July 2025 – To Canada And The Maritimes with Bill and Bryan

By Joe Tatulli

We started talking about this summer’s trip during the late winter of 2024-25. The first comments from Bill were that he wanted to see the ice bergs and hopefully the Vikings site on the island of Newfoundland. It stayed there with some brief conversations over the next several months. But until I see a Basecamp map with even the first drafts of a route I just sit tight and wait. The first dates mentioned were about May 27^th to June 5^th. Then an opportunity for a Father’s Day celebration for grampa Bill, papa Bryan, and Bryan’s two daughters at Fenway (on June 15^th) came into the picture and we moved things back to the Tuesday after Father’s Day, June 17^th  to start our trip.

By then both Carl and Ray had bowed out as a fourth rider, and even a couple of other past long distance travelers said their schedules wouldn’t permit the trip, so we decided to try it as a trio. Next, after more carefully looking at accommodation possibilities and the time to complete all the miles and the two ferry rides (NS to NL [6 hours] and back [16 hours]), while still keeping the trip to a maximum of 9 days we decided to scrap NL and still make it to Canada; but to keep things more manageable timewise we would plan to ride the Gaspé Peninsula, and Nova Scotia, and that’s just what we did. The entire trip covered 2,684.5 miles (4,320.28 km)

The first drafts of the route arrived about a week before our departure date. It was pretty straight forward. We would travel north through MA into NH and cross the border into Canada, right at the headwaters of the Connecticut River, where NH RT3 becomes CAN RT257, and then northeast to the Gaspé Peninsula and beyond.

Packing felt like a distant memory so I kept things simple by using my 38liter Dry-Spec bag which provides plenty of room for over packing. With the weather looking a bit sketchy (cooler in Canada than here) I took my heated gear and some warmer long sleeve shirts on the right side of the bag, and shoes, raingear, some backup t-shirts and jeans on the left. You can see the picture in the gallery of what I used verses what never came out of the bag.

Finally the big day came. Yes it rained on our parade on day one. We all arrived at ZIPS Diner for breakfast at 7:30, Bryan had a nasty cold with a cough but was still smiling. We all enjoyed an American breakfast (no pâté) and off we we(n)t. Riding in the rain isn’t as bad as it sounds. It was mostly light rain, and the temperature was pleasant so no worries. The good news is after about fifty to seventy-five miles in New Hampshire the precipitation ended, and we were dry the rest of the way.

Bill had the routes laid out in two-day segments. Days one and two were a total of 685 miles, and that route ended in Matane, QC. The halfway point at the end of day one was about 342 miles. We did 402 miles and stopped for the night in St Georges, QC. That extra sixty miles turned out to be the rule not the exception for the rest of the trip. We were able to easily cover over 400 miles each day for the rest of the trip.

Day two started sunny and stayed that way all day. We hit Matane, QC about mid-day and it was hot and sunny. After that things got scenerific. I had imagined a nice coastal ride something like Ocean Drive in Newport without the mansions and rich neighbors. Not! There are mountains all along the coast from Matane to Gaspé. I’m not talking Mt. Washington but the twisty ride with lots of ups and downs with some amazing views was an unexpected treat. Always nice to get a pleasant surprise, especially on a moto trip.

In fact the city of Gaspé was our destination on day two. We did 473 miles. The Gaspé Bay area was very scenic just like the ride. We stayed in a nice hotel overlooking the bay and had dinner at Brise just walking distance from our beds. I had lemonade. Speaking of beds; sleeping is never a problem on a trip like this, especially as you get older. After walking back from dinner (up a steep hill) we were all settled down for the night. Lights out at 9:30 PM (8:30 PM EDT). Check out the cameo of Bill in his terry robe in the gallery below.

Day three started early and we were on the road at about 6:30AM. Bryan and Bill pulled away, but I was doing something that took an extra few seconds, and when I got to the edge of the parking lot I looked up and down the hill we were on and saw no taillights. I quickly went down and then turned around and went up. They were gone. I rode around for about ten minutes and couldn’t find the guys, so I stopped and checked my phone. Bill had called and said they had returned to the hotel but no Joey, and that they went over the bridge. I called Bill and we had a jumbled helmet conversation, and I said I would catch up. At a moment like this you can panic, ride like a nutjob, and still be lost; or you can remain calm, slow down and resolve to meet your traveling companions along the way or even in the destination city. That would be Moncton, New Brunswick, 400+ miles away. I did the later. My first thought was I can catch up, so I pointed Valentina across the bridge and off I went. After riding for about 15 minutes on RT132, I started having my doubts about catching up, or even if I was on the right route. I came to my first road construction red light and decided to set my destination as Moncton, NB and would figure things out later. I continued on my way about three or four miles and the GPS said take a right at the next intersection, at Rue Annett. I took the right and there was my quarry. My two amigos were just ahead and off we went.

On a fairly long trip like this one, and even while riding eight or more hours per day I didn’t ever seem to feel tired on the bike. I had spent some time in the weeks prior to our departure wondering how my body would handle the long hours in the saddle. Would I be able to sustain the physical and mental demands like I had in the past? It had been two years since our last trip to the MOA Rally in Richmond, VA. I remember saying to my companions more than once that I was feeling tired while we were stopped. Then we would jump on the bikes and those feelings would disappear. I think the constant novelty of seeing new horizons all day long revived my body, mind and spirit to the point that I could maintain speed all day without feeling weary. This trip also helped my overall confidence regarding stamina, focus, and my riding skills, and also supplied a reinvigoration of the reality of how much fun it is to ride motorcycles to unfamiliar places. I remember several moments on the trip when I said out load to my compadres that I couldn’t believe that I was actually on this trip, and how blessed we were to be able to do this. On that note I also remember a moment when we stopped somewhere after riding the Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia when Bill said, with a huge grin on his face, “I couldn’t stop. I was just having so much fun riding.”

We eventually made it to Moncton, NB. Moncton is the largest city in New Brunswick and it had that city feeling. We had dinner at The Keg Steakhouse and all got the Prime Rib special. I had lemonade. Yes we were happy. Sleep came soon thereafter and day three was in the books. Tomorrow (day 4) was Nova Scotia and the Cabot Trail.

Breakfast is an important meal right? The only problem is where do you get breakfast in rural Nova Scotia? Did I ever tell you how handy Bill is with his GPS? After so many miles and so many breakfasts at what the locals would call a local spot I knew we would find something. We did a few highway miles on RT104 to start out but were soon at an exit that routed us to RT6 and what turned out to be a wonderful road through the countryside along the coast. We passed small towns like Pugwash, Wallace, Tatamagouche, and Brule, always looking but not finding that treasured local breakfast spot. But that all ended at Brule Point. Bill pulled off the main drag with Bryan and me in tow and we were headed closer to the sea, The Northumberland Strait to be exact. After a few rights and lefts in what looked like Wakefield or Charlestown without any houses we pulled into our long awaited breakfast paradise, The Country Bread Basket, a bakery with a breakfast kitchen. We all had the bacon and eggs special with raisin bread toast (baked on the premises), and of course lots of delicious coffee. Next stop The Cabot Trail.

We continued along the coast and more quaint towns like River John, Caribou, and Pictou, and then down to New Glasgow and RT104 over to Port Hastings and The Canso Causeway to Cape Breton Island. Bill and Bryan had been here before, and Bill had also been here on another trip as well. This was my first view of this beautiful part of our planet. We did the clockwise route taking RT19 along the coast to RT30, The Cabot Trail. I won’t boar you with my ambitious but weak prose in an attempt to describe the ride. If you’ve been then you understand. If you haven’t than you have to go. Imagine great hills rising and falling like so many different sized scoops of Pistachio-Mint ice cream with a thin ribbon of two lane asphalt rising and falling along a rocky ledge looking out over the ocean anywhere from a few hundred feet to a quarter of a mile away on your left. There are a couple of spots where the road turns inland and runs along the crest of the hills with forest on both sides of you. You can smell the pine aroma best in the valleys. We went all the way around, and even through a section of Canada’s Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Near the end of the day, after 459 scenic miles, we decided on staying the night in Sydney, NS. Dinner in Sydney was at Montana’s BBQ & Ribs. The Brisket Burnt Ends were to die for. I had lemonade.

Day 5 began as usual with an early departure at about 6AM. The traffic was light and our goal for the day was Yarmouth, NS, at the opposite end of the island province, and our soon to be scheduled ferry ride on the CAT Sunday morning. Bryan also hooked us up with an Air B&B place in Yarmouth right near the ferry dock with three beds for a bargain rate of a hundred-and-thirty-eight bucks.

We spent most of the day on the slab, better known as the Trans-Canada Highway, or RT104. Traveling from the northern tip of Cape Breton Island along a southern route we would still have to use the Canso Causeway to reach the larger part of Nova Scotia. After about three hours of riding the hunger bug hit and we stopped in Salt Springs, NS at the Justamere Café and Bakery, a fine breakfast nook just off the freeway. We enjoyed our meal (with some great coffee), made our reservations on the CAT for Sunday and got back on the road. Near Truro we headed south on RT102 toward Halifax and the southern side of the Island. Halifax was like going through Providence or Boston at rush hour. Lots of fast-moving traffic, crazy exit ramps, and even off the freeway for a bit through a part of the city and back on again as we transferred from RT102 to RT103, the main southern route to Yarmouth and our date with the CAT on Sunday.

We arrived in Yarmouth late afternoon, maybe about 4PMish and figured out our accommodations. It was a full apartment style layout with a kitchen, living room, bedroom and a bath. There were also a few dead guests here and there, and no TP in the bathroom. I spoke with the proprietor and said, “There’s no TP in the apartment.” She said, “Let’s go check it out.” I said, “Check it out? We just need toilet paper.” “Oh”, she said, “I thought you said there was no TV, television.” Thankfully they speak English in NS. We had a nice meal at a local restaurant, The Dinner Plate, (I had lemonade) that was walking distance from the Lakelawn B&B and settled down for our last night in Canada for a while.

As we started our last day in Yarmouth, NS I didn’t want the trip to end but at the same time I was looking forward to returning home, probably a feeling we’ve all had at various times on our many adventures over the years. We grabbed breakfast at Tim Horton’s and then rode over to the ferry dock at about 7:45AM. We were soon to embark on The CAT a 350 foot seaworthy catamaran. There were two other bikes on the trip. Two Canadian couples, one riding a shiny new Harley CVO and the other a new or late model Honda Goldwing. They put the bikes on first, and after we tied everything down we headed upstairs and a seat on the outdoor back deck. During the cruise they made an announcement regarding a tour of the ship which all three of us attended. Here we met Captain Stu Coniglio, our 38 year old Master Seaman. Stu gave us an audio tour of the ship and it’s history, coming originally from work in Hawaii, and now traversing the open waters between Nova Scotia and Bar Harbor, ME. He took on all our questions, answered them all and then we all headed upstairs to the bridge to meet his crew and see the amazing control room where the power of four 11,000hp, double supercharged, v20 Rolls Royce diesel engines is managed, and the helm (more like a small joystick) where the helmsman steers the ship. Ultimately it came down to this, The CAT is a giant, super powerful, jet ski. The ship has no propellers but rather uses its power to push massive amounts of water through two directional soft fans that power the ship at a top speed of 40 knots. As you can see in the pictures in the gallery, we were doing about 33.7 kts. The crossing was fun and uneventful and we arrived at the Bar Harbor, ME dock at about 10AM EDT. We rode off the ship and into customs; back in the good old USA again. The plan was to ride about 150 to 200 miles on Sunday and stay in ME for the night. Where? Wherever!

We pulled into the Best Western in Rumford Falls, ME at about 4PM. I went in to see if they had a room, hopefully a suite for three. The nice ladies at the reception desk were very accommodating (as they usually are for paying customers) and we got a nice suite. We asked if there was a good place for dinner nearby. There was a place in town called the Brick and Stone Tavern, but it was closed on that particular Sunday, and they mentioned a couple of other places as well. We went up to our room, cleaned up a bit and were getting ready to discuss our dinner plans when Bill decided to call the Brick and Stone Tavern. They answered and were indeed open. Why did Bill call? That’s why they call him Mr. Wonderful. BTW, I had lemonade.

The forecast for Monday and the ride home was hot. It was hot in Warwick (95°) and just as hot up north. We left early as usual and started making our way west on RT2. Bryan had started using the new Garmin TREAD APP (see the addendum at the end) on his ZUMO XT2 navigator, and his Android phone; and all this before we even left on Tuesday. Bill had switched back to his NAV V to start the trip but had early on switched back to his ZUMO XT. Father and son shared files and knowledge all along the way. It was great to see these two grown men (still father and son) enjoying this adventure together. Somewhere in NS Bryan had planned a route using TREAD that would take us south westerly through Maine and into New Hampshire and then south into Massachusetts near Leominster and Worcester. All back roads, a cooler ride for sure. But as life would have it a bug threw us off. Even though the route looked good on the devices the actual GPS directions took us over to 89 south through Manchester and Lowell. Not the best way to go any day, let alone a day pushing 95°. We got off the highway and the guys tried to get things back on track but the technology wouldn’t cooperate. Back to RT89 South. After cruising on 89 for about ten to fifteen minutes Bill put on his directional and we exited RT89 and were soon on RT77 west. RT77 got us over to RT13 (RT77/13) to Milford, and then further southwest to Lunenburg and eventually to RT190S to Worcester. (The following day at breakfast [at Linda’s Diner] Bill explained how he had punched Lunenburg into his GPS and that helped us ride west on RT77 instead of south on RT89.)

The party broke up at that point and I was on my own the rest of the way home on RT290, RT146 and then RT295 over to Warwick and home. Rumford Falls, ME to home was 339 miles. So that was our 2025 trip to the Maritimes. Lots of new ground for me. The best part of getting home was the realization that I had done so well physically, that we had zero mechanical issues, and of course Rudy was very happy to see me after another week away from home within a month of my last trip to visit friends in CO. Next year I have to head out west to ride the PCH from Seattle to San Diego, and who knows what else I can do before I turn 80, deo volente.

Addendum

On day 1 of the trip Bryan shared his discovery of the new apps from Garmin. I had taken a look myself at the Garmin website before I left and breezed through all the new apps they had created and the new devices for off road and adventure trip route planning. Some of the apps mentioned that they only worked on specific Garmin devices and that users should check to make sure any specific app worked on their phone and Garmin device. The basic concept was that Garmin was working on integrating the smart phones we all use and their line of GPS devices. Being an early adapter, I downloaded and installed the TREAD APP on my iPhone 16 and then linked the APP with my NAV6. When I tried to link the APP and the NAV6 I got a fail message. I tried a couple of more times and got the same message. Disappointed I shut down my laptop and the NAV6, and headed to sleep for the night. The next morning when I went to put the next route (stored before the trip on my NAV6) in the Trip Planner everything was gone. All the .gpx routes I had stored on the NAV6 device since last year, along with the routes for this trip were gone. When we got to our next destination I deleted the TREAD APP from the iPhone, and sent the routes to the NAV6 from Basecamp and things worked fine from then on. That’s the good news. The bad news was all my settings, and customizations were also gone. When I got home I rebooted the NAV6 and connected it via USB to my Macbook Pro and installed the latest North America map via Garmin Express. When I looked at the dashboard options after the download completed all my previous options were available again. I guess the moral of the story is, especially for you early adaptors out there, check with the source before adding any new apps to your phone.

Note: I hope to write up a little review of my OGIO water unit next month. It worked great.