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.