America

And this is why America has a weight problem. This is the healthy veggie option, minus half the chips I ate.

All's Clear in Eau Claire

Long Ride

So I made it to Eau Claire after about 9 hours of riding. I won't do that again. It was pretty comfortable except for the knees.

There is a phrase that I hear all over the motorcycle community: monkey-butt. Not sure what this is. Everyone talks about it, but never in specifics (maybe it's really gross), so people say things like, "Don't ride too long or you'll get monkey-butt. Don't need to say anymore, man." Maybe it's related to monkeys scratching their butts? Anyway, it seems to be a well-kept secret that I can comically compare to "love". As in, "you'll know it when you have it".

Road kill

Recently a friend of mine posted an article about eating roadkill. Let me clarify. The woman who wrote the article was not advocating eating any old roadkill, she had seen a grouse hit by the car in front of her, so she picked it up took it home and ate it. There were a few dead porcupines that I saw today on the side of the road, thus I've made them the roadkill of the day.
I had an uncomfortable encounter with two bugs today, one large one rocketed into my right shin, followed 2 minutes later with one to the left. Nature likes to balance things out. I guess you can add that to roadkill as well, but I didn't feel bad for the bugs vs the porcupines.

Other notes

Drove by a couple of these: http://www.polarfurnace.com/ which are wood burning water heaters basically. Huh, interesting country technology.

Upper Peninsula

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is known for mining, there are tons of signs for mine tours and "pasties" (pronounced PAY-STEES), which are like Jamaican patties for miners, flaky crust filled with meat, onion and potato. I was ready to see some civilization after all of that. I kept imagining how disgusted those miners would be with us for turning mines into tourist attractions. I think you know what I mean.
Also very popular in this area was the architectural motif of "melting barn", whereby the they uniquely designed the roofs with a sunken middle, by which I mean of course that a lot of barns were just collapsing on themselves.

Wisconsin

Roads in Wisconsin were really nice, as well the scenery. Nice rolling hills and trees. It's obvious that Upper Michigan clear cut everything some time ago, but Wisconsin had more strict laws about it. Wisconsin, however, is terribly muggy. It's nice to see that Montreal has some competition in that dept but I think Wisconsin so far takes the cake. 

No helmet

Michigan just became a "no helmet" state about a month ago, I asked an older guy and his wife (both with helmets) on a Honda Goldwing what that was about. I'd say that 1/3 of the riders in Michigan are not riding with a lid. In Wisconsin, which has long been a no helmet state has about 2/3 I'd estimate. Seems like no one wears them here.
I can sympathize a bit, because when I was in Dominican, even with the extremely dangerous driving, almost no one wore a helmet. Me and my girlfriend stuck out like sore thumbs when we were bombing around Puerto Plata on a scooter with helmets on! In fact, on our way back to the hotel, we were following a scooter with two men dressed up and carrying guitars. Later that night they were the guys playing music at our dining table and they laughed (probably at us) because they'd seen us following them and probably had a chuckle between themselves.

I ended up staying two nights with a girl named Katrina, who's going to UW Eau Claire, and is pretty well traveled for her age (19). Went out with her and her friends for the 4th, watched the fireworks in the park and ate Mexican food from Burracho's. Before that, she introduced me to a local pasttime: floating down the Eau Claire river in a tube! We floated for only about 15mins because we had to get to the fireworks, but I'll do it again today before leaving. I was considering staying but I think I need to keep up the pace. Not 9 hours pace, but at least 2. On the second day I floated down the river with Katrina and her friends, and I madly tried paddling perpendicular to the current to see a crane that was perched in the bushes. I never made it and was told later that it was a sculpture of a crane, not a real one. Lame.

Sault Ste. Marie, not pronounced correctly

They pronounce is Soo Saint Marie. Here I was using my French accent and no one knew where I was talking about!

My Hosts in Sault Ste. Marie

They've hosted over 56 couch surfers. I know CS doesn't allow charging, but if they opened a bed and breakfast, they'd do very well!

It was a wonderful family of 5, with experience living in Bangladesh. The children were very curious and sharp. They had a garden which I couldn't resist but talk for awhile about, giving the mother (Rowena) some pointers on clipping the suckers on tomato plants.

I brought them some fresh peas that I bought from a Mennonite farm near Desbarats, Ontario. It was pretty cool, the place was dead quiet, with one guy manning the cash register, which was the old kind without electronics, fully mechanical. They had 3 heads of cauliflour in varying shapes and sizes, 2 cloves of garlic of the same spread condition, etc, all laid out on the slanted wood tables. Certainly a stark contrast to supermarkets with hundreds of generic, identical, perfect veggies just laid out!

Motorcycle as a Means to an End

On the way up I passed a couple bicycling along the shoulder of the Trans-Canadian. Wherever they were headed, it looked like they were in it for the long haul! They had worn-looking panniers and deep tans. Their heads were down as they peddled the 4% grade. For all of my complaining about electrical problems, etc, at least I have a motorcycle! Those bikers didn't look like they were enjoying themselves. If I was doing that with a girlfriend I could imagine that we'd always be on edge, many an argument centered around who led for how long, who's not waiting for who...

Unfortunately all was not well with the locals today. I stopped at a garage to have my lighter socket looked at.

The guy was really nice, and he spent about 10mins finding out that I had the wires backwards. He then hands me off to the manager to ring me up. First of all I thought that it'd be more of a "spot me 15 bucks so I can grab some beers after work" sort of thing, but the manager wanted to prep an invoice for $40!

He said the minimum he could charge was 30 minutes of work (even though he spent 10), so I told him if he was going to charge that, I want the mechanic to work the other 20 minutes polishing my bike or something.

So he says, "Guy, if you hadn't gone to the mechanic directly I wouldn't have even served you", and pulls the "we don't work for free" BS. So I told him I'd pay $25, no more and he took the money and basically told me to get lost. I couldn't ride away fast enough!
I guess, the moral of the story is mechanics are untrustworthy whether in a small town or large, Ontario, Québec, the US, it's all the same story.

I met 2 guys in the town of Spanish, Gary (Kawasaki ZX6R) and Harold (Honda Shadow), who both work in Barrie, ON at the Honda plant that assembles the Civic, MDX, and the ZDX. Gary's got the red ZX6R in the background, Harold the brand new matte black Honda Shadow in the middle. Mine's in the front (forgive me guys for being selfish and putting my bike in front, you've really got some nice machines!)




I also visited Elliot Lake, the scene of a deadly incident where the town mall (Algo Mall) food court roof collapsed. 2 people were killed. It was about a 30min detour from the Trans-Canadian (17). As expected, there were candles and pictures, flowers and gifts posted in front of where the police tape was.
There was a big Ontario Provincial Police mobile command center I went up to a cop to ask him what he thought about the whole thing, and what his role there now was, he gave me attitude and said, "I don't know anything about it, I'm just told to sit here and stop people from coming in."

He was really not emotional at all, not talkative, generally a dick.

I told him, "Sorry your town experienced that loss." For all I know he probably thought I was talking about the loss of the mall.

I was considering adding, "It's okay to cry man, you must be really broken up about the whole thing.", but thought better of it.

Good sir! Must you play into all stereotypes that cops are pricks?

Bridge going to the US and into Upper Michigan.

Mineapolis, Minnesota

Man, I'm going to have to update this when I find out what church this is. The day was sweltering hot so I didn't take notes.

Railroad tycoon's house and pics:

Like I said, it was super humid and hot so instead of hitting the road, I decided to swim in one of the 5 lakes in the city. Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, so it's no surprise that the largest city has several linked together and bordered with beaches and nice parks. I started speaking to 4 dudes about Minneapolis and my trip, I really enjoyed their company after not talking to anyone for the better part of 2 days.

A city park lake in Mineapolis, the city is in the distance.

Leaving Sudbury

So today looks like it might rain. Gotta put my raingear somewhere accessible.

I'm in a small cafe that roasts it's own beans, and has WiFi. The girls at the cash were really nice. It's not located in the most scenic part of Sudbury but it's only a few blocks from downtown, and the inside is nice.

Today's goal is an easy 3hour ride to Sault Ste. Marie, I was able to find a generous and friendly fellow and his family to host me on their couch via couchsurfing.org.

Not sure if I want to stop to have the motorcycle looked at, there's a powersport place called Trail Side Sports at 50 McCulloch Drive, Espanola, ON.
Hey! Well I get to try out my raingear!

Chipmunks in the store!

Forgot to mention a fun thing I encountered yesterday.

I was half-enthralled with the great selection of headlamps that Zeller's offers when I see some motion to the left of me. A small four-legged fuzzy thing dashed across the floor and bounded up onto the lower aisle shelf between the wash mitts.

"What the hell was THAT?!"

At first I was disgusted, I thought for sure it was a mouse. But it was larger, and brown colored.

It was a chipmunk I realized, from the curled tail and black and white stripes down the back.

Just then a store clerk dashed around the corner with a broom in his hand, a young kid of maybe 17.

I told him he had a problem.

He said, " Yeah, that's the last of them, they've been living in here for quite awhile, we trapped the rest, and he's the last one."

I can't tell you what a kick I got out of this. Unfortunately I couldn't get my video keychain out in time.

Poor little guy, his family is all gone and he's just survivin', in luxury I guess. There was a whole pet food aisle I'm sure he's discovered.

Getting Sudsy in Sudbury

Whew! What a day! The journey from Ottawa to Sudbury took about 8 hours, including all of the stops, and problems that I'll describe later.

I have had a few issues with my bike, probably caused by my inexperience with automotive electrical.

The Lost Passport

I thought I had forgotten my passport, I was stressing for about 100km, thinking of the terrible scenario of having to choose a place to receive a passport by staying put for a few days or convincing a complete stranger down the line to accept it for me. Then I just pulled over and tore apart my luggage looking for it; found it in my tankbag, which is the first place I should have looked because that's where a passport should be!

Let the Magic Smoke out!

I tried to hook up my lighter socket for my phone, I happily stopped at Canadian tire and picked up 2amp fuses to wire it up. I plugged in the USB lighter socket adapter and got smoke and a loud bang. Crap!

They call it magic smoke because when electronics let it go, they magically stop working.

I still don't know what I did.

Bike Won't Start!

I rode for another 45 minutes after the Magic Smoke incident, then stopped to repack some things. I go to leave and the bike wouldn't start! Completely dead dash. Took a look at the battery and saw that the positive terminal was not screwed down properly, and it was also lightly melted where I jammed the power wires for my external fuse box that powers my Stebel horn and (hopefully) the lighter sockets.

Tightened this, and the bike started, though my dash clock was wrong. It was really 16h by this time, when I was supposed to be in Sudbury already and had at least 2 hours to go.

Headlights Dead

My headlights won't work now, no riding at night. Resulted in me lightly panicking that I wouldn't make it to Sudbury by nightfall.

Finally made it - 19h15

Met with Jacques, put the bike in his garage, and went out to eat. The name of the restaurant was Laughing Buddha, there were a lot of hipsters, I felt right at home.

After some online research the problem that I am having with my headlights seems to be common and requires me to disassemble and clean the starter switch.

I'll be leaving at 6AM tomorrow, with Jacques as he leaves for work, and trying to find a motorcycle shop that can look at the lighter socket and other electrical gremlins.

The bike continues to be a bit difficult to start, it takes a few pushes of the button to get things going, and the headlight thing scares me because it's a tool that I use for visibility. Of course, the idea that I've fried my wiring somewhere is also frightening.


Great adventures already!

Canada Day

We headed downtown around 17h, unfortunately Tim and Maryam had to head back to Montréal and could not join Jeff, Julie and me.

For those who've never been to Ottawa for Canada Day, let me illustrate: It's a beautiful sunny, summer day around regal capitol buildings. Seagulls are diving in long swoops across the cliffs overlooking the St. Laurence river and the mouth of the Rideau Canal, and the water is a blinding mirror reflecting the bleached sunlight. The air is saturated with the smell of fried food. Everyone is dressed in red and white, the standard get-up for girls are the short white shorts, a red tshirt with rolled up sleeves and two temporary tattoos of the Canadian flag on their cheeks! I'd say 90% of people are dressed in red & white. There are 3 or so stages situated around parliament, with music blaring all day long.

Fireworks

We got a great spot to watch the fireworks, which started at 10pm. My favorite ones are the purple, with orange lit gold trails that hang in the sky and blow with the wind for minutes after. When you look through the streams, the wind carries some and not others and makes the shower appear to be a rotating sphere. Without a ground reference it's a trippy feeling to watch it! Afterward the whole city was bathed in smoke and that gunpowder smell you get from cap guns.

I would have liked to stay around a bit longer (in fact, all night longer), but I realized quite late that my ride tomorrow to Sudbury is supposed to be 7 hours! Doh! First mistake of the trip. The longest I've done is 6 hours. Cranking the tunes and stopping every 1.5hours will be required. Hopefully I'll discover some new music, as I've collected a bunch of streaming radio from a station that I really like. I also downloaded some podcasts of On Point.

Route Change

Jeff suggested that I scrap my idea to go through Thunder Bay over Lake Superior, saying that it's a hilly road with nothing really to see, and is longer than just dropping into the states via Sault Ste. Marie. It does save me 310km, or about 3 hours. He said that the southern route through North Michigan is about as rural, with less black flies, and more to see and do. I can tell from Google Maps that there is a lot of camping around that isthmus.

Tonight's Stay

I'll be staying with Jeff and Julie again tonight, they've been very generous, sparing me another night where I don't have to sleep in the tent!