Day 23: Sun., July 5: St. Ann's to North Sydney, NS

Well, today's journey was a short one -- about 40 or so km., but holy Hannah -- the fog this morning coming up and over the mountain between the two places was absolutely pea soup. It was really scarey as you couldn't see very far in front at all. And what's up with these boneheads who DON'T put their lights on???? Sheesh.

Last night, we had a lotta thunder and lightning in St Ann's and lost the power, so hadda go to bed early.

Anyway, got here to North Sydney, which is where the ferry to Newfoundland will leave from at 8:00 p.m. on Monday night (tomorrow). Checked into the Clansman Motel, which is mentioned in the Motorcycling Guide to Nova Scotia -- has covered parking for bikes and a bike wash station and the owner is a rider and great enthusiast and there are a number of other riders staying here -- so felt right at home.

The only fly in the ointment (or one of them) is that I suddenly came down with a whopper of a headache, like I haven't had in years. The staff kindly let me check in early so I could have a lay down and get over it, which I eventually did. But didn't feel good enuf to do any sightseeing, so hopefully will get to that tomorrow in the daytime.

The other fly in the ointment, unfortunately, is that my clutch seems to be slipping a bit. There are not HD places here to have it looked at, so I'm going to wait till I get to St. Johns, Newfoundland, where there is a dealer who can have a look-see and figger out what the problem is -- hopefully, it will be a minor adjustment.

Hope you are all enjoying your Sunday and riding your sox off!!!

Day 22: Sat., July 4: Baddeck to St Ann's, NS

View from St. Ann's Motel

First of all, Happy 4th of July to all my American friends (and geez -- sorry we burnt down your White House all those years ago ;-) )

OMG OMG - I just rode the frickin' Cabot Trail ... all by my lonesome ... and it was GRAND, lassies (and laddies). Totally incredible. (I only wish Big Daddy had been with me -- he woulda absolutely loved it, I know!

Started off this a.m. from Baddeck where the receptionist informed me that we were in for thunder and lightening storms. 'No way', sez I, 'I'm lucky that way' ;-) How's that for tempting Fate????

So, what happens -- I get about 2 km down the road and the sky starts spittin'. 'Hmmm', thinks I -- better get that rain gear on -- then it won't rain. That's exactly what I did and that's exactly what happened -- until a pretty long way into the trip anyways :-)

VALUABLE NOTE TO SELF (and whoever else is listening -- ladies -- ) ENSURE that anything you put in your pocket is absolutely secure BEFORE you sit on the throne in the local Timmies ... lest you suffer the same fate as Ole Willi ... which is to have to fish your 'Buff' neck warmer outta the toilet AFTER you have done your thang!!! THAT's a big ICK, I must say -- and you get the darndest looks from other women LOL

I took quite a few pics -- now just have to get Photobucket to load them -- I'm barely getting an internet signal here, so hopefully can load them tonight -- otherwise, will try again tomorrow night -- some very nice view pics, especially up high on hills, looking back on the roads I've just ridden up -- AWESOME!

Most of the journey was reasonably good weather -- dull in most spots but occasionally the mist would rise and the sun would peak out and it was great -- sometimes I got a spot to stop off to record it, sometimes not. This is one heckuva ride, ladies -- hope yah get to do it sometime.

Anyway, real rain didn't start until I turned south on Hwy 105 for St Ann's -- had to really slow down from 80 kmh to 60 or less because of the frost heave on the road -- if I tried to ride over it, I got airborne, so tried to avoid it by zigging and zagging down the road -- luckily not much traffic, so pretty easy run, considering the ole visor was a little heavy with rain. Good news is, the rain gear kept me dry and toasty, so all to the good. :-)

Pulled in to the St Ann's Motel (at first glance, a cousin to the 'Bates' Motel in Carberry ;-) , but turns out the owner has been to my home town of Mission and fished (with result - he caught a big salmon) in the Fraser River, so I was welcomed practically like Royalty -- that made me smile, I can tell yah -- I've already met three people on this trip who've been to the booming 'metropolis' of Mission - what are the odds on that, I wonder????

Had dinner at a fabulous restaurant next door -- great seafood and great wine, too. I ordered a carafe of St Jost Cabernet -- that was a totally yummy local wine -- would give our BC wines a run for the money, for sho'.

Anyway, goodnight all -- gonna try to get some photos uploaded -- though it may take awhile , really want you all to see the beautiful Cabot Trail.

EDITED TO ADD: Anneke, in Cheticamp, just as I was heading into the Highlands Park, a fella warned me there were at least 10 moose per km (the park ranger later told me that was an exaggeration!). Sooo, of course I watched like crazy, but none of your 'friends' came out to play ;-) But I must say, the moose on the Nova Scotia warnings signs look a whole lot meaner than the ones in Ontario LOL

Hasta la vista, gang!

EDITED to add photos: Day 22 Baddeck to St. Ann's - The Cabot Trail

Day 21: Fri, July 3: Tantallon to Baddeck, NS

I'm here at the Silver Dart Lodge in Baddeck, NS on the shores of Bras D'Or Lake. I've posted a few photos below to show how gorgeous it is here, plus a few snaps I took this morning of Indie and Big Bob while we were getting packed up to go.

They were heading for PEI and I, of course, for Cape Breton to ride the Cabot Trail (which is on the agenda for tomorrow).

We rode together until the turnoff to the PEI ferry via Pictou where they turned off and I carried on straight for another hundred and fifty or so km. It was a reasonably pleasant ride at that point, warmish but dull and cloudy, but the winds just prior, on and after the Canso Causeway onto Cape Breton Island were somethin' else. Holey Mazoley, even the cars were slowing down because of the gusts. But, Delilah got me here in one piece, thank goodness :-)

When we started out this morning, the mist was really heavy and it got horrendously foggy on the highway between Tantallon and just before Truro, where it just miraculously lifted as we stopped for lunch. Amazing!

Anyway, I got here around 3:45 p.m., got settled and went for a little walk, then a short dip in the (supposedly) heated pool (apparently, the concept of 'heat' is somewhat less here in the East than it is back in Lotusland. :-( Jaysus, thought I was in a cold bath LOL)

Enjoyed a fabulous dinner here at the Lodge and have been (trying to) upload pictures for ages - rather frustrating this evening, it's not working very well.

Anyway, tomorrow I set off on a clockwise ride of the Cabot Trail and then on to (probably) St. Ann's at the end of the trail. For those of you who are not familiar with the Trail, it's about 300 km long and it encompasses the Cape Breton Highlands National Park as part of its route. It rises quite high through rocky areas and plunges down almost to the sea in other spots and it is chock full of twisties and turnies (there are a number of videos on Youtube, for example), so I'm looking forward to quite a ride!

Bon Nuit!

Day 21: Tantallon to Baddeck, Cape Breton

Day 20: Thurs., July 2: Riding, Riding, Riding in Nova Scotia

Well, first of all, Indie and I didn't manage to drag our lazy butts outta bed very early this morning -- it was more like 9:30ish by the time we actually achieved the vertical position. (Poor Big Bob had already gone off to work way long time before THAT.)

THEN, acourse, we had to have our coffee to pry the eyes open.

THEN, Indie hadda fart around with doing her hair. (Now, I ask yah -- who needs to fluff up their hair, when all yer gonna do is slam a helmet on it and squish it all back down again???? I don't get that LOL)

After all those ablutions were performed, we jumped on our bikes and headed off to the local mall to pick up a coupla new memory cards for my camera (I seem to have managed to have destroyed the two I had!)

We also paid a visit to the local Dollar Store where Indie insisted I must have a pair of leopard print reading glasses (to match my Buff) LOL

Then, a brief stop at Timmie's for more coffee and a goodies, after which we headed off on our ride to the South Shore, then over Hwy. 12, heading through Kentville, New Minas and another place, the name of which escapes me at the moment. The little towns are charming, full of beautiful old houses, big and small, with lovely verandas and plenty of gingerbread railings and so forth -- my favourite style.

The roads are all twisty-turny and plenty of them are very narrow by B.C. standards. In fact, the speed limits on many of these roads surprises me -- I would never have expected them to have been set so high -- but I guess Nova Scotians are usually in as big a hurry as the rest of the world ;-)

We stopped at a shop called Fritz's, near New Minas, which Indie's chum, Beth had recommended -- the lady who runs it has quite a collection of riding gloves, rain gear, socks, neck coolers and I don't know what all. She has stuff there for all kinds of outdoor activities, so I'm sure she has a huge customer base. I found some great boot covers for the rain and also picked up a couple of neck coolers (as the one I had died of old age!) for half the price I paid in B.C. Indie also bought me a couple of nice pins - one a little map of N.S. and the other a motorcylist which says, "I toured Nova Scotia".

We finished up our ride by heading east to stop off at Indie's sister, Jeannie's place. She is renting another one of these old houses, verandah and sash windows and lots of wood floors and panelling. She really has a great flair for decorating and has been painting it room by room and bringing it back to life after years of neglect. Fabulous! And of course, she was just as much fun as her sister - we had a great visit and then headed off on the road for home.

There was only one slight detour on the way home, and that was to the local liquor store to stock up on 'libations' for the evening. That was our reward after a long day of riding. We each cracked one open and proceeded to get dinner on the BBQ (or Indie did) and we then scrubbed and washed the bikes -- mine in particular was filthy! That took until about 8:30 p.m.

Big Bob had got off work early and was home when we got there about 7:30 p.m., but had already eaten, so he set off on a ride of his own to Fall River. He just arrived back about 15 minutes ago and the sweet man put the bikes in the garage for us and is putting the tourpak on his bike in preparation for their departure tomorrow for P.E.I. (weather permitting). I will be heading off to Cape Breton myself, so the next missive from me will be coming from somewhere near Baddeck up in that neck o' the woods.

Nighty-night All!

Day 19: Wed., July 1: Canada Day in Lewis Lake/Tantallon

Well, I certainly hope everyone else out there had as great a Canada Day as I did. Indie and I loafed (well, I loafed, she cooked, etc.) around while Big Bob went off to work, poor laddie. It was soooo great to have a relaxing day, with no deadlines to meet -- I really appreciated it. Got some (much-needed) laundry done, too and so forth.

Then, the famdamily showed up for a Canada Day dinner -- all Indie and Big Bob's two daughters and son, in-laws and grandchildren. A wonderful warm, friendly bunch and it was a lotta fun to see all the little ones and the young parents interacting -- oh, yeah and 'Nana' and 'Papa' were pretty cute to see with all the little ones too -- THREE 2-year old grandchildren - two boys and one girl YOWSA!

And the food that was served -- OMG, Indie sure can cook! (She has to do THAT well, she's a terrible navigator LOL)

Acourse, we stayed up til all hours, imbibing a bit of wine and laffing and talking and then off to bed, planning on a ride on the morrow. Must get another memory card for the camera, cuz I've broken THAT one too! Geez.

Day 18: Tues., June 30: Riding near Halifax

Well, I tell yah, SUCH a day we had yesterday! OY!

It started off great -- Rhonda and I were up reasonably early and ready to go when Beth arrived on her 650 V-star and after some preliminary yakking, and with Rhonda 'coaching', I 'braved' the chore of backing out the Deluxe from Big Bob's shop. I did this with more than a little trepidation -- Delilah Deluxe can be capricious and it's a back-up down a ramp (thank goodness that was dry!) But it all turned out to look worse than it was, thank goodness and off we went.

We headed off on a nice coastal ride which took us down to Queensland and Chester (South Shore) (coffee at Timmies there) which I thoroughly enjoyed -- nice twisties and beautiful views (and sea smells to match) - it was grand.

Funny (peculiar) thing though. As we started our bikes at Timmie's, my battery warning light flashed on, as did the four-way flashers - just momentarily, but enough to worry me. Then I remembered that when I started the bike at Rhonda's that morning, the battery warning light had just flashed very briefly. THEN I remembered that, after we left Privateer HD the day before after I had Delilah serviced, just as we were merging onto the highway, the light had done just one flash ... hmmm, something to watch, I thought.

So, off we rode and as we went along, the light started to come on again -- about five or six times, all told. I was getting really concerned and we pulled over and decided to make for Privateer along the back road so they could have a look at it - I was quite concerned about having a breakdown on the fast highway route. (At the tiime, I thought maybe when they were putting the bike together after having taken the wheel off to check the balance, that they maybe they'd bumped the battery terminal connection or there was a loose wire or something of that nature. )

Anyway, we rode along, me getting tenser and more worried by the moment, and then suddenly, in a curve, Delilah lost all power for a split-second (seemed like an eternity) and then just as suddenly, the power came back on -- man was that a wobbly execution of a curve! Scared the bejeesus outta me and by the time we got back to Privateer and I got off the bike, my hands were shaking like a leaf -- NOT an experience I'd care to repeat.

So, the good news was that we made it to the shop safe 'n sound. The bad news was that we had a lot of waiting around to do, while they fit the bike exam into their schedule (which was great of them, considering they looked fairly busy). The next good news was that they were able to discover that the voltage regulator was not functioning properly and needed to be replaced. The REALLY bad news was that they didn't have the part in stock and it would take AT LEAST three days to get it from Toronto :-(

I could quickly see my holiday in NS going into the toilet and possibly not being able to make my ferry booking to Newfoundland. But, thank goodness for Rhonda - she phoned Big Bob and he did some phoning around and found a brand-new part at Power Trend in Halifax, an authorized HD dealer. Fabulous! But the kicker was that Privateer would not pick up the part for us - they WOULD install it, but I had to pay over the phone for the part and Power Trend got the part delivered to me by taxi. (The parts fella actually told Rhonda 'Power Trend buys from us; we don't buy from them'. Hmmm)

Great! At least we had the part. The Privateer service fellas installed it and test-rode the bike and it looks like it works fine now. HURRAH. But, without Rhonda and Big Bob stepping up and insisting that there was a better way to get the job done, I'd now be bikeless and who knows how long for. So I'm eternally grateful to 'Indie' (Rhonda's new nick is 'Indefatiguable') and Big Bob -- I learned a good lesson from watching these two in action, for sho'!

By this time, it was after five p.m. and I was bagged, I tell yah. I was glad we were going straight home -- I really needed that libation tonight, uhhuh! We headed off, as I thought, for home, and I was so disoriented, I didn't really realize we weren't anywhere near until we had been riding for ages and I saw a sign for Peggy's Cove. I had expressed the desire in the morning to do the Peggy's Cove loop and Indie was still going with Plan A of the a.m. while I thought we had segued to Plan B, which was to bugger off home and drink alcohol.

I was really pooped and stressed out, and when she realized it (my riding was getting pretty sloppy as I was sorta punchdrunk by that time), she headed for home pronto, the darling girl, so just had a brief stop at Peggy's Cove -- it truly is beautiful. But the seas are very powerful and dangerous there -- just recently, Indie said, a woman was swept into the sea when she ventured too close to the rocks ... and apparently it happens every year. NO TE TO SELF: stay away from Atlantic Ocean!

So we got home, did a brief liquor store run in her van and enjoyed another wonderful homecooked dinner (she IS a better cook than a navigator ;-) ), drank and yakked and laffed and generally de-stressed with her and Big Bob and had a great evening.

Today, we decided to to kick back and hang out at her place for Canada Day and just recharge MY batteries (Delilah's seems fine after all that LOL); I'm doing my blogging and uploading photos and a little laundry and Big Bob & Indie's kids and grandkids (3 two-year olds!) are coming for dinner, so that will be great fun too. We might even wash our bikes too -- how much more excitement could yah possibly ask for, eh??? ;-)

Then, tomorrow, weather permitting, we can hopefully get another ride in (and maybe meet up with my niece) before it's time to think about heading up to Cape Breton for the weekend and then on the 6th, on the ferry to Newfoundland ...

Have a Wonderful Canada Day Everyone! It's our 142nd birthday this year, isn't it???

Day 18: Riding near Halifax

Day 17: Mon., June 29: Moncton to Halifax, NS

Oh, I tell yez, dat Rhonda is soooo fired as Chief Navigator ... which I'm sure she'll regret, as it was the best-paid volunteer job around LOL

She bravely decided she would meet me in a place called Elmsdale and proceeded this morning to give me instructions by phone before I left Moncton. "Before yah yet to Truro, take the exit for Elmsdale, dat's the best and if yah see signs for Halifax airport, well, then ye've gone too far, and turn left, then go through two sets o' lights and Timmie's is on the left ... do this, and turn there and yadda yadda yadda.

'Cept it twern't true, as I discovered as I was riding along. I took the last exit for 'Halifax and Truro', the sign said. OK, I'm good, that's the first step. Riding along, see signs for Truro, 'Next 5 exits for Truro', OK, counting off signs, one, two, three, four, five. ACK Wait a minute, none of those was for Elmsdale??? Where the frack did it go??? What to do? Well, keep riding, I guess - eventually I either come right into Halifax, or I have to stop for gas.

Hmm, see exit for Stewiacke (which I STILL think should be pronounced Stew-ee-ack-ee!), take it and gas up. Then haul out cellphone to call Rhonda and discover a message from her which she left almost immediately after we spoke this morning, this time with corrected directions. Elmsdale turns out to be a lot further down the road, AHA! Anyway, get her on the phone and give her the gears, "Lady", I sez, "your directions are SHIT!" LOL "That's OK", she sez, "I'm a great cook!" "OK, you're forgiven!" LOL "But yer still fired!"

So, I carry on and meet up with her at the Timmies in Elmsdale. Oops, I see I've gotten ahead of myself as I've neglected to say that it was absolutely pi$$ing down rain in Moncton and it didn't really let up until I got to Stewiacke. Luckily, only my feet and around the edges got a little damp as I have good rain gear, but it was hellishly windy and was not a fun ride -- had to slow down quite a bit for the first 60 or so km. Anyway, all's well that ends well.

So, after a coffee and some lunch at Timmie's, we headed off to Privateer, the local HD dealer for a much needed oil change and to have my front wheel dealt with (as it turned out). I haven't mentioned this before, but since Offroad Ed, Hotspot Annie and I had our rough-road detour on the trip to Sudbury, I've been experiencing a severe wobble when taking the bike up through 60 kmh. Thank goodness, the service guys at Privateer discovered that one of the wheel weights had fallen off so it was out of balance. They put a new chrome one (!) on for free (!), the little darlings, and I was good to go. What a great bunch - they looked after me just great.

Now, acourse, that took about an hour or so ... so what was a girl to do, but indulge in a little retail therapy??? A new helmet, visor and yellow glasses did the trick :-)

Now, in the meantime, in came Bob, Rhonda's hubby. My goodness, is this fella BIG -- I hadda stand on my absolute tippytoes to give him a big hug, while he hadda bend so much at the waist, he resembled an open jacknife LOL

So, we headed off to their place not too far away and right away I felt at home. Lucky me, I've got my own room - it's lovely. And what was waiting for me? A lovely birthday card and a whole raft of birthday prezzies -- wasn't that sweet? A guardian bell for the bike (which Big Bob has already installed), a little angel pin, a Nova Scotia Riders crest, a pair of blue glasses - how cool is that to get prezzies on your birthday when you least expect it. :-)

And not only that, I was plied with the CCC libation, totally awesome homemade pizza (BURP) and a birthday cake (more BURP). (I'm writing this in the wee small hours cuz I was woken with heartburn - piggy that I am, so decided to make use of the time LOL)

Then Rhonda's buddy Beth came over and showed us some 'biker retail' purchases she had just made, so it looks like we'll be adding retail therapy to our ride tomorrow PLUS Beth has offered to organized a lobster cookout - what a perfect introduction to Nova Scotia!

As well, the gals plied me with maps and guidebooks and a TON of good ride suggestions. It looks like my time here is gonna be jampacked with fun things to do!

Doin' the Happy Dance! Nighty-nite!