Maddog62's Blog

This ride has been on my “Bucket” List for years and now we are really going!!! We are so excited!!!

This is the route we plan on taking but like all of our rides it will depend on weather and where the local riders tell us to go.  That’s what makes our rides so much fun because they can change completely by a suggestion from another rider who gives us a tip on a great road or point of interest.

 

If you click on the “view larger map” you can get a little more detail.

 

 

 

I will have post the maps and pictures a little later because my ipad does not work well with wordpress.

We left Thursday July 3rd and just rode up I80 to Rawlings Wy. Pretty uneventful just windy. Imagine that Wyoming windy.

We did stay at the Best Western it is newly remodeled and a great place to stay if anyone ever goes to Rawlings.

 

The 4th was a long day we rode from Rawlings to Sioux Falls the ride was great all the way to Sturgis where we ate at the Knuckle Head cafe. Pretty good lunch and very cool antiques and old school motorcycle stuff.

From Sturgis to Sioux Falls is nothing but flat lands. It made the 700 miles plus miles very difficult by the end.

I think we might have changed the Eco system with all of the bugs that were plastered all over our bikes.

July 5th was a great ride to Thunder Bay Ontario.

A local biker told us to take HWY 23 it took us through a million towns, the ride is so beautiful. We also stopped at the Apol’s Harley Davidson. The story is it’s the oldest Harley Davidson in Minnesota. It started out as a gas station selling a few bikes out of the back.

The ride from Duluth Minnesota to Thunder Bay is amazing it runs along the coast of Lake Superior and the road and views are spectacular but don’t plan on riding faster than 55 mph. The people in Minnesota really do obey the speed limits.

I have to take back every negative thing I have said about Minnesota, What a great place to ride and it’s so green.

There is not a lot to do in Thunder Bay so bring some cards or plan on walking a lot.

But it rained so hard between Duluth and Thunder bay that my bike almost stalled out. Even with our rain gear on we were soaked. All of our clothes were soaked we were so licky we had a room reserved because everyone was looking for a play to stay

July 6th our plan was to get to Sudbury Ontario we took HWY 17 it follows the shore line of Lake Superior but it really rained the night before and everything was wet. But worse than that was the fog.
leaving Thunder Bay the visibility was about a half to a quarter mile, But the fog settling in the lower valleys of the mountains and the lake when we rode over the mountain peaks was spectacular.

It started to rain and add in the fog we thought it was best to call it a day so we stopped at the Airport hotel in Marathon Ontario. I have to give it to my riding partner Linda even after the long miles, fog and rain she has not complained once, every time it look in my mirrors she’s just riding back there with a huge smile on her face.

July 7th Today was the tell of two rides it started off with fog everywhere you could not see 100 yards in front of you, then it just opened up to the most beautiful and green place you can imagine. The Lake, Trees and plant life were so vibrant and amazing.

Funny thing there in not much traffic in HWY 17 at all so it made the ride so relaxing.

This trip has been “wild kingdom” we have seen Antelope, Deer, Buffalo, Turkey’s, Moose, Bear, and all kinds of smaller wild life. Not that there is a connection with wildlife but we stopped to see the Amish.. There is a huge Amish community here.

July 8th We continued South around Lake Superior and headed to Ottawa to meet up with Murray and Patsy.

It was a great ride and we arrived just before the rain started.

They took us on a tour of their towns which was fun, then they coked as a fabulous dinner.

I usual we talked until late in the night until we decided we needed to go to bed because their day starts early and that meant so did ours.

July 9th we rode right through Quebec because they are “shits” funny thing is everyone said the same thing “if you don’t speak French they don’t think you exist.

Judging from how hard it was just to order a subway sandwich I have to agree with everyone assessment. In fact the most common response was ” F” them from the locals.

So we rode all the way to New Brunswick. Now those guys were cool and definitely make up for Quebec’s bad attitude.

July 10th we finally made it to Nova Scotia we took the highest coast roads because a local biker told us if we went through the center of the Province all we would see was trees and fences keeping the Moose off the road.

It turned out we made the right decision it was so beautiful I cannot express or explain how green and lush everything is.

When we made it to Nova Scotia we stayed in Port Hawksbury we found a great bed and Breakfast. The best part about B&B’s is you meet so many nice people. In fact we sat down with one of locals and he gave us some great suggestions on the rest of our ride. One suggestion was we had to ride Cabot Trail.

We first had to go to our designation which was the Sydney Harley Davidson because that is the furthest North East you can ride too.
The Cabot Trail is amazing it is about 350 miles of a combination of The Dragon’s Tail and Mount Evan’s. Although that is exactly the riding we love to do, when you do it for 7 of 8 hours and you have get on a ferry trust me you are exhausted so we just made it back to Hawksbury where we spent the night again.

July 12th was an easy ride to Yarmouth because we wanted to catch the Ferry over to Portland Main we were told it would save us a day. Like I said we were told we could save a day.

We had diner at Rudder’s because again one of the locals said they had the best sea food in the area. They were correct we had the best lobster I have ever had and it was only $14.00.

July 13th I put our hotel in my GPS to see how far it was and how much time we were saving as it turns out we could rode our bike to Portland quicker than the Ferry could take us but we already had our tickets so we got on the Ferry

As expected the ride on the Ferry sucked big time it was way over priced and once we got on they nickeled and dime us to death. If any ever says it will save you time I would question them where because unless the roads are closed you can drive much faster.

The best part was we reserved the Hampton Inn seaside hotel it is only a quarter mile from the Ferry port. They want $600.00 a night so I just used my Hilton honors points.

It was so funny when Linda and I drove in because we were profiled again. The two bellmen kept asking us as we were taking our stuff off of our if we were sure had reservation and if we were at the right Hampton.

The good was the rooms were fanatic as they should have been.

July 14th our 31 year anniversary!!!

we left Portland Maine and took all of the back roads around New Hampshire and Vermont. It was exactly as I had in visioned it. Lush green and right out of the “Deliverance movie”. They are only two lane roads with not a lot of passing lanes so took us most of the day to get to Auburn New York.

From there we stopped at a HD and pushed on to Rochester New York.

All in all another great riding day.

July 15th we had to wait until 10:00 to leave because it was pouring rain so we had to wait until it moved over us because after it did it was clear all the way to Kansas.

It was a pretty uneventful ride through Pennsylvania and most of Ohio except I think all of Ohio is under construction and the drivers are the worst. We were getting gas and a driver who had followed us for about a houdred said “it had to be difficult riding when these cars race up beside you and then just sit there”. We also noticed when the truckers wanted to change lanes they would put on their indicator and the cars behind them would just speed up and cut them off. So then Linda and I were “blocking” for the truckers.

We made it to Springfield Ohio right next to Dayton.

July 16th not much to blog about because we pretty much just stayed on I-70 the whole day. We rode from Ohio through Indiana, Illinois and ended up in Kansas City Missouri. It was about a 600 miles ride but the traffic was light and the weather was good so it seemed like a 300 mile ride.

From Kansas City Mo. we rode to Limon Colorado. I have to tell you Kansas is the worst place I have ever riden my bike. It’s not that it is flat and nithing but fields to see it the cow shit they use for fertalizer!!! After 500 miles of eating and smelling shit I was so ready to get off of my bike. Never again will I ever ride through Kansas again.

From here we took a short ride to Grand Junction spent the night and headed back home.

This was the best ride we have ever been on we saw so much and coved so much of Canada and the USA.

My Bucket list is now complete.