Ridin'Ard (The h is silent)

Miles today: 2 on foot Steps: 8,366 Soundtrack: Apocalyptica, Lindsey Stirling, and Halestorm LIVE!!! After that long and late day, we were pretty bleary-eyed this morning when we awoke to Sarah Brightman's dulcet tones at 7. We kept putting off deciding what to do with our day in Syracuse. After breakfast we went back up to the room and Julie laid down to read. After a bit Jaron started closing the blinds and turning off lights and got in to bed. Julie gave up the fight and set a nap alarm for 10:30. It went off and I just went back to bed and woke up at noon. We went back to the ramen/sushi/poke place and both got poke bowls for lunch bc it was close and easy. Then Julie said ok, we really have to decide what we are doing today. We walked the logistics backwards from the concert and dinner and determined that we had about 2.5 hours. Jaron said it's going to be a late night and we're going to be walking everywhere, let's just chill. So now Julie has only 20 pages left ...

Miles today: 241 Soundtrack: Mad Max: Fury Road, Metallica Today we did a longer day for the trade-off of spending 2 nights in one place. We had a leisurely morning packing up camp and hit the road at about noon. I started the day listening to the Mad Max: Fury Road soundtrack. It was glorious. It was a beautiful day and the route unexpectedly included a ferry. The final turns approaching the ferry were glorious. The ferry pulled up just as we got there. Perfect! I had cash ready. Then the attendant went down the line to let everyone know the ferry was now done for the day. Oookay. Not feeling so glorious anymore, so I changed my music to Metallica and we found a bridge to cross in to NY at Ticonderoga. This added some time to our day, so we kept all of our stops short which also kinda wears on you. There was hardly anyone on the roads in the Adirondacks this time, which meant that Julie didn't have anyone in front of her for most of the time and could get totally in the zone. It w...

Miles today: 131 Soundtrack: Apocalyptica, Halestorm Today we went camping at Branbury State Park in Vermont. Julie read about how lean-to's are a thing so we decided to try it. Our lunch spot was flying a Maryland flag and had Maryland crab cakes and cream of crab soup on the menu. The chef's wife grew up in Annapolis! We got to camp and started setting up. Our lean-to faces a wall of rocks, which was perfect. The site next to us was hosting a couple with a baby. I will have to add the video(s) when I get home. It could have been a lot worse. They seem like very kind and attentive parents. Booking last minute, all the good sites are gone. There were 3 of us pretty close together, but everyone was quiet. It's a big lean-to, but we do have a small tent. Jaron did 3 firewood runs. A bundle of firewood fit in his topcase. Julie set up the tent and bedding. We sat for a while in the serenity punctuated by baby sounds. When it started cooling down, Julie figured she'd better...

Miles today: 136 Soundtrack: Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga We left camp and headed towards Concord, NH for laundry day in a generica hotel. Big day. We had a nice ride and lunch at a seafood place. Jaron got an ahi tuna burger and Julie got a clam roll. In two of the small towns we went thru, there were septuagenarians out protesting. We got to our hotel and had a very cheerful and chatty receptionist who told us how many quarters to allow for each load of laundry. Julie brought down a ten dollar bill for quarters and he said it was easier to just give me an entire roll of quarters. Sweet! I never get them in regular life and sometimes campground showers require them. Jaron got his laundry going while Julie took her turn in the shower. Julie went thru the bag of quarters and pulled out all of the nickels & dimes. Jaron didn't want to give them as part of our tip for dinner, so Julie bought 10 more quarters. We went to dinner at the Chinese restaurant across the street while Julie...

Miles today: 80 Today was the last day of the rally. We had a sponsored BBQ lunch at a Harley Davidson dealership. Julie was really hoping to replace her Butler map, but they didn't even know what those were! For the first time ever, I had to wait in line for the bathroom at a motorcycle dealership. We walked around admiring bikes painted all kinds of pretty colors. Harley also does a great job with women's shirts. Why can't the other brands put some effort in to their women's merch?? Well, that is the point of the WRWR app, to do industry studies on women motorcyclists so that manufacturers can't say they don't know what we want. Afterwards, we went to check out the flagship LL Bean that was open 24 hrs since it's near the Appalachain Trail. It was a campus of 3 buildings, with a map and everything. It was a little overwhelming. We didn't find anything we couldn't live without, but used the opportunity for cell service to sit on their couch and figu...

Miles today: 149 Soundtrack: Boyz II Men, Sarah Brightman This morning Julie was being indecisive about what to do today while overwhelmed by options. As she was walking back to our cabin, a woman from Germany who I'd spoken with yesterday asked if I wanted to go for a ride. I said sure! And that spurred me to get my shit together.  We attempted the long route again. We had a nice ride this morning and found a spot for lunch at a burger butcher place. After using Google Translate and translating the menu online in to German, we ordered. Katharina wanted a reasonably sized portion and so ordered from the kids' menu, and received a pretty full sized portion of chicken tenders. Jaron got chicken & waffles made in to a burger with 2 waffles as buns, the chicken, an egg fried over easy, and maple syrup. Katharina started in on her chicken & waffles with a knife & fork. Jaron started on his hot mess with predictable results. They were sitting across from each other and th...

Miles today: 190 Soundtrack: Vanilla Ice, Beastie Boys, C&C Music Factory We finally made it on a long ride! We went up to Rangeley, ME in the mountains on a loop and it was really beautiful. We found a cute place for lunch. Julie was going to get another lobster roll, but they had this salmon power bowl. It was amazeballs. Those are jalapenos on top! Jaron got a cheeseburger. We made it back in time for an author talk on her book, Stoic Rider. https://a.co/d/gDXh7v7 It's landed, hard. I'm doing my first read thru sans highlighter or notes bc it would just take forever. Julie has found her soul sister! An author who is philosophical about motorcycle riding AND is a powerlifter! What are the odds!? We both just stood there laughing. Argh, I didn't get a picture with her.

Miles today: 0.1 Steps: 11,778 Today was a rest day after 9 days in a row of riding. Julie woke up feeling kinda dead which was worsened by it being foggy, which kept the morning cold around longer. So Julie got back in to bed after bkst and read the first section of Stoic Rider all morning, one of the books she bought here and got autographed. I spaced out the things I needed to do to conserve energy. After morning ablutions I got back in to bed. After changing clothes I got back in to bed. Jaron must have been tired, too, bc he got back in to bed.  So Julie was going to ride pillion today to get together with some new friends that live locally that we met at the rally. I’d texted her that morning that I wouldn’t be riding today, and she brought her car for our outing which was so thoughtful! We didn’t know that ahead of time, hence the 0.1 miles of riding. We ditched our gear and had a nice afternoon off-moto.  First we went to a farm store market place that had a deli. It w...

Miles today: 94 Soundtrack: More Halestorm Today was the first full day of the rally. At first Julie suggested one of the longer rides, but cooler heads prevailed and we went on a shorter ride. It was a good thing, too, bc Julie missed a turn and Jaron needed a new coin battery for his key, and we had a learning experience with tracks and the new gps and the Rever app. It just showed the line of the route and not directions. The route was sort of a figure 8 and in several places the loop made it unclear which way to go, so Julie just took left turns the entire time, just like how to navigate a maze. We took a route that went around 2 lakes. It was really pretty and the weather was perfect (see squinty eyed pic below). We found the only place open for lunch on a Monday and both had haddock sandwiches. Julie asked about pickles and the waitress brought her 6 pickles. 😊 Back to the room for a brief laydown before some talks Julie was interested in. Julie got one author's 2 books sign...

Miles today: 149 Soundtrack: Halestorm We waited out the rain before heading from the Boston burbs to Poland, ME for the main event of this trip, the annual international WIMA (Women's Intl Motorcycle Assn) rally, which this year is in the US. We mailed it in again today under the threat of rain and bc of leaving late and wanting to get in before dinner. It was hard to maintain 85 mph today. Between the wind, the trucks buffeting more wind, the cops (lol). Also, Julie's throttle hand was really feeling it 2 days in a row of holding that spring near the end of range. Hopefully that was our last day of interstate riding. The rally is located at a camp, and the planning committee has really done a bang up job. It's all week with a full schedule. Excellent. While Jaron worked outside the home moving bikes, Julie worked inside the home and made up our beds. We did not move the beds together bc unfortunately they are not the same height. We fell asleep to Jaron's many referen...

Miles today: 187 Soundtrack: Reggaeton Today we got going early to beat the rain and get to Boston to visit Julie's brother and his kids. We just ate clif bars for bkst in the room and left by 8:30, an all-time record. Today was a highway day, but the upside was stable cell service so Julie could listen to her Pandora statione. Julie advised Jaron that 85 was the max speed she could sustain on her G650GS. Jaron planned out stops and we just tore the miles up. We actually got to our destination by noon! (also an all-time record) There was a tornado warning once the storm got going, so that was validating. The niblings' reactions as we pulled in the driveway was hugely gratifying, and the boys got to sit on bikes (Maeve declined). Declan even got to beep Jaron's horn. Kieran & Julie built a fort and we all listened to an audiobook together. 😍 After dinner we had some more fort time and it was all Julie could do to make herself get up and take a shower before bed. In the ...

Miles today: 194 Soundtrack: Dubstep, Swing, Ke$ha Today we left our hotel in the Adirondacks to take the scenic route north to the Whiteface Mountain Castle for lunch. We constructed our route and lodging around this route bc Julie read about it and it sounded cool and was along a scenic road. There was a lot of construction today. We stopped at the same coffee place and both additionally got s'mores ice cream as a midmorning snack. We made it to the turnoff for the castle and it said toll booth ahead. We were puzzled bc we didn't know there would be a toll. We've been avoiding toll roads bc Jaron forgot his EZPass/Tolltag. We pulled up and were told that the fee was $25 per vehicle. We both grimaced. Jaron asked what if we parked one bike and took one vehicle? Well, that would be $45 bc the 2nd person costs $20. Julie said that's ok, we don't have to go, and we turned around and instead went to a gas station supermarket deli counter. As we ate our very generously ...

Miles today: 152 Soundtrack: the rest of Julie's Shake It playlist (which is extensive) Today we did a 3 hr loop. There was a 4 hr option, but it was going to rain in the afternoon. We are aiming for 4 hrs/day on this trip bc of Julie's latest injury, her shoulder. We stopped for coffee after about a half hour which is becoming a thing since Julie is resetting her sleep. This coffee stop was awesome and I'm sad I didn't get a picture. It served a small RV park and had all kinds of cute decor and I saw in the kitchen that they had decal lettering on the wall that said "You look absolutely stunning today." The coffee was strong, too. We continued on to an overlook. Julie built this route based on Scenic Driving New York recommended routes. It was pretty state routes with mostly 40 mph turns, so we cruised at about 60. A lot of trucks were super nice and let us pass. Our lunch stop was Chef Darrell's Mountain Diner. We saw this on our way in. Chef Darrell mad...

Miles today: 183 en moto + 2 on foot Soundtrack: NIN, Julie's Shake It playlist Today we made it to the Adirondacks, where we are staying for 2 nights. Our bkst sandwiches in the room were perfect and we headed out up a precariously sharp turn and steep driveway. It turns out that Adventure Level 4 is just "take every side street" mode. So Julie reset to level 3. After leaving & returning to the same highway again, Julie reset it to level 2 and that seemed to be reasonable. Ugh, I guess there is no free lunch when it comes to navigation. We stopped for lunch at a place Julie found along our route and it was ok. Jaron felt that this was an illegal employment practice. Don't skip the fine print. The lunch place parking lot contained a lot of motorcycles, plus this truck. After a while Julie's hips were getting stiff. Her ergonomic handlebars for sitting didn't work so well standing up, so she stretched her legs backwards to tough the side bags. Jaron asked w...

Miles today: 196 Soundtrack: Fast & Furious, Sireena Today we dried out our tent and gear as much as possible and, in Jaron's words, accepted a level of wet. Our plan was to camp for a 2nd night somewhere else in PA, but last night's experience was reducing enthusiasm. Additionally, Julie sacrificed a Butler map to the road gods. We needed data. We figured we would get cell service in State College, PA so Julie navigated us to a Sheetz where we would have somewhere to sit down while figuring our lives out. We got to drive right past Penn State and it kind of reminded us of College Station, TX. Well, the Sheetz was a complete lie. I was feeling suspicious that it was supposedly so close to campus and downtown, There was no other gas station or any other business named Sheetz pizza or anything. Fine, we found another one. After deciding not to camp, we researched a new itinerary so we wouldn't be stuck with a long highway day. By then it was noon, so we got sandwiches. No...

Miles today: don't know, we're out of cell service (update: 191) Theme music: Ke$ha, NIN, Alice in Chains Uneventful day today. We got out the door and went to Reeds Gap campground in PA, Julie's most favorite campground ever. It has only 14 sites, it's on the water, and it has hot showers. Fucking winner.  Look at those mossy rocks behind our tent.  Oh, and this is what our tent looks like with poles. Same campsite as last time, when we forgot the poles and slept in hammocks and the truck. 👍🏻 We left the rain fly off bc there was 0% chance of rain. <cue doom music> There was surprisingly little traffic getting out of town on a holiday weekend. After we got north of Baltimore on the highway, we took secondary roads to Carlisle, PA. From there, Julie tried out her new gps. It's an adventure motorcycling gps. For adventurous people going on adventures. (Adventure motorcycling is combo highway & offroad, but there are a lot of suburban warriors who trick ou...