A Promise to Fulfill Pt 7: Details and arrangements are underway

It won’t be long before I pack up my motorcycle and ride to Halifax with a silent passenger.

Not only will I be carrying a small bit of luggage - in order to maintain the tradition of discovering Canada in one pair of pants - but I’ll pack a small wooden sea-worthy vessel containing the last half of my dad’s ashes. (link to Part 6)

I must be excited. I woke up this morning before six o’clock and immediately thought about how I would construct and weight the keel before attaching it to the SS Silver Walnut ll.

I also thought to myself, I have the paint and friend Don offered me marine varnish. I’m set.


["It's a start but much work remains": photos GH]

Several other very important duties still need to be performed and arrangements made before I leave London.

I need to order a metal plaque for the boat, book accommodations in B and Bs and hostels between London and Halifax and schedule a check up for my 1994 Yamaha.

I need to tell a few people I’ll be away, including my hockey team (one can only imagine their disappointment), and give the bag of pucks to Gabe.

Already I know the trip out and back will be exhausting. My wife reminded me recently that, after completing a 3,250 km. bike trip to Thunder Bay and back in 2007, I wasn’t myself for a week. And that it took 12 washings to get all the grime out of the one pair of pants I wore for 10 days!

But looming details and pending tiredness aside, I look forward to the trip.


["Books to read along the way"]

Each day I’m gone I plan to read about the training (e.g., in Halifax and Scotland) and adventures of sailors in the Canadian Naval Combined Operations and, in particular, stories written by those aboard the SS Silver Walnut during WWll (as they travelled from England, around Africa, and to Sicily), including several by my father.

I plan to read for the fourth or fifth time a story he wrote for the Norwich Gazette about Christmas Day, 1942, and a visit with his Aunt Nellie and Uncle Wally in England.

It explains, in part, my taste for ‘a pint or two of ale.’

Yes, my trip may be a long one, but the journey will be filled with fun.

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A Promise to Fulfill - Please click here to read Part 1.

Please click here to read part 8, the exciting and long overdue conclusion!
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