The Meeting of the Motorcycles

 The last two days have been ones of travel Sports Fans.

To catch you up...

1 September 2024

Routing from Fredericton to the Potatoe World Museum (Florenceville-Bristol) and Covered Bridge Chips. (Waterville) via Hartland NB to see the worlds longest covered bridge. The final destination is Woodstock NB.

Route taken: Route 104 and TransCanada Highway.

The drive was on roads of good quality for but 20 KMs of roads that I would rate a 4/10. Patches abounded and made up most of the tarmac and it was easy going as long as you kept your speed about 50 KM/H.

Before that the roads are delightfully twisty and I met a motorcyclist and we maintained a nice pace through the section from about Butts Corner to Southampton Junction where he turned off.

With that fun over I concentrated on enjoying the view and watching for wildlife though a majority of the highway is agricultural there was one section that was being used for logging and the ubiquitous Irving signs indicating there property were well in evidence.

For those who do not know, the Irving Empire is dominant in New Brunswick, with a vast array of enterprises, logging 5,346,264 acres of timber under their control between New Brunswick and Maine.

A short stop at Hartland to view and photograph the bridge and taking the time to visit the gift shop and find a well-written history of the bridge in a non-descript binder. THAT should be the focus of the shop, not the cheesy clothing.

Of course, Sports Fans, one needs to add the obligatory photo of a slightly dishevelled Red Mist.

Finally arrived at Woodstock NB and bedded down for the night.

View from motel.

2 September 2024

Routing from Woodstock to Gorham NH. I-95 to Highway 2 for twisties.

This drive was a little less active fun than the day before but it was highlighted by a nice convoy led by about 10 Harley riders.

I was in front of them but the road was so windy and had numerous speed zones from 35 MPH to 55 MPH as the road proceeded through mixed rural and light urban concentrations that, combined with the curves, there were not many places to pass safely.

I was about 3 miles out of town with these Harleys smelling the Red Mist's tailpipe I took the first safe opportunity to pull over and let them pass. Several of the bikers waved their thanks to me and I snapped in behind them and enjoyed them leading the charge, so to speak, as we passed through Maine towards New Hampshire.

After about 30 miles the group effectively disintegrated as they were not a formal group of riders but an ad hoc group that had coalesced during their rides and connected and shared the road for a while.

Stopped at the Dutch Treat Dairy Foods for an amazing cheeseburger, some OK fries and a coffee "frappe" which is a hard-serve milkshake. Dutch Treat offers soft and hard-serve flavours and their "milkshakes" are made with soft-serve ice cream.

From Trip Advisor.

It had that cool 50s and 60s vibe and these independent places need our support. The highways and bi-ways of North America are scattered with the shattered dreams of once proud and viable eating establishments.

If I ever come back this way I hope I can stop by the Dutch Treat and relive today's wonderful memory.

Got into Gorham and am set for the night. The Mist has been washed but the intermittent rain we are having precluded me from detailing her fully.

That's all Sports Fans!

Another great day of travel and adventures.

Tomorrow: A long awaited dream of driving up Mount Washington!

Back in the USA! Back in the USA!: The Red Mist Explores

 Hello Sports Fans!

My peeps in BC! My peeps in the Theatre Capital of Canada. Steel Town! And, for my family that is about it.

To my Social Media peeps! Hello too!

So, the adventure begins. As some of you may know the title is an homage to a Beatles song "Back in the USSR." It has been over 7 years since I travelled to the United States and it was necessary to get a new passport (in 3 days!) so I could take advantage of transiting through New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

Of these four states, I had yet to go to New Hampshire and Maine and looked forward to transiting those states and knocking them off my travel target. I have been to 30 states. Not bad. Perhaps next year's trip will be to California and not off the southwest states and Oregon.

First coffee of the trip. Good Earth coffee rocks and the people are great.!

16 degrees C with7/8 of a tank I left at 18:33 EST for somewhere along the New York State Thruway.

Normal protocol on other trips was to transit via the 401 and then past Montreal and stop around midnight at a roadside rest stop and grab a quick wink or two and blast off dawn zero early to attempt to complete the trip. This was to Halifax when my son went to school there and I could make it late the following day as the trip is approximately 22 hours without stops.

Going through the States would make the drive to St. John NB approximately 15 hours and I had to do this in less than two days. I had to be part way by after midnight (6 to 7 hours) and then get up and put in a 12 hour day to make it to my motel.

Thing is...

If I am later than 8:00 PM AST the motel will not check me in...

And, I had a ferry reservation for Saturday morning and had to be at the ferry in St. John no later than 7:00 AM. Not being the best early riser, I felt it was incumbent on me to get some digs in St. John the night before and get up early the next day and be there smartly at 6:30 AM. My luck, like last year, I was one of the first on the ferry from Point Aux Basque NF to Sydney NS and literally, literally was the LAST car off that ferry.

So...

Off I go. 401 to. Well, Google Maps had its own idea where to go. And I followed it out of curiosity and it worked. It ran a parallel route to the 401 to Highway 6 South and save me a lot of stress.

I was at the border by 20:02 EST and passed through without a hitch. Not too busy (ask me about going over 3 weeks after 9/11) and I put my front and rear windows down and turned on the interior light and stated that I was transmitting the USA to go to St. John NB. He nodded and let me through. Ironically, I had a more involved interrogation getting back into Canada.

At that time the average gas consumption was 7 litres per 100 km and average speed was 70 km/h.

21 degrees C with 4/10ths scattered cloud at about 4,000 feet and a light high coverage of cloud above 20,000. The weather was going to be favourable!

Stopped for BK and the poor manager had two completely useless dolts "working" with her and she backstopped the merde out of them. Without her no one would have gotten their orders.

The fries, apparently an "medium" size (really was a small) were 5.29 US. That's 7.15 CDN for MOFO fries people! I know were BK makes it money. The hamburger was almost cheaper.

Moving on and avoiding the crap food at the food courts along highways.

BTW, travel in France. The food in 1992 at their road side highway stops was amazing.

North America can do better. But we won't.

I stopped at the Mowhawk NYS stop for fuel and decided to kip out there. They are revamping the facility so a bunch of truckers and motorhome travellers pulled over and stopped to rest.

I had forgotten my travel pillow (and my teddy bear) so I bundled up my coat, set the sun shade up and had a decent 4-hour nap/sleep.

The thing is, I can't fall asleep in situations like this. I need a bed. To lie on my side, and to have a fan cooling me. In a car... Well, NOT happening. So I pop in and out of REM sleep and basically, achieve 25% rest over the time period I am TRYING to nap.

However, my alarm goes off at 6:00 AM and I am off in search of coffee. I pass the first rest stop and proceed to the next one and fuel up.

Tall Pike black. 7 out of 10. Unfocused staff. Is it the pay or do we not instill a strong work ethic in our youth? Coffee run at 6:41 AM.

So, now is the serious driving. I have 12 hours and 900 km to cover. I had driven 588.5 km so far.

How did it go?

First...

The Impreza is impressive. It is comfortable and a hell of a lot of fun in the curvies. Some of the driver aids take a bit to get use to and incorporate tactically to one's driving but I had this MASSIVE smile on my face in Vermont, then New Hampshire and Northern Maine. The Red Mist likes to move and the 4-wheel AWD is a massive confidence booster. A couple of times I had to show who's boss while navigating the route, especially in northern Maine.

And note this...

Subarus are prolific in these states. They are everywhere. I stopped at a tourism stop in Maine by Bangor and, including my car, there were 5 Subarus parked together. I saw a Vermont Crosstrek with the licence plate "SCUBAROO" and several times during this trip today fellow Subie owners assisted me in acts of driver courtesy because we "know." It is a cult. It actually has some aspects of the Harley and motorcycle fraternity. Not as evident as those other brands, but it is there.

I had a string of perfect driving songs on Sirus XM to accompany me on my drive through the twisties of Vermont and New Hampshire.

Last coffee of the day at Raymond, New Hampshire. 

The total for today (Friday) was 941.2 km with an average speed of 92 km/h and a fuel economy of 6.9 L/100 km which is quite impressive since I was doing between X and Y during my drive in Northern Maine and New Brunswick.

At the Canadian border, I got asked if I had guns, drugs, mace, bear spray, marijuana and if I really had not bought any alcohol or tobacco while I was in the US. Interesting how our police and other services presume guilt and attempt to have innocent citizens pressured into admitting accidentily that they may have broken the law.

I got to my cheap and cheerful motel and went out for some Chris Brother's Pepperoni (trigger warning to the vegan readers), a spot of rum and shrimp as a Hors d'oeuvre.

The Red Mist is nestled in for the night and will be ready for more adventures tomorrow!