Does it count if you arrive in a tow truck?

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We were riding along hwy 1, minding our own business, about 60 miles out of St. John’s, when I look in my rear view mirror and see Mike on the side of the road flashing his headlight – I turn around and ride back. What comes into view is not good, a streak of oil leading up to the bike, then a massive puddle underneath. Mike’s chain let loose and looks like its blown a hole right in his cases.

Well, shucks. That’s not good (okay, that’s not what I said, but you get the gist).

A tow truck ride brought us to the Fun n Fast Kawasaki dealership, where the nicest and most helpful group of folks got together and worked out a game plan. Good news, it’s not the center case, bad news the oil transfer pipe that did break is on backorder, good news, a call to Nicol and then Beaverton Honda confirms it is available through US Kawasaki. I call a dealer in Maine and he’ll get it to us asap. Bad news, the rear sprockets on both bikes are shot, along with the chains (we knew the chains were on their way out, and were getting new ones anyway in St. Johns), so we get chain and sprockets ordered for the Versys. The BMW is a little more problematic, as the sprocket is only availabe from a few sources, and none can be gotten quickly. I finally call Sprocket Specialists (thanks again Nicol) and have one drop shipped. The chain is in stock at a nearby dealership, and the parts guy at Fun n Fast walks over and gets it for us.

Then, the owner of the shop has us pile our gear in the shop truck and he takes us to our Hotel.

Everything should be ready in about 4 days, barring any problems with shipping times and customs. Then we’ll be back on the road, but probably not in time to visit Labrador, just jump back to the mainland and do a bit of on-the-fly sightseeing on the road home.

Not the trip we’d planned, but at least we’re stuck in a fun town with lots to do, and our room has a small kitchenette, so we’re not living on McDonalds.

People here are nice, and they have the neatest accent, sort of soft scottish brogue with a twist. Crazy thing is some people have a very thick accent, others don’t have any at all. We’ve met lifetime residents who sound like they could be from Oregon, others who sound like English is a second language.

The island topography looks a bit like the highlands in Glacier National Park or some areas of Alaska; there’s very short pine and some aspen in the middle of the island, but the edges have hundreds of small ponds, surrounded by granite and dark green scrub. What’s not water is rock, what’s not rock is bright green with foliage. Much of the rock has an element that gleems and shines like wet rock, even when its dry. Very pretty!  Back millions of years ago, the glaciers scrubbed this island completely bare, no topsoil (oh, which if you were a Newfoundlander, you would pronounce “topsl”). There is soil now, but not very deep.

I really enjoy places like this, its neat to see the bones of the earth. Trees are beautiful, but wide-open vistas and rocky crags are more interesting to me.

Today we’re off to old town, wish me luck in keeping Mike from buying out everything motorcycle-related at the antique stores!

In the meantime, here’s video of our ride on Cabot Trail a few days ago. I totally forgot to say how beautiful this ride is, very much worth it.

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