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Deane and Norm's Motorcycle Trip to Labrador | |
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Final Wrap-up of the Trip North and East to LABRADOR |
| As you know by now, Deane and Norm try to get together for a
"Long Motorcycle Trip" each year. Since Deane lives in
Albuquerque, NM and Norm lives in Vandalia, OH, one of us has the longest
ride, going to meet the other to start the trip together. This year
was Deane's turn to ride to the area near Norm, since last year Norm rode
to Albuquerque to meet Deane for the start of the Alaska trip together.
What a great trip we had this year!!! Here are some of the statistics of the ride. Deane rode 10,404 miles and spent 7 weeks on the trip. Of that, he rode 1,700 miles and 4 days with Rick Pasekoff and his son Bob, who were great company, from Albuquerque to Knoxville, TN, where they met Norm. Rick and Bob went their separate way to Pennsylvania, and Deane and Norm rode together for the next 6,600 miles and 5 1/2 weeks, ending at Norm's home in Vandalia, OH. Then Deane rode home to New Mexico. Norm rode 6,882 miles and spent 5 1/2 weeks on the trip. In addition to the motorcycle miles, Deane and Norm together rode ferries for about 1,100 miles. Therefore, their total mileages on the overall trip were: Deane - 11,500 miles Norm - 8,000 miles Deane and Norm rode together in 14 U.S. states, and 4 Canadian Provinces. The Canadian Provinces were Nova Scotia, Newfoundland- and-Labrador (one province), Quebec, and Ontario. Because Deane had to go the farthest to meet Norm and then go home, he rode in 24 U.S. states! Gas consumption for the Gold Wings was quite similar, with Deane's 2001 1800cc Gold Wing with Fuel Injection doing slightly better than Norm's 2000 1500cc Gold Wing with Carburetion. Deane's figures were as follows: Overall trip Average gas mileage (for 10,400 miles) = 43.2mpg, with a High of 49.9 mpg (in the mountains of the Blue Ridge Parkway), and a low of 38.0 mpg (in very high headwinds near Montreal, Canada). Gas prices varied from a low of about $1.22 per gallon in the U.S., to a high of about $2.25 (U.S.) per gallon in Canada. Gas in Canada seemed quite a bit higher, at up to $0.89 (Canadian) per liter, but when one converts liters to gallons, and then takes the very favorable U.S. Dollar to Canadian Dollar exchange, it wasn't too bad. Some interesting ride mileages are as follows: Miles ridden on Nova Scotia = 900+ ; Miles ridden on Newfoundland = 1,200+ ; Miles ridden on Labrador = 96 ; Miles ridden in Quebec, where Quebec and Labrador borders meet = 76. The above mileages show particularly how big the island of Newfoundland is, with us only going from the southeast coast to the far northern coast. Newfoundland has many, many interesting things to see. We agreed that while we spent 5 days riding on Newfoundland, we could have spent a month and not have seen everything. (As you could tell from our journal entries, we loved it there.) Also, the above mileages show how little paved road there is on the southern coast of Labrador. We rode from the border with Quebec to the end of the paved road in Labrador, and that was only 48 miles. (More road is being paved, and that will extend the paved road to about 100 miles.) The same short distance of 76 miles Quebec (where it meets the Labrador border) is due to there being only 38 miles of paved road there to ride. (Of course, we rode quite a bit more in Quebec later on.) So much for statistics. The real measure is how much we enjoyed all of the places to which we rode. It was a wonderful trip!! |
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