Newfoundland/Labrador Day 26: Headed Home

This may be the shortest post of the Newfoundland/Labrador blog because there really wasn’t much to write about today.  The ferry ride, which was supposed to take 14-16 hours took 17 hours.  Other than the cold-turkey lack of wifi, it was a pretty nice trip.  The 11-deck ship had a lounge with a singer, a couple of bars, a nice dining room (which I didn’t use), some snack bars (which I did), sleeping berths for those who wanted something resembling a bed (I slept in a chair) and open air decks for a change of pace.  The weather was good and the crossing was smooth.

After we landed this morning, I unstrapped my bike from the tie-downs, fired up the motor and rolled down the ferry ramp.  I searched for and found a spot with WiFi so I could post last night’s blog, but the connection was so slow it took 30 minutes to download the blog and five pictures.  Then, back on the road across Nova Scotia, mostly through areas I’ve been in either six years ago on an earlier ride or on the way north this year.  One of the things that caught my eye after two weeks on Newfoundland was the amount of farmland in Nova Scotia with lots of freshly mown hay and livestock grazing in the fields.  I proabably wouldn’t have noticed it except for the derth of farming on Newfoundland where the soil and climate just aren’t conducive to that kind of agriculture.  About the only animals I saw grazing in Newfoundland were sheep, though I did pass one dairy farm near St. John’s.

I went out of my way a little to see the Bay of Fundy, hoping to see the world-famous tital bore that reaches heights of almost 30 feet, but apparently the tide had come in a few hours earlier so I missed it.  Would have been fun to watch for an hour or so as the water rushed in to fill up the nearly empty bay and the various coves and rivers that feed into it.  Maybe another time.

The only other thing of significance to report today is that I have apparently lost my GPS for the rest of the trip.  The GPS screen flashed a “low battery” message about mid-afternoon that didn’t make sense because the GPS, while it has an internal battery, operates off power from the motorcycle battery.  Except that it wasn’t and had switched automatically to the internal battery.  The GPS isn’t broken, I’ve just lost the power to it and don’t have any way to recharge the internal battery. (Well, there is a cable but it’s back in North Carolina or Florida because I knew that I wouldn’t need it on this trip.  Duh.)  There has to be a problem somewhere between the motorcyle battery and the unit.  I checked the easy-to-check fuses.  No luck.  I think the cable has probably come apart somewhere under the fairing, but I’m not going to mess with it until I’m back in North Carolina.  In the meantime, I’ll rely on google maps, paper maps and notes I write to myself and try not to get too lost.  If I start posting again from Newfoundland, it’s because I got lost.  Hmmmmm???

Tomorrow back into the states at one of the Maine border crossings and then drive through most of Maine.  I’ve ridden the Maine coast a couple times before, so I’ll probably stick to the interior this trip and avoid the Interstate as much as I can.

Maybe I’ll stop and take some pictures tomorrow if I see anything picture worthy.  A masive meandering Maine moose, perhaps.

Try not to take any wrong turns and I’ll do the same.