Eastern by Northern Border Ride

------------------------------------
TIER II - NORTH BORDER EAST
AUGUST 14 - AUGUST 26 2014
----------------------------------------------



Day 1 - Thursday - 8.14.14  .....To Bloomington and Nook's....
Str Cty  :  Madison Str Mls   :  50000
End Cty  :  Bloomington, IN End Mls   :   50423
Dly Mls  :  415 Miles Tot Mls   :  415 Miles
Time      :  6.5 Hours Notes      :  <80  deg
Left home at 8 and had to return to change helmets to my full face ..when you have options there are choices to be made. Rode Hwy M to 14 to I39 south to Bloomington IL. I74 east to I57 south (because traffic was backed up in Champaign) to 36 east to 321 south to Spencer and east to Kelzie's. Nice aparTiment in great location for the coming year. Nice ride with temps below 85 all day. 423 miles as my '04 1150RT turned 50K. Lite dinner of yogurt and sparkling water. Read papers, no TV, trying to keep up with the tragedy in Ferguson, MO turned travesty by paramilitary cops and their violation of constitutional rights and turf of the local people.

Interim... Arrived at Nook's by 4, very tired. I spent the evening reading and snoozing. Friday I had lunch with Bloomington friend, Richard Jenness. Thelma and Louise rolled in at 6:00 and we went out for dinner at Lenny's, one of our old stand-by restaurants here. Saturday we drove out to the North Mount Pleasant area...Visiting Lawson's and Eichelberg-Ezells. We had dinner at The Farm near the square sitting outside. It felt good to be at the table together! This is move-in weekend so the restaurant and street were busy. Sunday we did laundry, went to see Kelzie's office-study carol (and met her deskmate and his wife), met E-E for lunch @ Panera, stopped to look at IU paraphernalia at TIS, drove out to Lilly and Abigail Grimes' home in Ellettsville to visit and kibitz and got back to K's aparTiment by 4 for the cable person, but no show. Ordered in Chinese for dinner.


Day 2 - Monday - 8.18.14.  East...Cincy..Huntington..Lewisburg, WV..
Str Cty  : Bloomington, IN Str Mls   : 50423
End Cty  :  Lewisdurg, WV End Mls   :  50865
Dly Mls  :  427 Miles Tot Mls   :  842 Miles
Time       :  7.5 Hours Notes     :  rain from CHARLESTON
427 miles and 842 total with rain for the last 104 miles from Charleston WV over Midland highway # 60. Nice trip via 46 and 65 to Cincinnati. Then down the Ohio Valley scenic highway #52 to Aberdeen. Then to Huntington and Charleston before hitting Hwy# 60, rain, the Kanawha River to its source, past several power plants and mines, and over 3000' in the WV hills. HIX and no bikes allowed under cover. Clothes are in the dryer and continued rain.. No dinner, but 4 cookies and an apple. Up late catching up on the Ferguson and militarization problems.

Day 3 - Tuesday - 8.19.14 Into VA to Buena Vista VA to see Nell...
Str Cty   :   Lewisdurg, WV Str Mls   :  50865
End Cty   :  Hampton, VA End Mls   :  511167
Dly Mls   :  294 Miles Tot Mls  :  1136 Miles
Time       :  5.5  Hours
Left late to ride 80 miles on I64-8 to BV over the mountains in the fog, arriving at 10:45. Nell immediately recognized me and did talk a bit. Ann and Dallas arrived at noon to provide feeding and organize her services. We had a nice visit and caught up. As we were leaving the hospice worker arrived. I then rode Hwy 60 thru a kudzu canyon just beyond the Blue Ridge Parkway. I bypassed Richmond with smart southern expressway planning, on the fly. Went to cross the James River bridge but it was closed. The people at a service station sent me 30 miles down the south side of the River on SR10. The inconvenience turned serendipitous... the ferry to Jamestown was free and we sailed right by where Marn and I anchored in '01. I then took the Jamestown-Williamsburg Parkway.   Then I64 to Hampton, VA and the HIX.  Made up for no dinner last nite... Outback steak, shrimp, onion petals, blue cheese chop salad and peach tea. 294 miles and 1136 total. A thought: I rode 21025 miles last summer..










Day 4 - Wednesday - 8.20.14.  coasting -MD, DE, NJ to Long Branch
Str Cty   :  Hampton, VA Str Mls   :511167
End Cty   :  Long Branch End Mls   :  51485
Dly Mls    :  323 Miles Tot Mls  :  1458 Miles
Time          :  6.79 Hours  I stayed in the best HIX this Summer in Hampton last night.. Small but well appointed room close to the front door. Nicest cordial people. Left at 8:30 to go over the Hampton harbor where we anchored and got a cannon ball stuck in the anchor aboard Kelzie's School and to see Hampton Institute. Then into the tunnel under the Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk.  Rode to the harbor to see where we anchored and got caught on a cable - smaller anchorage than I remembered. Then paid $13 to transit the bridge tunnels at the entrance to the Chesapeake. I wanted to see the beaches and ocean so I went to Ocean City, MD - I saw several sand dunes and many buildings, but no water was sighted. Continued thru VA, MD and Delaware to catch the Ferry to NJ for $37. Waited 45 minutes, loaded and transited an hour and half. Decided to ride the Garden State Parkway up NJ to get to my HIX just below NY. Luckily, I was able to cancel my Atlantic City reservations late and get further north. The 65 mph limit was destroyed by all. Had an argument with the hotel manager about a photo id...which I claimed I didn't have, and I finally won after showing everything easy to retrieve. Need to write a review for the HIX last nite. Had dinner at the very busy and popular Sitting Duck -  overcooked fried clams and a big salad. Good weather with lower than 85 degrees.

Day 5 - Thursday - 8.21.14 around the city and into New England
Str Cty   :  Long Branch, NJ Str Mls   : 51485
 End Cty  :  Lawerce, MA End Mls   :  51846
 Dly Mls  :  343 Miles Tot Mls   :  1802 Miles
Time       :  7.25 Hours
Riding in a Buffalo Herd... Up early and checked/pumped tires. Got onto the Garden State Parkway $1.50 riding at 55 mph for 30 miles before I made a wrong turn and got onto the New Jersey Parkway... There were no tickets so I went on and when I got to the pay booth I was charged for the entire parkway at $13.85 which I have to send in. When I got to the George Washington bridge I did not have enough money available and I will receive a bill for $13. By now I had been in 3 traffic jams. I went thru the most compact and densely populated part of the US - not my type of environment. It was packed tight on I95 all the way from Meadowlands to

Darien Ct. Then 60mph. Got off the expressway on 114 to go past the University of Rhode Island...beautiful cross between Middlebury College and IU. I love the rock fences that are everywhere delimiting property lines. I then went to Narragansett Island and over the $4 (that I had to undress to get to in order to pay while having a conversation with a neat mothering lady money taker) bridge into Newport where we had anchored and visited. Then back roads to Providence RI, up to 195 around Boston to Lawrence, MA (28 miles north of Cambridge) at a HIX. All riding except for off the interstate in RI was nerve racking - I am still shaking... But relief was in sight as New England has been taken over by Dunkin' Donuts stores, as ubiquitous as HORTONS in Canada. NJ, NY, CT, RI, MA..... Great weather!

Week Two

Day 6 - Friday - 8.22.14    North into Maine and along the coast
Str Cty   :  Lawerce, MA Str Mls   :  51846
End Cty   :  Bangor, ME End Mls   :  52090
Dly Mls   :  231 Miles Tot Mls   :  2033 Miles
Time      :  5 Hours Notes      :  52 k ‘04
Up to rain in northern MA and southern ME....wait! When the rain went to a spurt I was on 95 going north, and when I crossed the Maine border the sun came out. Continued until Portland/295- to Falmouth far side where Nancy's family loaded into our boat in 1990 and then toward Freeport and LL Bean.. The place is now huge (we were there in '74 and '90 from the boat-they pick u up from their dock on Penobscot Bay) and I could not walk far enough to see much of the many buildings. I then road on Hwy 1 to Rockland for scallops, Camden for the square riggers and on to Bangor thru the hills and bays to HI.  231 miles, 2055 total and turned 52k on my bike. Corn soup, fried clams (without bellies) and cole slaw. Can't get the Packer game. The neatest thing I've seen is the back window where the white pictures of the family usually are, the car had miniature pictures of all the electronics they own - iPhones, deck top, iPads, laptop, etc.











Day 7 - Saturday - 8.23.14.  Downeast...
Str Cty    :  Bangor, ME Str Mls   :  52090
End Cty    :  Bangor, ME End Mls   :  52280
Dly Mls     :  173 Miles Tot Mls   :  2205 Miles
Time         :  4.5 Hours
Up late for game and a short ride today...the goal is to get within 50 miles of Canada and return to Bangor for the nite. Clean clothes tomorrow. This is a test pitting Dunkin' Donuts against HORTONS ... Results later. Rode 50 miles to Northeast Harbor where we rode out a storm on a mooring after Labor Day in '90. Beautiful town surrounded by water...I shall move there one day. HORTONS is winning.  They were having a run and the downtown was closed so I could not get carrot cake at Majestic Bakery. Cruised the harbor for our mooring (can you see our dink) and lots of streets looking for my new house. Left there for Jordan Pond in Acadia NP where the Gillilands worked summers during their courting days - hard to see for the forest. Back to the coast I went around the big bay to Winter Haven where we anchored a couple of days and I went out fishing for lobsters with a lobsterman on his boat for a day. I pestered him till he agreed to take me along at 5am, getting back early aft. He gave me all the one claw lobsters and we fed the anchorage. I went back to the Lobster Coop dock and refused to leave as instructed as I was talking with a line-running lobster boat (a much more lucrative method of fishing) which brought in 1500#. I learned the names of 2 solo lobster men I might have gone out with 25 years ago ... The son of one of them was in the next boat to unload.  He told me about his dad who lobstered alone until age 83, but I was not sure it was him. I then had a lobster roll at a road-side stand and headed back 50 miles for gas and HORTONS! HORTONS is still winning. 178 miles and 2205 total in 4.5 hours. Bangor is a town of 39k people with 4 institutions of higher learning and the longest runway on the east coast (closed Air Force base). Close by is Orono where the University of Maine is located... So it is easy to get an education around here. Finished off with clam chowder.





Day 7 - Sunday - 8-24.14. Turning toward home... To Burlington VT
Str Cty   :  Bangor, ME Str Mls   :  52280
End Cty   :  Watertown, NY End Mls   :  57792
Dly Mls   :  486 Miles Tot Mls   :  2691 Miles
Time       :  9.25 Hours
Left with the idea of going to Burlington, but by noon as I entered VT I cancelled my reservation in Burlington and headed straight across the top of Vermont. To this point I had ridden state and county roads, some short sections only at 30 mph cuz the surface was so bad. I crossed the northern part of Lake Champlain just a mile or less from Canada. I was taking 11 but when I got to Cornwall turnoff I decided to take the road in the St. Lawrence valley #37 on the Seaway Route. I saw some water thru the trees, and finally got a glimpse of the seaway and a small ship. I finally settled on Watertown as an end point and made a reservation 100 miles out, arriving at 5:45. Dinner at 5 Guys. 485 miles and 2700 total in 8.25 hrs.

Day 8 - Monday - 8.25.14.    Ugh!
Str Cty   :  Watertown, NY Str Mls  :  57792
End Cty   :  Gaylord, MI End Mls   :  53601
Dly Mls   :  784 Miles Tot Mls   :  3475 Miles
Time      :  11 Hours Notes      :  oil leak  783 miles (2nd most this summer) and 3475 total.  Developed an oil leak in the left cylinder.. One of the bolts for the valve cover was loose. Interstate all the way...south on 81, east on 90 to 80, north on 75/23 to Gaylord, Michigan.  It is a family play ground area and has 18 golf courses. Exhausted but pleased... Looks like the leak is minimized and I can make Mischlers tomorrow- 460 miles to go.

Day 9 - Tuesday - 8.26.14    To Mischlers and HOME...
Str Cty    :  Gaylord, MI Str Mls   : 53601
End Cty    :  Home End Mls   :  54089
Dly Mls    :  469 Miles Tot Mls   :  3944 Miles
Time        :  7.9 Hours
Worried about the leak all day in spite of checking oil level and tightness of bolts. Left in clouds which cleared by the Time I got to the Mackinaw Bridge. Then west along Lake Michigan ...with many views of the water. Lost my 50 mile buffer from the border when I met Hwy 41 in Marinette. And will return for the last 200 miles along the shore of Lake Superior to Ashland. I stopped at Saranac near Lambeau Field and bought 5 pairs of gloves. Went on to Mischlers where I dropped off the '04 and rode home on my '12. Did accounting and now TV. Today 468 miles in 7.5 hours. Trip data:  4089 miles on bike and 3944 miles on gps. Total for year 23028 so far. Great to be home...!

SUMMARY:  average miles per day = 454 miles   (4089 total)

TOTAL       DAILY $   /MILE
TOTAL $ 1240 138 0.30
Room  514 57 0.13
Fuel            306 34 0.08
Food  247 27 0.06
Travel  140 15.56 0.03
Misc   25          2.78 0.01