Friday, July 22, 2011

Day 5 Wild Hogs III Journey Home

We got an early start on day 5. We were packed up and out of camp by 6:45. We did stop at McDonalds in town for breakfast, so we really didn't hit the road until about 7:45, but all in all a good start to the day. By the way, the McDonalds fruit smoothies are great if you haven't tried one yet!

We hit the road and made good time most of the day. We of course had the mandatory gas stops as well as the "give rick's back a break" stops as I was really taking a beating from towing the trailer with little or no suspension. The only real hitch was in Danbury CT.

We made a gas stop. When we were pulling out everyone took off and promptly went down the wrong ramp to get onto 84 west (our direction) except me. I was bringing up the rear with the trailer. I pulled over to see what they were going to do and realized in short order that they could not come back around the way they came, so I came back around to a light to join them. By the time I got there, they were gone. I spent the next 20 minutes and about 10 miles trying to find them and the highway. Once back on the highway, I decided to just keep heading west not knowing if they were in front of me or behind me at this point. I crossed into NY and figured I would keep going until the next rest area then pull in there and try to raise someone with text or call. As I travelled along I saw a single bike along the side of the road. As I approached I realized it was Mark. He was ready to pull out, so I went on by and he caught up with me a minute later. I asked him where everyone else was and he said "up ahead looking for your". We reached the next rest area and there they were. It seems that Mark had lost one of the bundles strapped to his back seat and had to stop to retrieve it from the roadway. That's why he was there. We were back together and the rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. We arrived at home about 5 so we did the trip in just over 9 hours. Not too bad. It was really hot though and I was sort of missing the cool breezes of the MA coast.

I hope to be able to go back to New England again in the future. It was a great experience and I would love to be able to ride it on a bike that has proper shocks. I have since replaced the shocks with air shocks which will allow me to adjust for the load of the trailer and equipment. I'm not sure where next year will lead yet, but there is talk of heading to West Virginia to visit some of the old stomping grounds of our youth. There are great roads for riding and some old friends to visit, so it seems like a good idea to me. We shall see. So ends another Wild Hogs Adventure.

Day 4 Wild Hogs III Into the Lake Country

Day 4 we decided to make a run into New Hampshire to Laconia and the Lakes region of the state. We got another late start, but it never matters when you are not on a schedule anyway.

Many of the roads in NH were a bit better than in MA, but it was still a rough ride at time. We road into Laconia (the site of a big bike rally in mid june). We had lunch and ran along the rim of lake Winnipesaukee. It was a good day and we arrived back at camp somewhat earlier than any other day (5ish).

We thought we'd go back into Salisbury and have our last evening meal of the trip where we started at Salisbury Pizza, but the beach traffic trying to get back to the mainland was insane. We ended up heading north on 1-A and finding a little pizza place just on the MA/NH border.

We finished the night with a BIG campfire. It seemed we had a little excess firewood and we wanted to go ahead and use it up, so Jay broke out the portable mattress pump (battery operated) and we had 4' flames and white hot coals. It was an early bed night because we knew we were looking at that 450 mile run home.

Day 3 Wild Hogs III Coating Again

On day 3 we decided to run the coast south of our base camp at Salisburg Beach. Our initial thought was to go as far south as Plymouth MA where we could see Plymouth Rock and a replica of the Mayflower. As usual we adjusted on the fly and didn't get that far south (frankly the idea of having to go through Boston and back on a Fri. didn't seem to great anyway because of the crazy traffic).

We ran route 1 and 1-A with our initial destination being Salem. Salem was a bit of a disappointment, as it was a much bigger city than I had in my head and the historic area was very commercialized. We made a run through the city, passed by the witch museum and had some lunch at a pizza place we ran accross. We decided to cruise the coast as much as possible going back.

One of the places we found ourselves, was a town called Marblehead. When we stopped to look at the lighthouse out on the point across the bay we ran into a couple of ladies with a little girl who asked where we were from. We told them and the welcomed us to Marblehead. They were looking to sunbathe on the rocks but the tide was in and the steps leading down to the rocks (no sand beach there) were half covered with water. We talked with them a while and took pics of the boats and the light. Amazingly they climbed over the railing and down to the rocks where the little girl played in some of the pools in the rocks. They told us that if we went across the causeway we could get out to the lighthouse and some great views of the bay and the ocean. We of couse could not turn that down. The island where the lighthouse is is developed with houses that you could not beleive. I don't know why we didn't take any pictures, but we didn't. We did get some of the bay and the town and the ocean. One house (mansion) that we passed had Kardashian on the gates.

While at the Marblehead light we ran into a fellow biker who was much older and from the area. He advised us that going any further south would likely be a disappointment and that if we just tried to stay on the coast going north we would see some amazing coastline. He was right.

Another interesting place that we found by chance was a castle just outside Gloucester, which was constructed originally as the home of John Hays Hammond, Jr. It was on a bluff overlooking the ocean. He was an inventor and collector of medieval artifacts. He lived there and had his laboratory there as well. Mr. Hammond holds over 400 patents and was second only to Thomas Edison as one of the premeire inventors of his day. It was built from 1926 - 1929 and is now a museum of his collection. It was amazing and well worth the price of admission.

At some point we found ourselves riding in circles and coming back to the same small towns. The MA coast is very jagged with hundreds of little inlets and bays so at times it was difficult to maintain a good sense of direction. We eventually resorted to gps to get ourselves headed in the right direction. We stopped at a grocery store on the way back to camp to get food to cook. I had a great steak along with some potato salad. It was a great day of riding, seeing the MA coast. I think there is no way you can get the same feel in a car. The salt air and breezes along with the sounds are amazing. I must make one note here though. The roads are less than smooth in this area. There is construction everywhere and they are some of the roughest roads I have ever ridden. This was compounded by the fact that on the trip up on day one I broke my suspension while towing my trailer when I hit a huge bump in a construction zone and basically had no shock absorbers on the bike. Even with that being the case, it was worth every bump and ache that came with it.

I considered day 3 a rousing success because I was fortunate enough to see several lighthouses (a personal goal) and we just had a great day of riding.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Day 2 Wild Hogs III Coasting

We were a little slow getting started this morning with the storm keeping everyone up for a good part of the night. It seems the weather here on the coast is unpredictable to say the least. This morning started off cool and sunny. It was decided that we would take a ride up the coast to see whatever there was to see. We left about 10 am (late by our usual standards) and headed up Rt. 1-A. which hugs the coast. We passed into New Hampshire and continued north. At some points 1-A ends and merges with Rt. 1. We actually ended up taking a few round about routes, had lunch in Dover NH, and eventually found ourselves in Maine running back down south on 1-A again. I finally saw my first New England lighthouse. It was the Cape Neddick Light and we saw it as we were passing through York Beach. I hope we will see more as we travel more of the coast this week.

We had made arrangements to visit an old family friend around 4, so we headed back south to his place. We made it on time and were served a great hot meal and had a really nice visit (thanks Dave!). We finally left to head for camp at about 9 pm and arrived back at about 9:30. We had a camp fire but everyone was really tired after a full day of riding, and it is rather cool out at the current time. I am the only one still up and about and the campground is very quiet except for a couple across the road who apparently don't realize that it is quiet hours. Hopefully they will decide to go to sleep soon.

There's a full moon ducking in and out of the clouds and the temp is in the upper 50's. I am sitting under the canopy at the table with my hood up waiting for the fire to die out. Then I will plug everything into their chargers and crawl into my tent as well. It has been a good day. I'm looking forward to tomorrow and will add pics when I get a chance. I wish I had photoshop on this lap top. It would make the process so much simpler.

Wild Hogs III Day 1 The Tradition Continues

Well The day finally arrived and on Wed. morning 7/13 our Wild Hogs III adventure began. Though there was no rain predicted at either our start point or our destination as of that morning, it seems that the day one tradition of getting rained on held true again this year. We left about 1/2 hour late (as usual). We met the two brothers from the Lancaster area at the Bethal exit on I-78, then we were off. At our first gas stop I noticed that my hitch for the trailer seemed to be sagging a bit and discovered that when I hit a big bump going through a construction zone I must have sheared off a bolt. It seemed solid enough so I reinforced it against any future big bumps with a ratchet tie down and we were off again.

Of course we hit rain as we passed through the Poconos area. It wasn't terrible but it was of course enough to hog up the bikes pretty well and fulfill our first day tradition of ending up in the rain. We did pretty well once we ran out of the initial burst (took maybe an hour or so). We made a stop in Newburgh, NY at the home of Orange County Choppers. At that point it was sunny and hot. We got lunch in Newburgh, then headed out again. It seemed we had great timing most of the day as we ran through many areas where it had obviously just rained hard, but aside from the road spray, we really didn't see much actual rain (the spray actually felt pretty good in the heat. We hit a lot of traffic in the last 20 miles or so which probably cost us about an hour of travel, but all in all, the trip went relatively smoothly.

We arrived in Salisbury Beach MA at about 7:30 PM and checked in to the state park campground. One of the people in the office said that we had just missed a really nasty storm by an hour or so. We set up camp and decided to go back in to town to a pizza shop we saw when we were passing through. As we waited for our food another storm moved in (not predicted)complete with very heavy rain, thunder and lightning. We ate slowly, and by the time the place was ready to close the rain had stopped. We made our way back to camp at about 10 pm and found that everything had survived fine. Tired from the 450 mile journey of the day we decided to turn in. We got settled in for the night. At about 1 am I woke up to the sound of rain on the tent. It was light and I wasn't concerned. By 1:45 it had built in to a raging thunderstorm with torrential rains and gusting winds and of course the thunder and lightning (always a plus when you are camped on what amounts to an open beach. It passed in about an hour and except for the gusty winds, the cooler temps that came with it were welcome.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Wild Hogs III

Well it has been quite some time since I posted anything here. As we gear up for Wild Hogs III, I guess this is a good time to make another post. For those who haven't read through previous posts Wild Hogs III is the latest in our annual motorcycle adventures.

My 4 brothers and I started taking an annual motorcycle trip a few years ago. It is a chance to get away from work and kids and wives and just have a good time on the road. We are close in age (5 years between oldest and youngest) and we all live within reasonable distance of one another, but we never seem to find much time to get together. We all ride motorcycles and for quite some time had talked about planning a trip together, but just never seemed to get it done. Finally, one of the wives said, "why don't you just do it!" and our "Wild Hogs" adventures were born. This year we have added one to our group. My nephew Scotty, and old married man of 24 will be joining us. We decided since he has been married for a few years now he might need a get-away too.

This year our destination is Salisbury Beach MA. That is in the extreme north eastern corner of Mass. (about an hour north of Boston). Last year we were in the mountains of western MA and enjoyed New England so much we decided to go back again this year, but do the coast this time. The plan is to base camp at the beach then take day trips along the coast, hopefully seeing lots of lighthouses and historic sites. We plan to hit parts of New Hampshire and Maine as well as the coastal areas of Mass.. I have added some new equipment to my arsenal. I now have a small trailer to pull behind my bike which will make available more space to carry additional equipment. I have also added a new tent. This one is large enough that I should not have a problem with my head and feet touching the ends when I sleep. Last year it became an issue the last night when we had a big storm. If you have spent time in a tent in the rain, then you know that touching the sides is not conducive to staying dry. We will be spoiled this year as well, by having electrical hookups at our camp site. This means all our techno gear can easily be recharged without running down the batteries on the bikes. All in all it should be a great trip.

I will attempt to blog a little each day and post pics. I should be able to gain internet access through my phone which should be easier than trying to hi-jack a signal sitting outside a Staples or McDonalds. We leave July 13 so if you are interested in checking out our trip, check back here starting that evening.