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.

Day 18 PAB to Corner Brook Day 2 NF

Day 2 and still in PAB. We finally got to the sign! We drove up the TCH - can you translate these initials? Ive never seen it before but it's on the road signs in NF. We started off in a light rain and a stiff breeze. We were in a range of mountains called Long Range Mountains. They are covered in trees, still not as tall as NS, NB, etc. The trees are both deciduous and evergreen. It looks like a 3-D quilt. It didn't take too long and it began to get warmer.

We drove off the TCH to Flat Bay and St Teresa. There was not anything special going on here but we saw the first of St George's Bay.













We then went across the Stephenville crossing. It was quite windy. Obviously this is not new to this area. Just take a look at the direction of the trees and shrubs!The people we saw were still walking upright -no tilt!

Day 16: Mon Aug 28-06-Antigonish NS to Port Aux Basque NFLD

One of the buildings of the famous St Francis Xavier University. There are blocks and blocks of them. The folk man is one of many carved wooden folk figures around Antigonish.
We spent the night in Antigonish and got up about 07:30. After having coffee and packing we got underway. We drove along # 2 east for about an hour and then stopped for breakfast at the Canso causeway. That is the road that connects Cape Breton Island with the mainland of Nova Scotia. After breakfast we continued on and got to North Sydney about 13:30. The road from Canso ( Port Hawksbury) to North Sydney was a motorcyclist's dream. Very windey with lots of steep hills and sharp curves.
We arrived in North Sydney and drove to the Ferry terminal. I called Myles Burke who lives nearby. We used to work together in Calgary. I was his officer coach when he first came on the job. He is now the Inspector of North Sydney division of the cape Breton regional Police Dept. I think it must be due to his superb early training......we met up for a bit and went to his office which is right near the Ferry terminal. we will visit him and his family on our way back from Newfoundland.We boarded the Ferry at 15:00 and tied down the bike and went up on deck. The departure was delayed for an hour because of a jammed ramp but we got underway at 17:00. The ferry was named the "Carribou". It was named that to honor the first "Carribou"which was torpedowed by a German U-boat in 1942 and sank with a loss of 137 passengers and crew.......On a lighter note...I had baked cod for supper and Judy had fish and chips and they were both very good. The crossing took six hours and about half of that was in the dark. The weather was good and the crossing was smooth. We got to Port Aux Basques at 23:00 and drove about 5 blocks to our Hotel.

Day 15 Sun Aug 27 : Fredericton NB to Antigonish NS

Our trip through New Brunswick was just that, through New Brunswick. We really didn't see much except for trees on each side of the highway. There are a few lakes and rivers to see. We didn't stop at any attractions as we made that trip a few years back. We really are just concentrating on getting to NFLD while the weather is reasonable. One thing I have to say about NB is that their highways are superb - brand new and they seem to be continuing with the highway improvement. It was interesting in that right after we saw the Nove Scotia sign the scenery seemed to change to rolling hills and more trees cleared from the land. The buildings are wood as compared to Quebec's stone buildings and not as much human landscaping. The people weren't as interested in that we are making the trip again as compared to Quebecers. There was alot of motorcycle couples and groups out as it was the week-end and sunny. I must say that when we stop it's pretty toasty but going down the highway at 70K it is a bit chilly in the beginning and end of the day.
We had breakfast at Aulds Cove in Nova Scotia. Pancakes are called griddle cakes. We have been hitting a roadside gas and restaurant called Irvings. This chain starts in Ontario. The food is like homemade and lots of it and very resonably priced.
We originally had wanted to make Sydney NS on Sunday night. But Terry was getting tired so we called it a night @1830. It seems that 7pm is the time when we call it a day. We still haven't seen any moose out here. We finally saw 3 deer in NS. I think these provinces are just fooling around when they post all these warnings!
We stopped at a motel that advertised high speed internet. Terry comes out and says that it is only offered in the business suites and it was $10.00 more. There were no cars in the lot so you can guess that I wasn't too impressed. The guy at the counter decided that we could have it no charge. Then we go into the room and it had one of those stand-up showers. Then we find that the room did not have the internet cord. (You wouldn't believe how many times we ask if they have wireless, yes they do, then we end having to phone and ask if you need a password -oh yeah you do - I ask you why won't they tell us that when we pay for the room?) Terry gets tha cord and it was 3ft long - we would have had to sit on the floor to use the computer! Again phone the desk do you have a longer cord? Oh yes we do - I go over there - do you have a room that has a bathtub AND internet - Oh yeah the room right next to you!!!! Needless to say we made the switch.
I had good intentions of updating the blog but we had to decide when to catch the ferry and where to - Port Aux Basque or Argentia. Factors to be considered - time of crossing, time of arrival and weather. The winner was to leave Sydney @1600 Monday (or 0700am and we had a 2.5 hr drive to get there-no way) to arrive at Port Aux Basque. The deciding factor is I could get a hotel reservation at POB because we did not want to be riding at night and both arrivals would be around 11pm. So we will be working our way around the island from POB to St Johns. Then we plan to take the ferry from Argentia back to Sydney rather than do the ride in reverse again. We both don't like to backtrack. I find that I don't even like seeing things that we have seen on previous trips because there is so many new sights out there. And heaven knows life is short enough!
Right now I'm blogging on the ferry. This most certainly will make the 6 hours go by quick. Well I'm going to add some pictures (the pictures are beginning to look the same but you'll have to take your complaints to the "Big Guy") and then see if we can find a plug-in for the computer to keep the power going.

Day 14 Sat Aug 26 : Quebec City to Fredericton NB

After staying overnight in Beaumont/Quebec city we got up and packed and headed east again. Judy had the escape route planned and it's a good thing she did because I was all turned around and didn't know where the hell we were. We had thought about continuing up # 138 but decided to not do that. We therefore passed on Baie St. Paul and Tuddusac where there is beautiful scenery and whale sighting areas. If we had gone that route we would have had to cross the St. Lawrence on a ferry from Cape Simeon to Rivieres du Loup. It took us 30 miles and a bunch of freeways to get to highway # 20 east. It runs from Quebec on the south side of the St. Lawrence towards New Brunswick. The ride east on #20 was just cruising on a 4 lane past scads of dairy farms, corn fields and towns with HUGE churches. We stopped for a coffee in Rivieres du Loup. It's on the way to Rumouskey which is the home town of Sydney Crosby. After a stop in Edmonston NB we got to Fredericton about 19:00 and shut down for the day. We had pizza for supper and watched the football game.

Day 13 Fri Aug 25 : Cap Sante to Quebec City

We stayed overnight at a little motel just outside of the ittle village of Cap Sante. It means
"Cape of good health" Legend has it that some french soldiers fell ill on their trek east and when they stopped at this spot they found something that cured them, hence the name. The motel owner was French and from Montreal. He was very friendly and told us about a good place to eat supper. We went there and had supper. It was quite busy with "locals". The guy next to us was having a big bowl of Poutine ( chips with lumps of cheese and gravy on them)....Yum Yum. After supper we went back to the motel and went to bed....This holidaying is hard work.
The next morning we had our coffee outside on the garden swing and Judy worked on the computer while I packed the bike and visited with the owner and a group of travellers from Munich Germany. We left heading east and stopped in the village to check out the church square and the main street which is noted to be the most beautiful street in Canada.
The next stop was the village of Donnacona where we stopped for lunch. It was obviously washing day there.
We got to Quebec City about 15:00 and followed #138 right into Beaumont which is a suburb of Quebec. After booking into our motel we rode the bike to downtown and parked near the railroad station and statred hoofing it. Lots of steep hills and stairs to climb. We toured around "Old City" till about 20:30 and then headed back to the motel.

Judy bought a CD from some guy busking with a harp. I think it was Albert Einstein.

Evening Thurs Aug 24 Trois Riv. to Cap Sante PQ

another church...bridge to Grondines...behind me is the bridge to Drummondville from Tr0is Rivieres... Ursuline Basilica

After the tour of Trois Rivieres we rode East on # 138 through all the little towns along the way. They all had big churches and narrow streets named after Saints. (from Judy... And a big river on the right side. Old houses made of stone, that are lived in and in immculate condition. Fields of corn. Strip fields leading to the river. Flower beds in all the yards -all the autumn flowers and shrubs blooming. vast green lawns all cut neatly.

Day11: Trois Rivieres & Onward to Portneuf

Oldest house in Canada
We stayed in Trois Rivieres . We toured the old part of the town before we continued on to Quebec City. We drove downtown and walked around. We saw the two oldest buildings in Canada. One was a private house of a guy that helped the regions' natives. It was built in 1668 on the site where it now stands. The other is an Ursuline convent. There are a lot of historic buildings throughout the town. The town center is right adjacent to the docks.
This is the St. Lawrence Seaway and this is one of the largest shipping ports in North America.
The reason it is named Trois Rivieres is because when Cartier was sailing upstream past the mouth of the river he passed two big islands at the mouth and he thought there were three rivers emptying there. Later he found that it was one river which was later named Rivier Saint Maurice.

Judy says...

We decided to continue down the Chemin du Roy (highway 138). It was very scenic and although we could have made it to Quebec City (we call it Quebec city but here it is referred to as Quebec), we decided to call it a night at a little place called Portneuf. We did not want to miss seeing anything and it gets quite nippy as soon as the sun goes down. So it wasn't a hardship to stop. We went for something to eat at a local restaurant. All the older guys were there having coffee, sugar pie or poutine. I am not kidding. The poutine there is a meal. It has a whole portion of the menu to itself. The guy beside us had a bowl that probably held about 2-3 cups of poutine -it was fries, chili, huge chunks of cheese and everything is drowned in gravy. The buns in Quebec is served in celophane and is always white buns. The butter is light yellow and the margarine is white. The menus are in French so some of that high school french comes in handy, although there are some words we still haven't figured out. The waitresses are very friendly and can speak better English then we can French, There has only been a couple that can't speak any English but there is always someone that they can send out to translate. one day Terry ordered 2 Teen burgers in french and the young girl said to him in English "You speak very good French." Honestly we could grunt and they would know we are English! By the way Teen burger in French is "Teen burger".! One time I wanted a hotdog and Terry wanted me to order it in French "chaude chien". Well that threw everyone for a loop. So when they finally knew what I wanted I asked them how to say it and you guessed it ..."hot dog"! We were once offered an English menu and it still was partially french. I guess there are some words/phrases that they can't figure out. However KFC is PKF (for you non-frenchies -poulet is chicken). Go figure!

The end of Day 10 @ Trois Riviers

We had a good ride today but didn't do that many miles. 138 miles today and 2792 miles since we started. The ride along # 138 East was scenic and aromatic. There are lots of dairy farms along the way. Yesterday was interesting too. Ottawa is very historic. On our tour of the RCMP Musical Ride center we happened to run into an old friend of mine, Sgt. Jerry Mayo. We were in Lexington Kentucky together back in 1992 at the Mounted patrol symposium. He showed us around the place and we kept our stuff in his office while we were doing the tourist thing downtown. Another thing we couldn't help but notice was this. Oh yeah...We spent about 2 hours trying to meet up with a guy I had met through the "Blue Knights". We never did find him and finally stopped for a coffee at "Tim's"in the Vanier area of Ottawa. A retired postal worker sat down next to us and talked non-stop for the full time we were there , telling us about the attractions on our way to Quebec. When we left we still didn't know how to get to the road we wanted.
This morning right after breakfast we pulled into Repentigny at the tourist office and happened to meet a real nice couple from Pennsylvania who were on a tour like us but in the other direction.