While we waited today, we abused the hotel bathroom by washing the groundsheets for the tent along with our boots and whatever else we could find that shouldn’t really be cleaned inside.  I couldn’t get the bike in the door though, so it’s still covered in bugs for the most part.

Once the rain stopped, we decided to see if Woodstock had anything to offer, so we headed down to the St. John river waterfront and had dinner at the Riverside Pub.  It looks closed from the outside, but that’s just to scare away the tourists.  They actually have a fair selection of pub fare, and it wasn’t too bad, either.  After dinner, we walked across the old railway bridge and snapped a few shots of the river.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped to see why someone would paint a house black, and it happened to be a historic site.  Turns out this is the oldest town in New Brunswick, and the black house used to be a stagecoach stop back in the day when stagecoaches needed such things.

We’re just hanging out here doing some laundry and getting ready for Maine tomorrow.

Oh, Jenny wants me to mention the breakfast feeding frenzy here at the hotel this morning.  You’ve all seen it.  Just gather 50 of your closest relatives in the same room and start handing out free food.  It’ll be chaos, guaranteed.  We managed to get some scraps and get out before going completely deaf, and retreated to the safety of our room for a much needed nap.

The ride this morning started out cooler with a little bit of rain.  It was actually a refreshing change.  We thought the ride would be fairly boring but the scenery between Moncton and Fredericton on Highway 2 is actually quite interesting.  New Brunswick has some pretty big hills/mountains!  The closer we got to Fredericton, the hotter and sunnier it got, though.  By the time we reached the 105 along the Saint John River the temperature had risen to the customary 30 degrees Celsius and the humidity was insane.  If we did not know where we were, we might have said we were down South somewhere with the slow-moving Saint John River flowing along to our left and the old, drooping trees along the water and the odd cow taking a sip from the river (well, first I thought it was a horse, then a deer, and then I realized it was a cow).

Despite the heat, it was definitely a very nice drive into Oromocto (Camp Gagetown), where we stopped for lunch and air conditioning.  We read a little more about the potential impact of Earl on Fredericton in a complimentary newspaper, and decided to put another buffer of 100 KM between us and the storm by heading to Woodstock, New Brunswick.  The GPS took us on some very interesting back roads into Woodstock that we cannot even find in our back road atlas.  Very interesting in a good way, not a bad way this time.  We realized when we got to the hotel that we had not taken any pictures today.  We will try to make up for it tomorrow.

We set off with full bellies from the Super 8 complimentary breakfast.  The temperature on my bike registered 37 degrees Celsius while we packed up our bikes to set out this morning.  The temperature gauge corrected itself after we got out on the highway.  We rode in 30 degree Celsius weather until we got closer to the water.  We found ourselves on Nova Scotia’s Glooscap Trail without really trying.  What a nice “hidden” gem of a scenic drive.  Almost everyone has heard of the Cabot Trail and rightly so, but the Glooscap Trail is perfect for motorcycling as well.  The roads were in very good condition (probably better than the Cabot Trail overall) and the trail takes you through amazing rolling farmland and around the Bay of Fundy area of Nova Scotia.  As an added bonus, we found Five Islands Provincial Park.  Not only can you walk around the ocean floor at low-tide and see the Bay of Fundy islands, it’s free for day visitors.  A great find and highly recommended.

After spending some time wandering the ocean floor (Minas Basin) at Five Islands, we set our sights on Joggins, Nova Scotia, home to the Joggins Fossil Centre (a world heritage site).  Once again, we found an amazing place to wander the ocean floor at low-tide and, if you do not want to see the indoor fossil exhibit, it’s free!  We tried to find some fossils to take pictures of but all we found was just an old chunk of coal . . . but it’s going to be a diamond some day!

Oddly enough, there is plenty of information on how fossil fuels are created from fossils at the outdoor exhibit at Joggins, but there is not one gas station in Joggins serving up those fossil fuels!  They could easily add it on to the exhibit, don’t you think?  It would blend right in beside the environmentally friendly solar panels and wind turbine powering the fossil centre!  We checked our GPSs and the closest gas station to Nova Scotia’s fossil centre is 23 kilometres away in Amherst, Nova Scotia.  I was almost empty.  I might have made it but we decided to use Little Red’s supply to get me to Amherst without another “incident.”

In Amherst, Jeremy finally got to have his McLobster meal.  And on his birthday too!  Another bonus gift!  We had been seeing signs advertising the McLobster everywhere, but we did not seem to be hitting the towns with McDonald’s restaurants in our travels.  Amherst is actually the biggest town we have been in for days.  It had a Walmart and a Superstore as well!  We filled up on gas and bought some groceries to cook supper at our campground for the evening.  But we still had to get there.  It would be a hot 60 KM ride to Shediac, New Brunswick – the temperature was reading 34 degrees Celsius on our bikes and the air was very humid.

Talk about wind!  I can’t imagine what Hurricane Earl’s wind would be like to drive through, as the wind whipping across Highway 2 between Amherst, Nova Scotia and Sackville, New Brunswick was extremely intense.  This wind had nothing to do with Earl.  It was just regular wind for the area!  Maybe the strongest winds we have ever encountered in our travels.  Even stronger than the Columbia River Valley gorge area.  As Jeremy said, it almost blew us out of our britches!

We made it to Shediac despite the wind doing everything it could to push us into the ditch and end our adventure.  Our campground for the night is a new development – Oceanic Camping.  The name is a little misleading as it is not on the ocean.  It is quite close to Parlee Beach Provincial Park, though, so I think that is why they can get away with using “ocean” in the name.  It is “Oceanesque” but not quite “Oceanview.”  They do have a fantastic salt-water swimming pool that we got to use this evening, though.  We certainly needed something to cool us down after the crazy heat today and then setting up our site.  I must say that the facilities here are excellent even though the tent site is very new and the sod is not even established yet.  I have never been to a campground with ceramic tile floors and showers.  Pretty good deal for $30 per night.

Tomorrow, we are going to boot it to Fredericton, New Brunswick to wait out the storm.  It is about 200 KM away, so we should get there in decent enough time to find a hotel room and “batten down the hatches” so to speak and see what Earl does along our planned path through the United States.  North Carolina was on our list and it looks like they might get hit pretty hard today.

Number of Days Without a Tipover: 1

The East side of the trail is not quite as majestic, but it does have one decent from the top of a mountain down a number of near-switchbacks right to sea level.  Coasting along in 3^rd gear does the trick, making it a smooth, easy (and purdy) ride.

Amusing side note: the signs that are supposed to warn you to watch for deer make it look like the deer are tiptoeing across the road.  Maybe they are dancing between the cars…

We were hoping there would be some breakfast in Ingonish, which is just out of the park, but all there was was fuel for the bikes.  Just when we were getting sick of the construction along the 105 we came to the tiny town of St. Ann’s, where the Gaelic College of Arts and Crafts is located.  They have a museum there called the Hall of Clans where we spent an hour learning about the Scots who came to Nova Scotia and their history back home – dating back to 6000 BC.  We discovered that the Rosses did very little of note, but they had a huge territory and many Sects (that’s Sects, people) under their Clan Chief.  (Make sects love not war?)  We also discovered that the Sutherlands did nothing much more than fight with other clans (and usually win).  One Sutherland clan chief beat another to death in battle with a dismembered horse’s leg after losing his sword.  For some reason there was no mention of battles between the Sutherlands and the Rosses, even though they were neighbours…  how is that for coincidence?

After our break, we rode another couple of hours and had brunch at Tim’s around 2:00 in Baddeck – halfway down the island.  Somewhat refreshed, we looked up the next attraction on our list which was the Orangedale Rail Museum.  This time we were not 5 minutes late.  We were 3 days late.  We still got to see a big plow and the old railway station Jenny knows from Jimmy Rankin’s song.

Since we wanted to make it to Truro today, we decided to zip down the 104 the rest of the way.  We had forgotten about the heavy construction between Antigonish and the causeway to the island, and we suffered through some delays in the record high heat.  The air temperature readings on the bikes was 33 degrees while we were riding and about 38 when stopped…  We finally made it through, and stopped for gas and Gatorade in Antigonish then spent the next 2 hours trying to cool down in the wind.

When we arrived in Truro, we followed the signs to the Victoria Park, which is a nice looking city park complete with baseball diamonds, a kiddie pool, huge picnic area and some walking trails.  We hung out for a bit and Jenny went on her favorite ride while I looked up the nearest campgrounds and hotels.  The nearest campground that the Google reviews said both existed and ranked more than 0 stars was still an hour away, so I picked a Super 8, 4km away instead.  After spending the last few hours in the blazing sun, we just couldn’t bring ourselves to do another.

Number Of Days Without a Tipover: 0

We had to head out on gravel outside of our hotel.  We stayed shiny side up, though.  We were determined to have a no fall day today.  We set our first waypoint today for Judique, Nova Scotia.  We were pronouncing it “Judy-Cue” but that might not be correct.  The GPS routed us on to Highway 2 and we made up some time from leaving later than expected even with a crazy ten minute wait at a construction zone in blistering 32 degree heat.  We saw the sign for the Sunrise Trail that I had read about online and decided to try it for awhile.  The start of the trail was pristine, recently paved within the last couple of years, with nice sweeping curves through rural Nova Scotia, with glimpses of the Northumberland Strait.  After about ten minutes, the road turned into about a twenty year old road, but it was still a nice drive and very quiet – only us and the mailman delivering the mail to resident mailboxes.

At Judique, we were now on Highway 19 and the Gaelic-infused Ceilidh Trail.  All the signs for the towns have their names translated into Gaelic.  It does not seem to roll off my tongue when I try to pronounce any of the Gaelic names.  I may have Scottish and Irish ancestry, but I do not think this language would ever come naturally to me.  How in the world do you pronounce “ldh”?  Is there a silent vowel that you can’t see but should know is there?

Our one touristy stop on the Ceilidh Trail was the Glenora Inn and Distillery.  It is the only single-malt whiskey distillery in Canada (or was it North America?).  It is Scotch without being able to be called Scotch because it did not come from Scotland, just like sparkling wine cannot be called Champagne because it did not come from Champagne, France.  Jeremy said he knew that about Scotch already.   Well, at least I learned something today from our visit.  We decided to stay and have our lunch at the distillery restaurant as we just missed out on a tour of the distillery by five minutes and they only run every hour (sounds a little like our ferry experience – how can we be running five minutes late for everything?).  We had a really nice lunch.  They had fiddlers playing traditional Celtic music and the food was excellent.  We tried their bacon-wrapped scallops in Glenora whiskey sauce and smoked salmon with a pickled onion and caper chutney, dill cream cheese and crostinis.  I was never a huge fan of smoked salmon – until today.  Oh, there was salad too.  We had some green today.

We passed through Mabou – the town that produced the Rankins.  Very small little place . . . and the entire main street was ripped up for construction; otherwise we might have stopped and toured around a bit.  I am a fan of Jimmy, after all.

Until the outskirts of Cheticamp, I was still not convinced that the Cape Breton scenery was living up to all the hype.  And, then we hit the Cabot Trail.  Hype justified.   It is absolutely beautiful.  The trees along the ocean disappeared and you could actually see the ocean and the houses and the boats.  It is one of those roads that you could stop every thirty seconds and take a picture . . . or just enjoy it and buy some postcards.  We decided on the enjoyment part but tried to take a few pictures.

Just after Cheticamp, the Cabot Trail leads you into Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  What an amazing ride.  Parts of the trip through the park reminded us a lot of Highway 1 in California and Oregon minus the heavy traffic and speeding, oncoming logging trucks.  We seemed to be the only people driving through the trail clockwise.  We had conflicting advice from various people – some advocating going clockwise to see the mountain vistas ahead of you and others advising going counter-clockwise so the water is to your right.  We think we know why to go counter clockwise now.  Most of the lookout points are on the water-side of the road.  Really, whatever “wise” you choose, it is stunning.

Our campground for the night was one of the first we found when we started researching for our trip.  It is called Hideaway Campground and Oyster Market and it is in South Harbour, Cape Breton, on the Cabot Trail just outside one of the exits to Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  It is definitely a winner, for us so far.  We had no problems finding the campground as the signage was well-placed and made sure that we “kept right” at all the forks in the road.  There was even a final sign that said “Don’t worry, you are almost there!”  Did they know I was coming?  Anyway, the staff are extremely friendly and suggested an excellent site for us that was treed (the hammock can go up tonight again!) and also had a view of Aspy Bay.  If you are not into tenting, they have cute little cabins that you can rent (one of them looks like a mini-lighthouse).  We can’t comment yet on the shower facilities.   They will be tested tomorrow.  Let’s hope Jeremy has a little cold water to go with his hot water this time.

More Cabot Trail tomorrow . . . can’t wait!

We woke up nice and toasty warm this morning – the weather on the PEI coast was a clear 24 degrees, and I think the bed of pine needles under the tent gave us a little extra insulation, and I slept great.  I don’t know what time Jenny was up, but judging by the photos it was around sunrise.  Even the fact that there was no cold water at the showers couldn’t damp my spirits – I guess my standards have officially been lowered to campground standards.  There’s always something with these places…

In the campground flyer we saw an ad for Cole’s Family Restaurant, and they were pretty proud of the fact that it opened at 7:00am for breakfast.  I figured that would be perfect for an early start as we wanted to finish exploring the island today and had lots to see.  So we rolled in to the restaurant around 10:00.  But the food was still excellent – I didn’t even have room for homemade pie after my eggs, sausage, bologna, home fries, toast and French toast.

After breakfast, we plotted a course for the Greenwich Dunes in PEI National Park along the north shore.  Jenny had been told about some pretty trails and nice vistas that we just had to see while we were here.  After a scenic hour or so drive, we arrived at the Interpretation Center, which is basically a giant cash register.  We paid our $15 and proceeded to the parking lot near Greenwich Beach.  We chose the beach because it was the only trail we would have time for – 20 minutes vs 1.5 hours.

Jenny led the way to the lot, and parked her bike oddly in the gravel quite a ways from the entry path.  I figured I could do a better job and make it easier to get out later, so I moved it about 10 feet or so further away.  On its other side.  After further contemplation, we decided that that wouldn’t do at all, so we parked more traditionally in another section of the lot.

Once parked, we put on our beach clothes (sandals), and made our way to the spectacle that we had worked so hard to get to.  Nice beach, but it was only a bit bigger than the campground we had just left…  Good times.

Somehow we managed to get out of the park with our bikes intact and made our way towards the Myriad View Artisan Distillery just down the road a ways.  We figured a little traditional “white lightning” couldn’t hurt at this point… as a matter of fact, it’s not hurting right now as I write this.  The highway was (yet again) under construction, so it was more fun trying to get into the parking lot, and Jenny was so worried about getting back out that she couldn’t enjoy the brick oven that was the reception hut.  Don’t expect a tour or anything here, but if you’re looking for 57.1% alcohol rum or 75% alcohol moonshine, this is the only (licensed) place you can go.

For some reason Jenny was a little gun shy about motorcrossing it back onto the highway, so I took her bike down the lane, jumped it up onto the new pavement and weaved my way through the construction workers to a convenient place to park.  Well, not exactly, but it was still a PITA.  I walked back to the end of their laneway and did the same with my bike while Jenny walked up to hers, then we were on our way.  The last hour or so had pretty much drained us, so we stopped at a Petro-Can in Souris, had a Gatorade and settled down for a bit.  I decided it was a good time to adjust the parking brake on the Mananimal at this point since it was apparently not an included service in the routine servicing it had at the dealership two weeks ago…  Thanks again GearHead!

Well, we survived this much, so we might was well truck on down to the ferry and see what that’s all about. We’d heard there’s a fantastic Fish & Chips place in Pictou, Nova Scotia and if we leave now we can make the 4:00 ferry and be there for Dinner.  I mean if we leave five minutes ago we can make the 4:00 ferry, but I won’t know that for an hour or so.

The next ferry is at 6:15, so we park at the head of the line to wait and wander around the terminal area.  We found a little lobster shack (named Crabby’s for some reason), and had a couple of lobster rolls while we waited.  Then we went over to the ferry services tourist trap and fudge factory and had a pop to kill some more time.  The excitement for the ferry workers’ afternoon was the ambulance that came through with sirens blaring to wait in line with us.  He got to go ahead of us, but he still had to wait until 6:15.

The ferry ride itself is very relaxing and gave us a chance to just sit and watch the world go by without having to do the driving.  We looked at a couple maps and snapped a few photos and sat some more.  I finally got to have my Cow’s ice cream, and Jenny found a drink with some redhead on the label.

Pictou is only a few km from the ferry terminal on the Nova Scotia side, so we took off to the famous Murphy’s Fish & Chips where we got to take a photo with the “Closed” sign before going to the Salt Water Café just down the street.  The Fish & Chips was still good, but I’ll never know if it was “the best”…

We’re at a Holiday Inn Express tonight to do some laundry and have a more moderate shower in the morning.  We’re heading for Cape Breton tomorrow, but who knows what sunrise will bring.

Watch a video of the ferry coming in for a landing from our perspective.

We stopped at a Tim Horton’s in Richibucto for some caffeine and some sustenance.  Busy little spot on a Sunday morning!  Reminded us of the Casselman Tim Horton’s on the weekend when we used to live in Finch – a general meeting place for the community.

We spent some more time on the Acadian Trail today, driving through some beautiful farmland.  At one point in time, our GPSs tried to navigate us to the ferry in Nova Scotia to PEI instead of the bridge.  Both GPSs agreed on the ferry today, but neither human did.  We figured it out soon enough to turn around and head back towards the New Brunswick start of the Interprovincial bridge.  So, we were in Nova Scotia today for all of ten minutes.  Looks good.  We will see more of it in a couple of days.

The Confederation Bridge is definitely a marvel of construction.  In just over ten minutes, we were in beautiful PEI.  The view of the Northumberland Strait was amazing.  It was a very calm day, so there was almost no wind.  We could see the famous red shores of PEI long before we reached the end of the bridge.

At the base of the bridge in PEI, we visited the Railway Historic Site/Borden Lighthouse to take some photos of the bridge.  We found some fun “accessories” for our photo ops as well.

Our next stop in PEI was Summerside, simply because we had heard of it and it was on the side of the island near where we planned to spend the night.  Very nice drive through potatoland.  I could swear I could smell potatos.  Jeremy said he could only smell fresh air.  I suggested that fresh air smelled like potatos.

We stopped at Sharky’s Seafood Restaurant because I saw a huge stuffed lobster hanging off their patio.  I am a sucker for cutesy stuff like that.  The food ended up being pretty good, though.  I had a scallop burger.  So, that is what fresh scallops taste like!  Amazingly tender and a very light flavour.  Jeremy had a fish burger and fries with the “works” – gravy, hamburger, onions (cooked), and peas.

After lunch, it was time to find our home for the night – Twin Shores Camping Area.  Now, I remember in my research that one of the campgrounds in PEI said to not follow the default GPS instructions.  I just could not remember which one it was.  Well, it was Twin Shores.  Let’s just say we got to do a little off-roading on those famous PEI red dirt roads.  No harm done.  Fun was had by all (but one).  Every new road surface we encounter just adds to our experiences list on our motorcycles.  I would have liked a dirt bike instead though to really enjoy it.

We arrived at our campsite early enough to set up everything (including our hammock)  and then head to the beach to cool-off.  We drank slurpies and waded in the water for awhile.  We could easily spend a couple of days here . . . if we did that sort of thing.

Oh, one more thing for Emilie and Auntie Yvonne.  A squirrel pooed on my bike so I took a picture of yet another of the natural wonders of PEI for you.

Just a few minutes from Cap Chat is Ste-Anne-Des-Monts which is the gateway to the Chic-Chocs.  The highway through this mountainous (“hilly” for the BC folk) area is really nice and the rivers that meander through here are crystal clear (“average” for the BC folk).  The traffic was pretty light at 9:00 in the morning so we had the roads pretty much all to ourselves.

We also had the construction zones to ourselves.  Most sections were not too bad – only a couple hundred meters of gravel or grooved pavement, but there were a few with some pretty good potholes and trenches… Turns out one of these was too much for my amateur welding job on my luggage rack and I noticed the tent bobbing up and down on the back of my bike after a while.  We found a nice long straight stretch to pull off and assess the situation and I decided that like many things, it was nothing a little aircraft wire couldn’t fix.  The hardest part was fending off the bugs while I mended the rack.

Once that little chore was taken care of, we made our way to the south side of the park, which is the town of New Richmond.  We caught up with the 132 again here, and poked along through the scenic and touristy Chaleur Bay area.  Our GPS’s had a bit of a disagreement about the best way to get to the other side of the bay, but I still say we should have taken the ferry.  The bridge was fun too though.  Not quite as high and long as the Canada/US bridge at Gananoque, but still quite nice.

On the south side of Chaleur Bay is the Acadia trail, which I imagine is interesting if you already know all about it, but the only thing it offers to tourists who don’t know where they’re going is their route marker signs which look like a graphic of a radiator fan.  I didn’t know the Acadians were known for their mechanical history…  Jenny thinks it’s a starfish.

It’s 4:00 – must be lunch time!  We’re getting close to Miramichi and it looks like a big dot on the map, so there must be something there, right?  After 2 or 3 passes down main street, we picked Tyra’s Seafood and Dairy Bar.  They turned out to have an excellent lobster roll, and very cool painting in the dining room.  And bathrooms.  And ceiling.

After lunch, it was time to think about somewhere to be for the night.  A look at the map told us that Kouchibouguac was the closest good-looking campground so we took the 117/Acadian Trail east to Baie-Ste-Anne then east some more to Pointe Sapin where we had our first full-on view of the Atlantic Ocean.  After a short drive south of Pointe Sapin on the 117 into Kouchibouguac Park, at feeding time dusk on the way to the visitor center, Jenny saw her first black bear up close as we passed it on the parkway, and later saw a good sized rabbit looking for handouts in the campground.  Or maybe it was just hiding out from Yogi…

We were tooting along quite nicely and all of a sudden we saw a sign with an old motorcycle and “musee” under the sign.  Well, we had to go back.  It was a motorcycle museum made up of motorcycles collected by two brothers over the last 30 years or so.  It was amazing!  Well worth the entrance fee for motorcycle nuts like us.

After our visit to the museum, we were back on the 132.  We were impressed with the curvy roads even through farmland areas.  In Ontario, we normally have straight roads through farming land.  Very pleasant driving with mountains and rocky outcrops just popping up here and there.

Jeremy learned a new French word today – Gite (Bed & Breakfast) – and enjoyed practicing it every time he saw a bed and breakfast sign.  There are a lot of Bed & Breakfast establishments on the 132!

After deciding that the Theri-Bel Restaurant might be a bad idea, we stopped for a late lunch/early supper at the Gondolier on the outskirts of Rimouski.   We ordered their namesake pizza.  Oh, my goodness!  There were so many toppings they actually add the onions and shrimp and olives after baking the pizza.  Raw onions add a kind of interesting flavour to pizza.  A whole onion or two on the pizza was a little much for us, but we just removed some before eating.

At Cap-Chat we admired the wind turbines and how a blue heron managed to navigate through them without being hit, but were perplexed by the big eye-thing in amongst them.  Does anyone know what it is?  And does anyone know why it is called Cap-Chat?  Jeremy has a theory involving “cat”-a-pults and the sea . . .

We decided it was time to stop for the night.  We picked a random campground just in time for sunset – Camping Au Bord De La Mer Restaurant Homard.   We basically camped in a field beside the St. Lawrence.   We were still full of the Gondolier so we did not try the “homard” (lobster) supper.  We did have a beverage on their little heated patio, though, as the sun sunk below the water.  Nice little spot to find just by chance.

Good day.  Did not fall down.  Did not run out of gas even once!

Anyway, we have posted some pictures from yesterday’s adventure.  We will be taking off soon from this very nice KOA for day number two of what is turning out to be a motorcycle trip to prove the validity of Murphy’s Laws . . . nah, I think we got it all out of the way on the first day.  The sun is shining and the road is calling to us.  Maybe I won’t linger so long at stop signs on off-ramps today, though.

Now that we have your attention, everything is Oh-Kay at the KOA.  We managed fo find a few minutes between rain showers to set up the tent and cook a can of spaghetti from the general store.  And drink a 6-pack of Stella.  Quebec is awesome for it’s beer-selling policy, but the drivers suck at not driving into you.

Gas Story:

By the time we got to Trois Rivieres or whatever, we were pretty hungry.  Jenny thought that a St. Hubert would be a pretty Quebecish place to have lunch, so we plugged it into the GPS and headed over there.  The food was good, but the service was pretty sad.  The bathrooms were a definite highlight though – they had projected moving fish in the sink while you washed your hands.  If you’re a woman.  Men get zippo.

We had last fueled up in Casselman – just outside of Ottawa – so Jenny’s bike was getting low.  We picked out a Petro-Can on the way out of town and it let me pump a whole $0.04 worth of gas.  Later on, we might have found out that this was enough, but unfortunately I started with filling my bike and not Jenny’s, so score one for Murphy.  After trying another pump and getting some obscure error code, we decided to just stop at the next station.  There’s always a gas station at the edge of town, right?

The edge of town turned out to be the edge of another town 32km away, but we only made it 31km.  When Jenny said her bike was chugging then stalled, we had to pull off the 40 at wherever we were.  After a quick assessment, we decided I would ride ahead to the next town and grab a Jerry can and come back.  10 minutes later we were on our way again, and now Jenny has a new little red friend riding pillion.

No big deal, right?  Ran out of gas, got gas, on our way.  Yay.

138:

The 138 between the place where we got gas (I’ll have to check the receipt to see where we were) and Quebec City is fantastic.  Decent speed limit, no traffic, great scenery and lots of gas in the tank.  Good times.

Quebec City:

My GPS doesn’t say stuff like “veer left – No RIGHT, wait. No. Hang on.  Yeah, up there.” but it should because it would have been more helpful.  We ended up missing an exit to get to the campground and had to run around an offramp/onramp to get going back in the right direction.  Unfortunately at the top of the offramp, Jenny dropped her bike.  Sort of.  With help from a Pontiac Sunfire.  Though she didn’t realize it at the time, the Sunfire had bumped her just enough to knock her off balance, and the bike tipped over to the right.  Luckily the brake pedal softened the fall before shooting off into the gutter.  The rest of the impact was absorbed by her brand new side case we just had replaced under warranty after waiting about a year for the dealer to come through for us…

We picked up the pieces from the intersection (good thing I brought a tube of super glue), and continued the last 800m or so to the campground.  I figured since we were wet, and Jenny was a little upset, I would upgrade from a basic tent site to one of their Kozy Kabins.  Except the people who pulled in in front of us got the last one.  Stupid other people in the world.  So we headed off to lousy T-4 and set up our tent in the drizzle and had our Spagetti-O’s and 6 beer and this is where we’re at.

Tomorrow I’ll add some pictures to this post and see if I can find a stick or a piece of dog poo to make a brake pedal out of…

Here’s some pictures of the beautiful weather and our stop at the Narrows Locks.

When I got there at 9:00, he was already there with a couple of other riders having coffee, and after we sat and chatted for a bit, it was time to head out.  I filled up the tank on the ST while everyone else was getting ready, and off we went.  We took it easy, winding through the farmland north of Perth, then crossing over highway 7 and into the “Highlands”.  The leader took us on some pretty un-travelled roads, but I don’t think there were any places with really bad pavement.  (None that I remember anyways.)

After a couple of hours, we stopped for a break to decide what to do about lunch.  We decided that the only logical destination was the gas station/restaurant in Calabogie, since it would mean taking the 511 to get there.  I gotta say, the 511 is still a pretty impressive road for around here, but after Eldorado National Park in California then Highway 1 and 101 up the west coast, it seems pretty tame.

The restaurant had hot beef sandwiches and fries on special, so that’s what I had.  Good choice for a special on a cold fall day.  It was about 8°C, and almost sunny all day.  After a good lunch and a rest, it was time to head back out.  We took the 508 back towards Burnstown, then meandered our way South.   We stopped for a couple of minutes outside of Burnstown to snap a picture from the lookout back towards the bridge.  You can still see the pilings from the original bridge in the water there.

Eventually, we got back to the crossroads in Almonte – it was about 4:00 by this time, so I decided it was time for me to head home.  I split off from the group (after stopping to say thanks for the ride) and I made a left and took the easy way home…

Our goal was home as quickly as possible, so our only stops were for gas in North Bay and gas and  lunch in Cobden.  The kilometers just seemed to fly by but we also got to enjoy the beautiful fall colours.  The Ottawa Valley must have gotten more frost then Northern Ontario, because the fall colours were more prevalent.

Before we knew it we were at our March Road exit and driving that last stretch to home.  We got behind a slow-poke driver (possibly from Oregon?), but maybe that prevented us from getting a speeding ticket from the cop at the Carp Road intersection.  That would have been great – 13,000 KM under our belts and a speeding ticket within 5 KM of home.

And then we were home.  Ahhhh . . . what more can I say!  We had an amazing trip but home is where our hearts are, for sure.  Now, we need to start planning for next year . . .

Once the sun had some strength, we started to enjoy the Northern Ontario roads again.  Its still boggles our mind, though, that we can be driving for three days in Ontario and still only be in Northern Ontario.

We drove through Lake Superior Provincial Park.  What a beautiful area!  The glimpses of Lake Superior and its rugged beaches are spectacular.  We have officially put Lake Superior Provincial Park on our return to explore list.

We stopped in Sault Ste. Marie for a quick lunch and warm up.  I also called my parents.  It is their 40^th wedding anniversary today.  Happy anniversary Mom and Dad, again!

The drive from Sault Ste. Marie to Sudbury was also very scenic.  I waved hello to my parent’s house in Elliot Lake as we drove past.  My parents are in Ottawa, so we still have another day yet before we can see them.  My parents do really live in a beautiful area.  And the fall colours just enhance its beauty.

We actually made it to Sudbury before the sun set.  We are just relaxing a bit in our hotel room and then we are going to try and find a good place for our traditional Friday night fish and chips.

Northern Ontario is also the “Land of Characters,” to put it nicely.  At construction section on Highway 17 before Thunder Bay, I had a truck containing three “yahoos” pass me in the no-pass construction zone and split Jeremy and I up.  They had to stop at the flagman just like Jeremy and I, so passing me did not get them any further ahead.  While we waited at the stop, the three “yahoos” decided to get out of their truck and stretch.  The driver went in front of his truck and then Jeremy, over the intercom, told me he was actually peeing on his own front bumper!  My Dad would be appalled that someone would defile their brand new Dodge Ram truck like that!  Anyway, I stayed to the left of the pee puddle when we started up again.  We thought we would see these types of characters down South – not, so.  Northern Ontario is where to see them!

We stopped in Thunder Bay for lunch and then headed back onto the highway.  There are some beautiful areas around Thunder Bay.  We might have to come back and explore it.

We got to see some younger “characters-in-training” just outside of Nipigon.  They must have been about ten years old.  We think they were giving us a one fingered salute, but not with their hands.  It was hard to tell what they were doing behind the guard rail.  Lets just say they thought it was great, hands-free fun!

Our goal today was Wawa, but the weather started to look more and more like rain and it was getting dark.  My instinct told me it was time to stop and Jeremy did not disagree when we got to the outskirts of Marathon.  We had been seeing the town advertised for over 100 KM as “Superior in the long run.”  A brilliant marketing campaign, but it did not quite live up to all the hype for 100 KM.  We found a little hotel called “Zero-100 Motor Inn” with a vacancy.  We had a good nights sleep, but I think the name of the hotel referred to the temperature fluctuations of the shower.

Once we got going this morning, we discovered Manitoba was pretty flat but the trees hide it much better than Saskatchewan.  Manitoba also has just as many bugs as Saskatchewan, if not more.  I had to keep cleaning my visor every stop, but it got coated almost immediately after I started riding again.

We by-passed Winnipeg via Highway 100 and then navigated back onto the Trans Canada highway.  Before we knew it, we had crossed into Ontario and Highway 1 became Highway 17.

We stopped in Kenora, Ontario for lunch and then navigated back onto Highway 17 only to be bogged down by CONSTRUCTION!  Now, we have seen a lot of construction on our trip . . . and I mean a lot of construction . . . but it has not been worth mentioning until now.  What a mess between Kenora and Dryden.  At one point, we sat for 15 minutes in the heat and the bugs and then we still had four more stop points after that, huge dips and bumps, uneven pavement and even two stretches of gravel!  We had wanted to get a little farther than Dryden today, but after the construction and our troubles with accommodations we decided Dryden was our best bet for the night.  And, lucky us, we got the very last room at the Holiday Inn Express.  It has the Dryden city bear seal of approval . . . apparently, they frequent the dumpsters at the back of the hotel.  So far, we have not seen them, though.

Oh, and we lost the MicroSD adapter for the laptop, so no more pictures until we get home…

Much to our surprise, driving through Saskatchewan on the Trans Canada is not all that flat!  We kept expecting to see this incredible Prairie flatness that everyone talks about,  but it just did not materialize.

We stopped in Swift Current for a rest and a quick coffee.  I found another little travel companion on my bike that must have hitched a ride somewhere after Medicine Hat (a little yellow moth that had formed a perfect seal stretched across my right turn signal light).  The bugs are just coating our bikes, luggage, jackets, and visors as we ride.

We drove through Chaplin, Saskatchewan and had to stop and take a picture.  There were piles of salt everywhere.  We had been noticing dried up lakes along the Trans Canada that appeared to have left salt behind, and then we found the salt mine!

After Chaplin, it was time for our detour to Rouleau, Saskatchewan (aka “Dog River”).  On our little detour to Rouleau, we finally encountered true flatness.  It is probably why Rouleau was picked for CTV’s “Corner Gas.”  It definitely perpetuates the flat prairie stereotype.

We were a little disappointed that we could not actually have lunch at The Ruby or get gas at Corner Gas, but we did get to have lunch in the police headquarters at a café called “The Stoop.”  I had to have Brent’s favourite – a chili cheese dog – but thankfully it was not as big as a Texas chili cheese dog.  We bought some “Corner Gas” memorabilia and headed back to our bikes.  Our bikes were covered in wasps!  We managed to gear up and get our helmets on without getting stung.  Maybe yellow and black is not a good choice for luggage and motorcycle gear . . .

Our Garmin GPS routed us back to Regina and the Trans Canada via a gravel road.  It was a slow 20 KM, but I kept telling myself that I did not travel 10,000 KM to wipe out on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere Saskatchewan . . . and we eventually made it to solid pavement again.

We picked Moosimin, Saskatchewan as our stop for the night, as it was close to the border with Manitoba and appeared to have quite a few motels/hotels from which to pick (plus, it had an interesting sounding name).  We arrived in Moosimin just as the sun was starting to set and it was getting cooler.  Much to our surprise, there were no vacancies at any of the motels and they were fairly rude with Jeremy when he went in to ask for a room too.  We had no choice but to gas up and keep going.  Brandon, Manitoba was the next major centre with hotels – 150 KM away.

With the sun setting behind us and a very dark road ahead of us, we crossed into Manitoba.  We made it to Brandon, Manitoba at about 10:00 PM local time (we had lost an hour somewhere in our travels today) and proceeded to be turned away at half a dozen hotels until one hotel clerk suggested driving into Brandon’s downtown, away from the highway, to find a room.  Thankfully, the Trails West Motor Inn had a room for us and the hotel clerk actually talked to Jeremy and explained why all the hotels were booked up.  Apparently, the Trans Canada highway renewal project and pipeline re-fitting has brought workers into the towns along the highway temporarily.  The hotels have been pretty much booked solid all summer as a result.  Good for the hotels but not very good for tourism, though.

We definitely had our coldest ride ever after we said goodbye to Jeremy’s Mom and headed to Fernie, British Columbia.  The thermometer on our bikes said 2 degrees Celsius.  For every 10 KM/H on a motorcycle, it feels one degree cooler.  We were going 100 KM/H, so it felt like -8 degrees Celsius.  And, as we drove, it was just not getting any warmer.  In fact, it dipped to zero degrees a couple of times when we drove through the shade of the trees and the mountains.  After the first 120 KM, we had to stop in Fort Steele to try and warm up.  We could hardly get our gloves and helmets off because our hands were so cold.  And then the pain as they started to warm up!  We grabbed a coffee and a snack in the little general store and wondered around the souvenir section trying to warm up.  I could not stop shivering and then I came across the store cat, Bella, sleeping in her little bed and I petted her for awhile.  I felt better afterward – I think it just distracted me from thinking about how cold I was.

By the time we left Fort Steele, the temperature had risen a couple more degrees to a balmy 11 degrees Celsius.  With the slight increase in temperature and adding a little bit extra rain gear, we felt warmer.  We were actually able to enjoy the last stretch of Highway 3 into Fernie.  It is really a beautiful approach to the town.

We arrived in Fernie just in time to have lunch with Jeremy’s Nana and visit with his aunts.  Nana had made homemade cauliflower and cheese soup and it was the perfect remedy for being chilled to the bone.

After our visit in Fernie, we were finally warm and ready to be tourists again.  We stopped in Sparwood, British Columbia, to see the largest truck in the world.  We had visited this attraction before, many years ago, but decided we were due to see it again and be awed by its sheer size.  We took some touristy photos again and then navigated back out to Highway 3.

Highway 3 is a nice, gentle ride through the mountains and it led us all the way through the Crowsnest Pass and into Alberta.  Once again, everywhere we looked we could have been snapping postcard-like photos of mountains and valleys, but we had a lot of KMs to cover today, so we only stopped once to take a picture of the Rockies and the wind turbines just before Pincher Creek.  The wind turbines were spinning, but we already knew it was windy.  The wind gusts were just as strong if not stronger than the Columbia gorge outside of Portland, but today, they were more predictable and only coming from one direction.  We could lean in towards the wind and actually feel like you were in control, rather than the wind.

The land began to level out the closer we got to Medicine Hat, Alberta.  We started to see more and more farms, tractors, and grain elevators.  We definitely got a taste of what Saskatchewan will be like tomorrow – only Saskatchewan will probably be flatter.  Alberta has lots of bugs too.  We definitely had a much larger collection of bugs on our visors by the time we got to our hotel in Medicine Hat than anywhere in the United States that we visited.

Our riding today took us through the “green” part of the “Evergreen State” of Washington.  No more desert for us.  What a relief!  Before we knew it we were in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho . . . or were we in British Columbia and we just crossed the border illegally?  Northern Idaho is definitely very similar in landscape to Jeremy’s home province of British Columbia.  We knew we were getting close to Canada, for sure. 

We crossed the border at Kingsgate, British Columbia.  The Canadian border crossing agents were very nice to us, for a change, but we still had to pull over, pay a little bit of duty, and open up our luggage on our bikes for them to take a peek.  You can never be too careful with motorcyclists, I guess . . . we have a bad reputation, you know.

It took us a little bit of time to adjust to everything being in metric again.  I had to re-train my brain to look at the outer ring numbers of my speedometer again that has the kilometers per hour instead of the inner ring numbers that were miles per hour.  We were happy to not have to translate the “distance to” signs any more into kilometers, though.  And kilometers go so much faster than miles!  You would drive for what seemed like forever in the states and the “distance to” sign for your destination would only go down two miles!  In Canada, we just seemed to be flying between the information signs!

After all we have seen in our 6000 miles in the United States, British Columbia still had the most outstanding mountains.  Mound Hood outside of Portland was impressive, but it was only one mountain.  In British Columbia, there are Mount Hood’s everywhere you look.  Even Jeremy, who grew up in British Columbia, was awed again by his home province.  It was like it was all new for him again experiencing his province on a motorcycle as opposed to being in a car.

We stopped in Cranbrook, British Columbia, for a visit with Jeremy’s grandparents.  They were very happy to see us and our motorcycles.  It was nice to see family again, too, after three weeks of visiting with complete strangers!

The weather turned a little grey and the wind picked up while we were in Cranbrook.  It started to rain a bit as we were gearing up to leave Cranbrook, but it was not enough to put on our rainsuits yet.  The rain chased us for awhile but we seemed to get ahead of it into some sunshine by Canal Flats.

As we got closer to Invermere, we started to see more and more classic cars going in the opposite direction.  It seemed to be our own personal parade!  At the turnoff for Invermere, we noticed people at the side of the road with lawnchairs.  Despite our momentous 6000 miles, we did not think the audience was to welcome us to Invermere.  Some people did wave at us, so we waved back.  We appeared to be caught up in a parade of classic cars through Invermere.  Very fun!

When we got to Jeremy’s Mom’s house, we found out that today was the Autumn Show and Shine in Radium Hot Springs and, as part of the show, they end the day with a parade through downtown Invermere.  We got to be part of the show but our bikes were far from shiny as they are covered in bugs from a dozen different states!

Ahhhhh . . . nice to be in Canada, again, though, and somewhere familiar.  We are looking forward to a day of rest tomorrow too.

Our day began with a farewell to the ocean at Lincoln City.  We took one more walk out t0 the surf and took a few more pictures.  Time to start heading North-East now.

After gassing up in Lincoln City, before we knew it we were in Oregon lake and cottage country.  The trees grew over the road and everything was lush and green.  We have to say one thing about drivers from Oregon . . . they are very cautious.  If the speed limit is 50 MPH, they will go 45 MPH, maybe even 40 MPH just to be on the safe side.  We can not really complain about that, though.  It is a beautiful state with very friendly, warm people.

The green lush Oregon turned a little dryer around Yamhill County and  outside Portland – Oregon wine country.  There were many winery temptations along the way, but we were good and kept on course for Portland.

We drove through the spaghetti junction that is Portland, staying on course.  Whether it is the cautious nature of Oregon drivers or just the fact that we were actually going through a major city without it being rush hour, navigating through the city seemed pretty easy.  Before we knew it we were through Portland and into mountain country.  In the distance, Mount Hood, with its snow-capped peaks, towered above us.  As we drove around Mount Hood on the I-84 towards The Dalles, we encountred some very extreme wind gusts.  We thought the wind gusts coming off the ocean the last two days were bad – these wind gusts were much worse.  It took a lot of extra energy to focus on the road and correct your course against the wind whipping across the highway.  We finally made it through the wind corridor and saw the Dalles Dam on the Columbia River.

Our Garmin GPS navigated us off the I-84 and had us cross over the Columbia River to its north side and Highway 14.  At this point in the day, we were ready for lunch and figured we would do a bit of Highway 14 and stop for lunch at the next small town.  Well, Garmin picked the fastest route through the Columbia River valley and not the populated route.  We gave up on finding a restaurant, stopped at the side of the road and had some water, some beef jerky, and a granola bar.  Just enough to keep us going for another hour before we made it to civilization again.  We did see some interesting rock formations that we believed to be some of the hardened lava flows for which Oregon is known.

Civilization came in the form of Kennewick, Washington and a Carl’s Jr hamburger joint.  We re-fueled and re-hydrated and mentally prepared ourselves for that last 200 KM run to Spokane, Washington.  The area between Kennewick and Spokane is borderline desert – very dry and hot, much to our surprise – and the heat was getting to us a little today.  I almost made it to Spokane in one stretch but my body was crying for a break at the 150 KM point so we stopped at a rest stop for a stretch and a little quiet time at shady picnic table.  Jeremy saw a sign that said rattlesnake zone, but we did not see any . . . thankfully!  We think they were probably over in the the pet walking area waiting for a chihuahua . . .

After our quick rest, the last 50 KM to our hotel in Spokane was smooth and easy.  Once again, our timing was good.  We did not hit Spokane at rush hour!  We will just get our timing down perfect and our holiday will be over!

After the giant redwoods, we continued on Highway 101 into Oregon.  Oregon is as picturesque as California.  As soon as we crossed the border into Oregon, gas went down 50 cents too.  Another very good reason to visit the Oregon coast!

The small, sea towns we drove through in Oregon were quaint and only slightly touristy.  The bridges we crossed today through some of these small towns were truely ironwork sculputures – they could do a movie on “The Bridges of the Oregon Counties.”

 We stopped for lunch at a fish and chips restaurant called the Barnacle Bistro in Gold Beach, Oregon.  We were lucky, yet again, to find a little gem of a restaurant and had an excellent lunch,

After lunch, we enjoyed the Oregon coast for another four hours, stopping here and there for photos and to finally brave the chilly fall weather and put our feet in the Pacific ocean.  We even managed to find a beach access point to enjoy a Pacific sunset.

Tired, cold, windblown and covered in a sea-spray film, we rolled into Lincoln City, Oregon just after 7:00 PM and found a little room right on the ocean at The Best Western.  We threw our luggage in our room, added some layers of clothing, and headed out to the local restaurant called Kylla’s to see what we could get to warm us up and fill our grumbling bellies.  We had clam chowder!  Yummy!  It definitely hit the spot and chased the chill away.

We started off in beautiful, crisp California fall weather.  We experienced a little rush hour traffic leaving Sacramento, but it was not too bad.  After Las Vegas, we could probably handle just about any kind of traffic that California could throw at us.

We exited highway 80 at the Napa/Sonoma exit and drove through wine country.  I could almost smell the grapes on the vines . . . maybe it was just wishful thinking.  We stopped for breakfast in Sonoma.  It took a long time to find a restaurant that was open.  I guess people/tourists in Sonoma are not breakfast people (or they are always recovering from hangovers from wine tasting the night before).

After breakfast, we were finally on the famous Highway 1 headed for the coast and a town named Jenner.  Once again, my family nickname has been used to name a town!  This one is on the ocean this time.

Highway 1 just blew us away.  It is amazing for driving and amazing for the scenery as it twists and turns in and out of forest and outlooks of the coast.  Everywhere we looked reminded us of the California postcard scenes and movies.  The only difference maybe was that the surf was extremely rough today and showed lots of whitecaps.

At one point on the journey we encountered a historic outpost called Fort Ross.  We had to stop yet again for a photo opportunity.

We took a short rest at Gualala and snapped a few photos again of the coast.

Fort Bragg was marked as our lunch stop for today.  Fort Bragg does not do lunch during the week apparently.  All the non-chain food restaurants were closed.  Sonoma does not do breakfast and Fort Bragg does not do lunch – now we know.  We had the choice between McDonald’s and Round Table.  Since we had never been to a Round Table, we decided to try it.  Not bad.  Very similar to a Pizza Hut, actually.

While we were eating lunch, the weather detrioriated a bit.  A fog rolled in from the ocean that seemed to be carrying a bit of misty rain.  We put our rain gear on, but it never actually rained.  I am sure if we had not put on our rain gear, though, it would have poured.

We drove out of the fog and mist and then headed into our last 22 miles of Highway 1.  Lets just say the civil engineers left the most challenging sections of Highway 1 to the very end when you are heading north.  The suggested speed limits for the curves definitely over estimated the skill level of the drivers on this road.  Jeremy and I took our time and we did not have any problems.  The road was pretty quiet through this area – maybe the locals know to stay away from this section.

By the end of the last 22 miles of Highway 1, Jeremy and I were exhausted.  Luckily, a tourist trap opportunity presented itself right at the end – the amazing drive-thru redwood tree called the Chandalier tree.  It was a chance to get off our bikes and out of our rain gear but also to capture a few touristy photos for our collection (and our blog).

The last leg of our journey was via the 101 freeway.  It is not quite as challenging as Highway 1, but it is still more interesting and curvy than any of the interstates we have taken so far.  We arrived in Fortuna, California – “The Friendly City” – just before we ran out of light.  There were no rooms available at the Holiday Inn Express, our old standby, but we did manage to get a room at the Best Western next door.  And everyone was very friendly so far . . .

Jeremy dropped my Aprilia off at the dealership, took a taxi back to Chris’s house, and then we waited for the diagnosis.  It was a nice quiet day, actually, and I think we even managed to reduce our sleep deficit a little.  We got a call about 3:30 PM from the dealership.  My bike was fixed and ready to be picked up.  It appears that the computer in my bike just got confused and needed re-setting/re-programming.  We are guessing it was the extreme heat on the stretch to Las Vegas and through the Hoover Dam.  The dealership did an oil change and checkup on my bike too, so it should be good until we get home again.

We picked up my bike and then went out for supper to celebrate the continuation of our trip.  We selected another one of Chris’s restaurant suggestions – Amarin Thai Cuisine.  Another excellent meal!   Chris definitely has good taste (or the same taste as us)!

We crossed into San Francisco via the San Francisco – Oakland Bay bridge and headed for the visitor’s centre on Market Street.  We were not sure what we wanted to see in San Francisco, so we thought the visitor’s centre could give us some ideas.  Well, all we really needed to do was follow the crowds of tourists.  I am amazed at the number of tourists in San Francisco in September!  I can not imagine what it must be like during peak season . . . or maybe San Francisco is like Las Vegas – peak season is every day.

We bought a day pass for the public transportation in San Francisco – a MUNI pass (municipal railway pass) – and then lined up with the rest of the tourists to be harassed by pan handlers and ride the famous San Francisco cable cars!  The lineup seemed really long but it moved quickly.  We had a front row seat for the cable-car turn table and bathing pidgeons.

Our cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf was lucky number 13 and we managed to get bench seats in the open air section of the car.  We did not have to hang precariously off the edge of the cable car by the handles; on the other hand, that could have been fun if we kept our butts tucked in.  The cable car ride was like a roller coaster without the free fall at the end (thankfully)!  We even had a close call with a car that tried to cut off the cable car.  Our cable car driver was able to bring the car to a very rapid stop and avoid an accident.  Once everyone recovered from the sudden stop, the jokes started flying about whiplash and lawyers etc. but it was all in fun.  We were all tourists and found the close call exciting – I do not think the driver enjoyed the experience, though.

San Francisco is just a city of hills.  We were definitely impressed with the parking skills of people that live here.  They definitely have to make sure their parking brakes are always in good working order!

We debarked from the cable car with all the other tourists at Fisherman’s Wharf.  The Wharf was a serious fishing port at one point in time but now the “catch of the day” is definitely the tourist with money in his or her pocket.   We walked right down to the piers and checked out the historical Naval ships permanently docked at Pier 45 – the USS Pampanito, a submarine from the 1940s, and the SS Jeremiah O’Brien, the only WWII Liberty ship that survives that participated in the “D-Day” landing at Normandy.  We wandered into one of the converted warehouses near the Naval ships thinking it was a museum related to the ships and discovered a real treasure – the Musée Mécanique.  This little museum housed an incredible selection of vintage arcade machines, automated diaramas, fortune telling machines, and automatic pianos, most of them functioning enough to actually activate with a quarter.

We wandered along the bay front all the way to the greatest tourist trap of them all – Pier 39 – taking in the scenery and the smell of the ocean all the way.  Jeremy enjoyed chasing the seagulls and we even saw a seagull fight.  They can be pretty vicious!

Much to our surprise, when we got to Pier 39, we saw an advertisement for the “Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant & Market.”  Well, that was too interesting to pass up and we were ready for lunch, so we navigated Pier 39 right to the end and found Forrest Gump’s little oasis at the end of the pier.  What a fun lunch!  OK, it was touristy, but it was fun.  They even had a dessert selection called “Jenny’s Minis.”  How perfect is that!

After lunch Jeremy found a candy store on the pier and stocked up on some salt water taffy for later.  They must have had close to a hundred flavours to pick from, all in barrels lined up down the middle of the store.

We found the sea lions after the candy store, camped out in the marina beside Pier 39.  They were smelly but pretty cute, all huddled together snoozing and cuddling on the docks.  The sea lion attraction at The Wharf in San Francisco is a fairly recent addition and happened “naturally.”  After the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, they started arriving in droves.  Now, the tourists arrive in droves to see them.

After watching the sea lions snooze, we wandered around the piers a little more, pondered Alcatraz from afar, and then navigated through the throngs of tourists in the gift shop sector.  We actually found a postcard of the cable car that we were on earlier – lucky number 13!

We decided to try a San Francisco street car (electric instead of cable) for our trip back to Market Street and our car.  We hopped on a street car that took us all the way down the Embarcadero, the main street running along the bay that connects all the piers.  The street car was pretty packed and we had to stand for awhile.  It reminded me of OC Transpo in so many ways!  The cable car was slower but I think it was more enjoyable.  The street car was definitely more of an antique then some of our OC Transpo buses in Ottawa.  The sliding doors were made out of wood and the light fixtures looked like home light fixtures from the 1920s.  And, oddly enough, the lighted exit signs were in Italian.

Once we made it back to Market Street we did a little browsing at the Apple Store and the Ferrari Store (apparently the largest Ferrari store in North America).  By the time we got out of the Ferrari store, we were definitely done for the day.  There is really so much to see in San Francisco and I am sure we missed seeing some incredible things, but at least we got to see a bit of it (even if it was the touristy part) and experience those crazy hills!

By the time we returned to Sacramento, it was already dark but we captured a night-time picture of Arnie’s seat of power.  Maybe we will see him tomorrow.  Apparently, he is in town to sign some big environmental bill.

To get to Sacramento, we did have to cross over the mountains, but Jeremy and I found what appeared to be a less challenging, shorter route to Sacramento with Google maps.  It involved some smaller state highways, one of which wound past the entrance to Tahoe and then through the El Dorado National Forest.

We set out in rather chilly weather.  It was only 9 degrees Celsius, making it feel like 0 degrees Celsius when we were on our bikes.  It’s hard to believe you can be driving in the desert one day and the next day you are freezing in this country.  At least with colder weather, you can add layers for warmth.  In hot weather, we still need all our gear so there are not many options to feel cooler except open up all the vents and get some speed up.

I managed to figure out a hand position on my throttle that allowed me to keep it open a little even when I was braking and prevent my bike from stalling.  My bike did not like it very much, but it was the only way I was going to make it to Sacramento without stalling every time I had to stop, turn, brake suddenly etc.  I also discovered that I could not let my bike coast down hills or it would stall as well.  I had to find that sweet spot when descending that provided enough gas to the engine but allowed the engine to do my braking for me.  Mechanical problems certainly force you to learn a lot about your new bike . . . quickly.

Even though we did not get to see the beauty of Yosemite that everyone has been telling us about, not all of America’s beauty is in national parks.  The road to Markleeville brought us to a lookout that took our breath away . . . and made me feel pretty small.  We took a picture, but once again I do not think it will do it justice.

We stopped in Markleeville to warm up and have breakfast.  A nice, very little town nestled in the mountain surrounded by trees.  We had a hearty breakfast and lots of hot coffee.

After Markleeville, we basically had, what felt like to me, three hours of downhill driving through the Tahoe Basin and El Dorado National Forest.  Very tiring for both of us, with Jeremy watching and worrying about me the whole way and me trying to manage my throttle so I did not stall.  After we passed through the Tahoe Basin, traffic picked up significantly as it was a Sunday and everyone was trying to get out of Tahoe and home for work tomorrow.  People were pretty patient with us (they probably took it easy on us because of the Ontario plates, thinking we were slow because we were enjoying the scenery) and there were lots of sections where they had passing lanes, but it just added to the stress of the drive anyway.  What a relief when the roads finally started to level out!  I love the mountains, but it is no fun with a misbehaving bike.

We made it to Jeremy’s friend Chris’s house about 2:00 PM local time, tired but relieved.  We got settled into the guest room and tried to relax a bit.  It is so nice to be in a home again, even if it is not our own.  Hotels try to give you that “home-like” feel but it is just not the same.  Thank you again, Chris!

Despite the exhaustion, we needed food so we forced ourselves out the door to explore Sacramento a little.  Jeremy’s friend, although he is in Canada visiting friends right now, had given us a list of his favourite restaurants, so we decided to try “Tapa the World,” a Spanish restaurant within walking distance.  It was so worth pushing away the exhaustion and taking that little walk!  As instructed by Chris, we had the Sangria and the mussels, plus we added the olive selection “tapas” and the Kobe beef.  Everything was so good and improved our moods dramatically!  We are excited to try the next restaurant on Chris’s list!

Our string of luck with flawless performance on our motorcycles ran out just outside of Tonopah.  My bike began stalling sporadically when I released the throttle.  With the automatic transmission on my bike, I do not have any control for the shift to neutral or the idle speed.  There is definitely something wrong with my bike – we think either the transmission computer is messed up from the extreme heat or there is something wrong with the fuel supply system to the engine.  It is such a shame to be worrying about your bike when you cross the border into California.  After gassing up in Benton, California, we had 80 KM of amazing motorcycling roads to Lee Vining, California (the gateway town to Yosemite National Park), but I did not enjoy it too much as I was afraid of stalling it anytime I had to slow down for those amazing curves.  We had to keep going as there are no Aprilia dealerships this side of Yosemite.

We pulled into our hotel we had picked online to a “No Vacancy” sign.  As we sat in the parking lot trying to decide what we should do, the owner of the hotel stepped out and asked us if we wanted a room because someone had just called and cancelled.  It’s a good thing we happened to sit outside the hotel for a few minutes!

Jeremy got in touch with a dealership in Sacramento, California.  Good news is they can definitely take a look at my bike.  Bad news is their service department is closed on Sundays and Mondays.  It looks like we might be spending a few days in Sacramento.  We can nurse the bike through Yosemite tomorrow (we will leave early to avoid park traffic) and the bike should be fine on the highway to Sacramento since there should be very little stopping.  The bike is performing normal if I manage my throttle and do not have to stop too often.  Even when it stalls, though, it starts right away again.  If we have any major problems, we can call CAA and get them to take the bike the rest of the way to Sacramento.

Anyway, we are trying to look on the positive side of this glitch in our plans.  What a beautiful area to have to stay a couple of extra days!  And we are very thankful that the bike did not die in the desert!

Outside we experienced the sensory overload that we thought was reserved for inside the casinos.  Las Vegas is a great place to people watch – a great big manipulated sociological experiment.  Not being gamblers ourselves, we were probably not the ideal casino guests, but we did use our free $25.00 “Grazie” credit from The Venetian in a nickel slot – it lasted about ten minutes and then we walked away.  Ha, ha!  We were probably a little anomaly on their statistics for the day.  The Venetian was beautiful (complete with a small scale canal and gondolas) and we can say that we actually stayed in the largest hotel in the world, but with the grand scale of the hotel, comes an impersonality and an assembly line feel.  Caesar’s Palace was also amazing.  The escalators were circular to be more true to Roman architecture.  We had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory in the shopping district of Caesar’s palace.  Excellent mojitos!  And the red velvet cheesecake was fantastic!

After tiring ourselves out on The Strip, we needed a quiet stop for a light supper.  Emeril Lagasse ( “BAM!” ) just opened a new sports bar in The Venetian with lounging sofas, so we tried it out.  It was just like at home!  Sitting on a sofa and eating appetizers from the coffee table.  All that was missing was our little dog watching us with wanting eyes . . .

This morning started out beautifully chilly at 18 degrees Celsius with some clouds – perfect driving weather for us.  We can just drive and drive in this kind of weather and not even looks at our odometer.  We did a quick stop in downtown Winslow, Arizona for the touristy “corner” photo opportunity and then hopped on the I-40 again to cover as much distance as we could before we needed breakfast.  We were quickly surprised by greener and greener vegetation and larger and larger trees (no more shrubbery!) even though we were still in Arizona.  By the time we reached Williams, Arizona we could almost believe we were in Jeremy’s home province of British Columbia.  Williams was even more bustling and active than Gallup, New Mexico.  As we get farther and farther west, the Route 66 towns are becoming less and less ghost-like.  We figure Williams is still a going concern because it operates a tourist train to the Grand Canyon and other excursions related to the canyon.   And no, we are sad to say there was no time to see the Grand Canyon – sorry to disappoint anyone awaiting those photos.  We are already behind schedule by about three days, so we could not afford to spare another day in Williams and we had reservations in Las Vegas.  We did take a photo of the Grand Canyon from a distance at the embarkment point from the train, though, and we have added Williams, Arizona to our list of places to which we need to come back and spend more time.

Our final Route 66 stop and Arizona stop was Kingman, Arizona.  Once again, it was a busy little town.  We stopped at a Cracker Barrel to have some of their raspberry ice tea and to try and get mentally prepared for the run through the desert on Highway 93.  I do not think enough rest and fluids could have prepared us for that stretch into Las Vegas.  It started out not bad, when there was no construction and the speed limit was 65 MPH.  Our first 100 KM seemed to be OK.  The last 50 KM was deadly hot and was done at construction zone speeds and through the Hoover Dam project.  My bike’s gas gauge went crazy and our radios refused to function in the heat.  It was miserable and, unfortunately, did not allow us to really appreciate the Hoover Dam.

When we finally got up to highway speeds and made it into Las Vegas, we thought we were through our suffering and we would be at The Venetian in just a few short minutes.  It was only 5 KM down Tropicana Boulevard after all and then just a quick jaunt down the Los Vegas strip – how hard could that be?  Those were the longest 5 KM ever!  Traffic was crazy, lanes suddenly ended or were closed for construction, and the red lights seem to be about an hour long.  Also, Las Vegas does not have “slow” days.  It is busy all the time, weekday or weekend.

By the time we got to The Venetian we were soaked in our own sweat and then discovered there was no luggage valet service from the motorcycle parking area.  We walked into The Venetian and we were bombarded by people, lights, and sound – sensory overload – and then we had to wait in a line like at the airport to check-in.  By the time we got to our room, we were in a pretty sorry state . . . and then we still had to make two more trips to the motorcycles to get our luggage! 

Maybe they put something in the Las Vegas water but somehow we managed to perk ourselves up and get out to supper and to The Blue Man performance for which we had tickets.  We almost fell asleep waiting for the show to start but once it got going, there was no way we would fall asleep.  What an amazing experience!  I do not even know how to describe it – you definitely just have to see it.

We’re here for two nights, so tomorrow we’ll check out “the strip” and see what all the fuss is about.