Kim n Karen....On the Road: September 2019

Wednesday, September 4...That’s All (Genesis)

We stopped at Ingersoll, Ontario, last night which is about 85 miles from the Bridge to the U.S.A. near Sarnia. Rapunzel was indicating that we should arrive home in less than 6 hours. We didn’t care that it didn’t happen on her schedule. We got home at 6:30, 8 1/2 hours after we started. 😏

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About 10 days ago out in the Cape Cod area I saw a black car with the vanity plate WELLFLT but I couldn’t see what state it was from. I wondered what it meant until we drove through Wellfleet, a little town out on the Cape. Figured the people in the car had some kind of connection with that area.

On the New York Thruway yesterday I saw a black car with the vanity plate WELLFLT. What are the odds??

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Also yesterday on the New York Thruway, I saw an interesting vanity plate that had me wondering how it got past the censors. It was a Maine license plate with YBNASS on it...it passed us twice so I got a good look at it. Now I realize that the car/plate could potentially belong to a man named York Brody Nass and he wanted his initials and last name on the plate and that’s how he got it past the censor. But, really, what are the odds? 😏

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Border crossing....I watched Kim get off his bike, walk around to look at the license plate, then stand and talk to the border patrol agent. Then I saw him gesture back at me as he was getting on his bike. Oh, no...not again! Kim pulled up to the end of the lane and turned on the radio to tell that he was waiting there for me. When I pulled up, the agent asked me a few questions while looking at my ID, then handed it back to me. Pointing at my bike with a serious expression on his face he asked one last question: ”Why a Road Glide and not a Street Glide?” Certainly wasn’t expecting that one! I said that it fit the kind of riding we do...that I had traded up from a Softail Classic...that my husband was the one who really had a hankering for a Road Glide but he already had the Ultra, etc. That’s when the agent said that he has a Street Glide and really wants a Road Glide also. Everyone behind me was waiting while we discussed motorcycles for a few minutes. Then after telling me to have a safe ride, he waved me on. 😊

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It was very blustery, cloudy and in the low 60s through Canada and up until north of Flint...then the sun came out and the temperature rose into the low 70s. No rain...it was a good day to ride!

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Following the lead of the trucker I met the first day back in OH, I entertained myself by coming up with two word descriptors of various states based on license plates I saw on our travels:

New York: The Empire

Connecticut: The Constitution

Delaware: The First

Florida: The Sunshine

New Jersey: The Garden

Rhode Island: The Ocean

Maine: The Vacationland

Vermont: The Green Mountain

Tennessee: The Volunteer

I know some of those don’t flow real well and personally I struggle with calling New York ‘The Empire’ for several reasons. First it sounds too Stars Wars-ish. And second, I feel that the beautiful countryside of upstate New York is completely overlooked by the name 'The Empire State'. That nickname seems to focus solely on New York City and there is so much more to the state than that traffic nightmare.

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I had plenty of time to give it a good try but I really couldn’t make these three fit into my game :

Massachusetts...The Spirit of America

New Hampshire...Live Free or Die

North Carolina...First in Flight

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I typically don’t look sideways at passing cars. Sometimes movement, like a child waving, will catch my peripheral vision and I’ll look over but mostly I keep my head forward. My eyes are constantly moving but not my head. However, if a vehicle is keeping pace with me I will look over to see what’s up. That’s usually when I see someone grinning at me, giving me a thumbs up, waving enthusiastically or whatever. I respond in kind and they move on. It happened many times on this ride...however, the most unnerving display of enthusiasm came from the driver of a semi. I was passing the truck and I don’t know what made me glance up at the driver’s window but there was the driver nodding, smiling and giving me a thumbs up. I smiled then hit the throttle to get away from him. Appreciated his support but would rather have him focused on the road in front of, not next to, his truck.

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Wednesday’s miles: 371

Total: 3,426 miles

So we’ve ridden our bikes in all of the lower 48 states plus Alaska. What does that earn us?...a t-shirt, a pin, a patch, a certificate? Nope. What it earned us can’t be bought. You know that sense of satisfaction you get when you see something through to completion? When you finish what you started no matter how long it takes? Yeah, that’s what we earned. 😎

Tuesday, September 3...On the Border (Eagles)

Morning thoughts:

Woke to the low mournful sound of the cows mooing. At first I thought it was a foghorn but realized that we aren’t by any water...so it must be the cows. Then a human voice joined in...a human on horseback so it looked like there was some type of herding or round up going on.

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I was a little perplexed about distances that Google Maps was giving us last night. We were checking all relevant routes straight through and then the distances of stopping along the way, figuring out how to break up the trip. Nothing was adding up! The reason I like math is because numbers don’t lie...3 is always 3, 2+2 is always 4, etc. I just couldn’t get a handle on why breaking up the trip would add miles...706 miles from Cooperstown to Charlevoix should be the same if we do it in one day or break it into two. By stopping in Canada which was the shortest route we were adding a couple hundred miles onto our trip? What?!

Well, it all would have made sense right away if I’d caught onto the fact that the distances given from a city in Canada to Charlevoix were in kilometers! It was the ol’ metric trick and I fell for it. We struggled with the numbers for about 10 minutes ‘til Kim figured out what we hadn’t keyed into yet...that little ‘km’ after the number. Whew! Glad his eagle eyes caught that or the math would still be making my head spin this morning.

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New Hampshire, Vermont and New York all have sequential exit numbers...doesn’t matter what the mile marker is. New York has green distance signs; Vermont does too but my experience is that it’s a back road thing and not a highway thing. The Vermont small towns we rode through yesterday had green signs announcing what town we were entering and then underneath, instead of a population number, was the name of the next town and the distance. Just things I notice while I ride.

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Checked the weather radar to see what we might be riding into and whether we should start with rain gear on. It looks like green clouds are coming our way but if we zig when the rain clouds zag we might avoid getting wet.

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The grass is being mowed in this park by an older Amish gentleman who whistles while he works. And his whistle can be heard above the noise of the mower. That’s impressive.

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Before leaving camp today we made the decision to leave the rambu tans behind. We don’t want weird fruit to get us detained when crossing into Canada. Also we ate all the grapes for the same reason.

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Evening thoughts:

We’ve had helmet communicators for a couple of years now. When one of them stops working because of a low battery it can cause frustration for both of us. No fun to try talking to someone who doesn’t answer. 😐 Anyway, Kim’s communicator died today at a very inopportune time...out on the highway we got separated by merging traffic and before I could catch up with him I was surrounded by semis. Couldn’t get him on the communicator and it’s at times like that that I realize how much we rely on them. We use them in heavy traffic to keep track of each other, to keep me informed of upcoming traffic changes and sometimes just to chat if we’re in a traffic slowdown.

Kim plugged it in hoping to get a good enough charge to see us through the traffic changes we’d be making from Buffalo into Canada. We used them sparingly and both lasted until we got to a hotel where we made sure to properly charge them.

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Back on the 2^nd day of our ride, a long piece of aluminum got thrown back at me when the trailer rode over it. I couldn’t avoid it and it smacked loudly into the underneath of my bike. I checked for damage and was pleased that all appeared well. Then last night I happened to see my lower fairing from just the right angle and realized there was a hole with some cracking around the edges of it. 😒 Ding Dang! That’s what the noise was all about...the aluminum hitting my fairing. Don’t know that it can be repaired but Kim is willing to give it a try.

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So we got detained at the border crossing into Canada. Kim pulled in first and had quite a chat with the Canadian border agent as he checked Kim’s license. It seemed to be taking longer than necessary or maybe that’s just because I was sitting on a hot bike on a hot day. As the agent is handing Kim’s license back to him he makes too many hand gestures for simply saying “Be safe and have a nice ride.” As soon as Kim pulls away from the booth, he’s on the communicator saying that he was asked to pull over because another officer wanted to check his ID. Oh, great...not again! When I pull up the agent takes my license, asks some questions, then he says that they want me to join my husband. He hands me a yellow paper as well as my license then directs me to pull in behind Kim. What?! I hate it when this happens! And why is it happening? Are they going to deny us entry? I don’t want to take the long way home at this point. Before I have a chance to look at it, the ‘other officer’ comes out to ask about the yellow paper...I hand it over then we wait. Two agents then come back out and inform us that we are cleared to continue. No other explanation...just you’re all set, enjoy your ride. And it’s funny that it took two to tell us that.

This happened when we went to Alaska also...pull over with no explanation, make us wait, then send us one our way. And we thought keeping the fruit would give us problems.😏

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Since we were in the area, we went looking for Niagara Falls. Eventually found the Falls but how to get a picture without paying $20 for parking and walking a ½ mile was a dilemma. We got creative...just pulled in by the construction cones (no work was being done) and I quickly got off the bike to snap a picture. Back to the bike and then we’re off. Both the American and Canadian Falls are impressive but I still prefer Tahquamenon Falls. It might be a Michigan thing.😎

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Canada has corresponding exit numbers to mile markers...except I guess they’d be called kilometer markers. There are also distance signs; however all distances are in kilometers. Not far into Canada there are signs indicating that ‘100 = 60 mph’ and ’80 = 50 mph.’ Based on 100 = 60, I did some mental math to figure out the conversion of miles to kilometers. Then I tried to apply that to the distance signs...not real sure that my answers are correct but the process keeps me busy while I ride.

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It was a beautiful day for riding. Sometimes cloudy, sometimes sunny...temp in the 70s...and no rain! However about 8:10 p.m. with about 40 minutes to London, Ontario, it started lightening in the distance. By 8:30 the lightening was overhead and we decided to call it good for the day and find a hotel. I have no idea what town we’re in but I know it’s not London.

It’s the first night that we just played it loose...didn’t make reservations because we didn’t know how many miles we’d be able to do. Weather caused us to get off the road a few miles short of our intended destination. We have about 350 miles to get home...should be there by tomorrow night.

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Tuesday’s miles: 371

Total: 3,055 miles

Monday, September 2...Let it Be (The Beatles)

Morning thoughts:

Woke to rain. Yes, we have to ride in it but at least we don’t have to pack up a soggy campsite. 😀 And since we already have reservations for a cabin in Cooperstown, NY for tonight, we can ride as the weather dictates. With rain gear, of course.

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We stayed in Barre, Vermont last night. We kept stumbling over the pronunciation so I finally asked at a store. I have it from good authority that it’s pronounced ‘Berry’. That didn’t even come close to any of my attempts.

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Evening thoughts:

It was a mixed bag for weather today. Light and heavy sprinkle...downpour...just cloudy...sunshine. Some of it stung the face...everything else was covered by rain gear and gloves. The only positive is that neither the temperature nor the rain was cold. The hard rain was bad as it was...adding cold would have been a real game changer.

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It was a mixed bag for our route also....from Barre, VT, to Cooperstown, NY. Majority of our route was on scenic backroads...lots of curves, turns, and a maximum speed of 50 mph. We drove through small towns, along the base of a mountain next to a river and through some beautiful hilly farmland in upstate New York. All the time wondering where in the world Rapunzel was taking us. But there were times of driving 65 mph on highways and the New York Thruway (turnpike). Bottom line is that despite leading us on one of the most convoluted routes we’ve been on yet, Rapunzel still delivered us to our destination.

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We made a stop in Randolph, VT. Kim went into the store and I walked across the road for a picture. It had been sprinkling, nothing major but we did have rain gear on. Kim walked to meet me and as we were walking toward the bikes, a young man sitting in the McDonald’s parking lot started a conversation. His opening line was, “Man, I thought I had it bad but then I see you two on motorcycles in the rain. You got it worse than me.” We walked over to talk.

After we talked traffic, weather, etc., he got real animated and said, “Okay, I got a story for you. Yesterday I was over at a park and there were these flowers, about this high (indicates as high as his car window), and they were right by my window. And this bee came over to them to do his thing...it was right there so I just reached out and petted this bee. It was so cool! Then it flew away...and it came back again so I thought I’d try to pet it again. Reached out my finger and it leaned into it, like this (at this point he demonstrated how a cat leans into being scratched)...just moved his neck and leaned into it. And you know, the bees do so much...man, we need the bees...we wouldn’t exist without bees, you know? It’s like when I was at this park, a couple pulls up and the man gets out and he’s smoking a bowl of the weed...but no big deal, everyone smokes the weed. But he’s acting all arrogant about it to the girl. I’m just sitting there doing my own thing, not bothering them. But then they reach into the car and pull out this 2 month old baby. And I’m like, this is new life, man. This is what it’s about...like life has come full circle, you know? I haven’t about the bees yet but I just had to share that story with someone.”

We eventually said good-bye and got on the bikes. Now the kid in me really wanted to believe that he petted a bee BUT the cynic in me was yelling, “Dude! Bees don’t move like that.” 😐

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There were low hanging clouds when we started out today and in places it looked like they were dripping into the mountains. I wanted to try to get a picture of the effect. When we stopped in Randolph, not only did I have a clear view of the mountainside but there were also a couple of whale tails sticking up out of the ground on the other side of the road. Had to see what this was about.

No plaque or sign indicating what two whale tails were doing on a random hillside. It was nicely landscaped so it looked to be recent and there was a parking lot nearby so it seemed to be officially sanctioned but I still had no idea why. So I typed ‘whale tails Randolph, VT’ into a google search bar and voila! lots of articles appeared. This is an article written by Adam Sullivan on July 19, 2019, on the website wcax.com

RANDOLPH, Vt. (WCAX) Anyone who has driven on Interstate 89 has likely seen the whales' tails in South Burlington. What you might not know is that those whales were originally born in Randolph. And now they have some company back in their birthplace. Our Adam Sullivan has the tale of the whales' tails.

One at a time, a crane lifts both new 3,000-pound sculptures into place off Exit 4 in Randolph.

The original whales' tails sculptures were on display here for a decade. But in 1999, the iconic artwork was moved after the land was sold to developers. They found a new home in South Burlington where the original pair still remains.

"It's thrilling," Jim Sardonis said. "I never expected this to happen. Especially nice to have them back here on this original spot."

Sardonis is the artist behind both sets of whales. He was commissioned for the first sculpture 30 years ago after seeing it in a dream.

"It all came from a dream. I was dreaming I was standing on a beach looking out at the water and two tails came up. Water was cascading off," he recalled.

The developers had big plans for this land, but local residents-- with help from the Preservation Trust of Vermont-- raised $1 million to buy it back for conservation.

The Vermont Community Foundation then stepped in to commission the new art. The new piece is called "Whale Dance." It's cast in bronze and is a little taller than the original work, "Reverence."

"It's about conservation and it's about art, but the primary push for four years was to save the land from sprawl and development," said Marjorie Ryerson, who organized the fundraising effort.

"It's also a celebration of downtown," said Paul Bruhn of the Preservation Trust of Vermont. "Part of why we were interested in seeing this property conserved was that if there was a lot of development out here by the interstate that would have made it very hard from downtown Randolph to build a very strong downtown community."

The whales will now live out their days indefinitely here on the property, helping to preserve a small slice of Vermont.

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We took scenic Highway 12 to Woodstock where we got on U.S. Route 4...it was about this time that the rain really started coming down. Raindrops caused a mess on my goggles...couldn’t see with them and certainly can’t see without them. Then for some reason they fogged up which took it from difficult to see to about impossible to see. Finally, I called Kim on the radio and said that I couldn’t keep going, that all I could see was the yellow center line and the outer white line. I could sometimes see his taillights but not always. I may have been whimpering, I don’t remember. (When Kim read this, he chuckled and said, "Whimpered? You don't remember? Well, I remember.') He looked for a place to stop...he found a gift shop parking lot and we pulled in. Went into the shop and in the time we wandered around the rain lessened and the sky actually lightened a bit. A woman in the store pulled up the weather on her phone and showed me that the worst of it had already passed us. We started out with the hope that she was right...probably 10 minutes down the road the rain slacked off and by the time we cruised into New York it had completely stopped and the road was drying. Eventually the sun even made an appearance.

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We find ourselves needing to get home sooner than we thought. We have two options for a route home from here, both of them taking us to Buffalo, NY. From there Option 1 takes us through Canada to the Sarnia/Port Huron area...Option 2 takes us around the bottom shore of Lake Erie through Cleveland, OH. The time difference is a couple of hours and the mileage difference is about 130 miles. Neither one of us is excited about going through Canada but it’s the quickest way to get from Cooperstown, NY, to Charlevoix, MI.

We could make it in two days but it’d be two days of big miles...as of this time we’ve decided that going through Canada is the smart thing to do but do we want to spend the night in Canada or try to make a big push straight through to Michigan. That’s over a 400 mile day....

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We are in a campground right next to a field full of cows...they’ve been very vocal. I think they plan on serenading us to sleep. And now it's the coyotes. Oh, the sounds of home!! 😏

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Monday’s miles: 217

Total: 2684 miles

Sunday, September 1...Finish What You Started (Van Halen)

This campground (The Cottages at Tower Hill) has a couple of ‘community’ fire pits stationed around the area. Woke up at 2:38 a.m. to the sound of loud music, laughter and voices coming from the front of the campground. This place obviously doesn’t enforce any sort of ‘quiet time’. There was a lot of traffic noise from out on the road also. Didn’t hear any of that noise when I went to bed because I was tired and went out like a light. But eventually it seeped through and woke me up. As I was laying there trying not to think of pagan fire rituals, a vehicle pulled into a nearby site and must have left the vehicle door open...there was a solid 5 minutes of that ‘ding, ding, ding’ sound of keys left in the ignition. I peeked out a tent window and saw the shadow of the guy next door walking around outlined by his truck’s interior light.

Again, people either don’t know how much sound carries outside in the dead of night or they just don’t care. The motto of New Hampshire is Live Free or Die, which on the face of it seems to be an extreme philosophy but someone told me that it really refers to a ‘don’t tell me what to do’ attitude. That might explain the “I’ll make as much noise as I want and too bad if it infringes on what you want to do” attitude of last night’s revelry.

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Motorcycles are everywhere!! I asked if there was some ride going on this weekend and the answer was “No, this is just New Hampshire. It’s a popular place to ride...all year long...people ride.” Really? People ride in the winter? Do you get much snow? Ice? “Sure we get snow but it doesn’t last on the roads long...maybe a day until it’s plowed. I’ve seen guys riding in single digit temperatures.” No way...wouldn’t do it.

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We are camped across the road from Meredith Bay which is one of many little bays off Lake Winnipesaukee. U.S. Route 3 is the road that runs along this area of the bay...lots of bikes running this road, all times of the day, most of them loud.

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A fellow camper with a strong New Hampshire accent and few teeth came over to tell us about a real scenic road up in the White Mountains....the Kangamanga Highway. He mentioned it several times and I repeated it back to him as many times. Yes, that’s the road. So I googled it to find out what he was talking about and found this on kancamagushighway.com: The Kancamagus Highway, also known as "The Kanc," is often misspelled and mis-pronounced Kangamangus Highway, Kangumangus Hiway or Kancamangus Highway. The correct way to pronounce Kancamagus is "Kank-ah-mah-gus.” 😧

The Kancamagus Highway is a 34.5 mile scenic drive along NH's Rt. 112 in Northern New Hampshire that is well known as one of the best Fall Foliage viewing areas in the country. The Kancamagus Highway is now designated an American Scenic Byway for its rich history, aesthetic beauty and culture.

The drive along the Kancamagus Highway takes you back in time as you drive through a forest that offers no comforts of the modern day world; no gas stations, no restaurants, hotels or other businesses have pierced their way into the heart of the Kancamagus Highway. Those luxuries are left behind at both ends of the scenic byway but well within reach when needed.

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Vermont isn’t a wide state so we could just blow right through it but we decided to overnight it in Vermont. We decided to stay in a hotel tonight...just had to find one that didn’t cost a fortune and had good reviews. Actually some of the reviews on the lower prices hotels were funny to read...those people didn’t mince words, that’s for sure. But their frank words served a purpose...we moved onto the mid-priced hotels. Found one in Barre, VT, just outside of Montpelier.

The hotel was less than 90 miles by the direct route. But we wanted to ride ‘The Kanc’ so direct wasn’t in the plan today. I had picked out a scenic route and then mapped it with Rapunzel in sections. We spent a good deal of our day riding in the White Mountains and its foothills.

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‘Kanc’ trivia:

*Kancamagus means ‘Fearless One’ and was the name of the last chief of the Penacook Confederacy.

*Elevation at the Kancamagus Pass is 2855 feet which makes it the highest mountain crossing in New Hampshire.

*The road rises over 2,000 feet in the 15 miles from Lincoln, NH, to the Kancamagus Pass.

*The Swift River is 25.6 miles long, runs through the White Mountains and is paralleled its entire length by ‘the Kanc’.

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From what I could see through the trees of the Swift River it was picture worthy. There were several spots along the Kancamagus with access to the Swift River; cars overflowed the parking areas and were parked along the roadside. Not the easiest parking scenario for Kim’s bike pulling a trailer. Found a pullout with one other vehicle that had plenty of room for us to get back on the road.

We had to walk through some trees to get to the river’s edge and came upon two people sitting out in the river on a rock. They looked suspiciously at us as we greeted them but since I didn’t want them in my picture we went a little farther down river. Every time I looked around, I saw the guy watching us. Eventually they packed up and left. That’s when I said to Kim, “I feel bad that we chased them out...they didn’t have to leave, we aren’t even near them.” The Kim quietly said, “They were smoking pot. Well, he was smoking a cigarette also but they were passing a vape for smoking pot back and forth.” Oh, no wonder he kept his eye on us.

This made me curious about New Hampshire’s marijuana laws. I found info on visit-newhampshire.com but there wasn’t a date on the article; I wanted a date so I looked on Wikipedia: In 2017, New Hampshire decriminalized cannabis, replacing misdemeanor charges with a $100 fine for a first or second offense, and $300 for a third offense. Four offenses within three years would result in misdemeanor charges. So it’s not legal for recreational use but the penalties for possession have been lessened. Medical use of pot is legal.

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Saw lots of Monarch butterflies while riding the Kancamagus Highway. Wonder if they’re gathering for the migration to Mexico?

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At 6 p.m. tonight we crossed in Vermont which means we have now ridden our bikes in every one of the lower 48 states plus Alaska!! We can now check that off our Life’s To Do List. Wonder what’s next?

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Kim has dragged his heels, quite literally, in every one of the lower 48 states plus Alaska. I can usually tell when he does it because I can smell the rubber...occasionally it gives off smoke also. So the heels of his shoes are looking a little more worn than when we started on this trip. 😏

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At some point on our way to the hotel we left the highway for the road less traveled. However, it was also the road less repaired which meant a very bumpy road through some very scenic countryside.

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Sunday’s miles: 196

Total: 2,467 miles

Saturday, August 31...We are Family (Sister Sledge)

It was a slow moving morning, no sightseeing planned. Kim and I had always planned to leave on Saturday; it was just a matter of what time....we left about 1 p.m. after plotting our route and finding a campground. Technically we’re on our way home now, riding where we’ve already ridden but on our way to that last state.

The others have an early plane to catch in the morning. I think it leaves in the 5 a.m. range so they’ll be up a couple of hours before that to drive to the airport, return a rental, etc. At least traffic shouldn’t be a major issue for them at that time of the morning. 😎

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About 60 miles into New Hampshire I saw a bear alongside the highway. Just standing there on all 4 feet looking out at the traffic probably wondering what all the hurry was about. Alas, no picture as the traffic was moving too fast. Best I could do was call Kim and say, “Bear...bear...did you see the bear?” He hadn’t.

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We’ve been so busy this week that I really hadn’t taken the time to look at a possible route home. Of course, we had to head somewhat north because of Vermont. But a cousin lives in Laconia, NH and we needed to make contact about possibly getting together. If and when that happened would impact our route and where we’d stop for the night. Turns out that wasn’t the only thing that impacted our camping plans. It’s Saturday of Labor Day weekend...a lot of campgrounds either didn’t have availability or wanted a 3 night commitment. This was simply bad planning on my part...didn’t even think about the 3 day weekend. Doh!!

I made several calls to no avail then hit the jackpot on call number four....a very friendly woman answered and I asked about cabins. The cabins weren’t available but there were some open RV/tent sites. Yippee skippee! We found a campground! By the time we got done with the phone conversation I felt like I was her new best friend. When we to the campground, she was on her way back from the pool on a golf cart dressed in pool clothes and holding a beer. Very friendly and guessed from our phone conversation that we were Kim and Karen from Michigan. That impressed me. Told us to just pick out a site and then come pay her. We did that and I walked up to pay. Stepped into office and when she saw me asked, “Who are you?”

Hmmmm, seems that we were no longer best friends....or maybe that wasn’t the first beer of the day. 😏

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We set up camp and Kim called John to see if they were available either tonight or tomorrow morning. Tonight worked for them and they made a plan to meet at 6 p.m. at Fero’s Italian Grille which happened to be less than a ½ mile from us. Oh, good, we can walk.

John and Judy pulled in right ahead of our arrival. Jeremy, Judy’s son, checked the sign on the door...Closed for the Season. Well, darn! So John suggested another place and we hopped in their van for the ride there. So glad we didn’t try walking because Patrick’s Pub and Eatery was more like 7 miles away. Good for the Fitbit steps, bad for every other reason.

The staff predicted a 30 minute wait which we figured was better than the wait at Fero’s...they don’t re-open until May. Eventually got a seat and enjoyed the food and the company. Then John gave us a ride back to the campground. I carried my selfie stick with me to document our time together with a selfie but completely forgot about it. Kim mentioned it as we were getting out of the car at the campground so John, Judy and Jeremy good naturedly got out of the car for a picture. Then they left to go home and we walked back to our campsite.

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The temperature cooled slightly as we headed north into New Hampshire but it didn't really get cold. A light jacket felt good when moving but it was a bit much when off the bike.

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Chigger update: I have been itch free since Thursday...so maybe 8 days after it all started it seems to be over. Thank goodness!! All that’s left are some minor welts and scabs from where I scratched a bit too much. It took longer than my research indicated but I’ll take it.

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It’s only 9:15 p.m. and I’m tired. Time for bed!

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Saturday’s miles: 114

Total: 2,271 miles