So… when your truck has absolutely no instruments that work in its dashboard, and you’re towing a lot of weight up and down hills chasing zippy motorcycles, sometimes you lose track of how much gas is in the tank. So, sometimes you have to pull over and fill ‘er up with your gas can. No biggie.

The day started with an insane thunderstorm at about 7:30am–sustained rolling thunder and heavy heavy rain. But by the time we’d packed everything up and Glenn & Gwen arrived, it was blinding sunshine and almost 30 degrees and humid. After filling up the truck in Restoule, we buzzed into Board’s Honey Farm for a fascinating tour, and we stocked up on all kinds of cool bee and farm products. Honey, mosquito repellent, lip balm, honey sticks, mint tea, and medicinal propolis were tucked away in the cab of the truck as we headed out on the 524 along the south shore of Lake Nipissing. I’ll let Mike’s ride report go into the detail, but suffice to say in an old beater truck it’s a bumpy bumpy ride. And, maybe we ran out of gas again (or, the Yamaha did. And maybe the Yamaha also flooded a little and had to get towed back to Sudbury. No biggie. And maybe also the regulator on the trailer’s propane tank unthreaded itself on the bumps and dragged on the pavement and broke off, nearly smoking Bogdan on the Yamaha behind us. Seriously, today was totally not a big sweaty ordeal spent mostly on the shoulder of the road trying to fix things. Not at all).

After lunch and milkshakes at the French River Trading Post, we looped around Lake Nipissing on highway 64 through sleepy towns and fields and forests. Quite a peaceful route, compared to the busy 69 only a few kilometres away. Three popsicles later and we were safe and sound in Sudbury at the comfy downtown Radisson Hotel, and after a refreshing shower we headed out to Respect is Burning Supper Club for some Italian soul food… and a couple of very cold beers.

Tomorrow… to Killarney!

Photo by Alexandra Sawicki

As Mike went to bed tonight he said, “I can’t believe everything that happened today happened in one day!”

The longer we’re on the road, the more stuff we seem to be cramming into every day, so at night we look back and feel like it’s been a week since we woke up in the morning. Each day we travel several hundred kilometres, and in each place we stop, we talk to and interview people we meet. So today it was really nice to spend some time with some familiar faces – Ontario Tourism Management Partnership Corporation’s Claude Aumont, and his family at their home outside of North Bay. Claude and Amy graciously made space in their driveway for our gypsy caravan, and the kids made sure we “exercised” the road out of our muscles on the trampoline in the back yard.

After returning south to North Bay on the Ontario side of the Temiskaming Loop Tour, we boarded the Chief Commanda II for an afternoon cruise of the Manitou Islands in Lake Nipissing. We met up with Glenn & Gwen Roberts from Motorcycle Mojo, our tour companions for the next few days, at Churchill’s Prime Rib House for a delicious meal in the cozy ‘snug’ – a private room – which is decked out with heritage stained glass from an old Toronto steakhouse. They have a gorgeous wine cellar and some amazing antiques – and the prime rib is pretty excellent too.

Tomorrow — off to Sudbury on the Nipissing Circle Tour!

Photo by Alexandra Sawicki

Alexe ran out of gas today on the home stretch into New Liskeard, and it was the most glorious moment. Standing still, on the dirt shoulder, filling her tank from the extra gas can we keep in the truck bed, the wind was the perfect cool warmth on our skin, and the fields smelled like dirt and fresh growth. Really a moment to savour.

We spent the whole day on the move, packing up early and spending some time with artist Clermont Duval at his gallery in Mattawa, stopping at the Mattawa Museum and former site of a Hudson’s Bay outpost, then braving the Mattawa “shortcut” – highway 533 – that connects Mattawa to highway 63 and the beginning of the Temiscaming Loop Tour. Pretty spectacular scenery but a bit of a bumpy ride, especially in a 33-year old pick-up truck. It really was fun though.

Heading over the bridge, we stopped and shot some video in Temiscaming, then hit highway 101 and cruised the gorgeous farmland on the Quebec side of Lake Temiscaming. We dropped by the oldest building in Ville Marie, QC, the Maison du Frere Moffete, before crossing the border back into Ontario and finding our home for the night, the Holiday Inn Express & Suites in New Liskeard. After a quick dinner, the crew headed out again to grab some more footage of riding the shores of Lake Temiscaming in the golden light of magic hour. And then… we hit the hot tub. And we may or may not be about to eat a butterscotch sundae….

Photo by Alexandra Sawicki

Today was our first of six “office days,” where we hole up in some ridiculously beautiful place and work really hard on things my friend Zorah calls “typing work” — hovering around computers getting it done. Hours of video and photo editing, fingers clacking madly working on various writings, sound recording, script writing, trip logistics, route planning, finances, groceries, laundry, hanging out with local tourism friends and uploading like crazy. Our office today was at Sid Turcotte Park, in a grassy open campsite right next to the Mattawa River between two ponds where the cacaphony of frog is amazing and deafening.

We were so busy working on awesome stuff for the blog today we had to bail on visiting the stunning Eau Claire Gorge with Mattawa-Bonfield go-to tourism guy Jeff McGirr. But we’ll be passing through Mattawa again at the end of July and will definitely take a rain check.  As the sun started to set, we managed to make time to build a big fire and grill up some bourbon-soaked steaks and campfire baked potatoes.

Tomorrow we’re back on the road, visiting local artist Clermont Duval in Mattawa before heading deep into Northeastern Ontario on the Temiskaming Loop Tour.

Photo by Alexandra Sawicki

It was a day of pure road trip: sunshine on the rolling blacktop, endless hills and valleys stretching out in front of us, the smell of warm cedar on the wind. Our morning ride along highway 35 from Carnarvon to Dwight was an incredible surprise. A new road for all of us, it felt like it was the best of Ontario cottage country crammed into 70km of pure riding joy. Little lakes at the bottom of valleys, lots of twisting turns along the waterfront, and some great views. It could have just been the glee at not being cold and wet for the first time in days, but there were big smiles all around as we pulled onto highway 60 and headed into Algonquin Park.

After a cup of pretty decent gas station coffee (they brew it fresh to order for the road crew working at the entrance to the park), we rolled east along the newly paved highway, stopping at Lake of Two Rivers for a little beach snooze before heading for lunch at the Mad Musher in Whitney overlooking the Madawaska River. We made a new friend, organic farmer Tom Logan from SunRun Farms outside of Maynooth (he and his partner Natalie own the SunRun Cafe in town – stop by if you’re in the neighbourhood!), and Mike took him for a ride on the BMW. Hopefully he’ll trade for a plate of those famous SunRun Cafe french fries when we come back through the area in late July.

The rest of the day was just as beautiful, continuing east in the late afternoon sunshine on highway 60–through the first Polish settlement in Canada, Wilno–until we turned off for Bonnechere Provincial Park just west of Killaloe on Round Lake. Pierogies for dinner!

We stayed up real late last night, all four of us crammed in the cab of the pick-up truck (also known as Willie Nelson) at the Mustang Drive-in, watching Men in Black III on the big screen in the rain. The concession stand was awesome and really old-timey, popcorn machine lit up with a red light, and homemade fudge in the cooler. My sample platter was gone by the end of the opening credits.

After a post-rain sleep-in this morning, fortified by delicious coffee from the Bean Counter Cafe in Picton, we hit the road en convoy, with Alexe on the Yamaha for her first ride of the trip. We stopped for a late lunch in Marmora at Bailey’s Cafe – GIGANTIC MILKSHAKES – and headed northeast to Buckhorn, and the beginning of the beautiful highway 507 to Gooderham. About ten minutes in, Bogdan said, “Now I understand what a motorcycle road is!” Swooping, curving hills open up onto little ponds, with great pavement and places to stop for a treat on either end.

The sun broke through the clouds for a few minutes and Haliburton shimmered as we passed through on our way to camp, on the shores of Maple Lake in West Guilford.

After an inauspicious start to the day where we missed the CVMG Concours entirely, we managed to catch the sidecar race (the Whitakers, pictured above, took Alexe out for a spin last year) before heading over to the Skyway Bridge to record our daily video update. The view from the bridge is stunning, and we’re preparing a longer video piece to sum up our first week on the road with footage we caught there. We then worked our way over to the Great Canadian Cheese Festival and caught the last 45 minutes of this, putting on about that many pounds in the same time. After making a meal at the RV, we took in a film at the Mustang Drive In just outside of Picton. Memories of our youth flooded back in tis field with it’s enormous silver screen.

After the kind of soul-crushing wind and rain we battled yesterday, nothing could beat cruising winding country roads through green rolling fields, glimpses of Lake Ontario deep and blue in the distance, as the sun finally broke through. Highway 2 from Brighton to Picton was a beautiful drive, as we shook off the last vestiges of the city by counting cows and rescuing a snapping turtle from the middle of the road. Our mission for the day: exploring the vintage motorcycle races of the Quinte TT at Shannonville Motorsport Park. You get 18 old custom racing bikes gunning around the track, it’s quite the symphony. Gorgeous old bikes and piping hot french fries kept our spirits high — even though we ran out of propane for the stove, and had no plates to eat our (cold) dinner from. Tomorrow: Canadian Tire, CheeseFest, and the Vintage Concours at Shannonville. And that nice coffee shop in Picton…

Hopefully their coffee machine doesn’t require propane.

After battling failing trailer lights, stalled motorcycles (yes we ran out of gas) endless packing and increasingly ominous rain, which then joined up with gale force wind to blow us all around the highway we arrived this evening is the picturesque hamlet of Brighton, Ontario, via the ever-pleasant Highway 2.

It almost felt like Toronto did not want to let us go, slowing us down with traffic from the bottom of the Don Valley all the way out to Peterborough. But we beat it all, rain, wind, cold, disobedient vehicles and the relentless traffic of Toronto, to land safe and sound in our snug room (we opted out of camping in this kind of weather). I can already feel the peace of the road life moving through my body, spirit and mind.

As the wind tried to blow me off the road, tugging at the corners of my helmet, it occurred to me that no true adventure is without some adversity. Without it, you might never know you were really having one.