Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Heading to Canada, eh?

We Heart Rain?
Gail & Lisa Ready for the Rain

You'd think that after 10 years of riding, I'd have the hang of being prepared for a trip; but it seems that each and every outing this season, I've forgotten something. For this trip, I forgot that it can be 52 degrees in August. What's up with that? There is just something about packing when it's almost 90 that causes you to forget this.

Friday we did well to roll out of the garage at 7:30AM. Our rain gear was taking up half of a hard case and I had our stuff packed in a dry bag, this turned out to be a good decision. We enjoyed glimses of the sun for about an hour. Then solid clouds...then rain by about 12:30. This kept up in various intensity for about 3 hours.

Gas Break in Maine
More rain

Moods were drooping as we headed toward Lubec, I was concerned that we'd get washed out of our West Quoddy Lighthouse visit, which was the whole point of the Lubec detour. But the weather gods cooperated and the skys lightened up an hour outside of the Eastern most town in the USA and we were able to shoot away at the light house.

West Quoddy Head Light House

West Quoddy Head Light Station

West Quoddy Head Light Station

We enjoyed a nice room, yummy drinks and a hearty dinner at the Cohill's Inn in Lubec. This 9 room Inn is very motorcycle friendly. The owner helped cover the seat of my bike and shared pictures of his bike projects. Canada is so close (you could see the bridge to Campobello Island), our cell phones put us on Atlantic time and the radio broadcasts where from Canada.

Morning Fog in Lubec
Cohil's Inn Lubec Maine

Morning Fog with seagull

Kevin in the morning fog

We crossed the bridge, breezed through customs and caught the Campobello Island Ferry to Deer Island. The ferry rides to the mainland NB saved us about 100 miles. It was a fun adventure, albeit a little wet. It was $23 for the two bikes, the fee is published as $8 apeice but a fuel surcharge has been implemented.

Another Headlight Reflection Shot from the Ferry
Reflections in the Harley

Waiting for the free ferry from Deer Island to the mainland
Lisa and Kevin wait for the Ferry

A couple hours later we rolled into our friends driveway just north of Muncton, NB

Getting Goofy in the Garage
Good times in the garage

Our Little Rounder's Gang - Cheers
Cheers!

It was a short but fun visit, there were 5 of us up from Mass & NH. Kevin left with two of them at dawn on Sunday morning. Lisa and I slept in; leaving at 10:00. We "enjoyed" the heavy overcast (no rain) until almost 3:00. Shortly after a rest break, where we optomistically shed some of our rain gear, it of course...started to rain. And rain hard. We were in line at customs at Holton, ME, putting our rain pants back on.

We were ok riding in the rain, but it became not ok when lightening started showing up in the dark clouds. I decided that was reason enough to bail off the Maine Turnpike when I saw the Best Western sign in Orono, ME.

A warmed up Lisa enjoys her fast food feast

I love Hotels!

Monday morning was more clouds, more rain and basically a 4 hours ride we just endured. I make one stop in Augusta to get a new picture of the capitol.

Lisa took the opportunity to text her friends

Lisa's Texting

We were home before 3:00, dirty and tired, another adventure under our belt.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the picture of Lisa texting. AGATT! :P

Unknown said...

Looks like a great ride. Touring, food, weather, friends. What more can aperson desire?

Anonymous said...

What a great post. I love the photos. My wife, Amy (from twowheeledfemales) has been taking GREAT photos on our current trip. I love the fog in some of your photos.