August 21, 2021
[Today’s update is short and unillustrated because I didn’t take many photos and our Internet access is sketchy so I am writing this offline and will post it when I have a better connection. Add to that, my iPad needs a charge and unlike my other devices, I really haven’t set up a way to do that while riding. I have an extra battery gizmo that I keep charged and then use it to charge my Cardo (helmet communication) and my phone but don’t know how much of a charge I can get from it to the iPad. We’ll see. Yes, I know, these are definitely First World motorcycling problems.]
Actually, now posting this on August 23rd.
So, this morning we woke up to a beautiful day next to a flowing river. The site is quite nice, heavily forested, and only a few other people here. Except for the road that goes by above it, it’s very quiet. The shower/restroom thing is a little different. There is a private house up on the road (probably the site’s owner) and the facilities are in their house. It’s not as weird as it sounds. The house has a walkout basement on the rear and there is a door to the showers there. There are several stalls of toilets and several for showers and a common sink. It is labeled as co-ed. I thought about going on a run but there really isn’t anywhere but the highway and that is not attractive at all so I just grabbed a shower and started packing up for the day.
Since I am not keeping this as short as I thought, I guess I should mention the packing thing. I have 6 things to pack stuff in. My saddlebags on the bike have these really nice inserts, like backpacks, that are easily filled and place on the bike. I found it easiest to pack the liner, take the saddlebag off the bike, open it, place it on its side, and then drop in liner into it. One saddlebag has tools: actual tools, duct tape, zip ties, my stove, fuel, mess kit, utensils, my insulated/waterproof gloves, sunscreen and bug spray, and my hot weather vest. The liner for the saddlebag on the other side of the bike has my rain gear, a collapsible chair, water bottle, a quart of oil, my iPad with extra phone and my Kindle, and my sketchbook, pencils, and paint. My duffle bag has all of my clothes, my camping towel, my Rand-McNally, air mattress, and 3 waterproof stuff bags: one for personal hygiene things, one for snacks, and one for food. A pocket on the end of the duffle holds my flashlight, batteries, and all of my charging cables and adapters.
I have a tank bag that sits on top of my gas tank and in there I have items I want ready access to: my wallet, phone, small water bottle, sun glasses, and a charging point. The top of the bag has a clear cover and I keep a route sheet in there that I write up showing the highways we will take. This comes in handy in case we lose cell service and our navigation app loses its way. It has happened.
The remaining two items on the bike are stuff sacks with my sleeping bag and tent. The sleeping bag is in a plastic garbage bag in the stuff sack to keep it dry in case of rain. The tent is in its own bag. While I still have the tent I used on a big trips in 1979 and 1982, I sprung for a new tent, a Marmot, and it’s really nice. It came with a footprint and sleeps two, meaning that there is room for me and all my gear. It also has a vestibule which is a good place to leave dirty boots for the night.
So, today’s ride. It was all about the road and the ride. I can try to explain it but didn’t take pictures because they would do it justice. We did about 260 miles, all on backroads, extremely twisty, and I’ll bet I went through a couple hundred turns. I would like to give special note to certain highways but they were all so great I can’t do that. We went through both the White and Green mountains, past dozens and dozens of small towns, and got a real taste of New England as we left Maine and went trough both New Hampshire and Vermont before gettingt back in to New York, all in one day.
One highlight occurred 15 miles into the ride. We’ve seen numerous signs warning about moose encounters and, I suppose, luckily we haven’t seen one. But there on the side of the road, loping along a gravel area, was a lone moose. We feel we got our money’s worth now.
We knocked out an hour or so of riding before stopping for breakfast. I wanted a local, mom and pop-type of place and we found a perfect one: Munroes’s Family Restaurant in Twin Mountain, New Hampshire. Wow, the wait staff was fantastic and the food was great. We both had the veggie skillet which comes with eggs, potatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, cheese, and a side of toast. I rarely eat breakfast out so this was a real find and a treat.
After a few more miles were behind us, we were navigating through miles and miles of VERY motorcycle-friendly roads and noticed lots of other bikes out, and they weren’t all Harleys. We came into a small town’s fair grounds and pulled in to see that it was a Touratech event. This is where motorcycle makers bring their bikes for test rides. There were Harleys and Triumphs, primarily their “adventure-style” bikes. While tempting to go ride something, we had our own bikes and needed to keep moving west so off we went.
We were going through Hanover, NH where we’d just stopped for gas when the sky opened up. It rain. Hard. We stopped and I pulled on the waterproof liner for my jacket and, of course, it stopped raining. We stopped again and I removed the liner and on toward the west we went.
Again, just more miles and miles of twisty country roads. It doesn’t get better than this.
We stopped for a break and to sit under some shady trees at a city park.
We were headed to Sarasota Springs and about 15 miles out, it started raining. I didn’t want to stop because it actually felt good and cooled me down. It had been pretty warm for the last couple hours. We stopped for gas and a campground check just as the rain stopped. The first few campgrounds I looked at online didn’t have tent sites but I found one just 30 minutes away that did. I made the reservation online and we rode out to it under a clear, blue sky. When I looked at their site map, it appeared that the tent sites were mixed in with the RV sites. That didn’t sound very appealing so I booked a tent site by the pond. It’s huge, grassy, and we have it all to ourselves. A good bit of luck.
277 miles today and, BTW, my bike rolled over 8,000 miles today. Time for an oil change. That will happen when we get back to Pittsburgh. I had also thought about the prudence of replacing just my front tire when we got there and having to do the rear tire in Montana so went went ahead and ordered a rear tire to be waiting for me in Pittsburgh along with the one for the front.
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