2up to Labrador - Another father/son adventure

June 20, 2014

Day 13

I woke up and jumped in the giant shower and couldn't help thinking I was going to have a rough time with the tire this morning.

I went outside right away and set the rim with the rubber mess on it and the new tire in the sun, yes another glorious day, to warm up and possibly make it easier.

Dylan and I went to breakfast and were treated to a wonderful meal and great company from the owner and another gentleman who had checked in later the previous night.

Dylan gulping the orange juice.



A bad photo of a very nice family room we had use of but never went in there. There was also a computer we could have used but I had my own.



I was dreading the tire change. That’s when my phone rang and it was Dwayne!!! He said to let him know when we were done with breakfast and he would pick us up. OMG, the start of this day was going pretty darn good.

Dwayne picked us up with his two lively dogs and we went over to his house. We also got to meet Troy's wife as we were leaving the B&B and she was starting her day off there.

Inside Dwayne's garage he had some "artwork" on the door.



A fuzzy picture of Dwayne getting the old tire off.



A better picture lubing up the bead.



Dwayne wanted to make sure Dylan got included in the process so he got to "set the bead".



Getting that tire swapped was quicker than I even had expected. I could not thank Dwayne enough. He said had we been sticking around he would have taken us fishing on the ocean since he was putting his boat in the water today. Damn! He did convince us to take the time to ride the Cabot Trail. He said you can't come all the way to Nova Scotia and be so close and NOT ride it! Ok, you convinced me!

I reached into my pocket to pull some cash out to thank him and he says "put that away or I'll slap the shit out of you and take the tire off." Alrighty then.... Thanks Dwayne, you brought faith back to me that the world does have some very kind and generous people in it.

He loaded up the dogs, they LOVED jumping into the back of his Ranger, and took us back to the B&B. He hung around and chatted about the area and things he is planning on doing while I quickly mounted the rim.

Doesn't that look nice!



We were loaded and on the road by 10am! Sure as hell can't beat that! We had a flat in Newfoundland, took an 8 hour ferry ride to Nova Scotia with a flat, had a tire shipped from New Brunswick via bus in less than 8 hours (some said it would take 5 days), slept in a wonderful B&B and had a great breakfast, woke up to a sunny cool day and had our tire mounted and were about to ride what could be claimed to be the "most famous drive in Canada". We are living large!!!

We got some directions from the owners and headed out toward Cape Breton and the Cabot Trail with a fresh outlook on life and the hope that the ideals we believed in were still strong and relieved that there are kind and generous people in this world, no matter where you are.

Thank you to all the folks that helped us out. I'm sure there were more but these are the names or screen names I have. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You have restored the faith. I will promise you this; It will be carried forward.

Ray, Dwayne, Gasburner, Kelsow, Thumper, Mapleleaf, Joe_treen, Husarider, YY4V, CanadianFJR, Accom, Shane.

Cabot Trail, here we come....

Day 13 continued

We made it out of North Sydney with no problems. Taking it easy to wear the release agent off of the rear tire.

We rode by this place; Lick-A-Chick. I was wondering if they had free samples! Ahhh, they were closed though.



Can you believe the kind of day we were having? Approaching this bridge I was hoping it wasn’t grated.



Snapping pics as we went across the bridge.



I know…keep your eyes forward. I can snap a lot of pictures in a short period of time if the light is good. The camera is on burst mode and with the right light can take a lot of pics.



I can’t help myself!



It was not a grated bridge but they sure did paint a crooked line.



Ahh, Cape Breton.

A couple videos leading up to the Cabot Trail and Cape Breton.

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The Englishtown ferry.



The ferry was cute. It went to that sand bar. That’s it. Can you say bridge? I’m sure there is some good reasoning behind having a ferry and not a bridge but I’m hard pressed to think of any.



From the ferry.





We were packed on there like sardines for the 5 minute ride.



Am I getting any better at these selfies?



Pulling up to the ferry.

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Loading the ferry.

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Unloading the ferry.

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The official start to the Cabot Trail.

............more...........

Nick

"Am I getting any better at these selfies?


"

No, but don't let that stop you.

The Hendendaus are what I plan to run so when you get back from your jaunt let us know your thoughts on them.

Started reading a few days ago so catching up. Love the report. What a great adventure for you and your son Love the pictures and video as well.

Cheers!

I have been very happy with my set. I have about 7000 miles on them and the rear is good for another 3000 and the front still is in great shape so who knows how long it will last. I ran the TKC 80's before and about 3500 miles the rear was ready to be replaced.

Day 13 Continued

Back from the BMW MOA Rally in St. Paul. That was fun!

Some really bad photos from a very good rally:

https://treynolds.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/BMW-MOA-Rally-2014

Had something bite my hand and couldn’t close my hand the first couple of days. All good for the ride home though.

Back to the Cabot Trail…

We rode past Ski Cape Smokey which is Nova Scotia’s highest ski hill.



This video was just prior to entering the park.

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The twists and turns were LOTS of fun.

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The road surface was a bit rough, as you can see in the video, but the views and the twists make up for it. We were told to be careful of animals on the rides and the turns. The foliage was very close to the road and they leap out in front of you.

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As we enter Ingonish.

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We stopped to take a break. This was going to be another casual day for us. We had to stop and pay our fee for entering the park first. The last collecting the fee told us where to go for some coffee (and hot chocolate). We saw one of these EarthRoamer’s. I looked the pricing up when we got home. I thought they were pretty cool looking and seemed very functional. Holy buckets! That’s way out of my league! Base price is around $300,000 for the one I took this photo of. :eek1



Dylan using the WiFi emailing a girl back home. While we waited for the tire at Tim Horton’s he asked how come she won’t believe me that I’m in Nova Scotia with a flay tire? I took a photo of him and the daily paper. Then she believed him.



He had been wanting the fish but the regulations were so convoluted for a non-resident we opted to not try fishing. We stopped at this Outdoor Store to look around and the owner filled Dylan’s head with visions of fish on the end of a line. He used all the money he had saved on buying a pack rod.





This place was packed wall to wall with gear.



We stopped up the road a ways and he immediately set out to try his hand fishing in the ocean.



While he got his rod ready (had enough money for a couple of lures, too) I played tourist and took photos and talked to some local fisherman.



I watched some of the boats come in drop off their catch (lobster) and immediately go back out.



About the middle of this photo you can see some rope hanging from the wall into the water. That’s where the lobsters are kept for up to 10 days while waiting to be picked up by truck.



He thought he had something follow his lure.



Walking further out on the rocks.



Once he was in a position to fish for awhile I sat down and wrote in the journal about the last few days events. I’m glad I do this on our trips because it really does make recalling all the things we did, the people we met, and the places we went a lot easier. Between that and a camera with a GPS, I couldn’t lose. Unless of course the GPS hadn’t sync’d up with the satellites yet. Oh well.



It was a beautiful day. When you haven’t had many, you sure do appreciate them when you get a couple in a row.



A little bit of contrast with the lobster traps; old and new.



As I sit at my PC I can think back to the exact moment I took this photo and I can hear the waves, the boats, and birds. I can also smell the ocean.



Now there is a young man enjoying himself. Doesn’t need anything but some water and a fishing rod. Perfectly content. Being able to sit back and watch him feel confident in what he was doing and where he was made feel feel really good. After all the days of riding hard in the weather conditions we were dealt it was very satisfying.



Yes Dylan, there’s also seaweed in the ocean…



With al the twists and turns and the beauty of the area I didn’t take a lot of photos. For some reason, still don’t know what happened, I ended up heading toward “Meat Cove”. Never made it there but we did make it to “Deadmans Pond”.



Once we were back on the Cabot Trail we started to climb some beautiful mountains. These were along the Aspy Fault in the Cape Breton Highlands. Spectacular views!





Looking pretty “hawt”, eh?



Proof we were looking at the Aspy Fault!



The shadows from the clouds gave the view some perspective.





Some flowers were blooming.



Dylan surveying the land.



The Cape Breton Highlands. Lots of folks heading into the woods backpacking. I’m sure that would be a wonderful experience as well.



Our GPS knew we were on the Cabot Trail. We were now heading south and trying to get to Prince Edward Island via the ferry.



This photo was taken just before Cheticamp still inside the national park.



Not really sure where along the Cabot Trail this is. Pretty sure it’s as we were traveling south along the Cabot Trail.

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Right before the Canso Causeway we stopped to find a campground at “?”. The lady was really helpful inside and even called and made sure we had a spot. No sooner had we stepped outside it started to rain. Grrrrrr…

Approaching the causeway, you can see the storm front. We were heading right at it!



We pulled into the campground, Linwood Harbour Campground, we were a little stunned. We were the only ones here. The owner said give me $20 and pick any site you want. We had to check them out because they were all pretty wet. The view of the office, laundry, showers and rest rooms.



Our campsite over looking Linwood Harbour.



Took a picture of the big purchase for Dylan so he could show mom.



The town we were going to get some dinner in was packed beyond belief. There was some kind of “Aces Poker Game” going on so we didn’t stop for food. We ate freeze dried meals tonight. As we finished cleaning up, the rain started to come down in sheets. We just went to bed. The WiFi was pretty good there so I used iMessage to catch up with life with my wife. She sent me a close up pictures of our German Wire Haired Pointer Libby and I sent Libby one back.



Libby said “Me no like”.

Even though we had a later start and we stopped quite a bit along the Cabot Trail, we did 373 miles. We were tired.

June 21, 2014

Day 14

It was raining on and off as we woke up. It did not look like it was going to let up so we got up and began packing. I took my sleeping bag and pad over to the laundry and packed it up. Dylan stayed in the tent and got his packed up there.



We did the quick breakfast of Clif Bars and headed toward the ferry to PEI.



You can see that the weather was not very good. Very overcast and it looked as if it could turn real ugly, real quick.





We were trying to get to the ferry to make the 11:15 run. It's kind of odd but they only charge you when you LEAVE Prince Edward Island. The ferry ride for a bike and 2 passengers was somewhere around $40 but we were taking the Confederation Bridge off the island and that's only $18. We were a bit early so we were first in line. Lane 4 was all ours.



We got sandwhiched by a semi on one side and then three huge tour buses on the other.



The ship had not pulled into port yet so we waited a few minutes. Went to the gift shop before those tour buses had pulled up and got a couple of stickers and Dyaln wnated some fudge. This is the ship opening it's bow up to unload.



Another couple of shots of the ship as it was unloading.





The folks loading the ship where very nice to us. They let us drive on before they let anyone else in! We were all alone in the belly of the ship!



I wasn't smart enough to take another battery with me for the camera when we went up to the passenger deck so I don't have any photos of the passage other than a few with my phone.

Umm, Captain, these orange boats don't look like they get used much. Are you sure they're fully functional?



Dyan and I had watched a How It's Made that showed how life boats in these tubes were made and how they were tested. This ship had those exact "capsules". It was cool to see them all lined up ready to go if needed.

It was a ncie ride over to the island. The ship even had WiFi! I put a new battery in the camera and we got ready. Same folks who loaded the ship were going to unload. The guy said if we were all suited up and ready to go he would let us off first. Deal!!



The bow of the ship starting to lift.



The guy says it's going to get really loud.



It did, too!



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We were the first ones off.

We're on Prince Edward Island! It looks like the weather was going to clear up but it was short lived.



Anther blurry shot as we approached the Confederation Bridge. It's just about at the horizon.



We didn't do anything on the island. It was raining and we just wanted to try and ride past the front. This was the rest area right before the bridge.



These signs said no texting hands free device only and ZERO TOLERANCE. Ok, I get it. I'll put my camera away in a second.



They weren't messing around either. There were cameras all over the place. This is the approach right at the base of the bridge.



We're now in New Brunswick! We were heading toward the city our tire had shipped from, Moncton.



We needed a night in a hotel so we stopped in Moncton at the Motel 6. It had just been remodled and was just about brand new. It was right next door to a casino. You can see the bike from our room.



Dylan went to the pool to go swimming so I also went and took the journal. I hate these pools in hotels. They're hot, humid, smell like way too much chlorine is being used and are very loud.



When I looked at places to eat dinner the casino popped up as having an all you can eat seafood buffet! Score!!! We walked over.



It was a pretty good sized resort, casino and convention center. The place was packed.



We walked into the lobby only to find out that the buffet was in the casino. They wouldn't let Dylan in because of his age. Oh well, we'll find someplace else to eat.

We opted for...you guessed it. McDonald's! It was close and easy to get to. We did not opt for the McLobster sandwhich though.



We only went 247 miles today. It felt good to dry out. From here on it will be a lot of highway miles.

On any of the ferries did you need your own tie down straps?

No, they had all the straps you would need. They won't assist in strapping the bike but they have all the straps you'll need. They even had web loops or rope loops so that the finish of the bike didn't have any metal hooks touching it.

Todd

Small world. I stayed at that Motel6 in Moncton last year. The girl behind the counter recommended Jean's Restaurant, straight down the road toward town, next to the Fast Fuel. Turned out to be a good choice. Decent food, decent prices. For those who follow.

I can imagine it just sitting here at my PC reading this! Great job!

Thank you

Rewind!

Day 13

I have one video I found of crosssing over the Canso Causeway.

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June 22, 2014

Day 15

The looonnngggg highway stretches begin. We made arrangements with my wife and my oldest son to meet in Mackinaw City in a few days. We needed to begin heading in that direction without getting too sidetracked.



Beautiful sky and very calm waters.



When we crossed the border back into the US, I was asked if I was bringing back any whale bone. I had almost purchased some ear rings and was glad I had not.

I like Maine's motto "The way life should be".



Coming back from using the restroom. It was getting a little warm. This was an information center. We stopped in to get some camping info from them. The gentleman inside said "you're not going anywhere until you tell me about the Trans Labrador Highway". Once he found out we had just ridden it. He was in his 70's and wanted to take his motor-home and fish along the way. What a fun guy to chat with!



We were headed to Freeport, Maine to visit LL Bean. I had been there with my wife 30 years ago and enjoyed it. It didn't matter what time we got there since they are open 24 hours.

We checked into the Freeport KOA to camp for the night. As we set our tent up an elderly woman came along, with a KOA yellow shirt on, and says "I think you're going to want to move that tent over here". She pointed to a rocky uneven part of the site. I told her no, I think I'll leave it right where it's at. She began to tell me that's where everyone else puts their tent. Young man you shouldn't argue with a 91 year old woman. Oh, my! She began to laugh and she told us all about herself and how she has NEVER taken a single prescribed medication in her 91 years. What a fun character to chat with!

We then headed out to Freeport to check out how things have changed. Here's a short video as we rode into town.

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One of the employees was nice enough to take our photo together once I had one of Dylan already.





These were carved ducks. What details and craftsmanship!



Wouldn't this be a cool living room?



Now here's a young lad living large!



I started learning how to make black ash baskets. These were quite nice.



Dylan is thinking "Hmmm, I'd like one of each please." We both started fly fishing last year.



An albino trout in their aquarium.



Yup, gotta act like one of the tourists. It was pretty cool though!



We were still on the look out for a place to eat a cheap lobster. One of the guys at Bean's told us there was a place right across the parking lot.

Off we went.



Thank goodness it wasn't far. We still had all of our riding gear on and it was warm.



This must be the place.



This is what you get for $18. Not bad, eh?



Dylan was a bit skeptical but he was hungry.



Yeah, Dyl, the plastic forks aren't quite the correct utensil. Better use the cracker thingy a bit more.



He thought I was taking a picture and it was actually a video. Goof...

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The remnants.



After we eat our lobster dinner we went to Ben & Jerry's for dessert. That hit the spot! We sat in the courtyard and did some people watching, which is always entertaining.

Dylan wanted to go look at the kayaks and bikes so we went to that building.



Dylan dreaming...and trying to figure out a way to strap that on the bike.



It was a long day and starting to get dark as we headed back to the KOA. We were pretty tired. Dylan went for a quick swim then we called it a day.

We did 424 miles today but that was only because of the high speeds on the highway.

Great ride report!

Another rewind

Day 15

I took this photo while we were eating our Ben & Jerry's and sitting in the courtyard.



June 23, 2014

Day 16

We must have been pretty slow moving this morning. I had a snail on the outside of my boot that was a long way from the ground.



It was already getting warm this morning so we knew it was going to be a rough day. Today was all about getting some miles on. It was going to be difficult though because to cross New Hampshire and Vermont there is no easy (read quick) way to go east/west. Lots of two lanes with nice views though.

I think this bridge needs some paint on one side.



Missed the New Hampshire sign! Here's the crossing into Vermont.



Must have been getting ready for the July 4th celebration.



Went through lots of small towns. Traffic on these two lane roads was getting heavier.



I don't have a clue why I took this photo. Maybe the cows on the roof?



Outside of Troy/Albany, NY we hit Interstate 90. It was really warm out and very few photos were taken while moving.

We stopped at one of the rest areas and we see these guys working on a Class C Motorhome. The entire front end above the cab was encased in duct tape! They were adding more!!





We sat down and ate some lunch and looked for a place to camp tonight. I found a really nice (in hindsight) place on Oneida Lake. It was called Oneida Shores. Our site was under the trees right on the lake. Beautiful area just outside Syracuse.

I told Dylan if he changed into cooler clothes and took his sleeping bag and pad out I would get our camp set up.

He was moving quick then so he could get his line wet.

Almost silhouetted.









I left Dylan to fish and ran to a "Nice-n-Easy". I had ever been in one but it had a little bit of everything.

I grabbed a few things for a quick dinner and ran back to the campsite. Dylan getting ready to eat.



That's all the pictures I took for the day. I know, I'm a loser...

We stopped just outside Bennington, VT for a break. As we enjoyed our lemonade and some beef jerky I looked up a motel my parents had taken us to several times called the Iron Kettle Motel. We (my brother and I) were pretty young. Every morning my dad would walk us down to the end of the long driveway to the giant kettle that had an artesian well flowing in it. We got a kick out of getting a drink while he enjoyed a cigar. The reviews of the motel (at least the ones I quickly found) were pretty bad. I opted to leave the memory I had alone rather than replacing it with whatever current state the motel was in.

We did 434 miles today.

Does poor Dylan ever catch any fish?

Bring him to 'da UP some time, and I'll take him out....I love to fish also.

One year...while work was a bit "light"... I fished over 150 days.

Unfortunately, not many.

Our excuse is that we're not there long enough and we don't know the lakes or rivers that he's fishing.

I/We would LOVE to come over and fish and ride some of the trails around there. Might have an opportunity, too. My oldest will be running at NMU at least once this year. Maybe twice. Could bring the bike and the fishing gear!

The Beemer had a baby!



Got tired of riding those trails on the big bike so got something a bit more nimble. Now I just need to hone my skills.

You going to CADVR? Not going to make it this year, again!

Have fun and be careful.

Todd