A trip I took with my 79 year old Grandfather in July of 2006
If you have Google Earth, download this (4.5MB) .kmz file and open it. Check “Tracks†on the left side to see the tracklog from my GPS and double click the green dots to view the GeoReferenced Pictures!!
Windows – Right click, save as
Mac – Ctrl+click, save as
In Google Eath, go File->Open and select the .kmz. Zoom in for full detail.
http://mysite.verizon.net/dskyzd/NovaScotia.kmz
The whole Gallery is here:
http://R1150R.smugmug.com/gallery/1706229/1/84005792
Here's an overview of the track log from my GPS for the whole trip:
Total miles:
GPS 3422
Odometer: 3535
Day1 7/14 (Bluefield, VA to Scranton, PA)
516 miles (daily mileages given from GPS, odometer reading was always a little higher)
I was pretty much sick with anticipation. We left Bluefield right before 8am. My Grandfather rode up from Richlands. Once we got under way I felt better and settled in for the trip. We made it to Scranton about 6pm with no drama and stayed in a Clarion hotel. A beer, a sandwich, some conversation, and an early bedtime.
Day2 7/15 (Scranton, PA to Augusta, ME)
500 miles
This was another uneventful day of travelling. I'd never been in the Northeastern US before but it didn't look that much different from the rest of the country I'd seen. Stayed in a Comfort Inn
Day3 7/16 (August, ME to Moncton, NB)
373 miles
The trees and mountains started to look different and I began to feel the many miles between me and home. We crossed into New Brunswick, Canada and I had the friendliest customs agent who even let me take her picture.
We got to see the Bay of Fundy and the weather was so nice we could see Nova Scotia on the other side.
We stopped at Hopewell rocks to see the “flower pot†formations, but it was at high tide so we didn't stay. There was a nifty sunset when we came out of the Chinese restaurant in Moncton. See the hand?? I think he was watching over us!
Day4 7/17 (Moncton, NB to Dunvagen, Cape Breton Isl., NS)
373 miles
We crossed into Nova Scotia
I came out of the welcome center to find this:
Camfarm??? is that you?
No, it was Greg from Washington state. I told him I thought at first he was my buddy camfarm, and he told me that he saw that bike with the yellow top case in Boise, ID. Can you dig that????
We crossed the Canso causeway. Notice the great weather we having. Unbelievable!! On the way up toward the Cabot Trail I got zapped in the neck by some flying, stinging insect. He bit me at least twice and hurt worse than just a honey bee. We camped this night and met this crazy Cape Bretoner who just talked our legs off. He was interesting and entertaining at the same time. His name was Greg Ianetti. We stayed at MacLeod's Beach Campground in Dunvagen and I caught this magnificent sunset while the mozzys (mosquitoes) chewed on me.
Day5 7/18 (Dunvagen, NS to Truro, NS)
408 miles
After showering I noticed this HUGE mozzy bite on my forehead. I felt just like Ewan!!! We rode the Cabot trail and I was absolutely beside myself from the beauty. There are no words to describe how I felt. The trip could have ended right there and I would have been happy. Didn't ride out to Meat Cove because it was raining pretty good when we got to the turn off at Cape North. I passed an R1200RT and an Electra Glide travelling the other way.
We also rode over into Sydney and up to Glace Bay where they have a Coal Miner's Museum. My Grandfather is a retired coal miner so this was a very cool experience for us.
I needed a hotel this night so we stayed at the Best Western in Truro. I met the RT rider. Paul Beck (Pbbeck) from the bmwst board. He lives in California and had been travelling since mid-June. The Harley rider was his brother who rented the bike in Boston. He was web logging the whole trip for his students back home. http://web.mac.com/pbbeck/iWeb/roadtrip ... 0Blog.html
Day6 7/19 (Truro, NS to Halifax, NS)
153 miles
Finally a light travel day. We spent the entire day around the Shubenacadie river. This is the area of the worlds highest recorded tides. We got there in the morning, came back in the afternoon, then again in the evening to see the Tidal Bore. This river empties into the bay and keeps getting lower and lower and lower until the tide starts to come back in and reverses the flow. They ride the bore and play on the turbulent water it creates. Just an amazing thing to experience. We also went up to Burncoat Head to see the park there and more effects of the high tides. After watching the rafters we headed toward Halifax and the Woodhaven RV park.
Shubie High
Shubie Low
Day7 7/20 (Halifax, NS to Liverpool, NS)
153 miles (yes, again)
This was the day of Peggy's Cove, Lunenburg, and the Bluenose II. I saw a “ForTwo†smart car at Tim Hortons where we had breakfast. Peggy's Cove was phenomenal. Lunenburg was gorgeous. We toured the museum and got to see them working on a new mast for the Bluenose II.
One of the coolest experiences of the whole trip happened this day. We went out to find the old Stevens boat yard. This was a place my Grandfather had read about years ago (1972 National Geographic I think). We found it, but the boat yard was long quiet. One of the Stevens girls still runs a Sailloft from there and we got a personal tour from her cousin Janice. This lady gave us the warmest and most informative tour of their property and showed some boats that her uncle had made. This was the place that made the main sail for the Bluenose II last year. What an incredible find!!
http://www.tallships.ca/sailloft/
News of the coming tropical storm had us making plans to get to Yarmouth and seek shelter. We headed down the coast to Liverpool where we camped again. Right after we set up camp a fog moved in and that was last scenery I saw in NS. The weather up until then had been almost perfect. The US was having record temps and so was NS. 30 and 31C, mid to upper 80s F where we were. Not the Nova Scotia I was expecting. Fisherman's Cove Campground and RV park had a wooded campsite with soft woodchip tent sites and plenty of mosquitoes.
Day8 7/21 (Liverpool, NS to Sprinfield, MA)
252 miles
Our plan was get up early, get to Yarmouth before the predicted afternoon rains and hold up in a hotel. When we stopped for breakfast at a Tim Hortons about 1.5 hours from Yarmouth my Grandfather suggested we try to get on the ferry that morning (a day early) and ride it through the storm. So we high tailed it for Yarmouth. We got to the Ferry terminal about 8:35 and even though the bikes had already loaded they got us on board pretty quick, but there were only a few cars after us. By the time I got the bike strapped down, the thing was moving.
Within 30 minutes of riding THE CAT I was sea sick. This was just a miserable 5 or 6 hours for me. As soon as the boad slowed down to enter the harbor in Portland, ME I felt better. We were last to get on, but first to get off. I pulled out behind the other bikes. When I got to the lanes for customs the guy directed me into the car lane. These lanes alternated through one of the customs booths. We were through customs in no time!!!! Easy peasy, but no pretty face this go around.
We hit the road and headed South. Unfortunately we hit the 495 around Boston at evening rush hour and got caught in crawling traffic near the I90 interchange. It poured the rain on us here with no way to stop and put on the raingear. We were finally able to take shelter in a travel plaza on the MassPike. I called my wife and she found us Comfort Inn in Ludlow near Sprinfield, MA. After drip drying for a while we headed for the hotel.
Day9 7/22 (Sprinfield, MA to Bluefield)
739 miles
Ride, ride, ride. We got up rode 200 miles and stopped for gas and raingear. I felt great. It was good to be back in the US. Good to be on smooth roads, and good to be headed home. As we rode I kept calculating and determined if we pushed it just a little we could be back in Bluefield about the time it got dark. So that's what we did. I don't think my Grandfather wanted to ride that far, but he rides form here to Daytona Beach in a day and that's about the same miles. It wasn't quite a Bun Burner or even a saddle sore, more like a Bun Warmer. I rolled in to the house at about 9:30pm after 13.5 hours of riding. It was sure nice to be home, but I was sad that the trip was over.
There were two great pieces to this trip. The riding and the scenery itself, then the fact that I got to do it with my Grandfather. He did some missionary work in Haifa, Israel in the late '90s and with all that was going on over there while were gone it was surreal to hear his stories. I'm still blown away by the whole thing. Next he want to ride to Mexico to see the ruins!!!
Here are some Panoramas:
