Hopewell Rocks & Cove Motel Utopia

Kilometers today: 381.7 (3027.9 so far)

Hours in the saddle: 4:15 (46:34 so far)

Theme music: Techno, 80’s

Wednesday was a hot day of boring interstate riding with a good beginning and a good ending. 

We started our morning off with Hopewell Rocks. https://www.thehopewellrocks.ca/index.php/en/home We got the Grand Canyon vibe in the large parking lot and with the concrete paths and multi-lane covered entry. The gentleman asked if we would like to walk down or take the shuttle. I looked at Jaron and said I might like to take the shuttle today since my ankle was a little sore from my dive in the sand yesterday. The booth attendant said that if there was any trouble with walking then the shuttle was free instead of $2 each way. Imagine that, not being financially penalized for an injury. Weird. 

The Hopewell Rocks were really cool. When the tide goes out, you can walk around them. They are apparently in a mud flat and the surrounding water is brown, in contrast to the beautiful green and blue sparkling water we’ve seen thus far. 

Our motel did not have an ice machine, so we were unable to put ice in our camelbaks this morning. We got on the road and the Tigress’ thermometer read 30 C and it wasn’t even noon yet. At our first gas stop, they did not have a soda machine with ice, so Julie bought a bag of ice. Julie. Bought. A bag...of ice. With both camelbaks and 3 water bottles properly iced, we continued down the road. 

Jaron’s left mirror has been annoying him and it was loose again. After fiddling with it for a few minutes he just took it off and strapped it down. No issues with that until we got to our motel and it fell on the ground and cracked. We HATE the two nut adjustment for motorcycle mirrors. That’s why Julie got different mirrors. It’s maddening. So we’ll deal with that tomorrow. And maybe one of Julie’s old mirrors will match Jaron’s bike when we get home. 

We took another break in Antigonish, which somehow has a neighborhood of little America. There were all kinds of American chains there: McD’s, DQ, Subway, A&W, and even a Wal Mart. It is just an inland city, it didn’t look like a tourism spot. Idk if it’s a major city for business and gets a lot of American business travelers? Very strange. 

We booked a motel with a restaurant that looked good and Julie googled a laundromat nearby since laundry 100% has to be done by Thursday. We couldn’t find the motel’s address in GPS so found it the old fashioned way, by remembering the directions. 

On our final stretch we’re just chillin’, going the speed limit, not even trying to pass trucks when there’s a passing lane available. We see two ginormous cruisers passing us and that’s fine. They cut it way too close against oncoming traffic, though, and decide to share our lane all of a sudden. So we move over since, you know. Nobody even waves or anything. They were both 2 up, too. We’re just shaking our heads at the whole thing. Pretty risky thing to do when carrying a passenger! 10 minutes later we see them pulled off the road. #whatever 

So our motel is just frickin’ awesome. It’s at the end of the road on the water. Full restaurant, and we had a fantastic dinner and can expect a good breakfast tomorrow. I mean, look at this salad. 

And this is our view from our door. 

And there’s a payphone, just in case. 

As we were pulling around the back in the gravel, Jaron starts pointing excitedly at the laundry room. I mean, seriously. How much more perfect can it get?