No RSS feed on the site?? Would help a lot to follow...

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http://www.juvander.fi/ilpo

welcome!
_/\_
namaste

Nice pictures on your website. I hope to see a lot more of them ;-)

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Jan Krijtenburg

My bikes are a Honda GoldWing GL1200 and a Harley-Davidson FXD Dyna Super Glide

My personal homepage with trip reports: https://www.krijtenburg.nl/
YouTube channel (that I do together with one of my sons): motormobilist.nl

Great Blog indeed....I'm thoroughly enjoying reading about your adventures, and congratulations on the great pictures and writing. It's really keeping me busy on a hot lazy day. Thanks!

Repost from Jun 16 2012: Off to Quebec City!



Not too much to say about the ride to Quebec, we've done these roads tons of times, and we've decided to superslab it to see some new sights. We stopped off in Montreal to get a new rear tire fitted on my GS, something I could have done at home, but just didn't have enough time with all the preparations, had a quick grocery store lunch and then off to Quebec City, our first campsite (KOA!)


Streets were deserted during the morning ride through old Quebec City


More old city scenes from the back of a motorcycle.

I've always wanted to ride through the narrow streets of the old city, soaking up the European atmosphere. We passed through the city walls, remnants of the military presence in the 1600s and found the streets were soaked from the rains the night before. After a quick spin, the bikes were parked and we toured the rest of the town on foot, taking lots of pictures.


Owl watches over the Saint Lawrence River at Quebec City


This fiddler was very photogenic! Playing old Quebecois tunes.


Getting busier in the old city.


These cut-outs were hung above the old city streets.


Taking a break from walking around.

The Tour de Beauce runs in Quebec City today. We waited about 20 minutes for the bicycles to come running by in the old city. They were preceded by a police escort on motorcycles.


These guys were dragging their floorboards around the corners!


Waiting for the bicycles to run by


There they go! there must have been over 100 bicycles,
this was their first lap so they were bunched up coming up the hill


They would go on to do thirteen laps around the old city

We did a bit of vagabonding today by hiding out in the lobby of a swanky Quebec hotel, stealing their wi-fi, electric outlets and air-conditioning! We had to share it with a bachelorette party though, and at the end, we got to sign the bride's T-shirt. Sorry, no pix!


Posefest in Quebec City

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Congratulations and well done on seeing the light and having the balls to go out in search of your dreams!!

Look forward to reading lots more and seeing your photos.

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TurboCharger + Francois (our BMW R1200gs) '07
www.riding2up.net, blog.riding2up.net

Repost from: Jun 17 2012: Gaspe Peninsula



The Gaspe peninsula lies on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River. It's kind of a pain to get to for most Torontonians because of the sheer distance to get to the start of the peninsula - about 1,000 kms by slab - definitely more than a long weekend trip. But since we didn't have anything to do for the next two and half weeks...


Riding around the Gaspe Peninsula

There are a lot of Can-Am Spyders riding around the area. I counted, and every third motorcycle we passed was a Spyder. Maybe Bombardier was having a sale for the locals? It got so ridiculous, that when Neda passed a Spyder, instead of waving, she would do the Incey Wincey Spider motion with her hand. Got some puzzled looks from that one!


Souvenir shop on the shores of Gaspe

We stopped in Rimouski to eat our lunch in a parking lot of a grocery store and we saw what looked to be a motorcycle school. We thought it was just a basic licensing course until they started doing stunts!


I like their stunting gear...

Highway 132 winds its way on the south shore, passing through many picturesque seaside towns. The weather here is cool, low 20s, and my Weather app on my iPhone is still defaulting to Toronto's heat wave. I've got a sliding window of three cities on my app now - where we are, where we're going to be tomorrow, and some mid-way destination. Nomad 21st-century style...


Someone painted the rock in the waters outside Saint-Flavie like an Egyptian Pharoah
Aptly named, "Pharoah Rock"

As we reached closer to the tip of the peninsula, the roads got tighter and tighter and we had a bit of fun twisting the throttle as we rolled into Forillon National Park. We arrived too late to go hiking and had to pitch our tent in the dark. Thank god it wasn't raining, as it usually does on our trips!


Big rock at Perce. We would ride around the coast and walk around the strait in about 20 minutes.

The next morning we set off south towards New Brunswick, still hugging the coastline past Perce to Chaleur Bay where we caught the highway south. We did stop to visit the big rock at Perce, as it's one of the famous landmarks in the Gaspe region.


Cormorants dive-bombing the water for fish


It was close to low tide, as the waters were low enough for you to walk to the rock.
If you waited there till high tide, you'd be stranded!


Walking around Perce


Neda and Kim Jong-Il posing in front of the big rock at Perce


Coastline at the Gaspe peninsula.


Big stretch break for the GS and Neda

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Hi Ilpo, you can subscribe to this thread for updates - see 'Thread Tools' and Subscribe to get an instant, daily or weekly e-mail when the thread has new posts.

Cheers, Susan

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Susan Johnson

Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Fantastic pictures, hope you have a wonderful and safe adventure and one day I can make the break just like you have done

Updated from Jun 23 2012: Around St John's


Start the day right!

The next morning, we rode around St John's to get some supplies and walked the downtown area. Ended up at Ches's fish and chips, which was a Newfoundland institution, and came highly recommended by Roy the night before. One of our resolutions on this trip is to try everything the locals recommend. I suspect the food tasted extra good because of all the hills we had to walk up and down to get to Ches's. Did I mention the roads in St John's are crazy steep?!


Lake Quidi Vidi

After lunch, we hopped on our bikes and rode out to a very pretty area just outside St John's, recommended by the waitress at Bacalao last night. It's called Quidi Vidi, and it's where the we drank is made. The brewery is housed in an old fish processing plant on the lake, the white houses above are fishing stages.


GS at Lake Quidi Vidi.


Hanging out at the Quidi Vidi brewery

We took a tour of the brewery and received some s to take home with us. These are not the s, we only got one each. Unfortunately, mine leaked in my top case on the way back. It's very hard to wash out the smell of . So right now I'm carrying a little bit of Quidi Vidi 1892 dark ale with me everywhere I go.


99 bottles of on the wall...

The fishery was bought by the brewery after it was shut down when Newfoundlanders faced tough restrictions on fishing in the 90s.


Signpost at Signal Hill. Foreshadowing, maybe?

Around the same area is Signal Hill, which was the site of the first transatlantic wireless signal by Marconi. Later used by the military as a communications centre, it provided us with great views of St. John's from above as well as the waters of the Atlantic ocean.


Cabot Tower at the top of Signal Hill


Neda gets shot out of a canon at the top of Signal Hill


The view of St. John's from the top of Signal Hill.


Whale-watching from Signal Hill

These tourists must have gotten their money's worth. There were a lot of whales jumping in and out of the waters below Signal Hill, and all you had to do was look for the whale-watching boats as they followed whales swimming in the bay.


Colored row houses are a famous sight in St John's

The legend is that the fog was so thick in St John's that when the fisherman came home, they couldn't distinguish which house was theirs, so they painted them all different colours so they wouldn't walk into the wrong home. Dunno if it's true, but it's pretty.


Still empty on George St, the hub of nightlife in St. John's

In the evening, we took a bus into St. John's looking to taste a bit of nightlife. However, we were reminded how old we were when at 10PM on a Saturday night, we were ready for bed and the party hadn't yet started yet...


Not "screeched in" officially...

Newfoundland screech is a foul-tasting paint-thinner that the locals used to brew cheaply. There is a whole tradition of being "screeched-in" involving drinking this slop, kissing a cod and reciting a dirty limerick about jibs and penises... The only place that we could get screeched in was Trapper John's, which was dead, so we instead went to a crowded bar and ordered some screech there instead. Turned out we walked into a cougar bar...

Next day was a travel day - ride down to Argentia, at the southern tip of Newfoundland to catch the ferry back to Sydney. We were recommended to ride some of the more interested roads around the coastline instead of taking the main highway straight there. So we did! Scenic routes like the Irish Loop which winds its way around the Avalon peninsula and ends up near the ferry dock. Apparently, the Irish Loop gets its name from the fact that most of the initial settlers of the coastal towns hail directly from Ireland.


A wedding and a funeral on the road

The pictures above depict a wedding roadside toll: two women raising money for a stag and doe for a local couple getting married that weekend. Neda donated $5 to pass. The bottom picture was actually a funeral procession, which we initially thought was traffic due to construction! We saw cars lined up behind heavy machinery, but then the construction vehicles did a 180 and all the cars followed as well! Turns out everyone in that town, including the construction workers rode in and out of town to pay their respects to the dearly departed. We joined the procession at the end of the line and followed them back into town and passed them as they turned into the cemetery. A wedding and a funeral on the same road within the same hour! Bizarre!


The ferry ride back to Nova Scotia from Newfoundland

Since we were leaving from the east coast of NL, instead of the west, where we arrived, the ferry ride back was 15-hours long. So, to avoid getting kicked in our sleep by the ferry crew, we dished out a small fortune for a cabin during the overnight ride back to Nova Scotia. This was our first time during this trip that we're sleeping in a bed and the cramped accommodations felt so luxurious!

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

LOL! I love the automatic replacement icon!

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Taken from Jun 24 2012: Hangin' in Halifax



We rode out from the ferry into early morning rain coming down on Sydney, Nova Scotia. We've had such perfect weather for our ride so far, very un-RideDOT.com-like, so we were due for some precipitation! Not a lot of pictures from our ride, since we had to meet friends in Halifax, about 400 kms away.


Neda tries to make the guard smile at the Citadel. Unsuccessfully...

The weather clears up as we enter Halifax and we ride up Citadel Hill to check out Fort George, the latest and largest of many fortifications built to repel attacks from the Indians first and then the Americans later on during their Civil war and the War of 1812.


Tall Ship Silva is a permanent fixture touring around Halifax Harbour, a popular spot for weddings and events

We met our friends Khanh, Ed and Dirk in Halifax harbour, they had just completed a harrowing Iron Butt SaddleSore 1000 from Toronto through torrential rain and pea-soup fog in New Brunswick! It was nice hanging out with folks from home and we took the Alexander Keith brewery tour for some free s at the end. Oh, and the show was nice as well, if not a bit cheesy...


Alexander Keith brewery. Our second tour this week!

The rest of the Toronto riding gang, Will, Mel and Irene pulled in later and we had a great dinner in the harbour, and then checked into a motel (BEDS! LUXURY!) for the evening. While it's great to be on the road and seeing new places and meeting new people all the time, it's nice to hang out with familiar faces again.


Fog creeps over the harbour at Peggy's Cove

The next morning, we all rode out to Peggy's Cove, a very picturesque community on the south shore of Nova Scotia, less than an hour outside of Halifax. It was very foggy, which added to the Maritimes atmosphere, but thankfully the thick blanket burned off while we were walking around the lighthouse and granite rocks at Peggy's Cove.


Arguably the most photographed lighthouse in the world


I'm trying to bump up the stats for "Most photographed lighthouse..."


Irene and Khanh taking in the atmosphere at Peggy's cove


Hangin' out with the hooligans - Dirk and Ed at Peggy's cove


Will looks out into the bay at Peggy's Cove.

We doubled back towards the northern tip of Nova Scotia in the afternoon. This would be our third time doing this route on the trip and co-incidentally we stopped in Antigonish for a third time to gas up. No McLobster this time though. Speaking of, we've been eating a lot of seafood this trip, I'm not normally a big lobster fan, but it tastes so fresh out here!


Sun sets on our bikes at our campsite outside Port Hawkesbury

We rode out to a campsite for the evening just outside Port Hawkesbury, yakking and laughing over dinner, while poking good-natured fun at each other until the sun set on our tents. We're rolling with our own motorcycle gang now!

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Taken from Jun 26 2012: Cabot Trail



The Cabot Trail is the jewel of Atlantic Canada's tourism industry, especially if you're a motorcycle rider. It is considered by many to be a destination highway, like the Tail Of The Dragon in NC, Sea-to-Sky highway in BC, and the Stelvio Pass in Italy. We were camped the night before just outside of Cape Breton island and only had a couple of hundred kms to reach the beginning of the Cabot Trail in St Anns, after circumnavigating the south-east section of the island. The decision was to ride the coastal road of the Trail counter-clockwise so we would experience the scenery of the coast to our right.


Back to group riding!

We left most of the planning and ride leading to Khanh, on his custom-painted VFR800, as he led us into the heart of Cape Breton. It was a really big change in rhythm as we rode with 6 other riders and at times we split up into two groups of four to keep things manageable, but the light traffic on the island meant stayed together as a group for the most part. The dynamics of group riding also changed with this many riders, as we had to make changes for different paces, following styles, endurance and also personalities.

Fortunately, we had all ridden with each other before and it was a quick adjustment to find a group order and pace that we were all familiar with. Neda and I met these guys at a group ride last year and we found it very enjoyable and comfortable to hang out and ride with them, and we were really looking forward to spending 10 days in the Maritimes with them. Like dating, finding good riding partners is sometimes hard to do, but over the years we've managed to find some really cool people that we love touring and doing day rides with.


Damn you, Toronto riders. Brought the rain with you...

As predicted by the weather apps (who watches the Weather Network on TV anymore?), the rain started coming down in the afternoon after our lobster lunch in (where else?) Lobster Kettle restaurant in Louisbourg. We head directly to the Cabot Trail and it's too rainy and foggy to see any of the promised sights. Annoyingly, the Pinlock insert on the inside of my visor broke it's seal and water slowly filled up between the fog-resistant plastic and the visor like an aquarium. All I needed was a couple of goldfish swimming around in there to complete the effect!


Rain falls overnight on the Cabot Trail

We booked into a 4-bedroom cabin that we found in South Harbour, right in the middle of the Cabot Trail. It's nice to share a whole place like with a bunch of people, besides the social aspect, it's cheaper than what we've been paying for campsites the rest of the trip! With wet riding gear and rainsuits strewn all over the place, we waited out the rain for the night and prayed for better weather tomorrow.


Meat Cove - off the Cabot Trail

Our prayers were answered with a beautiful day on the western leg of the Cabot Trail. We were recommended to take a side-trip up to Meat Cove, with magnificent views off the cliff of the north coast. Meat Cove road is gravel for about the last 10 kms, but our street bike brethren did well!


View of Meat Cove


It's not a race, Neda...


Meat Cove


Posing on the Cabot Trail


Our motorcycle gang!

The twists and turns were a welcome change from the slabbing we had been doing the last few days. And set against the backdrop of the blue waters of the Gulf of St Lawrence and the clear skies above just made the riding day perfect! Scenic pullouts regularly line the Cabot Trail every few kms, offering picture-taking opportunities of the coastline, but we pass those up, gobbling up the curves with unbroken rhythm!


Irene takes the curves on the Cabot Trail

We ended the day at the Caribou and Munroe's Island Provincial Park, just outside the ferry that would carry us to Prince Edward Island tomorrow morning.

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

So briliant to see your thread. no end to the trail is a wondrful way to do it. I wish you all the very best a happy ride and hte expeirence of a life time, it will be, you have a great attitude. I hope good stuff washes up ony your beach!!!!

If you are in the UK and near Shropshire (the best bit), drop me a line, I can provide somewhere to pitch and a dog to wake you up!

Go easy and enjoy it!

cheers

Dave

Your trip is an adventure that you will remember for a lifetime. Iam very envious of you all. I hope that you have a Great Trip.

Respectfully, Rickey

Christian Motorcycle Association
Messiahs Messengers, USA, Missouri