Monday August 20, 2007
I woke up around 5am after making it through the big thunder and lightening storm from the night before. I got out of my tent and the sun was coming up. I heard Paul about as well. I think we were the only two awake. I noticed the sun coming up so I took a picture of the sunrise.
We all decided we were going to eat breakfast on the road so I didn't bother cooking anything. I did make some coffee on the JetBoil for Paul and I. Paul kept calling me MacGyver because I kept showing up with a variety of items like a folding saw, Leatherman, and then the JetBoil.
We also got into a conversation about my folding saw the night before. I had mentioned that I recently bought that folding saw prior to the trip. I was looking for a Sven-Saw but I was unable to find one locally. Paul had never heard of them. I remember them being popular when I was younger but perhaps they fell out of favor. I still think they are a great idea.
Here's Bob packing up the last of his and Mary's gear into the trailer. Man that things holds a lot.
If you are interested in one of those trailers Bob happens to sell them at Touringo.com.
One last picture of Meat Cove before heading out. You can see the Triumph boys just down the hill to the right. There were still sleeping until just about when we were getting ready to leave. I walked down to say goodbye to them and wished them luck on their journey.
Then it was back to the Cabot Trail to get some more sweet riding in before stopping at Cheticamp for breakfast.
The weather seemed to change from minute to minute alternating between windy rain and warming sunshine. I got fooled once into stopping in a downpour to put on my rain gloves only to have it stop raining almost as soon as I got them on. Oh well.
Here we are taking a break up in the Highlands.
The roads are smoother on the Gulf side of the Island.
There are lots of big pull off areas for pictures.
More great views!
This section of road was so good that Ron and I kept running it back and forth.
There I go heading out for a rerun of that section.
Followed by Ron on his GS. He did a pretty good job whipping that thing into the turns.
Here I am going back by.
Here's Ron on his GS.
I went back that away!
and here I come again,
Okay enough goofing around!
I put the camera away and rode up to the next pull off to take pics of everyone else.
Here comes Paul on his GS followed by Bob and Mary on their K-bike.
Note the clouds in the background!
Bob and Mary.
The infamous "Cabot Trail" shot that all the travel guides have.
One more,
See I really was there!
Then we continued on toward Cheticamp and my low fuel light came on so I was pleased to get moving along. All the back and forth used up a lot of gas I guess. As we were riding along some cars were pulled over and I noticed this!
The funny thing about seeing it is that I was lamenting to everyone that morning how I had hardly seen any wildlife. Whenever I see everyone else photos they have pictures of bears, moose, eagles, all sorts of things. Well I finally got my moose photo.
We stopped in Cheticamp for gas and some breakfast. It was past 11 though so I suppose it was really lunch or perhaps brunch. They weren't really ready to be open yet but they did open the dinning room for us. I think most of us got the fish fry and it was pretty good. I cant remember what the name of the place was though.
After finishing lunch we finsihed our ride on the Cabot Trail and headed for the Celtic region and rode the Ceilidh Trail. Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee) is Gaelic for party or gathering. Then we stopped by the Glenora Distillery in Glenville, Inverness County, Nova Scotia.
They are the only Single Malt Whiskey distillery in North America. They give daily tours and its $7 CAD including a nice shot of the 10 year whiskey. It was a pretty good tour and very informative. For instance I learned that Single Malt starts out as the same receipe as beer and the distilling process is where the difference comes in. Second, I also didn't know the only different between a Single Malt and Scotch is that Scotland has a patent on the word "Scotch". Only whiskey from Scotland can be called "Scotch" similar to how Champagne can only come from the Champagne region in France, otherwise its a sparkling white wine.
We went and paid for our tour but there was about 30 minutes to kill before the start of the tour. So we decided to check out the pub. They had some kids playing music.
The bar was pretty nice
Paul decided to nap!
This is the stream that is the water source for the whiskey and part of the reason they built the distillery here
The tour guide explained the differences between single malt and blended whiskeys as well as Scotch.
No smoking allowed
The wort tanks,
inside the tank,
the fermentation tank,
and of course the distilling tanks.
Then is was time for samples!
I wasn't sure if it was good or not since I am not a big whiskey drinker but I was assured by Bob that it was. I bought some bottles as gifts and then we hit the road again.
We rode down to Port Hawkesbury and stopped by the Walmart there so I could by a new wardrobe to replace what was lost in my lost saddlebag. I picked up a pair of Levis, a basic T-shirt, skivvies, and some toiletries.
Shopping mission completed and it was onto Bob and Mary's place in Larry's River.
Mary grew up in this house and they are currently renovating it as their second home. They had a photo album of the work they've done and it unreal how much they've done.
The sun was starting to set.
This is the little dirt road we came in on.
Its very peaceful there
Thats the footbridge for people to cross to get to the other side of town. Originally it was so kids on this side of the river could get to the school on the other side. It was originally a rope bridge.
My very dirty one bag having R1100S
Not as dirty looking from this angle.
The sun is almost gone...
There it goes.
Mary made us an excellent Lasagna dinner with garlic bread, and some refried black beans. We had some brews, dessert, and Bob entertained us with some guitar.
Bob, Mary, and I stayed up very late talking and having a great time. They are a great couple. I finally went to bed around midnight. Long day, but it was great.
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