Day 7 – Should I stay or should I go?

Docked in North Sydney, Nova Scotia around 7am and rolled off the ferry shortly after; not into the forecasted sunshine but rain and wind – wonderful.

Maybe it was the night on the floor, but nothing seemed to work this morning. Into raingear at a coffee shop I found in the POI section of my Nav – it was closed of course. First gas station didn’t accept any of my cards – pay inside – yeah and line up behind 20 others – not happening. I am mad!

When trying to route the way to Dingby where a ferry to Saint John might be an alternative to riding all the way the Garmin GPS (set to curvy roads) is routing me back to Labrador and suggest a 2600 miles trip more or less where I came from – thanks Garmin and may I suggest you focus on something different than GPS navigation? Gardening tools, baking supply, knitting and stitching?  If you didn’t integrate with the BMW bike your device would have been dropped from the next bridge.

Ironbutt and company is passing me and I ride with them for about 30 miles. They constantly stretch and use every stop to get out of the saddle, shift position, I am learning by observing.

I fuel up the bike and check the weather in Saint John, NB since that is the area where I plan to stay for the night. Foggy and in the 60’s - not very promising.

The weather improves and - with soup and the best cheesecake of the universe for lunch - my mood too. All of a sudden the miles on the odometer run faster and I am approaching Saint John in bright sunshine.

What a disappointment – to be fair maybe I am not ready for people, music and busy roads - the smell of the town makes my sick. I have to get out of here quick and follow a sign to a road with a light house – didn’t see any light house but had a good time hugging the coast for the next hour or so.

A little further South the fog is rolling in again, the temperature drops to mid 60’s within a mile, not a good omen for the last stretch. It’s time to top off the bike again and to find accommodation for the night – of course all recommendations from the guy at the gas station end with “if they still have availability”. The US border is 30 to 40 min away and the ETA for “Home” is 10:15pm – should I?

The idea of sleeping in my own bed is shortening the decision-making process and off we go. At the border in no time; immigrated in less than 2 minutes - 65 miles to I-95, speed limit +10 on the cruise control and the fun begins.

At 10:30pm I put the kickstand down in my garage with a new personal best in distance ridden in a day.

I am falling asleep while contemplating the trip, the people I met, the nature, the roads, the rain, the sun, the dust and the sound of the boxer engine.

I hope you enjoyed following the trip, hopefully next year I am able to go on another T-Dawg Tour, James Bay, Canada is the most southern part of the Arctic Ocean – sounds like fun!

Thomas

Odometer reading 

Today:              800.1 miles

Total:              2963.4 miles

Day 6 – Don’t pay the ferry man …

… don’t even fix a price, until he gets you to the other side.

Beware that hooded old man at the rudder!

And then the ferryman said “there is trouble ahead, so you must pay me now – don’t do it!”

The lyrics from this song make me believe that ferrymen have never been the most reliable or trustworthy people in history. Will they take you on board? Will they bring you to the other side? Will they…??

The hooded old man was a hooded women marching the line of people waiting without a reservation in front of the Labrador Marine Inc. Office in Blanc Sablon about 2.5h ahead of departure time.

I called them ten times to make a reservation, but they couldn’t even be bothered to pick up the phone. Now I have to wait to be given my number that will determine whether or not I go across to Newfoundland at 10:30am or not.

BTW - 10:30am Newfoundland time not Quebec time where we are (-1.5h) or Labrador 15 min North of us (- 0.5h) – I am glad they decided to align on one time zone when it comes to ferry times since I was getting confused.

My request to the hooded lady to get two numbers since George was still on his way to Blanc Sablon from Red Bay was answered with – No can do!

When I suggested that a bike should always the able to fit in on the ferry I was told that “ a strapped down bike takes as much space as a car”.

I can’t believe they made 25 people wait till 10:15 to finally bring on some cars and called for “one motorcycle”. That was the time to say goodbye to George since I was planning to catch the next ferry in Port aux Basques leaving at 11:45pm that day and I would not be able to make it if I didn’t get on the “Apollo” now.

So after a quick “goodbye” and “ride safe” I was the last one to get on the ferry and the stern door went up right after me.

A friendly lady on board inspected my work to secure the bike and showed me the way to the upper deck for the 90 min run from Blanc Sablon to St.Barbe.

I booked my ticket for the Port aux Basques ferry from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia online as soon as we left.

“The Rock” destination of last year’s trip greeted me with heavy gusts, some rain showers and wasn’t very welcoming at all.

Memories from a little over 11months ago came up – remember this, “oh, this is new”, ate here, stopped there…

2015

2016

I am going down the coast at good speed; only the strong wind is forcing me to throttle back here and there. A late lunch on the road and soon I am approaching Port aux Basques where I met an interesting biker group from Prince Edward Island last year. Let’s see who is lined up for the ferry “Highlanders” this time.

I park the bike behind an almost identical BMW 1200GSA and a Suzuki V Strom with the registration  “Ironbutt”! He must be a member of the “IB association”; you have to ride 1000 miles in 24h to become part of it. They have a 24h run close by every year and I was thinking of doing it but organized rides and memberships are not my thing really.

Minutes later I am really impressed when talking to “Ironbutt” – he not only did a CCC100 – which means “Coast to Coast to Coast in 100h” – in his case Miami to San Diego and back, but also Key West to Anchorage and back in 16 days.

Personally I don’t mind pushing distance once in a while, but this is endurance riding and I rather try going places others don’t. Well, Anchorage can’t see too many bikers, or?

We boarded the ferry bikes first, strapped down the rides and I found a good seat to spend the night. I ended up sleeping on the floor for a couple of hours and must have snored, when I woke up the seats around me were empty except for a dad with two kids taking shuteye on the floor as well.

Thomas

Odometer reading (at the ferry)

Today:              376.4 miles

Total:              2163.3 miles