Day 02 (Aug 3) - Williamstown to Freeport, ME

We woke at 6:45am to be ready for breakfast at 7:30. Rob took a few bags out to the car, then came back in and announced that he didn’t have anything else to do! No prepping of the bike, or wiping dew off the seats or folding the cover. He checked the car's tire pressure and put a little air in, and wiped down the rims just to have something to do. The hotel garden was colorful in the morning light. We walked over to breakfast and picked up cereal and fresh fruit. In our room we watched a few minutes of one of the US Women's World Cup soccer matches while we ate, and were out the door just after 8am.

The first gas station we stopped at had an issue with the fuel pumps. The machine took our credit card but rudely would not read it or give it back. After a few tense moments and tugs at our card, we reclaimed it and drove to another gas station that worked. We then began our route on the Mohawk Trail to I-91. We drove for about 12 miles on I-91 before we crossed over the Vermont state line. A few miles into Vermont, we stopped at the pretty Vermont Visitor’s center for a quick rest break.

Onward, the roads were smooth, even though they were repaving them again.

Our route took I-91 for about an hour before we exited and crossed the Connecticut River. Passing into New Hampshire we drove through Dartmouth College. 

We had nice views of mountains and no traffic.

We drove along the Dartmouth College highway for about 70 miles to Lisbon, NH arriving at Lisbon Pizza at Noon. We enjoyed a calzone and appreciated the generous portion of marinara sauce to go with it. Lisbon appeared to be a small industrial town. A man and his coworkers/friends were sitting near us and he was googling how many types of snakes are in the area! After lunch Michele opted against walking through the grassy bank to see the river for fear of meeting one of these snakes.  

 

After lunch we drove through the White Mountain National Forest. We also drove through this area back in 2016 when we visited Acadia National Park. Crawford Notch State Park is in this area with hiking trails and many outdoor activities, and looked like a fun place to visit.

 

We made our way eastward and jumped on 95 North. It’s called the Maine Turnpike here. Annoyingly our routing software wasn’t 100% accurate on the no toll roads setting. The entrance to I-95 went right into the toll booth. EZPass works up here so we got in that lane. Red light! Flash! Our pass did not work. Later, at our hotel, Rob checked our account and the toll was correctly charged. 

 

A few miles later and an hour ahead of schedule, we arrived in Freeport, Maine at our hotel, the Haraseeket Inn. It was built in 1984 but had the feel of an older historic inn. We walked two blocks to dinner at the Tuscan Brick Oven Bistro. We shared the beef bolognese lasagne, a salad and a blueberry maize cheesecake. Maine is known for its wild blueberries and dessert did not disappoint.

After dinner we walked back to the inn and noticed that this town had a clever version of this famous fast food chain with aesthetically pleasing architecture.

Back at the inn we visited the pianist at the Steinway.  

Rob said it looked like the piano’s been run into a few times, it had dings and dents. Guests are allowed to play, but a lady was playing a ukelele in the lobby. She played very well, it was surprising and pleasantly random. Rob found a friend in the gift shop and speculated if it was life size.

 

Back in our room for the night we watched the movie Fast & Furious: Hobbs and Shaw and a few sitcoms. This room was more comfortable and spacious than the previous night's hotel.

Our mileage today was 315 miles. Tomorrow we are Canada-bound.

 

Day 01 (Aug 2) - Home to Williamstown, MA

We left 30 minutes late at 8:30am, not really for lack of preparation since we were already packed, but just closing up final checklist items in the house. Next time we'll know to get up two hours ahead of time! We stopped to get gas for the car and Rob remembered he wanted his extra set of eyeglasses. A quick trip back home and then we were on our way. 

Rob always pre-plans our trip routes for each day in Garmin's BaseCamp navigation software on the computer, then transfers it to the portable Garmin device. He has the Mazda's navigation and Google Maps on his phone as backup just in case. Our route started on 15 North through Frederick, MD then we exited onto I-83. Traffic was busy the entire way into PA, and up to Allentown, PA. 

Even with our later departure, traffic and a few road construction spots, we made good time and arrived at our lunch stop at 12:15pm. We pre-planned lunch at Cedars Mediterranean Grill in Stroudsburg, PA. It was highly rated and we got a chicken gyro takeout for a picnic at nearby Bryant Park (not the famous one in NYC) on a nice street. A grandfather and two kids enjoyed the park slides while we had lunch. Temperatures were mild with low humidity. 

After lunch we drove through part of the Poconos Mountains. We took Highway 209 through the Delaware Gap Recreation Area that was very scenic. This area is adjacent to the Poconos region. We also followed the Hudson River along Route 9 and entered New York state. At one point Rob spotted a farm and asked if that was the Beekman 1802 farm, where Michele's previous customers lived when she worked for Time Warner Cable. It was not, as Sharon Springs is further west, but it sparked fun memories for Michele on that TV shoot and working with brilliant owners Josh and Brent years ago. 

Unrelated, Michele liked this random golden statue that greeted us at a roundabout.

The best part of our journey today was our route along the Taconic State Parkway for 60 miles. It was quiet, scenic, and recently paved. At times we had the road to ourselves. Rob finds these great roads in our scenic road books.

The parkway ended at a toll road, so we exited and crossed into Massachusetts. Our hotel destination was Maple Terrace Motel in Williamstown, near Williams College. Our hotel has a beautiful garden with many seating areas and a resident groundhog that Rob spotted snacking on grass. They also have a heated outdoor pool. We'll try to catch a few pictures of the property in the morning. The town is charming and set in the Berkshires. 

We had dinner at The Barn Kitchen & Bar at The Williams Inn just a half mile away. We shared a smokehouse burger with fries. Rob enjoyed a Hefeweizen Bier Grapefruit. We had the apple tart for dessert and Michele got a salad to go for later so she’d have something healthy. After dinner we watched two Women's World Cup matches on TV in our room.

The usual animals made an appearance along our route today: many horses, a turkey vulture, groundhogs and one deer. Michele loves funny billboards and signs and today's was the sheepskin coats store somewhere in PA. Signs for sheepskin coats, seat covers, rugs, and gloves were just some of the items available in sheepskin. Later she googled the store and it's a respected, 30-year family owned business. Some of the cozy coats are $1,400!

Today's distance was 437 miles and Rob got 39.6 avg mpg. We didn’t have to stop for gas! He said the hills of the Taconic Highway reduced the mpgs, even though our speeds were fairly low all day. The Mazda definitely gets better fuel efficiency than the Wing pulling both the trailer and us. We appreciated the shock absorption of the Mazda as compared to the motorcycle especially on a few stretches of road that had frost heaves or were under construction. 

As we usually do on our vacations, our travel chit chat involves recalling past trips and thinking about where to go next. Along the way today we reminisced on all the motorcycle and car trips we took in 2022: Austin, TX/Houston/Huntsville; Kentucky bourbon trip; Colorado trip; Hershey, Pa for the RV show; and Dayton, Ohio with Gary to the National Museum of the US Air Force. 

Tomorrow we continue north to Maine. 

Day T -50 - Mazda gets new shoes

When we were initially planning this trip in the summer/fall of 2022, we thought we would be meeting up with Ray and Chantal for a portion of the trip. Since they would be traveling in a car, we thought it would be easier to plan logistics of traveling together if we took the car instead of the motorcycle. So we decided we would take Rob's Mazda 3. As it turned out, Ray and Chantal were not able to join us on the trip, but since we had already planned our travel itinerary driving a car we decided to not make a change.  

As of June 2023, the Mazda is still running on it's original tires which have 75k miles on them! However, they are getting close to the wear bars, so we would need new tires for the trip. Their arrival kicked off Rob's pre-trip maintenance. 

It took him about six hours to pull off the wheels, remove the old tires and valves, clean the beads of each rim, install new valves, mount/balance the new tires, and reinstall the wheels. He has a pneumatic tire changing machine and tire balancer in his workshop.

A few pictures of the process for those interested:

After the old tire is removed, Rob likes to clean the rim to ensure good bead contact. This process takes about 45 minutes per rim as the bead area is pretty dirty and a lot of scrubbing is needed. The end result is a very clean rim ready for mounting. Tire shops do not take the time to do this step!

New valve stems are then installed. Ignore the little curb rash on this rim. :-\

The rim and new tire are lubricated with tire mounting paste and the tire is mounted on the rim.

The tire is pressured up with air to get the beads to seat and then it is off to the balancing machine. The machine indicates the amount of weight the rim needs to balance it. Once the correct weight is applied, Rob runs the tire balancer again to double check that the wheel assembly is balanced. Zeros (0.00) for both sides (inside and outside) is what he wants to see. This wheel is balanced and ready to be reinstalled.

With the tires installed, Rob then took care of the Mazda’s scheduled maintenance by changing the oil, oil filter, and the front brake pads.

Once this project was complete, Rob gave the Mazda a good cleaning inside and out. Michele requires any vehicle she travels in to be in pristine condition. As she rightly deserves!