Niagara - Montreal

Ok, I can't make it to Newfoundland anymore this trip.
So I reconsidered taking a new route that will bring me to Prince Edwards Island or PEI.
The main reason for not being able to go there is because the lack of a ferry route from Yarmouth to Portland that went out of bussiness. Sad.
To make the tour as planned and bicycle back the whole way is no option.
Taking the train back to Boston from Halifax or so is no option either. It's a three day trip on train and all the wishwash that comes along.  Taking the bus back like Greylines or so is also a real undertaking and will bring me first back to Montreal ... and some transfers + not really cheap also .. and remember .. I got a bicycle to take back also.
The other remaining option is to rent a car and I searched some stuff and that would cost some 600+ dollar all inclusive as would a trip by plane cost me to fly back to Boston - the same as a ticket from Halifax to Schiphol ... and the ticket from Boston is already bought..
So, gonna try to remain on the cheap side and the main goal now is to spend a few days on PEI Prince Edward Island and enjoy nature over there and activate VY2 !

But, the trip until now has been really nice, relatively good weather, no accidents except the one with a matrass on the shoulder..While climbing I didn't looked very good in front of me and was looking to the map and I saw something white emerging in front of me but too late and I cycled halfway over it.. nothing broken on the frontwheel ;-) btw. it was there to be collected as trash ..

I cycled fron Niagara over the Canadian/US border (I had to make a brief stop of course) to Lake Ontario and was radioactive from Fort Niagara and worked GUIDO ON7GR, Dave KJ4MCZ, IK4DCT, Tim N5RKK, Collin KD4QFT and The World Scouts Jamboree in Sweden!! SJ22S with Phil on the radio ;-) al with 5 watts and a vertical on 20 meters.

From there I cycled on to Rochester area where I slept in the wild and in someones garage since it was really pooring down over there. From Oswego I went on to the beginning of the St. Lawrence river bu the Thousand Islands region in the direction of the Atlantic sea. Easy cycling and did an average of about 140 km a day until I reached Beauharnais, a town just before Montreal where I again was sleeping in Serges garden and could take a shower, really wet evening there.. From there it was a relaxed drive to Montreal I thaught .. not .. heavy traffic and not really good directions to find a good path into town until I found a parallel bridge where it was possible to cycle to the main Island where I stayed in the youthhostel. Very nice, safe and cool place for 2 days, right in the middle of the big city. It was since Vancouver I saw these size of skyscrapers .. Montreal is ok. I went out and saw Aliens versus Cowboys or the other way around , a really bad film except for the effects. Visiting the Olympic Parc was a good decision, nice lookout over the whole city and superb views, the old stadium - already from 1976 (so old .. o'boy) - is still intact. The bicyclearena is tranformed to a kind of animalpreservation or something.. pff .. I took the metro and did some on and off hopping. and bought , again , a new isolation matrass since the one I bought in Niagara again went bezerk..
This time I bought again a Thermarest Prolite Plus but made from another maybe more durable fabric, and more expensive ... 160 Canadian dollars .. a slam in my thight budget .. no more food for 12 days ..

I was again radioaktiv south of Montreal on 07 augustus in the afternoon at 2200 local Flemish time to work the 14345 kc net but I heard Germans on 14343 kc and a US-net on 14347 kc. No Flemish stations on there so I called cq and worked Pat KI4SVM, Arno F4DCG, KURT ON8MT, Tod N4LA and Tom KI4NSP. I didn't had the time to be active on VHF over here in Montreal maybe later on the trip.

The remainder of the month I try to cycle to Quebec and maybe meet Gregg VE2HIT and then to Riviere du Loup, and in the Province of New Brunswick (Braunschweig) : Edmunston, Grand Falls,  into the mountains again in Plaster Rock, Miramichi, Moncton and over to Prince Edward Island and then to the province of Nova Scotia by Caribouand take the ferry from Digby to Saint John in New Brunswick again. From there I'll cycle south again some 100 km to the US of A and from there it will be some 600 km to Boston by oa. Kennebunkport. Up till now I cycled 8650 horizontal kilometers and 47 vertical ones and probably will do another 2600 horizontal or so km in the next month. Hope to find some good bicycle paths like the route vert if they are not too much gravel. Fingers crossed for good weather and if somebody knows a nice place on Prince Edward Island to stay for some 2-3 days with a big beam and a shack or just a more normal place let me know !

Van CANUS4

Van CANUS4

Van CANUS4

Van CANUS4

Van CANUS4

Niagara Falls

Wauw !

Another highlight of the tour after 8100 km.

Marquette - Mio

While entering Marquette I spoke on the local repeater with a local guy talking me into going to Presque Isle Parc just north of Marquette. I didn`t make it over there untill the day after .. Cycling trough town next to the university I noticed the rather big beam from Peter K8PT. I got to see the shack and slept in the garage where no-one has slept before hahi. Had a nice breakfast and some leftovers of the Thai food the day before and got to meet his two daughters an grandchildren, vy nice.
The next day I cycled into town and headed for the Presque Isle Parc which is vy nice and should have been nice to sleep in but it was forbidden  .. kind of ..
I cleaned the chain from the bicycle next to a bicycle store and took the grease of and made it smotth again. Since I still had a wind in the back I could make some distance and headed out for Harvey and Munising. I cycled next to some very nice and pitoresque beaches, where many people swom in the rather warm water and sunbathed a bit. Temps were about 20-25 degrs.
In Munising one could catch a boat to go out in Lake Superior and visit the Pictured Rocks.
I saw the pictures already and headed out to eat a Pastie in a local store, great food and had actually two of them. I cycled on and the slooping hills near Seney where kind of hard but the wind blew me over it.
I stopped at the local gasstation and took in some suplies. They recommended me going to the baseball field over there where I set up camp and .. a elevated GP for 20 meter at 3 meters high. There was electricity to charge up the smartphone and batteries but no water. I washed myself with a waterhose I found next to a motel ;-).   In the eveneing and morning I worked VA7IR, of couse ... , N4USA Dave, W4UZH Tom, ZL2JBR, VE2HIT Gregg in Quebecq, KC0VFO Terry in Denver, W4JNC Richard in North Carolina and KR0E Don in Boulder all with good signals report, great antenna isn`t it ..
I hope I`ll meet Gregg again in eyeball contact once I got into Quebecq and have a coffee or more as he said on the radio, looking out towards it and stopped drinking coffee already to make some space there ;-)
I found a new app for the Android to find repeaters in the neighbourhood. It works very good and is called RFinder. It plots the repeaters also on the google map so you can see where they actually are. Also the distance they can cover and all info is displayed very quick. Great app and thank you W2CYK !
Tuesday 26 juli I cycled to Trout lake and swum in it, VERY hot water and great beaches. I ended up in the evening in St. Ignace near the Mackinac Bridge in between the upper and Lowe Peninsula of Michigan. I wanted to sleep in on a peninsula but it was full of flies and the campsite was very expensive over there. A family let me sleep on the garden and provided me with food in the evening, looking for there names but can`t find it soon, I`ll have to digg deeperin the bag.
I was driven over the bridge the day after by the company that takes care for the toll=system and the maintanance of the VERY big bridge ( bigger than Golden Gate ) and it costed me 2 dollars .. wauw ..
I cycled on south to Atlanta ( Michigan ) and wanted to pitch up the tent near a lake - Lockwood Lake but it was private. I saw a lady gathering garbage next to the road and asked her where there was a good spot to camp and she proposed me to pitch up tent on here property. I got some pasta and butternut cookies in the morning and arrived now in Mio where a McDonalds should be very close to me right now - thx 4 info Rene :-)
Mio, min mio..
Heading still for Bay City, Sarnia, London, Norfolk, Buffalo and the Niagara waterfalls over there into the next week. I`ll try to be more active on 20 meters at around 2000 UTC and in between 0100 and 0200 UTC on 14285 and 14345 kc since propagation is improving.Still, sleeping, eating and cycling are my three priorities. For the last 4 days I covered 500+ km. My GPS tells me that I've been cycling for 480 hours, if I should've done the trip non-stop..

Marquette, Michigan

This truck got almost hit by my bicycle. It's clearly visible that I was the one coming from the right handside. Beautifull weather and westernly winds for three days to come. Time to take revenge on the headwinds.. Tomorrow I'll hit 7000 km. Five digits, here I come !

Sisseton - Ashlan Wisconsin

After some VERY hot days into South Dakota and Minnesota the temperature did drop down and also the humidity did went down too to a more humain level. I cycled into Minnesota but still had to drink every 10/15 minutes. Going trough many nice little towns on the way I had the luck of ending two evenings in a cool house. One time in Little Prairie at Kevin, NE0D and his wife who made a perfect meal for me in the evening. The day after it I stopped at a township meeting and asked for water, ending up with a pasta meal and sleeping in a bed of a lady that had a hairsaloon in Giese. I'm looking for the card that I received from her but I can't find it for the moment. Also met up with very interesting people like you''ll find on my twitter and facebook account. The day after that I ended up in Duluth near Superior yesterday where the wind changed to the west for the first time so .. Time to make up with time and distance and cycled 185 km yesterday and 165 km the day before. I'm now in Ashland in the state of Wisconsin and almost in Michigan. Try to get in time to Newfoundland you know .. As it is still blowing from the west and meteo says it will shift to the east again in a matter of days. Also enjoying the TDF live streaming on radio1 while cycling, great. Time to cut this story very short for now and jump again on the bicycle. I didn`t had any time left and even not the intention on getting on the air .. I'll hopefully have more time for it as getting closer to the eastcoast and temps go down even more. Once again I can sleep in the tent without sweating all night long but muskitos are everywhere now. 73s and grtz.