August 1, Saturday On to Maine, and hurrah, I've ridden on two wheels in 48 states. When we pulled into the visitor center to get maps and another hotel discount book, we found that the "Cat", the ferry from Portland to Halifax Nova Scotia, cost about $330 for the two of us and Bear. From Bar Harbor it would still cost over $237. Ouch. We decided to make a run from St. Johns New Brunswick to Digby NS instead, which only cost a little over $150. This was another rainy off and on day, so we stopped for the night in [View Full Entry]

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July 29, Wednesday I was up and on the way to my sister’s place in Derry, NH just a short ride north. I arrived around 8:30, and couldn’t figure out how to get past the front door of her apartment building. She didn’t answer the phone, and I didn’t know the “code” to buzz her apartment. Up to the office, which opened at 9, then armed with a code, I tried Shirley’s again. Still no joy. I figured I could go find a tire guy anyway, so off I went and found the big Honda/Yamaha/Suzuki shop. On the way back, Shirley [View Full Entry]

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July 26, Sunday New Jersey has really surprised me with the farming ambiance, I guess the nickname of The Garden State does indeed have something more to it than irony. Many horse farms, lots of vegetable farming, and mostly pretty trees and well kept yards in this area. Of course I'm sure the NYC metro area is different, but we'll see soon enough. On past Trenton we headed for our reservation date at the Newburgh/NYC KOA campground we rode in after a little wandering about, as Sheila didn't have it listed. Not even in the wrong spot - just no knowledge [View Full Entry]

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July 23, Thursday I headed over alone to visit with Dad and my sister Shirley and had a nice visit with lunch. Dad's koi fish pond is amazing, he has lots of huge koi's and many many smaller gold fish. The water in the 33,000 gallon in-ground pool / fish pond is crystal clear due to the great filter system Dad has designed. My Wayfarer sailboat and I got acquainted too. I found out that the tires I ordered, hoping they would show up at Dad's place in a timely manner, instead had an ETA of next Tuesday ! That's not [View Full Entry]

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July 19, Sunday Happy Birthday Debby ! Today consisted of an easy wake up, a slow pack up, then getting the pick-ups and trailers back to the respective donors. Once all this was accomplished, Deb and I headed for Johnson City and a motel to take it easy and to get some laundry done. We now are heading for New England and the Maritime Provinces of Canada. July 20, Monday We left Tennessee via the Blue Ridge Parkway and rolled on into Virginia. This road is nicely built, rides the ridges with amazing views on both sides, and can drive one [View Full Entry]

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July 12, Sunday Tennessee is a long state west to east, and we continued on back roads to the Knoxville area, then after a short stint on Interstates, we turned northeastwardly on to US 11 E ( as opposed to US 11 W, which does not mean direction of travel, but rather a relationship to each other ) and aimed Bear for Panther Creek State Park, just northeast of Jefferson City ( as opposed to Johnson City ). This is a pretty little park, and the sites were nice, though the "lower" bathhouse was out of order which entailed a long [View Full Entry]

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July 10, Friday Easy wake up and pack up from the worst tent site we've had so far. The "tenting area" which is the cheap seats, was sloped, rutted and full of sticks of all sizes. All it needed was a couple of 40 year old single wides and a school bus with no wheels. Recommendation: If you camp in Old Davidsonville State Park AR, pay the extra bucks for the high falutin' site. We rode into Jonesboro, grabbed a coffee, then (eventually) found John and Maria Flora's home. He had generously offered the use of his garage to change out [View Full Entry]

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July 7, Tuesday Happy Birthday sister Betsy ! We departed Dalhart TX and continued eastbound towards a little Texas town Deb spotted on the map called Canadian. Since it was "on the way" we crossed the Canadian River, and stopped for a few pics of the welcome sign just outside of town. Then we pulled over next to a coffee shop, which turned out to originally have been a 1915 drug store including the soda fountain counter ! What a neat little town this was. We stayed about 2 hours while I got lots of work done via cell phone and [View Full Entry]

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July 6, Monday We slept a little later than usual since we were going to visit the little chapel just down the block. This was built by the Sisters of Lorado, and when designed the architect forgot to figure in a set of stairs for getting up to the choir loft at the rear of the church. Oops. all the local carpenters told the nuns that any stairs they could build would take up much of the space on the first level. The story goes that the sisters prayed to St. Joseph, and soon an unknown old gentleman showed up, offered [View Full Entry]

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July 3, Friday We were up a bit early again this morning, although the temps had been very nice the past two days I didn't know quite what to expect the coming day to be. I wasn't sure if we'd hold the elevation or drop down low into the desert temps again. I-40 to Flagstaff, then off the dreaded "Interstate" and on to what was marked as BIA 15. I think this stand for Bureau of Indian Affairs since we were on Navajo Indian Lands. This was a very nice, but very lonely several hundred miles of traveling, and it was [View Full Entry]

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