Washington gets another tourist.

July 29, 2009
Washington D.C.

As have been most days lately, this was a lazy start. By the time I got ready to leave the house it was nearly noon and D.C. was 20 minutes away, without traffic. Of course there was traffic so it was over 30 minutes to get into the city. I can't imagine what the roads would be like during rush hour. One highlight of the drive in was the carpool only section of highway. It was a full two lane, in each direction, divided highway to be used only by carpoolers and motorcyclists. Pretty neat stuff. Another benefit of this road was that it dropped me right into the heart of D.C. near the White House, all the museums and monuments.

I circled around for a bit trying to find some free street parking close to my destinations. I was able to find a spot right in front of the Washington Monument and the White House.



After parking, the one problem with motorcycle touring presented itself: Dealing with gear while off the bike. I don't want to walk around with my jacket, pants, boots, gloves, and helmet but I really don't want to leave them sitting out in a city like D.C.. Fortunately I had borrowed a backpack that John had that surprisingly swallowed all of my gear and I was able to strap the helmet to it as well. That meant cool and comfortable walking around with out the fear of my stuff getting stolen since it was all on my back. Ideally I'd have a locking top case that I'd be able to fit everything in but this worked very well.



Now I am ready to start my touristing duties. First up: the Smithsonian Museum of American History.


(This isn't the museum but it sure does look like one doesn't it?)

I had looked online at the various Smithsonians and this seemed to have a good selection of exhibits that I'd be interested in. What I spent the most time looking at was one that I hadn't seen on the website at all...



The sad thing is that the first area was depicting a working laboratory from the early 20th century and it reminded me of some of the labs that I worked in during college...



There were displays on science based regulation and watchdog people/groups that made the laws that we know today. One such group affectionately called the Poison Squad had their own poetic motto



The next series of displays was of the effect of science on the general public and how it was embraced. This time period was the hay day of the kid's home chemistry set and popular literature/advertising was equally effected.



Included with society's acceptance of science was the fascination with nuclear power. Getting the public used to the idea of this new found power took loads of propaganda in the current war times. Everything from folk songs to clothing bore the mark of the atomic symbol. Did you know that the bikini as we know it got its name because of the atomic era?

Along with this mass propaganda pushing the technology there was a group encouraging the careful use of it and urging caution with regards to the ramifications.


Learning about the atomic bombs was very cool as they had a good display set up for it. There was a nearly life size model of the Uranium reactors first used to enrich the material and information about the various sites around the country that contributed to the effort to complete the weapons.

Finishing the physical science portion of the exhibit I wandered into the DARPA Grand Challenge area. not only was there an autonomous car on display but there was even an autonomous motorcycle there. This bike navigated a desert trail by it self and, should it fall over, could right itself and keep going.


To finish out the lower level of the museum was an exhibit on transportation in America. Every way to travel around the country was represented from trains to cars as well as some history and significance of each. There was even a 40 foot section of Route 66 taken from Oklahoma.


Now here's a question for you the reader... How comfortable do these boots look?


These are the boots of the first noted person to hike the Appalachain trail in one trip. It took him over 140 days! That's a long time to be wearing those things...

About this time I had to leave the museum to move the bike off the main street so went to see some more of the sights. I drove around a bit trying to get a good photo op with the White House with no luck. On the drive through the city I got turned around and a little lost all while having some minor fuel issues with my bike. I decided to forgo the photo op with the infamous Einstein statue and head back to John's, hopefully avoiding some traffic.


The rest of the pictures can be found HERE

Ithaca goes to Washington

July 28th, 2009
Chatham, NJ to Fairfax, VA

Today was a lazy day, getting on the road from Alan's house to John's at the crack of noon. I went a very non-direct route through the New Jersey countryside stopping for lunch at Costco. This Costco was unique, at least to me, in that it sold French Fries. Very weird.

The clouds were ever present today and were spectacular. Stopped at a light I saw these overhead...



With the weather that I've encountered on this trip I've really taken a fascination with the clouds around me. There is something beautiful and serene about looking up that them, even while doing 70mph on the freeway.

Continuing on I stumbled across this church that just emerged from the trees. With the combination of the trees around it and the overcast skies the building was very eye catching.



Passing through the south eastern corner of Pennsylvania I got the great idea to stop in Philadelphia for some quick photo ops with the historical sights there. Making this deciscion at the last minute I hurriedly got off the freeway too early and ended up in North Philly, I think. I used my GPS to find the local attractions and specifically the Liberty Bell. Do you know how many points of interest there are in Philly with the word "Liberty" in the name? A LOT! It took several pages of searching to get the right attraction but I got it. Getting back on the freeway I passed by this cool little mural.



Making my way downtown I forgot that the bell is not just out in the open so that photo op went out the window. I circled the area and got what I could though.



Out of the city I was greeted by traffic and rain, two of my least favorite things. I made my way straight to John's house after that to beat the incessant heat and humidity. Not to be outdone by Philly, Northern Virginia gave me 20 miles of stop and go traffic.

I finished off the day with a very delicious meal of spaghetti with Sriracha Marinara sauce. Quite tasty!!!

More pictures

Riding the Tri-State

July 27th, 2009
Chatham, NJ to New York and Pennsylvania and back

Having left my bike at Enid's house for the weekend I returned on Monday morning and met up with Alan. With him on summer break and me on my trip we both had time and the desire for a good motorcycle ride. The route we hashed out turned out to include a lot of the same roads that I had planned on riding when I went to Hershey so I was very glad we went that way.

We headed north through New Jersey, along the back roads and stopped for lunch just over the border in New York. To go that 90 miles or so took almost three hours due to the slow roads, some minor "detours", and construction breaks (as seen here).



When we stopped we took off our gear to look around for somewhere to eat and saw a place across the street. Instead of leaving our bikes in the gas station parking lot we put our gear back on and rode over. Again, taking our gear off we walked up to the door but it didn't open when we tried. The restaurant was closed! At 3pm too! What the heck is up with that? So we tried the place next door and that was closed too! Finally we saw another cafe down the street and decided to walk over, instead of dealing with our gear again.

This place had typical American fare with hamburgers being a primary feature. They had standard hamburgers as well as a "California" one. Being Californian I figured this would be served with avocado or something like that but I was wrong. Apparently a California burger is served with lettuce, tomato, raw onion and a side of mayonnaise. Isn't that just a normal burger?

On the road again we continued through New York on our way to the back roads of Pennsylvania and I spied this guy guarding a surplus store



We were able to ride some very nice twisty roads that took us through a little state park in PA called The Promised Land. If for nothing else it was fun to see that but the road through the park was nice, bumpy but nice. In the middle of the park is a nice lake that provided great views along the way. One of the views was nice enough to warrant a stop.



Continuing on we were trying to find the best (aka twistiest) roads in the area to take back by searching our GPS units. There was one such road around the east side of the lake so we headed that way. Somehow we ended up where we started without finding the right turnoff so back we went. Once we got to where the GPS told us the road was we understood why we missed it...



Apparently this is a snowmobile trail or something and we weren't able to take it, for better or worse. Alan made the assertion that, had the road closure sign and gate been there he would have taken it. That would have been a bit of fun...

The rest of the ride back was uneventful and mainly highway. We did pass a sign that pointed to "The Land of Make Believe". Too bad we didn't see that until we had passed the exit...

Pictures

The Big Apple

July 25th and 26th, 2009
Wandering around The Big Apple

The day started out with a train ride from Chatham into the city. We walked from Enid's place just in time to catch the train with only enough time to say our quick "goodbye"s and "thank you"s and pose for one group shot before jumping on the departing train.



It was a quick ride into the city that left us dealing with the mess that is Penn Station. With only one wrong turn we were on our way uptown.



We walked through Central Park, past a Latin Reggae concert and stopped at the zoo. Enid had given us tickets that were good at any of the metro zoos and we hoped to use it here since it was right there. Getting to the ticket office we notice the unfortunate sign that the zoo closed in half an hour and no matter how small the zoo there was no way to see it fairly in 30 minutes. We kept on walking. From outside the zoo fence we were able to see a sea lion though...



The park was filled with sunbathers and people escaping from the city life. There were people laid out on the grass, perched in the rocks, sitting at the base of the trees, everywhere. For anyone that likes to people watch this is an amazing place to do it. One of the comedic highlights for me was a heavy set guy that we saw walking towards us with his shirt off. He was sweating up a storm and fondling his man-boobs. It took quite a bit of self restraint to stop my self from laughing out loud or taking a picture. It was hilarious.

Getting out of the park we wandered up to the Guggenheim to start our museum hopping. We got there only to see a MASSIVE line that wrapped around the side of the building. It turns out that on Saturdays (or at least this one) the museum doesn't charge a set fee but requests a donation of anything you think is fair. That meant you could get in free or give what ever you felt like. It was getting close to dinner time and we were both hungry so that desire won out over getting into the Gug for free.

Off we went in search of food. Sarah's cousin recommended a sushi bar that was on our way so off we went looking for that. Dozens of blocks later our hunger is growing ever more audible and this mystery restaraunt is nowhere to be found. We start looking for anything sushi and come across a restaurant called "Amber". It turned out to be very good sushi and good drinks to boot. We walked out of there very satisfied with our choice. Starting our walk back we got two blocks down and saw the restaurant we were looking for. Doh!



Sunday was the museum hopping day. Setting out for the morning we got breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts. The unique thing about this shop was that it was right next to a subway station and a church that was holding service. It was very odd to be sitting on the steps as people were going into the church and the subway station, all with the city moving at it's normal speed up on street level...



Up on street level we came across a street fair on 53rd street and wandered through that. There were booths with food, clothing, accessories, crap, and tons of other stuff. It was fun to walk through. We came across a booth selling shirts with the phrase "Trickle Up Effect" on it. It was for a cool little company that employs homeless workers that are looking for work. Pretty cool and worth the support so I picked up a t-shirt.



First order of the morning was visiting the Museum of Modern Art, only a couple blocks away from the street fair. Getting in was easy and we were greeted by cool artwork straight away.



Of course as soon as we got into the museum my camera warned me that I had a low charge on the battery. So the rest of the day I was in battery saver mode and took a dramatically reduced number of photos.

The first exhibit on display was a collection of "junk" from a Japanese artist's deceased parents that covered a huge floor area. There were some really cool exhibits there including one where they marked your height, name and date on a white wall. With the thousands of people that visit the museum a day the marks added up to quite a work.



With my height standing slightly above the average my name was clearly visible on the wall, to the left of the joint...



unlike like Sarah's...



notice the difference between them? ;)



So more great art and several hours later we finished the museum tour with this piece



For food we headed down to Little Italy, skirting some serious thunder storms with hail and lightening. Fortunately we were inside eating when the skies really opened up and were entertained by a lady running up and down the street selling umbrellas to unprepared diners. When we left the restaurant in search of desert she chased us down shouting "Umbrella, Umbrella!" behind us. It was rather amusing.

Down the street was a desert place that has THE BEST canolli I've ever had. Mind you I have only had two and I think they were both from this shop so I might be biased.



By the time we were done with desert the skies had cleared but only long enough for us to get to a subway station. Thank goodness for the subway.




Pictures

New Jersey, here I come, again...

Friday July 24th, 2009
Hershey, PA to Chatham, NJ

Today I was leaving my family in Hershey to return to my friends' home in New Jersey for dinner and to get my new custom ear plugs, yay!

Having started the day out well with a good breakfast I loaded up the bike and hit the road with everyone waving as I drove off. Having more travel time today I took a more scenic route through the Pennsylvania countryside north of I-78. This took me through tons of small towns, a military area, and gorgeous countryside.

As I first crossed I-78 I rode through Swatara State Park which had some nice hills and sweeping turns.



Unfortunately this terrain didn't last all day but coming out of this area I stumbled upon a military base and caught a helicopter playing at a landing pad. I stopped to watch it lift off then bank one direction, then back the other way. It went up and down side to side and it was all very impressive to happen upon. Something nice for the day for sure.



After going through a couple of small towns I rode through some farmland and orchards before finally getting back on the main highway to get into New Jersey.



Cruising down the highway I spied a sign for the Crayola Museum and had to make the detour as it was only a couple miles off the highway. I got to the museum alright but with the limited parking and heat I just wanted to keep riding. I stopped to snap a couple pictures then went on my way. The backside of the museum did have this cool little "art piece"...



I got into Chatham and waited for everyone to show up so we could go to dinner. From Enid's place all six of us crammed into Alan's Camry wagon and set off for the brewery for dinner and drinks. Enid and Katie were stuck sitting in the rear facing third row and were really at the mercy of Alan and his driving. Alan had found this restaraunt on a motorcycle exloration trip several years ago and the roads leading to it were great riding roads. They probably weren't the best "cram everyone in a car" roads, especially with wallowing suspension. Swoosie nearly got sick on the way out there and Enid and Katie were back-back-seat driving. The food and drinks were very good but we had to wait for a long time to get everything brought out as ordered. Oh well, it was a Ninja 250 gathering sans bikes and with lots of good food and that's all that mattered. I could do this more often :)

Here's the rest of the photos:

Pictures

Hershey

I stayed in Hershey until Friday morning so that left tons of time to hang out with the family so that's what we did.

Wednesday and Thursday we went to Hershey Park and I got to ride the newest ride, Farenheight. This roller coaster boasts a 98* initial drop. That's right, more than vertical! When we were all walking past it my cousin Grace urged me to go on it, saying the line wasn't very long. I trusted her, thinking the line would be about a 30 minute wait from what I could see, so I jumped in line. The line was only about a quarter of capacity so things were looking good. Half an hour came and went and I was still no where near the front of the line. I contemplated leaving then but thoguht better of it. Finally, after an hour or so of waiting I got to the front of the line; about stinkin' time. Sitting in the front seat, the view was pretty cool and left nothing to hide the impending drops, loops and rolls. Awesome! One roller coaster down, many, many more to go.

Over the course of the two days we rode everything from the carnival slides to looping roller coasters. Even my youngest cousin Alex got into the mix. He JUST met the height requirement to get on the "big" coasters and we took full advantage of that. After the first ride on the Super Dooper Looper next to me, Alex sat next to Grace and they both were screaming for joy together. It was pretty cool to see them having so much fun on the rides.

On the second day that we were at the park weather played a factor. We got there a couple minutes after the park opened to get in line for the big rides but with some thunder storms in the area everything was on hold. Fortunately the rides opened not too long after getting in line and I again got on to the first car of Farenheight, after a lengthy wait. By the time I got off the ride my aunt, Madeline, had to go and pick up Alex from camp. That left Grace and I to fend for ourselves. Next up, was the Lightning Racer, a dueling wooden roller coaster. On our walk over it started to rain lightly so we hurried up to make the ride before they closed it. We were able to jump on the first seat of the car when we got there and srapped in for the ride. Right about then we looked out of the start house only to see that the rain had increased in intensity, considerably so. At least we were being nice to everyone behind us by blocking some rain. The subsequent water ride was actually pretty fun except the stinging rain to the eyes everytime we tried to look where we were going. Getting off the ride we were SOAKED! The front of our clothes were drenched but our backs were completely dry. Now the goal was to find any ride that wasn't out in the open. About this time we talked to my aunt and decided to bail on the park and go have lunch somewhere dry. After lunch we came back to the park for more fun and even got Madeline to go on a roller coaster! It was on that roller coaster that I broke my camera. there is now a crack in the LCD screen and a big black spot in the middle of the screen.

On the Friday that I left we went out for a nice breakfast and I noticed something "new" on the menu: scrapple. Madeline had never had it but thought it was gross anyways. So I ordered it, along with some pancakes and sausage.

When the meal came I was in awe of the pancakes, they were HUGE! The sausage was generous and the scrapple was loafish. It all looked good. For those of you that haven't tried scrapple let me save you the hassle, it's gross. It was meaty cornmeal or something horrible on that line of thought. Fortunately the rest of the meal was really good and quite filling.

Pictures

Welcome to Chocolate World

Monday July 20, 2009 - New Jersey to Hershey, PA


I was exhausted from running around the city this weekend and aborted my planned eight hour ride out to my Aunt and Uncle's place, opting for the three hour, straight highway route. I was a bit disappointed but once on the road it was clear that this was the better choice. It really is a shame though as I had planned a lovely route up through northern Pennsylvania via highway 6 and 84. I was also planning to pass through the Promised Land, the state park by that name at least.

Overall the ride was uneventful but it did start raining shortly into PA. The rain lasted a while but it wasn't too bad. What was worse than the rain was the heat. Rain gear is meant for cold weather and ultimate waterproofness, at the expense of breathability. So, when the clouds open up and I'm forced to put on rain gear but the ambient temperature is still in the upper 70's things get toasty inside my gear...

Getting into Hershey is was pretty cool to already know my way around town, to some extent, from all of the previous times being driven in the area. It almost felt like I belonged here.

I drove past Hershey Park, the Hershey factory and my cousin's school and finally pulled right into my aunt and uncle's house.

Pictures

Singing my way up river

Sunday July 19th, 2009

While in New Jersey I was staying at a friend's boyfriend's house who happened to be out of town. We've hung out a few times in California and I was really looking forward to seeing him again today. My friend Danica had to fly out to California for work so that left Kenny all to me. We took a nice drive through some of the small towns along the Hudson river and came to a state park where we hiked the hill where the Knickerbocker Ice Company used to be. There were some old building foundations left over from the early 1900's and it was all filled with history. Hiking to the top was a nice workout and the view made up for any sweating. From the top you could see straight across the river to Sing Sing prison (or whatever it's called now) and down to the Rockefeller estate. I had driven roads near here on my way into town on Thursday but I missed this view. The hill that we were on top of had a sheer rock wall leading down to the river's edge probably 1000 feet below. It was pretty amazing standing over that edge. To cool off from the hike we continued down the river and stopped off at a nice little bar on the river and had a cold beer and buffalo wings. We called it a day and went back to the house.

After cleaning up I headed back into the city to have dinner with Sarah (Swoosie). Unfortunately, the traffic that I hit on this journey was not due to an accident. This was everyone returning to the city from their adventures elsewhere. It took me an hour and a half to get into the city, twice as long as last time and I went 10 miles less. Once I finally made it into the city we walked up to a Japanese ramen house and had delicious cold ramen. After dinner we walked through a little bit of Central Park then wandered back. I really love walking around New York City, it truly is unique. Except for the mosquitos Central Park was really cool to see too.


Pictures

Please note that the pictures are slow to upload with this new photo site so depending on when you check the link for the photo album you may not be seeing all of the pictures. There should be roughly 30 photos uploaded from this day when all is said and done. As I get a stable internet connection these will be uploaded faster.

New Jersey, more than Newark and Jersey City...

Saturday July 18th, 2009

Today I met up with AlanS's mother, Enid. I had talked to her online a bit when Alan was on his cross country trip then later when I posted about having hearing issues after my cross country trip. I told her then that, whenever I made it out east I would come by to see her. Boy, am I ever glad that I did!

I showed up to her place and we got to talking non-stop. Being in the Garden State and enjoying the outdoors, it was a must to go explore. So off we went to The Great Swamp. The area was gorgeous and teeming with plant and wildlife, at least we think there was wildlife. There are tons of animals living in the swamp from frogs and small turtles to to large snapping turtles and snakes. The entire time we were walking around we saw one baby green frog and one spotted turtle, and millions of mosquitos! I really could have done without THAT wildlife. The mosquitos followed us around the boardwalk all the way through the trees trying to eat us constantly. Even with the pesky mosquitos it was a fun walk. The swamp was gorgeous with forested and grassy areas. I'm not sure if there would ever be a time when there weren't mosquitos there but it would be nice to explore the area more.

After the workout running from the mosquitos we were famished so the next destination was food. We went to this wonderful Brazillian grill in Newark called Brasilia. There was a salad/appetizer bar with fried plantains and all sorts of scrumptous food but the main course was even better. Waiters were constantly walking around with skewers of meat and slicing off bits of it for you. There was top sirloin marinated in an amazing sauce that was so tender you barely needed a knife. There was steak wrapped in bacon, garlic beef, chicken, etc. The food never stopped and the quality never diminished. We both walked out of there completely stuffed. To burn off some of the dinner we walked around the portugese neighborhood. It felt strange walking around the area, as if I were in Brazil right then and there. A very cool feeling.

This night finished off with Enid making a mold for custom earplugs and me deciding that I'd come back through Chatham in a week's time to pick them up.

Pictures

Please note that the pictures are slow to upload with this new photo site so depending on when you check the link for the photo album you may not be seeing all of the pictures. There should be roughly 70 photos uploaded from this day when all is said and done.

Brooklyn!!

Friday July 17th, 2009

When I got to my friend's house yesterday there was a package waiting for me. What could this be? None other than my long lost GPS!!! I just might be able to find out where I'm going from now on.

I spent the afternoon setting it up and, to my complete dismay, started having the same problems as with the old unit. I called Garmin and emailed them and the only time it worked was with the small, 64MB microSD card that came with it. This card had enough space to fit one state's worth of maps on it which wouldn't really help me on a multi-state trip like the one I'm currently on...

I ventured into the city later that night to meet Glenn (Urban Guerrilla), working GPS or not. Traffic getting into the city was miserable as was the humidity so I spent a good portion of time cursing the city under my breath. The traffic that I hit was fortunately not the normal status quo (at least for that time of day) and was the result of a fender bender or some other minor situation that backed things up for miles. Once moving I became much happier even with the ever present humidity. Getting from New Jersey to Manhattan had the potential to be very confusing when I crossed the George Washington bridge as lanes were funneling in from every direction and there was the choice for the upper or lower bridge and finding the correct toll booth and finally surviving the traffic jam there. quite the experience. Past the bridge the directions became very simple by just going straight on the FDR expressway which took me straight to the Brooklyn bridge. I've seen this bridge in person before, seen it in movies and pictures but driving over it was really a cool thing to do. The cross beams coursing overhead and the view of the city and the plethora of cabs was very neat. THIS is New York.

I safely made it to Glenn's and we set off for to walk around the bridge that I just came across. Standing at the base of the bridge gave a whole new view of it and greater appreciation. Down at the base we were amid loads of people there for the same reason and there were restaurants and the like there too. We wandered up through Brooklyn Heights before venturing off towards DUMBO and a good mexican food place called Pedro's. We had great timing as the rain really picked up just as we got inside. Apparently they used to have an outdoor seating area that was pretty nice, at least until a neighbor called the police on them... Oh well, it's not like we were going to sit outside anyways. We had some really good food and some even better conversation, so much so that we were there until they closed. Not too bad for a Friday night. Getting back to Glenn's place was a bit trickier then getting here due to a series of one way streets and dead ends but we made it back alright.

Getting out of the city I took the Holland tunnel to avoid taking the same roads back and I had a lot of fun. I know that it's simple but driving in a tunnel that long I was enjoying the reverberations of my exhaust the entire way. Once out of the tunnel and into New Jersey the pleasantness of the road changed. Driving at night with a headlight designed in the 80's doesn't make for great visibility and that meant that I couldn't see the gigantic bumps in the pavement before being on top of them. Some of these bumps were large enough to bonce me clear off the seat and I got air several times. All a bit freaky when you don't know it's coming.

I got back to the house about 1am and found my friend Danica already there. When I got upstairs she greeted me with "Hi, I'm drunk" (or something to that effect) as she was laying down eating ice cream from the container. Oh, the things I've missed with her moving across the country! lol

Pictures!

Massachusetts to New Jersey

Massachusetts to New Jersey - July 16th, 2009

Well I guess I was really tired from yesterday since I slept through my alarm and woke up just in time to get my stuff out of the house before Ivan had to leave for his first day of work. Once out of the house I was able to take my time getting ready and plan for the rest of the day's travels. As I was loading up the bike I was inexplicably missing a bungee cord. It wasn't caught up in any of my gear and was no where to be found. I had a spare one but it was a little shorter and not ideal for the job but it might be able to get me through the trip. As I was putting everything else on the bike I happened to walk by the window to the garage and noticed the missing bungee cord sitting inside. Crap! Oh well, I've got my spare so Max can have that one.

Doing one more gear check I patted myself down. Wallet, check. Keys, check. Cell phone, Shit! Where's my cell phone?!?!? I unpacked my gear and checked all my pockets and it wasn't there. I must have left it inside the house. Now I started to freak out a little bit. I started thinking of solutions including having Ivan mail me the phone in New York but with no GPS and all of my NYC friends' contact info IN the phone I needed it.

Now this is the part I'm not proud of. The apparent best option was to try and get a hold of Ivan to somehow get back in the house to get my phone. I hated the thought of interrupting him on his first day and worse yet I didn't even know where that first day was. All I knew was it was at a coffee importer in town. I drove down the main drag and didn't see anything that fit the bill so I stopped in at a dry cleaner's to see if they might know the place.

The workers there didn't know what coffee place I was talking about but they started looking online for possible matches. In the mean time one of the employees started me in on a conversation that was really random and I don't even remember half of it. It filled the time though so that's good. One of the ladies working came back with a list of a couple possible matches and I started calling. The first one I called gave me to a recording that talked about cafes in different areas and restaurants and I thought strike one. Finally an option came up for the operator and I took it. Someone came on the line and before I got two words out of my mouth asked if I could call back after 9am when the office was open, an hour later. Trying to be as polite as possible I kindly declined her request and asked if someone had just started working there that day and she said "Yes, Ivan"! Holy lucky stars, I got the right place on the first try! I talked to Ivan and I think I freaked him out a bit with the sleuthing and random call. Sorry Ivan. After talking to him I was able to get into the house, where I found my phone hidden under the edge of the air mattress. Finally, I had all my belongings and could get on the road.

I took I-90 west into New York to make up some lost time from the morning's activities. I really liked the Massachusetts toll system a lot. Here they give you a ticket as you get on the toll way and you don't see another toll until you get off. On a motorcycle this limits the number of times that I have to fumble around for the correct change and the number of times I have to hold up traffic doing so. While I liked this the best out of the tolls I've come across I still don't like tolls...

Only a couple of miles into New York and I was at the start of the Taconic State Parkway. This 105 scenic parkway is closed to all but passenger vehicles and there was no traffic on the road for the majority of it. This stretch of road had a low speed limit but lots of scenery, granted it looked the same most of the way ;) The rolling hills were covered in lush forests and the entire horizon was covered in trees. I can think of worse places to be driving.

Making it through the Taconic Parkway I joined the New York traffic on my way into New Jersey and the Palisades Parkway. On the way to the Palisades I got stuck in a bit of construction traffic and detoured several miles back the way I came but it turned out for the better as it dropped me up near Bear Mountain and some fabulously twisty roads. Finally getting to the Palisades Parkway I was greeted with more stunning views of the New York side of the Hudson River.

Getting into the populated parts of New York I started to long for my GPS. The towns started coming fast and furious and the signage for the roads I needed to take didn't keep up. As I was cruising through a series of small towns I missed my turnoff and, not knowing it, kept driving for five miles in stop and go traffic. I finally pulled over in the parking lot of a small factory to break out the laptop and figure out where I was. I had no luck finding it on my own but an employee on his break was kind enough to help me out and got me going in the right direction.

On the road again I got into New Jersey alright and into River Vale. Here, again, the lack of a GPS reared its ugly head. The directions that I wrote down didn't help me a lot and I got lost trying to find a main street. Knowing I was at least in the correct small town I resorted to the age old technique of driving up and down each road until I found the right cross street. Having found that street I made a couple passes of the street to find the next cross street before finally finding the correct house. How nice that was.

Not to get too caught up in relaxation I was meeting a friend shortly to go to the NY/NJ Redbulls soccer game. They were playing the visiting LA Galaxy and this would be the last US game for David Beckham. While this was his last MLS game this was my first. I was really excited! The game was being held at Giants stadium and the mass of people outside was really cool. I made my way up to the ticket office to buy my ticket and immediately was approached by scalpers trying to hawk spare tickets. Even when I was the next person in line for the ticket booth they were coming up to me, all this while NYPD officers were standing 15 feet away... Welcome to NY/NJ!

The game was fun to watch but not if you were a Redbulls fan. The Galaxy put on a good show and finished the game with a convincing 3 to 1 margin. Beckham had his usual four or five touches on the ball but Landin Donovan, the Galaxy captain, really impressed me with his play. I've see Donovan play on TV but seeing it in person made him seem even better. What was more entertaining or at least distracting, was the group of spirited fans next to us. A group of about eight guys showed up at their seats and promptly took their shirts off and marked their chests with letters. As soon as the game started the people behind the spirited group tried to get the group to sit down to no avail and that's where the entertainment started. Bickering followed and spread to include more people yelling at the spirits. Security made an appearance just before the end of the first half and warned them to settle down or face getting kicked out. Most people would calm down at that point and some of them did, even to the point of moving away from the group, but a select few took the warning as a sign to yell more... At the beginning of the second half one of the spirited ones started yelling at a concession worker and others in the crowd. Shortly thereafter another of the spirited group caused a ruckus with the people in front of them and a fight nearly broke out. Security came en mass now and kicked out the entire spirited group. The surrounding crowd cheered the security guys on their way out.

I'm trying a new photo hosting service and I'm getting the photos loaded into that. I'll post the ones for this portion of the trip as soon as they're loaded.

And here they are:

Pictures

Let me know what you think of the new photo website...

Acadia to Massachusetts

Bass Harbor, ME to Acton, MA July 15th, 2009

The plan for today was to putt around Mt. Desert Island and Acadia National Park for a couple hours then head down the coast of Maine to meet with autocracy, from the forum. With only ~40 miles of road on the island that I wanted to see I figured it should only take me a couple of hours. I got a lazy start after a going to sleep VERY late last night but I was on the road by about 10am.

Acadia National park is the smallest park in the entire country but roughly 3 million people visit it every summer. Having not fully realized this I went to check out the Bass Harbor Head Light, a lighthouse that you can almost drive up to. The area to view the lighthouse was only about 8ft x 20ft and there were at least 20 people down there trying to get a good picture of themselves with the lighthouse. It was very claustrophobic so I got my photo and left post haste. The rest of the park would follow the same pattern, stop amongst the crowd, get picture, run out of there.

The next stop was the visitor center for an informational movie about the park and island that turned out to be pretty decent. It was a worthwhile stop for sure. From there I started the park loop, a 27 mile loop of road that goes through the park and is only one-way for the majority of it. The first photo op was an overlook only a quarter mile from the visitor section but showed the difficulty that I would have stopping for photo ops as I passed it and had to double back. Once the road becomes one-way this will be impossible and several photo ops will be passed...

The park loop was a mix of coastal vistas and inland landscapes showing off the variety of features of this "bald" island. One of the first features I got to was a steep rock face that reached up 1,000 feet or more that was the home of a nesting Perigren falcon and two offspring. Looking up into the clouds I was able to see the two birds playing and chasing each other. A very cool site.

The next "feature" I came across was the rather unique Sand Beach. The coast of Maine is made up of mainly rock, making for not so pleasant beach going experiences. Insert this ONE sand beach in the middle of a National Park and you've got a hit with the vacationing crowds. The very uncrowded one way road that I had been riding on turned into a very densely populated bottleneck rather quickly and even getting into the proper parking lot proved to be no simple task. Once I finally got down to the beach I was amazed at how many people were filling the short stretch of non-rocky waterfront. Another seeming oddity is that there were this many people here but the water was still only around 50* F and wasn't very swimmable. It didn't stop the masses from flocking to the beach though to frolic in their bathing suits. After the crowded beach it was good to see some less populated rocky beaches and I even stopped at Sea Lion point.

Continuing on I got to Jordan Pond and Jordan Pond House for a quick brunch, consisting of Blueberry tea and popovers. Apparently this is something that needs to be partaken in at least once in your life and is a local favorite. Popovers are a muffin-like pastry made with very airy dough. The tea was very good and the popovers were very tasty with butter and jam! I'm glad that I made the stop here.

Next up was Cadillac Mountain, the tallest point on the eastern seaboard. The bald granite top is what's left over from eons of erosion and is what led to the naming of the island, Mt. Desert (Bald Mountain in French). The drive up was pretty fun and was only hampered by some traffic and a 25mph speed limit. Darn National Parks. The view from the top was gorgeous though and worth dealing with the throngs of people.

Now it was time to hit the road. I was running about two hours later than I had anticipated and wanted to make it to Acton, MA for the night. I headed out and continued down US1. It was a very pretty drive that took me through one small town after another. The annoying part was that it took me through one small town after another. This meant a steady stream of 25 mph limits that did not help me get anywhere fast.

I stopped in Portland to meet another forum member, Autocracy. We chatted for a bit and lamented that I was running late and missed an opportunity for a ride on a good road. But that was the nagging issue, time. I wanted to make it to Acton before it got too late so I took off shortly.

Back on the road I made decent time towards Acton, at least better than I had been all day. It actually felt good to be back on an interstate highway and out of the small towns. Traffic was fairly light but law enforcement was thick so traffic moved awkwardly. I missed my exit for Acton and in turning around I had to deal with several miles of stop and go traffic through a construction zone. Not fun at all.

Once in to town I had to stop and ask directions but I got where I needed to without much issue. The only problem was that I got into town after EVERYTHING had closed so I missed out on some good pizza. It was replaced with some good food from Dunkin' Donuts. A good alternative.

Pictures

On the road again!

Day 33 - Halifax to Deer Island, July 13, 2009

I'm on the road again! After two long weeks of being stuck without a working bike I'm finally on the road on my own bike again. Boy does it feel good.

Leaving Woot's place was a bit sad. In the two plus weeks I've spent there I had grown quite fond of being there in the Woot household. Maureen, Emma and David were amazing to be around. I really can't say it enough but they really saved me in a big time of need. The extreme generosity of housing someone they'd never met before for two weeks is astonishing. Everyone from the forum has been a godsend in helping out.

The general Halifax area was socked in with fog but it was relatively warm so the ride out was alright. I stopped for breakfast and fuel in Truro then headed out for some back roads to get to Parrsboro. With my amazing navigational skills I took the wrong back road and started heading back towards Halifax. It took me a little while to figure it out but after about 10 miles I turned around. On the way back to the main highway I had a "first" on the bike: I hit a bird for the first time. A little tiny bird flew directly into my path and all I saw was a flash of white. When I looked back it was laying in the road with, what I assume, a broken wing... I did not feel good about that.

On the way to Parrsboro there were pockets of rain breaking the lovely sunny afternoon. This rain had big drops that felt like hail, even with all of my gear on.

Driving around the Bay of Fundy was pretty cool. The entire way was filled with tidal flats and islands to look at. The sheer size of the tidal flats was pretty crazy, some of them were a mile wide or more (1.4km for you floppy headed Canucks). In Parrsboro, I walked across one of the tidal flats and there were tons of barnacles and mussels patiently waiting until the next high tide. I can only imagine the drastic change that the waterway here would see after seeing what happened at a river farther inland the other day.

On my way through New Brunswick I stopped at Magnetic Hill for an experience of a lifetime. I'll just say that I'm very glad the $5 entrance fee didn't apply to motorcycles...

I took the superslab from Muncton down through Saint John just to make up time. I wanted to get to Campobello before dark to set up camp and to catch the ferries. As I got into St. George I was welcomed by another bout of heavy rain that finally cleared just as I got to the Deer Island ferry. It was there that I found out that the connecting ferry to Campobello stopped running as I was getting on the ferry at St. George. It looks like I'll be staying on Deer Island tonight...

The ferry ride was really fun. It was a very weird sensation standing next to my bike and moving at the same time. I was smiling the entire time and taking pictures left and right, up until the rain started again. I put on more rain gear and hunkered down for the remainder of the ride. Once on the island I hunted down the only campground and set up camp.

The campground was eerily calm. There were very few people there and, with the exception of the occasional tent stake being pounded in, was dead quiet. The water was still and nothing was stirring. Once darkness set in the sky illuminated with stars that looked close enough to touch. Even I, knowing nothing about astronomy, was able to pick out a couple constellations.

Pictures

Installing the "new" engine

The engine that I got to replace mine was from a ZZR 250, a Canada only version of the bike. Overall it is the same engine but there are a few parts that would not work on my bike. I had to change the generator cover because the electrodes would not work with my ignition coils, the clutch cover because the clutch cable "stay" was integral to the cover on the EX250 but was frame mounted on the ZZR. The oil screen covers had minor differences, none of which affected performance, but I changed it out to maintain an intact gasket.

As a nearly final step of the install I removed the cam chain tensioner to clean and inspect it. Upon reassembly the retaining spring slipped off its perch and scarred the push rod passageway, preventing the pushrod from engaging the cam chain guide. I had to file the burrs down in order to have a functioning CCT.

Changing the exhaust header was the last thing to do on the bike before firing it up. There was nothing notably wrong with the ones that came with the engine but mine were prettier. :) Getting the header off the bike however, turned out to be very difficult. Under attack from large pry bars, blow torches and every other non-destructive method extraction I could come up with the header held its ground and wouldn't come off. I decided to leave the ugly header on the bike for now.

After getting the bike up and running a coolant leak showed up. We broke down the engine to trace that down. Test run number 2: no leaks! I went for a short test ride and when I returned there was more water coming out of the engine. We tore into the engine again. It turns out the o-ring on the coolant pipe from the head to the thermostat has scored and that was the cause of the problem. We swapped the pipes and things were great.

All of this took a couple of days to figure out with each small problem causing large delays. Throw in some fun helping Woot's dad throw hay into his barn and other small distractions and it wasn't until Sunday that I did a proper test ride of ~150 miles down to Blanford and back. A great ride to test out the bike.

One of the distractions was watching the tidal bore. This phenomenon is just the tide coming in from low to high but with the geographical layout of Nova Scotia and the Bay of Fundy the tides are extreme here. It is in the Bay of Fundy where the world's greatest difference in tides is.

Pictures:

Day 27

Day 30

Day 31

Tidal Bore time lapse *WARNING* This will take some time to load fully, even on a broadband connection*


Day 32

Back on the... water, again.

Day 34 – Deer Island to Bass Harbor – July 14th, 2009

The ferry to Campobello runs every hour starting at 8:30 and I woke up just in time to see them getting ready for the first run of the day. Even last night I knew that there was no way I was going to make that boat so I started to get everything ready to make the next boat. Breaking down camp went smoothly but not nearly as fast as I needed to. 9:30 rolled around and I still wasn’t ready. I finally fished loading up around 10 am and spent my free time walking on the shore and enjoying the calm of the morning on Deer Island.

As I was walking back to the bike something caught my eye in the water. I turned just in time to see a dorsal fin sliding under the water. How cool was this?!?! With my camera at the ready I was able to see the mysterious fin rise up out of the water and dive down just as quickly. I assumed that it was a lonely porpoise.

After that excitement I found my way to the ferry ramp to wait for the next boat. With about five cars in front of me I was surprised to see three of them being communications vans either from phone or satellite companies. Big business on the island I guess. Being low tide, the ferry was way down on the ramp, forcing me to ride over slick rocks and slimy residue. Once on the ferry I became a bit of the tourist that I really am and was taking pictures of everything. It really is pretty up there. In my photo session a bicyclist came up and we started talking about my trip and theirs (RV trip up from Texas but doing a lot of bicycling). While talking I saw more of those mysterious fins that apparently rest on top of Minke Whales that I was able to get a picture of it, albeit very “nessy-like”.

Getting onto Campobello Island was nice and I made a quick stop at the local post office to send a couple of money orders to the Canadians that helped me get my engine sorted out. The stop was SUPPOSED to be quick at least. The postal worker couldn’t get the system to acknowledge the money orders she was putting in and she couldn’t find the ones that it was asking for. After several calls to support she was able to over ride it but then my American debit card wasn’t being accepted there. Finally I had to run down the street to get cash out of an ATM to pay for the money orders. All told, I spent over an hour getting two money orders.

Making my way around the very small island I was able to see some boats apparently marooned by the dramatic tides and some very cute towns. It was a quick ride from the north end of the island to the International Park for Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s house. One cool fact is that this is the only park in the world that is jointly run by two countries. FDR’s house was very nice and surprisingly comfortable. It had the feel of that of a common man’s house, despite the 13 bedrooms and servant’s quarters. Walking around the grounds was nice and it was very easy to see why the Roosevelt family liked to spend their summers here.

From the FDR house it was only a couple of miles to the US border. The crossing was very quaint and the customs officer in the booth was the friendliest one I'd faced so far. In our conversation he said that he had to "randomly" search someone coming through and that I'd be the "easiest" since I was on a bike. Great, now I get blessed with a full customs search. To prevent them from doing harm to the bike I separated the gear (still in bags) and went back inside to let them do their search. After a few minutes they called me out and said they were done and that I was cleared to go the one caveat being they didn't know how all my stuff fit in the luggage so they left it spread on the ground for me to repack... Welcome to the US.

After repacking I kept moving south but didn't get too far before hunger kicked in and I stopped for a lobster roll. I had to get some lobster at some point while I was up here, right? As I left the restaurant the clouds started to roll in and let loose a drizzle. Not too bad and there were clear skies just up the road. I marched on without getting into my rain gear. A couple miles those initial clouds had passed as well as the lovely blue skies and another line of ominous clouds loomed overhead. This set of clouds wasn't as nice as the last and really let some rain fall down. The rain was very intense but it only lasted a few miles fortunately. The unfortunate thing was that this series of clear skies and torrential rain would continue for the rest of the day.

I stopped in Ellsworth to get out of the rain and find lodging for the night. I found a nice campground in Bass Harbor on Mt. Desert Island, just outside of Acadia National park. The drive in was very nice and I was able to drive over the seawall and through tons of lush forest all the way to the campground.

The campground I stayed at was nice and I chose a "wilderness" spot that meant in the trees with no electricity or water and a bit more remote than the rest of the campground. Sounds like it would be similar to the previous nights camp. Boy was I wrong. When I got to the site there was a horde of kids riding bicycles around the park, screaming and yelling. Add to that the various families getting dinner together, t.v.s/radios and the place was a madhouse, a polar opposite of Deer Island.

There seems to be a directional choice for my trip so far. I took Highway 1 north through California, turned right on the TransCanada Highway 1 in Canada and now head south along the eastern seaboard on US 1...

Pictures

Heading to Cape Breton

Halifax to Margaree Falls, July 6, 2009
Having secured an engine and having nothing but time until it arrived, I took the opportunity to check out one of Canada’s most famous motorcycle roads: The Cabot Trail. I left Woot’s place a little late but got everything packed and headed out. I stopped at Stewaike and walked around at Mastodon Ridge. They had exhibits talking about the history of Nova Scotia, from the formation of the land to the people and animals that inhabited it over time. It was pretty cool for a side-of-the-road information building.

Woot had told me the approximate range for the bike and that when the fuel light comes on there’s about 30km worth of gas in the tank. In the morning I noticed the trip meter had been reset so I thought he might have taken it out for a quick run to test the new windshield and filled the bike up. Just as I leave Mastodon Ridge the fuel light came on. Not wanting to stop so soon after a break I passed up Truro knowing that there had to be fuel within the next 30km. Well, there was only ONE exit that had gas in the 30km and I passed it. One thing to note is that once you’re outside a major city the freeway exits aren’t very regular. Having passed the exit I needed I had to drive another 10km to the next exit only to drive back that same 10km… That was a big tank to fill.

I made it in to Cape Breton without too much fuss and filled up shortly thereafter. Not more than five miles later the heavens opened up and it started raining hard, just what I didn’t want to have to deal with. The rain kept coming in spurts and so did the road construction. The roads were pretty bad, with gravel and dirt sections that were hard to see ahead of time because of the rain. This is usually a bad thing to deal with but I was really paranoid because of the more powerful bike that I was on. The road construction continued and got worse. I came up to a section where on lane was closed so traffic was stopped, waiting for an escort truck. I sat there in the pouring rain for ten minutes before we were able to get going. The lane that was open looked to be just as bad as the one they had closed and was covered in dirt and gravel that had me hyperfocused.

After several kilometers of crappy roads I finally laid tires on unbroken asphalt and needed a break. I stopped in at the first gas station I came across. Coming inside there was a guy named David messing with a chain saw that I started talking to and telling a little about my trip so far. Once I mentioned that I was going to be camping in this weather he offered up the use of a camper trailer that he had in his yard. I quickly accepted. His house wasn’t too far away so I got set up and out of the rain quickly. David even made a delicious supper with spaghetti sauce that his skipper made.

I went back out to the camper with some reading material that David sent with me and it included a really cool book about the Cabot Trail. The book was a compilation of articles and stories relating to the trail from old newspapers and other sources.

There weren't too many pictures today because of the rain but the ones I did take are HERE

Nova Scotia

Days 18-25 June 28-July 5, 2009

Woot and family have been beyond kind and taken me in for the duration of my bike troubles. They have been simply amazing.

Over this week I spent a good deal of time trying to find a replacement engine locally. I called shop after shop, salvage yard after salvage yard, and searched the local online listings with no luck. A couple of shops had the top ends available should I choose to rebuild my engine and one shop even found a whole engine. The problem with that was the engine was in Quebec and they wanted $1000 for it. Even in Canadian money that’s overpriced.

Friends from the forums even started looking in their areas for engines. There were a couple at a salvage yard near Toronto but they were almost as expensive as the one in Quebec once you factored in shipping. I found a couple in the US that were priced reasonably but shipping became an issue. Finally, an engine was located just outside of Toronto from a parts bike that someone was trying to get rid of. Through a collaboration of motorcyclists this engine was secured and shipped out. Thanks to Wes, Andy, and Greg for helping in this!

Again, being the extremely gracious host that Woot is, he let me use his bike (Honda CBR F4) to tool around the area. One day I went down to Peggy’s Cove to sight see. The area is gorgeous and it wasn’t crowded at all. Unfortunately, I forgot to put the memory card in the camera that day so I only got a couple of pictures on the camera’s internal memory and, without the correct cable, I have no way of getting the images off until I get home. Once I knew the engine was on its way I rode down to the local motorcycle shop to order parts.

One benefit of being in Nova Scotia for a few extra days was that I got to partake in Canada Day festivities (July 1st). It’s basically Canada’s Independence Day so there were fireworks and everything that I associate with July 4th. We walked down to the lake and watched the fireworks being launched from a barge of some sort. The show was pretty good. On the 4th we went over to one of their friend’s house to hang out and it turns out that they were American so they were celebrating the 4th as well.

We also walked around downtown Halifax and the waterfront. This was a really neat area that was filled with cool little shops, pubs, historical attractions, and great views of the Halifax harbor. We passed through the infamous Lower Deck pub, had “the world’s best ice cream” and saw some extremely big ships. There were of course tug boats including the famous Theodore (sort of like Thomas the train). Walking down at Pleasant Point Park (?) was nice and I found the clash of industrial equipment and nature/history preserve to be oddly amusing. At the park were remnants of old armaments and defensive military posts in various states of aging. Then there was the fun rock throwing session to alleviate stress :)

Then there's the food. Almost from the time that we in that Staples parking lot Woot had insisted that I try some of the local delicacies: Poutine and Donair. (*Warning* - The following descriptions may sound disgusting but the food is better than that) Poutine is a simple dish comprised of french fries covered in gravy and cheese curds. Think of it as chili fries with gravy... This dish was really pretty good. The restaraunt that we went to used pizza cheese instead of curds but it was still good. I may try and find a place that uses curds...

Donair is very similar to gyros and because of this I was leery of trying it with my recent string of broken collarbones and their proximity to me eating gyros. Having been assured that this is very different than gyros I went ahead and tried it. The donair meat is similar to gyros in that it's cooked on a spit and sliced from that. The meat is prepared a little differently and it has an oniony kick to it. A donair meal is served with the meat and diced tomatoes and onions, covered in special donair sauce and wrapped in flat bread. Being the hard working hungry men that we are, Woot and I ordered two large Donairs. This size has so much meat that the flat bread can no longer wrap around the meat and had to be eaten with a knife and fork.

I still need to get a fresh lobster but the Woot family doesn't like seafood... Maybe I'll cook for myself one night.


Pictures will be posted tomorrow.

In a car once again.

Day 17 - Edminston to Halifax - June 27, 2009

I woke up just as Woot was circling the trailer around. I'll call it good timing but for all I know he was calling my name for 20 minutes. :) We grabbed some breakfast at the Tim Horton's that was so conviently located in the same parking lot where I camped then took a required picture of my bike on a trailer. Having talked to Woot the night before and hearing about the weather there was a part of me that was glad that I was making this leg of the trip in a car. All the way through New Brunswick it was raining hard.

We stopped for lunch at an Irving Big Stop. Apparently these are the only truck stops around these parts but they're better than most I've been to. They had a proper restaurant and everything where the food wasn’t bad. I felt bad for the baseball team that was doing a barbeque fundraiser out in the rain…

We made it in to Woot’s place with daylight left and cracked into the bike straight away. From the work that I had done last night I was hoping the problem was a simple fix involving the California emissions system. We got the battery charged back up again and tried to start the bike. No go. The next trouble shooting idea was to check the valve clearance. If that was alright then it was a mystery problem. We got the bike into the shed so we could have more light and reduce the likelihood of losing parts. On the way to the shed I lost a screw from the fairing. Doh!

Lifting off the valve cover I heard an ominous clanking sound that was the cam chain dropping from its perch. On top of that, there were no rocker arms where they should be. All the arms were in pieces in the oil valleys in the head. So for whatever reason the cam chain and all eight rocker arms broke. The only potential cause that I can think of is a worn/faulty cam chain tensioner, a $30 part.

We called it a night there and I crashed hard on a very comfortable bed. That was a 32 hour day for Woot.

Pictures