I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday riding around the Santa Monica mountains and on the Pacific Coast Highway. I left Camarillo Monday, May 2 and rode to Laughlin, NV. I had planned to leave Laughlin tomorrow, but I decided to ride to Hoover Dam. I want to see what Lake Mead looks like almost dry. I will be here until Thursday morning.

I left Payson Wednesday morning and rode to Twentynine Palms, California. The northern entrance to Joshua Tree National Park is in Twentynine Palms. Thursday, I rode to Camarillo, California. I will be here until Monday. I spent much of today riding around the canyons in the Santa Monica mountains.

I am staying at an Airbnb. The man who owns the house is originally from Johnson City, TN. He went to Cherokee High School in Rogersville and East Tennessee State University. He majored in digital media and he now works developing video games.

I have not done much today. I visited with Elmer Jean, and then I rode south on Arizona Highway 87. It is the primary highway between Payson and the Phoenix area. It is a mountains dessert area with breathtaking views. I am headed to California in the morning. I am going to stay Twentynine Palms, California tomorrow night. The town is in the dessert near Joshua Tree National Park.

I spent most of today hanging around Payson. I did go see Montezuma’s Castle in Camp Verde, Arizona. The castle is an adobe structure built in the side of a cliff over 1,000 years ago. The natives used it as a dwelling for about 300 years. I will be in Payson one more day; I am going west Wednesday.

I left Weaverville last Sunday, April 17. Since then, I have mostly ridden by day and slept by night. I did spend two nights in San Antonio, TX next to the famous Riverwalk. If you have never been, it is worth a visit, but it is not on my list of places to return to. I spent most of the free day with Robert Cadena, an Army buddy, and his wife Eva.

Currently, I am in Payson, AZ. Another Army friend, Elmer Jean, is in the Payson Care Center. He has been there about four years. He had a stroke that left him paralyzed on his right side, and he is unable to talk. None-the-less, it was good talking to him, and I plan to visit again before I leave Payson. I am spending three nights here.

I meant to post to the blog every night, but the first attempt did not work, and I have not felt motivated to determine the problem before now. I hope that I can post every night.

I left Weaverville Tuesday, May 14 on my Triumph Scrambler.  I spent the first night in Chesapeake, VA.  Wednesday, I rode to Atlantic City, New Jersey.  I crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and rode the Cape May – Lewes Ferry.  It is 17.6 miles long and when the road enters the tunnels, it looks like it ends and that you would drive off into the water.

I spent Wednesday and Thursday nights in Atlantic City in the Hard-Rock Hotel Casino.  Thursday, I rode to Philadelphia. I went to Revzilla, and I had Philly Cheesesteak from a small sidewalk stand in an old section of town.

On Friday, I rode to Hamptons Bay on Long Island, NY.  Although I came through New York City early in the afternoon, the traffic on the parkway out to Long Island was horrible.  It was stop and go for about 2½ hours.  Saturday, May 18, I took the Cross-Sound Ferry from Long Island to New London, CT and rode to Dennis, MA on Nantucket.  My two sisters and two nieces and families had rented a house in Dennis for a few nights.

The reason we are all in the Boston area is to go to graduation at Boston University.    On Sunday, May 19, 23 watched as my niece, Tiffany Shelton, received her Master of Athletic Training degree.

We left Hyde Park Thursday and took three days to ride back to Weaverville.  We arrived home yesterday about 5:00 PM.  We were on the road thirty-eight days, and we traveled 5,550 miles.  It is fun to travel, but it is good to be home.

After we left Baie-Comeau, we spent two nights in Quebec City.  Then, we then took the next two days to travel to Hyde Park. We reached Hyde Park early yesterday afternoon and went to FDR’s house.  We spent today at the FDR museum/presidential library.  Although we were there almost seven hours, we did not see it all.  We are going to Eleanor’s cottage tomorrow.  We expect to start heading toward Weaverville Thursday, and we expect to be home sometime next week.  I am not sure what we will stop and see on the way back.

We finished riding the Trans-Labrador Highway and Quebec Highway 389 yesterday.  The total distance from the ferry terminal in Blanc-Sablon, Quebec to Baie-Comeau, Quebec was 1,190 miles.  The first 50 miles along the coast are paved, but the pavement is in very poor shape.  People who live along the coastal section of the highway are currently protesting the condition of the highway by staging protests at the ferry to slow traffic arriving from and departing to Newfoundland.

The next 90 miles are hard packed dirt that is very rough.  In some parts of this section the road has rock or gravel, but it is in poor condition.  The next 200 miles is unpaved, but in better shape.  The rest of the Trans-Labrador Highway is paved, but the condition varies from good to poor.

Quebec Highway 389 is 355 miles long including over 100 miles of dirt road.  The dirt portion of the road is the worst road I have ever been on (including the roads in Southeast Asia where I once spent an eleven-month vacation).  Trucks servicing iron ore mining operations in Labrador City and Fermont, Quebec use the road.  The trucks have ground the dirt into a fine powder, and in many places, it is several inches thick.  When trucks passed us going in the opposite direction, they kicked up so much dust, that we could not see for several seconds.

The total length of the Trans-Labrador Highway and Quebec 389 is about 1,200 miles and approximately one-third is unpaved.  Although it was hard riding, we enjoyed it, and I recommend it to any motorcycle rider looking for an adventure.  I do not think there is a more remote road or a road in worse condition in North America.  However, an adventure bike is more appropriate than a Goldwing pulling a trailer.

We took the ferry from Newfoundland to Labrador Thursday, and we spent Thursday night in a hotel in Forteau, NL that was about two miles from the Ferry.  Friday, we rode to Port Hope Simpson and spent Friday night at the Alexis Hotel.  Saturday, we rode to Happy Valley—Goose Bay.

Most of the road we were on Friday and Saturday is unpaved.  Friday, 90 miles of the road was unpaved, and Saturday 202 miles of the road was unpaved.  For an unpaved road, it was in generally good shape.  However, there were several miles where it was full of potholes and several miles were the gravel was so deep, the motorcycle seemed to go where it wanted to.  It rained Saturday, which made the road very slick in places.  So far, my bike is the only Goldwing I have seen since being on the Trans-Labrador Highway. There are a lot of motorcycles on the Highway, but all the others I have seen are dual sports.

We are staying in Happy Valley—Goose Bay until tomorrow and we are heading on to Churchill Falls and Labrador City.  We still have about 100 miles of unpaved road in Quebec.