What have I done to deserve this?

Could you live out here?  This is barely 30 minutes from Saint John.

DON'T get me wrong when I say that.

I do complain about the weather often, who doesn't right... but I gotta say, this summer has been pretty much purrrfect!  I know the farmer's complain but from a biker's p.o.v. it's been nearly 5 star.

There truly has been little rain, oodles of sunshine, mild if not hot weather (which I prefer) and with the move of my younger daughters family to within 3 hours traveling time from our "oiland" I have been doing a lot of riding, and loving it.

First of many for the day.

It's a shame that most of us spend most of our time working, trying to earn a living, often  working right through our 2 week annual vacation.  If we do take our 1-2 week inclusive at a Cuban resort... the staff there works very hard for the pittance they get paid.

I once heard someone arguing with a Baja local about the cost to repair his palapa.  The Mexican had to take his clunker of a truck high up into the mountains, find and cut fresh

Now this is the life... ahhh! A Truck, a trailer, a trail bike and a kayak...

fronds, drive back down and hire another local to help him install it.  The Gringo tourist, that lives there all winter for next to nothing, in a two hundred thousand dollar motor-home, was attempting to cut his asking wages by half.  I felt disgusted and later had a word with the local.  I said not all of us are like that guy.  I appreciated how much work it was to do this for about the equivalent of $1/hour in wages.

If it's not trading hours for wages, then there is the yard work, or the car, or the spouse is working and on it goes.

Is it any wonder that most of the motorcyclists you see on the road are generally of the older generation, like moi!

Folks, really does not get better than this.

I know an awful lot of people that simply discard the holiday altogether.  I learned from an early age that my time was worth a hell of a lot more to me than X$/hr.

While most people I've know had conventional "jobs" I rarely did.

And... I don't apologize for it.  I gave up things like benefits, pensions and vacation times to be able to earn more, and better spend my time.  My lifestyle may not have worked for someone else but to me what I gave up was overshadowed by what I gained!  Not everyone could or would stay in a palapa hut on a beach with no services and only a tent, kayak, Jeep and trail bike for two months of the year.

Just another ho hum fabulous covered bridge outback NB

SO... here I was, basing myself and my V Strom Suzuki out of Rick and Lisa's home, trading off looking after the pooch and mew mew which I actually loved doing, and in return I got to do some excellent riding.

I have always been fascinated by bridges in general and old unusual ones in particular. Whether they were designed and built for cars, trains or us riders, I loved seeing them. I found a plethora of wooden covered bridges riding in SE New Brunswick.  I'm sure a Google search would tell us how many are left in our East coast and New England, but while you do that... I'll just ride okay?

I missed this sign about 4 times before finally seeing it.

I may have mentioned it in passing... but I love riding around in the Maritimes:)

History, rolling hills, lots of water, and every stripe of road you could imagine short of Autobahn/Freeway types, made every day an adventure for me.

I often joked with my daughters that when they build/buy that home to live in, they are to make certain Dad has a little self contained 'loft' over the garage, (with a shower, sink and loo) and the latter for my bike, the former for myself.

Don't ask me where this is, just appreciate I'm sending you there!

Well the Rothesay house has a big tall garage but no loft... if I were a bat, I could hang from the rafters I guess, although the spare room does have the essentials!

I'd been in the hood for several days now and was getting pretty familiar with the boats and the operators, the Captain you could just make out on the bridge unlike the little Bleriot ferry upstream from the Royal Tyrell museum in Drumheller AB, on the Red Deer river.  There the operator stands (or sits) right next to a traveler

Maybe not exactly a ride in the Alps... but very good indeed! A V Strom road.

I couldn't have asked for better weather, most days I would peel off a layer as the day heated up and several times it was over 30C!

Things were getting more laid back each day, especially as I explored the locale from different perspectives each day.

I especially liked the many little towns and villages, made over to appeal to tourists and locals alike.

That's my Wee Strom and next to it my young pal Zack on his yellow 650 Suzuki Savage

There was never a time I felt stressed, or worn out.  In fact just the opposite.



Don't get me wrong, whenever I ride I pay attention especially far from home base.  Mr. Murphy has cousins in New Brunswick as well as in PEI!

Back roading the V Strom in rural New Brunswick.

I stopped often for photo opportunities, Distance was irrelevant, I wasn't there for some mileage contest, no sir.  My mission was to create memories to last for my lifetime and after that's done... there will be a huge hoard of print and digital photographs that my girls can show to their children...

Is this gorgeous or what?

I've been dragging my feet with justification in keeping you up to date via the Blog.  I've ridden all my bikes a lot more than usual this year and still have ambitious plans for next year, but for now, enjoy the photos and fill in dialogue.

Gotta love these covered bridges

I covered a great deal of terrain in the week I was in southern NB.  I rode several ferry's and ate what I found along the way.  Kredl's corner market just outside of Hampton one of my local favorites.


The Suzuki performed very well, it returned around 70 mpg, was plenty fast enough and really the only place I would have wanted something else was when passing the alluring, inviting, mysterious gravel road leading off the pavement up into the hills.

On another trip I will take my dual purpose XT 600 and feed Jagger and Jaxie in exchange for doing it all again, just different!

So... as I aften have referred to the Sea Hunters and Clive Cussler's final words... get your butt off the couch and go find something to do.  You won't regret it, I haven't.

A few more pics of that first day...

Dang purty ain't it!

This is typical of the hundreds if not thousands of lake/river/beach views.

I'm not a boater per'se but I love being around mountains, desert and water.

Just across the lake , somewhere over there is Lisa's new home.

Jemseg's old cemetery

Cambridge Narrows Municipal town building.

Such a great experience riding the many cable ferry's.

This is what most of my riding was like, hardly any traffic on these little back roads.

Kingston

Lots of deer especially in the urban neighborhoods.

No this isn't Mexico but it is a pretty zocolo!

Early morning adventure ride, the start of an amazing day!

I was on the road early the next morning.  The thermometer was headed into the low 30's and there were no clouds in the forecast.  Sounds ideal doesn't it.  Bright sunny day, little to no wind, no rain in the forecast, and I'm riding a Suzuki V Strom from the hills, to the Bay and back into the hills.  Of course at the time I really had no clue of this, my entire trip plan was to plan as little as possible.  I'd scan the map the night before and pick an area to explore.  Often once on the road, I'd change my mind anyway!

The first few miles were actually clearing the city and skirting St. John itself on rte 100 until I reached the Airport cut-off at 111.  I already had over 200 km on the trip-meter, but I wasn't worried at all about fuel.  The tank on the bike will carry me more than 500 km with some to spare, and this was after all a fairly built up region. 

Lots of steep hills and twisty tarmack.

ONE of the biggest differences riding Canada's east vs the west, were the multitude of villages and towns where I would spend the next week or so. I was never far from "civilization" at any point of my 2500 km riding trip, unlike Western Canada where civilization can be scarce.

Today I was going to do the bottom half of a loop that I'd hoped to do with Brenda on this same bike back in 2016.  Unfortunately on that trip, we were faced with a deluge and very high winds when we caught the tail end of a Hurricane coming up the Atlantic seaboard.  That wasn't a pleasant ride, we got soaked completely through our rain gear and I don't know about you... but I'm not the kind of rider that loves to drone along the freeway getting doused with water hour after hour!

Yes, this is the Bay of Fundy

ONCE past the Airport I wandered along the coastal route into Gardner Creek and then onto St. Martin's.  That mountain of gravel creek side would make me a rich man if I could beam it over to my back yard on the Island.  Gravel you see, is a very costly import necessary for construction of most anything on PEI.

The road was barely wide enough for two VW Beetles, steep hills giving me excellent Fundy views before dropping me down to virtually sea level the next moment.  I could see this being a very popular ride from the surrounding city areas if you have a sports bike with low bars.  That is of course with the exception of disaster if you put a tire wrong at speed.

Rugged coastline

THE road surface was much patched, with a variation of smooth asphalt recently laid for miles through the wilderness to pot holes that could bend a rim!  I was coming through on a mid week, so traffic was light except for a very short morning around commuter times.

GPS is pretty much useless out here, "Brandy" is always looking for the quickest straightest route.

THE hills were (alive with music but in reality the only music was from the V Twin exhaust) abrupt and steep.  The sensation was of riding a roller coaster and although I am not into that sort of 'thrill' (nor barfing my guts out) I did have some experience similar in SO-Cal a number of years ago.

At a 110 kph pace each summit felt like the bike was going airborne and each abrupt valley, the suspension would noticeable compress.  Needless to say I slowed my pace to a more stately 70-90 kph, which had the added benefit of being more enjoyable, especially with all the wild roses growing by roadside.  To complicate matters, but in a most enjoyable way, the corners were plentiful and tight as a dancers g string.

Yup, if I owned this gravel pile in my back yard, I'd be rich!

AT Fairfield I hooked back up with highway 111and that took me into St. Martins.  I completely missed the turn to Salmon River, but wasn't too upset with myself, after all, I live here! I can come back pretty much any summer day to do it again, and I will.

Cool standing there in the shade of early morning!

ROAD construction just north of StM slowed me with thick gravel, and when I mean thick... I mean ankle deep thick.  Remember, this is Appalachian mountain country, gravel here was miles deep!

A procession of vintage iron passed by on their way to a meeting in StM

A mid morning construction zone had me pulled over with no one behind me for miles. Coming towards me though were a long line of vintage cars, whom I think would have been less than thrilled with the road surface, on their way to a weekend gathering in SM as told to me by the very pretty and pleasant sign lady who stood shivering in the early morning shadow.  She did mention in our few minutes of conversation that she wished she could have been 50' closer to the equipment placing her into the rising sun and warmth!

First of many

I had no problem with the gravel other than I was experiencing some of my usual left shoulder Impingement and I wasn't talking about the roadway! I was a little sore in that regard.

I followed the lights flashing/leader's vehicle, eating his dust, wanting to bin it and pass him, but thought better of it!

Gets about 75 mpg and holds 22L/4.9Imp G  Your tank will outlast your bum!

BY the time I was getting near Sussex Corner, I was thinking fuel and food.  The odometer said I was approaching the 530 km mark and my stomach was approaching M T !

To say I was having a swell day wouldn't give it justice.  Nope, this was one of those singing into my helmet, laughing uncontrollably, whooping, smiling ear to ear, grinning, swell days!

If you have ever traveled anywhere by motorcycle on a bright sunny warm day seeing things you've never witnessed before, waving at everybody and returning waves from guys out cutting the grass but wishing they were me, kind of days... you know what I mean.

This things over a hundred years old, imagine the tales it could tell!

ONCE out the other side of Sussex, which I might ad is another very pretty little burg, I cranked up the throttle to 120 with the occasional 140 on route 10 N.  I wanted to see Cambridge Narrows and get back on the little three digit roads.

Having made short order of my highway jaunt with barely a car to pass, I pulled off  onto 710 where I found not only another covered bridge but also this very cool log cabin in the woods!  Apart from the stainless steel chimney, this could very well have belonged to Unca Tom hisself!

Check this out!

I crossed over on the Narrows Bridge and made the loop to Jemseg, then the bottom of the Peninsula before re-crossing the bridge heading to Shannon and Wickham before setting course on to Norton and a half dozen other little towns, any one of which would make a great postcard image!

Yep... no dude aboot it... I was having myself a ball!

Oh yeah... just another covered bridge this one at Codys

EVENTUALLY all this must pass, and as the sun dropped down over a long 12 hour day, I made it home to Rothesay* on a very satisfying first day's ride. I don't recall the actual mileage, maybe around 350-400 km, but in smiles per mile... this was one of the better days of my motorcycling career.  It was proof to me that I made the right decision to move east, where hopefully, I have many MC days left under my lid just as this one was.

For those people that think of riding I-15 or Highway 2 from Edmonton to Calgary at 90 mph is the biz... let me educate you.  The Maritimes has some of very best motorcycling in the world, and I should know.  I've ridden in about 30 countries in my riding career and you can take what I tell you to the bank pal!

Besides... if you're one of those people that will live to a 107, don't have a criminal record, just a hop skip and step away, you can be in New England, which is just like Nova Scotia and New Brunswick except for the stars and stripes and the unusual English you'll hear.

One Happy dude!

STAY tuned...

* There's a saying around our place, "home is where you hang your helmet"  For this week home was Lisa and Rick's in Rothesay.

Sand, Sea and Rock!

PEI beaches, as good as any in the world!

Prince Edward Island is nothing more than a large sand bar really. Sitting out in the bottom portion of the Gulf of St Lawrence, the Northumberland Strait separating us from the mainland. Spanning

not a whole lot more than 200 miles as the seagull flies, the only 'rock' you find is sandstone, composed of, you guessed it, sand.

By its very nature PEI has some fabulous beaches and let me tell you, having been to some doozies over my life, I'm not stretching the truth.  In fact PEI beaches with their fine sand rival Baja beaches, except of course for the language barrier, the isolation, the Mountain ranges, the plethora of fine fishing, the step back in time, the Baja Mille and the cheap palapa's and beer!

I would be leaving the Island and spending some time on the mainland house sitting for newly transplanted Lisa, Rick and little William, whom I affectionately call, 'Prince William.'

They would be leaving on a Western Canadian trip and I'd volunteered to look after the furry creatures.  Of course this meant I had a week to ride one of my bikes on daily trips to points north and south with some east and west thrown in for good measure.

Downtown Hampton

During my previous life living on the coast, I hadn't had much time to explore what with running three MC shops!  I am determined to make up for that now that I am transplanted (again) and retired.

Life sized lobster!

Don't get me wrong, being retired means I have no income from a job but also am still short of time!

I would be riding my Suzuki V Strom 650 for several reasons.  One it has a very good detachable luggage system consisting of the two hard side bags and the huge rack mounted trunk.  It also has longer travel suspension that the typical street bike and especially "cruiser", a six speed gearbox suitable for virtually anything other than trail riding and I wouldn't be doing any of that, plus a 22 L fuel tank, giving me over 500 km of range.

High tide at Hopewell Rocks surrounded by chocolate syrup.

I mounted the GPS unit inside the windshield and although it is too predictable for accuracy, wanting to take me always to the 'highway' I could fool it sometimes by plotting the nearest town.  This of course is tedious as there are towns every dozen miles it seems, and besides... it dilutes the adventure portion of the trip, not knowing where you are actually going to be in an hour or three.

So with bags packed, I headed to Moncton after a stop at Cape Jourimain  for a NB map.

From Moncton I began taking the back roads and added time not necessarily distance to my ride.

The Swiss Army Knife of MC's

I left mid morning and arrived at their home right around 6 pm that evening.  They left early the next morning and once up and about, I began plotting where I may go during the week.  I had arrived via highway 100 by a circuitous route traversing small towns like Petticodiac, Sussex Norton and Hampton and Quispamsis.

I especially wanted to get down to the Fundy coast, riding the little three digit back roads.  I wanted to take photos of Fundy, find as many covered bridges as I could, ride solid gravel roads (we have clay roads on the Island but NB as the rest of the East Coast, is old Appalachian country where hills are gravel) and take advantage of the many ferry's that span the various arms of the ST John river system.  I wanted to eat at little out of the way restaurants, read road side tourist information boards and wave at passing motorcyclists!

The weather forecast was for hot and sunny days on end and for once, by George, the weatherman/woman was right.  Mid to high twenties and sunny days.

Should have bought a lottery ticket!