Sutherland Adventures

Left Northport, NY 5:55am after a long luggage selection process where only the most practical luggage makes it into one of the two 16"x14"x6" saddlebags. Some of the clothing finalists included three pairs of lucky underwear, wool thermals and a cream coloured suit jacket. A tent, sleeping bag, tools, spare parts and travel literature took up the rest of the volume in the bags.

Arrived at Canadian border at 2:30pm Saturday in the Silverado, carrying passengers Charlie Kunken (Former Arctic Expedition '06 companion see-http://www.crosscountry-2006.blogspot.com/), Doug Kocis and Bonnie (Triumph Bonneville Motorcycle - see movie "The Great Escape"). We dropped off the bike at Air Transat Cargo where she was sent over the scales. Jean-Pierre, the calm and collective cargo manger handled the paperwork and it went smooth thanks to Motorcycle Express, the shipping liaison out of Woodbury. So far so good.

Charlie and Doug left me at 8am Sunday morning. They hauled the truck 7 hours south back to NY. Thank you guys for coming through on short notice. I’ll be in Montreal until I fly out to Paris, Tuesday, April 1, Bonnie below in the cargo hold.

Until my flight, I'm lodging in a hostel with a French name which I believe has the word "mansion" in it which is funny because I'm sleeping in an attic on one of twenty-odd air mattresses strung out on the floor. The exposed old timbers and stone walls quickly put things back into perspective. I'm in the Old Port section of Montreal, not at a sleepover in little Bobby's basement.

I've met two characters in Montreal worth noting. Hector, a Salvadorian transplant via L.A. is one of them. I happened to sit next to him at a buffet in the city's Chinatown. He drives 1 1/2 hours from his town to attend Saint Joseph's Basilica (2nd in height to St. Peter's in Rome) every Sunday for Mass. Besides revealing to me the buffet's excellent garlic broccoli he also told me about the park atop Mount Real (Royal Mountain) which upon my investigation was a cheery place where all the local families hang out. Alyson is the second. She's a French Woman on business in Montreal. Alyson comes from the town of St. Malo, an old walled port city in Brittany, the northwest part of France. She's taking interest in the French part of the expedition and has added a lot of reinforcement to my loosely-bound itinerary.

Expect an update from Paris. Over and Out.