Making a List
I'm three days away from leaving and counting down in my dreams.
Over the past few days - when I wasn't in the workshop prepping birdhouses for Gathering on the Green - I prepped for my trip to PEI and Halifax. I put a new back tire on the motorcycle. I shopped for food I could eat next to the highway. I paid the final bill on my motorcycle insurance so that I don't leave home without it. I scanned map after map, almost memorized my route. In other words, I tried to 'pull it all together' before I pull out early Monday morning, June 9.
The East Coast ride has been so much on my mind I woke up this morning - at 4:55 - thinking about how I could leave my biggest luggage bags at home.
"Take only half the clothes you want. Do laundry every third day. Take less food because this is Canada... food is everywhere. Don't forget half a pint of oil. Do you have a final check list? Get up now. Make a list." So, I thought about getting up and here I am.
["Don't leave home without it"]
["Oil, rechargers - check. But just one pair of jeans?"]
Today and Sunday I will pack, get in a couple of short rides in order to bond with the bike and go to bed early, then try very hard to stay there.
Photos from East Coast 2010
This year I go to PEI to visit my oldest sister and her hard-working mate. I also go to Halifax for research re my Dad's Navy days and to find the spot at Crystal Beach (and on Pennant Point) where I stood and tossed my father's remains into the Atlantic Ocean in order to provide for him a humble burial at sea, as was his desire. Will I find the right spot?
["2010: Overloaded. This year, the two largest bags stay home"]
["I chopped off twin stacks so the boat would fit inside"]
['The long hike to the point begins here"]
["In an hour or so, I found a quiet spot. Will I find it again?"]
["I carefully climbed down to the water's edge for the final toss"]
["And the SS Silver Walnut sailed off, hopefully to Scotland"]
["As I walk away the boat sails south. It was found ashore the next day"]
My wife received a phone call on Monday, June 14 from a man who found Dad's boat while walking his dog on a beach a few miles from where I had tossed it into the ocean. She immediately called me from London and I then called him from Halifax. He said he would give it to a relative who fishes out on George's Bank, at the edge of the Gulf Stream. And the Gulf Stream heads toward Scotland.
I gave him the thumbs up.
More to follow.
Photos by GH
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