The morning did not start out as I had hoped. Mysteriously I awoke with a head cold, but we agreed to press on to Niagara Falls anyway. We left around 7:30am headed for Port Huron. Once in Port Huron, we made our way for the Canadian border. Of course, we chose poorly and picked a lane with a chatty Kathy. Oh well, she was very friendly and clearly spoke with a heavy Canadian accent. Canada was beautiful, and we were both pleasantly surprised to see that their orange barrel season and that of Michigan coincided with one another. Craig was a little confused by the lack of signs indicating not only our present location, but also that of our destination, however he quickly adjusted. Finally, we arrived at our first destination, the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, the Horseshoe Falls. We maneuvered our way as close to the falls as possible to park, which cost $18 Canadian ($16.50 US). It was well worth every penny. The falls are spectacular. Unless you step into one of the gift shops along the boardwalk, you can expect to get wet. I did not mind. There was no way that I was taking one of the boats down the rapids, or a ferry up to the falls. Those people were getting drenched. I thought the whole purpose to riding in a boat was to stay dry. Someone forgot to tell these people. After walking around for a short time, we decided that we should make our way back into the United States. Little did we realize just how difficult this task would be. While Craig drove the bike, I navigated. Together we carefully followed the signs, which stated Bridge to USA this way. It was only after we passed the same man in a motorized wheelchair with cerebral palsy who laughed when he saw us coming around the corner that we realized we had gone in a giant circle only to arrive exactly where we started out. I am happy report that we did not make the same mistake a third time. We left the majestic beauty of Canada, for the ugliness of Buffalo, NY. After 487 miles, we arrived safely at our hotel for the evening. After a quick bite, I fell asleep around 7pm, only to awake the next morning at 6am.
After sleeping for 11 hours straight, it was time to get motivated. Feeling a little better, we decided to push on for somewhere in northern New York. The morning started out as usual, while getting gas, we made the mistake of asking the clerk, a young blonde girl, what the best way was to get to 90 East. When she was unable to provide street names, we should have decided to find someone else, however in our trusting manner we headed out exactly as directed. After a beautiful ride through Little Italy, we decided to stop and get new directions. These new directions meant that we would have to turn around and travel through Little Italy again. Oh well, the area was beautiful. From here, we proceeded to 90 East, a toll road that crosses New York. The sights were reminiscent of the Upper Peninsula: trees, rocks, rolling hills. We stopped occasionally to rest and take in the scenery. Our only plan for the day was to travel northeast so that we could position ourselves to visit Vermont on Monday. It did not matter to either of us where we stopped for the day, only that the hotel had HBO so that we could take in the final episode of the Sopranos. We stopped along the roadside in Tupper Lake and reserved a room at the Best Western in Seneca Lake, only to learn once we arrived that they did not have HBO. The clerk was very understanding and we canceled our reservation and proceeded on to Lake Placid. Quickly we located a hotel with HBO, got a room, and unpacked. To our surprise, all HBO to the building that we were in was nonfunctioning. The clerk quickly moved us to the main building where HBO seemed to be working properly. After unpacking the bike for a second time and making calls home, we ran into town for dinner at a local pub. At days end, we traveled 385 miles through some of the most beautiful terrain New York as to offer. I cannot wait until tomorrow to see what Vermont and Maine have to offer.
I have to start todays log with a quick comment on the Sopranos finale. Although initially disappointed with the ending, I have come to realize that it was the best way to handle things. We did not need to see the entire Soprano family brutally gunned down in a restaurant. We hit the road around 7:30am this morning headed for Vermont. The trip seemed straightforward, get to Port Henry, then cross the bridge into Vermont. Coming into town, Craig saw the bridge off to the left but at my direction, he followed some other bikes going right. After a short while, Craig insisted that we were going the wrong way, so he turned around, went back through town, and headed out the other way. After driving for a while without locating a bridge, we approached a man in a pick-up who was kind of enough to re-direct us to the way that we were originally headed. Had we preceded another couple of miles down our original path, we would have located the bridge and been in Vermont. Oh well, we were on our way now. Once in Vermont, the only thing that I truly wanted to see was a moose. I kept watching without any luck. Then all of the sudden, I spotted a moose crossing sign and just beyond a bull moose in full velvet standing alongside the road. He was huge. The rest of our time in Vermont was spent traveling through the Green Mountains. At a little gas station in a remote town, we ran into a man who had spent time in the Beulah/Frankfort area. From there we headed off for the White Mountains of New Hampshire. We even took time to stop at the Cog Railway at Mount Washington for some pictures and souvenirs. Tonight we are staying in Littleton, New Hampshire. Unfortunately, neither of us remembered to write down our mileage for the day, so I will have to enter that information later. Total miles traveled were 271.
We left Littleton around 7:30am this morning. Temperatures were already around 68°, so we did not spend time putting on additional clothes. In fact, I did not even put on my jacket. We spent the rest of the morning traveling along two lane roads through the Maine countryside. Around noon a small rain shower came through causing us to pull into a service area for lunch and time to don our rain gear. Almost as quickly, as the rain came in, it was gone again. Once rain gear was packed in the saddlebags, we headed out for Ellsworth, Maine, where we decided to stay for the night so that we could review our plans for Canada. Our mileage for the day was only 268 miles, but it was a full day as speeds bounced back and forth from 35 to 55 mph. After checking into our room, we cleaned up and walked down to Jaspers for lobster dinner.
This morning, we got up a little bit early so that we could hit the road no later than 6:30am. Traveling along the coast of Maine between Ellsworth and Calais, we encountered a light misty rain, temperatures in the low to middle 50s and winds of 25 mph. Needless to say, it was rather chilly, but onward we traveled. Eventually we made our way to the Canadian border. The next several hours were spent looking at trees and various bodies of water. In other words, we encountered a lot of nothing. Traffic was even minimal, but that was all to change quickly. Entering Halifax, we found ourselves in the middle of rush hour traffic. Finally, we both agreed to get out of town, locate a hotel and re-evaluate our plans for Thursday. When all was said and done and we parked the bike at Quality Inn and Suites for the night, we had traveled a total of 484 miles.
This morning we both slept in as our plans for the day include a visit to the Museum of the Atlantic,
which unfortunately does not open until 9:30am. After the experience, we had coming into Halifax last
evening, we decided to explore the possibility of taking a taxi downtown, but decided not to when we learned
that the cost would be $25 each way. With the assistance of Map Quest, we wrote out the step-by-step
instructions so that I could navigate while Craig drives. The weather outside was wet with temperatures only
in the 50s. Once we finished loading the trailer, it was time to head out. Working together, we quickly
made our way to the museum. The next trick was to find parking. We noticed a public parking lot in the block
down from the museum so we quickly turned in and parked. A man parking next to us was kind enough to explain
that we needed to purchase minutes in advance. When I was unable to get the machine to read my card, I had to
break into my laundry money and start feeding quarters into the machine. Finally, we were ready to walk
across the street to the museum. The museum was even more spectacular than I had anticipated. It was
certainly larger than I had thought, and full of some of the most outstanding models that I had ever seen.
The detail work was incredible. After walking through the Titanic exhibit, we stopped off in the gift shop to
pick up a couple souvenirs, before heading off to a 3-D movie, Dive to the Titanic. Leaving the museum
proved more challenging than we had expected. Road construction kept us from being able to utilize the
instructions that we had downloaded from the Internet. As soon as we located a sign Outbound 102
we followed
it all the way out of Halifax. We spent the remainder of the day working our way back to St John. We traveled
a total of 299 miles. I am looking forward to getting back in the USA tomorrow.
We got an early start this morning. We hit the road at 6am Atlantic time to avoid any congestion at the border. The temperature was only 48°, but the sky was clear. Now before I describe our experience at the border, I need to let you all in on a little secret. Coming into Saint John Thursday night, we needed to pay a .50 toll. Neither Craig nor I had any change left on us, so without hesitation, Craig ran the tollbooth. As we approached the USA border this morning, three border patrol agents directed us into a separate lane and then brought out a drug-sniffing dog. The scent of Columbian coffee in the trailer seemed to excite the German Shepard. After reviewing our passports and asking us a few questions, we were allowed back into the country. We immediately pulled into a gas station to top off the tank, and grab some Budweiser and Diet Coke for later. After a quick cup of coffee, we headed out for Bangor to pick up the interstate. Everything seemed to be going along nicely until we took a side trip to Gloucester, Massachusetts. Merging back onto 95 South, we found ourselves in Boston rush-hour traffic. Imagine if you will, four lanes of traffic traveling in the same direction at a complete standstill for approximately 30 miles. I know. It was not something that I could have imaging either, however there it was. Thank goodness, traffic going south was moving along. Once we turned off onto 295, traffic thinned out considerably. After 515 miles, we have decided to call it a night in North Attleboro, a suburb of Providence, RI.
I am not even sure where to begin tonight. Last night after I typed and sent our daily update, I decided to do a couple of loads of laundry just to stay on top of things. When I went to check the status of our jeans, money began falling out of the dryer. My lucky day, but then I realized that that the money was Craigs because there were four two-dollar bills. This was not a good sign. I knew that those bills were hidden in his wallet, which meant that I must have washed and dried it. Sure enough when I reached in the back pocket of his jeans, there was his wallet. I spent the next 15 minutes frantically searching for anything else that may have fallen out. The good news, everything seemed to survive. I waited until morning to tell Craig. Why screw up his sleep. Our plans for today include making our way through New Jersey to Aberdeen, MD. I had no idea what to expect. Once on 95 South, we were on our way. I had no idea that we would be traveling through the Bronx or crossing the George Washington Bridge, but that is exactly what we did. I saw parts of New York that I never anticipated seeing, including the skyline. We even took the New Jersey turnpike, which proved to be a disaster. Traffic was moving along just fine, until they decided to merge six lanes of traffic into three. We had not experienced traffic backups on other turnpikes so this was a little frustrating, but we hung in there. When the day was finally over, and we reached our destination, a Super 8 in Aberdeen, MD, we had spent more on toll fees, than on gas. I cannot wait to get back to civilization.
Happy Fathers Day. We left Aberdeen this morning and headed directly for Washington, DC. Temperatures were already in the high sixties, so we only put on our lightweight jackets. The instructions that we downloaded proved to be perfect. Within no time, at all we were in the middle of Washington, DC and all that it has to offer. Craigs primary interest was seeing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial so we headed in that general direction, stopping along the way to see the Washington Monument, the National Archives, the White House and the Lincoln Memorial. From DC, we decided to head for the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia to drive along the skyline. I will admit that the first hour, maybe hour and a half was beautiful, but after that, the drive lost its appeal. With temperatures climbing into the eighties, all the curves and speeds of only 35 mph, I began to get sick. Craig pulled over so that I could grab a Scopolamine patch to help ease my suffering. Eventually after about 3 hours we arrived in Front Royal, Va. We quickly checked into our hotel, settled in, and ordered Chinese for dinner. We traveled a total of 333 miles today. Tomorrow we plan to head to Pennsylvania.
This morning we left Front Royal, and headed directly for Gettysburg, PA. As soon as we arrived, we stopped into the Visitors Center to obtain a map of the battlefield. Within the Visitors Center, there was a museum filled old firearms and uniforms, as well as other pieces from the Civil War. We stopped and spoke with a park ranger who gave us a map of the battlefield and instructed us on where to begin the auto tour. The battlefield itself was spectacular. Monuments were set at the location of each brigade. Driving around the site caused a chill to run down my spine. After completing the tour of Gettysburg, we headed off to Somerset, PA to get checked into our hotel. Once checked in, we headed off to the United Flight 93 Memorial. Talk about a humbling experience. Finally, with temperatures in the low 90s, and the possibility of a thunderstorm developing, we headed back to the hotel for the evening. Total mileage for the day was 327 miles. Tomorrow we will begin the track for home.