Monday found me abandoning any thoughts of heading toward Quebec City and instead plot a course from Portland Maine through New Hampshire and Vermont to Ticonderoga New York. The rain was in my face most of the day as I rode westward. Not much time for seeing the sites, but I kept thinking, as I passed lakes and streams that this would be a great place to ride if it wasn't for the rainy weather. It was a long wet day and I was glad I found a room at the local Super 8. A large motorcycle event "Americade" was getting ready to start and I got the last room at the hotel. The rain continued most of the night as a light sprinkle and I was glad that I had decided to head west.
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Woke up to rain this morning, forecast for Gail Force 3-5 inches will keep me grounded today in Portland. Hoping to get out of here tomorrow or at the worst Monday and head west through New Hampshire and Vermont and into New York. As good as the weather was in the West and South and South East, weather the last 2 weeks has been marginal at best and has taken some of the luster off my visit to the north east. I’ve finally decided that I need to get back west and out of this rain, so I’m going to save Canada until I get back towards Niagara Falls. I guess the beauty of this trip is I can modify it as I wish, though I hate to do it because of weather, setting and watching it and riding in it is less appealing, so when I head out, it will be westward.
Friday morning I woke to another beautiful blue sky with a pretty grim weather forecast on the Weather Channel for the weekend for the entire New England area. Undaunted, I packed up the bike and trailer and when Jeff showed up we headed out, the first destination was a Grist Mill that I had seen the evening before when we had gone to dinner. I didn’t have my camera at the time and was interested in taking some pictures of the places in the morning. We rode over to the “Longfellow’s Grist Mill” and the morning sun made for some very nice pictures. From there we let the GPS take us through some back roads to Concord where some of the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired. Concord was where American Militia (mostly farmers) stood of 96 British troops, who were headed to Concord to recover arms and cannon that had been stolen from the armory in Boston , as well as some of the leaders of the rebel leaders who were thought to be hiding there. The militia had made original contact at Lexington, MA then being overpowered retreated to Concord where they met up with more militia and stopped the British advance and pushed them back to Boston, where they used basic Guerrilla Warfare to harass the British troops back to Boston. A huge moral boost for the Militia’s at the time. Below is the bridge that the British were driven off of by the Militia.. From Concord we rode up to Haverhill Mass, as I was told repeatedly pronounced “Haver’ill “, this linguistic thing in New England still baffles me. From Haverhill we headed into New Hampshire and then into Maine. Jeff and I parted just south of Portland ME. I appreciated his company on the ride up.
Its interesting how the scenery changes as you pass from state to state. The ride through New Hampshire and Maine was beautiful, as we passed several dark blue lakes and inlets. I finally got to Portland and looking to the west I could see a large wall of dark grey clouds, the pending storm I had been heading forecast. I found a decent Motel 6, covered up the bike and decided to sit out this storm from my room. As I sat in my room watching the Weather Channel, looking at the severe weather including tornado’s south of me in Virginia, D.C, Pennsylvania I was glad I had made the choice. |
AuthorTim Stubbe AKA Archives
June 2013
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