Well, I left Dublin a week ago yesterday, so far been away for 7 days, been driving for 5 of those, done 4000km, no bike trouble (touch wood !), no hassles, no rain (almost), 1 time zone crossed, 4 encounters with the police and just 1 speeding ticket ! Internet a real pain to access and finally managed to upload pictures...

Saturday 3 June, reading 14,100
Sean, Gervaise's uncle in Toronto was a great help clearing the bike through customs, Dept. Of Health (no nasty substances in the muck on the tyres ??) and freight - thanks Sean ! (I forgot to pay that ticket too - IOU!) Finally cleared about 10 in the evening.

Sunday 4 June, reading 14,100
R n R and a trip to Niagara Falls and prepped the bike - all looks good. local news was the arrest today of the "bombers" caught by the secret service in Toronto.

Monday 5 June, reading 14,950
28 celsius today, drove 800km to Quebec to meet up with Marc & Dominique. Note to self, pack a little better - 5 minutes down the 16 lane highway in rush hour and I hear a ding, ding ding as my super new alloy flask drops and is crushed by a truck (thankfully it didn't take a windscreen out on the way... also I got a nasty smell as my tankbag straps melted on the exhaust... well that's shortened them... feeling very small among these big trucks.
Stayed in a friend of Marc & Dominique's in Quebec www.hotelboutique.com - not exactly roughing it !!!

Tuesday 6 June, reading 15,658
After heading for the salt water East of Quebec, finallyturned around and heading West ! It officially begins from just east of Quebec !! Good driving until Ottawa rush hour, not exciting territory though, made Deep River and got the last motel bed, lots of moose warnings about and have been told by the cops not to risk driving in the dark as a result, evenings are bright so haven't had to yet...

Wednesday 7 June, reading 16,278
Woke up at 11.30 ! Needed that sleep for a few weeks now since all the wind-up started, job, family and the prep for the trip. Stayed in Sault Ste Marie on lake Huron, great mix of names around here, Murphy road sits beside Marathon, Thessalon, Denmark, Spanish, Wawa, Little river, Old woman lake etc..

I'm the man !

and the little lake beside it is called -

They were here first...

Great people too, had coffee and doughnuts with Erl and his 6 buddies - he's Danish, and can't figure why Americans need V8's to get around !!

Lots of lady construction workers about ! And girl bikers , and cyclists. For me the roads would be too long to cycle, the distance between in teresting points is too far for me. Passed a couple of Indian Reserves too, thought they all seem to me to be just as overweight as the locals and working on the roadworks mostly...Had my first Buffalo burger today - you can keep your horse burgers Matt !!

Finish the burger fast - look what's waiting -

Thursday 8 June, reading 17008
Arrived Thunder Bay after crossing here -
4th stop by the police today, this time for 113kmh in a 60 zone, but he's a nice guy, very friendly and he writes it as a 67kmh ticket for $60
instead of $300 ! The tyres help a lot - carrying the knobblies on the back, they give you that "I'm going a long way" type of look and it starts a conversation and 3 tickets disappear ! Having said that, the cop who said he had to write the ticket said I needn't pay unless I was planning on coming through every year !

Met a french canadian, Sylvain (thanks Sylvain et bon Voyage !!) from Quebec who gave me some good maps and advice for the Alaska leg !

Friday 9 June, reading 18,003
Made Brandon, Manitoba. Paased this en route, first time I've driven over one -

Got bad news this evening that our flight out of Anchorage (the only one to Magadan siberia) is off - MAY be starting on June 30th - will have to think about options over the weekend, likely to head south into the U.S. for a chat in Glacier Park with Mark who was to join me in Alaska about what to do next...

Saturday 10 June, Moose Jaw, reading KM18,478
Surreal start to the day this morning in Brandon with traffic stopped for a parade for 125 years of Brandon (honest to God it could have been built in a month, the way it looks, but... I didn't take any photos of the onlookers which would have been ungenerous but more amusing than this ?

I can honestly say today was the most boring drive - the prsiries as they call them - VAST, I mean VAAASSST and straight and boring - thanks be to god they hiked the limit to 110kmh which meant 140 despite the rain, but check out the 100+ containers on this train - took minutes to overtake...

8 Degrees today and more rain, checked into a motel before the worst of the rain to look at options on the internet if Magadan doesn't work due to the flight being delayed, plus they may now be looking for over $4,000 for me plus the bike, which is too much. We'll have more on that in a few days though.