Your dad only turns 80 once...

[Dazza57]

Cap'n Ron, this story has got me totally hooked, loving every minute of it, keep it coming. Patiently waiting for every new episode
I'm about to set off on a trip down the south west of Western Australia, just me and Effy. Looking like about 6,000 kms over 2 weeks. Gonna try and take lotsa pics and write it up when I get back, although I reckon I'll be battling to do as well as you have. You have a great way of recounting the trip.

Keep it coming Cap'n Ron

Dazza

[ribbert]

  This is the WOODEN lighthouse!!!

Candyman, is this one of yours?

[CanDman]

pas moi, je ne connais pas assez français pour y vivre et travailler. Bien qu'il était obligatoire pour nous d'apprendre.

(not me, I don't know enough French to live and work there . Although it was mandatory for us to learn it).  

What I love about your trip Ron is you and I took almost the exact same routes....it's amazing !!!
    Just for those whose Latin is a bit rusty Nova Scotia ...means "New Scotland" and thus the huge contingent of Scotland. My ancestors made their way through the east coast before finally settling in the Toronto area.
  Toronto means "the meeting place"  which is translated from the Huron (Indian) word "Toronton" . some argue that it came from the Mohawk word "Tkaronto" which translates to "where the trees are standing in the water".....traditionally the locals have always referred to Toronto as "The place where people meet" ....it was heavily favoured to being the capitol city however John A MacDonald chose Ottawa in an attempt to unite the colonies of French Acadians throughout New Brunswick and Quebec with the rest of the English settlers. The Quebec border is on the other side of the Rideau canal so Hull Quebec is literally across the bridge from Ottawa...(all French speaking)
Anyways.....thought I would throw this in.....seemed appropriate for this journey.....


This is so awesome......I am loving this....

please......keep going !!!!

       

[Capn Ron]

Forth Leg, Day 11: Kamouraska, Quebec to Repentigny, QC (500 km/310 miles)

So, I woke up this morning as an English-speaking motorcyclist in a French-speaking world!  I will try my best to get through this and probably learn a few things in the process.  After my conversation with the guy down by the river...sorry...fleuve Saint-Laurent, I decided to backtrack around 50 miles to Riviere du Loup to catch the ferry to the north side.  My ride today looked like this:



I first rode up to the main road and I saw a Subway.  I thought, this would be easy...I could get breakfast without first learning French.  I was wrong.  The entire menu was in French and the girl working there didn't speak any English.  Okay...opened the translator app on my iPhone.  I'm sure I butchered, "Saucisses et oeufs sur pain plat"  I was trying to order sausage and eggs on flat bread...This language barrier is really difficult.  We worked it out...Ordered a coke.  What size?  Ug...back to the app.  Do you have any ketchup?  Ug.  We really take communication for granted.  She handed me a receipt that had my entire order printed out.  Perfect!  I'm keeping this so I can just hand it to the next employee if I find another Subway!

I had my breakfast and headed up to Riviere Du Loup to load the bike on another ferry.  For those of you counting, this will be my fifth!



I'm now starting to enjoy the ferry crossings.  It's some good downtime, I get to relax and check out the scenery:



About halfway across, we saw a young Beluga whale and it's mother just breaching the surface of the water!  I knew I was witnessing something special, so instead of fiddling with the camera, I just soaked it all in.  I also met these two guys who were transporting new tractor-trailers to a factory in Montreal.



The spoke both English and French and gave me a crash course in how to communicate in Quebec.  They went out of their way to make me feel comfortable and welcome...they also convinced me to visit Quebec City as a "Must do!!!", so I put that on my plan for the day.

Once on the north side of the St Lawrence, I rode towards Quebec.  My headlight had burned out...again...This was the second time since I left LA...I pulled up to a store that sold pieces of automobiles:



Car parts.  I didn't need the app to figure that out and I went inside.  A guy working there spoke a TINY bit of English and helped me to "Mettre en lumiere" my FJ.  He kept saying "eeeeef geeeee" and gave me the thumbs-up    Turns out he had an FJ1200 as his first motorcycle!  He was very excited to see my bike and brought a few other employees out to the parking lot to see my setup.  The FJ1200 knows no international boundaries!

At this point, I was getting good at feeling my way through a headlight bulb change and was on my way to Quebec City!  The city was amazing!  The cobblestone streets:



Impressive architecture:



The Citadel:



A river-side view of the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel:



They say it's the most photographed hotel in the world and I tried to do my part:



What a beautiful City!!  I walked all around just snapping pictures and soaking it in.  I came upon this place:



I thought it odd and did a bit of research.  Turns out that at some point, property owners were taxed on the number of windows their house had!  The common reaction to this taxation was to simply brick up most of the windows!  I found examples of this all around the City!

I had an excellent meal, a nice glass of wine and some great broken-English conversation at this place:



I was there for about an hour and one of the locals even picked up my tab!  I wanted to stay and visit Quebec City more, but I had to get on the road towards Montreal...The next City on my plan.

As I rode towards Montreal, there was a short, but heavy rain storm heading right at me.  I kept a close eye on it and rode as long as I could until I started getting wet.  I pulled into a McDonald's to wait out the weather.  It took a bit over two hours, but I was dry, had free WiFi to catch up on email and banking, food, free refills on the soda and a bathroom to use (free refills on soda  ). 

While I was in there, people came and went and all the French conversation just became background noise.  I couldn't understand a word of it and my brain was getting good at just tuning it all out.  I was in my own little world in my booth and a mother and her son sat in the booth right next to mine.  The boy says, "Wow, they must really be celebrating in Los Angeles!"  WHAT?  Not only were these words in English, he was talking about LA!  I had to talk to them...  He was referring to the LA Kings just winning the Stanley Cup that day.  I was learning that in Canada...it's ALL about the hockey!  We talked for about a half an hour...They told me that there were small areas within Quebec that spoke primarily English...I very much enjoyed their company albeit brief.  The storm passed and I found myself a motel for the night. 

Tomorrow, it's Montreal!

Cap'n Ron. . .

[Firehawk068]

This is just awesome!!!!!!!!! 
I love to travel....................or even dream about travel through someone else's adventure....................
I'm gonna be sad when this trip ends 
Glad that you are giving it to us a little at a time.......................letting it soak in...............

[Capn Ron]

Thanks Alan!

Glad to have you along!  I hope this isn't too much of a spoiler, but Quebec City was my favorite place to visit!  I can't believe I was just going to ride by it on my way to Montreal!!!  It's just another example of how one conversation can add miles and richness to a trip!

Happy you're enjoying it!

Cap'n Ron. . .

[ribbert]

I thought it odd and did a bit of research.  Turns out that at some point, property owners were taxed on the number of windows their house had!  The common reaction to this taxation was to simply brick up most of the windows!  I found examples of this all around the City!

That form of tax originated in Europe (figures I guess) and I believe is the origin of the saying "Daylight robbery".

[CanDman]

I decided to backtrack around 50 miles to Riviere du Loup to catch the ferry to the north side.  My ride today looked like this:




I had my breakfast and headed up to Riviere Du Loup to load the bike on another ferry.  For those of you counting, this will be my fifth!



I'm now starting to enjoy the ferry crossings.  It's some good downtime, I get to relax and check out the scenery:



.  The boy says, "Wow, they must really be celebrating in Los Angeles!"  WHAT?  Not only were these words in English, he was talking about LA!  I had to talk to them...  He was referring to the LA Kings just winning the Stanley Cup that day.  I was learning that in Canada...it's ALL about the hockey!  
Cap'n Ron. . .

I took these pics when I took the same Ferry from Riviere De Loup





You're right Captain....it really is all about Hockey.......







did you stop at all in La Ville Baie St Paul ?

more Quebec city...






It is so cool to relive my trip again through someone else's perspective.....this is so awesome  

[Capn Ron]

CanDman,

That's amazing that my FJ was parked on nearly the same five feet of deck as yours was two years earlier!

I did not get to see La Ville Baie St Paul...There is SO much to see and only so much time to do so...  Quebec City wasn't even on my plan until I met those guys on the ferry.  It added another day to the trip...but completely worth it!

Managing time, miles, visiting people, money and sights is a real balancing act.  The motorcyclists I met in Saint John turned my planned one or two day jaunt over to Nova Scotia into an 8 day adventure!  As much as I experienced there, I should have taken another day to visit the ship building yards in Lunenburg!!!

Maybe on my next trip!   

[CanDman]

CanDman,

That's amazing that my FJ was parked on nearly the same five feet of deck as yours was two years earlier!

I did not get to see La Ville Baie St Paul...There is SO much to see and only so much time to do so...  Quebec City wasn't even on my plan until I met those guys on the ferry.  It added another day to the trip...but completely worth it!

Managing time, miles, visiting people, money and sights is a real balancing act.  The motorcyclists I met in Saint John turned my planned one or two day jaunt over to Nova Scotia into an 8 day adventure!  As much as I experienced there, I should have taken another day to visit the ship building yards in Lunenburg!!!

Maybe on my next trip!   

HAHAHAHA......the next trip I'm coming with 

[Bminder]

RON STOP TOYING WITH US!!! POST MORE!!!!!!  

[Capn Ron]

   I'm working on the Montreal leg now...it is another page-turner...at least for me anyway!  A big ride report takes about two hours to put together...So, for the action-packed days, I can just about get one done each day.  Wait until we get to the plains...You'll get three days of riding in each report!   

Thanks for hangin in there!   

Cap'n Ron. . .

[Bminder]

OK lets see... so 2 hours for one day's report and there's 24 hours in a day... That means you could be doing 12 reports a day!!!!
Stop slacking!!!!

[FJmonkey]

OK lets see... so 2 hours for one day's report and there's 24 hours in a day... That means you could be doing 12 reports a day!!!!
Stop slacking!!!!

That is funny, I called him a slacker for different reasons just the other day..... Or was it Lightweight? I don't remember, I just got off a 16 hr (inventory) day and the beverage and decompression is kicking in....

[Capn Ron]

Forth Leg, Day 12: Repentigny, QC to Perth, ON (375 km/233 miles)

Repentigny is a strange sounding town, but it's basically just about 30 miles outside Montreal...My planned city to visit for the day!  When I woke up this morning, I was greeted with SUNSHINE!!!  Ohhhh, this is going to be a wonderful day!  I wanted to get the most out of it, so I packed up the Givis in record time and I was off!  I would later figure out that I left two of my favorite flat bungee cords in that hotel.  Maybe I packed too quickly!  My ride today looked like this:



I grabbed a quick breakfast and headed towards Montreal!  I went on a field trip here when I was in sixth grade, but didn't remember any of it!  I knew that the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada had just been run two days earlier!!!  If I had planned things better, I could have had a track-side seat for the race.  Regardless, I had heard great things about the road circuit and decided to ride down and check it out.  It's called the "Circuit Gilles Villeneuve" and it's on an island in the St Lawrence River.  When I got there, they were just starting to break down the infrastructure for the event...This was great timing as technically, the road was open to the public, but the race track was still set up!  I took the opportunity to run ten laps of the 4.36 km road course on the FJ!!!  



It was pretty amazing!  I had the entire track to myself and lap after lap, I tried to commit the 13 turns into my memory as if I was racing it!  You can see the skid marks from a race crash just two days ago on the pavement in front of me!  Having soaked that in, I started riding around just looking for anything interesting...I found this odd looking structure:



This is "Habitat 67" from the the Montreal Expo in 1967.  It's was a visionary solution to the "inevitable population problem" as perceived back then.  It's made up of 354 identical pre-made cubes that are then stacked in place to create 148 apartment units.  The idea was to create efficient, high-density living spaces each with a sense of privacy.  Very cool!

I then rode over to the Montreal Biosphere.  A very futuristic looking sphere that is now an environmental museum.



The engineering that went into the structure is amazing!!



I delighted in the juxtaposition between the past and the present...a Martello Tower as seen from inside the Biosphere!



I rode around Montreal some more and...satisfied with my tour, I headed out of town.  I ran into quite a bit of construction and the ensuing traffic jams.  Due to the rough winters, Canada has a small time window to get roads repaired or bridges built.  I worried about the FJ's engine overheating and did some creative lane splitting to keep the air flowing.  Once on the Trans-Canada Highway, I set my sights on Ottawa!  I just rode into the city and saw these really cool looking buildings...I parked and walked around to check them out:



I had a great view of the river from there:



Turns out...Ottawa is the capital of Canada!  I had no idea!  This is the Parliament building where all things government take place!



The buildings were amazing and had some great details:



I signed up for a tour and really enjoyed all of it!  The neo-gothic architecture:





The room where all the debating takes place:



What laws were made from these seats?



The curious onlookers:



I then went all the way to the top of the "Freedom Tower" on the front of the building for some great views:



...And marveled at the giant gears in the clock mechanism:



As the day was getting late, I got on the road and set Perth, Ontario as my goal for the night.  I found a great motel and a nice Irish pub for some wings and a beer at the end of another great day!!  Today, I left the province of Quebec and was now in English-speaking Ontario.  I enjoyed being a fish out of water for a few days.  Tomorrow, I've got my sights set on Toronto!  Look out CanDman...I'm on the way!!  

Cap'n Ron. . .