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Days 11-12

Hauled my behind through stop in DC and got home at around 19:00 on Monday

That's it, thanks for following... I will update and tune up individual posts when I get my gears together...

Day 10 - got back to the US soil - feel free already :)

It was a great experience again in Canada. After I took off from the Motel, I rode by what GPS suggested, and it did just right - directed me to use a ferry from on side of the river into Downtown Quebec City. You'll see the pictures below, I tried to make some HDR to see all the camera can do...

Got a little lost afterwords, GPS kept leading me to roads that don't exist. Managed to find my way out. The country south of Quebec City is pretty - I'd ride it again any time - very beautiful scenery - sorry, no pictures, couldn't stop (read - didn't want to)

Stopped by Duty Free, bought bunch of stuff and crossed into USA. The Border Patrol officer eyed my dirty bike and, with his own satisfaction after a couple of routine questions, I was back in USA again...

Vermont - beautiful state, if they had roads well maintained it would be even better, but... My Adventure bike ate those roads for supper... No problems..

Was approaching a gas station and... sneezed (wet)... Had to wipe all of the inside with a rag I have for that purpose... Filled the tank and tried to move the bike out of the way and... helmet fell on the ground... I cried... It put one scratch on it. Fixable, not much seen from distance, but I had my heart broken... Never, ever, dropped a helmet before...

I will be staying at my friends house tomorrow night, so, I may not update my blog... For now though, enjoy the pictures...

I'm gonna upload just the pictures and then HDR while they are processing...

For some reason pictures are not uploading fast... so, they are gonna be mixed...

Day 9 - Rain again...

I was forced inside my tent last night pretty early with the start of a sprinkle that become steady overnight into the morning rain...

Everything around the tent was full of water... I woke up 5:30AM, as usually, turned on the other side, felt the inflatable pad lost it's air, reblown it, and slept up to 8:00AM - went to pee in between...

Just recalled old Russian joke - anecdote. A guy goes to a doctor and complains:

- Doctor, I have a problem, I pee every morning at the same time at 7...
- This is good, it indicates that you body works just well
- But doctor, I wake up at 8....

Again, danced under rain packing stuff in... Took off around 9AM and rode for three hour under some rain and fog. The fog - at some patches it was even difficult to see two meters up front. I don't know about Canada's rules but they don't use headlights in rain nor fog... I was just making sure i wasn't too slow so nobody rear ends me - I can manage the front...

Just because of rain and thick fog I guess I missed some good scenery... Mountains on one side and ocean on the other... All out of town rad speeds here are 90 km/hour - it's like   speed I pulled off my driveway... It's very hard to maintain that slow speed (something about 55MPH?)

I even got pulled over ones when took of a highway to a local town to refuel - a beautiful, no-English speaking, very pretty Police officer was telling me "gas, gas" and twisting here right hand... Well, with my great imagination I pulled my driving license instead of joking about it... She then just asked my to "slow"...

I asked if I can take a picture of us, she refused, then I asked if I can take a picture of just her, she rushed to her car... Chasing her I asked her if I can take a picture of her inside her car, - she just smiled and told me to.... you know... "have a great day"

Maybe it's because I didn't brush my teeth in the morning, or general smell that scared her?

Since I didn't have breakfast, I stopped by their McDonalds - I'm telling you, their Mac Chicken - Mac Poulete - is very tasty and reach in it's chicken -it's perfectly round and thicker than ours... Their File-o-Fish - File de Poisonere... something is just as same as hours - waste of money...

I'm drying out in a motel again, just about 20 miles outside Quebec City - very nice and cheap considering general pricing on Motels here in pick season...

Turned TV on and there was a movie with Arnold Shartznegger - COMMANDO - didn't know he spoke French :)

I don't have many picture of today, so please excuse me but enjoy what I have...

Thanks for reading - Good night... I just realized I have three more days to go... As much as I missed my girls, I may not be able to travel for for another two years... Newfoundland and Labrador, and Alaska, and British Columbia, and Vancouver and what not... all on the list... I read a report of one of the adventurer and on the question when he was asked what was the most amazing place to travel through, he answered - the United States and Canada... There are some much to see and so little time to spare... Of course there are great places in other countries, but I like the quantity of them... Travel USA, there are so many places that will take you breath away, my pictures will never do the same, - see for yourselves...

Day 8 - "...to continue in English, please press... oh, never ming - nobody speaks English here..."

I'm at... hold on a sec... Forillon National Park of Canada at a private Campground called... just a sec... "CAMPING BAIE DE GASPE" OK, I'm here in Gaspe - finally.

It was a rough day again, too much flat, straight, slow and roads under construction through village after village after village after village after village after village after village after village after village after village after village after village after village after village after village after village after village after village after village after village...

Closer to town called Perce it started fogging out and I was in complete fog so I missed the famous rock in the water. Guess I have to come back for it tomorrow...

Again, I'm in French Quebec province, many people here speak both, French and English... well many who doesn't...

Many official signes are in French only, including the damn instructions how to use shower "vending"" machine...

This is so frustrating because I know the showers in all campgrounds are requiring money - quarters. And it's been for the third time when I come to the shower, go in. lock the booth, almost undress looking for damn faucets - bum, need money... then all backwards dressing up and going back to the tent...

But today, when I finally got the money, I asked one of the residents how many quarters does it take, it was like talking to the wall... The older  dude had no idea what I was talking about... Finally, with all hard work of the both of us I came to conclusion that one quarter make the water run for 5 minutes...

As I mentioned before, everything is more expensive here and many places calculate the difference in currencies, but may don't... for example, sometimes I give $20 bucks and they give me change like from twenty in Canadian money, but many give change like from I gave them $18... Beyatches...

Again, the roads I rode last night in PEI and this morning in New Brunswick provinces were flat, some fast, some slow, but the surface was not good at all... up until I crossed the bridge to Quebec where I saw some mountains...

It was deceiving... the roads were along the shore and flat, and straight and slow through towns... 

For some reason my WiFi operated GoPro camera remote control stopped working in Quebec, so did my Bluetooth speakers for GPS... I don;t know, maybe they have some kinda frequency interruption devices here? Who knows...

Now I have four more days to come back home with long three days in routes planned... I think I might need rear tire replaced VERY soon, I don't like how it wore already out... I guess all those burst accelerations made it to wear quicker...

Nobody speaks English here, or they don't want too... At some point I thought it was my lack of perfect English with Russian accent, nope, they don't get it when I speak "perfect" English anyways... 

All the road signs, billboards, adds, and such - all in French... As we were told last year at Quebec history museum they want to preserve French language in Quebec so they try not to show too much english since younger population starts talking in English more and more...

Last night I got to use LAUNDRY at the campground... Even though I had some fresh clothes, my towel started smelling... then every time you used it I was smelling the same.... So I went to the Laundry room and as soon as I got there I realized I didn't have detergent... So I went to the office - they ran out. Nice lady-host brought me a couple of "bubbles" - they dissolve in water - never used those kinds... So, one bubble was good for one wash - that's what I need, but I have two bubbles - where do I put and store the other one? I don'y want it to burst in my pocket, my bag, or anywhere... So I put it inside the camping stove, so if it does burst - not to much mess and it would be contained...

By the way, last night I ran out of camping JET fuel for my Jet Boil. Stopped at local Walmart - they don;t have it, stopped at local Canadian Tire (aka Canadian Walmart) - they do neither...So far no luck... I'm on one can for another four days - hope it lasts - I love hot tea and coffee and hot meals...

Alright, I'm uploading some pictures now...

I set up my camp by the office, the spot that have the strongest WiFi signal, otherwise I'd be running around with laptop sticking up looking for better signal, thanks for the french-english speaking host, whatever his name was... is... his buddy had him translate everything I was saying about my bike he was interested in...

Here is the remote control of my GoPro camera... Something went wrong today, the receiver at the camera died - was supposed to take charge from camera itself but refused to function... I just charged it, turn everything on and all worked as suppose to...

Coffee or beer, that's the question... or six beers?

A moment of Triumph...

 It's raining again. As much as I love rain back home, I hate it when I camp. Well, I wanted "adventures" - here we go... And it's every-freaking-day... 

Back at Meat cove, when I woke up the first morning, I discovered that my remote receiver for long distance shutter broke at the connection to D90 Nikon camera... I think I went to bed at 2AM, - the guys from Florida kept very interesting and important conversation with the rest of the rum I had and his whiskey... When I woke up next morning at around 6AM or so he was already gone - he never even signed up, he came in car at 22:00, approached for a light for cigarette and got filled with rum and BS till I turned off....

Every day I ride out of camp I have a feeling I forgot something... I hit my right bottom pocket for wallet, left chest pocket for passport and right chest pocket for iPhone... everything else id either bigger or not as important...

As I ride along I start shaking my head left and right checking if my side and rear bags are shot and locked... or, as I ride I think about something and then realize I ride on Autopilot up until I come to a very tight turn and burn rubber since it's late for braking... 

UPDATE: the detergent bubble got wet and burst inside the camping pot...

Good night. Rain stopped for a little I guess, I'll go use a "washroom" - that's what they call Restrooms and Bathrooms... Actually, what I noticed today, here along the shore I rode on the south of Gaspe Peninsula, each town has one or two Rest Areas with "Restrooms" and a bench to sit and view.. something... Also, many have "Information" offices - attended... You can stop by, ask a question and get a satisfactory answer... They can call motels or campgrounds for you and find necessary information if and when you need it...

Another thing what I noticed here passing all thise villages and towns, I didn't see factories, plants, big industrial facilities... I know they have bunch of mines and farm a lot - I could tell by the smell in some of the places... oh, I saw ONE McDonalds today - COOL...