Bear Spray to Sea Spray: Bangor to Moncton (New Brunswick, Canada)

Big day today, and we must push push push to get our bikes to the shipper and make our flight home from Halifax.

We had to cover 488kms, and also complete a border crossing back into Canadia. We had no time for scenic routes, so we jumped on the I-95 pinned the throttle and burned all the way to the border.

Pretty soon we cleared the burbs of Bangor, and were then back to riding in the bush. It was almost like being back in the Yukon, with forests, and acres of wooded country as far as you could see (from the road anyway)

Pretty soon we arrived at the Canadian border control, and we were filling out entry cards and answering all sorts of questions about the bikes. They asked us to pull over in the waiting bay, and the nice lady asked me for the original bike documents, but then when she saw that I had them in to bottom of my top box, and I started pulling our all manner of soiled clothing, (which probably smelled like it had been used to clean up roadkill) she said - "ahh... don't worry about it"

Eager to prove myself worthy - I fished it out anyway in its well organised plastic sleeve and she just gave it a cursory look and gave it back to me.

They also asked to see our 'bear spray' which we were told MUST say 'Bear Spray' on the label. I guess savvy Americano's try and sneak their Mace in under the guise of it being for the pointy teeth kind of Bear, and not the 6ft 6 Lumberjack border line psychotic type.

Satisfied that we weren't expecting a tryst gone wrong with 'Caribou Bill', we were allowed to keep our Bear spray. I re-packed my Topbox, deciding to bring some Hazmat labelled bags next time. and we continued on to burn down the remaining 300km to Moncton.

We hit a town called Woodstock, and afterwards veered south onto the Trans-Canada Highway, crossing the St John River. We stopped for fuel at a little service station just off the highway about 15km later. It was FUCKING hot, and we were both sweating like buggery inside our jackets. We had a cold Coke and an Icecream (Klondike!) and we ready to tackle the rest of the ride, but not put our gross stinky sweat soaked jackets again.

At one stage, The guy in front of me veered violently off to the side of the road. Just as I got to the 'fuck' in 'what the fuck are you doing' in my head, I noticed there was a small Black Bear Cub running towards the road, the guy had aggressively swerved towards it and had successfully 'shooed' it back towards the forest and I saw it crash into the undergrowth in my mirror. Pretty sure if you tried with a Kangaroo, it would just keep on trucking straight into you.

We completed the remaining 245 kms and rode into Moncton around 4pm in the afternoon. We were buggered, but exhilarated to have finally made it back into Canada. We were also a bit melancholy realising that our trip was soon coming to an end in just a few more days. We were wondering exactly where the time had gone, and even though we had spent almost the same time riding in Russia, the Russia trip seemed to take WAY longer.

We checked into our hotel, and needed some assistance to get the Air Conditioning working. We had been FUCKING BOILING all day, and had been looking forward to some A/C, TV and a couple of beers. I called the front desk, forcing myself to sound happy, and only slightly put out, and the hotel 'maintenance guy' came up to fix it. We asked for another room, but they were booked solid, and sure enough a shitload of other bikers turned up. Fucking bikers.. :)

Eventually (after another visit from 'maintenance guy and the owner) the air-con kicked in and we had sweet relief from the heat.

I headed out to the local Bass Pro to do some last minute shopping, and was amazed by the sheer awesome size of the local store.

I thought the front of it looked like a Log cabin, and walking in - the entry way WAS A FUCKING LOG CABIN. there was a sofa, and a fire place (not lit) and thick wooden roof trusses, all made from logs. This was simply the mud room/double doors where shoppers could take off their coats and also not let all the warm air out of the shop during winter.

Walking inside - I was absolutely BLOWN away by the sheer scale of the place. There was a 25-30ft boat AS A DISPLAY. yep. perched up in the air what a fucking full size fishing boat. Jesus.

There were also loads of what I can only describe as full size dioramas around the place, with full size animal mounts, (set in the appropriate scenery - of course).

It was absolutely amazing, and quite frankly and animal rights activists worst nightmare. I am not a believer in Trophy Hunting -but- understand that due to human activity completely screwing the natural order, we must sometimes intervene at times to keep things in balance. In any case, most/all of the animals would have been eaten.

I also realise that I'm 'not in Kansas anymore', and for many people, Hunting is a normal way of life, and also for too many people; not not an option or choice, but a necessary part of their food budget.

anyways...

It was awesome... and I spent about a hour looking at all the amazing things that Canadians could buy, and lamented living in our pathetic 'don't run with the scissors' country that we live.

Amazing stuff, compound bows, binary explosive, and all sorts of rifles and guns. Some of them not even available to anyone with any kind of gun license back home. *sigh*

I took lots of photos, bought a sweet new pocket knife. On the way back I bought some beer and dinner from Burger King. (not in the same place - although Beers at Burger King would be sweet!)

Getting back to the room, I made Megan look at all the pics, where she showed the kind of interest I show when she starts talking about clothes or shoes. :).. Boys eh?