Oh, I stayed up to late last night. 4 hrs of sleep.
At least I woke up to a bright sunny morning with no clouds. It was around 42°F. I could have been ready earlier than I was but we only had 5.5 hrs to ride today and, most of that would be tooling along down the Trans Canadian Hwy (TCH) so I told the guys I was in no hurry and I still had the morning dishes to do. Some of them took their coffee out to the front porch and sat in the sun while looking out across the bay. The water was flat and calm as there was no wind. Some guys took a shower after breakfast. Darryl and Mike are the cooks and I do the dishes. After packing the bike up and ensuring everything was ready for departure I did the dishes. I thought that I was done… and then put out the call… Are there any more dishes? Two more coffee cups came in from the porch, a plate, and then Mike comes in and starts emptying the fridge. I wasn’t done and I got back to work. 20 minutes later kitchen is clean and put away. We didn’t think the kitchen was well stocked as the biggest pot was a 2 quart sauce pan that we had to boil the spaghetti noodles in the night before.
Mike and Darryl made bacon and eggs for breakfast. They had bread but no toaster… so they fired up the stove and made toast.
I CANNOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH HOW BLESSED WE HAVE BEEN WITH THE WEATHER!
Sunny, 42 going to 65, no wind and a few clouds mid day and some moderate wind for an hr or so. That was today… many of our days have been very similar to this. Sure, rain one day… but it was light and another day was ferocious wind all day and maybe 90 minutes of light rain. Everyone on Nova Scotia and Newfoundland has been telling us that this whole summer they have had torrential rain with not much sun at all. They thanked us for bringing the good weather with us. Meanwhile back home I hear that the Rockford area has had over 12” of rain in the two weeks we have been gone!!!
Back to our regular programming.
We were kickstands up at 0900. We rolled down the East side of Cape Breton. Usually the road signs are in English and French… but on the Cape it was English and Gaelic… or at least I believe it was Gaelic. This morning we saw the ocean when we climbed up on the side of a mountain. On the flats you have trees or houses in the way. Climb and come around a corner and bam!! Your whole view is ocean and keep going around the curve you could see a long way down the coast with its the cliffs or headlands jutting out into the water. Then down you go winding your way down and having to remember to watch the road. There were plenty of times you could take your time to look but it was distracting in the corners. The road surface was perfect and the corners were tight and technical but also had a nice mix of sweeping corners you could lean the bike over and swoop around it and power out. The traffic was so light that I was wondering where everyone was as I consider a car or two every now and again as non-existent traffic.
We rode past ponds and lakes that were perfectly smooth and they made wonderful mirrors and reflected everything perfectly. I really wanted to turn around several times. Especially at this small dark pond that had cat tail reeds surrounding much of it. They and the sky were reflected perfectly while close to the road it faded to black.
When my gopro died I stopped and took the charger out of my Cardo helmet communications device and plugged it into my gopro. ( I had forgotten to charge my Cardo overnight.) I missed several bays or inlets that were perfect reflecting ponds while it charged up enough to turn it back on. By the time I could turn it on we were turning inland.
Even in the short time we have been here as we were returning we could tell that the leaves are starting to color up. We are back to rolling mountains covered heavily with deciduous trees with a mixture of pines thrown in. Going through a narrow valley nothing but different mottled colors of green with brass, gold, red and yellow starting to make themselves known. After cutting across the base of Cape Breton we hopped on the TCH and headed for Moncton, NB. Wind at our back! Not a lot of wind but every little bit from behind helps. Several hours later we did get a stiffer side wind but it went away in about an hour. We stopped for gas and I put away the GoPro as I didn’t think I would need it and it does add some wind resistance that I push back against with my neck. So… it got packed. 2 hrs later we get off the TCH and I come up this hill and roll over and I am looking down at a valley that opened up and completely fills my whole view. The beauty of what I was looking at took my breath away. It had two mountains one on each side framing the picture. Their slopes into the valley were slanting down and not severely steep. Another mountain on the far end ofbthe valley shouldered its way in to block off the view at the very end. Everything was converging your eyes on the slopes of trees that were beginning to turn. I couldn’t help but say… “Oh My, that is a picture moment. Wish I had my gopro running.” I was in the lead and one by one as the guys popped up and over I heard some type of agreement from them. It only lasted a moment and then you descended down into the valley and it closed around you blocking out the by e entirety of it and leaving you with the immediate surroundings.
The only highlight after that was when we gassed up and across the way was a creamery. Darryl, a creamery! Finally you get to have some ice cream… as all other ice cream places we had come across were closed for the season.
He got his ice cream and I asked him… Well Judge, how is it? ( for those who do not know… Darryl is a professionally trained ice cream judge and participated as a judge in the Wisconsin State ice cream contest for several years) “It’s ok, there were some ice crystals in it and that’s probably because they put it in plastic barrels. Plastic doesn’t conduct the heat out of it when put in the freezer like cardboard and that causes the ice crystals to form. Butter fat content isn’t to high… as I said. It’s ok.
The look on Scott’s face was priceless as he didn’t know just who he has been traveling with! Mike agreed that it was ok, but no higher.
We got to the hotel and we are in the same exact rooms as a week ago. I have to use my phone on their WiFi and then tether it to my gopro. Slow as only 2 of 75 have uploaded. We have pics and short phone videos for you though.
We are planning on wheels rolling by 7 am and we have a longer day of almost 9 hrs of riding time if we never stop. We already filled our tanks and breakfast is at the hotel so we should make it. I’ll have the GoPro up and running just in case we see some color. But mostly it will be gas and go. Back to the land of cheaper gas! Average here for regular is around $5.50 US and a bit higher in Newfoundland
Leave a comment