Your dad only turns 80 once...

[Capn Ron]

Cap'n Ron. . .

[Capn Ron]

Forth Leg, Day 5: Sheet Harbour, NS to Port Hawkesbury, NS (292 km/182 miles)

I woke up this morning and all my gear was dry...the night on top of the heater did the trick!  That's the good news.  The bad news?  It's raining again today!  Well, I'll be dry for the first hour at least.  My gear is all rated as "waterproof."  Seriously.  The gloves, the jacket, the overpants...I even saw the little hang tags off the sleeves when I bought them!    So here's the deal...I'm quickly learning that there's no such thing as a waterproof glove.  The search is still on, but in the meantime, I've accepted pruney fingers.  For the jacket, I have a longer-cut touring style job...when I sit on the bike, it forms...for lack of a better term...a "belly pouch."  This will fill up with water while I'm riding and despite the claims of the prominent hang tags, will then leak down into my nether regions.  The moment this happens, I imagine my face looks like this:   

I only did around 182 miles today that looked like this:



This just looked like a fun route along the eastern coast and I thought I could knock out some real miles today.  Turns out, the rain also hampers my progress.  You just can't do as many miles in the rain as you can on a sunny, dry day.  Want to know what else can hamper your progress?  How about this?



The road just ended in the water!  A small detail on the map I overlooked:



Well, I waited in the rain for this guy to ferry me to the other side:



There was a cable from one side to the other that the ferry pulled itself along on...pretty cool!  I loaded up the bike and paid the ferryman!



Having successfully crossed the river Styx, I rode northward in the rain.  I was noticing something...there weren't many houses around...very rare indeed in this part of Nova Scotia, but when I did see a house, they almost always had one of these in the front yard!



I guess it's their version of a lawn ornament.

I visited another lighthouse...sort of a theme at this point.  It looked much like the other lighthouses I visited, but had a map of the STAGGERING number of them in Nova Scotia!!!



If you like lighthouses...THIS is the place to be!

I made it as far as Port Hawkesbury and got another dry hotel room for the night.  Hawkesbury is on the south end of Cape Breton...the ladies in Saint John also put the world-famous Cabot Trail on my list and I'm working my way there!

Now if only I could figure a way to stay dry!   

Cap'n Ron. . .

[Capn Ron]

Forth Leg, Day 6: Port Hawkesbury, NS to Baddeck, NS (300 km/185 miles)

I woke up to more rain today, but there's riding to be done rain or shine!  I'm looking to do the Cabot Trail tomorrow so I had an easy day riding up and around to Baddeck.



I've mentioned before that my goals of riding to places I've never been are to meet people, see interesting things and learn something in the process.  Today was a highlight of the trip as I stumbled onto all three in Glace Bay!  First, I was struck by how far away from my home in Los Angeles I had come so far:



Mapping the shortest route back to LA, I was over 4,000 miles out.  From this point, no matter what direction I was going, I was getting closer to home!

So I rode into Glace Bay to get some fuel and some lunch...it was a very small town and as I rode around, I saw a sign for the Marconi National Historic Site.  Hmmm...Marconi.  Invented the radio.  That's about all I was taught by the grade school public U.S. education system.  My first question was, "What is this doing in Canada??"  It was raining and I needed an interesting place to get warm and dry for a while.  I went to check it out:



I spent hours there!!  I was really the only one in the place for that whole time and I got to know and learn a lot from the two docents and a volunteer shortwave radio operator.  Turns out Guglielmo Marconi (We're guessing he's Italian  ) sent the first wireless transmission across the Atlantic to Cornwall, England in 1901 using a "Spark Gap Transmitter" and the first wireless message in 1902 from this site!  Cape Breton Island now made a lot of sense to me as it's about as close as your going to get going across the Atlantic.  At that time, trans-Atlantic telegraph cables had been transmitting stock information and news between the U.S. and the U.K. and Marconi wanted to compete for that business.  He was already well established in the radio business and wireless would eliminate the need for costly sub-marine cables.  He built a giant antenna array in Glace Bay:



You can walk out to the original footings that remain on the site and looking out over the ocean from them, I could almost picture England 2500 miles away!  They had a scale model of the original antenna in the museum:



I was also able to see a piece of history in an original Marconi Spark Gap Generator:



It was all very interesting...to be able to tie together the place that history happened, the equipment used, the lucrative information market of the time that sparked immense investment in this business and the sheer size of the effort put in to solve what we today consider a simple problem.  Amazing.  All the time I was there, the volunteer ham radio operator was clicking away in Morse Code to people all over the world..."dah-di-dah-dit dah-dah-dah dah-dah-dah di-dah-di-dit di-dah-di-dah-di-dah"  That was Morse Code for "C-o-o-l Full-stop (period)"



As much as I was enjoying myself, I needed to make some progress toward Baddeck...in the rain.  I spent the night at the "Telegraph House and Motel"...how fitting!  Warm and dry, but ever since I got into Canada, the prices of things went pretty high.  So far, I haven't been able to find a room for much under $100 (Canadian and U.S. dollars are basically on par with each other), fuel is well over $5/gallon when you do the conversion and food on the road is noticeably higher (Paid $18 for breakfast at a Denny's!!!  ).  I haven't yet figured out if prices in the U.S. are always less or it's just that I'm in the remoteness of the Maritimes.

Another outstanding day!  I feel like I'm learning and liking Canada more each day!

Cap'n Ron. . .

[paulfj03]

Awesome ride! Awesome report! Thanks for having us along, Ron! Enjoying every bit of it.....

[Capn Ron]

Forth Leg, Day 7: Baddeck, NS to Pictou, NS (500 km/310 miles)

I woke up to more rain this morning...      I was hoping to have nice clear weather for the Cabot Trail today but there was a steady drizzle.  People I've met along the way have really built up riding the Cabot Trail as an experience of a lifetime!!  Report after report regarding the trail built up my expectations...so much so that I thought about delaying the ride until tomorrow in the hopes of better weather.  I went to breakfast at a local diner to plan out my day.  My server asked me if I was in Baddeck to visit the Alexander Graham Bell Museum...  Huh?  I had another, "What would that be doing in Canada?" moment and decided to find out.  Besides, the weather may improve in a couple of hours.   

My ride today looked like this:



Before I was to start logging miles, I went just down the road to check out the museum.  About all I knew about AGB is that he invented the telephone sometime in the late 1800's...but an entire museum?  Turns out the guy had been inventing most of his life...His Grandfather, father and brother had all been involved with elocution and speech and his mother and wife were both deaf.  This led him to work on hearing devices...out of that came this little guy in 1876: 



That's a replica of the phone that Bell invented to say those famous words to his assistant, "Can you hear me NOW?" Turns out, that little invention allowed him to fund other work and inventions.  He invented the "Photophone" in 1880 that transmitted speech over light waves!!  He used the sun and this device to capture light and transmit voice:



I still can't get my head around that...and I spent years in telcomm!  Using Baddeck Bay as a testing ground for new ideas...in the winter, it would be frozen over or a calm waterway in summer.  Utilizing it as a runway, he worked tirelessly to develop motor-powered heavier-than-air aircraft:



He studied propeller pitch and design:



Developed a counter-rotating propeller system:



...and even worked on hydrofoil boat design:



The above is a full-scale replica of his H4 hydrofoil...Here's an actual picture of it abandoned on Baddeck Bay in the 1950's...a bit sad really.



I again spent WAY more time than I originally planned for, but I was fascinated by the life's work of a man I was simply told "Invented the telephone" and was then taught some other less-than-indepth factoid to memorize.  I highly recommend visiting the museum as I only touched on maybe 10% of it...

It was still drizzling outside, but I needed to press on...I headed up to the "WORLD FAMOUS CABOT TRAIL!!!"



I took yet another ferry across a small section of water to the Cabot Trail...That makes three in the last four days...I'm getting good at putting the bike on a boat!  The Cabot Trail was pretty good...Had some nice views:



Parts of the road went along the cliffs:



Very nice indeed!  Riding back along the west coast, I ran into "The Lone Sheiling"  Apparently Scottish immigrants settled this area in the early 1800's.  That would explain why all the roadsigns were in both English and Gaelic!



The forest here had the brightest green ferns I had ever seen!  I guess all the rain was worth finding this:



As far as roads and scenery were concerned, I rate the Cabot Trail as a close second to the Pacific Coast Highway in California.  If you're in Nova Scotia, it's a "must ride"...If you only have a chance to do one, Run the PCH through Big Sur, California.  EPIC!

That being said, I enjoyed my day in the highlands!!  I grabbed some lunch in Iverness (just WHO is this Tim Horton guy anyway??) and rode on to Pictou, NS.  I'm going to catch the ferry over to Prince Edward Island in the morning!

Cap'n Ron. . .

[fintip]

 

Loving it.

[fj johnnie]

 Tim Horton was a hockey player. Got killed trying in a high speed car crash. Anyone else have more details?

[CanDman]

Tim Horton was a hockey player. Got killed trying in a high speed car crash. Anyone else have more details?

Yes It was in 1973  he was playing for the Buffalo Sabres...was a long time Leaf before being traded....but he started his coffee shop franchise way back then.....and ended up selling..

Anyway...can't remember the date but he was killed when he lost control of his Corvette in the early hours of the morning along the QEW highway after a hockey game.....he was either driving from Buffalo to Toronto or vice versa........sad ending for Tim  
*Tim Hortons is the Canadian version of Starbucks in Canada

The happy ending to the story....was the fact that Tim Hortons daughter eventually grew up and ended up marrying the son of the new owners and the franchise is massive.....

Now I am happy mon capitan....that you found Baddeck.....what a night I had there......wooooooohooooooo   and the Cabot trail...unforgettable ....I will post my adventure later on when you are done with yours...please....continue...I am loving this  








here's Tim

[Capn Ron]

Forth Leg, Day 8: Pictou, NS to Prince Edward Island! (329 km/205 miles)

I'm in Pictou this morning and it is...wait for it...wait for it...SUNNY!  I had almost forgotten what sunshine looked and felt like!  It has been seven days since I've seen the sun and it is glorious! 

My ride today looked like this:



I rode down to the PEI ferry terminal and tied down my trusty FJ for the fourth time on this trip.  Every ship is a little different.  Some provide just some length of rope, but this one had some nice ratchet straps and deck cleats to make the task easy.



Here's a shameless plug for the RPM fork brace.  Not only does it make the front end nice and solid, it also makes for a great tie-down point! 



With the sun shining, I had a nice crossing over to PEI.  Once there, I headed east with the intention of running the coastline as much as possible.  I was only around 20 minutes out and I saw a sign for the Rossignol Winery!  You know me by now...I had to stop:



I tasted a few wines, had a great chat with the woman who was pouring and picked up a bottle for later on.  The island is very pretty...the soil is a bright reddish-orange color and there is a LOT of farming.  I was soaking all this in as I approached the north east corner and saw a sign for "Lighthouse Road."  That looked promising so off I went!  This is the WOODEN lighthouse!!!



It looks like it needs maintenance and sure enough, for a $4 donation towards paint, you could climb up into it all the way to the top.  Lighthouses these days don't really serve the function they used to back in the day.  With modern GPS systems, chart plotters and well-established routes, sailors don't just sail blindly until they see a light.  Lighthouses are still on navigation charts, so most of them still shine a (modern) light to use in taking a position fix.  This one was no different, but had something there that just floored me...the ORIGINAL Marconi radio from the early 1900's!



This is the radio that would receive distress calls from ships at sea...This one received the "May Day" distress from the Titanic on the night of April 14, 1912!!  With my education about Marconi three days ago still fresh in my head, here I was standing in front of one of his original radios.  It was surely in rough shape with over 100 years exposure to the salt air...the girl taking donations told me that some local ham radio operaters had offered to restore it.  I encouraged her to leave it as is...with all it's rust and original patina.



I left there and rode west along the north shore of PEI.  Along the way, I passed some of the famous PEI oyster beds:



Lobster boats all secured for the night:



I was enjoying the scenery...and certainly the weather!!!  I knew I had to figure out sleeping arrangements and stumbled on the Stanhope Provincial Park Campground and decided to camp there for the night.  I set up camp and unloaded the bike.  With some time left before sundown, I took a little ride up to Covehead harbour:



With the sun going down, I hiked over to the beach to watch the sunset.



It was very peaceful.  I stayed there for nearly an hour until the last bit of light.  Part of me wondered if I would get to see the sun tomorrow, so I was soaking it all in!



It was a great end to another great day!

I headed back to camp and had a nice dinner with some of the wine I bought earlier.  I have no idea what the plan is for tomorrow...I will take it as it comes.

Cap'n Ron. . .

[Bminder]

Ron, you really need to post more than one of these reports a day.
You're like an evil drug dealer who gets us hooked and then doles out the meth in tiny increments when we need MORE MORE MORE!!!!!!! 

[Capn Ron]

Ron, you really need to post more than one of these reports a day.
You're like an evil drug dealer who gets us hooked and then doles out the meth in tiny increments when we need MORE MORE MORE!!!!!!! 

The first one is free...tell all your friends!   

Cap'n Ron. . .

[Capn Ron]

Forth Leg, Day 9: Stanhope Campground to Charlottetown, PE (32 km/20 miles)

Yep...you read that right!  I did a grand total of 20 miles today!

I woke up in my tent and checked the weather radar as I do every morning.  There was rain all around me and heading in fast!  It was still dry where I was, so I decided to get packed up and moving.  I figured there must be something down in Charlottetown to visit indoors if it was raining, or get some riding in if it cleared up.  My ride today looked like this:



I broke camp and got everything loaded on the bike just before the mosquitoes carried me out of there!  Man, they were THICK!  I started riding and it started raining!  Not too heavy yet, but by the looks of the radar map, it was going to get bad!  I found a motel and convinced them to let me check in at 11:00 in the morning!  The room was more like a small cabin complete with a full kitchen...nice!  I figured I'd hang out for a couple of hours and then go exploring when the weather cleared.  It never did.  It continued to rain heavily all day.  I watched TV, looked out the window, checked my email, looked out the window some more and made some phone calls.  Still raining. 

It got to be around 6:00pm and I was getting cabin fever, was hungry, tired of backpacker meals and had a full kitchen at my disposal!  I put on all my gear and rode over to the nearest market and picked up a nice rib-eye steak, some red potatoes, an onion, some mushrooms, a bottle of cabernet and the makings for a salad.  It was a wet ride, but worth it!  I had a nice hot meal and did some serious thinking about this rain issue and my lack of progress today.  I resolved to ride tomorrow rain or shine and then turned in for the night.  I dreamt I was somewhere sunny.   

Cap'n Ron. . .

[Capn Ron]

Forth Leg, Day 10: Charlottetown, PE to Kamouraska, Quebec (757 km/470 miles)

After the near-zero mile day yesterday, I was determined to get going this morning!  My plan was to go check out the very north east corner of Prince Edward Island and headed up towards Cavendish.  When I got there...Are you sitting down?...it started to rain!  Okay...I've had about enough of this...I checked the radar maps and it looked like it was clear to the south, so I made quick progress towards the Confederation Bridge.



As cool as it was to motorcycle across the 8-mile bridge, it marked the end of my tour of Nova Scotia.  The people, the history, the scenery, the food and the over-all warmth (even in the rain) I felt over the last eight days will be missed.  I'm truly sad to be leaving Nova Scotia.

Wanting to make some good mileage today, I got down to business.  As you all know, the FJ1200 can click off mile markers like no other bike and I was merrily covering the width of New Brunswick.  My ride today ended up looking like this:



Not long after I set my wheels in New Brunswick, I saw off in the distance the longest train trestle I had ever seen!  I took a detour to go check it out.  Right when I got there, parked the bike and got the camera out, a train came by.  PERFECT timing!



I was enjoying the detour as it took me through some rolling hills and a few houses.  Guys on riding lawnmowers always wave back...even in Canada!  I got back to the main road and in about four hours, found myself in Grand Falls, NB.  Thinking..."well, there must be some falls in this town", I rode around to check it out.  Wasn't long before I found this:



Yep...they were grand!  They had a nice little park where people were eating lunch alongside the falls.  They even had a zipline across, but it was closed for the day.  I would have definitely done that!  I hung around for a while and took some more pictures.  It was a nice break.



My thinking at this point was I'd like to make Montreal tomorrow, so I rode to the St Lawrence River at Riviere-Du-Loup and hung a hard left running along the south side of the river.  I went about 50 miles and found a great little hotel in a small town called Kamouraska.  I parked the bike and went into reception.

The girl at the desk greeted me with "Bonjour!!!"  OH...I'm in Quebec now...I'm not exactly sure how this works.  All the road signs had instantly turned to ALL French when I crossed into Quebec, but I figured  folks spoke both English and French.  I was very wrong.  In rural areas such as this town, there were very few people who spoke any English and I hadn't taken any French since high school!  I said, "Hello, I'd like a room" and she looked at me as if I was from another planet.  We got that sorted out and I then had to pay her.  She said, "Cinquante-cinq."  I thought I was going to be lost and then my high school French kicked in!  I started reciting numbers as if I had just cracked some international code, "Une, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix!!"  I thought it was a miracle I had remembered any of that and she just looked at me and said, "Cinquante-cinq."  Okay...Fifty-five dollars.  I got to my room and unpacked...it was the nicest room so far in Canada and very reasonably priced!  



It was right on the St Lawrence and the views were amazing!



I looked on my navigation app for somewhere to eat.  I found this little house/restaurant that was still open.  It was perfect.  I was looking for something with local flavor and this seemed to be ideal.



My server came over and said, "Bonjour!" ...and handed me a French menu.  Uh oh.  I have to figure this out quickly!  I downloaded a French-English dictionary and started putting words together.  When she came back, I bumbled through something like, "Vin rouge s'il vous plait" and a glass of red wine appeared before me!  I was well out of my comfort zone, but that's the way I wanted it.  I was in their Province...where most of the population speaks French...when in Quebec, do as the Quebeckens!  Quebecites?  Quebeckers?  

Having survived my first menu translation, I rode back to the hotel along the river.  I stopped to watch this little sailboat as the sun was going down.



While I was there, a man approached me..."Bonjour!"  I sheepishly said, "Bonjour" in return.  He then rambled off a paragraph in French and I must have had a confused look on my face.  He said, "Oh...you only speak the English?"  I said, "Oui!...er...I mean YES!" He laughed and told me that if I reply to a greeting with "Hello", most folks from Quebec will try to communicate in English.  Nice tip.  He also told me that my ride to Montreal would be much more scenic on the North side of the St Lawrence and that involved going 50 miles back to Riviere-Du-Loup and taking a ferry across.  Okay...that's the plan for tomorrow!  I went back to my room and had a glass of wine as the sun set.



It was a great day!  I am now a foreigner in a foreign land and was loving it!  Time to bone up on my French!  

Cap'n Ron. . .

[Marsh White]

Fantastic post!    Thanks for taking the time to post all of this and let us follow along... I'm enjoying it!

[Capn Ron]

Fantastic post!    Thanks for taking the time to post all of this and let us follow along... I'm enjoying it!

Nice to have you along for the ride Marsh! ...and thanks for providing a place for me to re-live the miles and experiences!

Cap'n Ron. . .