| Author | Message | ||
     Terrible1one3 |
A while ago I pronounced my wife and I were going on a 2500 mile trip around New England/Canada. Well we did it and here are some of the highlight pictures of it. There are a lot so bear with me. Casey and I all packed up and ready to go.  First stop was in Baltimore, MD, we ate at Cheapside Wharf in downtown, great breakfast for like $4 a person. Starting the trip off right!  Decided to blast some highway to start, boring scenery but I find it kinda fun riding through the highway traffic, definitely dangerous but exhilarating.  One of the many bridges we crossed on the trip. And a nice Subaru   Rest stop number two.  NY Skyline from Jersey.  We stayed in queens but came from the west side so we had to cross manhattan on the bike, hit some traffic on the GPS route so went up to what I think was 56th street, very nice to the Queensboro bridge.  Crossing the Queensboro bridge.  We stayed at Hotel Ravel, it was in the middle of an industrial park in Queens, also had a night club on the roof that was popular so it was loud at night.  I never went to the original trade center but have gone there a few times. The building his humongous!  Looked more impressive on TV.  Time square is pretty wild.  I always loved the photos of the guys building the skyscrapers in NY just sitting there eating lunch. Neat piece of art on wheels I had to pretend to be.  Seriously... parked illegally with people looking at it, with the stereo on, no one in it, blasting Celine Deon. Turns out the owner was just sitting back watching people look and take pictures of his car. To each his own.  Late show!  Day two in the next post! | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Nice photos. Is your gal riding her own bike? Or is she trapped between the two duffels? | ||
| Terrible1one3 |
So after DC to New York, the next day was New York to Boston. Not a lot of nice riding the first few stops but the scenery after today gets more beautiful and less city (if you are like me and think the outdoors is better than the city, opposite if you are like my wife and a city person). First stop for breakfast was in Connecticut. This was also the first and only drop of my expensive Arai helmet. Darn. Good food though.  Some more highway blasting, nice tree coverage to keep any of the wind down though and beautiful weather make it fine with me.  Not so scenic pull off on I-95, just time off my butt.  Started getting into the really nice part of the north east. I can't say enough about how nice it was south of Boston or north of Boston and Boston is great in my book too.  Just a random harbor we went to tooling around the back roads to Boston.  Except for motorcycles right?  Another bridge, beautiful weather over the weekend, lots of boats everywhere. There is some money up there.  First shots of the Boston skyline.  We stayed downtown and there was some really cool looking churches in a square. This is our second trip to Boston and my first for fun (other two were business trips so didn't do too much sight seeing).  Downtown park in Boston.  Weeping willows seem to get bigger up north than they do down here in Virginia.  Her first alcoholic drink of the trip, and her last, was pretty bad. We were at a bar outside of the "TD Garden". Stupid name.  A bridge.  Some military pier in the next few photos.  Old naval vessel and a mini Washington monument.  Wifey taking in the sights.  Getting fancy with the lighting.  I made this smaller so it isn't obnoxious in your web browser but it looks great full size.  Pre-sunset photo.  Just a random awesome door.  No, they didn't know my name.  | ||
| Terrible1one3 |
She is on the back. She was quite comfy once she was on the bike. Getting on and off was a bit of a hassle though . | ||
| Terrible1one3 |
So we took off Monday morning from Boston, not bad traffic leaving the city. We were going from Boston to St. John New Brunswick today going up the coast of Maine. Portsmouth downtown. Great little city.  Walked to breakfast and it was nice weather, on the walk back it downpoured then it was spotty the rest of the day.  The rain bags worked! Got drenched a few times but they kept our clothes perfectly dry.  Just a pretty pull-off in Maine, stopped at a mom and pop grocery store next to this and had some delicious home made jerky.  Go State!  There was great bed and breakfasts located all along highway 1. Might have to stop next time.  Helmet hair, jerky and pepsi. Great combination.  We didn't stop too much so most of these were taken by my wife on the back while rolling by.  Would hate to have to cross this area in anything but a hovercraft.  First sign we were near our destination! Border crossing was a joke, did it in small town Maine, had our passport cards, said we didn't have any guns, and went right across.  St. John was a very pretty looking city, we stayed just outside the city in the second crappiest hotel I have ever been to in my life.  We were a bit spent after the long day so we ordered in. Paper thin walls and an abusive couple arguing and fighting all night next door made for a long night.  | ||
| Terrible1one3 |
Now is the time for some of the most miserable riding I have ever experienced. I have ridden in 6 hours straight of rain from Escanaba, MI to Chicago, IL. I have ridden in tornado like weather and downpour where I was leaning my bike to go straight down the road but for only 20 miles. This was a combination of both. A loaded bike, winds gusting at me or across me up to 50 mph with a constant 20mph wind and constant rain. My wife and I saddled up in the rain in St. John, NB. And we did it heads down, one stop highway blast. It was a miserable day on the bike but we didn't have many options. We finally got to Halifax and relaxed. That said the trip there was miserable but Halifax was by far one of the highlights of the trip. Absolutely beautiful area and luckily we took an extra day here so it worked out nicely. Enough words. Pics. Wet clothes draped throughout the hotel room.  Pretty standard Holiday Inn room.  Pic from our hotel on the rainy and foggy day.  Thankfully the restaurant in the Hotel had AMAZING food and local beer. Really got lucky with that one.  We took a quick jaunt to downtown once the rain let up that first night.  Neat little park in the middle of downtown.  Seems that it is popular to have goofy names and signs for your bar. You win Toothy Moose!  Lots of book stores downtown.  GREAT MUSSELS not surprisingly.  Great beer, good food, nice night  Day two in Halifax coming up! | ||
| Terrible1one3 |
Here is a big day of photos. Enjoy. We stayed in Dartmouth across the bay from downtown so we had a Ferry trip about half a mile walk from our hotel. $2.50 for a 10 minute ride across the water. Great set-up. Oh, I think there are more Tim Hortons in Michigan than in Nova Scotia  Once it clears there will be more pics of this island.  Little chilly in the morning but it was a nice trek across the bay. Most importantly, NO RAIN!  This was the "Silva" we took a quick hour tour with her.  I was the honorary captain... NOT!  Great... my hosting site (through college) appears to have broken (I'm sure I'm over the limit of size). Will have to figure out how to post up more photos later! Sorry for the tease! | ||
| Terrible1one3 |
Sorry, had to clean it out a bit. Here is a navel vessel parked at the Halifax Pier.  We loved the sourthern part of downtown. Nice apartments and great sights.  Casey checking out the sights some more.  Better part of the southern part of the port.  We ended up seeing this or another very similar one down at peggy's cove on our way out the next day. Pretty cool.  Theodore Too!  Being from Michigan I have a soft spot for lighthouses.  It apparently has Cable TV!  Got the captain to snap a photo for us on the sail boat.  Hard not to do the Titanic thing but I controlled myself.  Starting to warm up, starting to clear up. Thankfully!  Downtown on the water.  Casey reminded me of my dog sticking his head out of the window. This is in the bar of the sail boat.  Boat bar.  Great public gardens in Halifax a little further off the water.  I'm guessing this thing is old.  I'm all for cool stuff, but this dude had this camera, the one that develops the image instantly, along with 5 boxes of film... pretty inconvenient when for a few bucks (I'm sure cheaper than the film) you can get a digital camera. It's almost like riding an awesomely engineered bike with a lawn mower motor as an engine.  Ducks were OK with people.  Only other Buell I saw on the entire trip.  Nice church.  Rawr.  Really cool cemetery.  Garrison brewery in Halifax. I didn't like anything too much from there.  "Casey!" Random photos.  Time for some of the oldest brewery in North America!  Alexander Keith's! They put a roof in the alley. Cool home town bar and brewery there. Had a GREAT Belgian White.  Cleared out and ended up being beautiful!  | ||
| Terrible1one3 |
Alrighty, now it's time for some really nice pretty photos from Peggy's Cove. Some of our first real pictures of the open ocean as opposed to inland bays. It was actually a great 2 lane ride from Halifax to Peggy's Cove.  Found some other long distance riders on BMW's. They were the ones to notify me that my headlight was out.  It's wet up there.  Peggy's Cove is a tiny town with a year round population in the 30's. Awesome little fishing town.  More of Peggy's Cove.  Big tourist attraction but still pretty and original looking.  Damn, apparently clearing out my thing didn't provide me with the necessary room to finish out. Will have to find an image hosting site that's good to use. | ||
| Terrible1one3 |
Picasa to the rescue. Peggy's Cove to Frederickton continued.  More of the Cove  Another nice lighthouse on some beautiful rocks.  The Buell has been doing great!  Buell XB12X is a great distance tourer.  I absolutely love this sign.  My great camera skills  Pretty nice view.  Enlisted some help for this photo.  Great panoramic picture.  Another nice panoramic.  The big tourist spot at Peggy's Cove.  Leaving the town.  Some old boats.  Some new additions to the Helmet.  Jerky break.  Easy headlight fix, expensive bulbs.  Hopefully picasa works, let me know if you can't see the images. | ||
| Terrible1one3 |
Need a break, will post Quebec, Montreal, Syracuse NY and back to DC later. | ||
| T9r |
Great to see your adventure. | ||
| Xbkris |
Awesome man. Looks like a blast. Very pretty country and I'm sure there were a bunch of fun miles! Cant wait to see the rest. | ||
| Afsoc_commando |
WOW, I need to get off my ass and do something like this before I get to damn old and tired! Not sure if my spousal support unit would want to sit back seat for that long. You wife was well protected from any side impact. Must have been a site watching you two saddle up! | ||
| Motorbike |
Very cool pics! Reminds me of when my wife and I were younger and traveled quite a bit on my 1986 Gold Wing 1200. We even took a trip from SE MN to Thunder Bay, Ontario when my wife was 5 months pregnant with our first daughter. (It made for a nice backrest for me! ) It poured all the way from Grand Marais, MN to Thunder Bay. Thanks for posting, glad you had a great time! | ||
| Streakbot97 |
What are the dry bags you are using? | ||
| Uly_kiwi |
Great photos I was in boston in 1991 i went over to nantucket island. Dont think I will get over there again as l live in New Zealand on the other side of the world. | ||
| Terrible1one3 |
Thanks for the nice comments. Highly recommended Afsoc, tons of fun and great memories, after it's done, even the rough times are good times. I've actually been to Thunder Bay Motorbike. My dad and I rode from Lansing, MI to Sturgis for Bike week in '03 (I was 18 years old). Then on the way home we went north of lake Superior through Canada down through the Sault Ste Marie to Lansing. Was an awesome trip. Beautiful up there. Streakbot97, the dry bags are from here: http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/category/Helen_ Twowheels_Roll_Top_Sacks Believe it or not these are the small bags we used. | ||
| Mnrider |
Great pics and ride report. I like your BMX t-shirts. Did you get Terrible 1 from BMX. | ||
| Terrible1one3 |
Sure did, was a religious T1 fan when I was young and riding all the time. Have the original 21" T1 frame and Medium bars on my desk on display as we speak . I'll knock off the rest of the days now. | ||
| Terrible1one3 |
This ride was from Frederickton NB to Quebec City Quebec. Lot's of big sky on this journey. A lot of this trip was in Maine, we decided to try and cut through the state forest... that didn't work as you will see.    This was going to be our last picture on pavement for the next 34 miles. That's my wife "What the hell is he thinking?" face.  Any map or auto calculation had us going way north around the forest. I knew there was roads through the forest to the west side of Maine and Canada from dragging the route on google. I modified my Garmin to take us on that route. Little did I know the reason why it had us going around is they were posted 15mph logging roads. This was taken at the beginning of the road, we had 17 miles of this road ahead until our next turn, which could have been concrete, or more logging roads, I wasn't sure. It started off good enough.  The further we got, the less "road" there was.  It got so bad my wife had to put away the camera because of what we were crossing. Our first sign of trouble was a puddle that was more like a pond which engulfed the entire road way. Water was streaming onto the road from a bank on the right and flowing down the hill to the left. No way across but through the middle. I stopped in front of it but dumbly decided to carry on. We plowed through it, went about half way up the wheel and got our feet wet but no harm no foul afterwards. The road turned into the proverbial "two track" and we passed a S-10 4x4 going the other way, the looks on those guys faces should have turned us around but I kept charging on. We found constant large watery pot holes but they were fine, eventually we hit a complete wash out where it looked like a truck had got stuck and all that was left were huge water filled ruts. I started to slow down but was annoyed and pissed off and looking for an excuse to turn around (falling would have worked for me). I blasted over the top of the ruts making new ones but getting across the 20 ft span. About a mile down the road there was a gate saying the road was closed, only half a mile from our "turn". We decided to turn around, dreading the wash out and the mud bog area. The way back proved less perilous as I careened through the mud bog like I did in my old motocross days (15 years ago) and then just plowed through a shallower part of the wash out. After 34 miles of logging trails and having nothing but an almost empty tank and wet extremities and a muddy bike to show for it, we avoided dirt the rest of the trip. Was fun though. Glad I did it no matter how stupid it was to do.  Time to get some dry socks and shoes on.  Didn't get too muddy. Have definitely been worse.  Getting back to big beautiful Canada  A little rain and a lot of traffic heading into Quebec City.  Made it, drank 3 or 4 british pints of Hoegarrden and called it a night. Only place by where we stayed that had an english speaking waiter was the hotel (we tried other places). Had the most over cooked Filet Mignon of my life and slept.  | ||
| Terrible1one3 |
We had half a day scheduled in Quebec City then were going to blast down the highway the 140 miles to Montreal and have an extra day there. Looking back I think we would have rather had the extra day in Quebec City. We really liked the ornate beauty of the city and how it wasn't overloaded with folks. You be the judge. Riding to downtown. We stayed about 7 kilometers outside of the city.  Lots of cool art on and inbetween the buildings.  Quebec is a "City on a Hill" it is a walled city but the business area "where we parked here" is just outside the walls and the city has overflowed down the hillside.  Still looking presentable after 8 days on a motorcycle... she holds up pretty good!  Right as we got here a procession of military vehicles rolled by heading up inside the walls towards the military fort at the very top of the hill.  Definitely more presentable than me  First a military caravan then an old ass piece of detroit steel. I was definitely liking this place in my "Made in Michigan" shirt.  Common site in French Canada.  Nice Fountain.  Mellow  One of the gates of the wall that surrounds Quebec.  View from the top of the wall.   City in the wall.  Italian @ a French Canadian city. Was pretty good, we sat outside under umbrellas which was good because there was a flash rain while in there, just enough to cool off the day and humidify the air.  Getting to the overlook. Very nice "pier" style area overlooking the buildings on the hill and the river.  My wife took a picture of the plaque but I didn't include it.   View off the "pier area"   Across the river.  Down the river.  More pier area.  Nice pic.  Even smaller Washington Monument.  Everything looked new, but is apparently very old.  On the corner.  Nice Alley.  On the top of the hill.  Top of the wall.  Leaving town and heading to Montreal.  Wedding at our hotel in Montreal. Was interesting.  Went to Jardin & Nelson for dinner. Amazing food and live jazz music in an alleyway.  Nasty Sangria. But they are known for good ones, we got the weird one.  Next Jazz band.  Down by the water looking back.  Old port Montreal.  Old building.  We were there for Canada Day (July 1st) was a wild few days tons of people.   Starts getting pretty at night.  Awesome sky.  Weird picture.  | ||
| Terrible1one3 |
Home stretch! Today is all Montreal. We cabbed in and rode the subway/cab back. Just a day enjoying the city, eating good food, riding the bike share bicycles, and enjoying the Canada day festivities. Drop us off at China town!  Lots of traffic, small amount of stores worth going to.  International festival of Jazz was going on. Was pretty mellow in the morning but was a riot at night. We didn't attend though, just heard all the partying. We were pooped by the end of the day.   Casey trying her hand at the panoramic picture.  My name is Mike  Everything in the north east is sponsored by TD.  Main stage viewing area. No one was playing so it was empty.  Main stage star.  Random polka (I think) group.  Very loud running water by the stairs/chairs.  Casey thought the kid/midget porta johns were funny.  Biggie!  Pretty building properly covered by prettier trees.  Wolf would have a hard time blowing down this little piggies house.  That's what she said?  Some other festival going on, we didn't figure out what it was but it was on our way to our food destination.  I love spirals.  Six Flags under the bridge in the middle of the water.  Oh Canada!  Whatever the rest of the song says.   Cirque de solei tents.  Had a jet boat, which wasn't a real 'jet'. Missed it in the pics.  For my friend Nelson. This alley is where Jardin and Nelson is.  Ornate anchor.  Similar building to the one in Quebec.  (Message edited by terrible1one3 on August 23, 2012) | ||
| Terrible1one3 |
By the end of Montreal we were pretty spent so decided to hit the Adirondack state parks then blast to Syracuse. This was that day! Bike looking good after a rain bath.  Packing  World fare ball on the way out.  Heading to the mountains back in the States!   Nice roads, slow trucks, lots of illegal passing.  Some of the Adirondack areas are almost as beautiful as the areas in Maine.  I bet I know where he got those trees!  Gotta love mountain roads.   After this, too tired for pictures . After the mountain roads we just highway blasted to Syracuse, not picture worthy.  | ||
| Terrible1one3 |
I grew up in Holt, MI by East Lansing. East Lansing and Michigan State Campus is a beautiful area, downtown East Lansing is on Grand River, on the other side is beautiful MSU campus. U of M is intertwined with lovely Ann Arbor. I went to Eastern Michigan, not like either, crappy little campus next to a neat little city (Ypsilanti). Syracuse was like none of those. We stayed in downtown Syracuse at an econolodge, the hotel was fine. The city was rough. Syracuse, NY  Awesome old church  Last ride.  Last Jerkey and redbull stop.  First thing I did the second I got home was power wash the bike.  And skip to home. No real good pics, we were in awe on the last 30 miles. DC area was hit HARD with a big storm. Lots of HUGE old trees broken and laying on power lines, road's closed etc. Luckily we had power (one of the few) and no damage anywhere. All in all it was a great trip. I hope to do more and visit Halifax again, (maybe some sort of ferry or cruise this time ). We loved different things about every stop. NY is just crazy. It's scale is ridiculous and is breathtaking every time. Boston is so beautiful, old that looks new, great food, good people, great beer. St. John looked great on approach, we didn't go to the city but I'm sure it had something to offer. Great pizza chain in the area . Halifax was awesome. Everywhere you looked you saw something new. It's physical location is second only to Quebec, and it had the most scenic spot on the trip, Peggy's Cove. Fredericton had a great hotel with indoor pool and hot tub. (Once again, didn't go to or even find the city). Quebec was an unexpected Gem. Language barriers aside one of the coolest cities I have ever visited. Wish we stayed longer. Montreal was definitely inspiring. The country pride of Canada day poured out and the people were lively and polite. The best single food stop was Jardin and Nelson and the old port we kept coming back to. Syracuse reminded us of Detroit, but we both would have rather been in Detroit. Only thing I would have done differently is skipped Syracuse and reversed the path of the trip. It seemed like no matter what direction we were heading there was a headwind. The weather was definitely unique in the north east that week but still I think going clockwise would have made some of the highway blasting better. Hope you enjoyed our 11 day (9 riding) 2800 mile trip around New England and Eastern Canada! -Mike | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Nice trip. Your wife seems to have a permanent smile  | ||
| Fltwistygirl |
Fantastic adventure and great pics! Thanks for sharing! Good on your wife for adventuring with you! You really have to work as a team to be able to two up venture like that. | ||
| Thisflatearth |
What dry bags did you use? | ||
| Terrible1one3 |
Thisflatearth: Posted up a ways: the dry bags are from here: http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/category/Helen_ Twowheels_Roll_Top_Sacks | ||
| Ulyski |
Thanks for sharing what looks like a Great Trip. How well did your Michelin's feel/grip along the way? Been thinking about those for my next set. |
