Witches and Mooses

Three good riding days saw me through Virginia and Pennsylvania and New York State. I deliberately went wide around Philadelphia and New York City as the traffic intensifies to a point that is no longer fun. The Catskills were beautiful to ride through showing only minor damage from the storm left by Hurricane Irene.

Then into Massachusetts and a stop in Salem where in 1692 a few young girls though it would be fun to accuse someone of witchcraft. Over the next year fear and panic gripped the area as others joined in and a total of 19 people were hanged. It was not until the Governors wife was accused did the trials suddenly stop. Unfortunately fire swept through Salem in later years, so many of the old buildings have been destroyed but it’s a nice place to visit any way.


One of the original houses associated with the witch trials


The grave of one of the Mayflower pioneers in Salem


A misty day in Salem Harbour


Along the Maine coastline

On up the coast of Maine and the scenery gets better culminating in the Acadia National Park. After that the traffic dies down considerably all the way through to Calais which is the pretty much the furthest point of the north east USA. After that you go into New Brunswick which is Canada.


Acadia National Park


This National Park is free!


The view from Cadillac Mountain is stunning

I wasn’t particularly planning to go into Canada again but I sent my buddy Ben an Email to say I was in the area. Ben you may recall was the guy I rode from Panama to Mexico with. He said that he was free for the weekend and to come up to Tuque to stay with him and his lady Dominique. So I packed up and headed for Quebec.

Once you have gone past the St Lawrence river and Quebec City civilisation once again starts to get further apart. La Tuque is about 200km north of this point and is out in the boon docks. The town though is relatively large because of the pulp mill there so it has all the modern facilities that you need. Ben and Dominique made me feel so welcome and over the weekend we had great fun. We tried a couple of local food delicacy’s of Quebec. Poutine is French fries covered in rich gravy with cheese curds on top. Sounds a bit iffy but when the curds start to melt its delicious. The second thing was Cretons, a tasty pate of ground pork, onions and lard. All of these things are of course low fat (well that’s what Ben assured me it was)


Poulet Frite Kentucky?? Very French


Non fattening Poutine - right!!


Ben's new F350 "Monster" Ute all 6.7ltrs!!

We also drove up to his Brothers Guy’s lakeside cabin which was only about 10 minutes at the back of Bens house, and nearly killed ourselves (well I did) on the three wheel motorbikes they use for hunting. This is a pastime that is common up here and although Moose season with firearms didn’t start for another couple of weeks, hunting with Bow and Arrow had already started. Moose sausage is delicious as well especially with a nice red wine!!


Guy's cabin on the lake


Three wheels in the bush. These things are dangerous!!


Moose hunting season has started


Moose sausage absolutely delicious


Ben, his dad and brother Guy. Very Canadian redneck!!


The fall foliage colour in Quebec was the best I saw


Dominique, Ben's Mum, Ben and his dad

All too soon the weekend was over and I headed south towards New York and a shipping container to ship the Wombat back to Australia. A massive thanks to Ben and Dominique for their hospitality and hopefully I'll see them in Australia in two years time.