Day 14 – July 11, 2003

Moose and Cheese

Ride from Tupper Lake, New York to Portland, Maine

We started again a little late, but this time it was because everything was wet and we just waited. Everything was cool, cloudy, and wet, but the ride was not bad for the first 200 miles. Then as we got a little higher in the hills, the clouds just kind of sat on the ground. It was not exactly raining, but there was enough moisture on the roads that the bikes and us got all wet. Our legs got soaked and our fingers and toes got cold. We had to stop a couple of times for coffee to warm us but we made it.

The roads through this part of the country are very hilly, green, and wet. I don’t mean rain wet, but rather lake and river wet. I’ve never seen so many lakes and rivers in such a small area. No wonder the west coast is so short of water, it’s all over here. The roads may only be accessible for riding a few months out of the year, but what a ride.

We took the Grand Island Ferry across Lake Champlain. This is the first time I took a ferry on bikes and I wasn’t expecting to get wet, but oh well. I don’t think they were expecting such a rough ride and the cars and us got a little wet. They apologized, but it didn’t really matter to us. We expected to get wet today anyway. Once across the lake, we were in Vermont. This state much like New Hampshire, as we found out later, looks a lot alike.

The odometer on my bike rolled over the 40,000 marker today. Since I had 4000 on the first speedometer I had on this bike that makes 44,000 I’ve put on it. We stopped at a little store in the middle of Vermont because it seemed like we should. I was a little disappointed that they didn’t have more stuff, but say-la-vie.

We crossed into New Hampshire with little difference in scenery, but the attitude of the people here seemed to change a little. Vermont seemed to be almost angry or at least annoyed that we were there. New Hampshire, as was Maine, seemed to be happy we came. We stopped at a Sunoco station to get coffee and were greeted by the two gentlemen there and they went out of their way to be friendly. We stopped at a 7-11 and again were greeted as family. Even the customers talked to us as if they had known us forever. When we got to Maine and stopped for gas, the customers again as well as the attendants seemed to want to know where we were from and where we were going and had been, what kind of bikes we had and how was the trip. It seems that there are a lot of people in this country that would like to do what we are doing. I am glad we can share our experiences.

Well it is late and I gotta get some sleep, so till then, I’ll see you on the byways…