Sippin Water in Western CT and NY

30% chance of rain today, 60% chance tomorrow, better head out today. First option was a trip to the Winnipesaukee Lake area, however we were just in NH last week. Need to grab some water for GLMC and maybe some BBQ places for Smoke Chasing 2011. MeAsWe is still sleeping so I bring up MapSource and begin plotting a course out thru western Connecticut. Get out as far as Falls Village and I see Millbrook NY is not that much further. There is 2 BBQ places we can pick up. THATS THE PLAN.

First stops were in Brooklyn CT. For Brooklyn we stopped at the Farm and Pet store. At this place they advertise having healthy foods for your pet and poison for those unwanted rodents and other animal pests. Guess it would be easy to mess things up back home.



Grabbed this over sized Swan for a potential tag in the future



Broad Brook Post Office was on the agenda next



While none of this seems exciting, it is an ends to a mean and the roads to get to these places would not be traveled if not for these places

Stopped in Windsor CT for Nat's place. Was too early to eat thou.



Hit Riverton CT. This is a really picturesque place and is part on New Marlborough CT. I believe this is a National Historic District on the register. I will have to check that out.







Went right past Lime Rock Park. Lime Rock is natural terrain race track owned by Skip Barber. I have been here before, so we did go in.



Cozy Corner Lunch has seen better days



Grabbed the Millbrook NY Post Office for the Water Affair and was heading out of town and just had to stop for a picture of the Millbrook Diner to add to my collection



Next stop was the Fireside BBQ and Grill and I wish we just did a photo and scooted off. In keeping with the Smoke Chasing 2001 treasure hunt, we should eat at some of these BBQ places. This one I can say just keep going. I ordered some kind of sandwich with cheese and mac. Supposedly the meat has been cooking since last night, maybe they forgot to turn the oven on. The chef should check out Kraft's Cheese and Mac for lessons, because theirs was garbage and cold to boot. The only outstanding thing about this place was the price of this crap. Oh that's outrageous, not outstanding. I did take pictures of the food, but I am not going to post them, cause looks can be deceiving.



All day we have been skirting the rain. We arrive someplace and there are puddles around and the road is wet, but no rain on us, but skies were cloudy all day. This is just outside Copake NY and we are heading east for home.



At around 7pm we roll into Mill River, MA. This was a chancy spot to stop at for the Affair with Water treasure hunt. The name of the conforming town must appear on the building and there was suppose to be a general store and a post office someplace. Low and behold they were in the same location. The woman who was working this evening has worked here for 17 years. On the porch there were chairs, with ash trays, so you just knew people would come down here for coffee, read the paper and just spend a time catching up with neighbors. The women said she was anxious to close, since she had already been here 13 hours today. Just around 5 minutes to 7, the cars came pouring in to get something at the last moment. She would stand outside yelling at the customers by name to get their ass in gear and get what they wanted, she wanted to go home, all in a very friendly manner.



MeAsWe asked me how far to get home. I said I would check the GPS. Getting late and most of these back country roads we had been riding thru was prime deer county. Not wanting to ride these roads in the dark, I decided to skip Bash Bish Falls State Park and head for Three Rivers, MA. 71 miles to Three Rivers and not sure how far home. My guess it was 50 miles, but did not want upset MeAsWe.

We passed thru Lee, MA and hit the Pike and headed east. Somewhere along here we ran into this guy who ran out of gas. When I first pulled up I thought I just ran into a classic Honda 750 four, what is considered the first super bike by some. What I first saw was those distinctive stacked tail pipes. Poor guy had run out of gas and was pushing the bike along the break down lane. I lent him my phone to make some calls and we were on our way. He had made contact with his father, but it was going to be a while. I suggested he call the state police, but he said he had registration problems with the bike. I looked over and he had a 2010 stick on it. As we left, the guy started pushing the bike again. Glad he was young.





The last stop was Three Rivers, MA. As I pressed the button on the camera, I got Full Memory Card warning. Good thing.



Pulled in to home right around 9:45PM, some 375 miles for the day. Good training for the up and coming trip to NY for the gallons and gallons of water.

Drinking the Water in Upper New York

Last night I got the itch for a long run and the best way for me to accomplish this is planning An Affair with Water Grand Tour Trip. Last year we never made it to the north part of New York thru the Adirondacks and looking at the overall places we could go, this seemed like the perfect place to head. Ya gotta go somewhere.

Day 1 will be right around 420 miles with the first 140 or so simply getting to the treasures. We should capture around 23 water towns and at least 3 BBQ’s places for Smoke Chasin 2011 Grand Tour. The stop point is Lake Placid.




Day 2 we depart from Lake Placid heading south thru the Adirondacks and then west to end up the night in Watertown NY. An easy 223 miles for the day with the grabbing of 17 water towns.



Day 3 is the turning around point and head for Syracuse NY area and zip zag taggin I-90 but never get on it for the most part. This is the longest in miles, 450, but the least amount of towns at 17. I have us landing home around 10PM on Sunday.



This is the preliminary plan and some adjustment may come with riding longer on Day 2 to shorten up Day 3, but the overall scheme is in place. I do not expect to hit any interstates during this 1100 mile trip, but flexibility is the key. All total we should come home with 55 photo ops to add to our collection. Last year we put in 263 towns, of which 261 qualified and we started a month later in the year. This should be a good run. It will be a good test of the knees and legs for the both of us.

Width of a Spreadsheet

I was doing some financial planning the other day which involved projecting some expenses out 12 years or so, in order to make a cross road decision. While I ended creating a very nice model, which answered my question, I then realized my mortality is the width of a spreadsheet on a monitor. This was one of the first time I had a concrete experience that I have gotten old. Glad I don't feel it.

Smokin

On Friday of last week it was Christmas in April. I received 2 items in the mail that I had been anxiously waiting for. One was the Nuvi 855 from Woot.com and the other was my Passport Book and T-Shirt for Smoke Chasing 2011.

Smoke Chasing is first and foremost a way to raise money for Eddie's Road. At their site they describe their mission as

Eddie's Road directly funds and supports a variety of quality public and private programs dedicated to assist abused children and young adults. The majority of our funds are raised by participating in motorcycle rallies and events that were the passion of Eddie James, the man our foundation was built to honor.

Smoke Chasing 2011 is a barbecue treasure hunt. To become a Griller one has to visit 5 BBQ restaurants in 3 states. The next level is Smoker, which is 5 states and 3 BBQ joints. The BBQ Pit Master is visiting 1 joint in 15 states. These visits must be completed and your documentation submitted by Oct 15th. More details for those that are interested can be found at this LINKY.

The Passport Book



The Awesome T Shirt





My first destination will no doubt be this place.

Up to Our Old Tricks - The Chase is On

This past weekend was an awesome time to be out on the bike. Saturday I spent the morning over at Giff’s taking advantage of his kindness by using his drill and dremel. First thing was to drill out the rear pegs for the floor boards that were mounted on the 07 FJR. Next was to grind a small spot out of the left front compartment, so that I can close the lid down on the GPS wire. I really should make a permanent wire, but this works, so what the heck.

With these tasks complete and a working GPS, I decided to head out for some Water locations and a couple of tags.

First stop was the border of RI/CT in Coventry RI. This was a CT tag. Then off to numerous water locations. At around 6 I found myself at Dunkin Donuts in Rehoboth, calling MeAsWe to see if I could find more info on the MA Tag. I left DD defeated and traveled to Attleboro Falls for the last stop of the day. There was something missing during these travels.





On Sunday, MeAsWe is going out for the first time since her affair with the Montana Buck. Today it would be an affair with water. First stop is Valley Falls Fire District house, then off to Central Falls. This was mainly urban riding as we meandered our way thru Pawtucket and finally off to some country roads. Next destination was the failed capture of the MA Tag yesterday. As we traveled some background, I dropped my left hand and gave MeAsWe a squeeze on the leg, and that missing something from yesterday was here today.





Our turnaround point was Green Harbor MA; however a stop at America’s First Couple, John and Priscilla Alden, house for a photo op of a National Historic Landmark was in order. From Green Harbor we had 4 additional stops at water and headed home.



It was a good first run for MeAsWe, and me, as well, with the new knees. Almost like we never got off the bike last September.

An Affair with Water

This years treasure hunt for the Glacier Lakes Motorcycle Club is called An Affair with Water. Much like last years Titanic Tour, one must find towns with specific words within the the town name. This years words are Bay, Brook, Cove, Creek, Fall, Harbor, Hydro, Lake, Ocean, Pool, Pond, Rapid, River, Sea, Spring, Stream, and Water. The twist this year one must find the name of the town ON a building within the town. The city limit signs are no longer. Now a sign in front of the building is no good, but a sign attached to the building is OK. East BROOKfield Pizza and Grinder works. Sounds simple, however I have a feeling we will hit a bunch of towns this year that we just can't find the name ON a building.

Like last year, the Name, a substantial part of the bike, and your flag must appears. MeAsWe is competing under her own number this year.

Willie Flag



MeAsWe's Flag



Of course with the flags, one must have some places to go.

First Tag of the Season

It's Sunday. I have been hymning and hawing about going for a ride. Seems like I have become a task oriented rider. I need some kind of treasure to capture. Plus I am currently storing the bikes some 5 miles away, which just gives me another excuse to be lazy. Having had my knees replaced over the winter, I had the opportunity to revisit and re-view all of the Law and Orders and CSI series on TV, so sitting inside on one of the first really nice days of the spring seemed such a shame.

I got up the motivation, put my riding gear on and went and got the FJR. I mounted the GIVI rack, mounted the RAM mount for the GPS, put the Wynpro Big Foot kick stand enlarger and was going to mount the passenger enlarged footrests. Seems I need a drill to mount the footrests.

The above probably took me an hour and should have taken 15 minutes, but I always seem to forget something and have to make the trip up 3 flights of stairs, so that is the multiplier on the time. Today was no exception. To justify my forgetfulness, I say it is good exercise for the new knees.

Realized I need a Dremel tool to grind a flat spot in the left front hatch for the GPS, so actually using the GPS was out for the day. Feeling guilty of not having a place to go, I remembered the Rhode Island tag is not too far away.

Mounted up, sans GPS and headed for Lincoln Woods State Park for a picture of the wood bridges.



Part of the tag game is once you capture the current location or theme you must post up a place for the next tag. For the NER Tag game an archive photo of a place is OK, but today I decide I will pick up something on the way home. Heading up RT 146 I see a sign for Bryant College and I recollected something about an elephant story, so I head off onto RT116. It was then I realized how lost I was without the GPS. I could not simply head off on some side roads because I will simply not be able to figure out how to get home. So simplification is in order, stop at the first reasonable place to grab the next tag.



Now for those of you looking for a clue where this is, I offer this. Maybe I can generate some traffic to my blog.



So a quick 50 or 60 miles today. The guilt of not having the desire to ride was vanquished. This week I found myself entering another national treasure hunt. This one centering around BBQ places sponsored by Team Strange