06 Far East Ride - Day 12 - NS Cabot Trail

This is the 12th part of a series about my trip on my 2005 883 Low Harley Sportster ‘Effie’ from Kansas City to Novia Scotia and back. This was part of my vacation from 4 to 20 AUG 2006

Tue 15 Aug 06

Finished the Cabot Trail. I can’t put it in words. The pictures say it all. Man that takes a long time to go around. I think I was on the trail for 8 hours, the road was in good condition. Its just awesome. I had the best seafood chowder ever at a local café, followed by a platter of scallops and chips. Even the McDonalds here offers the ‘McLobster’. Around every corner I kept expecting to see Moby Dicks ‘Try Pots' inn. People were spotting whales from the cliffs. In the afternoon the wind picked up. Really picked up. After a while I dared not stop the bike for pictures as it became hard to hold it up right against the wind gusts. I tried a couple times to stop and take pictures but I could not spare a hand to operate the camera, the wind was that bad, it took all I had to not get blown over. If the bike had gone over, I never could have gotten back up on the kickstand by myself in that wind. As I was finishing the trail it started to lightly sprinkle too. I already had my 2 coats and raincoat on because of the ‘cool’ ride. So I continued. At times the roads were dry and other times there was misting and sprinkles. I never stopped to put the pants on as I wasn’t getting really wet. I want to make it as close a possible to Prince Edward Island yet today.

When it started pouring, I had no warning and because I hadn't stopped to get my rain pants on, I now have wet boots. Wet boots to me is demoralizing. When it got dark I was wet and freezing. It was way past the point I should have stopped by the time I got back to the NS Information Center, but I couldn’t find a motel along the route. When I went into the info center I didn’t even take my helmet off, I was so cold. I was dripping all over the floor. I asked the adviser to find me a cheap, clean and safe motel that was very very close and very very easy to find. The travel advisor found exactly what I wanted, called to confirm a room, make my reservation and gave me easy to understand directions. When I showed up at the motel the desk clerk had my key in hand and called me by name as I entered the lobby door. Once I was in my room a warm shower and propping my boots up on the heat register were the first tasks to complete.

The day ended as one of those days when I knew I had screwed up pretty bad and my fear was that I would catch a bad cold or flu from this.

Routes are done, pictures are done the daily log is just notes, but I am going to bed. Its 10:28pm. Oh, yeah, it’s the Victoria Motel in Amsted NS. $59 +tax.

Tomorrow should be a clear day.

The First Journal in this Series is: 06 Far East Ride - Day 1 - MO
The Route Map for the trip is located in the last Journal: 06 Far East Ride - Day 17 - HOME

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