I went and washed the bike and got some stuff for the ferry ride on saturday. We then went up to Castle mountain near Placentia where there was a national historic site that displayed the fort that was built to protect the fishing grounds back in the 1700's. It changed hands from French to British a couple of times during some 100 years. After taking a bunch of pictures and looking maround we went back to town and had supper.
When we got back to the hotel there were two members of the "Royal Newfoundland Constabulary-Mounted Patrol at the hotel. They were there with their monts for a parade the next day. I had a good visit with them and their horses. They were both very nice guys and we had a good chat about policing on horseback. They both knew my friend Jerry Mayo who we had met in Ottawa a couplke of weeks ago on our tour of that city.
We watched the first half of the Edmonton vs. Calgary rematch and went to bed at half time....Calgary lost we found out the next day. Placentia is another nice outport town with friendly people and good food. We are starting to get holiday fatigue however and are looking forward to getting home.

Signal Hill & St.Johns to Tors Cove Sept 06/06

We got up this morning in our hotel in St Johns and got packed and then met Brian's sister Lorraine in the coffee shop for breakfast. She was very nice and gave us the keys to her cottage at Tors Cove. Judy and I then left for a bit of a tour of the inlet before St John's and then we went to Signal Hill. From that spot you can also see the old cannon batterys where they used to protect the harbour back in the 1700's. Across the way was Fort Amherst. We also saw a big IRVING oil tanker come in the harbour while we were on Signal Hill and watched as the small boat took the Harbour pilot out to the tanker. This pilot boards the tanker and brings it in to the harbour very carefully.Then we started heading for Tors Cove We got on the wrong road for a bit but finally got on track and stopped at some outports along the way to the cabin.

Day 20:Fri Sep 1-Cornerbrook to Rocky Harbour

We woke up this morning to heavy overcast skies and intermitant rain. We got underway about 10:30 and headed east on the TCH towards Rocky Harbour. The wind was pretty strong but there was no rain. We stopped in Deer Lake for breakfast. We then headed east on #430 towards Rocky Harbour. This is the entrance to Gros Morne National Park. On the way we took a side road # 431 to Trout River which is an outport on the coast. On the way there we went by the "Table lands" which is a large outcropping of rock that was pushed up out of the ocean floor millions of years ago. We then continued on to Trout River. It was a very quaint outport village where we toured a couple of heritage buildings and then had a very good cod supper. We then rode back out to # 430 and headed for Rocky Harbour on the coast. The weather was quite a bit better later in the day and it was pretty good travelling. We got to Rocky Harbour and booked into our motel which is very nice. We spent the night watching the BC vs. Montreal football game.