Sometimes the reason for an extended road trip could be as simple as aiming your front wheel toward a town name.

Last summer, I had an idea. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t my idea. A billboard outside my building proclaimed, “visit Houston, B.C..” Another further up the road suggested going to Miami. But not the one in Florida. It was Petro-Canada’s advertising campaign aligning with the sentiment to support everything Canadian. For me, it sounded like a great excuse to explore the country I live in. I put the kettle on and spread the maps across the kitchen table. Houston is much further north in B.C. than I had ever been, and Miami is all the way over in Manitoba!

As if the universe had heard of my ambitious plans, the offer to test ride a Honda NT1100 arrived in my inbox. This tourer is made for such a journey! With an engine four times as powerful, it is much taller and heavier than the little NX250 I’m used to, and I could barely get my tippy toes on the ground. The dual clutch transmission (DCT) essentially makes the bike an automatic, and with no clutch lever or pedal, all control lies in the use of throttle and brake. Yikes! What had I signed up for?

VISITING DUPLICATE TOWN NAMES

Taking the NT for a tentative test spin in the parking lot, I got used to it surprisingly quickly. Despite its size, it was easy to manoeuvre, and the controls became intuitive quickly, even if my left fingers kept searching for a clutch that wasn’t there. Persuaded that this was doable, I rolled out into the city traffic. 

If we’re looking for places with names that exist on both sides of the border, I was already in one. There is also a Vancouver, WA. Both cities were named after Captain George Vancouver, who explored this part of the Pacific coast. To honour Vancouver, I went for a spin through historic Gastown and made a quick stop by our famous steam clock. 

Vancouver’s neighbours Richmond and Abbotsford also have name twins in the U.S.A., in Virginia and Wisconsin, respectively. Since they are so close to home, I’d been to them plenty of times before, but I dutifully rode through, so I could add them to the list. And because it led me to “0 Avenue,” which was the closest to the United States I could get without actually crossing. 

On this side, houses lined the street, proudly flying the Canadian flag. What few houses there were on the U.S. side, flew the Stars and Stripes. There is no fence. Small, regularly spaced posts mark the…