Oh Canada! July 1

Well here we are home late in the day!

Wasn’t too sure we would make it home today, as most unfortunate to be attacked by a stomach bug in the early morning. I cannot blame the 26oz flu, unless 4 drinks over an evening can take a person out.  I’m a cheap drunk but not that cheap.  By 10:30am I decided I could function enough to sit on the bike and hope for the best.  Most fortunate to improve incrementally as the day wore on. Scot had lots of time to listen to music for the first part of the day.

Border staff always ask where you are headed or coming from, they are all young enough that when you say De Smet SD, they give a blank look even when you explain its the home site of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Little House on the Prairie.  Yep blank… We will have to admit we are old timers in the current media culture.

We noted that the very first field of blooming canola we saw on the whole trip was right here in Southern Alberta.

Scot thinks this is a very cool bridge over Chin Lakes.  Nice recreational area there too.

If people are looking for Canadian Products with this fun little 2018 trade war happening, here is proof, Alberta is still producing Sugar.

Changed highways hoping this storm was going to miss us.  Nope it was moving slower than we thought.  It was a beautiful 24C day until we entered the cloud bank and temps dropped substantially down to 8C.  Brrr….

 

First time I have been in Drumheller when its been raining, usually its hot hot hot.  10 minutes North of Drumheller the sun came out. 

 The weather continued to calm and then it was again a beautiful summer afternoon. 

Just south of Stettler (oh so close to home) Scot was feet up on highway pegs, cruising along enjoying the day when a fawn ran out in front of us. He calls it a test of the Emergency Braking System aka ABS linked brakes. His brake foot missed the brake because I was thrown into the middle of his back by the force of the engaged hand brake..  ABS shuddering, front tire squealing and a fawn trying to decide which direction it wanted to exit the highway. It all came together just like it should.  We stayed upright and so did the the fawn. We were glad he got keep his spots healthy, for his sake and ours.   Can you tell Scot is a believer of ABS… yes and there is no way you will change his mind with experiences like this. 

For those who plan everything to the minute….. We did not pre book a single motel room, our tastes are basic with standards of simple and clean, decent internet is nice but not a given every night.  Every hotel was happy to have our business, we were never turned away due to riding a bike. A few offered rags for cleaning. One offered chains to lock up—not a chance, we would scratch the chrome) We only walked out of a couple hotels due to surprisingly high pricing or sketchy set up, usually to ride down the street to another likely spot.    Some served breakfast, others did not.  I carry cereal, tea and a collapsible bowl and spoon.  Milk is easy to come by at local gas stations or convenience stores. It was rare to find a grocery store nearby, which is unusual.  Most trips we are close to one at least a few times.

Gas stops were random, with an easy 300+km range under normal driving conditions– some freeways are not normal! — we only had a couple nervous points wondering where the next fuel stop was going to show up. Our fault for flying past one when still at 3/4 tank.  Only saw the reserve light once, already in town close to fuel.

If we had the time and money would we do it again? Yes in a heartbeat.  And take a lot longer to do it, so we can experience more than just a taste of the East.  It will take a few years but already we are thinking a fall colour tour would be nice. Maybe a retirement project.

The tally of the trip:

9 Provinces and 8 States.

5 Ferry crossings for a total of 26 hours

Just shy of 17000 km on the odometer in 41 days.

1600+ pictures to sort through on the camera and iPhone.  

Yes we are still Happy to celebrate our 30th Anniversary this year…

June 30 Montana

Another road day.  We started with straight roads with great mountain vistas it was early enough in the day we saw many antelope scattered in the hills grazing, they are a tough animal to take pics of, they really blend right into the scenery.

Looks like coal is on the move in the USA. 

A rest stop with picnic tables, check out how Montana is prepared for windy conditions.  What a great system. 

We entered what looks like hoodoo country.  Miles of hills eroding in delightful shapes

We did piss off the GPS by deviating from the fastest-most-direct-route by choosing a scenic byway, GPS had fits for miles.  Sure it took a little longer but a great road  to break up the freeway fun. As we entered the scenic byway the rangeland full of sage had a purple haze to it.  None of the distant pics show the color properly, but we had stopped on the roadside and found a few plants that may be responsible for the coloration.

Many cabins closer to Great Falls, with the river up against the road, the cabins each have their own bridge for access. Its obvious they pay for their own bridges by the diverse designs and quality.  We complain about dumping a little gravel on our driveway every few years.  I’ll bet these bridges are not cheap to maintain

Scot was happy to find the O’haire Motor Inn had vacancy, spent a little time checking out the Sip and Dip with their long standing Mermaid entertainment, there was a Merman too.  Equality is wonderful thing.

Tomorrow we will celebrate Canada Day by crossing back to the North side of the 49th!

June 29 South Dakota, Wyoming

Headed west, expecting a long road day.  Flat plains eventually gaining some rolling hills and ranch land

until we hit Sturgis. We refuel at the gas station, still cool to see the iconic setting….

It was only 11am when we got into Sturgis so we decided to take Hwy14a into the Black Hills National forest just to shake the straight prairie road dust off us. Through Deadwood and across to the Spearfish Valley Scenic Byway.  We stopped for lunch at Spearfish Falls, a nice walk down to the falls; any walk with mountain river views makes my day.  Spearfish falls was allowed to start flowing again in 2003 after hydroelectric plant used for the local gold mine was decommissioned.

One picnic table under a tree at this recreational site and a restaurant;  fairly full parking lot and no competition for the picnic table, it was a lovely day to be outside. No wonder it is getting harder and harder to find picnic table sites outside recreational areas.  They are not utilized.

We rounded out the tires again, they were wearing flat from all the straight miles.

Heading across the rangelands of Wyoming we could see clouds were getting serious about starting something. We stopped for fuel, a gent walked up and mentioned there were weather warnings for large hail and extreme wind gusts within an hour. 

We headed to Gillette and found the DQ to ‘hole up in’.  It was very busy when we walked in, it took time to order and many were sitting enjoying themselves when a cellphone rang and a local said ‘the sirens are sounding’.  We asked what this meant and apparently it means extreme weather has been reported in the area, its fairly generic.  The place cleared out pretty fast.    We had our choice of seating for viewing the storm. 

Wasn’t sure what we going to do if things got crazy, fortunately it didn’t but those green tones in the cloud was a little unsettling.

After the storm had passed we headed out again we found lots of hail on the edge of the highways and the winds were a challenge to ride in when the highway crested a hill,

which seemed to happen quite a bit.  We only rode for an hour and settled in for the evening.

June 27&28 MidWest

June 27  Wisconsin and Minnesota

A road day, we had a nice simple route planned out.  Google maps last night did highlight a spot on the road that would be a detour.  No issue, we can make that work, whats one detour.  Weeeellll  a person should zoom in a little more when using google maps.   Not one or two detours, there were 4 detours.  One of which really did not tell you where to detour.  I guess there really was only one option as we had come from the East.  The North ‘on ramp’ to the freeway was closed, the West route was closed so I guess we go South, yep South. Did we want south? Nope.   Glad to have a paper map at that point.  It clarified the route while the GPS had its little snit telling us to do U-turn when possible.

Wisconsin has an interesting numerical system for their roads.  The roads we call Secondaries using the alphabet. It seems the alphabetical roads are all paved, but a double digit numerical is not always. Once we figured the system out, it was handy for avoiding the larger cities. 

Looking for a visitor centre we followed signage into a site called the High Ground Veteran Memorial. Very worthy of a stop and leaving enough time to appreciate what military personnel have done for us, we noted this site was careful to note all the countries involved in the conflict being discussed. Well Done

We crossed the great Mississippi, we stopped for me to throw a stick from the boat launch into its waters.  We were parked illegally and without paying dues so we didn’t even take off our helmets. Scot took video but its probably bizarre due to the helmets and us looking guilty.   I dipped my hands into it, as my hands dried they felt sticky, not nice at all.  As we drove along we realized there were homes flooded on the banks in the city of Red Wing.

The Red Wing emblem is everywhere including two manufacturing plants! 

Many thousands of acres of corn, saw a few corn cribs, (the mesh grainery with a roof)

I didn’t realize they were still in use.  My dad showed me the old corn crib on the farm he was raised on in southern Ontario many decades ago;  I assumed they were obsolete,  apparently not.

June 28 Minnesota and South Dakota

Minnesota certainly can say they have a few wind turbines. I think it may be the biggest collection we have ever seen.

On our way to De Smet SD  the place Laura Ingalls Wilder spent her youth and early adulthood.  We were able to access the original homestead, it is quite a tourist place.  Is it a trap? (maybe  a little), wagon rides, horse rides, apparently you can even sleep under a covered wagon— no I did not make Scot do that.  Perhaps 30 years ago, that might have been fun.  There are 5 cottonwood trees at the corner of the ‘quarter’ that are believed to have been planted by Charles Ingalls in the 1880’s.  This corner was never broken for cropland so its a true prairie grass ecosystem, with swampland milkweed starting to bloom!  Even the Big Slough still exists!  De Smet is hiding behind the trees.

A replica claim shack, well pump on the six foot deep well, and a hay roofed barn give a fair indication of what a settler needed to prove up their claim in the state and 10 acres of cropland is also on the quarter.  They had to break 10 acres of land within 5 years and live on it 6 months of the year. Far different than the British subjects North of the 49th.  In 1884 who had to break 10 acres the first year, another 10 the next year.  Yikes. Imagine all that and trying to build a home to survive Northern winters, too.

We stopped in Desmet to see the original Surveyors House that was considered to be the biggest house the Ingalls girls had ever seen. It would almost qualify as a tiny home by todays standards. A replica of Laura Ingalls first school house when she started teaching is here too and an authentic Prairie Schooner that was a ‘barn find’ . 

It’s much smaller than I would have thought even more so when considering it held a families worldly possessions.  Marked under the wagon is a stamp 3×9.  It looks about 3 ft wide OD.  Can you believe I travel without a tape measure?

Check out these saloon style doors on the washroom stalls close to the visitor centre.  Glad it wasn’t busy.

Back on the Road….Fields of soybeans and … corn?  not sure, but its everywhere.  It looks weedy to our untrained eye,  but its so common it must be seeded on purpose.

Mid afternoon as we moved across South Dakota’s farmland into ranch land and then drier conditions there was hardly 2 farmyards on the horizon.  We can watch the power lines curve off the horizon here too!

 

 

 

June 26 Michegan, Wisconsin

Heading into the USA for another few days travel.

But before we leave: Ontario’s second oldest stone building west of Toronto, The stone building was built in 1819 with a wood addition added in 1894, beauty would be in the eye of the beholder, really that is all one can say

The International Sault St Marie bridge is the only land crossing available for 700 miles!  A little disconcerting to see such a swayback in a bridge, but the highway trucks use it so it must be safe. Apparently it makes the top 10 for busiest crossings between Canada and USA. We crossed fairly early in the morning, not knowing it was a busy crossing.  Certainly we did not wait as long as we did coming into Niagara Falls; hardly fair to compare a morning crossing with an afternoon crossing.  Over the bridge to chat with the USA border staff and then pay the toll for the bridge.  Glad the toll takes both Canadian and American money!

Found a place to stop and check out Lake Michigan the last Great Lake on our list to sink our hands into the waters.  The bay we found had much much warmer water than any of the other lakes.  I believe the flowering plant is a rhododendron, gorgeous little bush on the beach.

Stopped a little later for lunch, found a neat place eat, but a bunch of workers were busy with a concrete truck close by,  so we found a quieter location beside the playground.

We drove through a lot of tree lined highways again today.  Finally popped out into some farmland, as we entered Wisconsin with its multitude of dairies. I had read of the tradition to paint a favourite patchwork quilt square on barns. Many are on the older traditional barns, it was neat to see on some modern barns too. This pic is the only one that wasn’t blurry. Regular highways are 65mph here, freeways 75mph.  We even saw a state trooper give a bicyclist a ticket for being on the freeway, they have to use the slower highways, no direct routes for them.

June 24&25 Niagara to Sault St Marie

June 24

A little spit of rain as we packed and left Niagara Falls.  Wanted to check out Lundys Lane Battlefield which is touted as the battle that turned the tide on the War of 1812.  Unfortunately not long after we got there, the sky opened up.  We saw enough to say we had a good idea of how the battle played out, but we missed going over to the cemetery and checking out the memorials to Laura Secord and other heroes of the war of 1812.  The cemetery has had reports of visits from battle weary soldiers of the spirit kind.  Sorry to miss it.  It was close enough to downtown Niagara we could have zipped over yesterday evening before dark.

What kind of rain were we dealing with?  Scot judges rain by how fast car wipers are moving.  When every vehicle’s wipers are on high and they are driving at the posted limit or slower, he worries, one time I let him do the worrying, I’m just along for the ride.

Oh, and when it creates its own current on the pavement. Yep it was that kind of rain.  From 9am to almost noon.  The cloud was moving in the same general direction as we were.  How fun is that?

We were soaked even with our protective layers on.

Our gear is not the heavy duty rain gear, so we really do not expect it to keep us completely dry.  Thats what rain gear is for.  We chose not to include it in our packed gear for the once or twice we may need it.  We did however use the heated gear to keep warm. We can handle a lot of wet with warm clothing and reasonable temperatures of 16C.  We did leave puddles on the floor after lunch.  Bad Bad jackets…..

It lightened up considerably after lunch, to just a drizzle then eventually quit and the sun came out for a short while.  By that time we were outside of the Greater Toronto population area.  Farmland popped up for a while. Some crops are just starting to really grow, others are heading out and ripening! 

A little further North and we passed through the infamous Muskoka, we could tell we were in cottage country.

 

June 25

Such high humidity last night, very little of our gear is completely dry.  Ugh. It will dry on the fly today.  Sunny with a breeze!

Have not been able to find anything current on the online news for Ontario — have found several gas stations out of gasoline, yesterday and today, with pylons out by the pumps, most have diesel.  This company chose to keep their customers on the move. 

We have lots of range, Scot prefers to use the top half of the tank, no worries if we have to keep moving.  Gas stations are not that far apart in this area. It seems certain companies are more affected than others.

Headed north through more cottage country

Stopped in Sudbury to see the Big Nickel, (yep we have come full circle) at 9 metres across Big Nickel is 65.6 million times larger than its origin. It was based on a contest winners design in 1951.  Commemorating the 200th anniversary of the discovery of nickel extraction from raw ore by Swedish chemist, Baron Axel Fredrik Cronstedt. Being the worlds largest source of Nickel, it makes sense Sudbury would be a passionate authority on the subject. 

The big guy is easy to find on the skyline,Hard to find the parking lot, we lost our way as the signage is so puny, and its surrounded by trees; you had to be looking for it. Most people planning a visit are probably aware there is a Dynamic Earth Science Museum sharing the area, which would make it easier to find.  It had good signage, those of us just wing’n it, didn’t have a clue…  GPS to the rescue as the Alternate GPS was clueless.

Looks like communities are getting ready for Canada Day. Helps keep us on track, knowing we have to be home in a week to ready ourselves and trailer for a Family Reunion.

Lots of road under the wheels today. Made it to ‘the Soo’.  That’s quite a nickname Sault St Marie!  Front tire is directed into the USA again tomorrow.  Will see how the days fly by now that we are making tracks for home.

June 22 &23

June 22

Somehow I have lost the New York Map between walking into the hotel and leaving the room this morning.  Could not find it in the room, I had taken all the old maps to the room to get them out of the bike.  No problem; gas stations sell maps, visitor stations have them for free —nope and nope could not find a map.  GPS insisted the only logical option to get to Niagara falls is the toll road aka ‘thruway’.  Wheee!  426km of 4 or 6 lanes at 65miles/hour.  or 1200km by winding roads which is a little ridiculous, I’m sure I could find a slightly better route than that.  But this Honda’s GPS is all or nothing. Ah well, traffic was not bad, congested only a few times with trucks s l o w l y passing one another.   

We were not well versed on how toll highways work, certainly not the well oiled system that links New York City and Buffalo, now we are.  We discovered the service centres were regularly situated at convenient intervals. Each has a couple different types of quick meal shops as well as washrooms and a gas station.  The trucks and smaller vehicles are directed to appropriate parking.  Scot habitually gets gas then runs in to use other facilities.That is not how these centres are set up.  However in our defence there is NO mention one cannot return to the parking lot once you pass it, until it’s too late that is (as in DO NOT ENTER signage)….  Scot filled with gas after dropping me off to use the facilities and scope out a map if possible.  Once filled he went to turn around and discovered there is no turning around the ONLY option is forward onto the Thruway.  He  carefully wiggled his way back without pissing off to many other drivers.  He was hardly the only one.  Two other drivers backed up until they could get out of the access road.   I had $25 American cash, no phone, no ID (it was all sitting in trunk of the bike). After 4 full weeks on the road, he had his chance and didn’t take it, it must be love.

Many trees along the thruway are afflicted with one of many invasive vine species in the area, so sad to see the losses.

Scot commented on several of the overpass bridges in need of replacement.  Many have been replaced but there are a few more to go, one would think the amount of vehicles on this thruway and tolls would keep everything in tip top shape.

Passed over the Lake Erie canal system that was built and heavily utilized in the early 1800’s by mule drawn barges and merchant vessels, a painting of  a luxury ship with people seated and dancing on the top of the roof with no railing at all! 

We came across to Canada on the Rainbow Bridge, too bad it was slightly overcast, I wanted to see if it came by its name honestly. Slow traffic at the bridge as we waited for everyone to be put through Customs, as usual we got into the slow moving line, just like the grocery store line. Niagara River flowing to Lake Ontario, with  remains of old powerhouse destroyed by falling rock.

We could see a huge amount of people lining the railings at the falls. So went and found ourselves a room, don’t let anyone tell you rooms cannot be found under $100, there were more than a few, just missing the extras we don’t use anyway, bed was comfy, we slept great. Very poor internet though so blog was not possible.  We went for supper and then walked around the pathways that makes up the area around the river front of Niagara Falls and Horse Shoe falls.

We were glad we waited until after supper as there was much smaller crowds.  School is out for some areas now, lots of families starting their summer vacations.

Spent some time looking at for the powerhouse outlet at the base of the falls, more than half the water is deflected around the falls to provide hydro power! There is a minimum flow agreement between Canada and USA in order to keep the tourism industry happy.  The other positive is erosion has slowed considerably from 10ft a year to 1 foot every 10 years. One beautiful area that will be around for a long long time.

We were still wandering around as dusk settled in, to see the lights on the falls.  A light rain started to fall so we headed back to our room. Our motel was directly on the other side of Cliffton Hill, which is hyped as the Fun Street in Niagara Falls.  The Neon Lights were quite a sight to walk through.

Being so warm and humid all the store fronts were wide open, it was surprisingly relaxed considering how many people were out and about.  Fireworks lit up the sky later in the evening.

June 23

Decided to take a second day in Niagara Falls, for a tourist town we really like it.  Probably because its very family oriented. We had lot’s of fun watching parents and kids doing their thing.  Walking on the walkways, there are many puddles due to the continuous moisture from the falls.  Puddles exist, kids find puddles, parental reactions have been priceless. 

We decided the ‘Tour Behind the Falls’ was our kind of tour.  We were not disappointed.  Most of the history of the falls and its development is documented on ‘read me’s’ (that’s what Scot started calling them) down in the tunnels, which we had been missing as we had walked around the parkway.

An original piece of tunnel; how the original visitors experienced the falls, too bad they didn’t have an old oilskin coat around to see how heavy that would have been compared to the thin disposable rain poncho. 

Absolutely mesmerizing to be so close to the falls.  The water falling in front of the tunnel portals was so beautiful. Quite a roar too.

Who knew fuchsia plants could grow to be a tree? Probably too much work for our prairie climate, but striking in the gardens. Yes, I peeked to make sure they were not baskets.The gardens around the parkway are gorgeous, not nearly enough benches and no picnic tables at all.  Beautiful trees and lawns and hardly a place to sit and enjoy it.  

 I had a very difficult time deciding whether I wanted to ride high on the ferris wheel overlooking Niagara Falls or the tower overlooking Horseshoe Falls.  I tried to talk Scot into deciding, smart man made me decide for myself;  he was happy to follow on this one.  The Skylon Tower won out.  How can a person go wrong with a 52 second elevator ride (over far too quickly) on the outside of a tower and then all the time you want at 233 metres, or 775ft.  Oh and ‘read me’s’ explaining the area!  Another win!

 

but the ferris wheel would have been pretty neat too…

June 21 Maine, Vermont, NY state

More and more miles today.  Third day in a row with 500+km.

Looks like someone has their dream home

Plenty of rock to build interesting structures— there is no hint of what this building was built to do, but it certainly used a lot of hours of someones time

A peek at the infamous Appalachian trail that stretches 3500km from Georgia to Maine… look for the blue tag on the tree to find the path direction over the rocks

It was too early in the day to stop but these cabins were adorable, Scot thinks cabins with real stone chimneys are the ultimate in cabin style, sad we have not been in the right place at the right time to stay in something this sweet.

Another lovely tree lined road

We could not believe our eyes, someone in the distant past had used stone pillars for fence posts…

The residence where Justin Morgan brought his colt ‘Figure’ who sired the Morgan horse breed.  I was tickled to see this spot

On a moment of impulse and boredom following a slow RV.  Scot said hey lets take a quick run through the covered bridge, how can a girl say no? FYI on a bright sunny day, a driver cannot really see far inside the bridge.  The very centre of the bridge was not laid with the final run of boards.  Fortunately Scot had aimed to the side, but the boards kept trying to lean us into the centre.  A little intense for a few seconds, then U-turn around and have to do it again to get back to the highway.  Whew.  You know that saying— you should do something every day that scares you… we are good for a couple days now.

June 20 Headed for the border

Lovely morning and great weather all day.  Headed west towards Maine. It hit home how big the Bay of Fundy really is, when we saw the mud in all the bays with low tide far east of St John.

Our GPS tells us where every Honda Dealer is as we pass.  Most on the east coast have been a combination multiple Honda product dealer  cars, bikes, etc.  St John has a slightly different dealer.  A bit surprised to see the Harley Davidson emblem, with the Honda wing, as well as all the others.    

Border staff were good to us as always as we headed across into Maine.  A young woman, perhaps still training as we chatted her and then another staff came to chat, no issues though. Headed through without any delay.

Used both freeways and backroads to make miles and still see some of the country. Many many mile of road and trees and a few, um mountains, yeh, Appalachian mountains.

   

Stopped for lunch at a lovely picnic area with a little river.  Deer flies were a bit of an issue.  Or some other bugs, as we discovered welts later in the day on our necks. Definitely bug bites.

Drove past Maine’s largest solar array.  Yep its big.

Found a visitor centre in Rumford with state maps, yay!  Unfortunately they didn’t have much for motels with restaurants close by, so we continued on.

Bethel, Maine is a wonderful little town apparently with a strong ski village economy and now working on making itself a go to place in the summer.  This can be costly for a travellers like us.  Fortunately we found a tiny motel in the centre of town with gorgeous baskets of begonias, how did I not take a picture of it, I dunno.  Adorable rooms and reasonable at $70.  We remind ourselves of the difference in CAD to US dollar, when we hear a price we must add 30% to come close to the amount charged on the credit card.

Apparently the good weather in the area is to end with heavy summer storms as we get closer to Niagara Falls.  Will try to make miles, before it hits.

June 18&19 Goodbye Nfld

June 18A beautiful morning! Still a bit cool, but blue sky bodes well for a great day for walking all over a Historical Site.

We were a bit early for opening, fortunately there were items that needed to be checked out…. park rangers let us in early, probably to keep us out of trouble.

Castle Hill National Park is the remains of a fort built to protect the community of Placentia NL which was the Capital of the island in the 1700’s, heavily fought over by the British and French for its profitable cod harvest.  There is enough of the stone walls left to give an excellent idea of how it was built. Two stone walls were built 14ft tall and 14 ft apart and then filled with dirt to repel cannon fire.   The entire complex had up to 60 cannons overlooking the bay and channel.

  We certainly can appreciate why they selected this site for a lookout 

Once we were done with the park and finished chatting with many other visitors who were attracted to our license plate.  We did a little more highway touring before arriving at the ferry terminal. 

We stopped in Placentia for gas, wasn’t expecting to find a rainbow crosswalk!

Marine Atlantic has a 2 hour before sailing rule.  At least the terminal is heated.  It remained sunny but cooled off close to the ocean again.

A great time to chat with many fellow travellers, including the gent from Didsbury who took our pic at Cape Spear.  A lovely Newfoundlander couple who are land shopping in the mainland. They were shocked we had a hard time finding all their favourite meals on menus.  I had heard of jiggs dinner, cod tongue, cod cheeks(which was not recommended)  but  only the cod tongue was found on local menu.  We did eat a lot of excellent fried cod, so we can say we did enjoy a provincial favourite.  Met up again on the ship over a drink or two that evening.  This very modern looking bar had a very old country music band playing. Anyone who was a Hank Williams fan would have recognized most of it.

June 19, The sea had been rough between 1 and 3 am, apparently waves reaching 4 metres (we found the data later).  Scot tried to take some video of the waves during the night, too dark to be very effective. Raining quite hard in the morning, leaving all the travellers a little glum getting ready to disembark.  A bit of a scramble for us, as no passengers allowed below decks until fully docked.  All the bikes then have to have tie downs removed and we needed to put gear on.  Quite a few cars were off before we bikers had ourselves sorted out.

A lot of low lying cloud as we climb out of the harbour into the hills.

We missed a heavy rainfall by a very short timeline.  Trucks sure kicked water off the pavement. Black clouds fortunately headed away from us, leaving us a promise of future sunshine.

Central Nova Scotia TCH is lined with forest and lupines in the ditches.    No less than 4 colours in the patch we found at a rest stop.  Temps closing in on normals this afternoon!

So nice to take one of a multitude of layers off.

Today somehow I moved faster than my camera and most of my pics were too blurry to use. oops.