Day 4 -The White Mountains and Maine

So far we have been very fortunate with our lodging on this trip.  Last night was no exception.  We stayed at a small motel, the Twin City Motel in Barre, VT.  Our hosts were Rejean and Donna Gagnon – what great people! In the morning, they put a towel on our bike to wipe the dew off with!  And Rejean, super funny with his heavy Vermont accent.  Are all Vermont people this nice?

We began our day early with some confusion as to the route we would take – thru the White Mountains to Bar Harbor Maine.  According to the route we planned on google the trip is 310 miles, somewhat of a long day for us.  Once we punched the trip into the GPS it showed 370 miles.  Well that is a lot of miles for us on day when most are not on freeway.  It ended up that the GPS was right.  The route ended up not exactly as shown below but close.

Vermont and New Hampshire are both mountainous and the country side is beautiful.  Here is an early morning pic we took along the way to NH.

Day 3 – The Adirondacks and Lake Champlain

Our third day we started our trip from Henderson Harbor, NY.   Form there we headed to the Adirondack Mountains of up state NY.  The center piece of our ride thru the Adirondacks was visiting Lake Placid.  We had to take a ferry across Lake Champlain to arrive at our final destination in Barre, VT.

One of the many Lake we passed on our ride thru the Adirondacks  ….

This is beautiful Lake Placid, NY the home of both the 1932 and 1980 winter Olympics.  It is still used for Olympic training today.

The not so placid downtown Lake Placid.  Obviously a very popular vacation spot.

A photo taken at the top of White Face Mountain.  This was the where the 1980 winter Olympic ski events took place. We took a gondola ride up to the top.

Here we are waiting for the ferry to arrive that will take us across Lake Champlain.

We were wedge in between the cars on the ferry.

A view form the ferry of Lake Champlain.  We landed in Burlington, VT.

Day 2 – Coming Around the Bottom of Lake Ontario

Our second day began with a lovely breakfast and Duck Tail Inn B&B.  We ate with Dorothy and Dan our hosts, and got to know them better.  Dan, a retired school teacher, talked about black smithing.  Dan smiths at a local historical black smith shop.

A view of the pond just outside their place.

This was our trip route for the day.  Hugging the bottom of Lake Ontario.

And yes, we had to stop and check out Niagara Falls.

Catching some of the spray…

Our final stop for the night was the Aspinwall Motel in Henderson Harbor, NY just south of Water Town, NY.

A view of Henderson Harbor on Lake Ontario.

Day 1 – Ontario

 

Day 1 of our trip to Nova Scotia. Our destination is Ancaster, Ont. Canada, the Duck Tail Inn B&B.
 
 

 Here we are just before we left home.
It was a gorgeous day, sunny in the morning, partly cloudy in the afternoon.  Temperature around 75 degrees F.  Both Deb and I can’t remember better riding weather.  We sped across Michigan in the morning arriving in Canada by noon.  The hours latter we arrived at out first tourist destination in Brantford, Ont.  Not bad for ~320 miles, or should I say 516 km now that we are in Canada.

 

 After arriving in Brantford, we stopped at the Bell Homestead National Historic Site. This is where Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1874. Bell is Canada most famous Canadian.

The main house shown is also a museum of sorts, very fascinating.

Most of Bell’s life was spent on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.  We will also be visiting the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site in Nova Scotia.

Did you know that Alexander Graham Bell is considered the most important Canadian here in Canada?
  

 

 

This is a replica of Bell’s first working telephone.  
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taking it easy after visiting the Bell Homestead. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little snack from the back of the bike. 

We ended our day at the Duck Tail Inn Bed & Breakfast in Ancaster, Ont.  

 

The Night Before

It’s the night before we leave on our Nova Scotia trip, as we are calling it. It is really more that Nova Scotia but that’s the furthest we will travel on this adventure.

We been packing and ‘micro’ packing, checking our lists, taking anything off it that we don’t absolutely need. After a few years of taking these long motorcycle trips, we have learn that less is better when traveling a motorcycle.

Our trip route is shown below in google maps.

 

Why a trip to Nova Scotia? Good question, last year on our Out West Trip, we visited Arches National Park in Moab, UT. It was a warm 105 degree day in the park. We started our tour and came to our viewing first stop. At that stop met two riders who were following Hwy 50 from Michigan to California. As we talked further, we found out that each year for 30 years they have taken a motorcycle trip from Michigan either to the West coast or to the East coast following a given Hwy. So… we asked them, what was the best trip you have taken in 30 years? Both, without hesitation said the trip thru the Adirondacks in up state NY, the White Mountains of NH, up to PEI and Nova Scotia. Well you can’t argue with experience. So that is the adventure we are taking this year.

 

Here are the two friends we met in Arches National Park last year.

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From Out West to Home

The last 4 days was a sprint from Pueblo Colorado back home to Michigan. Our first 2 days we took no pictures. We were focused on getting to our destinations and out of the heat.

Our route was from Pueblo to Dodge City Kansas where we stayed the night. Then from Dodge City to Kansas City was our second day.

 

Our Last Day in the Mountains

Since this was to be our last day of mountains Dave created a route that took advantage of as much mountain time as possible – and man did we pack them in! Our days rides began in Gunnison and ended in Pueblo Colorado. We will break this down into 3 sections

The first section was from Gunnison to Canon City as you can see in the map below.

Durango, Silverton, Ouray, Gunnison – Mountain Ride

As you might have figured, we are writing the post 2 days late. Some of the motels we are staying at do not have solid WiFi.

This day we departed from Cortez, CO and headed for the mountians. Our ride is shown below. We are exited because of the cool temps in the mountains, a welcome break from the desert.

Monument Valley and the Four Corners

Today took us from Page, AZ to Cortez, CO. Our goals were to see Monument Valley along the Utah/Arizona border, and to visit a remote tourist stop – the four corners monument where the state borders of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado come together. Also another goal, survive the heat of this desert region.

Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks

This day was made up of visiting 2 national parks, and traveling across desert in 107 degree heat to Page, AZ where we stayed the night. Below are photos that share the day.

 

Bryce Canyon National Park

Nothing beats the morning light in the canyon as you can see from our photos.