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She did not succeed!
Dream ride!
When we plan a ride, and I love planning, we never truly anticipate all that can go wrong regarding the weather. On this particular trip, we could not have dreamed up all the scenarios we were going to have to navigate.
The plan began as a trip to accomplish two purposes. My primary goal was to see my aging grandmother who had just moved into a nursing home. With her living over 1000 miles away you can imagine it's been too long since I had seen her beautiful face and hugged her sweet neck. The second goal was to complete a bucket list ride and check off seven new states we have ridden in together.
New England states have always seemed a daunting task to accomplish simply because traffic is so heavy in the northeast, and the window of opportunity never seemed to quite work for us. Now was our chance! Honestly, we just needed a good excuse to go for it.
Putting The Plan Together
My first attempt at an itinerary took us through Massachusetts, proceeding counterclockwise up the Maine coast into New Hampshire, and Vermont, then back south to our home. I included many advised, “not to miss” rides and it was a beautiful plan. Our trip would take 9 days to complete and due to this timeline, hotels simply were not an option for many nights. Money is always a guiding factor for planning. My favorite way to camp is to stay in state parks. They are typically very affordable and well-maintained. I found many wonderful places along our route and booked them immediately. Did I mention their canceling policies are golden too? I've never been more thankful for that particular detail! (I will provide a link to each one we stayed at throughout the completion of this blog series.)
My itinerary was very comprehensive. I had planned miles, planned stops to include a Harley Davidson dealer in each new state, anticipated the cost of fuel and lodging (camping or otherwise), and found a way to add a link to the planned route in Google Maps so that we could simply click the link and go. Ya’ll, it was a beautiful plan. I'm sure I patted myself on the back more than once for my skills.
Mother Nature's First Try!
Approximately 8 days before our departure, a little storm named Hurricane Lee decided to form in the Atlantic Ocean with predictions that it would have a great impact on the entire Maine coast for the very two nights we had scheduled to camp there. Now my personality of being a planner can get a little crazy when a plan starts to go south. I knew immediately that our plan might as well go in the trash can at this point, because I was not at all willing to weather a hurricane on a motorcycle, in a tent, in hurricane-force wind and rain. NO THANK YOU!. I kicked the re-planning into gear fast. Had to redo all the riding routes to change our direction from Massachusetts clockwise to Vermont, New Hampshire then to Maine. This new plan would now turn our trip into a 10-day experience. Cha-Ching, more money spent. Camping made this burden manageable, especially since the cancellations to accommodate the new plan cost very little. We did lose our option of camping at the Seawall campground in the Acadia National Forest but this eventually turned into a blessing. More on that later. Side note, one campground required a two-night booking even though we only planned to stay for one. Again, not a huge burden due to affordability. Our new plan didn’t encompass as many roads as the original but I was still pleased with the results.
The Packing Challenge!
Now we had to plan how to keep all necessary items dry, for example sleeping bags. We camp often from the bike; however, never, to date, have we packed for such a long trip. Our solution was to order some dry duffle bags. We ordered two waterproof duffel bags, 60L. The size would allow for one to strap well to my passenger seat and one to strap to the top of his luggage. You see he also planned to strap the tent on his bike taking up his passenger seat. We did a test pack and voila, they worked. We were officially ready.
Lets Ride!
Our first day of riding began on a Thursday in mid-September. The weather was beautiful, and our ride was uneventful. We knocked out 539 miles in approximately eight and a half hours. This particular portion of the ride we had experienced several times before and lacked the excitement factor of new territory; however, a day on the motorcycle beats any other type of day. Our first night was booked to stay at Gifford Pinchot State Park campground in Lewisberry, PA.
As we neared our destination, we decided to eat before setting up camp, and we found a cool little place about 15 minutes from camp. T.J. Rockwell's had a happy hour menu that was not only delicious but very affordable.
Time to set up Camp!
At the end of our dinner, I suddenly realized I hadn't put much energy into planning this night at the campground. I had no idea if they offered firewood and we wanted a fire. So our last stop was to fill our tanks up and buy wood.
Of course, my worrisome personality is like “How in the world are we gonna do that”. But my incredible husband says
“Don't worry honey I got this”. As usual, he did, and we were able to have a fire.
The funny thing is when we found our camp spot, this incredible campground had wood for sale on an honor system simply steps from our campsite. Was quite humorous. But at the end of the day, our ride was good, our food was good, and our camping experience to this point was good. Who could ask for more than that?
In Vol. 2 of this series, I'll tell you how a luggage malfunction was a blessing, and the New England story will continue to unfold.
Y'all keep pursuing a life “Engineered4Adventure”. I promise you won't regret it!
Christy
P.S. Go check out the adventure we have in our home workshop by clicking here or in the menu "Shop Products and Services"
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