We only had an eight-hour drive ahead of us today and finding ourselves on the largest island in the Great Lakes - and the largest lake island in the world - there were some lighthouses to see.

First we tried to stop at the Mississagi Strait Lighthouse on the far end of Manitoulin Island across from Cockburn Island. Unfortunately the campground road was gated and posted with No Trespassing signs. I thought about speedwalking the 8k round trip walk, but there just wasn't time.

Later, when talking about this idea at a nearby visitor's centre, the woman working interjected that it was good that I didn't trespass for the 8k because the road's closed in the offseason to allow the nearby quarry to blast without having to worry about any pedestrians. Maybe there's good reasons for No Trespassing signs sometimes! Haha.

Instead it was off to the Janet Head Lighthouse in Gore Bay, which was a simple drive-up affair. There was another couple here when we first pulled up, although they left quickly and we then had the 1879 lighthouse all to ourselves.

After grabbing some lunch in the handsome town of Gore Bay, we stopped for another easy light - the Kagawong Lighthouse right in downtown Kagawong.

The Kagawong Lighthouse was built in 1894 and is now home to a number of healthy wasp nests right below the lighthouse balcony.

Thankfully they weren't active during our visit.

Actually stopping in these towns on Manitoulin Island made me want to come cycletouring here even more. Of course now seeing these lighthouses takes away some of that excitement, but Kagawong was just like Gore Bay in terms of having historic buildings around a small, pleasant downtown.

(Kagawong also has the impressive Bridal Veil Falls if that's more your thing.)

Having covered only an hour of driving by the time we were in Kagawong, it was time to get moving if we were ever going to make it to tonight's accommodations in Gatineau.

Along the way though, after suffering through five harsh Taco Bell-free days out on Cockburn, I had to stop at Sudbury's only Taco Bell, located in the New Sudbury Centre.

About the only other thing we did was stop in Deep River, since I'd never been anywhere between Ottawa and North Bay and I was excited to get out and walk around. We found a glorious handrail there, but I used the excuse of not wanting to get my bike out of the tightly-packed car when we were already running late.

Working from Gatineau for a couple days, I would reach the skatepark the next day by taking one of the ferries across the Ottawa River.

When you consider the impressive skateparks in Toronto and Montreal, I really struggled to find anything comparable in Ottawa. One of the best choices of the so-so options was heading over to Rockland Ontario and the Joël Gauthier Skatepark. Annoyingly, this skatepark had the feature of being located across from a school on lunch break.

Hanging out in the car and reading to kill time, eventually the crowd thinned enough that I felt comfortable getting out to ride. No one bothered me in the end after all, and I quite enjoyed the ledge near the centre, where you could grind up and across and then into the bank, or hit the bank and grind on your opposite side across and down.

(I'd later reference the excellent Ontario skatepark resource Spott Dreams of Skateparks, and apparently the Ottawa does have some good skateparks.)

The next day it was time to head east, bringing us through Montreal and a much better selection of skateparks.

The Verdun Skatepark - near the old Verdun Auditorium! - would do. It would definitely do. Isy laid in the grass with the dog and read while I grinded everything in sight.

A solid two thumbs up to the Verdun Skatepark from me.

Bored with driving on the same Trans-Canada highway Fredericton-Edmundston-QC-Montreal route as always, I proposed that we cut through Maine, which is actually a shorter distance but adds about an hour due to secondary highways and border crossings.

So we headed east towards Sherbrooke instead of Quebec City, eventually finding some fantastic Quebec towns that I always envisioned this area having, but I've never found. Rolling farmland, big barns, picturesque hilly downtowns, mansard roofs - it was like some fancy New England buildings had spilled over here into Quebec!

I really wanted to walk around and take pictures, but I screwed up the trip planning here and we needed to keep moving.

I stressed out about the backwater border crossing like I always do, but the guy was incredibly nice and thought driving through Maine simply to mix it up was totally reasonable.

Into Vacationland, it didn't take us long to find a little roadside rest area for some leaf-peeking and a search for birds in the nearby gentle creek. This was some empty yet gorgeous land up here and I wished we had the extra days to simply call it a day and set up camp.

Prior to the trip, I had struggled with the decision of whether to spend our Thursday doing this Maine diversion, or to go watch the Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the QMJHL in Northern New Brunswick. As I stood here on the Maine roadside, I was very happy with my decision.

(Plus, by pure chance I happened to see the Titan in 2021. So it all worked out, except for Isy remaining at 7 QMJHL arenas visited, lol.)

Our daylight was almost exhausted as we finally arrived at our one point of interest I had scheduled for Maine today: the New Portland Wire Bridge!

Work on this bridge began in 1864 and by 1866, it was ready to help people and horses cross the Carrabassett River here in New Portland. There were three other wire suspension bridges like this built in Maine, but at least one of them would only last 50 years before being replaced by a simple concrete span. By 1959, with the New Portland Wire Bridge still in use, Maine Legislature moved to enact legislation to protect this bridge as it was the only one left.

And yes, as we walked across it you could feel some swaying. I did not brave driving Isy's car across, but we saw a minivan cross while we were taking pictures.

We rejoined civilization in Madison and especially by Skowhegan. Since we had the dog with us, we opted for grabbing dinner supplies at the local Hannaford's supermarket instead of at a pub, before making our way over to the Kyes Motel - which looked like an alright place on the outside, but once we opened our door, was an awesome time warp! Both of us were blown away by the wood panelling and the choice of this giant photo above it.

And then when you add some meats, cheeses, bread, and Land o' Lakes butter with the Bruins game on because we were in New England? God damn was this a fine evening at the Kyes Motel.

The two of us often harken back to the amazingness of this motel room. Like, look at that funky trim above the shower's edge! Hahaha.

Not to mention that the Kyes Motel was pretty much right across the street from the Skowhegan Skatepark - which thankfully wasn't like the other Maine skateparks I've tried to ride where there's a big fence and operating hours.

Skowhegan was rough around the edges though. The construction and design seemed like it came from someone didn't know what they were doing - leaving me very happy to land this hard 180 since the rail was stuck so far into the concrete that it ended up being a crusty grind around the curve, where you had no idea how well you were going to slide.

We were headed to Charlottetown today and that's a seven-hour drive, but I still insisted on a short walk around this classic, central Maine mill town.

Walking over a bridge crossing the Kennebec River, I could see a stone tunnel leading away from the river, although sadly this morning's time constraints meant I couldn't go explore. One day, hopefully.

I was first drawn to an overnight in Skowhegan because it's the county seat, and after finding the Kyes Motel, I needn't look any further.

Skowhegan being the county seat meant that we obviously walked past the Somerset County Courthouse. This is the only building that's ever served as the county courthouse for Somerset County and since Maine only has 16 counties, I'm getting up there in term of percentages of county courthouses seen. Much better than I'm doing in Texas with its 254 counties, or even Michigan with its 83 counties.

Across the street from the county courthouse was a craft store where they inexplicably yarn bombed the handrail! And this is such a low handrail that it would actually be a handrail that you could session. I can't imagine how annoyed Skowhegan bikers/skaters were when this craft store moved in.

I know I was curious how a handrail would slide encased with yarn, but I didn't have the heart to jump on it and destroy their handiwork.

There aren't a lot of routes through this area of Maine, but I ended up really happy with our visit to Skowhegan and Isy still tells people various stories from our 16 hours spent there.

The cake on top of everything was this bakery in an old bank. Everything was just so damn good, even the random soup that they had on offer.

Following the bakery we were pretty much out of time and needed to race up to Charlottetown, as we'd told Christian we were coming for the weekend and we'd be going to the Islanders game on Friday night.

My favourite part might've been how the Charlottetown Islanders had a giant wall devoted to showing the current QMJHL standings and Isy/Christian both started asking me what a Drakkar, a Voltiguer, and a Cataract were, haha.

We ended up popping into a bar with vinyl records where the gregarious Christian chatted up this couple and invited them back to his house. Back at the house, it randomly came up that these 50-year-olds were big fans of ICP and they travel around following them from show to show.

Oh yeah, I also finally had a donair poutine on the way back. Slowly but surely these Atlantic Canadians are convincing me of the virtues of donair.

By the next night, we were at it again, having some drinks and enjoying the sweet Charlottetown night. I was a bit isolated around 7pm though, and while I thought to myself that maybe I should savour hanging around with Isy & Christian, I couldn't help but think of how the Charlottetown Islanders were playing again tonight.

So I tried to take advantage of Isy & Christian entertaining each other, leaving for only a minimal amount of time by running the 2k over to the arena, watching the 2nd period, then running/tiredly walking the 2k back to the house.

Things were a bit quieter when I got back and I'm not sure if this move was all that prudent, lol. God I was so thirsty for QMJHL hockey.

The next day was Canadian Thanksgiving and it may have been my favourite Canadian Thanksgiving ever, seeing as growing up my parents couldn't care less about Canadian Thanksgiving.

I often say it isn't Thanksgiving unless the Lions are playing - and I'm not talking about the BC Lions.

What made this one special is that Isy cares about Canadian Thanksgiving. And if that's the case, then spending the "holiday" with my one of my absolute boys Christian is going to really make it a solid time.

Christian and Isy took care of the cooking entirely, so I was psyched with a random hearty meal on a Sunday.

We'd get going the next day, where the most eventful thing might've been stopping in Truro for even more Taco Bell - where I ordered so many burritos that I was able to indulge in the greatness of Taco Bell at my office desk like a normal being. God it was glorious.

Back in Newfoundland though, it already felt like the peak of fall. It was an interesting time to come back, where Western Newfoundland was so gray and withered in comparison to everywhere else.

Thanks for reading as always.