Summer 2011 to the East Coast

Flowers "picked" for Jane and yours truly leaving at 8:00 this morning

Hello everyone.

Well it was that time again; the bike has been prepped, including new tires, and I've packed the saddlebags, topcase and tank bag with the essentials for another roadtrip. Last year, as you will recall I headed west, got toVictoria BC (with Jane on the back of the bike from Calgary to Vancouver), got as far south as San Fransisco and returned via Death Valley, Yosemite, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Colorado, a buch of flat states in middle-America, Chicago and southwesternOntario. All told, 13,300 kilometres.

So the plan (to the extent that there is a plan) for this summer's trip is to head to the East Coast via a route through the northern parts of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire and on through Maine to Portsmouth. Then, I hang a left and hug the Atlantic coast to somewhere I can take a ferry to Nova Scotia. After it's exploring that province from bottom to top. From North Sydney I'm thinking of another crossing to Newfoundland. East to West on the Rock; then back to North Sydney. Jane and I are planning a rendez-vous on PEI and a return trip to Ottawa together via Gaspésie, the home of my ancestors, and Québec City.

Today I rode from home to Gorham New Hampshire. The secondary roads that I prefer to nasty expressways were in very good shape, and the weather was great, beautiful sunshine and not too hot. Can someone explain to me how a bee can go behind a windsceen when you're going 6o mph, into your shirt and then sting you? Well, when it happens you have to carefully move to the shoulder of the road, remove your jacket, untuck your shirt and shake out, and then squish the offender.

I'll try to keep you posted as the trip unfolds.