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Day 8 - Saturday, July 05, 2003 Montreal, PQ to East Kingston, NH 615 miles for the day, 4,167 miles traveled so far. 10:50 in the saddle, 12:30 total time check-out to check-in. Average speed while riding was 56.8 mph. Parks visited this day:
Stamps: Daily Journal: I got up near 6:00, just as my host family was leaving to take the middle son to a soccer tournament in Gloucester, near Ottawa. I got going by 6:30. I had to put on the rain cover because it was drizzling in Montreal. Since I had read and tossed out most all of the magazines, and I had thrown away quite a number of tourbooks and maps, I was able to get the rain cover to fit on. It lightly rained off and on for most of the day. I took a freeway, the 10, to Sherbrooke. At a gas stop near Sherbrooke, I found out that the GPS was running on its internal batteries. I must have pinched the wires when I put the fairing back on. After Sherbrooke, I made my way eastward along the 212, a two lane highway. A portion of the 212 was closed, detouring traffic on over 10 miles of dirt roads. Hard packed and well graded, I moved along at about 75-85 kph for most of the time. I crossed into Maine from Woburn, Quebec. This was a fairly lonely outpost. The border agent must have been bored. He asked me quite a number of questions. He seemed quite certain that I was smuggling in cigarettes and alcohol. Yeah right, as if I had any extra space. He opened my camelbak's pockets and examined the contents (a palm pilot, a pager, suntan lotion, chapstick and a granola bar), and then he felt up the excursion bag. At least he didn't make me take off the rain cover. Finally he gave me back my passport and bid me farewell. Total process was probably only about 15 minutes, but it seemed like an eternity. At a rest stop along ME-27, I stopped and took off the fairing. I restripped and recrimped the GPS connector wires and replaced the fairing. All was fine now. I took ME-16, ME-8 and finally US-2 (hey, wasn't I on US-2 in WI and MI?), to I-95 towards Bangor. I went down US-1A and ME-3 to Acadia NP which is near Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island. From Bangor to the NP and back it was really crowded. It drove me up the wall. I was getting used to hardly any traffic at all, and to sit in stop and go through several light cycles to get through intersections are driving me batty. I got my stamp and got out of there. I didn't take any pictures today. When the rain cover was on, it was an ordeal to try and extract the camera. Traffic going towards Bangor was much lighter. I stopped for lunch and gas along the way. Just as I got to the freeway in Bangor, I got dumped upon. Big drops. I'm glad the rain cover was on. In 5 miles it had stopped, and I only had a patch or two of light rain for the next 50 miles. I did just miss a thunderstorm further south while I was on the Maine Turnpike. I was nice tobe on the freeway, though. Traffic was moving along at 70-75 (65 mph was the speed limit) in many areas. I pulled into two rest stop/gas station areas on the turnpike in Maine. My cell phone is a GSM phone and Maine is dark territory. I had wanted to let my friend that I was staying with that night know where I was and when I would arrive. And the pay phone were out of order, too. Finally on the third such rest stop, I was able to use the cell phone (I was near the New Hampshire border) and give him a call. I also was getting good with toll booths. Except for the bridge crossing into Canada, I hadn't come to one so far on the trip. I had several in Maine and one in New Hampshire. I got good at taking off my gloves while coasting into the booth area, digging out a buck or two from my jacket pocket, and then putting the gloves back on while moving after the booth. I made it to my friend's house in East Kingston, NH around 7:00. Map: |
