Marty and Sally big trip 2008

[MartyA]

The members of our little group all met through the XS11.com forum many years ago, and have been on many trips and rallys together. Ralph and Tracy live near Lancaster, PA, 99 Royal Star (Venture Royale without the plastic, 125 miles to the tank <_< ), Brent from Lilburn, GA drives up on his 2002 HD "Fire-fighter's Special Edition" the day before and travels with us. And some of you know me and Sally.

We take 8-10 days each year and travel tosome part of the country to collect states, and we try to stop and see landmarks of notoriety and lesser notoriety, mostly free if possible, while we collect states (and Canadian provinces this time.) Last year we went to South Dakota from PA, collected 14 states and saw things like Devil's Tower, buffalo herd, Annie Oakley's grave, Deadwood, St. Louis Arch, Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SD, stuff like that. We don't use GPS, I have MaPS from Streets and Trips.

This year we had 10 days (started out 9 but available motels were further off our route so we had to add another day) beginning June 28 - "Day 1".

It turns out that we had a sub-theme to our trip this year. Brent is a member of the Red Knights, and they have some sort of contest for their members to get a photo in front of fire houses with 1st initials that will spell out "Red Knights Grand Tour". So we stopped at many fire houses along the way (adding many many many minutes to the schedule.)

[SIZE=14pt]Day 1 select photos PA, NJ, NY, CT [/SIZE]

Packing to leave from Ralph and Tracy's:

First main stop was in NJ to see this fine lady. Brent had never seen the Statue of Liberty. This is Tracy and Sally.

On a clear day you can see most of Manhattan from NJ. I lived in NJ for many years the twin towers were a sight from here.

The taller pointed building in the background is the Empire State Building.

THis is Ellis Island.

Next stop was Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (as in the Legend of Sleepy Hollow) in the former South Tarrytown, NY by way of George Washington Bridge. (We take lots of photos of ourselves when the ride gets boring...)

Washington Irving is buried there:

After we checked in at our motel we spotted these in New London, CT:

And to close out the day we ate here:

Great pizza and the price was surprisingly good.

 

[YukonG]

Nice pics.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[MartyA]

[SIZE=14pt]Day 2 CT, RI, MA, ME[/SIZE]

Planned route:

Newport, RI has an area along the shore called "Mansion Row":

Remember "Dark Shadows" the TV soap? This is the mansion used in the opening credits. It is now a girls' dormitory for Salve Regina College.

On the way from RI to Plymouth, MA and the Plymouth Rock , we found this famous place:

Then off to Plymouth Rock, saw a Mayflower replica:

We saw the famous Minute Man statue and memorial stuff on the Battle Green in Lexington, MA.

There is a big flag pole there - by order of Congress the Flag flies 24/7. This is the birthplace of Liberty.

Did you know there are two minute man statues? This one is in Concord, MA:

Did you know there are two Sleepy Hollow cemeteries? The one in NY has the Headless Horseman. The one in Concord, MA has an "Author's Ridge" where some famous authors are buried:

Ralph Waldo Emerson grave:

Nathaniel Hawthorne grave:

henry David Thoreau grave

Then it rained, so we skipped Salem, MA and headed to our Kittery, ME motel up Rt. 95.

 

[MartyA]

[SIZE=12pt]Day 3 - ME to Waasis, NB.[/SIZE]

This was supposed to be a simple day, with a couple of stops along the Maine coast and Rt. 1. A short tour of Bah Hahbah / Acadia was planned, 2 border crossings which included a brief stop and 2 crossings at Lubec / Campobello, and arrive at our friend and Canadian section guide Mitch's house in Waasis, NB. I had accounted for some traffic delays, but we did need to cover 440 miles.

Well.....

We started out late with no power at the motel in Kittery. At 5 AM the emergency lights were lit, but at 6 they had died. We packed in the dark, no offer of a discount (more on that later). We had a few delays with missing pavement and briges under repair.

Without realizing it at first, a major reason for delays were the fire house photo stops at every little town on Rt. 1 in Maine (and later on the rest of the trip). We would stop at one, take a photo, then out comes the on-duty guy wondering what the heck we are doing in his driveway. Then our Georgia boy Brent makes a new friend, then the on-duty guy goes back to get his camera, then his friends come, then more show up, and so on. They were all nice folks and it was an entertaining little event for them all but these became 1/2 hr stops and we got far behind schedule.

Example of a fire house stop, in Thomaston, ME:

Usually starts out like this:

Then becomes this:

Back on our route, a brief stop at Acadia:

Pavement ends:

MORE pavement ends!

The 8th bridge repair today...

Maine does have some nice coastline views, I thought we would see more as we went north on Rt. 1.

We crossed and returned at Lubec to see President Roosevelt's vacation cottage at Campobello

We crossed again at Calais / St Stephen. The line looked long but was only about 10 minutes. Note it is getting dark....

I had phoned our friend Mitch earlier and told him we were crossing at St. Stephen. He came charging down and met us in the dark about 1 hour from his house in Waasis. When we arrived at his house he had a fire for us and some Alpine. Here is Mitch, wife Tina, and 11 year old Hannah who would come along with Mitch to the Cabot Trail and PEI.

We had time to do much needed laundry and more importantly down 'several' Alpines in my PJ's.....

Never thought herding cats was going to be so tough.

Next- Cabot trail and PEI.

 

[Silver Penguin]

Awesome report, so far. I'm loving the photos. Hard to believe that we have so many skilled photographers on the forum. I used to think that I snapped a pretty good picture, until I saw the talent displayed with the ride reports here.

Looking forward to the next part.

Jill

 

[wheatonFJR]

GREAT report there Marty! :clapping:

 

[luvtoride]

OMG! Marty & Sally are both wearing assless chaps!!! Nice t-shirts ya'll have, though.

Good report Marty.

You guys wearing those assless chaps to EOM?

 

[MartyA]

assless chaps

Such a compliment - a young lady checking out my old arse.....

Chaps are easier to fold and pack Miss Smarty Pants!!

No plans yet for EOM, I am still looking for work and Sally's teaching year starts a couple of weeks prior to that, and she has no time off.

'course, if you are THAT attracted to those chaps we could be for rent.....

Back to the trip report....

 

[MartyA]

[SIZE=12pt]Day 4 Get to Cape Breton and Ride the Cabot Trail![/SIZE]

This map is roughly day 4-5-6, Mitch was in charge of this portion and I estimated the route. Mostly just getting there, nothing exciting except we start to see some nice scenery.

Packing up to leave:

Mitch is an old friend from the XS11.com group. Lives in Waasis, NB, has a big LOUD Intruder with a "dark side" tire. This is a regular automobile tire, might be the last tire he buys... Handles well enough, I watched him in the Cabot Trail sweepers and it did fine.

Mitch and Hannah and the Intruder

Scenic other side

Hannah was very excited for weeks when she learned we were coming and she was going along. I can only imagine how little sleep she got, and we had to stop a couple of times to wake her up to keep her from falling off.

Progress:

Closer:

Mitch had us at a nice motel, nice view of water across the street in Baddeck. It was empty, on Canada Day:

We arrived in time for supper, and asked for lobster. They were out. We asked for steak, but you had to order the Surf and Turf to get the steak. Since the "Surf" part is missing and you can't order the Surf and Turf you couldn't get the steak.... er, WOW, some logic...

But they had a nice pool.

Our Restaurant view in Baddeck:

 

[luvtoride]

You do know that I was just messin' with ya' about the ASSLESS chaps, right? I forgot the smiles... so, here you go:

Hope that all works out & you can make EOM this year.

Great report ya' got goin' on.

Please send Sally my best,

Heidi

 

[MartyA]

Hey I KNOW you were just funnin' me. No prob Heidi. Just don't stare next time we get together :biggrinsmiley: ....

Sally sez EOM maybe...

 

[MartyA]

[SIZE=12pt]Day 5 The Cabot Trail![/SIZE]

What can you say about the Cabot Trail - it is beautiful, wild, has great sweepers and long scenic straight roads. It has a few sections of road that are terrible, but most of it is excellent. We saw moose AND whales. There was one pull off that had a tiny triangle of beach way-y-y down there, and you could suddenly see whales spouting (?) and then they were just as suddenly gone. We travelled in the anti-clockwise direction from Baddeck. Worth the trip. Just be slow on the rough sections, one big bump bounced Mitch into the opposite lane.

We stopped briefly at the Alexander Graham Bell Museum then off we went.

Never enough scenic photos, but here are a few:

Saw a LOT of these:

But only one of these on the whole trip:

On the Pictou Ferry to PEI

On PEI:

We got to our motel in Cavendish, reputed to have beautiful beach and beautiful sunsets.:

We'll check out the beach tomorrow.

 

[jordylad]

Excellent report, thanks for sharing.

Amazing photography.

 

[luvtoride]

You wear them assless chaps around the FJR crew there will be more folks than just me looking atcha'. :winksmiley02:

Jut foolin'... we all know that the leather of assless chaps is superior protection to armored cordura/mesh.

Excellent report, by the way Marty.

 

[MartyA]

in reality I had no idea what temperatures to expect. One morning was a little chilly, otherwise mesh would have been fine, with a sweatshirt and regular pants. But we didn't know that so we went with leather chaps in case of cold and which fold small if they had to come off.

 

[MartyA]

[SIZE=12pt]Day 6 Prince Edward Island[/SIZE]

PEI is just so darn cute! The shops are cute, the land is cute, everything is just cute. We stayed at Cavendish.

Cute lighthouse:

Cute land:

Cute "Jams and Jellies" Store with hand-made quilts on the ceiling! The Prince Edward Island Preserve Co I think it was called. Good lunch, GREAT desserts!

Who doesn't know that Lucy Maud Montgomery is the author of "Anne of Green Gables" and lived in Cavendish and based her book on her experiences growing up there? And everywhere you go in that area you find "Anne of Green Gables" chocolate, "Anne of Green Gables" Realty, "Anne of Green Gables" Chiropractic, and on and on.

Here is the house with the green gables:

Public TV did a movie of "Anne of Green Gables" and built the town of Avonlea right down the street from the green gabled house. The movie set and props are still there. Didn't I say "cute?"

The United States took advantage of North Atlantic fishing for many years after we became the United States. One fleet was always at and around Prince Edward Island. In 1851 a hurricane came up so powerful it wiped out the "Yankee Fleet." Since then the storm has been called the "Yankee Gale." Hundreds of bodies washed up all along the north shore of PEI. There are several sites along the northcoast with commerative plaques and small cemeteries where the unknown fishermen were buried near where they washed up. Here is one:

Following a tour of the island we headed back to Mitch's house by way of the International Bridge. This is a LO-O-Ong bridge.

Brent demonstrates how to relax at 80 MPH on a long boring section of the bridge:

 

[rogdeb]

You guys look like you're having the time of your lives :yahoo:

Real nice pics -- thanks for sharing.

 

[weekend rider]

Lifes moments at its best with friends and sharing with others to enjoy

 

[ShawnKing]

We had time to do much needed laundry and more importantly down 'several' Alpines in my PJ's.....

(Drool) I haven't had an Alpine's in 20 years...I'm *so* jealous!