Your dad only turns 80 once...

[Bminder]

As the day was getting late, I got on the road and set Perth, Ontario as my goal for the night.
Cap'n Ron. . .

Ahhhh, thanks Ron! Got my fix for the day and the jitters are gone for now! 
I've always wanted to go to Perth... AUSTRALIA!

[CanDman]

As the day was getting late, I got on the road and set Perth, Ontario as my goal for the night.
Cap'n Ron. . .

Ahhhh, thanks Ron! Got my fix for the day and the jitters are gone for now! 
I've always wanted to go to Perth... AUSTRALIA!

I know how you feel Bindy

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking...

[Bminder]

As the day was getting late, I got on the road and set Perth, Ontario as my goal for the night.
Cap'n Ron. . .

Ahhhh, thanks Ron! Got my fix for the day and the jitters are gone for now! 
I've always wanted to go to Perth... AUSTRALIA!

I know how you feel Bindy

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking...

Let's go!

[Capn Ron]

Forth Leg, Day 12: Perth, ON

Whenever I'm in a new location, I like to to learn something about that area...Was it a hub for trading?  Was it near some natural resource?  Was there some event in history that put a town on the map?  I started to do some digging in my motel room while enjoying a nice glass of Niagara region wine.

Turns out that Perth, Ontario not only produced a 22,000 pound wheel of cheese in 1893 known as the "Mammoth cheese", it was also the first town to have an installation of the telephone!  Apparently, a local dentist, Doctor J.F. Kennedy was a friend of Alexander Graham Bell...AGB personally installed a telephone between the doctor's office and his home.  By 1887, the town of Perth had 19 telephones installed with a switchboard in Dr. Kennedy's office.  Can you hear me now???

I may be wrong, but I think this whole telephone thing may catch on...

Cap'n Ron. . .

[Capn Ron]

Forth Leg, Day 12: Formula 1 track, Montreal

I'm working on the next leg...in the meantime, here's some porn.  Another gratuitous shot of the FJ on the Formula 1 track in Montreal:



What a great day to be on a motorcycle!!!

Cap'n Ron. . .

[Capn Ron]

Forth Leg, Day 13: Perth, ON to Barrie, ON (600 km/373 miles)

I woke up this morning in Perth and the sun was shining with a clear forcast to the west!  This would be two days in a row of actual sunshine...I almost didn't know how to handle it! 

Well since I have been covering a lot of ground since Nova Scotia a dozen days ago, I realized that I had been mostly focusing on getting to specific places and hadn't been thinking about finding fun roads.  Today, I'm out for some twisties!  Instead of sticking to the Trans-Canada Highway, I headed up and found some great winding country roads!  My day's ride looked like this:



I really only had Toronto in mind, but today was all about the riding!  I was having a blast!!  Now, I want to zoom into a section of that map to show you just how MANY lakes are in that section of Canada!!!



Holy smokes!  There is more water than land up there!  Shocked at just how you could weave a road through all that, I rode right up to and alongside a lot of beautiful lakes!



The roads were great, the scenery and weather were perfect!  After my morning rush of throttle, I got back to the business of making progress towards Toronto.  I did have to stop and soak in the shoreline of Lake Ontario:



I rolled into Toronto much like I have been doing in each city so far on this trip.  I have about enough time to ride around, get a feel what a particular city is like, see an attraction or two, get some food and then get back on the road to the next destination.  When I got into Toronto, I saw this place and decided to check it out:



This is Casa Loma, the former 98-room private home of Canadian financier Sir Henry Pellatt.  It was built from 1911-to the onset of World War I.  For an $18 admission fee, they just set you loose in the house.  You are free to stay as long as you want and explore ANYwhere on the property!  The interior is gorgeous!



This is one of the many fireplaces in the house, but this room was of particular interest.  Take a look at the mahogany panels on either side of the fireplace:



The one to the right is a secret passage and when you figure out how to open that panel, you are led to these stairs:



Which take you into the basement and my favorite of all the rooms...The wine cellar! 



While I was in the basement (Complete with swimming pool and a bowling alley!!!), I walked through this 800-foot long tunnel!



That went under the public street to another property on the other side of the road.  On that property was the full time mechanic's garage for their vehicles:



Complete with spare parts.  Kindof looks like my garage!



There were lots of examples of products from that era.  This is axle oil for your coach.  Apparently it has "matchless lasting properties!":



...And if there is any doubt, this sign pretty much says it all:



This was also the location of the custom herringbone tiled horse stables!!  Immaculate!



I returned to the house through that same tunnel and climbed a series of about six of these staircases:



I was climbing to the top of this pointy tower:



Where I was rewarded with a great view of Toronto!



Having spent many hours at Casa Loma, it was time to go visit the waterfront area:



I'm always drawn to the water and spent a couple of hours there snapping pictures and enjoying the scenery:



It was getting late in the day and I grabbed a meal from a local hot dog vendor before I headed out of town.  This guy kept me company while I ate...Pretty sure he was expecting some table scraps!



I got on the road with a real appreciation for Toronto...a very beautiful city with more friendly Canadians!  Is EVERYone in Canada this friendly?  ...so far, I'd have to say yes!

From there, my only goal was to ride up and over the Great Lakes over the next few days.  I headed due north and landed in Barrie, ON for the night.  There was a nursing school called Georgian College that ran one of their dorms as a hotel in the summer.  Today was a lot of miles and a lot of being a tourist...I checked in and had a great night sleep!

Another perfect day in Canada!

Cap'n Ron. . .

[FJmonkey]

Quite cool, I had lunch with a Seagull once at Duke's in Malibu.... Buggerme!! I can't find the pic...

[Firehawk068]

WHAT?
No visit to the top of the CN Tower? 

[CanDman]

It was getting late in the day and I grabbed a meal from a local hot dog vendor before I headed out of town.  This guy kept me company while I ate...Pretty sure he was expecting some table scraps!



I got on the road with a real appreciation for Toronto...a very beautiful city with more friendly Canadians!  Is EVERYone in Canada this friendly?  ...so far, I'd have to say yes!



Another perfect day in Canada!

Cap'n Ron. . .

LOL..... Good thing I read on mon Capitan ......... for a second there....I thought you ran out of money  ....Toronto is pretty expensive.....and I know that Duck is pretty reasonable.....especially if it's free  

......now as far as skipping the CN Tower.....I can forgive that....sort of.....but what I can't excuse....is coming all this way and not coming to visit me...... ....no good



Planet Toronto


Toronto is the 5th largest city in North America......so I thought I might post this little chaser with your shot......


The one thing I think I love the most about your trip......is the fact that you are focused more on the dark corners and hidden gems of an area rather than the neon lights......I am so blown away by the golden nuggets you seem to dig up sifting through the nooks and crannies of every town.....just awesome..... unlike most people in this city, I was born and raised here so I am affectionately partial to her.....that being said, I do love the countryside more than the inner city.. I love natural beauty and you are capturing it all .....    

[Capn Ron]

WHAT?
No visit to the top of the CN Tower?  

I had a chat with someone about the CN Tower...he said it was anywhere from $35 to $90 depending on what you wanted to experience while you were there.  I considered it...I even rode right up to the base and as I was still considering the cost and the time it would take...and how many hours of daylight were left, I couldn't find a parking space.  There were parking garages that were another $20.  I made an in-the-moment decision to go check out the waterfront instead.

This is as close as I got to the CN Tower:



Now I have a reason to return to Toronto...well, that...and visiting CanDman!!!  

Cap'n Ron. . .

[Capn Ron]

The one thing I think I love the most about your trip......is the fact that you are focused more on the dark corners and hidden gems of an area rather than the neon lights......I am so blown away by the golden nuggets you seem to dig up sifting through the nooks and crannies of every town.....just awesome..... I love natural beauty and you are capturing it all .....    

Well, on the other end of things, I did capture this while I was in Toronto:



Not sure it qualifies as a "natural beauty", but as far as creepy, psychotic unicorns, it rates right up there!  

Cap'n Ron. . .

[CanDman]

You know I was thinking about your visit to Castle Loma.....I remember doing that as a field trip when I was in grade 5......for a 10 year old it was pretty cool.....and now you have cattle prodded me to do it again mow that I am 12..... ....looking forward to more...this is the best travel report ever !!! 

[X-Ray]

This is just simply amazing to look at. Photos of the FJ on the F1 track, how cool is that.

One thing I will be doing on the way down or back on our Jindabyne 2014 Anniversary trip, is take a detour to do a couple of laps around our fabled Bathurst (Mt Panorama) track. Just had the big race there last weekend, was another good one. But a few photos at Bathurst with the FJ is going to be great!

[ribbert]

Cap'n Ron,

I never comment on anything here except bikes and occasionally riding (OK, I did once, but I don't now)

Your trip report is an absolute ripper. I can't take a photo to save myself but I can certainly appreciate a good one when I see it, and your photography is fantastic. Subject, compostion, technical skills and possibly the most difficult, knowing which ones to use.

The same could be said for your writing. The combination of words and pictures is enthralling. Nothing to skip through, it's all great reading.

CanDman says it well:

The one thing I think I love the most about your trip......is the fact that you are focused more on the dark corners and hidden gems of an area rather than the neon lights......I am so blown away by the golden nuggets you seem to dig up sifting through the nooks and crannies of every town.....

And then of course, there's the trip itself. I remember you posting a couple of times with some bike drama and only making the briefest of mentions about your trip and I always wondered why we never heard anything about it. It certainly sounded interesting at the time.

You're a late bloomer and thank goodness for that, it's a terrific read.

That smile on your face in the selfies speaks volumes.

A couple of years ago my brother rode around Australia. He also wrote a very entertaining account accompanied by great photos (also a crack photographer, when we ride together we stand in the same spot, take the same photos, mine look like shit, his look like they should be hanging in a gallery somewhere, bastard, I don't get it)

When he returned he invested a modest amount of money in an on-line photo book from the USA. He ordered two. One with words and smallish photos, and a second one with just the pictures (same ones only bigger) and a brief description. All done over the net.
We joked about how it would finally turn up, and when it did, not a single error and way exceeded our expectations.

What was most amazing was the quality. The cover, binding, paper, layout, photo reproduction etc. It was as good as any store bought book. He initially had one each done for himself but was so impressed he ordered more an sent them to people who had accompanied him on legs of his ride and anyone else who was interested.

It is a high quality coffee table book and pretty cool seeing yourself "published"

Your trip report deserves this.

YOU MUST DO IT, not only for yourself in years to come, but for posterity.

It is a brilliant account of an epic ride that deserves to be recorded appropriately. (I've read some serialised trip reports in motorbike mags. that were obviously deemed good enough to publish that were terrible by comparison. There's a thought!)

Noel

[Capn Ron]

Cap'n Ron,

I never comment on anything here except bikes and occasionally riding (OK, I did once, but I don't now)

Your trip report is an absolute ripper. I can't take a photo to save myself but I can certainly appreciate a good one when I see it, and your photography is fantastic. Subject, compostion, technical skills and possibly the most difficult, knowing which ones to use.

The same could be said for your writing. The combination of words and pictures is enthralling. Nothing to skip through, it's all great reading.

And then of course, there's the trip itself. I remember you posting a couple of times with some bike drama and only making the briefest of mentions about your trip and I always wondered why we never heard anything about it. It certainly sounded interesting at the time.

You're a late bloomer and thank goodness for that, it's a terrific read.

Noel

Wow Noel...thank you for all the kind words!    Don't know if I'm deserving of all that, but it means a lot to me that someone is enjoying the report!

On the photography, I'm okay at it...there are some great photographers out there that just defy a fitting description.  I use my iPhone quite a bit...mostly because it's always at the ready...and a Canon SX40 HS camera.  The latter makes it easy to frame up a subject and it has decent optics.

I really wanted to write the report "live" while I was on the trip and thought quite a bit about how best to do that.  With the full rebuild (another write-up?), crazy amount of prep for the trip and shaking out some issues on the bike, I never got around to it.

I'm enjoying the day-by-day recalling of all this!  I was just plotting out the next few maps and remembered a town and a conversation and a plate of chicken wings I had forgotten all about.  It put a smile on my face.   

Cap'n Ron. . .