Day 6-- New Hampshire

Many more pictures to come, but Thursday we rode a beautiful ride through New Hampshire.  Awesome.

Riding in the Rain Today... By Jo

Had a great time in Bar Harbor, but this morning we ride in the rain.  Haven't had to wear my rain pants ever, but today is the first.  Heading to New Hampshire.  Here I am in all my rain gear chic!

Stretch Break in the Quebec Countryside

My purse and my gloves are in the font pockets of my jacket.

Day 3-- Through Quebec to St. George's

(By Jo)

I learned French in one day!  Chemin, road; maison a vendre, house for sale; ferme,farm.  This morning I learned that au chaund is hot water.  And many more words.  It felt confusing to travel with only a vague understanding of the signs around me, and it made me feel shy around French speaking locales so I didn't interact much.  Our friend was trying to get directions from our waitress and the waitress patiently said, "Can you speak more slowly, please?"  

We went around Quebec to St. George's which is less than 60 km from Maine. (I have also become proficient in converting kilometers to miles quickly.)

I've been very interested in the beautiful barns, varied architecture for the houses, and the fact that there has been water in the form of lake, river, marsh, or Atlantic channel--the St. Lawrence seaway-- alongside us the entire trip.  I have been to Western Canada before, so I just never thought of it.  

We traveled an additional almost 400 miles yesterday, and today we head for Bar Harbour, Maine.  Here are a few random pictures for your enjoyment. :-)

Day 2--Ottawa

From Guelph to Ottawa was around 385 miles through beautiful farm land.  The city of Ottawa was spread out more than tall.  You can see it in this picture.

 

Guelph, Ontario

We rode 500 miles today and made it to Guelph (pronounced Gwelph).  Long day, rewarding ride up through Buffalo, NY and Niagra Falls.  Rode into a cool university atmosphere downtown and found out the hotels were 5-10 minutes away.  Hot, tired and hungry describes us after we rode 8 and a 1/2 hours since lunch with only a few stretching breaks.  We landed at the Comfort Inn, but they were full.  They recommended the Holiday Inn  Express, but they had only one room.  The really great manager tried to rearrange some things but-- no dice.  He did call over to another of his properties and book us there.  So our friends took the first room at the HIE, and we loaded up and went to the Hampton Inn.   Awesome King suite.  At 10 p.m. we didn't care what  we ate, we thought about just drinking all the creamers in the lobby.  But the desk clerk suggested a restaurant within walking distance named Turtle Jack's so the coffee creamer was safe.   Jo had a traditional Canadian dish for dinner called pountain--French fries covered with cheese curds and brown gravy; I had a steak and salad.   Time to catch some zzz's--heading back out at 8:00 a.m.

Packing for an 8-day Motorcycle Trip

Hi!  This is a guest post by Jo, Schoo's wife.  I thought it would be helpful to female travelers to get my perspective at times. For example, when we went to Sturgis in 2011, I thought I over packed.  So I have tried to be more careful in choosing the clothes I'm taking.  Tomorrow I will wear jeans, a tank top with a t-shirt over it, socks, and boots.  I'll be wearing my Scorpion jacket with body armor as well as leather gloves and a Nolan helmet.  Bill and I have a Scala blue tooth communication system.

I am packing an additional two pairs of jeans.  I can wear jeans for two days if needed but I noticed that they got covered in bugs last trip.  I will take advantage of any opportunity to wash clothes, but I don't think jeans dry well overnight so I won't be washing them in the sink.  With three pairs of jeans I could make the entire 8 day trip if I had to with no clothes washing.

I'm also taking shorts for walking, running or working out.  These can do double duty because they will be easy to wash in the sink and dry.  I have a workout top that is the same.  I also have brought a bathing suit, a pair of flip flops, and a pair of running shoes.  Also a pair of flat shoes that slip on.

For dinner times, I have two pairs of shorts--a longish denim pair and also a pair of bright blue cotton cargo shorts.  To round off the inventory, for both riding all day and going out to dinner at night,  I have a cotton sweater, a turtleneck, a long sleeved t-shirt, two tank tops, a long sleeve medium weight button down, and a short sleeved tee shirt.  Make your bets now about whether I will say I over packed or not!