1st June 2008 – Halifax to Lunenburg.
There was torrential rain overnight last night and, as a result, we spent the first hour or so of this morning emptying out the flooded trunk of the Trike where the binoculars, zoom lens for the camera etc. etc. had been stored !! We managed to dry out most things by using the hairdryer but the trunk carpet was still sodden so we scrounged some garbage bags to put all of our other bags into before we could pack. It was, as we’d feared, foggy and very cold when we left but we decided to head for the scenic South Shore coastal route anyway and, despite the weather it was very pretty. We made a couple of stops en-route one at the Peggy Cove lighthouse, before making our way in to Lunenburg, a World Heritage Site. By the time we’d arrived the sun had come out and it had started to warm up a bit. We haven’t managed to see the town yet (were just getting cleaned up before we go and explore) but have checked in to a very nice olde worlde B&B (the Maplebird Inn) run by two ex-pats who very kindly let us park in their enormous barn so that we could hang the trunk carpet out to dry and leave the trunk open. Now, off to explore….
2nd June 2008 – Lunenburg to Shelburne.
Although there was a sea mist again when we woke this morning it started to burn off quite quickly and we were soon seeing some very pretty shoreline in nice warm sunshine. We followed the ‘Lighthouse’ scenic route all along the coast with one or two brief stops along the way. As the route winds in and out of small coves, villages etc. and the road are often very bumpy; it takes quite a time to get anywhere. We’ve stopped a little early today, as accommodation seems to be clustered around certain towns with very little in between, it was either stop here, early, or go on for another 2 to 3 hours. There is just one slight snag, the only restaurant our host recommended is closed because of a fault with their refrigerator and the only one open (it’s still out of season) is the one she specifically didn’t recommend – oh well it was food (but not as you’d know it)!!!!
3rd June 2008 – Shelburne to Digby.
We left in really nice warm sunshine this morning and rejoined the ‘Lighthouse’ route following the coast first, further west, then north and finally east around to the Fundy coast (the opposite side to where we were in New Brunswick). The scenery was, again, pretty although not spectacular but we do have a great view from our accommodation. We’re now staying in yet another historic house/B&B as, strangely, they appear to be cheaper and have better facilities than the motels. This one is in the town of Digby which is world famous (so they say) for it’s scallops having the largest scallop fleet in the world; we may just have to go and try some this evening, it would be rude not to don’t you think?? Mileage to date 3413.
4th June 2008 – Digby to Windsor.
The scallops were very good, the weather not quite so as it rained overnight but, thankfully, not enough to flood the trunk. There were still grey skies this morning but we were lucky and it stayed dry all day. Our route took us along the ‘Evangaline’ route, another scenic/tourist route which took us through the Annapolis valley with it’s farmland and orchards, generally still pretty but with some rather bumpy roads. We’re spending tonight in another B&B (the Fiddlehead Inn) that, again, puts those at home to shame; we have a bedroom which is much larger than ours at home, and en-suite bathroom and our own personal lounge. To top all that our very friendly hosts greeted us with cold drinks and cookies and a garage to park the bike in. Now I know people are always saying that it’s a small world but would you believe that Don, one of our hosts, spent part of his childhood in Rayleigh, Essex where I spent most of my childhood and where my Dad still lives – very strange!!
5th June 2008 – Windsor to Sherbrooke.
It rained again overnight and was very overcast but warm as we left; unfortunately, it got colder (much) as the day went on and it was windy too. What with the weather and the very bumpy roads along the Eastern Shore coast road (quite pretty in places but nothing special), it hasn’t been a particularly enjoyable day. To top it off, the best accommodation we’ve been able to find is in a very bland motel with few facilities which is costing almost as much as last nights very good B&B. Oh well, some days are bound to be better than others I suppose!!
6th June 2008 – Sherbrooke to Port Hawkesbury, Cape Breton Island.
We were back to sunshine this morning and it was a little warmer (64F whoopee!). We continued to follow the ‘Marine Drive’ but after 20 miles or so discovered that the ferry we needed to catch to take us across one of the many inlets wasn’t running so it was a case of going back 20 miles and taking a different route to get us back to where we needed to be. The roads have continued to be extremely bumpy, to the point where we’ve grounded a few times, so the ride is not that comfortable but the scenery has been quite good in places (a lot like parts of Scandinavia with lots of lakes and trees). We’ve now reached Cape Breton Island which is supposed to be great for motorcycling and the weather forecast for the next few days is good so, fingers crossed….
7th June 2008 – Port Hawkesbury to Cheticamp (via the Cabot trail).
Unfortunately, the weather forecast was a little optimistic and we woke to very overcast skies and temperatures which failed to exceed 55F all day. We decided that we’d still make for the Cabot trail at the north of the island as it’s described as “a biker’s dream” and as “one of the best motorcycling roads you’re likely to find”; it undoubtedly has some of the best scenery we’ve seen in Nova Scotia but we both agree that the descriptions were rather generous. The road surface at the very north of the trail on the ‘mountain’ stretches is pretty good but in other areas it’s diabolical and really quite dangerous for bikes with cracks that are wide enough to take an entire front wheel, bumps/dips big enough to move us both out of our seats and, for one fellow biker, to break the catches on both his saddlebags (panniers) at the same time!! There are one or two other sights we still want to see on the island but we’ve decided we’ve had enough of bouncing around so, once we’ve seen those were going to catch a ferry across to Newfoundland where we hope to see whales and icebergs (yes – I know, it’s not going to get any warmer over there but….).
8th June 2008 – Cheticamp to Baddeck.
Unfortunately, there’s been no improvement in the weather; in fact it’s got worse with rain accompanying the cold. Our first stop this morning was at the Glenmore distillery, the only Malt whiskey distillery in North America. We had hoped to take a tour and to arrange to ship some of the produce home but they’re not distilling at the moment so the tour would have been to see idle machinery (seemed a bit pointless) and they don’t ship overseas so this wasn’t our most successful outing!! As the weather was deteriorating we decided to head for one of the major towns in the area (its’ still not much bigger than a UK village) and check in somewhere early. We’re now staying in very nice Inn on the edge of town and we’ve booked our ferry across to Newfoundland for tomorrow morning; with a 5/6 hour crossing this will see us arrive late afternoon ready to start another new adventure on Tuesday. As the forecast for that area is even cooler with highs around 10C/50F we took a walk into town and bought ourselves another layer of clothing, some very snazzy Cape Breton sweatshirts – nice!!
9th June 2008 – Baddeck to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland.
We left fairly early this morning as we had to pay for and collect our ferry tickets before boarding for an 11:30 sailing. As it was we needn’t have left so early but having spare time at the docks gave us the opportunity to speak to a very helpful lady at the Newfoundland tourist office as well as a fellow motorcyclist, Bill, whose been across before, also very useful. Once we were on board and settled, we started to take a look at the maps and information we’d been given and were approached by a local truck driver who gave us some very handy tips, including the suggestion that we take our proposed route and turn it back to front as this would leave the best ‘til last rather than leaving us with a fairly long, boring run back at the end of the tour. It also looks like we will be able to make a short visit to Labrador as there is only a short, inexpensive ferry crossing to get us there; it’s likely that it will only be an overnight stay as there is no more than 90km of paved road and it doesn’t seem sensible to tackle the 600km or so of dirt that follows it. Just a brief note on the weather – it’s been grey all the way across, it’s still grey now and, if we look just up the road from the hotel we can see the snow on the side of the hills, hmmm!!!
10th June 2008 – Port aux Basques to Gander.
We like Newfoundland ! The scenery is more dramatic than Nova Scotia and the roads (or more specifically the road – there is only one that takes you across the island) are in much better condition than the roads in Nova Scotia. We’re currently making our way across to St John’s, the capital, where we intend to take a look at the city and possibly take a tour out to see some puffins, not sure yet if this is the best area to see them so we’ll wait and see on that one. We’ve covered around 350 miles today so, weather permitting, we should make the city early enough to take a look around in the afternoon. We actually saw some sunshine this afternoon although it was still pretty cold; the forecast for the next few days is a bit uncertain – it depends which TV station you watch but if the one forecasting rain on Thursday/Friday turns out to be right, we may stay in the city a little longer as some of the areas we intend going to afterwards are a bit exposed. Mileage to date 4576.
11th June 2008 – Gander to St John’s.
It was very murky when we woke up this morning so we left slightly later than usual en-route to St John’s. The weather improved as we made our way along the highway and we saw some really pretty scenery, lots of lakes and ponds, some quite reminiscent of mountain top plateaus you would find in, say, the Alps and these extended really quite close to town (within 10 miles). We also saw our first moose feeding in a roadside field just on the outskirts of the city. We’ve apparently picked the wrong time to try to find accommodation here as there is some sort of convention on; we’ve ended up paying a bit more than we wanted to stay a bit further out of town than we wanted – oh well!! We’re going to take a walk in to ‘downtown’ to see what’s there and we’ll probably get a taxi back.
12th June 2008 – Gander to Witless Bay via the Irish Loop.
It’s been a really good day despite the cold (46F at one point this morning), the rain and the fog; it genuinely has been a good day. Things started out a little strangely when the guy running our B&B overslept and one of the other guests who’s apparently a regular there, cooked breakfast for us; the kitchen is available for anyone to use and you just help yourselves to the contents of the cupboards, fridge etc. It was rather like posh student digs with various people in and out and cooking for themselves. Once we’d left St John’s we made for the Irish Loop, one of the many scenic routes and it was well worth the trip. Fairly early on the road took us through Witless Bay (where we’re now staying) past some of the Icebergs that can be seen from the road, by this time it had started to rain, not heavily but enough for me to have to cover the camera. We passed through areas of small fir trees, fjords and a large expanse of very barren, rocky ground covered in nothing but heather and moss. Once we’d completed the loop we called in at the local tourist office to find some accommodation and to book a boat tour. Once we’d thrown our bags into our room we made for the boat as it was due to leave at 16:30. The tour took us out to see some icebergs at close quarters and to see some bird colonies, including Puffins, we were also very lucky and saw a Humpback whale and a Minke whale. Not bad for one day!
13th June 2008 – Witless Bay to Twillingate.
There’s not too much to report today as most of our journey retraced our wheel tracks along the Trans Canada Highway back to Gander; from there we travelled north out to the Island/town of Twillingate which is on the coast that forms ‘iceberg alley’. The weather has not been kind to us today, we started with cold and drizzle, then had cold and fog before finally cold and pouring rain. According to the internet, the temperature shortly after we arrived was 4C with a wind chill of –3C, see I said it was cold!!
14th June 2008 – Twillingate to Rocky Harbour (Gros Morne National Park).
Our main reason for visiting Twillingate was to take a boat tour to see the Icebergs and whales. Unfortunately the foul weather has put paid to that (yesterday’s winds were recorded as 56kph gusting to 80kph) as none of the operators expect to run for a few days yet; as a result we left this morning shortly after the worst of the rain had subsided. It was really, really cold and damp again as we made our way back along the Trans Canada Highway but just as we started to head north towards the Gros Morne National Park the sun came out (it was still cold but what the heck!). Rocky Harbour is a very pretty little town inside the park and we have checked in to a very nice hotel on the waterfront and we have a nice warm room with a view, an on site restaurant and a pub with local entertainment this evening so things are definitely looking up.
15th June 2008 – Rocky Harbour to St Anthony.
We had a really good evening, one which we shared with a guy (Robert) who’s originally from Krakow, Poland but now lives in New Jersey; it was very interesting to compare notes as he’s been to a number of places we’ve also been to. It was fairly bright when we checked out this morning and we headed north towards St Anthony, which is pretty much the most northerly point of Newfoundland. All was well for the first 120 miles but it then got foggy and very windy in places – not very comfortable at all for the remaining 60 miles but we made it safe and sound. Our plan was to visit the nearby Viking settlement tomorrow (an original settlement that is used as a living museum) but the weather forecast is pretty grotty so we may just sit it out, read a book and go on Tuesday but that depends on what the longer term forecast is as we can’t just sit around for days!!
16th June 2008 – Visit to L’Anse aux Meadows.
It was foggy when we woke this morning but, as the weather isn’t supposed to improve for a few days yet, we decided to stick to plan A and visit L’Anse aux Meadows where an authenticated Viking settlement was discovered in around 1960. There is a small museum and visitors centre where you can see some of the original artefacts along with some on loan from a Norwegian museum and where you can watch a 30-minute film showing interviews with the archaeologists who made the discovery and some original footage of the site being excavated. We also joined a guided walking tour of the site that finished up at a reconstruction of a number of Viking buildings that were ‘occupied’ by locals wearing Viking costume – all very interesting. From there we went along the road to a reconstruction of a small Viking village, which, amongst other things, houses a Swedish built replica of a Viking ship. One of the things that surprised us a little was to find a rather large pile of snow still on the ground and to discover that just two weeks ago, the ‘vikings’ who were ‘living’ there had been madly shovelling snow trying to get the place ready to open (you could also see an iceberg just off-shore when the mist allowed and the temperature read out on the bike showed just 41F). Just as we left it started to rain and rain hard so, after a brief stop for a warming bowl of soup, it was back to the motel to sit it out and decide what to do from here. Mileage to date 5742.
17th June 2008 – St Anthony to L’Anse au Clair, Labrador.
We decided that today was the day for us to visit Labrador. Having been told that we would have no trouble getting on the ferry we booked a motel on ‘the big Land’ as they call it and then started to make tracks, no problem we thought as the ferry doesn’t leave until 15:30 and it’s only 75 miles away. There was just one fly in the ointment in that we didn’t have enough gas (petrol) to get us to the ferry terminal and the whole peninsula had just suffered a power cut so neither of the fuel stations was functioning – hmm! To try to kill a little time we went out to see the park called fisherman’s landing and en-route saw a whale frolicking just off of the coast. We then headed back in to town, still no power, so we went back to our motel to take refuge from the cold and drizzle and just as we arrived the power came back on – phew. Once we’d gassed up we headed south through a lot more drizzle and some very, very strong winds stopping on the way for a nice warming bowl of chilli. We arrived at the ferry terminal with lots of time to spare and stayed in the booking office as long as we could before loading. We left the ferry and rode to the motel in sunshine; it still wasn’t warm but a definite improvement. Having sorted out our room we went off for a ride along the only piece of paved road in the province which extends for approximately 50 miles. Our original intention had been to ride to the end of the tarmac but the winds were absolutely howling in places and it seemed like a pointless exercise so we turned around and headed back for a nice warm shower.
18th June 2008 - L’Anse au Clair to Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland.
It was back to the ferry this morning for another uneventful crossing. The sun was shining when we left the boat and it stayed that way for the majority of the journey (just one short shower along the way) and it was also a lot less windy – heaven! We’ve returned to a motel we used earlier in the week as it’s in a nice position, has a good restaurant and a bar with entertainment. We’re not really sure where we’re going to stop tomorrow as we’re near enough to get back to the ferry back to Nova Scotia but not if we stop and see some of the sites along the way, it’s a toss up whether to make it one long day or two short one’s - decisions, decisions! Mileage to date 6052
19th June 2008 – Rocky Harbour to Port aux Basques.
Sometimes going back to somewhere you previously enjoyed can be a mistake as was the case last night. We returned to the Ocean View Motel to discover that they had moved into their summer season so the room cost $25.00 more than last time and the restaurant menu had changed with prices there increasing considerably too. Worse than that, their new menu was causing some system problems and orders were not getting through to the kitchen – that’s all very well when you know about it but we didn’t until it was too late!! Our main meals came out before our appetizer so we sent them back, we then waited and waited; at one point we were told that our starter was on its way out but it still didn’t arrive so, to cut a long story short, we ended up with me having a ‘discussion’ with the head chef (it was all very polite but I made my views known) and we eventually got our meal, in the right order, and we didn’t have to pay for it. Before leaving the hotel this morning we rang ahead to book a ferry for Saturday morning only to discover that we could leave on Friday morning or not until next Tuesday!! That made our minds up for us and, having made a short detour around a really pretty fjord, we headed for Port aux Basques and the ferry that’s reserved for tomorrow at 09:00. The ride was fine until we reached a point around 20 miles north of town where they have permanent high wind advisories posted – I can honestly say I’ve never been so frightened on a Trike, the wind was incredibly strong and made every effort to take us off the road, we were both leaning as far left as it was possible whilst staying aboard and I still don’t know how Graham managed to hang on to it but thank heavens he did.
20th June 2008 – Port aux Basques to Baddeck, Nova Scotia.
We were up early this morning to be at the docks in plenty of time to collect our tickets and make the 09:00 sailing. Unfortunately, the ferry operator had a problem with one of it’s vessels and had to take it out of service so we spent a few hours in the terminal building waiting for the replacement boat and we eventually left around three hours late. The crossing was pretty uneventful although we did see two pods of porpoise and two whales, not something you’d see on our usual cross channel ferries. Whilst on board we met a very pleasant local lady who was telling us some stories about the weather including the fact that she couldn’t leave her house for twelve straight days last winter because of snow; she also pointed out a house that had had it’s refrigerator and freezer removed by high waves one winter. We mentioned the strong winds we had encountered and she told us that it is normal for winds across ‘the wreck’ as they call it (very aptly named) to be around 90kmph (56mph) and that they have been known to reach 210kmph (130mph), she also said that, on average, one vehicle per week is taken off of the road by the winds; I’m glad we didn’t know that before we went across!! Once we reached Nova Scotia we made the short journey back to the town of Baddeck and the same hotel we’d used before. En-route we saw something we’d never seen before i.e. a cycle race with a difference – a unicycle race that must have covered 20 miles and took in some pretty steep inclines – these people must be mad.
21st June 2008 – Baddeck.
As the weather forecast was showing good weather (hoorah!) we decided to book a second night in Baddeck and have a lazy day pottering around town and that’s exactly what we’ve done. We’ve walked through the town in and out of the shops, had lunch outside (whoopee!) on a café deck with a view of Lake Bras d’Or, and walked back via the lakeside boardwalk, all very pleasant. Whilst in town we met a couple of ex-pats who’ve been living in the town for the past two years (interestingly the guy was ex-army and the youngest Beefeater to have ever worked at the Tower of London) and we asked if they knew of any entertainment in town this evening. They mentioned a number of possibilities, the best of which (to us) seemed to be to pay a visit to the Royal Canadian Legion where there is local music and where, we’re told; they welcome all visitors with open arms, sounds like it could be an interesting evening.
22nd June 2008 – Baddeck to Pictou.
Well, it was an interesting evening but not quite what we’d expected; we’d seen an ad on local T.V. for a nightly Ceilidh at the village hall and, as that was just across the road we decided to take a look only, as we discovered this morning, they don’t actually start until next week! As that hadn’t worked out we went along to the Royal Canadian Legion who were more than happy for us to join them for their advertised dance only the ‘them’ turned out to be just a handful of people including one very, very drunk ‘Robert’ who told us a number of stories at least three times each !!! As there wasn’t much happening there we went further along the road to the Thistledown Pub which is attached to a Spa/resort. They did have live music but it was one poor guy playing very Dillon-esque music competing against a mob of females away for a ‘girlie’ weekend, but we still had fun despite the very loud girly giggles. This morning dawned warm and sunny (at last) and the temperature this afternoon reached the dizzy heights of 79F as we made our way back off of Cape Breton Island and across to the Northumberland coast ready to catch a boat across to Prince Edward Island. As we’d been told of a nice little town where the original Scots landed and formed Nova Scotia (New Scotland) we decided to stop early, get a room in a nice B&B and walk in to town before getting the boat across tomorrow.
23rd June 2008 Pictou to Bay Fortune, Prince Edward Island.
Pictou turned out to be a nice little town (although there is a rather ugly/smelly papermill across the water) and, during the day, being a Sunday, was fairly full of people enjoying the sunshine and ice cream on the waterfront. The evening turned out to be much quieter with just a handful of people out to eat (the locals apparently have their main meal at around 16:00) but we had a pleasant evening chatting to the waitresses at the Alex Thom pub. We left our B&B early enough this morning to catch the 09:30 ferry and were in PEI as everyone calls it, by 11:00 (They have a very strange system here, you don’t pay to get on to the Island only to get off and the cost of the ferry is less than taking the toll bridge so I’m not sure how they work that out between them!). After a brief visit to the tourist office we made for one of the scenic routes that takes in all of the eastern peninsula. There is nothing stunning about the countryside but the Island appears to live up to its nickname of ‘the gentle island’ with rolling countryside full of farms and very nice houses. We had one minor delay on our trip around when we saw two fellow motorcyclists stopped on the side of the road having run out of gas (petrol). As they had some gas and their truck at their cabin a short distance away I stayed with the lady and the bike whilst Graham ran the guy home to get the truck etc. Our good deed for the day done we continued on our way and, having realised by now that all of the B&B’s appeared to be in the middle of nowhere with no prospect of eating close by, we rode out to an Inn that was signposted from the road but, as it turned out, their restaurant isn’t open in the evenings so they directed us to their sister property a few miles away. It’s a really nice historic house with a sea view and has a posh restaurant on site so it’s inevitably expensive but they did give us a free upgrade so that Graham didn’t have to tackle the stairs in the tower.
24th June 2008 – Bay Fortune to Charlottestown via the East Point Loop.
It’s just as well we got the free upgrade last night as the restaurant offered a five course ‘Chef’s choice’ menu where the chef decides the menu for you based on what’s particularly good/fresh that day, this was accompanied by a wine flight – four wines to accompany the various courses (If you include the ‘amuse bouche’ and the sorbet it was actually seven courses). As we rarely get this sort of opportunity we took it but, in doing so, we blew around a weeks budget in one night – oh well!! We woke to heavy rain this morning but by the time we’d had breakfast it had stopped and it continued to improve throughout the day. Our route took us through a number of small communities, along some pretty coasts but mostly through arable land. As we were in desperate need of a laundry we booked ahead to a chain motel in Charlottestown, the Provincial Capital, which had the requisite facilities and we arrived at around 14:30. As the weather was still good we took the walk into downtown and along the waterfront before happening on a very nice Brew Pub called Gahan’s where we sampled all seven of their brews plus their very own root beer (which was truly horrible). A few beers and a pleasant meal later we made our way back to the motel and the laundry, ho hum, I suppose it had to be done!
25th June 2008 – Charlottestown to Summerside via the Blue Heron scenic loop.
It was warm and sunny when we left this afternoon but was also a little breezy; it stayed sunny but became very windy in places as the day went on. As today’s route was a complete loop we decided to stop off on the way out and book a motel so that we didn’t have to think about it later. Having booked in to a motel that can best be described as ‘no frills’ (but it is cheap) we made for the scenic loop. It was undoubtedly pretty in places but nothing to write home about. PEI is most famous (apparently) for being the home of L M Montgomery the author of ‘Anne of Green Gables’ and most of the sites on this route are related to that fact (the house where she was born etc), the whole route only took us a few hours. From the literature we’d seen we expected Summerside to be a smaller version of Charlottetown with a scenic waterfront etc. but it hasn’t turned out quite like that, there is a waterfront but nothing has been made of it, in fact, the shopping mall on the front is practically empty as many of the stores have moved out to the bigger mall on the outskirts. We’re planning on making the final loop tomorrow and that will bring us back here again, whether we’ll stay at the same motel remains to be seen.
26th June 2008 – North Cape Loop.
Yesterday evening we took a five-minute stroll along to a pub/restaurant where we spent a pleasant evening chatting to the bar staff and a guy from Ontario who’s working in the area. When we went out it was warm and dry but by the time we left it was belting with rain, it’s surprising just how wet you can get in a three-minute dash back to your motel especially when the local drunk passes you on his bicycle and then promptly falls off in the middle of the road (he seemed to be okay)!! It rained for most of the night and still looked pretty threatening this morning but, as we made our way around the last of the scenic loops on the island, we escaped with only a couple of short showers. This loop took in all of the western peninsula and, as the name above suggests, the most northerly point on the island; the scenery was all very gentle, nice rolling fields (mostly of potatoes) and pretty coastal inlets. In total it was around 200 miles and a generally very pleasant day which saw us returning to Summerside but a different, much nicer motel (which only cost around $10 more).
27th June 2008 – Summerside to St. George, New Brunswick.
Just next door to last night’s motel was a 1950’s style Diner that was very well done. The décor included two period gas (petrol) pumps, a juke box (which unfortunately wasn’t working) and staff dressed in circular skirts and bobby socks; we ate burgers, fries and had a huge milkshake each – very 1950’s and great. It rained again overnight (heavily) and was still raining hard this morning so we went for breakfast trying to decide weather or not to move on or stay put (as we’ve still got plenty of time). As the weather forecast suggested we’d be riding through, and out of the rain we left and made for the Confederation Bridge, an 8-mile long toll bridge across the bay of St Lawrence. It cost us $16.50 to cross but if we’d used the ferry (as we did for free to get on to the island) it would have cost us around $56, it’s a very strange system they have but it certainly worked in our favour. Today’s ride was damp in places and, as it was all on major roads, relatively boring but it has got us to within easy striking distance of the U.S. border so we’ll be heading there in the morning to see what fun and games we have getting back in!!
28th June 2008 – St George to Bar Harbor, Maine, USA.
We made St Stephen where the Canadian/US border is within about an hour of leaving this morning; we then spent the next hour sitting in a queue to get to the crossing itself. Once we did we were asked where our white US immigration forms were and we explained that we’d handed them to the Canadian immigration officer when we left last month; we were then asked to park up and go inside as we needed to get new documentation. The process was painless for us as we have visas, all they needed was to check our fingerprints/photos and where we were going and then we were on our way (it cost us $6 each for the documentation) but they did say we must make sure we handed in our white slips before we leave the U.S. (not sure if it’s us that was confused or them as that’s just what we did!). From the border we joined US1 and headed south to Bar Harbor a nice little town that we visited last year, we’re now staying in the same room in the same motel as we were in last year (purely by chance), we’ve booked in for 2 nights so we have time to potter around town tomorrow. Mileage to date 7461.
29th June 2008 – Bar Harbor.
Whilst searching out a laundromat yesterday afternoon I chanced upon a blues bar that was advertising a live band for the evening. We went along and spent a really good evening listening to some great music and chatting to a number of different ‘locals’ whilst having a drink or two (I really do have to get used to the American hand poured measures again). It was raining (for a change) by the time we left and it rained for most of the night and quite bit of this morning and there was thunder mixed in too; as a result we’ve spent most of the day in and out of stores, cafes etc. As we came across the border yesterday we realised that we would be in the U.S. for the 4th July celebrations and that, as it falls on a weekend, we would have to try to find somewhere to go and to book ahead. Trying to find somewhere sensible to go hasn’t been easy, particularly as the weather forecast in most areas seems to be rather unsettled right the way through to next weekend, so we cheated and called Jeff & Edith to see what they’re doing for the holiday and have found ourselves invited to a weekend party at Don & Brenda’s (the guys we travelled to Myrtle Beach with) so it should be fun whatever the weather.
30th June 2008 – Bar Harbor to Montpelier, Vermont.
We left this morning if fog (warm fog but fog none the less) and we rode through a mix of heavy showers and sunshine. Our route was a little less than direct as we didn’t want to take the Interstates and did want to take a wide swing west to avoid New York City. We’ve covered almost 300 miles, some of it through the White Mountains and other pretty bits of New Hampshire/Vermont and we’re now ensconced in a chain motel close to I89 as we have little choice but to join the Interstate for just a few miles tomorrow when we start to head south and in to New York state.