May 30, 2014: Final Day

After another good nights sleep, we had breakfast at the Best Western and packed the bikes one more time for our final leg of the trip. From here we would travel through Conn, NY, NJ, PA, and back home to Frederick, MD. We traveled down 95 south and picked up 287 west over the Tappan Zee bridge into NY. We stayed on 287 west until we picked up 78 west across PA. Not long after getting on 78 west is where we separated from Bob for the balance of our return trip home. The trip total for Crystal and I was 1,804 miles. It was awesome to cruise all those miles with my buddy Bob on his BMW K1600GT; and the best part, all three of us had the Sena Com System to communicate during the whole trip. This allowed us a multitude of opportunities for warning each other of road hazards, fuel stops, potty breaks, route changes, picture taking, GoPro video shots, and much more. But most of all, having a great riding partner, my wife Crystal, to share the experience with. Crystal was always there helping Bob and I with navigation and information look up on her iPhone; whenever we needed to know something, Crystal would look it up and give us the information. I love you babe and look forward to our next big ride this summer.....

This is what 1,804 miles looks like

Updated ride map

May 29, 2014: Riding the coast

After a good nights sleep, we awoke the next morning to the smell of coffee and breakfast cooking. We decided on the breakfast special which was polenta with black beans, salsa, and eggs, it was great. After breakfast we packed the bikes and headed out to take the loop around Acadia National Park. There are many places to pull over to take pictures of some really beautiful scenery over looking the ocean. Most of the loop had 2 lanes going one way, which was nice and kept the flow of traffic safe. 

Once we left the park, we decided the travel on Rt1 down the coast for our return trip to home. We stayed on Rt1 until we got to Portsmouth, ME and jumped on the interstate. We stopped for a long lunch to help us miss the Boston rush hour traffic. That didn't work out so well so we opted for another break for dinner at a Chinese buffet. After dinner, we cruised down to Woonsocket, RI; we picked Woonsocket just to get RI in the books and not get too close to Providence. Our goal after RI was to get past the Hartford Conn area before stopping for the night so we wouldn't have to deal with Hartford's morning rush hour traffic. After we left Woonsocket, the temps fell rather quickly and we only made it to West Greenwich, RI where we stayed at a Best Western for the night. The upside was they had a hot tub, the downside was the hot tub with too much chlorine; we could hardly breathe, and our eyes were burning! We slept in the next morning to keep us away from the traffic, which turned out perfect.  

May 28, 2014: Sabago, ME to Bar Harbor, ME

Tuesday night on the 27th we stayed at a lodge in North Windham, ME that is located on the shores of Sebago Lake. Bob used Yelp to find this place and I would recommend it to anyone; Crystal said it reminded her of the vacation lodge used in the movie Dirty Dancing.

There are many units around the property

   

                  

              

 The window with the light on was Bob's room

         

McDonald's for our 32nd anniversary breakfast.....

The Iron Butt Trio!!!!!

Unfortunately, rain was in the forecast for the day up to about 4pm, so we decided to head out anyway and make our way to Bar Harbor, ME, which was our most northern destination. We figured it would be best to cruise up 95 to make time since the rain didn't leave much of a chance for sight seeing. On the way we encountered a C5 landing at Bangor International Airport just as we were getting on the highway.

It was a cold ride with the rain and temps in the 40's; however, Bob was nice and toasty with his heated gear. It was clear to Crystal and I that we needed to invest in 2 sets of heated gear to give us "any type" weather riding capability. We stopped along the way to warm up.....

Oh yeah!!!

The sun came out just before getting to Bar Harbor, ME and warmed things up a bit. Bob was able to find us a really nice B&B to stay for the night. This place was really nice on so many levels. The owner, Ralph, was a very good host and took very good care of us. He shared some good information about the town and places to see. 

Our room!

                 
 

                 

 

After checking in and getting our bikes unpacked, we decided to walk around Bar Harbor to take in the sights, take some pictures, and do a little shopping. There's a lot of small craft stores, eateries, and adult beverage places around town. We decided to have our first adult beverage at the Thirsty Whale; the clam chowder was great.

We walked around a bit after leaving the Thirsty Whale and Bob wanted to separate and leave Crystal and I to ourselves for our anniversary. We tried many times to convince him it was okay since this is a trip we decided to take together, but we understood and separated for dinner. Ralph at our B&B recommended The Light House Restaurant for our anniversary dinner. I called while we were walking around just to make sure jeans and tee shirt attire was acceptable, and it was. However, once we arrived, it was clear to me we were significantly under dressed and decided not to eat there. Crystal and I wanted to bust on some shrimp and lobster and enjoy ourselves without feeling like we're the only "hicks" in the room! lol...  We left there and decided to eat at Stewards which sits on the waterfront; it has many levels including an enclosed section on the pier, which is where we decided to sit. While there, I text Bob and told him of the issue we had with The Light House and again asked him to join us at Stewards. Funny thing, he was already there on the upper floor! Thanks for the champagne Bob..... We had the lobster special with shrimp, mussels, potato's, corn, and clam chowder. "Great meal"... The lobster was awesome!

                

                    

                   

I highly recommend Bar Harbor and the Acadia National Park as a place to visit or vacation. 

Day 2 May 27th: "Rain drops keep falling on my head"

This morning, we  looked at the weather using KOA's horribly slow internet connection and after a half an hour of browsing what should have taken 3 minutes, we came to the conclusion that we were going to be riding in rain and that we were likely to get about halfway through the White mountain park before entering it.  We thought that we could do that and evaluate things in Conway NH.

As predicted, we started getting rain about halfway through the park.  The ride was enjoyable up until that point.   We started up the mountain and reached an altitude of about 2600'.  We were in the clouds from about 1600'.  Visibility was about 25 yards.  Seriously.  It was disappointing that we were not able to see anything except the signs that said moose crossing.  No mooses either.  Literally, we missed about half the park.  We did vow to come back to visit Vermont and New Hampshire though.

Today's route...

After several hours of 50 degree temperatures, rain and more, worse rain ahead, we decided to call it quits for the day.  Yelp came to the rescue and found us a Bed and Breakfast a little over a mile from where we were.  It's a shame it's raining, because this is a beautiful place right on the lake.  We have a couple very nice rooms and we're paying half what we would pay at a hotel chain.  This is the B&B ---> Sebago Lake Lodge.

Donna is very nice and offered us a ride into town to get some food, which we might take her up on.  She also said if we had any wet clothes, she'd be happy  to dry them for us.

Tomorrow's plan is to make Bar Harbor and hang there for the day.  We're planning lobster in the evening and an early start on Thursday.  We need to be back by Friday afternoon, so we'll plan for getting halfway back and including Rhode Island and Connecticut by Thursday night! 

The states we've ridden so far on this trip

Day One,May 26th: "THE TENT"

The KOA campground that we stayed at was very nice; the camp personnel treated us really well. We picked a sight close to the bath house on level ground with power. We spent about an hour unpacking the camping gear and setting up our tent, our "2" man tent... You see, after much discussion prior to leaving for the trip, I convinced Crystal that it would be okay to take the "2" man tent instead of the "6" man tent. The idea was to save space in the trailer as I felt like we were "over" packed.... Well I can tell you, the look on Crystal's face once the "2" man tent was up and ready, was clearly "not" a good decision. Fortunately for me the campground had cabins available, happy wife..... happy life!

"NOT HAPPY WIFE"

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We managed to get the tent packed away and move into the cabin for the night. It had electric and a small refrigerator and enough room to sleep 4. It was great to be able to charge all the electronics before the next days ride. 

We made a fire and sat around making s'mores and chatting for awhile. It was a great way to end our first day of riding. Yeah, I was having too much fun!

The plan tomorrow is to ride through Vermont into the White Mountains and the Kancamagus Highway....

More to follow!

The day started with kickstand up at 7:00am exactly as planned. We traveled into New York up through the Hudson River valley mostly on 9W into Mass. We were only in Mass for a very short period of time.

The plan was to visit Adams Mass and North Adams Mass just to take some pics to prove we were there. Believe it or not, the fire engine dude was ready to go and agreed to wait while Crystal snapped some pics.

After we left Adams Mass, it was a short dash into Vermont where we picked up route 100 north; OMG, this road was awesome in so many ways. The roads were smooth and the twisties couldn't be better. The scenery was great and the road followed a stream most of the way. We cruised through Vermont to the eastern border to Quechee, VT, our destination for the day. We're staying at a KOA campground for the night. Lots of good riding today with my buddy Bob, and Crystal was an awesome co-pilot keeping us out of the rain. I'll have some pics on my next post good night.