The Final Eight

Yesterday was my last day of grabbin USA towns. Entries must be post marked by September 15th which is next Saturday and I know I will not get out on the bike for more towns.

My first stop was had nothing to do with the USA Tour. It was just a scenic spot. I was heading for Auburndale. Navteq and Garmin like to shave off seconds by routing you off main roads and onto back streets which just bring you back to main roads.As you can see below rather than take me to RT12, it had me turn on side street to get there. Most of the time these are a pain in the ass and you end up scratching your head and asking why is my GPS doing that.

Today it turned out to be a good thing. It was what I thought the perfect scenic place. A lot of country with a bit of urban thrown in. Off the bike, engine off (knew I was gonna be here awhile) and pull out the tripod from the Givi. I bought this cheapo tripod from Walmart, but it does fit in the Givi and I have used it quite abit, so I will not be returning it. Set the camera for bracketing and take one regular exposure, 1 underexposed and 1 overexposed and keep my fingers crossed for when I get home to process the pics. For those that want to know and care, I take pics in both JPG and RAW. (click the photos to enlarge)

For the rest of the day I looked and looked for another spot like McTaggarts Pond. It just didn't happen.

I was headed for a different Ashby, but this was along the way. I have learned if you come across a target that satisfies the parameters of the hunt, take it when you can, because you may just find yourself back tracking. Usually I end up having to repositioning the bike because the lean and the kickstand is just not right. This was way right. When I went to get the bike off the stand and in an upright position, it had a wee bit more lean than I thought. It took alot of oomph to get the 640+ pounds into a vertical position.

Hi ( or is that how ) to you too. One of them Muffler Guys in Shirley, MA on Great Road. ( N42 35.285 W71 39.646 )

The Ayer Motel has a sister motel in Agawam, MA. Must be a chain of them.

I have actually found myself in this town and at this location a couple of times. This is on the National Register of Historic Places, and it was a good site for the An Affair with Water tour last year.

I had my doubts this was going to be a hit. I was pleasantly surprised to find it just like it said it would be.

When I left this morning (well it was more like 12:30P ) I didn't load up any BBQ places. Sometimes you just come across them. This looks like a brand new place.

Been here a couple of times too.

For the last couple of years I have been tracking down these markers, kinda sorta. Not like my quest for the New Hampshire ones. That was before the days of the Grand Tours, which do fill alot of my riding time. This one is in Sudbury on Boston Post Road.

 

 



Coming into the home stretch with Saxonville. I remember this town from my early arrival in Massachusetts in 1979. This is a teeny tiny time, but has been with me since I moved here. I was originally targeting the Saxonville Cleaners. but it only had Saxon in the name.

 

 

This joint presented a real challenge for the Smoke Chasing Tour. The joint is suppose to have BBQ or Smoke in the name. Since it is a chain, it would be accepted, maybe. I left with this picture.

 

 

Having lived in this area and since I was in chase mode, Cochituate State Park is right around the corner and has a stamp for my Massachusetts Passport book.

 

 

 

The park was just closing and they had the gates across the entrance, so I still have to chase down this stamp. Not being satisfied with the Tennessee picture I headed back there for another picture.

 

 



I am way over thinking these targets. Headed off for the last stop, Southborough or Southboro. Official spelling is Southborough and they are a bit snobby about how it is spelled. After I took this picture I knew I was going to have to lighten it up abit so you could read Southborough. The USA Tour for me is done

 

 

Well almost. I pulled up on the sidewalk for this shot. Probably not the smartest thing I could have done.

 

 

 

At home I got busy downloading the days photos. Updated my Smoke Chasing Blog and then went to preparing the two DVD's to be mailed to Jack and Marlene. In the final count, I submitted 212 visited towns. We visited 70 towns during the double bonus week, so I have a total of 282 towns. MeAsWe has slightly less at 260. So the USA Flags have been retired for the year, but ready to be broken out for 2013 Double Point Week.

 

 

Todays ride

 

 

 

Thanks to the GLMC for sponsoring this years USA Grand Tour. A special thanks goes to Marlene and Jack Backer who has to review all the photos from everybody. It was a great year.

 

 

Arriving at Adams - Sailing in Salem - Leaving Lowell

Today's ride starts out like many of our other rides. A visit to your local  caterer is in order

With food on our minds and being mid morning we stop for breakfast at the Amber Road Cafe.

This place was crowded and we had to stand around, waiting for a table. This gives me time to look at everyone's food to see what I might want. What I did see was alot of fruit topped french toast and pancakes. This was going to be perfect for MeAsWe.

They had these cups with rubber bottoms, which were made so they didn't slip on the table. I didn't appreciate the neatness of the cup because I couldn't feel the cup hit the table when I put it down. Kinda of like not being able to feel the road under the tires. For this I am a touchy feely type person.

I selected the eggs and lean hash for breakfast, figuring it was the healthy choice. I have to say my egg was cooked to perfection. Now you are saying it is a Flipped and Broken, how can you mess that up. This went beyond just a flipped and broken. Take a careful look at the edges, that is perfection.

MeAsWe pretending to listen to me expound on the egg cuisine

After breakfast MeAsWe has her last cigarette for eva and I stroll across the street for this sign. Not neon but sign of Googie architecture is there.

As we meander thru Braintree MA. Not sure you can meander thru an urban setting but there is water nearby someplace. Now the reason for the stop isn't that interesting

But what is there is interesting. Best I can tell this thing is original and I believe it is a 51.

Hitting the first of four main purposes for the day to put the finishing touches on our Silver National Park Tour. We really don't need these, but just to make sure. While I was in the VC getting our stamps I always buy a pin for my collection of stuff. They had commemorative tins of chocolate with the Adams National Historic Park logo on them. When I got to the register, I told the ranger that it was beginning to look like a CVS with the chocolate thing going on. This really cracked her up and she said it made her day.

Adams National Historic Park Visitor Center

The next stop was a really difficult stop. In the heart of Boston on Joy Street is the Boston African Womens museum. I sat on the bike, pointing down hill, while MeAsWe ran in for the stamp. This is a place we have to come back to for a better visit.

Traveling from Boston to Salem is never really fun. Lots of traffic, lots of drivers that pay you no mind, crappy roads. Just getting out of Boston is a pain. In Lynn, the City of Sin, this place can brighten up your day with the colors alone. It has been said, "Lynn Lynn, City of Sin, You never go out the way you came in"

Salem is a neat place to visit. Between the Witches, boats and history, you just can't go wrong.

Some really great Neon. The were selling sweat shirts that said, I got it n the Bunghole. There wasn't a big line for them.

Great USA town to boot

MeAsWe having another one of those Last Cigarettes.

It is right around 4pm and making our last stop for day is iffy. The forecast for 30% chance of rain, probably has moved to the 70% range.

We grab 2 more BBQ Joints and head to Lowell, MA. That 70% moved to 100% on the way into Lowell. We make it right around 4:45pm and generally the VC's close right around 5pm. Lowell has decided to have a folk festival this weekend and we can't pull right up to the VC. I pull into a gas station and MeAsWe heads for the VC for Ink. While she was gone I take some pictures to pass the time away.

Some more of that Neon

A Fan

Walking in the Rain. you know that Gene Kelly song. That's MeAsWe making her way back to the bike in the white end to end.

A trolley with places to go

We get home, hang up our gear in the bathroom and head for the couch.

Today's graphical look of our trip, about 175 miles, and it took all day

New Hamshire Launches into Space

Today will a lil' bit of everything, BBQ, Tour of Honor, National Park, and USA Tours. We actually got an early start for us this morning, 8AM. Used to be I was on the road by 630.

MeAsWe was feeling hungry so we stopped at Mama Dukes in Troy NH.

First USA stop is Swanzey Diner. I really don't consider this a NE diner. I see nothing that remotely resembles a diner. I have never stopped here to eat because of this. Funny how little things can manifest themselves.

Right after Keene we hung a right and headed up 123A to capture some more USA towns. First stop was this place.

For future taggers this place could be a tag. The Dragon of Acworth

N43 13.137 W72 17.600

Today's main purpose was to hit Saint Gaudens National Historic Site and Marsh Billings Farm in Vermont for the National Park Tour. We have been at Gaudens numerous times, so we grabbed the stamp and this pic.

Coming out of Gaudens we headed into Windsor for a Smoke Chasing spot.

We found ourselves in one of the Ancient Eight towns. It was really busy, but I think this was more of Alumni coming back to remember when life was so easy.

Hanover NH
N43 42.129 W72 17.386

This door had such a luring quality, which we didn't resist

Met this couple which MeAsWe spoke to much of the time, To our right was another couple from Maine that I spoke with. They were riders and he collected Moto Guzzi's. No pictures of them.

Having had my fill of water at 3 Guys and being at the northern apex of our day trip, we headed back out into the crowds. Heading south we stopped in Sunapee for both the USA Tour and Smoke Chasing.

In Boscawen was our first Tour of Honor stop. Took a little while to find this monument. It is on the right as you head into the Veteran Cemetery.

The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center is in Concord. This is a replica of a Redstone ballistic missile. This particular one is a mock up of the one that carried Alan Sheppard into space in 1961. I remember watching that on TV. Seeing it for real, it really is much smaller than I imagined. There is another one of these things in Warren, NH, which is a real one.

Made our way down to Manchester for another BBQ place and headed home. We did try to pick up a BBQ Festival (Ribfest), but there was indication of BBQ on the signs. KC is a really good place to eat, however tonight we are not hungry, so just grabbed a pic.

365 miles for day and got home at 9:38PM. Not a big day, but not a short day either. The day tally was 2 National Parks, 8 USA towns, 2 Tour of Honor sites and 9 BBQ Joints (you can view all the BBQ places at the link)