I headed northwest from Portland and soon entered the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the views were fantastic. By far the best riding I've had on this trip, or really ever! The roads wound around the mountains, lakes, and rivers and were lots of fun. I'm sure my pictures won't do it justice, but I'll include some here.
When I crossed the border into Canada, I had to go in and talk to a customs officer.
"And where will you stay while you're making your trip?"
"With friends," I replied. "Or well, I'm part of this network of travellers..."
"So you are Couchsurfing?"
"Uh yes, actually. You are familiar with it?"
"Yes, I've done it a fair bit... well, you're all set. Have a nice trip!"
I had never imagined that the customs officer would be a CSer.
I went on into Canada, and had to start doing kilometer to mile conversion in my head for the speed limits. Determination: Candians speed! In a typical 100km zone, it would be 62mph. But when I go 70mph most cars seem to zoom right past me! Oh well, I go slower than traffic. I don't want to get a ticket in another country where I don't speak the language.
Come to think of it, I think this is the first time I have ever driven in a foreign country. It's interesting, especially since all the signage is in French, on top of the whole metric system thing.
It has been four years since I was last in a country where I could not speak the language. The Canadians seem to be really nice and helpful in general, but I've had a little bit of language/culture shock. My French is soooo bad. I manage okay, and at least I can read signs and understand the gist of what people say, usually, but I have definitely been inspired to work on my French. I had forgotten how difficult and can be to do simple things like ask for directions or order food. It's probably a good reminder for me as a Spanish teacher.
In any case, back to the whole road trip to Canada thing...
Maybe an hour into Canada, and I saw what appeared to be clouds and rainfall in the distance. As I got closer I felt some rain drops, and put on my rain suit. The rain wasn't bad though, just a light afternoon shower and I would have been comfortable even without my rain gear.
Twenty minutes or so later I saw what I thought was more rain in the distance. I wasn't worried, and was already prepared with the proper outerwear. But as I got closer, I realized that what I thought was rain was in fact dust being thrown about by the wind. As I continued the winds got even stronger picking up more dirt and dust from the farmlands on either side. Despite the lack of rain, lightning and thunder started to appear in the distance. Soon, lots of bugs started flying into my visor. And just to add to the apocalyptic aura of the moment, the sun was setting, casting an eerie orange glow from the horizon.
The wind was gusting ferociously. When I encountered winds in New Jersey and Rhode Island, the Weather Channel said that they were 25-35 mph gusts. With that in mind, I would estimate that these winds were getting up to 50 miles an hour. I was nervous, but focused, leaning into the wind to compensate for the pressure. I was very glad that the week before I had looked up techniques for riding in the wind. I don't know how long I went like this, but I couldn't find a place to safely pull over. But then I saw an exit sign that indicated places to eat. I was very happy to see that sign. I exited the freeway and pulled into the parking lot of a Tim Horton's/Cold Stone combo, grabbed my saddlebags and entered. Not two minutes later the rain hit in a torrential downpour. It looked like a tropical storm outside.
I was worried that my bike might be pushed over, but there was nothing I could do. I was so glad I had decided to bring in my saddlebags. Not long after the rain arrived, the power went out and remained out for probably ten minutes. At one point, a man headed toward the door to leave, and when he opened the door it flew open and he had trouble pulling it shut again. He wouldn't be going anywhere for a while.
In the end, I stayed at the Tim Horton's for about forty-five minutes and waited for the weather to pass. There was some light rain still when I headed out, but nothing compared to what I had seen an hour earlier.
Another hour or so and I pulled up outside the apartment of my CouchSurfing hosts in Montreal. I was glad to have made it there safe and sound. I had dry luggage and both my body and motorcycle were in one piece.
Definitely a ride I won't be forgetting for a long long time.
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