Thursday, May 30
Cleveland OH to Bennington VT
548 miles; lower 90s; humid; strong SW wind
I thought I was pretty well packed up last night, but it took me until 8:45 this morning to get everything on the bike, ready to leave. But I was ready, finally, to take off on on the adventure I had been planning for 3 years! Plus, this would be my 9th annual ride with best friend and riding buddy Paul Wilson.
All packed up and ready to go
Turns out it was a warm day – very warm. Temps were in the lower 90’s all day as I rode the New York Thruway, headed east. Luckily I had thought to bring our EZ-Pass thingy along to pay the tolls, but it didn’t save a lot of time since I had to slow down to 5 mph for the tool booth to read the EZ-Pass.
- Jugs cooling off in the shade
I did 500 miles today, and was ready for a rest. Stopped at Bennington, VT for the night and dined on salad from Subway. Oh, and had a couple of G&Ts.
Friday, May 31
Bennington VT to Topsham ME
194 miles; lower 90s, sunny and humid
It was only a 5 hour ride to Topsham, ME, today where my dear friends Paul and Linda live. A nice cool shower, a couple of G&Ts, and we pulled up to the table for a marvelous dinner of lamb chops that Linda had prepared.
Dinner at the Wilson B & B
Tomorrow we will double-check everything and tie up some last minute ends so we can leave for Canada on Sunday morning.
Saturday, June 1
layover in Topsham ME
Paul finally got everything all checked out and on the bike. We finalized our route from Topsham to Matane, Quebec Province. Once we get to Baie-Comeau across the St. Lawrence River we won’t need a map — there is only one road from here across Labrador and down western Newfoundland to the ferry at Channel-Port aux Basques.
The route to Woodstock
We decided to make motel reservations for tomorrow night in New Brunswick, and the two nights we will be in Newfoundland. I made the reservations online, emailed the confirmations to Linda, and she printed them out. This B&B is tops in service! I had already made reservations for the Trans-Lab section of the ride. I made the reservations for the Trans-Lab section of the ride early in the year to make sure we would find places.
The battery on the thermometer on my bike ran down on the trip out — it was registering 10 degrees hotter than actual making me think it was over 100 degrees! Of course, I lost one of the little screws in the process of changing the battery. It should still be pretty waterproof…