Great Blog indeed....I'm thoroughly enjoying reading about your adventures, and congratulations on the great pictures and writing. It's really keeping me busy on a hot lazy day. Thanks!

Repost from Jun 16 2012: Off to Quebec City!



Not too much to say about the ride to Quebec, we've done these roads tons of times, and we've decided to superslab it to see some new sights. We stopped off in Montreal to get a new rear tire fitted on my GS, something I could have done at home, but just didn't have enough time with all the preparations, had a quick grocery store lunch and then off to Quebec City, our first campsite (KOA!)


Streets were deserted during the morning ride through old Quebec City


More old city scenes from the back of a motorcycle.

I've always wanted to ride through the narrow streets of the old city, soaking up the European atmosphere. We passed through the city walls, remnants of the military presence in the 1600s and found the streets were soaked from the rains the night before. After a quick spin, the bikes were parked and we toured the rest of the town on foot, taking lots of pictures.


Owl watches over the Saint Lawrence River at Quebec City


This fiddler was very photogenic! Playing old Quebecois tunes.


Getting busier in the old city.


These cut-outs were hung above the old city streets.


Taking a break from walking around.

The Tour de Beauce runs in Quebec City today. We waited about 20 minutes for the bicycles to come running by in the old city. They were preceded by a police escort on motorcycles.


These guys were dragging their floorboards around the corners!


Waiting for the bicycles to run by


There they go! there must have been over 100 bicycles,
this was their first lap so they were bunched up coming up the hill


They would go on to do thirteen laps around the old city

We did a bit of vagabonding today by hiding out in the lobby of a swanky Quebec hotel, stealing their wi-fi, electric outlets and air-conditioning! We had to share it with a bachelorette party though, and at the end, we got to sign the bride's T-shirt. Sorry, no pix!


Posefest in Quebec City

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Congratulations and well done on seeing the light and having the balls to go out in search of your dreams!!

Look forward to reading lots more and seeing your photos.

__________________
TurboCharger + Francois (our BMW R1200gs) '07
www.riding2up.net, blog.riding2up.net

Repost from: Jun 17 2012: Gaspe Peninsula



The Gaspe peninsula lies on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River. It's kind of a pain to get to for most Torontonians because of the sheer distance to get to the start of the peninsula - about 1,000 kms by slab - definitely more than a long weekend trip. But since we didn't have anything to do for the next two and half weeks...


Riding around the Gaspe Peninsula

There are a lot of Can-Am Spyders riding around the area. I counted, and every third motorcycle we passed was a Spyder. Maybe Bombardier was having a sale for the locals? It got so ridiculous, that when Neda passed a Spyder, instead of waving, she would do the Incey Wincey Spider motion with her hand. Got some puzzled looks from that one!


Souvenir shop on the shores of Gaspe

We stopped in Rimouski to eat our lunch in a parking lot of a grocery store and we saw what looked to be a motorcycle school. We thought it was just a basic licensing course until they started doing stunts!


I like their stunting gear...

Highway 132 winds its way on the south shore, passing through many picturesque seaside towns. The weather here is cool, low 20s, and my Weather app on my iPhone is still defaulting to Toronto's heat wave. I've got a sliding window of three cities on my app now - where we are, where we're going to be tomorrow, and some mid-way destination. Nomad 21st-century style...


Someone painted the rock in the waters outside Saint-Flavie like an Egyptian Pharoah
Aptly named, "Pharoah Rock"

As we reached closer to the tip of the peninsula, the roads got tighter and tighter and we had a bit of fun twisting the throttle as we rolled into Forillon National Park. We arrived too late to go hiking and had to pitch our tent in the dark. Thank god it wasn't raining, as it usually does on our trips!


Big rock at Perce. We would ride around the coast and walk around the strait in about 20 minutes.

The next morning we set off south towards New Brunswick, still hugging the coastline past Perce to Chaleur Bay where we caught the highway south. We did stop to visit the big rock at Perce, as it's one of the famous landmarks in the Gaspe region.


Cormorants dive-bombing the water for fish


It was close to low tide, as the waters were low enough for you to walk to the rock.
If you waited there till high tide, you'd be stranded!


Walking around Perce


Neda and Kim Jong-Il posing in front of the big rock at Perce


Coastline at the Gaspe peninsula.


Big stretch break for the GS and Neda

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/4.html




Neda's take on a PB&J sandwich in Forrilon National Park, in Gaspe


Found a great campsite in St-Louis-de-Kent, NB!

These two pictures above typify our experience so far - camping and eating groceries. We're trying to stretch our travel dollar, since technically we're both unemployed and homeless!

We dawdled quite a bit on the Gaspe peninsula, so trying to budget time as well, we decided to boot it across New Brunswick and Nova Scotia - all the while feeling continually rushed to see as much of the Maritimes as possible before we had to make it back to Toronto by the end of the month to close our condo and sell the remaining vehicles before our next leg. Having to shop for groceries everyday and find a campsite before nightfall didn't help matters any!

So.. not a lot of pictures from this segment...


Our first taste of seafood in the Maritimes!

As we passed Antigonish, NS, we saw a sign for McLobster. It was more like McRobster - didn't taste very good and robbed us of $6.89! We met Sean at the McDonald's, who happened to be the city planner for Antigonish, and he urged us to ride around town, so we did. Nice town, shame about their McDonald's...

We did keep in contact with Sean a few times over e-mail as he had invited us to his cottage in Halifax, but the timing was off and we never did meet up.


Neda catches up on some light reading while waiting for the ferry

The ferry to Newfoundland departs from North Sydney, which is on the eastern coast of Nova Scotia. We arrived early and took our place in line with a lot of other Newfoundlanders waiting to go home. I had a long discussion with Robert, a francophone from St-Pierre-et-Miqeulon, a little island off the south coast of Newfoundland that is actually a part of France! He had a Goldwing and we were both talking in broken Franglais about motorcycles and riding. How I wished I learned more French in high school, he was a really great guy!


Waiting to board the ferry for Newfoundland


Our bikes get to travel across the Gulf of St Lawrence in the underbelly of the ferry, comforted by the weight of dozens of 18-wheelers above our heads.


While we were waiting in line, some locals told us that the winds on the coast of Newfoundland got so high, they blew 18-wheelers off the road. We tied our bikes down real good after hearing that, but it was pretty smooth sailing all the way to The Rock.


In the hold of the ferry

It's a 6.5 hour overnight trip from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to the west coast of Newfoundland at Port-Aux-Basques. There were a lot of people on the ferry on their way to St John's on the east coast, but because it's so costly to ferry all the way there, most people choose just to drive across the island instead.


Trying to get comfortable on the ferry

Being unemployed and homeless, we opted for the cheap seats on the ferry instead of a cabin. We weren't allowed to lie down on the floor or across several seats and if the crew found you, they would kick at you until you woke up...

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/5.html




Pulling into Port-Aux-Basques

The ferry pulled into Port-Aux-Basques, on the west coast of Newfoundland at 6 in the morning. We stopped into the visitor centre outside of town and waited a little while so we wouldn't have to share road with the hundred other vehicles also exiting the ferry. Also had to change the time on the clocks on the bike. Did you know NL has its own time zone and just to be different, it's a half hour ahead of Atlantic Time! Despite our little stopover and losing 30 minutes, the seaside community was still fast asleep as we left in the rain and fog, to ride north up the main highway.


Riding the west coast of Newfoundland

They call these the Table Top Mountains, a leveling off of the terrain that gives rise to a natural wind-tunnel effect, the same winds that blow 18-wheelers and trains off their tracks.


Bearded dragon stops to say hi to us in Corner Brook

Corner Brook is the first large town about 2.5 hours north of Port-Aux-Basque, and are they ever friendly! Seems like our stop for lunch brought half the population of the town out. As we hung out in the Timmies parking lot eating our sandwiches, we had a parade of people asking where we were from and giving us advice on where to go on the island and everyone warned us to be careful of the killer moose on the roads - they like to jump out in front of vehicles. Normally our conversations went like this, "How's it going der, eh? Watch out for dem der moose!". Lots of stories of moose strikes on The Rock, especially during the early morning and evening hours.


Gros Morne Park - wiped from the ferry ride

We got to Gros Morne Park in the early afternoon and set up camp. Because I opted to take pictures on the ferry ride instead of sleep, I passed out immediately while Neda took the opportunity to hike around see the park. Later on, we met up with Ben at the visitor centre, who happened to be a fellow ADV rider on an XT600 from New York who told us that a GS rider had died on the Trans-Labrador trail that he rode on the week before. Sad news.


Neda's hike through Gros Morne Park


Gros Morne Park

The next morning, we made a decision to hot-foot it across the island. We're remorseful because we would have liked to spend more time here but we had to meet friends in Halifax in a few days time, and it turns out the ferry from NL's east coast only runs three times a week! Neda really likes it here and it is high on her list of places to move to whenever we decide to settle down again. We both really wanted to ride to St Anthony's to see the icebergs glide down between Labrador and Newfoundland, but Ben assured us that there weren't a lot of them. Next time!

The scenery off the main highway was pretty uniform as it cut its way through the boreal forest of the island. I had the depressing feeling that we were missing so much of Newfoundland and I vowed that after we wrapped things up at home, I mean Toronto... , we would go about the rest of our journey very differently. After trekking 700 kms eastwards and a whole day later, we pulled into St John's, the capital city of NL.


Neda hams it up at Cape Speer. Took forever to dry her off...


Looking pensive at Cape Speer

The fog was pretty thick in the early evening as we rode the steep and windy road out to Cape Speer, the eastern-most point in Canada. It's just outside St John's, and Neda remarks how understated our tourist attractions are compared to the US. No wall-to-wall T-shirt/hot-dog stand/souvenir stalls here, just the beauty of the eastern Newfoundland coast. We stared out at the Atlantic ocean together and wondered what we'd see and where we'd end up next.


This is where our journey really starts...


Following the yellow brick road to the lighthouse at Cape Speer

Starving, we rode back down to St John's for dinner. We were parked somewhere in downtown St John's looking for a place to eat, with no success when we walked back to our bikes and there was a guy on a huge red Kawi waiting for us! Roy is a paramedic in St John's, and he was just riding around when he saw two unfamiliar bikes (everyone knows everyone in St John's) and he wanted to give us a tour of his city. So we hopped on and followed him around town as he showed us the sights. He was a great ambassador for the town and we felt like we had the red carpet treatment!


Roy, our tour guide around St John's

Our final stop on Roy's tour was the restaurant we were looking for, the Bacalao, billed as "nouveau Newfoundland cuisine". After a long day of touring, the food was excellent: Labrador caribou and traditional salted cod. Amazing food, all washed down by some dark ale from a local brewery called Quidi Vidi.

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com