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.
--------------------
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.
--------------------
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.
--------------------
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.
--------------------
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.
--------------------
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.
--------------------
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.
--------------------
Back on the 2nd 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.
--------------------
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.😏
----------------------
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.😎
--------------------
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.
--------------------
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.
--------------------
Tuesday’s miles: 371
Total: 3,055 miles
No comments:
Post a Comment