07/25/2019
2020 Cross Canada ride/tour
Hoy! I am stoked. I am getting interest quite a bit and it looks like the 2020 Cross Canada- six weeks motorcycle ride first then tour will take place. Actually It will. Whether people chicken out and I do it alone or the 6-8 riders max take part. So far, three have committed.
I have been asked many times what will the ride tour be about. Having crossed this amazing country so many times in all sorts of weather and time frames, I would like to think that I have more insights on how it is done than anyone else.
So I will start answering with “What it is not”, then “What it is”
1- If going on trip for you or on a tour, means having everything planned for you, from accommodation to meal; this is not for you.
2- If the ideal ride for you means daily endless miles on highways and straight strips of asphalt between point A and point B; then this is not for you.
3- If the idea of the perfect meal is to have to lift your slice of tomatoes to find this hockey puck of leather called steak, surrounded by more veggies and decoration than your mother in law’s garden; then this is not for you.
4- If the ideal hotel for you is a place where they remember you by the size of your invoice and where your bike gets lost in a parking lot somewhere surrounded by minivans, SUV’s, motor homes, Porsches and Audis, where people look at you like you are from Pluto? Then this is not for you.
5- If your idea of a day is to get up at 9, be ready by 11, ride till 4 and doddle around most of the day just lying around riding 200 kms? Then this is not for you.
6- If you think your bike is better than others and act like it? Then this is definitely not for you.
7- If you want to have your every mile planned for you and not have to say anything about where you are going? This is not for you.
8- If the idea of a 6 weeks, 19,000 to 22,000 kms trip across the world’s most amazing country is too much and that the prairies are boring, that the Great Lakes are too big, and that not seeing big cities for days is too much? Then thi sis not for you.
But I will tell you what it is
1A- You will be part of the day planning over a good cup of coffee, glass of wine or whatever, discussing where, how, how far, how to, how fast or how slow and what as well as when. Simple math. We have 42 days to do 20,000 kms. Which means we have to cover about 500 kms a day. Easily done. Some days, less. Some days more. You will be part of deciding where we sleep and what we eat. I know pretty much the whole thing coast to coast and the best spots I have seen. I would love to discover some more with you.
2A- we will go through little squiggly lines on the map, (Twisties) that will have you giggle in your helmet. You will experience first hand that crossing the prairies does not have to be on the Trans Canada, but on parallel roads that will take you thru little communities where you will meet some of the greatest people and see places that main stream does not go to. We will see, experience and discover little mom and pop motels, restaurants and cafes that you’d have never thought of stopping at. Most tourists don’t. Thank God!
3A- You will breakfast in places where the eggs were still in the local chicken the night before. You will experience what Great Canadian beef is or meat, fish and poultry is like you never did. Suddenly what you always called a great steak will be from this day on, combat boot sole. And No!! This is not a tour for vegetarians, celiac and gluten intolerant people. I feel bad for them, as it must be real hard. But being on the road is too much fun to have to deal with the logistics of trying to avoid so many things to the point where the spontaneity, adventure etc is taken out of the equation. You will have real Canadian food. I will take you to back roads Hamburger and poutine stands that will make your taste buds scream with or****ic joy. I will get you to have REAL Montréal smoked meat. Not friggin corned beef. I will introduce you to Quebec sugar pie, Canadian Maritimes seafood. Prince Edward Island Lobster dinner club, where you can have a 1.5 pound whole lobster with all you can eat mussels in the shell and clam chowder and bread for $35-$40.00, sitting on long table with total strangers that will turn into partners in food sin before dessert rolls around.
I will expose you to an apple cobbler you will sell your kids for. I will get you to sit on café terraces that will make old Paris cafés look like dumps.
You will discover that Canada is not only about its people, but about its food. Hey! We are riders. Food and bikes go together like politicians and total BS.
This rider does not do fast food. I am not going through this beautiful land to have what I can have something that tastes the same everywhere.
When the day is done you will still talk about that piece of date pie on the side on the side of a local Pizza or hand made Sub that got you moaning so much as you devoured it; that your fellow riders were wondering about you.
4A-You will sleep in mom and pop motels where riders stop. Where Innkeepers keep buckets, hose, soaps and rags to clean your steed cause he or she is a rider. You will sit on the front of your room with other riders as you watch the world go by ad exchange stories (Most of them true) about your day. Places where you truly feel home… Where Frank and Stacy will remember you when you go back. A place that will allow you to put that $75 you saved that night on something else in the trip, like a cool T-Shirt or a 34 ounce mug of 17% percent beer in Quebec or not, after a great day.
Places where you do not have to take a second mortgage to sleep. Places like this are very common. It will not be like this every night of course, but it will be something you will fall in love with.
5A-We will start the days as early as logic and goals allow. When you will be rolling in the crisp morning air before the world starts rolling and the road is yours and yours alone. It is the morning first hour or so riding that will take you to your breakfast, or not if t is what you want. I have discovered over 4o years of riding with many people that most like to get up early and go for a bit, then eat. It is about starting early and stopping early to enjoy the end of the afternoon, evening and have time to share, relax, talk, laugh and live before hitting the hay to get ready for another awesome day, I do understand that not everyone like to be on the road at 5:30 like me. But many are. Who knows? Maybe all of us in the trip will be like this. If not we will find the meeting point where all agree. Remember. BC, AB, SK, MB, ONT, QUE, NB, Cape Breton, NS, NL and taking all the scenic route to get us there and back; which my way means coming back west from Yarmouth NS where we will embark on the world’s fastest aluminum catamaran ferry to the North eastern US seaboard bringing us back to the 1000 island region of Ontario, then to the Great Lake Superior Upper Peninsula circle route, then the North eastern USA via MI, MN, WI, SD, ND, WY, MT, ID, then who knows back to BC; requires some sort of respect for scheduled riding.
Again! If taking at 9 or so is your thing, this trip is not for you.
6A-This trip is about riders sharing a passion, and experiencing it together. It is about getting to know each other, sharing each other’s experience and learning from and about each other and making friends you will still phone and stay in touch with 10 years later. I know I do with those I have traveled with.
7A-We will sit together daily and gawk at maps and look together at al the choices of routes we have to go where we are going. It is about all of us putting our input into OUR day. It is about deciding together when we stop, and if the place lends itself to me taking you all to a place I know.? Great. If not, it is about all of us sticking together, making a decision and going through it. It is about adventure and riding, planning, taking chances on time and places. Sure! We might hit some place we do not rate a 10 out of 10. But no matter what, at the end, we will sit down, talk about it and it will ALL be part of an awesome trip we would do the same way again. Sure! We might hit our nose on some no vacancy signs. We might ride later than planned, and the mom and pop I loved so much last year; might have been bought by someone else and gone down the s**t chute. Sh*te happens!
But it is what true adventure is. Roll with it and allow it to become part of a truly memorable trip. In the 40 plus years I have done this. Whether alone at -40 in the middle of Saskatchewan or Labrador, or at +40 in Northwest Territories; I have ALWAYS! ALWAYS, looked at it as something I would never changed when things did not go as planned.
And experiencing true adventure, as a small group is truly an experience to behold and reckoned with.
8A- 6 weeks, 20,000 kms give or take a couple thousands is something. But tell you what! Done it many times and it is not hard at all. You the time and you do it. If what kept you is uncertainty? This is what I am here for. I am happy and it will be a privilege to have you along what WILL BE, without a doubt the ultimate ride. It is only once you reach Cape Spear Newfoundland and that you lean on this white fence by the lighthouse looking at the endless Atlantic Ocean and realize that ahead of you the land mass is Ireland and that behind you is over 10,000 kms of the world’s second largest land mass that you will realize what you just accomplished.
It is only then that you will say; Hell Yes! I will do this again! No problem!
We will take this picture that I have taken so often in the Cape Spear Parking lot of all of us standing by our bikes with smiles that will make passerby’s think we have had way to much caffeine, and look at it many times like I have and think; I am doing this again!
To finish I will say this. YOU HAVE NOT RIDDEN, TILL YOU HAVE TRULY CROSSED CANADA FROM COAST TO COAST.
Looking forward to this so much..
See you then?
Departure time will be around July 17th, 2020 and return August 28th to September 7th 2020.
