The Nor’easter of 2019
Saturday, August 17....East Coast Anthem (Good Charlotte)
Prologue: Kim and I have been married/riding together for 8 years and somewhere
along the line we made it a goal to ride our bikes in all 50 states. However we’ve scaled it back to riding in
each of the lower 48 states...while we’ve been to Alaska, we’re probably not
going to get Hawaii. Airfare to Hawaii has
been just too cost prohibitive these days.
Anyway, nine northeastern/east coast states are all that stand in the
way of us accomplishing the lower 48 goal.
We’ve put it off for one reason or another since 2015 but the time for
excuses is over. “Let’s git’er done” has
become our motto this year.
Several months ago, Kim received a text from his son Adam inquiring
whether we were interested in a trip to the east coast with him, Justin and
Justin’s parents, Ed and Bonnie. “Why,
sure! Do you mind if we ride our bikes?”
The planning started and now we get to put another check mark on our “Life’s
To Do List” and also get to spend some vacation time with family. Could I have a side of lobster with that,
please? 😋
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The others are flying into Boston early on August 25th and then
heading up to Ellsworth, Maine. We’ve loosely mapped out a route that
has us meeting up with them sometime on the 25th. We won’t ride through all the necessary
states on the way out there...we’ll catch the remainder on the way back to
Michigan. We’ve allotted 3 weeks to do
this trip and it might or might not take us that long. But however long it takes, it’s a break from
the busy-ness of a Charlevoix summer and I’m so looking forward to it!
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So we’ve got a week to ride just over 1500 miles...easy peasy if we
don’t get sidetracked by my wild need for spontaneous adventure. Kim just has to be on guard and gently remind
me of our timeline when I say, “Hey, did you see that billboard back there?” 😎
Sunday, August 18....Raining on Sunday (Keith Urban)
We planned on leaving yesterday (Saturday) but just didn’t our act
together enough to pull it off. So we took yesterday to get everything packed
up with the intention of getting up early today to get on the road.
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Our intent is to camp our way to the coast, staying either in our tent
or a KOA cabin. Adam has rented houses
through Airbnb for our time with them. While
camping is easier on the budget, we sacrifice time when Kim pulls the camping
trailer behind his bike. On the highway,
he typically keeps it slightly below the speed limit which affects our arrival
time only slightly. However, Flame’s gas
mileage suffers which results in more frequent gas stops and as any biker knows
a gas stop on a motorcycle isn’t just about getting gas. It’s about getting off the bike and getting
the kinks out of your body...it’s about using the restroom...it’s about taking
time to talk with each other, check messages or make a phone call...it’s about
getting a drink or eating a snack. You
know all those things you can’t do when you’re rolling down the road on a
bike....and too many of those kind of stops can add up.
Riding about 1550 miles in 7 days breaks down to about 225 miles a day. At 60 mph it would take us under 4 hours to
ride that distance. Very doable; however,
this is
a Kim n Karen ride. Experience has shown that we don’t get from Point A
to Point B as quickly as Rapunzel thinks we should. We try...we really do try but it just doesn’t
happen. But still, 225 miles a day should
be easy...even with those extra gas stops.
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Hoping to go with the “Early to bed, early to rise” strategy, even
though neither of us is an early morning person. While we don’t intend to start the bikes
at the butt crack of dawn when others are still sleeping, there will be a tent
to take down and a trailer to pack before we can get on the road. Just seems prudent to get up early so we can
get stay on track with our daily mileage.
That’s the theory anyway...putting it into practice may be a different
story altogether.
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It was sunny and 70o when we left the driveway at 9:15 this
morning. Ellsworth is 6 miles down the
road and as we passed through it this morning I chuckled at the thought that
the first week of our trip will have an Ellsworth on each end.😉
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The Toledo area was our destination for today so we headed to Gaylord to
get on south 1-75. The sun held for most
of the morning but we were warned of rain/thunderstorms when we stopped for gas
near the Saginaw area. Sure enough there
were dark ominous looking clouds coming our way when we got back on the
road. Luckily we were able to avoid rain
by finding the magic spots through the storm clouds...until we got to
Ohio. Crossed the state line and the
sprinkling started with streaks of lightning in the distance. Thunder boomers soon followed and just that
quick we were riding in the rain. Ding
dang!! I hate riding wet! Luckily, the
rain didn’t last long enough to get my clothes soaked but it was difficult to
see because my goggles got rain spattered.
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Arrived at the Toledo East/Stony Ridge KOA about 5 p.m. It was nice to set the tent up in daylight which doesn’t always happen with us.
And the fact that it wasn’t raining was a big bonus. Can’t really say that it’s dry because the
humidity is atrocious...nothing feels dry even though it’s not wet.
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So the first day of riding is in the bag...we made our daily mileage
quota and then some. We’re going to
shoot for more than 225 miles a day so maybe we’ll have time to explore along the
coastline of Connecticut.
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We need to ride through Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut,
Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont in order to claim
the prize...no flexibility there. The
flexibility will come into play with the route and the lodging options, which
will require researching on the computer each night. Oh, well, if we stop early enough in the day
that shouldn’t be a problem.
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OMGoodness! The cicada choir is singing tonight!! There is some high volume bug noise going on
around here and it kind of comes in waves.
Gonna be an interesting night.
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At 9 p.m. we were both tired but
didn’t want to go to bed so early because we’d be awake at 4 a.m. That would be taking ‘early to bed, early to
rise’ to the extreme. No thanks! 😏
At 9:30 p.m. the wind picked up
and then the rain started. We had just
reached the safety of the tent with all technology in hand when we were engulfed
in a full-on thunderstorm. Not fun to be
in a tent surrounded by trees in a windy thunderstorm. Ugh!! Upon
checking the forecast, I see that the thunderstorm is due to end at 1:15
a.m. That’s over 2 ½ hours from now...I’d
rather listen to the cicadas. 😒
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Observation from the other side
of the tent: “Well, my shoelaces
behaved today. I’d say it’s been a good
day overall.”
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Today's mileage: 333 miles
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