Day 26: Port George, Nova Scotia
Distance traveled: 414.3 km
Cumulative distance: 4442.7 km
Temperature range: 19 - 21
Maximum speed:125 kph
Even though we have pictures from today's ride, I am going to dispense with those for the moment because we have bigger fish to fry. Tomorrow is a light day so I will post some pictures from today then.
Today was one of our more stressful days in our motorcycle career.
We were up in decent time to have coffee in the room and then go up to the dining area to have breakfast in the self-serve bar. Before leaving our room, I booked a room at a BnB near Port George; the original plan had been to ride down the coast of New Brunswick to St. John, where tomorrow we would catch the ferry to Digby then ride on to River Port, near Lunenburg. What I had failed to research earlier was the ferry schedule: departure from St John for Digby was at 8:00 am, which would mean we would have to be there for 7:00 a.m., thus be out of the hotel by about 6:30 am. which gave Nan the heebee jjeebies.That looked a little like a situation incompatible with our usual MO. Not like we would not be able to make it but let's face it: outside of our usual comfort zone. So the result of that was to change the direction of the route and go more directly to River Port, where we were committed for Friday and Saturday nights.
Breakfast was fine, if a little Spartan but we sense that they are on a budget and that everything gets metted out to keep waste low and costs in hand. About 9:00 am, after breakfast, I go out to pull the weather cover off the bike so that everything will be dry to pack up... and the bike is gone. In my panic, I do a quick check elsewhere in the parking lot of the inn but of course, it is nowhere to be found. I'm panicking. The inn owner happens to be walking by and I ask him if he has security camera footage, given he has cameras and he says no.
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| No bike. Just air. |
I am trying to think what to do first; I know I have to call the police but I return to the room and tell Nan from the door "the holiday is over", which probably confused her more than anything. Then I'm outside calling 911 and they tell me it is not an emergency and I should directly call the local police line. I tell her that I don't know which attachment is assigned to this area and she says call 411, who prove to be absolutely no help whatsoever. So I ask Nan, who has come out of the room to investigate what is happening, to look up the Shediac RCMP, since that is the nearest town, not counting Moncton and I call the number and get Riverview RCMP. I relay the story to officer Pierre, who is sympathetic and apologetic on behalf of all of New Brunswick but doesn't tell me that a Honda NT 1100 sport tourer has been turned in. We go through the formalities, he is guiding me on what will be happening, basically tells me "don't hold your breath" that there is a lot of crime in the area so it is likely long gone. I mention that I have a Tile tag hidden on the bike (like an Apple Airtag, but inferior) and he says if I get a ping to let him know.
BTW, Officer Pierre, is an ex Edmonton Police Service officer and so knows two dear friends of ours, one who's retired and one current in the EPS. SMALL WORLD!
We say our farewells and he indicates he will follow up with me later in the day.
We're heart broken. Now we are trying hard to decide what to do next. The impulse is to just pack up and go home but Nan has a flight booked for October 5th and our friend Peter has a flight to Montreal booked to drive home with me. We think about continuing the trip in a rental car and the hotel owner offers to drive us to the car rental place. at the airport.
Then my phone pings a message. Tile is alerting my that my tag has been found and I get a map showimg me its location. It is close. Maybe 200 metres and I immediately call Officer Pierre and tell him I've found it! The bike he asks? Then discourages me from going over there and dealing with it myself. I send him the location and a few minutes later he calls and tells me the bike has been ditched in the trees close to a near-by business and that it is safe to go over there. I grab the keys and Nan and I walk over, not sure what to expect. The bike is there and the business owner is out in the yard waiting for someone - me or the police - to show up first. We make our introductions; he is a young guy with a candy factory just stairing me in the face inviting me inside. Officer Pierre shows up a couple minutes after us and we are looking over the bike. The perpetrators have attempted to drill out the ignitition to the point where it is damaged and I cannot get the key inserted. Other than that, no real damage. The licence plate is bent and I suspect they tried to pull it off. No brutal scratches, maybe a couple cuffs but amazingly, we have the bike back. Colin, the candy shop owner tells us that security camera footage had two guys pushing our bike into the yard where they worked on it for about 10 minutes in an effort to get it goinog.They then left it and drove off in their van, which had also been stashed briefly. And as well, my bike cover is gone.
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| Nan receiving the "sorry for your loss" gift from Colin, standing with Officer Pierre. |
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| The candy guy, Colin, who's saw the bike first |
Offiicer Pierre offers to call a reliable tow service. I need a new ignition cyclinder so obvioulsy it has to go to a Honda repair shop, the nearest of which fortunately is in Moncton, so i say I'll just phone them to let them know I am coming and here is the situation. Well, they tell me that don't keep the cylinders in stock and it is back ordered to December 12th has to be ordered but the service manager gets me to wait a minute while he talks to a mechanic. When he gets back on the line he suggest that they could hook up a temporary, non-secure power switch which would bypass the ignition switch. But if somehow someone figured out that there was a switch to turn on the bike without a key, there would be nothing from preventhing them from driving away on the bike. I accept that and Office Pierre calls a tow company to take the bike to Moncton. I rush back to the hotel room to grab my riding gear then return to the scene of the crime to catch a ride with the tow truck driver to the Honda dealership.
In the mean time, our candy maker goes into his warehouse and brings us three containers of CANDLES and chocolate covered goodies; hard pastels and chcolate covered expresso beans maake ther way into wiling mouths.
The tow truck comes and Andelska gets loaded and we drive to Moncton Power Sports. When we arrive, they are waiting and ready for us AND they have found a cyclinder in Montreal. They can order it with HOPES of it arriving Friday but if not, TUESDAY. I decide not to risk five days of our holiday on the chance the part does not arrive so I elect for the bypass switch.
While all of this is going on, I am calling the BnB where we are booked to say we are NOT coming, now we ARE coming, I'll call when I get the bike back, I'll email when we are leaving hopefully we can make it and all of that and a bag of chips.
The bike sits in service while the tech is gone for lunch. It is there an hour before he even gets back; meanwhile, Nan is back at the hotel where they tell her they need to the room back no later than noon as they are full tonight. I get the bike back to 2:00 pm. It is 45 minutes of shop time. I ask the technician "what is to stop a nefarious person from doing what he just did to get the bike operational" and he tells me "nothing, if they know what athey are doing". That didn't inspire too much confidence.
I get back to our hotel and Nan is waiting for me on the lawn with the panniers ready to load and our riding gear ready to don. I call our BnB hostess Barbara to tell her we are leaving Moncton, Google Maps is estimating a four hour ride, which really means at least five hours by the time we stop to stretch a couple of times, get gas, get a bite and all that. She mentions that the restaurant closes at 8:00 pm so I ask that if we are late could they make us a sandwhich and leave it and just add that to our bill. She suggests when we are taking a break to look at the menu and order something but she also says that the kitchen was making a big batch of seafood chowder today. She also says not to worry, to take our time, be safe and the room will be open when we get arrive but she will be in bed.
We make the ride, a large portion of which is slab in order to save some time but it is dark by the time we arrive at 7:45. We have only taken two brief breaks, hard for people of our vintage and flexibilities: once to get gas and once to let some tail-gaters get around us. We are tired and hungry. On our first break, a stop to get gas, we discover that we have lost our license plate.
When we arrive, the chef from the restaurant comes out to greet us. He has been appraised of our situation and is very kind. He carries one of our panniers up to the room, shows Nan where it is, and invites us down to the restaurant. We say we will be right down. They have waited just for us. It is the Chef, Joerg and his helper. He shows us to the dining room and we pick a table. To Joerg, it is business as usual. He treats us just like we had walked in at 6:00 pm., brings us a basket of hot toast and pretzels and menus. We also order beer, which is on tap and are of a generous size! I say to put a beer for himeslf and his helper on our tab as well. The menu is very German and we are tempted to order schnitzel but decide to order something that they likely have pre-prepped so that they can get out of there. We each order Goulash, which is outstanding, as is the spatzale. There was also delicious red cabbage, which seemed to make Joerg very proud, I would not normally choose it but it really was very good.
After dinner, Joerg said we must have his dessert, one of which was Black Forest Cake, but nothing like you see in the grocery store and one other of which the name escapes me, both unbelievable.
OK, it is 11:45 and I am really done. I will add more in the morning, including some pictures. I know this post will upset some of you but I want you to know we are OK. If you email or text us, please don't be offended if we don't respond immediately as we have our hands full for a day or so.
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