Wisconsin to Nova Scotia Ride - 2 Vstroms - me and my gal :)

[freeflow]

yes yes, yet another Nova Scotia Ride report.

Shelly and I decided we needed some vacation a few weeks ago, so a ride to Nova Scotia to eat some seafood was the plan.

the ride ended up being a 9 day, 4078 mile loop from Wisconsin, to Nova Scotia and back. 2 riders, 2 Vstroms (DL650), and 2 smiles.

I prepped the bikes the night before by putting a new chain on my strom, other than that, lemme see.....NOTHING!....the weestroms performed flawless and required nothing but chain lube, one chain adjust, and a self performed impromptu oil change (under 20 minutes, both bikes done). The weestroms really grew on us for their versatility.

anyway...onto the pics.....

we were planning on leaving at sunup Aug 16th, but Shelly had a late night work(sucks) meeting til 1 am , so we slept in and got rolling about 11 am..

bikes ready to go...

the weather was great...and we had a nice ride thru the U.P of Michigan along hwy 28 to Sault Saint Marie...


we then headed east over to Blind River for the night....we planned to hotel it this trip, so we found a little place and shacked up....we ran into, Parki (Brain), who was just completing an epic cross canada trip and chatted ...a nice and funny guy....we shared stories over dinner and pulled out maps to create more dream seeds....


good morning Brian ...this is his first bike and he just started riding in April, then got on the bike and rode 15,000 miles...right on !


Brian's excellent ride report is here...
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=259572

we had a Tim Horton's breakfast with Brian and rode with him til he split off to head for home after his 12 week ride....another time another place, our paths will cross


We rode east on hwy 17 thru Sudbury just barely staying ahead of threatening skies...then headed south on hwy 69 to ride thru Algonquin Park on hwy 60...we were in and out of scattered heavy rains, but enjoying the ride....the park was busy with tourists, but the scenery was nice


we stopped briefly in Whitney, and the heavy rains caught up to us 10 minutes later, so we waitied it out for an hour and had some lunch....then pushed on towards Ottawa
Shelly was happy to get out of the real heavy rains..


We stopped for gas in Renfrew and had a car pull up to us and honk the horn...a harley girl int he car yells at me.."your headlight is like really flashing eh?"...yes dear, it is called a modulator to be seen, I guess it worked..:lol....nice folks and enthusiastic to help a percieved problem..

We rolled thru Ottawa onto Casselman to spend the night... ...BTW, there is not much of anything between Ottawa and Montreal..... ...we backtraked to a farm bed and breakfast type place in Vars...Bearbrook Farms
day 2 GPS log

accomodations for the nite...like a farm worker's cabin..nice friendly old folks running the place...

..and a roadside petting zoo attraction....let them be free

Emu head


chinese deer...


in the morning we decided to make a run to Portland, Maine to catch the Cat Ferry over to Yarmouth Nova Scotia, so we cross back into the US near Cornwall into northern New York...an easy/quick border crossing

[cavebiker]

Looking good FREEFLOW!

[freeflow]

too many pics

we rolled along hwy 122 and hey 11, and fueled up in Ellenburg at this Chevrolet dealer that had some old gas pumps outside....steping inside the dealership was a throw back to the 60s...interesting


we made a phone call to the Cat Ferry to get reservations for the next morning, since tourist season is high

we continued on towards the famed Lake Champlain area.....
we crossed the into Vermont at Rousses Point.....an interesting area that reminds me of Wisconsin



we cut down hwy 2 along the pennisula of Lake Champlain ...enjoying another beautiful day



Vermont is lovely






and hopped onto intersate 89 and rolled to hwy 302 near Montpelier, then to 112 , down I93 and across New Hampshire into Maine on Hwy 25

we ended up getting into Portland Maine at 6 pm, on a saturday and tried to find a hotel....holy crap, they all say, go to Boston to find a room..: ......we ended up finding a room 45 minutes north in Bath, and got ripped off for it, but whatever...$250 for a hotel room for 10 hours. .., Shelly wants some rest, so who cares?......we need to catch the ferry at 8 am in Portland the next morning, so early rise
Day 3




the Cat Ferry is a remarkable boat..$68 mil....4 - 9500 HP jet drives, 40 mph cruise speed, stable and fast...built in Tasmania...way cool boat....I chatted witha crew guy, we said every few years they bring it back to Tasmania for service...ME:"Do you take passengers on that trip?"..he said no.."Are you sure?" www.catferry.com

they did the trip last time in 14 days...Tasmania to Portland..across Pacific, thru Panama Canal, up the east coast...I am sooo IN for a trip like that...it will be done..

...(BTW water crossing are expensive, it would be $200 each for rider+bike )..whatever...lemme get this straight...if I give you some of this paper with green ink on it, you will let us and our motorcycles ride your boat for 200+ miles for 5 hours?...cool!, here ya go




arriving Nova Scotia...now the trip begins!..

[mogwai]

Originally Posted by FREEFLOW

<<<>>>we continued on towards the famed Lake Champlain area.....
we crossed the into Vermont at Rousses Point.....and hopped onto intersate 89 and rolled to hwy 302 near Montpelier,

YOu just drove through my birthplace (nearly) without stopping. Thanks.

[repo]

i'm just not gonna post any pics....cuz yours are mine!

I left Cheboygan MI, through the Soo....Ont/Ottawa/Cornwall...took ferry across Lake Champlaine...through VT to Portland.

our ferry crossing was $128 (Bar Harbour to Yarmouth/3 hours).

[g®eg]

Originally Posted by FREEFLOW

...(BTW water crossing are expensive, it would be $200 for each for rider+bike )..whatever...lemme get this straight...if I give you some of this paper with green ink on it, you will let us and our motorcycles ride your boat for 200+ miles for 5 hours?...cool!, here ya go

no shit!
that's why we opted to go thru New Brunswick!
so far so good... keep the pics coming!

[Gadget Boy]

Lucky guy!! Looks like a great trip and good weather

[freeflow]

Originally Posted by mogwai

YOu just drove through my birthplace (nearly) without stopping. Thanks.

hey Chuck, I was thinking of you as we rode thru there...wondering where you hailed from...it sure looks alot like northern Wisconsin

Originally Posted by Gadget Boy

Lucky guy!! Looks like a great trip and good weather

yes, we were fortunate....and had no plans....I saw the low pressure system coming and keeping south, so we looped north..

more and better pics coming

[mogwai]

Originally Posted by FREEFLOW

hey Chuck, I was thinking of you as we rode thru there...wondering where you hailed from...it sure looks alot like northern Wisconsin

Grew up ~25 miles south of Montpelier. WI looks more like Maine than VT, cheeseland is flat.

But they are all easy places to live.

[freeflow]

we hoped off the cool Cat ferry and were welcomed back into Canada..
Cat Ferry pic


we decided to make an easy ride up the Evangeline Trail to Digby to feast on some famous Digby scallops

all the aboveground utilities were very noticebale in this lovely landscape
http://www.jeffshelly.smugmug.com/ph...87923411-M.jpg

Evangeline Trail for obvious reasons....some cool old churches

remarkable and HUGE structure!....built by 1500 volunteer shipbuilders over 100 yrs ago...I cannot imagine the annual maintenance on this massive wood structure


Strom steeple

there was a baptism just getting done in the church...but we were able to sneek a peek

as usual, the pic does not give proper scale to this massive place


and more churches...




we arrived in quaint Digby....and pulled in for a room at Seawinds...a nice clean friendly place


Shelly's likes it


Digby Harbor and area pics...quality hard working people and way of life



workhorses for boats...a reminder of life and the sea....most boats in the US seenm to be pleasure craft...these are a tool for a way of life and have real character...and the people that work on them have real skills

boats rafted 4 deep...note the slack in the dock lines...the tide is on it;s way out...a 25 foot drop for tonight




this boat was heading out for scallops...and getting ice delivered by a few guys that were interested that we were interested in thier way of life...




we skipped the tourist trap place and found this little place aroudn the corner at half the price for lobster ($14 a lb cooked)






they grow em big up there...this was a 6.5 pounder they said....better eat a box of cheerios with it


and yes, one in a million lobsters are blue....


High tide


Low Tide

[Spicy McHaggis]

Sweet pics!!!

[freeflow]

sorry for the delay

after a good nite's rest in Digby and some great seafood, we packed up to rid eon..

first we headed west out of Digby to go check out the salmon farm operation we were told about...

the tide was still low..


these are salmon pens for farm raised salmon...nets over th etop to keep the hungry birds out...



I had PMd Tree before the trip and knew he lived here, but our paths didn;t cross...it turns out he was camping in this area whiule we were there.....oh well...another time Tree, thanks for the tips

we cut across the center of Nova Scotia on some nice roads....it reminded us alot of northern Wisconsin...very pretty


we came to the southern coastline in Lunenburg and rode thru small little burgs and touristy towns...pretty scenery and way of life....



Peggy's Cove is famous and Shelly wanted to mail post cards to family from the cool lighthouse, so off we went...
here is tyhe lighthouse/post office at Peggy's Cove...complete with tourists by the busload






too many people to stumbla across, so we rolled on....getting a bit hungry, down the road towards Halifax....we pulled into this ittle roadside eatery for some lobster lunch ....2 older ladies runnign a small business here...with some good food


lobster roll and fries

[MichaelJ]

Nice write-up. Thanks.

V-Stroms work exceptionally well in Nova Scotia:



And everywhere else, too

[judjonzz]

Nice trip and report, Jeff.

[Chanderjeet]

Originally Posted by FREEFLOW

Picture perfect. Good shot, really good