Brent, Ralph, Tracy, Marty, and Sally go to NE NS NB

[MartyA]

We took another trip!
Our little group consists of Ralph madbiker and Tracy who live near Lancaster, PA, on a 99 Royal Star (Venture Royale without the plastic), Brent you all know from Lilburn, GA who drives up on his 2002 HD "Fire-fighter's Special Edition" the day before and travels with us. And you know me and Sally.

We take 8-10 days each year and travel to some part of the country, and we try to stop and see landmarks of notoriety and lesser notoriety, mostly free if possible, while we collect states (and Canadian provinces this time.) Last year we went to South Dakota from PA, collected 14 states and saw things like Devil's Tower, buffalo herd, Annie Oakley's grave, Deadwood, St. Louis Arch, Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SD, stuff like that. We don't use GPS, I have MaPS from Streets and Trips.

This year we had 10 days (started out 9 but available motels were further off our route so we had to add another day) beginning June 28 - "Day 1".

It turns out that we had a sub-theme to our trip this year. Brent is a member of the Red Knights, and they have some sort of contest for their members to get a photo in front of fire houses with 1st initials that will spell out "Red Knights Grand Tour". So we stopped at many fire houses along the way (adding many many many minutes to the schedule.)

[MartyA]

Day 1 select photos PA, NJ, NY, CT


We of course prepare our own breakfast...


Packing to leave from Ralph and Tracy's:



First main stop was in NJ to see this fine lady.
Brent had never seen the Statue of Liberty.


This is Tracy and Sally.


All of us:


On a clear day you can see most of Manhattan from NJ. I lived in NJ for many years the twin towers were a sight from here.
The taller pointed building in the background is the Empire State Building.

THis is Ellis Island.


We headed north by way of George Washington Bridge.


(We take lots of photos of ourselves when the ride gets boring...)




to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (as in the Legend of Sleepy Hollow) in the former South Tarrytown, NY




Washington Irving is buried there:


Here Brent is buying free stuff...


After we checked in at our motel we spotted these in New London, CT:







And to close out the day we ate here:




Great pizza and the price was surprisingly good.

Day 2 follows...

[madbiker]

We ate lunch at the Headless Horsemen Dinner in Sleepy Hollow . Also some of the roads we were on were pretty rough I hit a milled area of road so hard it cut my speedo wire in half plus bent the h3ll of my saddle bag bracket
Ralph

[29desertniteyes]

Pics

Great pics. It was like I was riding with you guys. I saw on the map Long Beach and it looks like an Island, can you tell me anything about the place? It would be great to see a beach that I have not been to before. That gets boring after a while. Really like the pics and the information

[MartyA]

Day 2 CT, RI, MA, NH, ME



We left London / Mystic area and headed to Newport, RI. Newport, RI has an area along the shore called "Mansion Row" lots of huge summer cottages for the rich and famous:


Anyone remember the TV soap Dark Shadows? Here is the castle from the opening credits:

Now belongs to Salve Regina College, girls dormitory.



On the way to Plymouth Rock we came upon this notorious place:



At Plymouth, MA we spotted the Mayflower:



And what is left of Plymouth Rock:


Lexington, MA is famous for being the birthplace of American Liberty. On the Battle Green, Mr Minute Man:



Brent getting an earful of history...


This flag flies 24/7 by order of Congress:



Did you know there are TWO Minute Man statues?? This one is in Concord, MA:


Did you know there are TWO Sleepy Hollow Cemeteries? This one in Concord, MA has an "Author's Ridge" where famous authors are buried:
Raloph Waldo Emerson "Self Reliance":

Nathaniel Hawthorne "The Scarlet Letter":

Henry David Thoreau: "Walden Pond":

Louisa May Alcott "Little Women"



We were headed to Salem to dig up some of Sally's ancestors, but we hit some rain, we were running a little late, so we headed to Kittery, ME to the motel.

[CarolynS]

Wish I would've known.
The shots on 95 you're only minutes from my house!!
Ah, well...Next weekend we all meet!

[madbiker]

The castle was called Collinwood estate and was home to the Vampires and werewolvesof the show. In this town we made the 1st stop for Brent to start the side bar of the trip. I also got some bad gas in Plymouth that caused me to wonder if the bike was going to make the trip ,but it powered though . Had supper at Warren's Lobster House and got to see Brent tear in to a Lobster . Great seafood!
Ralph

[MartyA]

Sidebar:

Brent ate lobster like there was no lobster to be found in Atlanta....



I mentioned in the 1st post we had a sub-theme for this trip. Brent is trying to take a photograph of him in front of fire houses in towns with 1st initials that would spell "Red Knights Grand Tour" OR one could just send many many photos to this contest and also hope to win a patch. We made a LOT of stops just in case....

At most of these rural fire houses we would stop, Brent would pose for a moment in front and either Tracy or Sally would take his picture.


Many times there was a fireman on duty inside, he would see Brent, come out to warn him to not block the garage and engines, or ask him to move, then they would chat, and you know this Southern boy can make friends anywhere, then the on-duty guy sees the bike, then goes back to get his camera and call his buddies, then they show up, and then suddenly we have a crowd and the jawing commences...



We are very careful how we spend our money on these trips, and we try to keep it cheap or free when possible. One way we keep it cheap is all 5 of us sleep in the same room. One place told us it was against the law to have an extra bed in the room, so Brent would sleep on the extra pillows or his air mattress. Sometimes it is difficult to find space for Brent:

"Think it will fit?"
"Dunno, we can try it but what do we do with the table and chairs?"
"Dunno, lets put them out in the hall..."

[MartyA]

Day 3 Maine to Waasis, NB

We're off to see the Wizard of Waasis (well, Doug Mitchell "mitch", another former owner of XS11.


This was supposed to be an easy day, with a couple of stops along the Maine coast and Rt. 1. A short tour of Bah Hahbah / Acadia was planned, 2 border crossings which included a brief stop at Lubec / Campobello and another at Calais, and arrive at our friend and Canadian section guide Mitch's house in Waasis, NB. I had accounted for some traffic delays, but we did need to cover 440 miles.

Well.....

We started out late and in the dark because our motel in Kittery had no power. Sometime around 6 AM the emergency lights had quit. We packed late and in the dark, no offer of a discount or anything (another motel with crappy service) but we did have candles. Later on the trip we had several delays where the pavement was missing and bridges were being rebuilt. AND we found LOTS and LOTS of small town fire departments along Rt. 1.

Our dark motel:


We ate breakfast here, the only place with lights that we could find. Good food.


And of course Brent makes a friend, the only unmarked trooper in the area...


On our route, we did a brief stop at Acadia:




And Pavement ends:


Our 8th bridge repair today:


Pavement ends AGAIN!


Maine has some nice coastline, but you get to see little of it even on Rt. 1:




We crossed at Lubec to see President Franklin Roosevelt's summer home, Campobello, which is actually in Canada:





We crossed right back into Maine, getting some questioning looks from the border folks, then sped off to cross again at Calais. The line looked long but really was only about 15 minutes. Note that it is getting dark and we have a lot of miles yet to go.



At the Crossing at Calais I had called Mitch to let him know we were running late. We were motoring well in the fog heading north and in the complete darkness of New Brunswick our savior Mitch had come south and found us. We flew to his home in time to sit around a campfire and visit and get some laundry done. This is Mitch, Hannah, and the Mrs., Tina. Cannot say enough about our hosts - we were treated better than family!


And me in my jammies at the campfire after a "few" completely gratifying Alpines:


We slept well that night...

[Wayne]

Looks like an awsome trip. Thanks for the picts and report.
One of these days im gonna get up that way and do some riding.

Cheers,

[madbiker]

Marty pretty well has the day cover except he really does not say enough how much saved us that night . Image this your in a strange land . Its dark. Its foggy enought it forms on you windshield . Your flying down a road that has watch for Moose sign all over it and your pretty much thinking your lost . When out of no where Mitch appears . Thats how he saved us. Thanks again Mitch your a great host as was your family .
Ralph

[MartyA]

Yeah Ralph is right about all that except for one thing. I can't say enough about Mitch meeting up with us on the road. It was dark and foggy, but being the sorta leader of this outfit I wasn't lost.

[madbiker]

I agree about Mitch . I never said we were lost (yet) I said thinking you were lost.
Ralph

[MartyA]

Ralph is being too kind. We don't use GPS we use MaPS. Our group is expert in the precision U-Turn.....

[MartyA]

Day 4 Get to Cape Breton and Ride the Cabot Trail!
This map is roughly the route - 1,000+ miles (1,600km) - for days 4-5-6. Mitch was in charge of this portion and I estimated the route based on several conversations we had. Mostly we concentrated on just getting there, nothing exciting except we start to see some nice scenery. Our motel at the start of the Cabot Trail was in Baddeck.


We pack early and leave Tina home in New Brunswick. Mitch and 11 year old daughter Hannah are our guides for the next 3 days.



We are travelling overland and not too exciting, so we take photos of each other.






I think Brent has a "question" ...


Hannah had been so excited for weeks after finding out she was coming with us on this trip. I can only imagine how little sleep she got. We had to stop a couple of times to let her walk around to wake up.


Mitch has an interesting tire on the back of his Intruder. He calls it the "darkside" tire, it is a regular car tire. Might be the last rear tire he buys for that big twin.


We get closer, crossing into Nova Scotia:


And closer:



We arrived at our motel with no problems. It was mostly empty, being Canada Day. Cute motel, nice view:



The restaurant had a very nice dining area, and we asked for lobster. They were out of lobster. We asked for steak. You could only get steak with the surf and turf, and since they were out of lobster we couldn't get the steak. Er, still wondering at that logic....

They did have a nice pool:


So we found a nice restaurant on the water in Baddeck. Nice view:


We were also treated to a fireworks show after dinner, it being Canada Day.