I hope to have my partner Gus with me this time, he has to get re-accredited for his motorcycle licence and yesterday he passed the second stage of the 6 part licence in NSW, so now he has a minimum 3 months riding on ‘L’ plates until stage 4 and another course and test to get his Provisional licence.

We have had the pleasure of hosting Kevin and Lorraine from the UK who are currently two years into their RTW ride on BMW R1200GS.  They spent many months touring the same countries we plan to visit, so having them visit has helped a lot of our trip preparation.  They are ‘transiting’ Australia as their bike ships from the USA to Malaysia for their next leg through Asia and the Sub-Continent.

Another mutual traveller Adam Lewis (www.shortwayround.co.uk) has been a great source of knowledge and I have taken a lot of his advice for this next leg.  Most importantly has been the bike of choice and we are switching from German to Japanese machinery to ‘simplify’ touring in a generally second world continent.  So goodbye BMW and hello Kawasaki – a brand I am more familiar with and far easy to service and repair and bringing a much better pedigree for reliability.  If we were going for a longer period I would certainly consider the Suzuki DR650 which is a sensational RTW bike, but value for money the KLR is a better choice and ‘off the shelf’ you don’t have much to modify.

Check my mate Mic's KLR... last year in Alaska ! ("everything except the kitchen sink")

We have made contact with two dealers in Santiago Chile and they only need three weeks notice to get everything organised.  I was thinking as late as last night of shipping both my F800GS bikes from USA and AU, but shipping is such a drag, full of surprises, additional costs and un-necessary grief.  The biggest benefit here would be the fuel injected engine for the high altitudes, but from Adam’s experience it does not appear to be too much an issue.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 4,100 times in 2010. That’s about 10 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 31 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 179 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 465mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was July 29th with 102 views. The most popular post that day was Track Me.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were offroad.com.au, mail.live.com, statistics.bestproceed.com, studentloansinterest.org, and icreditcard.biz.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for canada police state, geoff mason offroad, big falls tourist lodge newfoundland, geoff mason nz photograaf, and bixi.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Track Me July 2010
1 comment

About May 2010
2 comments

Links May 2010

Day 9-10 May 2010
5 comments

16 August – 20 August August 2010
4 comments

With a crippled motorcycle which I have now lost faith in and reluctant to venture beyond a first world country, I am getting the gearbox fixed under warranty, selling it and heading back to Sydney.  I was also unrealistic thinking I can be away from my business, my customers and my family for a year and expect everything to be as it was when I left.  Despite all my incredible detailed planning, there were still some holes where I came unstuck… a $700 fine from ASIC one of them.

This was a great holiday and I have seen so much, met so many people, made many new friends and gained great travel experience.  This has been a very successful part one and I plan to replicate my motorcycle travels in another part of the world in the not too distant future.

My Police escort to the BMW dealer...

I delivered my bike to the selling dealer in Reno Nevada on Monday, my friend Scott will organise to pick it up in a few weeks time when the work is completed, I will then advertise it for sale.  I flew back to Las Vegas that same morning and went about the task of packing all my belongings and all the parts and accessories I had bought for the bike at the beginning of the trip.  As I have the same model back home, all these parts will not go to waste and in fact I have saved several thousand dollars in this process.

On Wednesday night my neighbour Kate and friends Matt and Roo joined me for dinner at a nice Thai restaurant in Vegas, a small but befitting farewell party.  With one day remaining on my American visa I flew from Vegas to Los Angeles and boarded flight VA2 to Sydney, 6 months ago I did the same thing, thinking “what in the hell am I doing” – my thoughts were exactly the same, but this time I was going the opposite direction !

One final entry will follow on my thoughts and opinions of the USA – but I will write that one in the ‘safer’ confines of Australia after everything has sunk in…

The final figure - 45,366km

We had a love / hate relationship...

Pack and go time.

Calf Creek Falls

I was a little low on food but managed to put what I had left into a decent meal and with little to do climbed into bed early around 7pm with my MP3 player and as a result got up early packed and left before most other campers had opened their eyes.  Despite how tired one gets from constant travelling I have been able to survive on 4-5 hours sleep most nights, in some ways maybe I am ‘rested’ from the day to day drugery of work and life in a big city ?

From Escalante the landscape changes fairly rapidly from desert to forests and on one section of mountainside you are atop a lookout surrounded by pines trees looking out across a desert with canyons and mesa’s in the distance – quite a contrast, and then a little further you come across a forest of yellow Aspen Trees in full autumn bloom covering the mountain.

I ventured off the pavement at Cannonville heading south east across a neat mountian range where the trails had been freshly graded and made great pace cross country, a fun ride until I nearly came unstuck going a little too fast around one corner, but I still live to ride another day and I never fell off – great save !  Before I knew it I was back on pavement at Hwy 89 after a real fun section.  From here it was back into Zion National Park which turned out to be a bad decision as it was Sunday and despite brand new ashphalt and some cracker sweeping corners I soon ended up amongst traffic and slow going.

The run down to Las Vegas was on Interstate 15, I loathe these long boring and generally flat slabs of concrete, competing with uncountable semi-trailers and RV’s and even when I reach the 70mph speed limit, I appear to be the slowest vehicle holding up America (?)  The boring stretch started to look a little intersting when the distant cloud cover started to reveal rain in it’s midst and within 30 minutes of town, I rode into THE most gusty wind I had encountered on this tour, I was like a ping-pong ball being blown from side to side in a wind tunnel with plumes of dust and tumble weed running left to right across the desolate roadway.  Into the outskirts of Vegas the city appeared covered in mini hurricane of dust and dirt.

I made it to my friends house in the south west of the city by minutes before the sky opened and down cometh the rain, it’s a little bit like Sydney, when it does fall it comes by the bucket loads and here’s an interesting observation – the houses do not have rain gutters, it just falls to the ground into your rock ‘garden’.

It was nice to be home for a few days to relax re-wash and re-pack and re-store after three weeks in the dusty ‘outback’.  Tuesday brought around my 51st Birthday and lots of emails from family and friends reminding me of my ageing years, but glad to be here.  The next day Charlie arrived from North Carolina on a couple of days break from the office and we dined at a ritzy steakhouse inside the Golden Nugget Casino downtown.  Despite it’s name we both went for the stuffed salmon on recommendation from Billy back in Mebane, a good choice along with a bottle of Savignon Blanc from New Zealand – nice meal and thank you Charlie.

On Thursday I did a small pack and headed north to visit all my friends in Reno, as I didn’t need camping gear and food, I left the pannier bags off and just loaded my yellow top bag with a few items.  Not long out of town the weather turned cold and I added an extra layer at my first gas stop, a little further up the highway the rain started and a roadside stop had me donning the wet weather gear.  Without all the normal luggage onboard the bike really flew along and I was soon doing 80mph with ease.

The ride to Reno is 800km and little to no interstate pavement so it is a little more enjoyable, I stopped halfway at the town of Tonapah where once again Subway ‘saved my life’, throw in a bottle of American chocolate milk and I was fresh for the second part of the ride.  A few hours south of my destination I found a Wal-mart and stocked up on some Australian wine, a bottle of Banrock Merlot for $4 and a bottle of Jacobs Creek Cab Sav for $6 – can’t go wrong with those wines at those prices.

I rode into Reno on I80 and negotiated the ‘spagetti’ with ease with the help of my GPS, I was quite proud of myself and maybe I was getting the hang of the road system here.  I swung north and headed up 395 as the sun started to fade in the distance behind the Sierra Nevada ranges, getting to Scott & Joanne’s property nestled in Red Rock Valley – nice to be back at my ‘second home’.

The next day I was finally put to work and about time I earned my keep around here.  Scott’s laptop had met with a fatal disease, a dead hard drive, so I spent the day recovering his data and working on a plan to restore the system.  Scott and I drove down to Reno in the afternoon, purchased a new hard drive at BestBuy and joined Joanne next door at The Great Basin Brewery for beers and a feed, I selected the special, lamb shank with mashed potato and honey glazed sauce. Geez they must raise bloody big sheep in the USA – this thing would of fed an army !  One of the best meals I have eaten on this trip and the onsite brewed beer was pretty good too.

On Saturday the weather started to close in, that morning brought snow to the distant peaks and the fireplace was stoked with logs from the nearby mountain of wood right outside the door.  Scott works for the County fire department over the nearby border in California, so has no shortage of firewood in winter. They are all stacked and ready for the upcoming season, fortunately I’ll be out of Nevada before it really gets cold up here.

Sunday brings rain and winds and we are watching grid-iron ‘football’, baking cookies and just ‘hanging out’ – one of those stay inside days.  The region has had record rainfalls and that helped bring the bush fire season to an early close which makes Scott’s job a little easier.

Home on the 'range' at Scott & Joanne's 'ranch'.

Since my last visit they have been landscaping their semi-rural property, a row of nice trees have been planted down the driveway and some irrigation installed for a slab of grass on the south side of the house looking over the valley, I’ll certainly be coming back to enjoy the improvements they’re making.

On Monday I headed south to Sparks to catch up with Doug & Sande who I met in Alaska and enjoy their hospitality once more, even though this was autumn the temperature hovered around 6′ on the ride down.  It reached 1′ overnight and I woke to snow on the surrounding mountainsides and I am not sure how I could cope living here in winter – I now understand the concept of motorcycle ‘riding season’ when all the bikers here put their bikes into hibernation in the cold months.

The next day was cool and sunny and we drove up into the hills to the historic town of Virginia where silver and gold were mined in the early days.  The main street still has the same character as bygone years and the town earns it’s keep as a tourist attraction and is pretty busy most weekends.

Doing the 'Abbey Road' thing in Virginia City.

We went for a drink at the ‘Bucket of Blood’ Saloon which has a view from the back window to around 100 miles west into California on a clear day, but at $8 beer it would be an expensive way to get drunk !

I had heard of CostCo the Wholesale Hypermart and they have one store in Melbourne, here in the USA they are as common as Aldi, so I went down to the local ‘store’ with Doug & Sande to get a ‘few’ items.  For a start the shoping trolleys are about twice the size of the Australian version so you can imagine what people buy at this place.  Everything is bulk and the items change weekly, most are on pallets and the prices are amazing !

CostCo is not the only 'bulk' in this photo...

Food, wine, electronics, clothes, you can find some crazy items like 52 disposable razors in a bag for $20, why ’52′ one for each week ?  I bought some OralB replacement brushes and some of those emergency reading glasses seeing as I have a habit of losing my prescription glasses !

My last social engagement with Doug & Sande was a neighbourhood Halloween party come wine tasting at the local community centre, I am not sure how the cowboy theme and line dancing worked it’s way into the function, but it was a good night all round and everyone dressed up for the occasion.

Doug & I getting into the spirit of Halloween...

At the party

Friends to boot - time to go...

I left my friends in Mebane and headed for them hills, resuming my ride down the Blueridge Parkway which is a great stretch of road, my route had me heading for Deals Gap on the border of North Carolina and Tennesee.  The area is one of the most popular motorcycle destinations and people come from all over the country (and the world) to ride the famous ‘Tail of the Dragon’ – a 20km stretch of road with around 300 corners.

During my stay I camped at the Ironhorse Motorcycle Lodge,

The 'Bikers' lodge - nice setup...

a purpose built accommodation facility catering to motorcyclists visiting the area. It was an excellent setup with lots of little quirky details that appealed to riders.  The common area included an enormous video projection facility, games room and dining area, but at this stage they are fighting to get a liquor licence due to some inane county regulation – something I have encountered a lot across the USA & Canada. They are happy to sell you a gun, but not a beer ?

I rode the ‘Dragon’ three times, first time up and back with an unloaded bike and it was fun and required a lot of attention and concentration.  There was even a photographic crowd who camp on certain bends and take photos of every bike that screams around the corner, I’ll check their website for my upcoming pics, see what prowess riding style I exhibited that day…

Oh Mammy !

The following week was pretty much a blur as I moved into the ‘south’, the terrain simply goes flat fromTennesee down to Alabama across Mississipi and into Arkansas.  The temperatures were filthy hot and there was just lots and lots of farmland growing mostly cotton and the countryside was just plain boring and really nothing noteworthy of writing about…  in search of such I found the Ozark

How flat... ?

Mountains in the top corner of Arkansas which had some fun twisty roads and the trees were starting to change colour and were real ‘preetty’.

I came across a town called Eureka Springs in an area just like the Blue Mountains and just like Katoomba and packed with tourists…next.  Avoiding that trap I headed over the border just into Missouri to the Roaring River State Park to camp, but after a quick lap of the three packed campgrounds I didn’t want to stay there, so back out the way I came through the forest and wandered down some minor fire trails to find an idyllic site amongst the colourful trees to camp… put up tent, quick bite to eat and crash out….NOT !

Nice camp - noisy 'residents'...

Here is a tip, wherever you find Acorn trees never camp there as they are filled with Squirrels who ALL night chatter continuously !  The ‘din’ was just amazing but at around 3am they all went totally silent – how odd ?

Over the border into Oklahoma and the flatness

Flat as a pancake.

continued, I was surprised to see oil rig derries still pumping oil as I thought J.R. had gone broke years ago when Dallas went dry ?  But there were far more dead derries than working ones… My token trip to Texas was a footprint I left on the border where Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico sort of meet, speaking of which New Mexico appears to look like REAL Mexico, if I thought the Quebec French experience was weird, well I might as well put on a somprero here seniore !  Is this a taste of things to come ?

The Brown Hotel... funny that ?

I overnighted in a pin prick town of Springer at a quirky little hotel with charm to boot, the owners had done a great period reno complete with tons of artifacts and furniture of years gone by, $48 for the night was a bargain and even came with full cooked breakfast off their cafe menu downstairs and speaking of cactus, I had my first enchilada for dinner that night, beef, beans, rice, wrapped in a soggy tortilla. I was so hungry I ate most of it and like a lot of ‘American’ meals it’s quantity over quality !

New Mexico

Next day it was up to the Sangre De Cristo Mountains and I did a lap of the countryside which was pretty much salt bush and trees and sand, again nothing noteworthy, so with plenty of daylight remaining I pushed on to Farmington in the corner of the state and the terrain started to take on desert qualities. The next day was quite long as I wanted to visit Monument Valley which eluded me earlier due to the extreme temperatures at the start of summer and WOW what a reward that place was !

Injun country.

This is Cowboy & Indian country where all them Hollywood classics were shot and the landscape is just stunning – you would easily recognise many of the desert monuments in many black & white John Wayne movies !

My destination was Moab Utah, a desert town set amongst a spectacular landscape of canyons, mesa’s, red clay and slabs of huge red granites in all shapes and sizes.  Home to Arches and Canyonland National Parks, these really are national treasures.  The sensory overload here is unbelievable, so many shapes, contours, colours, it really dazzles the eyeballs, highly recommended if you come this way.

Arches National Park - Moab, Utah.

Canyonland National Park, Moab - Utah.

Blue sky and lots of tourists in Washington today.

I took a brief ride around The White House, Washington Monument and the Capitol building, but seeing as Barack & Michelle wern’t around I headed for Dulles International Airport where the Smithsonian Institute have an annex of their Air & Space Museum.  David in New York recommended this site and it was sensational, very impressive exhibits

Smithsonian Air & Space Museum annex - Dulles International Airport.

including a Space Shuttle and many beautiful restored aircraft of the last century.

From Virginia the next stop was North Carolina enroute to visit my friends and I used a mountain top drive through Shenandough National Park. Skyline drive traversed a mountain range up to 1000 metres with great views on both sides with lots of look outs.

Skyline Drive... appropriately named.

This then joined the Blueridge Parkway which heads south and was a standalone roadway with little crossroads, again a really fun ride with plenty of great corners and leafy overhanging greenery all along the road, very scenic.

I had planned to do this route in two days, but I was having such a ball and riding at highly illegal speeds I made great progress and covered the 700km in just one day.  I arrived in Greensboro North Carolina to stay with Steve, a close friend of many years and even more perfect with the BMW dealer just around the corner.

Guys - where is the welcoming committee ?

I took the bike in next day and they bumped me two days due to contract work for the local Police Department bikes. From then onwards everything went downhill and I soon realised that these guys were incapable of undertaking my gearbox repair and were not genuinely interested in helping me despite what they said.  In hindsight I was happy for them not to touch my bike, however in the process I had now wasted a week coming down early.

Steve headed for Vegas with my other friends to meet up with another friend of mine from Oz, so I house sitted his place during a sweltering week of record local temperatures – bless the air conditioning gods !  The following Sunday I re-packed and headed south to meet up with them all on their return and re-parked the bike for another week, while I played tour guide for my friend Warren. We hired a car and went up to DC for some sight seeing and ended up dodging flood waters along the Atlantic coast and I even had to do a house call enroute for a customer back in Sydney. (Hello Therese if you’re reading this).

Dorothy, Warren & I... farthest computer job I had ever done !

We called on Dorothy down near Wilmington and spent a great day with her and I installed Skype on her PC so she can chat with her family down in Oz.  (I wonder what they’ll say when they see the 38,000km travelling time bill !!)

It was fun staying with the NC guys as usual and we even got to go to a football match which to say the least was ‘interesting’ – the rules of Gridiron certainly appear confusing to a foreigner, but WOW what a spectacle – they really get into their sport !

The guys helped me a lot during this trip and a big thank you Charlie, Bill & Steve – I really appreciated your assistance in planning, execution and good advice you offered me throughout this adventure and I think we are a little ‘even’ now…

The following Tuesday Warren departed for Sydney via Chicago and LAX and I continued my journey heading west…

Football is far more than a game... it's a way of life here !!

Bill, Charlie & I at the 'Tarheels" UNC game - 'our' team won.

Downtown Broadway - view from David & Francine's apartment.

I was met by fellow ADV member David who lives with his wife Francine on Broadway. Co-incidentally David & Francine met my riding buddy Adam on their recent trip to Alaska, so it just goes to show how small the world can be, especially on a motorcycle.  That night the local ADV/motorcycle crowd gather at a downtown pub for a social evening and I got to meet some of the New York members over some beers and then we gathered further on for a late dinner then home to bed near 1am.

Next morning David set me up with a push bike, lock and helmet and it was a perfect way to get around town, this city is just AMAZING it buzzes everywhere you go, the weather was near perfect 21′ and blue skies, so I headed downtown along Broadway to Wall Street,  then followed the riverside bikeway all the way to Central Park and how brilliant is that place – what vision someone had so long ago for the locals to enjoy such a legacy, lucky it was a weekday as I’d imagine weekends would be near a crush !

The people you meet on the other side of the world... Carolyn, Mal & me.

Next day I met up with friends Carolyn & Mal who were in town on vacation after a conference in Canada, they were staying in Times Square and we headed to 9th Street for some breakfast before hitting the pavement of New York.  My host David had recommended The Rockerfeller Centre over The Empire State Building as the queues were shorter and it was far cheaper, a good move.  From there we took the Subway downtown and caught the Staten Island Ferry which passes right by The Statue of Liberty, again free and no queues over to Liberty Island.

Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry.

A quick bite to eat at a Subway outlet this time then back on the ferry.

We walked up to Ground Zero and it was pretty much a construction site with building underway for a new tower.  Lots and lots of tourists taking photos of cranes and construction crews, the anniversary was just last week… so I couldn’t imagine what the crowds would of been liked then.

Ground Zero construction site.

We met up again for dinner and this time with another Aussie, Sarah, a family friend of Carolyn’s who was enroute to Austria.  I seeked out a decent Thai restaurant again on 9th Street and it was pretty good also and BYO !

On Friday I rode the BMW out to Flushing in the suburbs of New York, I had ordered a new tyre and John an ADV member offered to fit it… well what a site that was – the night before we had a storm, but around John’s place the streets were littered with fallen tree’s everywhere !

John aka 'JD' did a fine job fitting my tyre and refused any payment.. "New York hospitality" - thanks John !

It was like a mini tornedo had hit the suburb, there were streets closed everywhere, long time I saw anything like that ! A few hours later (we chatted too much) and as the American’s say “you’re done”, John insisted on no payment “New York hospitality” – so some ADV credit goes into the ‘bank’ downunder.

My last NYC task was to cross the Brooklyn & Manhattan Bridges, so a quick change into shorts and back on the push-bike for a dizzy ride down Broadway fighting the hordes of other tourists on two legs.  You can cover so much more ground on a bicycle, plus it’s great exercise and you get to test your traffic skills, which in New York seems more like an online game, them Yellow Taxis definately the enemy !

Crash and burn street.

Brooklyn Bridge cycleway

The rain bounced in and out and the closer I got to Saint John the foggier it got and once the highway exit came up I elected to keep going as it’s pointless being tourist in the rain, let alone trying to see anything with fog so thick. I then made the decision to head for the border and the financial haven of the USA and as it was midday and only an hour away, made perfect cents.

Goodbye Canada - goodbye $$$$$

"Got a dollar mate...?"

Speaking of which my parting farewell to Canada was spending my last remaining currency so I headed to the Dollarama store which thankfully gives the Canadians some good value-for-money merchandise… but alas and I kid you not, I ONLY had 0.99c left !!!!

For once the border crossing was devoid of travellers with only two cars ahead of me, yet my questioning was a little more lengthy with the normal questions and again the disbelief that someone could take a one year holiday.

I thought the French Police might of been waiting for me here...

I am sure this border guard had questioned me before at another crossing or maybe they all look the same ?  He even quizzed me if I had a criminal record or been in trouble with the Police… “only in America and the cop let me off with a warning and told me to stick to the right hand side of the road…” Nice to be ‘home’.

So where now ? I did my trick and pointed to a town on the map, which looked the right distance away and headed south through the state of Maine.  The rain miraculously stopped over the border, and all of a sudden I felt like I was in a very strange land ? I even rode slowly and it took me some time to realise how weird Canada had made me or I had got used to Canada ? The only good thing was that I had less language problems back there (except for the Quebec experience) and all of a sudden I had to put my American thinking cap on, yes, you have to think differently from country to country…

The roads were reasonably quiet and I followed the coast south on highway 1.  I wanted a cheap hotel for the night to wash off the days dirt and grime from riding in the rain and besides hotels are far cheaper in the USA.  I reached the town of Ellsworth, did a quick round of the cheap hotels and settled on a fabulous retro-style place run by a mad woman with two dogs and a railway line running right behind my room, luckily only used on weekends for tourist trips. As it came with fridge and microwave I headed for the supermarket for cheese, milk, an Australian red ($3.99 !), a microwave pasta meal and bananas.

The WiFi was sketchy but I managed to contact an ADV member in New Hampshire to catch up over the weekend prior to the run down to New York city.  I didn’t do any research on north east USA and now I was paying for my slackness.  I didn’t know where to go or what to see so once again headed off on a 400km trip to route 17 on the other side of the state which I heard that night was a great road for motorcycles.  Fifteen minutes into the ride I realised I needed to conserve my rear tyre to get me to New York where a replacement was waiting, so I pulled over to the town of Belfast to re-consider my route.

I was meant to meet Rick, we had a great chat.

While pondering over my map a local by the name of Rick stopped by for a chat and he had lived in Belfast for 20 years and travelled to Central America a few times and then my ears pricked, around an hour later I had more information about Costa Rica and Nicaraqua than I had read on the internet and I think he may of  convinced me to go…

From Belfast I changed plans and stayed on highway 1 heading south to wherever I got in the day, the road winds through lots of pretty seaside country retreats with lots of green grass, thick wads of trees hiding large country manors and towns full of expensive looking cars, the wealthy retiree belt maybe ?  I got to the town of Bath on some river and got a bath, down it came, I headed for the local Tourist Information to find some digs for the night but the woman quoted me ridiculous figures for the hotels and B&B’s in town. Luckily they had an internet PC and in 15 minutes I found a place for $60 just out of town.  They just don’t get it sometimes…

The cheap roadside hotel was devoid but it had undergone a renovation and again had a nice retro feel about it, updated bathrooms and fluro lights ! Yes, you guessed it, the owners were Indian !  By nightfall the place was packed, it had good WiFi (I am typing this there) and included breakfast – no brainer for $60.

The rain had cleared overnight and Friday was a little cloudy as I left Brunswick sout on highway 1.  I gave up on this road within half an hour of start stop start stop through the little towns and jumped on Interstate 95 to make some decent progress.  I called by the BMW dealer in New Hampshire, the people I bought my BMW riding suit from a few months earlier, Rose, the woman who helped me was very patient and I stopped be to introduce and thank her.  Their dealership was very sharp and all the staff were very friendly and they had a sensational service department, pity I didn’t buy my bike from them…

Kim, Mike and me at 'The Toy Garage' with some new souvenirs.

My next stop was to visit Mike & Kim in nearby Hudson New Hampshire, two ADV members who caught my attention from their trips to Iceland and a country that is on my ‘to do list’. They were a wealth of information and had some great stories and photos. Mike & Kim were avid motorcyclists and lovely folks. We all went riding on Saturday and they took me through some real picturesque countryside atypical of this ‘neck of the woods’.  A pity it wasn’t a few weeks later as Fall was coming and I’d imagine the changing of the leaves would be near spectacular.  We called into ‘The Toy Garage’ nearby where a retired couple restore old vehicles and memoribila and support the local Police Department at special functions. Really nice folks and an amazing garage !

Oh bugger.. they took the machine gun off !

Next day I got to ride Mike’s Ducati Multistrada and his KTM690 dirt bike and even got a spin in their neighbours Russian Ural sidecar outfit – now that was mad !

I spent Monday chasing BMW and finally got onto the ‘Customer Service Representative’ to try and get some ‘motion’ on my front wheel issue, but once again ending up at a brick wall.  The gearbox issue is still a long way from being resolved, so looks like another round of telephone calls to the next dealer down the track… Another great meal with Kim & Mike that night, I did a light pack and got ready for the ride down to the ‘Big Apple’ the next day, so stay tuned for that ‘urban adventure’ !

Atop Signal Hill, the fort protecting the harbour entrance.

The highway finally ends at St Johns, the provinces capital and steeped in history going back hundreds of years.  St Johns is the most easterly point on the North American continent and the port is protected on three sides from the extreme weather of the Atlantic Ocean and battles were faught for control of this strategic location.

St Johns is a really pretty city and upholds it’s British heritage with a strong Irish accent evident in the locals.  Newfoundland only joined Canada in 1949 after a close referendum.  The city’s harbour plays host to many large fishing fleets, cruise ships, Naval vessels and is a hub for supplying the off shore oil platforms.

Colourful downtown terraces dot the streetscape.

Canada has gotten rid of any 'Robin Hoods'...

Fortunately, next door to my downtown hostel was an excellent cafe selling decent espresso coffee so I was just about in heaven !  Great location.

I spent three days wandering and riding around the city with great weather and plenty to see and do, it was a great place and highly recommended if you get this far from home.

The Shamrock is a dead giveaway, need I say more...

I left St Johns via the south coast and had a bizarre ‘death day’ ? I passed quite a few cemetary’s, a casket maker, headstone carver and even overtook an Ambulance with flashing lights on the way to an emergency and maybe that’s why there’s so many cemetary’s… the Ambo’s drive sooooo slow ! (and they are sub-contractors, go figure ?)  The south coast reminded me of Alaska in some places with wide open windy tundra devoid of trees, but still quite spectacular.

Open Wide - the ferry's swallow more than just cars !

My GPS once again had me off in the never-never heading for another Canadian ferry experience, this time with a $200 price tag, but thankfully an easy check-in, smooth crossing but a sleepless night in a recliner.

Nova Scotia added to my list of Provinces and an early docking had me riding the Cabot Trail by 7am, this road winds around a large peninsula and affords great ocean views, hamlets, parks and occassional wildlife !  It was a warm sunny superb summers day and I opted for an early day stopping at a seaside campground at Inverness and they charged me $31 for a tent site, the dearest so far on my travels and simply outrageous and I told them too…

I'll take a Kangaroo over these any day !

The blue sky didn’t last much longer and a walk down the beach soon turned to light rain, but that never deterred the locals who were enjoying the warmth in the low 20′s.  I got an overnight visit from some sort of wildlife, possibly a bear or wolf scrounging through my rubbish bin a metre from the tent, needless to say I played ‘dead’.

An early 7am departure had me riding into grey skies and the news of hurricane ‘Earl’ off the coast of eastern USA.  Turned out it bypassed them and came straight for Nova Scotia and the day went from bad to worse to even critical conditions, but I’m now pretty tough and battled on through torrential rain and strong winds bound for the little town of Kingsport at the invitation of an ADV member.

Phil & I preferred coffee after breakfast.... (only joking Jan !)

I arrived at the home of Jan and Philip White just after midday and they were all prepared for my arrival after tracking my progress via my SPOT satellite messenger.  Philip’s directions were exacting and luckily I read them carefully as my GPS had no record of their street address.  I now resembled a drowned rat and totally drenched from head to toe, my maps and notebooks turned to paper mache and even my panniers managed a centimetre of Canada’s best !

In 6 hours time this bay resembles a sandy desert.. amazing tides.

A quick change into dry clothes and a welcome cup of tea set the afternoon’s agenda as we talked and chatted about my travels and Philip filled me in on some Canadian history and the amazing tides of the nearby Bay of Fundy which have the highest and lowest tidal flows in the world and wow what an amazing sight to see !

The surrounding Annapolis Valley has very rich soils and is a large agricultural region growing fruits, vegetables including a wine making industry.  I saw crops here I had never seen before and I was tempted so many times to stop at a roadside orchard and grab an apple and with the stormy winds, plenty lying on the ground headed for the juice factory.

Seaside rally at Digby - nice crowd of folks.

On Sunday I rode down to the seaside town of Digby with two of Philip’s buddies, with all three of them on matching Honda Valkery motorcycles, these things have six cylinders and resemble two lounge chairs on wheels and look VERY comfortable from the lofty heights of my trail bike blowing in the wind !  The town was hosting a bike rally by the seaside and it resembled a mini Sturgis (the big bike rally in South Dakota). I really liked the friendliness here as all makes of bikes were welcome and there was lots of metal variety and some decent Canadian style sanga sandwiches – yum… !  Being a long weekend Phil took me for a tour around the local area in his pickup and learned some more about the local area, it’s history and the local industries.  Nice part of the world.  We swung past a fish monger down by the bay and picked up two fresh live lobsters for dinner, these are the ones with big claws that break fingers in half !  Needless to say they made good eating and we polished them off with a local wine and one of them imported ones from downunder – Yellow Tail Shiraz mmmm……

With all my luggage now dry, new oil in the bike, Jan’s fresh baked muffins and local apples onboard I bit farewell to my lovely Canadian hosts adding two more new friends to my address book and headed for Halifax, the provinces capital.

I stayed once again at a youth hostel, I know I am a bit old for that, but they are great value for money and you meet other travellers and swap valuable information, plus you get WiFi, laundry facilities and a roof over your head for around $25 and that is cheaper than a tent site in Canada.  As it turned out the QE3 was in dock for the day and I had only the day before shown Jan & Phil my photos of her in Sydney Harbour I took last year, so what a co-incidence.  It’s a big ship and there was another alongside called the ‘Explorer of the Sea’, these ships dock daily and as I type I hear the horn of another arrival.  The city’s treasurer must rub his hands most mornings.

A whistle stop stay in Halifax and time to hit the road USA bound.

A bit 'Monty Python' ish....

and I thought the USA mid-west was full of churchies ! I bunked at a hostel in Rivera-du-loup in preference to the nearby  Canadian National Park where a tent site cost $36 !  The hostel was $21 and included breakfast, WiFi and as it was Saturday $10 got you French cooked Italian 3 course meal ! No comparison there.

I was headed around the Gaspe Peninsula, a recommendation from an ADV member in Nova Scotia but my GPS took me off course to an outdated ferry route which had long closed and then I had to re-route the way I came to the next closest bridge, costing me 2 hours of lost time. The coastal peninsula was full of tiny towns and summer holiday traffic littered the roads.  Nice views east across the Gulf of St Lawrence, but the rest was mainly pine trees once more.  I clamoured into the town of Gaspe and camped by a lakeside.

Next mornig I decided to cut back across the peninsula inland but later in the process learnt I had actually missed the most picturesque part of the peninsula along the northern coast…oh well.

Happy birthday to me... 30,000km in 3 months !

Enroute my bike turned over 30,000km and I have been on the road for nearly 4 months !  By the coastline was gaggle of wind farms and I detoured up some fire trails to take a closer look, just like back in Wyoming the Canadians were populating the coastal hills with ‘forest’s of these monsters.

Propeller head

I was booked on the 5pm ferry from Matane to Baie-Comeau across the Gulf bound for Labrador heading north and as I arrived in darkness took a hotel night at the EconLodge… goodbye another CA$100 !!

Crossed these tracks around 20 times today !

The Labrador Highway is currently this summers ‘vogue’ adventure ride as a new 300km section was recently opened allowing access down to the coast and avoiding a 2 day ferry trip. So with a few days up my sleeve decided to do the ‘loop’ like many others.  The ride up to Labrador City was on dirt road, a couple of hundred ‘K’s’ of some bumpy corrugated ‘highway’ with lots of railroad crossings.  I was so relieved to see the roadside sign “Welcome to Labrador Newfoundland” – I had finally

Au Revoir Quebec !

left the french thing behind – THANK GOD !  (If they sold Citroens, changed the currency to francs and put round hats on the Police, then Quebece could put the lid on the goldfish bowl).

Trying to find digs in the city was difficult, even the campground had closed, so I managed to get a B&B for $50 staying with Lottie who is a native ‘Newfie’ or Newfoundlander.

Am I am in Ireland ?

Her accent was part Irish and she understood every word I spoke ! Another 400km of dirt and some nice new tar in parts as the Labrador Government try’s to improve their ‘highway’ systemt (I actually like the dirt). At the halfway mark at Chisolm Falls I met Gary on a Suzuki Vstrom and we headed on, seperated by a dust storm each.  At the gas station we heard that there were some abandoned wolf cubs on the road out of town and amazingly

Cute - but cuddly ?

I found them, at first I thought they were wild dogs or alsations, but on closer inspection they had pointy ears and definately in the wolf category, I whistled them and they came closer for a look – that was pretty amazing close encounter with wildlife.

We re-grouped at Goose Bay and another $50 B&B, toured the town and river, hit the supermarket for beer and filled up on gas for the next big day’s ride.

More 'inmates' from ADV.

Phase III of the new highway opened only a month or so ago and it was 397km of dirt down to Port Hope Simpson and an early start got me away to a fun day on mixed and often slippery gravel. At the end of this stretche I bumped into another convoy of ADV riders heading the opposite direction and we swapped notes.  Nice guys. The final section to the coast was quite rough but had some of the best scenery I have seen so far on this trip, semi alpine tundra and raised lakes looking down towards the coast, add in some really quaint little towns and sea fog and it even appeared a little ‘Nordic’ !

No campground at Blanc-Sablom so an overnighter in a new hotel for $CA100 (!) which turned out to be a failed aged care facility so they converted it to a hotel – I thought the design was  a bit strange ? An early start to make the ferry and a mixed up booking (I was down as 2 trucks ?) finally got me onboard with Gary. More ADV riders exited the boat on arrival and we chatted briefly with them too. Surprisingly the crossing only cost CA$11.50 for 1.5 hour crossing, a bargain, even in Canada !

Oceans 11 - finally the Atlantic Ocean...

I was at St Barbe, on the island state of Newfoundland, turned left and headed north to the tip called St Anthony, nice little town and even found some decent fish & chips and an OJ for $20 !  Took my first glimpse officially of the Atlantic Ocean and headed for a campground a little early as the previous 3 long days of dirt had finally caught up with me and I was tired.  Had my first moose experience while exiting the showers – there was one big dude munching his way through the kids playground and it was dark, so I sidesteped him.  Later that night they paid a visit to my tent and wow they are big buggers.  Two of them munched there way around my tent and cna they eat !  No pictures sorry as they don’t like flashes and bright lights I am told…

I was still tired the next morning so made a lazy start heading down

Grose Morne NP - Summer fjord in there..

the coast through Grose Morne National Park and ended the day at Deer Lake camped right on the water.  Morning brought a pea soup fog and a wrapped a soggy tent into the bag, grabbed gas and rode east on a boring Trans Canada highway up to Twillingate, or iceberg alley !  Yes, they float by all on their own but now that it was high summer I had missed the flotilla by a few weeks, but I did see a few whales and dolphins up at the lighthouse, in fact you will see more whales here in an hour than you would see off the coast of Sydney in a year !  Thar she blows !

Pretty fishing town of Twillingate, Newfoundland.

Twillingate is a really pretty seaside town with a fishing industry still intact, the town has the fishy smell and I even found a truckload of Australian wine up at the Government controlled and licenced Bottle Shop – double USA prices though…

You find Australian wines in strange places - (top of the world ?)