Day 15 - July 14 - Digby scallops and Maine lobster...

For some reason "Blogger is not letting me upload the photos I intended to include with this entry. I'll post the text, and then keep trying to get the photos up)

Today began under ominously cloudy skies as we left Bridgewater Nova Scotia for the historic fishing village of Lunenburg. At Lunenburg, the Maritime Museum we'd hoped to visit was closed, but we wandered the waterfront and the town, appreciating the brightly coloured buildings (see especially the red buildings with the sailing ship in front)

We had just got our coffees while sitting on the deck of a coffee house overlooking the harbour when the sky opened. We headed off - for the first time in the entire trip donning rain gear - and rode through heavy rain across Nova Scotia (the "skinny" way: i.e., from south to north) to Annapolis Royal. For the last 9 kms or so of that route, highway construction had us riding over newly spread dirt which was quickly turning into newly spread mud... not a great surface for motorcycles. My lighter-weight Enduro-styled bike is easier to maneuver on a loose surface than the much-heavier Gold-Wing, LT and Harley, but Bob, George and Jim managed to "keep the shiny side up".

From Annapolis Royal we travelled west along the coast to Digby, my ancestral ground (our Mom was born there; our grandparents are buried there), but also the home of the much-heralded Digby scallops. We went to a small cafe that is also a fish store, located right on the government wharf at the centre of town. All four of us had scallops that had simply been pan-fried in butter and garlic - unbelievably intense, sweet flavour. I meant to take a picture when the server first put the plate down, but the blog will have to make do with a photo of the meal in process. After lunch, Bob played with the live lobsters in the store's tank, and we did a Maritime fishboats-in-the-water photo shoot.

From Digby - in much lighter, and gradually no rain - we travelled to the southwestern tip of Nova Scotia at Yarmouth, to catch "The Cat", a remarkable high speed catarmaran/full-size ferry that travels to Bar Harbor Maine in about 3 1/2 hours, a trip that we're told in the old days could take as much as 12 hours. The Cat (which is big enough to be carrying over 100 cars) has four 9500 horsepower engines which can propel the ship at up to 55 miles per hour (or roughly 90 kms/hr). The GPS (which we've taken to calling "Miss Garmin", as in "Mis Garmin says to turn left", etc.) said The Cat was going about 65 kmh for most of the trip. It was a little odd to be going so fast on the water in something so big. I'm attaching a photo of the twin rooster tails... I didn't want to think of how much fuel the boat was using...

A great moment in the ferry parking lot: after almost 8,000 kms of seeing almost nothing but Harleys and Gold Wings (probably in about a 4:1 proportion), there in the line ahead of us were 2 BMW 1200 GS Adventures, essentially the same bike as mine, being ridden by a couple who had just travelled across the 500 mile gravel highway that traverses Labrador. But I digress...

We cleared U.S. Customs at Bar Harbor, and headed toward Ellsworth, about 30 kms inland, where motels were cheaper than Bar Harbor, which is pretty ritzy - but quite beautiful with all its shoreline, too many sailboats to count, and all basking in the purples and pinks of a dramatic sunset.

We finally were able to pick up the champagne which was courtesy of Jo-Ann's and my great friends, Julie and Colin - an already-chilled bottle of Veuve Cliquot, thank you very much - which we consumed at our motel in the finest crystal flutes ever to be packaged as Comfort Inn plastic paper-enshrouded cups.

Dinner was Maine lobster (cheap by accustomed standards at home), complete with tacky plastic bibs.

Digby scallops for lunch, Maine lobster for dinner; the life of a Knight of the Open Road has its rewards.

Tomorrow into Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire - staying to secondary highways through that part of the world.