My brother was getting married in New Hampshire on the 21st so Annie and I decided to ride the bike and head up to Nova Scotia as neither of us had been there.

This is an overview of the ride.

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I got home from work at 5 on Thursday and needed to change the tires. I got it done just as darkness arrived. Anne gives me a 2 fingered salute to let me know she’s ready to go.

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We rode up to Flint and stayed the night planning to get an early start the next day.

The bridge to Canada at Port Huron.

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Looking out over the lake on the bridge.

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We were headed to Niagara Falls, but I missed the turn for the 403 and before I realized it, we were in Toronto. Annie was impressed by my navigation skills so early in the trip. We stopped and had breakfast at a little bakery, and Anne headed over to buy some ‘Smarties’. I know what Smarties are; they were my fav candy as a kid. She comes back with M&M’s without the M’s and tries to tell me they’re Smarties. I don’t care what Canada does to an M&M, putting the name Smarties on a package does not make it one.

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Headed back in the right direction we could see the city of Toronto from the QEW as we neared Niagara. You can just make it out across the lake.

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It rained a little when we were at the falls, providing this picture of a darkened sky as a backdrop to the mist created by the thundering water.

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Would have been better if there were no people or cars there, I for one cannot wait for WWIII. And if anyone survives the bombs (besides me and the people I like) I hope they try to climb this tree to get away from the lions chasing them.

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This turtle had the biggest nut sack I have ever seen on a turtle. Reminded me of myself.

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Photo of a train and the mist. Would have been better if the train had fallen in the water and was swept over the falls, but you can’t get everything in life you want. Some parents need to do a better job of getting this message out to their kids.

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Annie looking better than the falls ever could. Yes, I know the picture would look better with a train going over the edge, but we’ve already covered that.

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If they had barrel rides over the falls, I’d be the first in line.

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One more pic of the falls as we head over the bride back to the US, right before heading the wrong way on I-190. Yes, Anne was still awed by my killer navigation skills. In my defense, I had no map or nav gear, just looked at the map before we left and decided to wing it. So far...not so good.

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I don’t know if this pic will turn out in the small web size, but every time it comes up on the computer, I get vertigo looking at it, so it’s a cool picture.

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Making good time in NY, although the 65 mph speed limit there sucks. Well, I’m sure it would suck for someone following it. There is a yellow balloon right at the ridge in the pic, but you probably won’t be able to see it. I guess the awesomeness of seeing a yellow balloon will belong only to Anne and me. Haha.

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We stayed the night in Schenectady, NY (probably spelled wrong but I didn’t go check). The next morning as we headed out to ride to NH we got off the interstate to go on better roads. We were driving and 2 cops passed me in a hurry. Sweet, maybe we get to see a beat down. Instead, they both put on their blinkers for the Dunkin Donuts. Just had to get a pic of that. Hard to see the cars, but you can see their light racks under the DD sign.

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This guy was wondering why I got so close to him at the stoplight, but it was just for this cool reflection photo. Don’t think it’s cool? Guess which group of people you’re in in my WWIII dream.

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Then our camera ran out of batteries so there are no more pics for a while. We rode some really nice roads through Vermont and NH to my brother’s place and recharged the batteries.

Next day, we started up through Maine. Halfway over this bridge is the border to Maine.

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There was a cool view looking out from the bridge. It was an awesome view of Portsmouth. Probably the best view of the trip. Anne captured it in a picture as we rode over the bridge. It’s right behind that green structural support. Awesome huh?

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We rocked I-95 going up to Bangor, ME, pretending the interstate sign was the speed limit sign. It was about 4 so it’s time for some lobster. We went to Ellsworth, ME to a lobster place that I had been to before. Annie ordered a 3.5 lb lobster. She was so happy that she even let the waitress put a lobster bib on her.

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She wanted to get a pic of me with the bib on, but since you can’t see the face, you can’t prove it’s me.

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The lobster finally arrived.

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I normally start eating the claws first on a lobster, and save the tail for the last, but Annie likes to start with the antennae. Weird, I don’t even eat that part. Oh, well, to each his own.

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She sure was a messy eater.

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But she sure was happy afterwards.

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We ate so much that a food coma overtook us and we stayed in Ellsworth for the night.

 

The next morning provided us with beautiful views of Acadia National Park as we drove up costal route 1 towards the New Brunswick border.

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The tidal changes are massive here, with low tide just taking whole bays out to sea.

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Some just leave their boats at their moorings and wait for high tide to come back in.

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Here is a boat ramp that at high tide is capable of launching boats. Sure doesn’t look like it now.

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Anne and I walked down to the ‘beach’ created by the tide. It was pretty rank with all the seaweed dying.

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I don’t know what she is doing here, but I hope it’s not what it looks like...

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Here is a tree we saw that looked cool. I don’t know why, it just was. Maybe it’s because it reminded me of the future of mankind, hopeless and barren.

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Another shot of the tide.

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Driving along Route 1 was a little depressing. We saw a ton of abandoned houses and businesses. You could tell from the houses that were lived in that people there were getting by, but there was very little wealth in general. We saw lots of motels that were probably built in the 50’s or 60’s that were barely standing or just closed up. Here is the ‘Rainbow Motel’. It’s a collection of small cottages each with different colors of trim. There were about 10 total. Looked like it was pretty cool in its day.

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This is on the way into Eastport, a lone lobster trap and a rock with a bird on it. We were starving, and if could have thrown a stone at that bird and killed it, I would have eaten it. Although if I could throw that good, I would be starting for the Tigers and would have had a support van following me with 5 scantily clad playmates following me with a sandwich. And they would be having a pillow fight. And they would...we seem to be getting off track here. Sorry.

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So we pulled in to Eastport, ME to get some lunch.

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Eastport is a cool little town on the coast. They had American flags everywhere, all the houses, businesses and restaurants. You wouldn’t want to wear an “I support Al Qaeda” T-shirt here.

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Seems like everywhere we went in ME, people were fishing for lobster. Stacks of traps were everywhere.

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There was a statue downtown of this guy. The plaque said he was known for catching big fish and then fondling them for pleasure. Actually, I’m not sure what the plaque said cause I didn’t stop and read it, but it could have said that.

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We drove through the downtown and spied a really cool FJR with what looked like two bad@ss passengers on it.

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We stopped in a little place to get some grub. I had fish and chips and Anne had fried scallops. Delicious. About this time we decided to name this the Seafood Tour, and only eat seafood from here on out. We sat on the outside balcony.

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The view from behind me was pretty nice.

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But the view from the front was even better. Right as this picture was taken, she said something about ‘practicing for Dan’, whatever that means.

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While we were eating, we heard there was a way to cross into New Brunswick from this town. We could jump on a ferry, take it to Deer Island, ride to the other end of the island and jump a ferry to the Canadian mainland. OK, sounded cool. We went down ferry as it was arriving.

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All the cars that got off went and talked to this guy.

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Turns out this is US Customs and he was Border Patrol. He would run passports through the laptop in the back of his Explorer. The ferry only comes once an hour. Only about 10 cars per ferry. This guy’s job is pretty easy. They just shoot down to the ferry once an hour and check a few cars, then its back to the bar. They didn’t have any applications available. Damn.

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On the ferry.

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The ferry was cool. They pulled into port one way, then backed out and the wheelhouse would pivot around the ferry so that it was now pointed in the opposite direction.

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This is the wheelhouse coming around to get secured. The guy was friendly and we talked for the duration of the ride. He had grown up on Deer Island and said it was a terribly boring place to live. It’s only about 15 miles long. There was one school bus, and he was the first one to be picked up and the last one to be dropped off. 12 school days for him because of his 4 hour bus ride everyday.

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The hottest girl in the world was on the ferry with me.

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His second job was working at the salmon farm. Just in case you were wondering where the ‘farm raised salmon’ come from that you buy at Meijers, here’s a picture of a farm. It’s a floating inner tube about 100 feet across with 2 nets in it that dip way down into the water. The outer net keeps the seals out and the inner net keeps the salmon in. They have about 30,000 salmon per pen, and I think he said they had 10 pens at the farm in the picture. Cool. He did say that once a couple seals got into the net, and overnight they had reduced the salmon population to 150. I’m not sure how many were in there to begin with, but he made it sound like they cleaned house. I asked him what they did with the seals that were trapped in the net. He glanced around, fidgeted, and said “Well, seals are protected animals, so I can’t say that we killed any of them, but what would you do if your monthly pay was just taken from you by a couple of seals and nobody was around?” I’m guessing the seals never got to fully digest their catch.
I also asked him how much salmon was on the island if he went to the store to buy some. He said “Well, I guess if I want salmon for dinner I just have salmon for dinner.” Nothing like leaving work with a salmon in your pants.

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On Deer Island.

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About this time our camera batteries went dead again. At customs, we had the following exchange:
Me: hi
Officer: hi, I don’t recognize you guys. Do you live on the island?
Me: no
Officer: Well, then I guess I better look at your ID’s.
I handed them to him, he looked at them, handed them back and told us to have a nice day. Easiest border crossing EVER!

We drove up to Moncton, NB and I had to stop to consult a map. Of course, this sign was right where we stopped, and of course Anne had to take a picture of it, and of course we headed on towards Sackville.

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We headed up towards what every one refers to as PEI, which stands for Prince Edward Island. From everything I heard I was expecting some out of the way island which was remote and cool and was a mecca for campers and backpacker etc etc etc.

The bridge to the island.

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Long bridge.

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Couple views from said long bridge.

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There was a dead bear on the beach when we got there. OK, I didn’t go look and see if it really was a dead bear, but it could have been.

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We got there and I immediately felt like I had entered Disney Land. Tourist attraction central. Where were all the quiet lonely beaches and tranquil hiking trails? Maybe we would find them tomorrow. For tonight, we enjoyed the sunset and ate some crappy seafood at a crappy touristy restaurant that was recommended to us by some crappy tourist welcome center lady.

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The next day we got up and drove around the island. We saw some ok things, a few picturesque views, but there were lots of houses everywhere and the island was not nearly deserted as I had pictured.

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Check out all the bobbers marking some kind of traps for something. Maybe clams? Too many and to close together for lobster, but some sort of seafood to be sure. Mmmm, delicious. I think.

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There was a lot of farming, which I guess is pretty cool.

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And then it began, the tourist traps. I give this guy credit though. He had his own space shuttle. The speculation by the local population was that this guy pulled out all the parts of the Challenger when it blew up and re-assembled them. I can neither confirm nor deny this speculation.

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He also had a triceratops, and there were no rumors of where he got that guy, although someone whispered ‘time machine’ as they walked by. Regardless of where it came from, he was pretty docile when we drove past.

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Biggest lobster on the island. He is supposed to be guarding the 16th hole but he doesn’t do a very good job because I saw an 8 year old get a hole in one and the lobster didn’t even try to pinch his head off. I complained and told them that with a pair of garden shears I could do a better job, but they wouldn’t give me an application.

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More of the backpacker’s paradise...

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More remote wilderness...

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I think this was the mountain biking mecca center, could have been the place that all the sea kayakers rave about though...

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I was a little disappointed with all the tourist traps if you can’t tell. However, there were some cool scenes too. Lots of red dirt on PEI.

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Some nice beaches that you had to pay to get access to. Supposedly the Piping Plover lives here, but I didn’t see him. I bet their delicious though. Put one of those in a Turducken (Wikipedia is your friend) and you have a meal.

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The PEI license plate. By the way, Annie LOVES to be called Annie of Gables. Loves it so much she is overcome by emotion and will punch you. Try it!

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Unlike the hill scoggins in North Carolina, up here you can’t be a redneck unless you have one of these on blocks in your yard.

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Anne got hit by a giant bug...maybe it was a Piping Plover.

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About the coolest thing that I found was the red dirt roads. Yeah!

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Also, some cool green moss/algae stuff. I would have jumped in for a swim but we had a seal watching tour to make it to.

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Well, what do you know. EST is not the last time zone as you go east. We showed up for the 1 o’clock tour at 12:55 by the clock on the FJR. “Are we too late to go out on the boat?” we asked as we rushed in the door. “No, you have another 2 hours till the next one.” “Umm, isn’t the next one at 1?” “No, it’s at 4, 1 o’clock was 1 hour ago, but the one at 4 is sold out.”
Oh well, we just decided to leave PEI and get to Cape Breton because that’s where we really wanted to go anyways, and PEI was a disappointment.
We drove to the ferry and had a little time to kill so we drove up to a lighthouse.

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Looked out over some bluffs.

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And Annie got to look for some shells on a red beach. She’s so color coordinated it makes me jealous.

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I saw the beach moving and on close inspection found these little guys jumping all over the beach. I don’t know what it is. Sand flea maybe? Seemed kind of big for that though.

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Tied the bike down on the ferry.

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And went up on deck. There’s the lighthouse we were at.

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2 blue herons were looking for some seafood to snack on in the pond.
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And there were lots of jellyfish in the water.

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2 cormorants were trying to sink the buoy so the ferry would crash.

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New Brunswick shoreline as the ferry approached the landing.

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One thing I like about...I mean aboot Canadians is there environmental consciousness.

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On the road again.

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Jeebus, the deer here really must try to take you out.

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Then our camera batteries died. Man, I have to get a second battery.
We drove up to Cape Breton Island until we hit the Cabot Trail and then rode it across the mountains to the west side of the island. We got there about ½ and hour before sunset and found a restaurant that looked out over the bay. It was a little pricey. Our bill was $150, but what the hell, that’s like $0.30 American right? The sunset was nice to watch as we drank our wine and listened to a local band play some Nova Scotian music.

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We ended up having way too much wine. I asked the waitress if she could recommend a motel for the night. She asked if I wanted to stay at their suites. When she said suite, I knew it would be too much but I humored her and asked the price. $200. OUCH. I said I was looking for something more like $50. Sure, right across the bay. OK then. So anyways, I was talking about to much wine and 2 am. The other hotel was now closed, and so was the restaurant. We were testing out the chairs on the deck of the restaurant to see if it would be better to sleep in them or on the deck itself when someone came outside and asked us what we were doing. I think I told them that they got me to drunk to drive and we were going to sleep on their porch. A phone call later, a lady shows up and offers us a suite for a ‘discounted’ price cause it was so late. OK. It was a huge discount. Only $195. Whatever, that’s like $0.50 American right?
So we slept well in a beautiful suite, and in the morning Anne found the hot tub.

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I found out when I was taking my shower that the bubbles came from the shampoo container that was now empty. Anne though it was funny that I couldn’t wash my hair.

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Our window view in the morning.

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Our ‘suite’. Nice place if you’ve got money to burn. Watch out though, they don’t provide enough shampoo.

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Margaree Harbor.

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Even Nova Scotia has hill scoggins, but at least they don’t park theirs on the lawn.

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So we headed up the coast on the Cabot Trail. Nice riding.

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And we came to this place.

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The sign says ‘Joes Scarecrow’, but it might as well say ‘Hill scoggins delight’.

They had all these scarecrows dressed up like a town gathering.

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They even had scarecrow cops. Ha.

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Back on the road.

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Cool church. “The light is all around me, but I seem to be stuck in the shadow.” Story of my life.

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Nice.

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Nicer.

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Nicest.

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At this point, I decided that the rear tire was wearing out to fast and that I needed to lighten our load. So I dropped Anne off and tried to lighten the bike by grinding off the foot peg feelers. Worked well.

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We got to the end of the road going north, and it was 7 Km of dirt to a place called Meat Cove. I was reading the sign and these 4 other guys on bikes come up and pass me. We took off and I passed them all by the end of the road.

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This road was along the coast and I told Anne to watch for whales. What do you know, she actually saw one and got a picture of it. I think it’s a white Beluga. Could be a Sperm though.

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Descending into meat cove.

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We got to Meat Cove and it was really nice. I was going to take a picture of Anne with the cove in the background, but a guy there offered to take our picture together. Nice guy. Except there was no picture when we got home.
We had reservations for a puffin boat tour that was about 65 miles away, and we only had 1/5 hours to get there. We were way into the reserve on the gas tank, and the nearest gas was 20 miles up the road, but on the way. So, we did the 7 km dirt, and started to sputter about a mile before the gas station, but we made it. Now we had 1 hour to get there and were 45 miles away. No problem right? Ha. Did you see the curvy roads earlier? And there were 5 towns to go through with 30 kph limits. And there was a ferry to cross at the end too. Somehow, we made it in an hour. It was getting to the point of ridiculousness. I was either on the gas or brakes for the whole time. Get up to 100, brake to 30, turn, gas, repeat. It got to the point where scraping the pegs was no longer a thrill but an annoyance. Luckily for me, the 2 cops I saw were when I was behind a car waiting for a passing opportunity. Whew. At one point, I was going 100, and a family of birds ran into the road. They all turned around except for one. He jumped right into my ankle. OUCH. His head also hit Anne’s boot and left blood and a feather that we found on the ferry. Any way, we made it to the puffin tour with about a minute to spare.
We went out on the boat to the island where the puffins nest. The boat operators feed bald eagles, so when one would fly out to the boat, they would throw a fish in the water and the eagle would swoop down and pick it up. Here is a pic of an eagle with a fish in his talons.

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Anne liked it.

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Off to the islands.

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Lots of gulls, cormorants and other flying things.

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And seals.

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And puffins.

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Puffins in flight.

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Seals on the rocks.

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2 bald eagles on the rocks.

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2 puffins in their cave.

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1 tired Jake.

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Another ferry.

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Can this huge guy fit on the ferry?

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Yes he can.

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This was a cool mining operation. This huge rock outcropping was being mined for gravel from the top of the hill.

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They just poured it down from the top into a big pile for loading on the barges.

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Then another conveyor belt dumps it into a waiting barge. Notice how the barge is sunk on the one side where the gravel is already loaded on it. Cool.

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Everywhere we went in Maine and Nova Scotia it was lobster this and lobster that. McDonalds even got into the action. I present to you…the McLobster.

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OK, I hate McDonalds, but I just had to.

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Sure was tiny though.

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Well, after our little McLobster snack, it was time to find some real food. This looks like just the place. Apparently it’s a big deal to be a registered restaurant in Canada.

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After that, we drove a few hundred miles to Moncton, NB again and stayed there for the night. The bugs were hellacious on that part of the trip. We stopped for gas and Anne got this pic. She asked me how I was able to see and I told her that I really hadn’t for the last 50 miles.

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The next day we drove 500 miles back to New Hampshire to my brother’s place. Only got one more picture before the batteries died again. It was a pretty good one though. The fog was rolling in, and this place had an eerie calm to it. For some reason it made me think of the river Styx and I half expected Charon to pull up in a boat for me. I started thinking how this bleak scene reminded me of the world’s future and that made me smile again. Someday, something like this will be all that’s left to remind the deer of those idiot humans like Paris Hilton. Although I’ve heard that only cockroaches can survive a nuclear winter, so maybe the deer will be gone too. Good riddance to those forest rats and their endless acts of jumping in front of motorcyclists. Well, with my mind fully refreshed from such wonderful thoughts, we motored on.

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That’s the last picture I have. The next three nights were spent with my brothers.
Sunday was spent riding along the coast of Massachusetts and Maine with my brother from Hawaii.

Around this time I learned that the real exchange rate for US to Canadian money is almost 1 to 1. OUCH!!!! I was throwing it around like monopoly money. MFer. SOB.

Monday, Anne and I left at noon for the 800 mile ride back to Howell. It rained for 13 of the 14 hours we were on the road. Visibility SUCKED, I was wet and cold, very cold when going over the mountains in NY, my @ss hurt, my legs ached, and there was no where I would have rather been.



Well, maybe in the support van…

 

OK you were talking about MEAT COVE and I was hoping to see some naked ladies. Or at least a Bikini or 2.

 

Trip looked awesome, thanks for the cool tour of "oh Canada".

 

Very cool! I wanna do something like that...need a different bike..

 

Epic Ride right there Sick....