Guest Posted June 22, 2009 Share Posted June 22, 2009 Wow...is about all I can say. Great write-up...from scenery, to good food and good times with your dad. A joy to read.... :biggrin: BTW, great graphics for your t-shirts....cool retro touch. I knew you had to be involved in art in some way.... :fing02: p.s. If you haven't already, you should check out the documentary "Helvetica" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vfar Posted June 22, 2009 Author Share Posted June 22, 2009 Wow...is about all I can say. Great write-up...from scenery, to good food and good times with your dad. A joy to read.... :biggrin: BTW, great graphics for your t-shirts....cool retro touch. I knew you had to be involved in art in some way.... :fing02: p.s. If you haven't already, you should check out the documentary "Helvetica" Thanks so much. It's really cool to have a community like this to share stories. Non riders don't quite understand the thrill of traveling via 2 wheels. So, it's awesome to share this kind of stuff with like-minded people. I've been wanting to make some VFR shirts...maybe soon. I used to be part owner of a company called Campfire Goods. We designed and printed shirts. My two friends still run it...lots of great stuff on the site. www.wearecampfire.com I've seen and own Helvetica. Great movie. Any film that glorifies type is pretty special. Take care and keep on riding! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimC Posted June 22, 2009 Share Posted June 22, 2009 Micah - Really enjoyed the reports and pix, and especially liked your wrap-up. :fing02: Hoping to hook up with you for a couple somewhat "mundane" rides around eastern and SE Ohio the rest of this summer! :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vfar Posted June 22, 2009 Author Share Posted June 22, 2009 Micah - Really enjoyed the reports and pix, and especially liked your wrap-up. :fing02:Hoping to hook up with you for a couple somewhat "mundane" rides around eastern and SE Ohio the rest of this summer! :laugh: Tim, Yeah man, I'd like to get another ride or two in SE Ohio this summer. I can't make it on the 2nd b/c family is in town, but I'll catch you the next time. I'll tell ya this, the roads you, Travis and I were on were very similar to those in NS. Only difference is that there are more of them in NS. Have a good birthday and birthday ride. See ya, Micah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer rbertalotto Posted June 22, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted June 22, 2009 Nice! Great RR......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer vfrcapn Posted June 22, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted June 22, 2009 Really nice write up and trip, sounds like it was great for you two. :blush: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 Micah, the report is magnificent! You captured our adventure perfectly. I can tell from the words of encouragement that this is a great community. Hey guys, thanks for welcoming a GPZ1100 rider! We're an endangered species. Kaw only sold them in the US in '95 and '96, but they were Kaw's early attempt at a sport-touring bike with the bias toward sport. Micah and I both had perfect machines for a trip to Nova Scotia's scenic, twisty roads. Reasonably comfortable for the long haul, and quick and responsive for the curves and mountains. I must say that my son is the perfect motorcycle travelling companion. He proved that quickly ten years ago when we made our run to California and back. At that time, he only had a couple of months riding experience under his belt, and he quickly became a skilled, durable, and courageous riding partner. I had confidence in him back then, and my confidence has grown exponentially. He conceived of this trip, and did all of the groundwork for it. I just went along...for the ride! And what a ride it was! I may add other comments over time, but Micah mentioned my expensive, waterproof Held gloves. They proved to be expensive, but nothing else! In addition, my home-made electric vest that I have been using for 3 years worked perfectly up until the 43 degree, rainy morning! But a big stack of Maxi's blueberry pancakes with Vermont maple syrup saved the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer vfrcapn Posted June 23, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted June 23, 2009 Welcome Tim, hope you'll stick around on the board and post. That was a nice trip and I'd like to do something similar but at 65 I think my dad is a little too old to start riding again after 45 years. You two have given me inspiration to plan a similar road trip with him, in the car of course. Thanks again for sharing. :fing02: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer ZiaVFR Posted June 23, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted June 23, 2009 Micah and Tim, Thanks for letting us share your adventure! The great pictures and wonderful writing style made for a real page turner Err post scrolling thing. Please share when you venture forth in the future. :fing02: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vfar Posted June 23, 2009 Author Share Posted June 23, 2009 Micah, the report is magnificent! You captured our adventure perfectly. I can tell from the words of encouragement that this is a great community. Dad, thanks for the kudos and additional comments. The report was a ton of fun to put together because it allowed me to look through the pics, reflect on the great experience, and recall some of my favorite memories. Hopefully this will be on the forum for a while so that we can refer to it when our memories get a little foggy. Ditto on perfect riding companion...we have similar riding skill (though my dad has a lot more experience, which is nice to lean on in the tough times), similar endurance (he's a tough ole guy), and similar riding style (no one feels like they are being held back from what they really want to do). Plus, what's great is that he is a wiz when it comes to fixing things. Fearless. We were fortunate to not have any bike problems on the trip, but I was sure that if we did he would have a plan. His mechanical resume includes: custom fabricating a 4 into 1 exhaust for his '71 cb500, making custom body work for that bike, too, fixing and tinkering the engines on the all the bikes he's owned, constantly diagnosing and fixing the VWs he has, and fixing, building, and enhancing pretty much everything that is in my parent's house. He's a brilliant and extremely humble guy. Quite the role model. Alright, the lovefest could go on and on... Thanks for reading this and I hope you all have the chance this summer or some time soon to get out on the road and see some great things. Micah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 Great Trip. How many miles do you have on your bike? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vfar Posted August 31, 2009 Author Share Posted August 31, 2009 Great Trip. How many miles do you have on your bike? I've got about 52,000 on the bike. To be fair, I bought it last July with about 42,000 on it. Sure has been fun to ride. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 That was awesome!!! Thanks for sharing!! Makes me want to massive road trip with my 13 year old son! One day he'll have his own steed and we'll do your thing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 Day 7: It's the End of the World As We Know It...and Eventually I'll Feel Fine Saturday June 6 Meat Cove, Cape Breton NS to Sea Foam, NS 300 miles http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source...728973&z=10 Woke up at 4am to the sunrise. Heard the sound of lobster boats and saw the beautiful sunrise from my tent door. This view is incredible. Then I realize I didn't wake because of the sun or the boats but rather because Doug is telling my dad that our BIKES ARE DOWN! "NO!" I hear my dad say and then hear him scurry from his tent and run over to the bikes. I pull on some clothes and shoes and run over to help. Sure enough, both bikes are on their sides. 051.jpg 052.jpg That's awesome, you drove within 50' of my parent's home, in a town called Merigomish, NS It truly is beautiful up there! 054.jpg Was it the wind? Well, it was blowing pretty hard last night. My rainfly was flapping on the side of the tent all night. But, why didn't Doug's bike go down? Man, that's crazy. After a bit of checking around we realized it wasn't the wind at all. Some locals decided to play a game of "Screw With the Visitors". There was a shoe print on each of our tanks. My dad's bike is really scratched up...the bike that he spent a great deal of time sanding, welding cracks in the abs, prepping and repainting. UGH! They messed with both of our ignitions...looks like they tried to bore it out with a screwdriver. Broke my left mirror off and bent the brake lever. Incredible. 053.jpg 055.jpg 056.jpg We all kind of just stared at the bikes and wondered what we should do. There are less than 100 people that live in the Meat Cove area. About 20 of them live right on the campground. They couldn't have done it? Could they? I did notice about 30 empty beers in the Chowder House cafe on site. We saw the police come in to the site around 11pm last night, but it couldn't have happened before then, right? We were still awake until about midnight. Lots of questions, but the reality is that there is no logic to random violence. And that's what this is...a violation. It just kind of took the air out of the trip. My dad was being positive and made some good points. The bikes still ran...and they are paid for. Hard to swallow, but good points. Doug was great about just empathizing and being supportive. We decided we weren't going to let it ruin our great time. We'd just traveled 1,600 miles to camp at this amazing spot and some idiots and their drunken game weren't going to stop us from enjoying it. So, after a short nap, we broke camp and hiked to the top of the northmost cliff. From there we watched everyone wake up and stir about, watched the lobster boats work and saw a bald eagle fly right past us. We brewed some coffee and ate some locally made gingersnap cookies. It was great. 058.jpg 059.jpg 060.jpg meat cove This panorama is unfinished, but gives an idea of how vast the skyline is up there... meat cove pano By the time we came down we were joking about the whole thing and saying "Thank God they didn't toss the bikes over the cliff!" 057.jpg On our way out we ran into John, the campground manager. He's a scruffy local and all around good guy. I explained to him what happened. Told him, not sure what we would have done if we would have caught them. "Tell ya what I woulda done! I've got a baseball bat in me office and it woulda found the sides ah their heads!" Thanks John. That actually makes me feel a lot better. The road out of Meat Cove. 061.jpg As a reward for our good attitudes and survival of Meat Cove we got to ride some of the best roads either of us had ever been on. The western half of the Cabot Trail is incredible. Twistie after twistie. Some of the ascending s-curves had me almost looking backwards when looking through the turn. It was terrifying and exhilarating the whole day. Great stuff. That's what we came for. When we stopped after crossing the causeway I noticed my whole tire was nice and hot and ROUND! No more flat spot in the middle! We made our way to Seafoam, NS, where we had seen there was a campground. Found a great site right on the water and searched out dinner. Had a bit of a hard time but eventually found Mammie's Pizza...a tiny little shack that serves some tasty pies. It was recommended to us by the sister of the owner, who we met at the local distributor. After dinner we decided it was time to do some laundry. Both of us had worn everything we had several times. We had to beg an exchange of paper money for some "looney" from some fellow campers...and then had to beg quarters to dry the clothes. The campers were really generous, with their looney and their humor. 062.jpg 063.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 Wow, what a great experience it was just to read this post. Thank you for taking me along on your trip. If you had the time, or anyone going in the future, you can book a whale watching trip out of Cheticamp that guarantees sightings. I did the cabot trail last year with my 6 month pregnant girlfriend, and on the boat we must have seen over 100 whales. One of the best experiences of my life. Too bad we were stuck in my jeep and not riding... Oh well, we'll ride it in a year or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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