East Coast Tour
Part 3
Franconia to Port Hawkesbury
My morning walk took me out past the Dow Academy along the Gayle River and up Fox Hill hiking trail. One of the things about hiking in an area you have never visited before is to look at a map before you head out. I did not have a local map but luckily I found a posted hiking map at the junction of the river trail and Fox Hill. It promised a 3.2 mile loop hike. I suppose that the map was correct, the problem was the trail markings, there weren’t any. And there 
were many intersecting trails. Somehow I managed to get up the hill and back to the river in about 90 minutes. I have no idea if I was actually on Fox Hill but the hike was exhilarating and the view from the top almost worth the climb.
While I was cleaning and loading the bikes, the couple who had parked their Harleys next to us came out. They were from Montreal and quite often came here for the weekend. Franconia was a pleasant afternoon run down from Montreal and the roads here are great for exploring on bikes. I asked about a place for breakfast and they suggested the Pancake House only a few miles away.
Roz emerged about 10am and off we headed. The Pancake House was indeed only about 5 minutes away. The parking lot was packed and the line-up was out the door. Pass. We decided to head back to Bethlehem and the Maia Papaya.
After breakfast we headed east on hwy 302, north on hwy 3 and turned right onto #115. The Owl’s Head Hwy cros
ses over a couple of mountains and thru 2 spectacular valleys. It made me wish we had planned on spending more time in this area, there are so many more roads to explore. We turned east on Hwy 2 and made our way toward Bangor, Mn.
Hwy 2 is an old interstate hiway that is well travelled and passes thru many small towns. For the most part it is a pleasant 2 lane hiway past rolling farmlands and along beside rivers, great for just riding. We stopped at the McDonalds in Farmington for lunch because we couldn’t find anything else. A biker in the parking lot afterwards told me that we could have gone to the BrickYard Café back on the west end of town. Too late.
We pulled into Bangor about 4pm and decided to roll downtown before checking in to the BW. Oh look, a Tim Hortons. We had to stop. The Tims is located on the main street and overlooks a large park. There was a festival of some sort happening in the park and we sat on the patio outside Tims listening to the very loud rock music. It was so loud and distorted it was impossible to recognize any tunes or tell if it was any good.
Our BW was located back on the west end of Bangor just off interstate 95. The hotel is called The White House Inn. It is indeed a large white building with a small portico styled entrance. Inside the lobby was a life-sized cut out of President Trump. Apparently they keep a cut out of the current president in the lobby at all times. Roz had to have a picture with her favorite politician (not). Furthermore, the hallways are lined with official looking photos of all the past presidents. Our room was in between Nixon and Johnson.
The only convenient place for dinner is Dysart’s Truck stop next door. This is an older truck stop and is very popular with the locals. It was crowded. The service was friendly but very slow. The food was not good. I ordered the dinner special, hot turkey sandwich. The mashed potatoes were pasty and the gravy was too salty. Roz ordered the fish and chips; the batter was too thick, but the chips were hand cut. The BW does have a bar downstairs, but it was Sunday and it was closed.
On Monday am I packed up the bikes and joined Roz for the BW breakfast. It actually wasn’t as bad as most. The scrambled eggs tasted like real eggs. Amazing. Roz got into one of her political discussions with a couple from Connecticut. Roz is a liberal and big Bernie supporter. The couple from Connecticut were unapologetic Republicans. Oops.
We returned to downtown Bangor and headed east on Hwy 9. The weather was cool and overcast so we decided to just head straight for Moncton. 
About 11am we found a quaint little restaurant called the Homespun Family Restaurant in the middle of Maine on Hwy 9. It was very nice and friendly. The only other couple in the place were locals and expressed their amazement that we had travelled all the way from Toronto on motorcycles. The homemade tomato soup and fresh baked bread were excellent.
The Hwy continued its meandering thru lush New England countryside until about 2 pm when we arrived at the intersection of hwy 9 and hwy 1. We needed gas and a coffee, so we stopped at the Irving Big Stop. We parked beside an older RT Spyder just as the rider emerged from the cafe. He was from Fredericton, travels this way often and always stops here. He was on vacation and headed to Boston to visit friends and take in a baseball game. He recommended the lemon meringue pie. He was right, it was very good.
The new border crossing at Calais (pronounced Kallaze by the locals), is now open but is primarily for commercial traffic. I decided to proceed to the old crossing at St Stephen. There was absolutely no line up and after a quick chat with the border guard, we sailed right thru. The main street in St Stephen is totally torn up and we were rerouted thru the parking lots behind the stores. The signage is down and I missed the turn to the hiway. We travelled a few miles along the coastline before I found a road leading back out to join hwy 1.
We pulled off at St John and found a Tim Hortons and a Petrocan. I called ahead to the Harley dealer in Moncton and made arrangements to have new tires put on the next day. These tires had about 22,000kms and would probably do for another 3000 but we were headed for Cape Breton and into a few days of rain.
Our lodging this night was the new Four Points Sheraton in Moncton. Very nice and the right price (free with our Aeroplan points). I went out and toured around to find the Harley dealer and a beer store. It was raining when I returned to the hotel so I covered the bikes and we decided to eat at the in-house restaurant. It was expensive but the food was quite well prepared. Roz had a rib-eye and I had the chicken dinner. Both served with lightly sautéed veggies and baked potatoe. Yummy. Oh yeah, and a very hoppy local craft beer.
I was sitting at the Harley dealer by 8:30am, they didn’t open til 9am. Promptly at 9 o’clock they wheeled in my bike and got right to work. I went for a walk and found a great hiking trail down and along the river. It went out across the marsh and along a dike. I walked part way with two ladies and their dogs. Very pleasant chat about this new walking trail and the plans to extent it along the river front for several miles. I was back at the Harley dealer by 10am, looked around the store and did not buy a t-shirt. Just as they were pulling the bike out the service door, my friend Roger showed up. I had emailed him yesterday and told him I would be here this morning. Roger is from Moncton and had lived in Oakville, Ontario for many years. We rode together many times when he was a member of the same riding club, SCRC57. Roger moved back to Moncton a couple of years ago after a bike accident forced him into early retirement. He is in a new relationship and is recently back riding for the first time since the accident. I excused myself and declined his offer of coffee, I had to get over to the hotel in time for the 11am check-out. Thank you to the guys at Toys for Big Boys and their excellent service.
It had started to rain and we chose to stick to the hiway and head straight for Port Hawkesbury. As is my custom, we went online the previous night after deciding where we would end up the following day, to book a room. We have been to Cape Breton many times and quite often stop at Port Hawkesbury before trekking up to our friends in Ingonish. I could not get a room at our preferred motel and had to settle for the Skye Lodge. It was cheap. Enough said. We phoned Margaret and Hugh last night and told them of our plan to be there Wednesday, simply stopping for lunch and carrying on. Margaret informed us that Hugh was in the hospital with complications from pneumonia. We offered not to come by if not convenient. On the contrary, she insisted that we get there asap and help cheer up Hughi
e. He was very ill and in a terrible mood. Please….. Ok, see you about noon tomorrow.
It did in fact rain all the way from Moncton to Port Hawkesbury. And the room at the Skye Lodge was not very nice, but its all we could find and this is part of any biking adventure. I rode in the rain to the beer store then across the street to the KFC and grabbed us some dinner. Yep, real classy.
Just after we finished our hi-class dinner, the rain stopped and I went out for a walk. The sky over the Canso Causeway was clearing and promised better days ahead. I believe that ‘Red Sky at Night, Sailors Delight’ is an apt saying.