Goodbye Nova Scotia

Our morning started pretty much as every morning had the week, dense fog, misting rain, visability near zero.  But like every other morning, the forg began to burn off as the sun began to rise.  As has become customer over the last week, we pack up the bikes and go looking for breakfast.  Fortunately, we didn't have to look far, as Peggy's Cove B&B was going to fill that bill this morning.  Our hosts Dan & Judy met us as the door and sat us at a breakfast bar facing the cove.  The meal as awesome, including french toast covered with bananas and home made syrup heavy with cinnamon!!  We ate quickly while talking to our hosts about our motorcycle travels.  Shortly we were again on our way, toward Lunenburg, hoping to catch a glimpse of the famous Bluenose II (a replica of one of the fastest sailing ships ever built) as it was preparing for its relaunch.  Unfortunately we could not make that happen, so Erin and I went to the Fishing Museum while Jenn & Daniel looked around town.  Erin had a blast looking at all the old boats and the live fish aquarium.  She ended her visit, "carding" & "spinning" some wool into yarn.  We were soon on our way, driving the last 100 miles back to digby.  We stopped for lunch at the Fundy Resturant, and Daniel and I took advantage of our last chance at some Fundy Bay Scallops.  You know althought we had eaten them with egg, potatoes, bacon and chowder, we had never gotten them the way we wanted them, pan seared.  Guess what, that was today's special, and they were just perfect, a fitting end to our Nova Scotia experiance. Soon we were driving the last 2 miles over to the ferry in St. John and loading our bikes up for the 3 hour ride.  We just chilled, caught up on some emails, and I am writing this blog!  We should dock about 7PM (it's 5:35PM Atlantic time now) we will then ride back to the hotel and load the bikes for a morning departure back to Atlanta.  Erin and Jenn's flight isn't until 12:30PM, so Daniel and I will wish them a speedy flight and leave before their flight takes off to begin our 1500 mile trek back home.  I will do an epilogue in a few days but I have got to tell you, this trip was more than I expected.  Daniel and I decided that we wouldn't have changed anything.  The travel party (Jenn, Erin, Daniel and myself), the planning, the lodging, the sites visited, even the weather, all worked together to give us a truly wonderful experiance.

Ahhh..............Nova Scotia's Maritime Coast

Yesterday we left Cheticamp and began our way south with blue skies and warm temperatures through the central part of Nova Scotia, eventually finding ourselves at the Lisscombe Lodge. A pretty cool place if you are spending a couple of days with backpacking, sea kayaking, and tons of nature activities. In fact, there was a yearly meeting of the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources occurring when we arrived! However, I didn't meet up with them until this morning after breakfast. After the mandatory DNR secret handshake and exchanging of the "hidden society"passwords, we spoke for a few minutes before heading out and once again mounting our bikes.

Today was another gorgeous day, sunny and in the mid 70's. We followed the Maritime Trail along the coast all the way to Peggy's Cove. Another spectacular day of scenery, driving quietly along the coast, and occasionally dropping into some small fishing village. The road was sometimes a little rough, but beyond that the ride couldn't have been more delightful. We passed through a couple of small towns just as the schools were letting out for summer. The kids all seemed excited to see us as they waved and shouted as we passed by. We honked our horns and enthusiastically waved to each and everyone of them. Around 1 PM, we had made our way to the Peggy's Cove B&B, our stop for the night. They warmly welcomed us, but said our room wouldn't be ready until 3 PM, but that was OK with us as we were ready to eat and explore some.

Peggy's Cove has the most photographed light house in Canada, and it didn't take long to understand why. The light house sits on an extremely rocky point, jutting out into the Atlantic. We stopped in the "Nor Easter" restaurant and sampled some more local delicacies. I had Lobster Potato Cakes, Jenn had a Lobster Roll, and Daniel had a Haddock dinner. We quickly ate and walked down to the shore to see what all the hubub was about! WOW, it was awesome! we spent the afternoon climbing over the rocks, with monstrous waves crashing around us, while listening to a bagpipe player playing out on the point. We then settled back into our cabin over looking the cove, and just enjoying the day. We went down to a place called Shaw's and enjoyed some more local food, before retiring back to our place and sipping some local "Fireball" cinnamon flavored  whiskey as the sun again was setting. Our last night in Nova Scotia :(. Tomorrow we head back over to Digby and the ferry for our ride back to the mainland. So good night from Nova Scotia for the last time.

Some days are diamonds

Sorry for not posting last night. Where were staying the service was not very good. Anyway,  yesterday morning started off much as other mornings. It had rained hard all night, and the Atlantic side of the island we were staying on was socked in with a very thick fog. Erin and I went out exploring around outside after a light breakfast. You couldn't see very far, but we began to hear a soft bellowing off in the thick woods. Could it be moose, we thought. Sure sounded like one. We went and got Jenn, and they stayed in the parking lot as I walked out into the edge of the woods. The sounds got a little louder and I could hear something moving off in the woods about 150 yrds. It never got any closer, but it seemed to change it's tone a little and slowly began moving off over the mountain side. I never saw anything, dang it! Could have been a Bigfoot, but in order to not scare the women folk, I told them I was sure it was a moose! We soon mounted our bikes again, and began to slowly plow our way through the heavy fog, slowly making our way up to our first mountain crossing. We got glimpses of huge waves crashing on the rocky shoreline, and Daniel attempted to take some pictures.

 I will see what I can find when I make our trip video. Finally we crossed over a mountain pass, and the fog began to clear. Little by little as we moved westward, we began to see more and more of the beautiful mountians we had been in all morning. By the time we dropped back down to the north west coast of Cape Breton,  the fog was completely gone, and the sun had come out. The folks at the Castle Rock Inn had told us if we wanted to go whale watching, we should stop at Pleasant Bay. So as we were only 40 miles from our stopping point for the night and it was only about 11:30, we pulled into Pleasant Bay to see what we could find out. It is an extremely small community, but besides the numerous lobster boats in the harbor, there were 4 whale watching boats. We decided to go into the one closest to where we parked and thus began the lucky string of events that provided basis for an extremely good day! Turns out there had been very few whale sightings this early in the season.

 They did have a brief sighting of a small Minke whale that morning, but really not much to show for 3 hours of looking. We boarded and the captain took us to the lone sighting that day. After about 1/2 hour of looking, I spotted it briefly before it again dove to begin eating. After about 15 minutes, Captain Gill said "Let's burn some of the owner's gas and go out to deeper waters (300 ft) to have a look. After about another half hour, I saw Captain Gill give a brief thumbs up and quickly accelerate out even further. He had spotted a large water spout out about 2 miles. Quickly we pulled up on first 1, then 2, and then 4 humpbacks, kind of hanging out on the surface.

 One did a deep dive and showed us his fluke, then one came completely out of the water before splashing down right beside us. We followed the foursome around for a while, and ran across 2 extremely large Fin whales, about 60 feet long and weighing 80 tons each! Captain Gill quickly got on the microphone and radioed all the other boats he had found the seasons first big whales. We stayed at the spot until the other boats began to arrive and we began our 10 mile trip back in the extremely fast Zodiac. On our way back to port, Captain spotted a Bald Eagle high on a cliff, majestically atop the highest rock. We motored over and while we were snapping pictures, a Minke whale crossed right in front of our boat. After  getting back to shore Erin was still a buzz with what we just saw, amazing. We thanked and tipped our captain and went to the first place we could stop to eat, as in all the excitment, it was now 3:30, and we hadn't eaten since 8 AM. After gulping our food, we were once again riding through the beautiful canyons and ocean vistas' of the wonderful Cabot Trail.

 Shortly we had gotten to the Ocean View Inn in Cheticamp, and were again greeted with a wonderful surprise. The place we had selected strictly for convenience, was a cabin right on the ocean. While Daniel and I went to get some libation to enjoy the coming sunset, Jenn settled us into our cabin. Erin was soon soundly sleeping, and we went outside with our bottle to watch the sun be swallowed by the water. What a gorgeous sunset. We found some wood around and built a fire to prolong the evening. Finally, we realized it was approaching 11 PM, so we sadly bid goodnight to wonderful "Diamond Day" we had just experienced!

Baddeck and Ingonish

We got up and left Port Hawkesbury at what has become our normal time, 9 AM. We opted for McD's which was across the street. Funny, just like on some of our past trips, as soon as folks find out we riding motorcycles and from the U.S., they approach us and start a conversation. At McD's, a couple of older folks enjoying their morning coffee, asked where we were from. When I said Georgia, they said they thought they heard a "southern" accent. They then began to ask, the standard questions: "Where have you been in Nova Scotia?"; "Where are you headed?". We laid out our trip plans, and they mentioned a couple of "must sees". Like Alexander Graham Bell's home in Baddeck, and the Glenora Distillery in Inverness (reported to be the oldest single malt distillery in North America). We had the Bell home on our stops for the day, but we would pass the Glenora Distillery on our way south after Cheticamp, so we added that to our list of "to do's".

We started on our way north, and the although the day was much cooler than previous days, it was still pleasant much of the day. We entered the Cabot Trail in late morning, and quickly found ourselves in Baddeck, Alexander graham Bell's home. While Erin and I explored the museum, Daniel and Jenn walked about the grounds taking some pictures of the beautiful cove and lighthouse that was below. I found out some things I didn't really know about Mr. Bell. Although he made his fortune with the telephone, he had used that money to pursue "pure intellectual curiosity". He invented the first "wireless" communication device in 1890,  when a device he designed transmitted a vocal signal from one building to another in Washington D.C. using light waves. Pretty amazing for the time and still seems pretty impressive today. Funny, Bell always considered himself an "amateur" inventor, not in the same class as other inventors of his time like Edison. Anyway, we spent a couple of hours looking around and then it was back on the road.

The next several hours of riding was awesome, climbing into mountain top cloud tops, and dropping into deep blue ocean, tree lined fishing villages. It started to get a little colder later in the day, in fact it dropped to 53 in one mountain pass. We drove on to Ingonish to the only place you can buy a Cabot Trail  Motorcycle "T" shirt, the Coastal Waters Inn. We had a pretty decent lunch, and then drove the 10 miles over to our stop for the night, The Castle Rock Inn. They didn't have any food to our liking, so Daniel with the help of the front desk clerk invented a pretty ingenious way to eat pizza. You see, there was a pizza place in town, but they didn't deliver. So Daniel ordered the pizza, and then  had a local cab pick it up and drive it to our Inn. Although the pizza and a 2 liter bottle of Coke was $29, the cab delivery was only $10 including a $3 tip. When Daniel offered a piece to the clerk that had helped him, she respectfully declined saying she had never eaten pizza! Wow, we must be out in the wilds.

Anyway, everyone is safe and having great time. Daniel really misses the boys, and wish that they could experience some of the things that he is, and is talking about coming back sometime when they are a little older. That is it for now, talk to you tomorrow from Cheticamp!

YOU MUST BE FROM GERMANY!

We awoke to some bright "death ray" looking thing coming through our bedroom window. Oh yea, the SUN! We hadn't seen that since we got to Canada on Friday. We decided to have breakfast in the hotel in order to save a little time for our longest ride of the trip. We left Halifax around 9 AM, and pointed our bikes north. It didn't take long until we were outside the city doing 80 MPH on a 4 lane highway. About 40 minutes into the ride, Erin was fast asleep her little helmeted head resting on Jenn's back, but with the 5 point harness keeping her safe and connected to Jenn, I took some video for posterity, pretty darn cute though. Daniel had earlier suggested a side trip to Cape George, which only added about 30 miles to the ride, but promised some good views of the ocean. The first 1/2 was a pleasant 2 lane country road that could be found in any place in North Georgia, some mild twisties, but nothing that required driving below 50 MPH. Soon we were getting glimpses of the ocean, and before long we had constant vistas over our left handlebar. We took a brief stop at a remote lighthouse and snapped some pictures, absolutely beautiful.

The sky a robin egg blue, brightly colored lobster boats running their trap lines in the ocean behind us, and a mild 73 degrees  sunny day. It was one of those rides where everything comes together perfectly that will be remembered for a long time. We eventually found our way back to the interstate and started working our way to Port Hawkesbury, our stop for the day. Erin, although sleeping much of the day, had completed her first 200 mile day! We actually got to the Maritime Inn at about 3:30, so Jenn and Erin went down to the pool for a while before dinner. I went searching on foot for some small items that we needed, and found a drug store (think CVS) a couple of blocks away. One my way back I passed a McDonald's that was advertising a McLobster sandwich. On my return Daniel and I said we were going to have to try one of those before we left Nova Scotia.  As the restaurant in our hotel didn't open until 6:30 and it was only 5 PM, we decided to find something close by to quickly fill our bellies, without having to wait for another 1 1/2 hours. It happens that right across the street was the "Rose House Chinese Buffet"! I know, I know, not traditional Nova Scotia fare, but we thought it fit our requirements (close, open, belly filling food). So we walked over an sat down, only to find they had all of about 15 things on their buffet. But we all found something to eat, and they made some fresh California Roll (sushi) for us, so we filled our plates and commenced to eatin'! During our dessert course (self serve hand dipped ice cream), Daniel, Jenn and I got into a very meaningful debate about the proper way to pronounce Caramel, and during that discussion Jenn attempted to spell it the way I was pronouncing it "Care-a-mel (the way any proper Baltimoron would pronounce it!) , and after a couple of attempts, she completed the attempt successfully. While Daniel and Jenn said it was pronounced just the way it is spelled (Car-a-mel). I know pretty deep conversation for world travelers such as we! Anyway, what I failed to mention was that Jenn had a few cocktails before dinner, and in her first attempt she spelled it C-E-A-R-A-M-E-L. Daniel and I had a good laugh and when the Asian waitress brought us our bill, she asked Jenn: " Are you from Germany?". We looked at each other kind of dumbfounded, and said no, we were from the state of Georgia in the US. She said "Oh Sorry, but when I heard the lady trying to spell caramel, I thought she must be from Germany". We laughed our way back to our room, and settled in for the night. Tomorrow, we enter the Cabot Trail, but we hear there are storm clouds a brewin' in the local weather forecast.  So there may be more wet riding in our future!

Halifax

We rose about 6 AM and after packing up our bikes, we headed down to the attached restaurant at the Admiral Digby Inn. Jenn, Erin and I, had normal fair for breakfast, hotcakes and French Toast. Daniel on the other hand ordered an Admiral Omelet, that had about a dozen Fundy Bay scallops. He shared one with me and it was DELICIOUS! So filling our bellies, we walked back to our cottage and finished preppinng our bikes and saddled up.

The ride from Digby over to Halifax started off as the previous day ended, overcast and drizzling rain. It stayed in the 60's most of the ride, so it wasn't a cold ride. We spent the morning cresting mountains and slugging our way through thick fog banks, but after about 2 1/2 hours we found ourselves on the outskirts of Halifax. We stopped at an Esso station to gas up, and were approached by a gentleman inquiring about our cameras. You see Daniel, Jenn, and I all have cameras mounted to our helmets. He quickly noticed that we were from Georgia, and said that he "wintered" in Georgia. Sensing a "kindred" spirit, I asked if he could give us directions to the Fairfview Cemetery,  burial sight of the 200 souls who died on the Titanic and were never repatrioted. He said if we followed him, he would take us there! As we pulled in the driveway, Jenn and Daniel went on and I stopped to thank our new friend. I gave him a business card and told him to call me next winter. I reached out to shake his hand, but he pulled me in and gave me a "manly hug". He wished us a safe trip and I caught back up with my group. The cemetery wasn't very big and we soon found the burial spot we were looking for. The grave markers were all lined up in neat rows, with similar gravestones. Some had names, some only had the number they were given when they were pulled from the water. A pretty emotional place was the site of a mother and four children that were buried in a common grave, and some folks had placed some stuffed animals on the grave stones. Nearby was a grave marker of an unknown infant, where folks had placed pennies on. We didn't understand the tradition, but I gave Erin some change and she too placed some on the grave.

We soon mounted our bikes and headed toward our hotel in the Brewery Market area of the waterfront. After checking in we asked where the Alexander Keith Brewery was, reported to be one of the oldest working beer makers in North America (1820).

Turns out it was right next door! Daniel also had a conversation with the attendent at the front desk, about Fundy Bay scallops, and was told it isn't pronounced "scahlops" like we do in the states, it was properly pronounced "skullops". Kind of how you would expect Sean Connery to say it. So we went next door and sampled some of Mr Keith's fine brew, and even took a tour of the brewery. It was done in period costumes and actors. Erin had a grand time, and the adults all enjoyed the free beverages at the end!

We then spent the rest of the afternoon walking along the waterfront and enjoying the day. We settled for the evening in "Murphy's on the Waterfront". We were still pretty full from our large lunch, so we bought 1 appetizer (Calamari), 1 entre (Lobster Roll), and a bowl of their famous Seafood Chowder, and shared it among the table. We walked back to our room after a pretty full day, and crashed preparing for one of our long rides of the trip (168 miles). Erin has been a trooper on her first long motorcycle trip. She dozed off a little today while riding her longest stint ever today at 108 miles nonstop, but the 5 point harness she wears, kept her safe! Tomorrow, we head inland again. Goodnight all from Halifax!

Ah! Nova Scotia at last!!!!

We woke up this morning and had a scrumptious (!) Continental Breakfast at the hotel. As we didn't have to be to the ferry until noon, we took our time packing and preparing for the rainy ride over to the dock. Daniel asked for directions from the front desk attendent as Jenn and I got Erin fitted for the 15 minute ride. As we got to the parking area of thee ferry, they waved us to the front of the line and we went inside to get our boarding passes. They were quickly provided, and we were asked to go ahead and enter the boat and follow the directions as provided by the attendents. The deck was wet and extremely slippery. Jenn had a real challenge with Erin and her brand new tires. But we were quickly in place and battened down using the ratcheting straps as provided on the ship. We went to the upper cabin area and settled in for the 3 hour ride to Digby Nova Scotia. It rained most of the way, and the temperature continued to drop.

We arrived at the port and we were quickly off and heading the hotel ( Admiral Digby Inn) which was only about 1/2 mile away.

 Our plans of going out for dinner was scuttled when we found out our hotel had a lobster dinner special. So we stayed "home" and waited for the 5 PM restaurant opening, sipping some alcohol contraban that I mentioned in the last post. Finally 5 PM was here and we walked over to the attached dining establishment. While sampling the local beer (Alexander Keith's Red Amber), we ordered the lobster special and a sampling of the appetizers including, smoked salmon and the famous Fundy Bay Scallops wrapped in bacon, mmmmmmmmmm.

After the local lobster were pulled right from the tank and sent to the back to steam, we settled into looking out at the Bay fo Fundy and saying what a beautiful place for a meal. The food soon arrived, and we made short work of the lobster and quickly ordered some dessert, Jenn & Erin got chocolate cake, I got strawberry cheesecake, and Dan ordered SEAFOOD GUMBO! Hey, he felt the need for some additional  seafood! Dan was given a "Tooney" (?) in change which we were told was a 2 dollar coin. So bellies full, we waddled back to our cabin overlooking the bay , for an early evening and to get things prepped for our trip to Halifax tomorrow. Hopefully the rain will let up a little, but if it doesn't, Hey that is part of the adventure right???  So going to bed now, talk to you tomorrow.