Life on Two Wheels: The Long Haul to North Sydney and Arrival Back in the Motherland

I woke up very early this morning for a brief moment. It was still dark out and a slight rolling motion of my bed quickly put me back to sleep until the sun started to break over the horizon, and begin to lighten up my room. Out through the cabin window I was starting to get my first glimpse of Newfoundland on the horizon. It was the start of day two, or when the real fun began.

Monday was the grand kickoff, and turned into a crazy morning. It was kind of surreal that we were leaving, adding to that, the neighbours were beginning to show up in my yard to send us off. Did I say it was hot, ya it was hot, JC, I was sweating my bag off in all my Olympia riding gear trying to pack everything on the bike. Kim and the kids were milling around, then Pete and his family showed up, with their dogs, plus our dog and the neighbours dog, it was pandemoneum.

Then Hemmings shows up for the 15 minute videography course, which was quite useful, and I did learn a lot. Thanks Greg. He starts filming our good byes and final preparations, kiss the wife and kids, pat the dog on the head and we are off...........to the gas station around the corner. Meanwhile in my helmet I was going through some conflicting emotions, miss my family, ornbe happy for the trip. Shit.

We did eventually make it to North Sydney. It was a long boring day on the highway, or slab as we like to call it. The weather was incredible, warm sunny with light winds, perfect riding conditions.

Along the way we stopped in Shediac to see our friend Dwight aka Kedgi on AdvRider, and his lovely wife Angele. They cooked us up some hamburgers on the BBQ, filled our belly's and quickly sent us on our way since we were racing the setting sun.

The sun won, we rode the last half an hour into North Sydney in the dark. All our senses alert for the nocturnal creatures of the night, especially the moose. Thankfully the Vstrom has a set of headlights that light up the night, and they guided us to the ferry uneventfully.

Remember the picture in the previous blog posting of me getting my new VW? Well Colleen, my most awesome VW sales person has a brother-in-law who is the chief engineer on the ferry we are taking to Newfoundland. Pete and I are sitting in the bar of the boat, enjoying a Black Horse and low and behold my name echos over the PA, "Terry Burt please report to reception"

Colleen called her brother-in-law and told him to treat us like rock stars, and he did. Chief Engineer of Blue Putees, Mark Lewis, took us on a tour of the bridge, and upgraded me to an outside room with a queen sized bed. Plus he arranged for us to be allowed on the bridge the following morning while docking. Awesome or what? The dumbass that I am, I never even got a picture of Mark, or interviewed him. Some videography I'm shaping up to be. Shit again.

So after a late night bowl of chili and a couple more Black Horse, we retired to our cabins for a good nights sleep. Tomorrow the homeland.