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North America » United States » Utah » Monticello May 29th 2023

Fate played a hand again today and oh what a day of riding! It followed a not so good night. Getting up in the night, as one needs to do, I looked at my iPhone for the time. It was completely dead. A hard boot to no avail. I spent a restless remainder of the night thinking how the trip would be without the phone. Fiddling with it again when I was more coherent in the morning I managed to get it working. Such dependency. As it turned out where I was today it could have presented problems without a phone should something have happened. An issue when riding alone. The fate began at breakfast, no muffin, just toast. Chatting with two nice bikers from Austin, Texas about everything from a long ago girlfriend I had ... read more
The Million Dollar Highway as Seen from the Handlebars


Bonjour à tous, Les soirées ici, ça tourne court. Mes lieux de résidence sont excentrés, c'est repas vers les 7H, et je mange tard par rapport aux locaux, et aux anglo-saxons en général. Hier un bon steak, accompagné d'un riz cantonnais, normal dans un resto tenu par des chinois, et point final. Retour à la chambre bien avant 8H. Je reviens un peu sur mon hôtesse, Viviane. Hier au soir elle est revenue me voir, pour me mettre en garde de bien débrancher, la cafetière, et le grille pain, lorsque je quitte la chambre ça peut être dangereux. De plus, garer ma voiture, pas comme la sienne mais dans l'autre sens, plus plein de détails insignifiants, mais qui doivent compter pour elle. J'ai l'impression que c'est madame gendarme, mais ça reste facile de lui faire plaisir. ... read more
fin de la route
toujours la vue
le jardin


After returning from La Paz, Mexico, Leslie and I made a brief stop in Golden followed by a brief stop in Vernon to repack suitcases with foul weather sailing gear before heading to Sidney for 2 weeks of sailing on the west coast; a week sailing around Salt Spring in the Canadian Gulf Islands followed by one week in the San Juans Islands, USA. Ladysmith and Butchart gardens were highlights in the Gulf Islands. The Ladysmith Maritime Society marina is home to the largest Purple Martin colony in BC. After spending the winter in Brazil, the Blue Martins had returned to Ladysmith for the season. Purple Martins were first observed nesting there in 1989. Several nest boxes were installed in 1990. By 2002, there were 75 nest boxes and 35 pairs nested that summer and produced ... read more
Blue Martins
Butchart Cove
Tulips


Bonjour à tous, J'ai enfin quitté la côte est de Big Island, et je viens d'apprendre qu'on la surnomme la côte de la pluie. Je confirme. A Volcano Village où était situé l'hôtel il à du pleuvoir pendant 22 heures sans discontinué. Ce matin à 7h30, l'heure du départ, je vois un grand ciel bleu au-dessus du parc, mais arrivé à la route, où la vue dégagée des arbres, tout au fond c'est bien noir encore. Rien à faire je parts à l'opposé, ou le ciel est magnifique. Ma route aujourd'hui, est de contourné toute la pointe sud de l'île et de remonter jusqu'à environ la moitié de la côte ouest. Les 80 premiers kilomètres, je les fais sur une route encore une fois un tapis. Les routes nationales ici laisse rêveur par la qualité du ... read more
baie des dauphins
black sand beach
plage de Koekoa


We started this morning with FREE breakfast in the hotel again, and then scheduled our ride to the cruise port. There is a shuttle bus from the hotel directly to our ship’s terminal, so we paid the fee instead of a taxi that would have gotten us close but about 100 yards away. Anyway, we returned to the room and packed our bags awaiting our noon ride. We took everything down to the lobby on time and they loaded our bags and we got onto the shuttle. The steps into the van were a little problem, but we persevered and we were on our way. Thinking about it, trying to get us and our luggage into a normal sedan taxi probably would have been crowed anyway. At the terminal our bags were taken from us by ... read more

North America » Canada » Ontario » Ottawa May 27th 2023

Only 19 hrs and 14 mins to go before we depart Canada to Germany, then on to Oslo. Shelley and I are packed up and ready to go tomorrow morning. We have some last minute things to do in the morning. Final prep, eat breakfast, load the car, and say goodbye to Maggie 😔. We have arranged to have someone stay here in the house with her, and for the last part of our vacation, Shelley’s Mom will come for a few days to hang out with Maggie. Time for sleep now. More to follow tomorrow.... read more

North America » United States » Colorado May 27th 2023

Today was a day characterized by wind. No jokes please. More of that in a moment. The day started with a donut from a local donut store and a nice chat with a fellow who lived in the Oklahoma pan handle. Well I knew Texas had a pan handle, but Oklahoma, was he pulling my leg? Later in the day I happened to be pursuing a map of cattle trail routes, more on that too, when I saw indeed there is a thin strip of Oklahoma forming a handle squashed between Kansas and Texas. Frankly, it seems more like a true handle than the Texas wannabe. Enough about pan handle envy. I took a quick look at a couple of the major sites before leaving Wichita. The “Keeper of the Plains” is at the junction of ... read more
Entering Colorado

North America » Canada » Ontario » Ottawa May 27th 2023

6:23 am:The day has finally arrived! We leave this morning to Montréal. From Montréal, we hop a flight from there to Frankfurt, Germany. We'll be meeting up with my sister, Kristine, from Vancouver. The three of us will then board our flight from Frankfurt to Oslo, Norway. We will be landing in Oslo 12:15 pm local time....6:15 am our time, and 3:15 am Kristine's time! We'll see how we're doing then, eh? 9:38 am: All packed up. Tidied up the house for our house sitter and Maggie is wandering around wondering where her travel bag is 😔. We wish she could come with us. The car is loaded up and we’re just waiting for our house sitter (Ashley) to arrive and then we’ll be leaving for Montréal!!... read more


All packed and waiting to go to the airport in a couple of hours. This has been such an awesome trip. Rain and cold was in the forecast for the entire time, and except for a couple of tiny showers during drive time, the weather was perfect. To top it all off, last night when we returned to the hotel after an amazing dinner (more on that later), we were treated to a magnificent thunderstorm, with rolling thunder bouncing off the granite hills and lightening fireworks filling the sky. Some of them were so bright you could see George Washington’s sculpture during flashes. Rained for a long time and this morning I woke to a brilliant, warmer weather. Makes me want to stay longer. I spent this week with a fun couple from the San Fran ... read more

North America » Canada » Quebec » Montréal » Pointe Claire May 27th 2023

14:05 hrs: We made the drive from Ottawa to the airport here in Pointe Claire. This is where Shelley was born! We pre-paid for airport parking, so it was as easy as simply driving onto the assigned lot, park the car, grab our luggage, and step to the shuttle stop to board a large bus shuttle which brought us to the air terminal. Once we arrived, we found our check in kiosk and had to wait just a little bit until they opened. We are SUPER early but that means no stress. We’re good with that. While we were waiting for them to open up the queue, we tested out our AirTags that my sister Kristine, and my Mom bought for us for the trip. They work great! We are able to see how far away ... read more
Board
Lunsj (Lunch)
Our flight




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