Thursday, July 26, 2012

Bang 'er home, with a few mishaps

Day 20, July 26th, thursday

Today was the longest day of the entire trip.  It was also the last.

Fear not, for this brave adventurer did not crash of have any of the sort of problems of that respect.  This adventurer was sick of wet feet.

You heard it. Wet feet did me in.  I figured a few days off before going back to work would be prudent.

The day started off pretty normal... my alarm on my phone buzzing me awake as the jets overhead buzzed the motel.  Yes, it seems most of the motels I could find (decent ones) were all near the airport in Bangor. It was neat to see all types of planes come in for the approach the night before... everything from Lear jets, Jumbos and Cessnas.  I will say that the beds at the Days Inn were some of the most comfortable I've slept in.  It felt like the bed swallowed you up.  Is nice...

I got up and went to the motel lobby for the complimentary breakfast.  Waste not want not.  I took a bowl of fruit loops (generic brand actually), a raspberry yogurt (all they had), a small berry muffin of some kind and a coffee.  This time, I didn't drink out of the bowl... Still gives me shivers thinking of that feeling of wet paper to my lips. ack.

The day was nice and sunny, and partly overcast.  I guess the prevailing winds were going to change that for me and I was in a collision course with them as I was going west.

A friend (Logan/Al) advised on taking US-2 towards the mountains. He's a truck driver and always uses that route. I had planned on taking US-2, but this cemented it.

To the mountains!

A few pics along the way


 A nice twisty ride but you can't keep a constant speed.  It helps pass the time.

Along the way I came across a Tim Hortons.  Tims is really starting to take over the USA.  but alas, like most Tims in the states, they are always near empty.  Maybe Americans just don't like coffee.

Or maybe they can't figure out how to get into the parking lot with all the DO NOT ENTER signs and just give up.
More miles were added and I stopped over in Farmington as it was a decent sized town that should have a decent place for breakfast. I rode all over town and I gave up on my search. On the way out of town I spotted and Irving Big Stop/ Circle K/ restaurant.  bingo.

I was in the US, so I ordered something a bit American.
Biscuits and Sausage gravy, two eggs, bacon and toast.
Delicious. I ate it all.  Second breakfasts are always better than the first.
I spoke to a guy in the restaurant for a while about bikes and biking... then he says, good thing I didn't ride mine today, seems you're going to get a bit wet.
I overhear one waitress say to another, "it's about time we get some rain, it's been so dry lately"

I am the rain bringer.

It was a light rain and decided on only putting my top liner and forgoing the bottoms.  It was warm out and if my legs did get wet, they would air dry quickly.  This meant I had to put the camera away until drier times.

Off I went in search of mountains, specifically Mount Washington for the auto road where you can drive up the mountain to the peak.

Made my way in the wet to the town of Gorham, just north of Mount Washington on US-2.  Had myself a Dunkin Donuts coffee and warmed my feet a little by being out of the rain.  I was getting a little excited and didn't even finish my coffee.  Today, I climb Mount Washington with Beast.  Beast was running well, and had more growl than normal.  I think Beast was getting excited.  I had ridden from Ottawa to Mount Washington and back in one day with my other bike (the M50) and wanted to do it with Beast too.

Made my way to the auto road start where I was told that it was closed. WHAT?  It seems I brought too much rain which caused the gravel road on the mountain to turn to mud so no one was going up or down the mountain at this time as it was too unsafe.  I was tempted to ask him to just let me try with Beast (I know we would have done it, we're a good team) but alas I figured safety first and all that crap.  I wouldn't want to go 6000 feet the wrong way on the tail end of my trip.

I was a little dejected at this point for not going up the mountain and the rain was pissing me off.  It was at this time I hit the HOME button on the GPS and hightailed it home.  I was sick of the rain, sick of the wet feet and sick of not being able to take pictures.

The closest interstate going north was the I-91 and I headed right for it.  Before I got to it, I decided to fuel up as gas was cheaper.  After fuelling, I pulled the bike around so that I could have my last coffee and smoke in the USA.  As I was putting it on the side stand, the bike just tipped over, ever so slowly.  I think I was just exhausted at this point.  Before I had time to react, someone asked if I needed help righting the bike again and I agreed. Allez-oops and up it came. The random stranger was worried about damage to the bike, in which I laughed and said " No no, it's just tired... it was just taking a nap!"  he laughed.  Gotta love KLRs for that.

It had stopped raining at this point and decided to turn on the GoPro for the I-91 portion towards Canada.  I'm not sure if I was able to record my attempt to go back in time.  I did attain the magical 88 miles per hour (142km/h) but alas I forgot my Flux Capacitor at home.  No time travel today, just regular travel.

Right before I hit the Canadian border, the American border patrol had an operation going. When it was my turn, the agent asked if my camera was recording.  As I hadn't turned it off, it was still blinking red.  He asked me to pull off to the side.  fack.

They came over and asked me to delete everything of the camera. WHAT?  seems you can't record these guys during an 'operation'.  I didn't know that.  I told them I would delete the last clip which was from the gas station.  crap.

Deleted.  my time travel attempt was not caught on film.  dammit.  not a huge deal as there wasn't much of interest on it.

Beast was eager to get home as was I... I can't say I was speeding, but I will say I was passing a heck of a lot of traffic.  Montreal was a total blur and I think I took a few people by surprise. hah.

Before going straight home, I went to go see my dad as he was worried about this trip more than others due to the remoteness of Labrador and the east coast in general.

Like I told him, "Don't worry, you did your job and trained me well enough"


I think that made his day... It not only made my day, but made my trip(s) possible.




stay tuned for useless facts and statistics





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