Mystery Meat Cove

Kilometers today: 148.6 (3,366.3 so far) 

Hours in the saddle: 2:56 (52:08 so far) 

Theme music: Dirty Dancing & the voices in my head

  

Much better day today. 

I slept in this morning until about 7:30 and Jaron was already up. I can’t really sleep later than that anymore. Sometimes I really push it and sleep until 8:00. 

We shared a brownie for breakfast but got a real breakfast first thing after we left. Apparently, chocolate makes a complete dinner, but the same is not true for breakfast. We went to a recommended place which did not take credit. A helpful sign said that a foreign exchange was 6 km away. Julie had some Canadian cash so that was fine, but they clearly were not particularly interested in international tourist traffic! 

We’ve seen fish cakes on breakfast menus in this area but neither of us had tried them yet. Julie was feeling brave this morning and got the baked beans and fish cakes breakfast plate. The fish was mixed in mashed potatoes and pan-fried. The green stuff is some kind of chutney, maybe green bell pepper. 

Since yesterday the Tigress has been riding low again, so we pulled the tools out and put her on the center stand in the parking lot to try and raise the forks. They wouldn’t budge and the lowering links were as tall as they go, so we maxed out the preload. It helped but the height is definitely not as tall as it was at the beginning of the trip. 

Jaron noticed that I literally have less of a turning radius to the left than to the right. On further inspection, the bent right upper crash bar from my hitting the big rock on the guided ride at the rally is blocking my right fork when the handlebars turn left. When you turn them all the way to the right, there is still clearance (but probably not enough) between the left fork and the left upper crash bar support. We talked it over and decided to leave it alone until we get home. I’ve been riding like that for a week, which is > 1,000 miles. It’s only a problem when walking the bike around to park or turn around. When at speed you don’t turn the handlebars that much, and my slide yesterday was in a right turn in case you were wondering. The only way to fix it is to take the upper crash bars off, at which point the bike would not have protection there resulting in more potential damage, and that loose panel will come off and I’d have to pack it somewhere. We’d like to try to bend it back, but there will be problems with the bolts lining up and it probably won’t work. But the shitty left turning radius is a good thing for me to be conscious of, cause it was important today at one of our turnoffs! 

From there we took our first side trip off of the Cabot Trail, to White Point. Our Canadian friend from the rally recommended it, and when I had the atlas out at the restaurant yesterday to look at it, our server confirmed that plan. It was very steep and really pretty and Jaron got it on the go pro. We hung out on the dock for a bit and then got going again. 

Your choices are diesel, or diesel. 

Our second side trip was towards Meat Cove. (What kind of meat? The internet doesn’t say. Probably just fresh meat for the grinder.) The book said that this would include a stretch of dirt road. A new version just came out in like June, so since printing there have been some road improvements. I counted on the way back and the road surface switched between asphalt and dirt 12 times one way. On dirt, you want to be in 2nd gear for less power output so you slip around less. Most of the asphalt was for steep curves and then I wanted to be on 1st gear. Shift up and stand up on dirt. Shift down and sit down on asphalt. 

We got to what Jaron called a “West Virginia road” where someone blocked the road past their house to reduce traffic. (This happened to us on our way to my dad’s last year.) Turning around on a rough road on an incline was eventful and we took a break by a campground. Dude. Check out the black rocks and gray beach in the middle of all of that green. 

There were a lot of RVs which would make camping less pleasant, but the sites were tucked in on the hillside and overlooked this really cool beach. 

We headed back to the Cabot Trail and made probably a 150 degree right turn up a hill. Damn! There were two times that the answer was more gas. The answer is usually more gas. The bike wants to stay up and just needs to keep moving. 

There were a lot of craggy rocks along the road. This part of the world has beaches AND rocks. 😁 We pulled off on an overlook for Aspy Fault. Anything to get that shot, eh? 

We got to our hostel at 3:00. The host was not there, but the door was unlocked and we wandered around and read the bulletin board. There was no cell service and the wifi was secured but the password was not on the bulletin board where all of the useful info was, ironically in contrast to the physical door. 

We got a late lunch/early dinner and had the freshest oysters ever. 

And this lobstah mac & cheese. 



After 5pm we headed back to the hostel and our host arrived and cheerfully checked us in. We decided to get our showers in before everyone else arrived, and hallelujia, there was hot water. After some introvert time, we took a walk suggested by our host to see the sunset. 

Then it was back to the hostel for some socializing. We booked a whale watching tour but our host advises that it may be cancelled due the forecast. Then we’ll finish the Cabot Trail and maybe hit PEI on the way home.