TLWH – Day 4 – Canada!… whoops

Today, we dragged ourselves out of bed “early” – not as early as I wanted but we were up late working on the broken bike.  It was a relief to find that Hank’s bike started up and my clutch worked perfectly all day.  ‘Even has fresh oil now!  This was destined to be a 300 mile day so we were on the gas before 8…OK, so that’s not ‘early’ but it’s over an hour earlier than we have been doing.  We are starting to get the hang of the schedule, packing, etc and I hope we can get on a smart schedule of early starts and early returns to  give us a bit of extra daylight –just in case.

Today’s ride takes us from Stratton, through the top of New Hampshire, and into Vermont.   Our first new states!  The red is the leftover from yesterday and the blue is the planned ride for today.

 Truthfully, I was a bit disappointed that we completely missed the New Hampshire borders.  I was really looking forward to seeing the “live free or die” attitude they advertise on their license plates.

The morning offered some great riding but we took a short cut and got foiled by the loggers again!  Only a quarter mile from hooking up with the main track, we were stopped by a quarter mile of small logs and branches piled over the road.  I’m finding that the loggers do not like dirt bikers!  Yesterday, we were being courteous (really!) slowing and moving way over to the right on a wide dirt road and a logging truck aimed at us.  Hank was safely by but I was hitting bushes with my right shoulder while I squeezed by his fender.  He was pointing at the ground like he wanted me to sit or something!  I decided it was best not to stop to have a “conversation” with him.  He didn’t look like he was in a reasonable mood.  Back to the road block: This quarter mile roadblock cost us almost two hours of back tracking – luckily it was some beautiful country and it was Saturday so there were no loggers and we could play on their equipment!

 look for the moose!  I also took a video and got very close but I havn't figured out how to load them well.

Bunny!  Hank was very bummed that he couldn’t avoid this little critter. 

Crash!  Hank loves heavy machinery and when this prime piece of equipment jumped up out of the bushes, it drew Hank’s eyes to the right – and his bike followed! 

 Before he knew it he has off in the grass and down the small embankment.  As he was coming back on, there was a drainage culvert that threw him and his bike up on the road – inverted!  No father should ever have to come up to a scene like that.  The bike landed upside down, Hank landed 15 feet further down the road and the bags came separated and landed somewhere else.  Thank God Hank was OK.  The bike turned out to be ridable and we were able to attach the bags (the mounting tabs were ripped) with some extra straps we had.  OK – we are learning lessons here – leave early to have time and slow down!

Canada!  I was looking for a photo op at the Canadian border so I mapped out a lesser traveled road to the boarder.  We rode up looking for the border when we started to notice the street signs had changed.  Then we noticed that the car licence plates had changed also – to Quebec.  Whoops.  I was expecting a gate, guard, line in the road, … something?  There was nothing.  This nice church is in Canada. 

Coming back into the US there was this sign but the back says nothing. 

            

As we were about a ¼ mile from the boarder, in the US, there was a nice border patrol standing in the street pointing to inspection.  First thing he did was ask for our passports – we had none.  Luckily, it all worked out when he realized we were from California!  He did ask why we were riding bikes with Maine plates – I explained they were my friend Nick’s bikes (thanks again Nick from Friend and Friend!).

After that we worked our way to the destination doing an occasional part of the track but staying mostly on roads to make up time.  Some of you may recognize Waterbury VT as the home of Ben & Jerry's.  Yes, Hank's favorite place in the world.  We arrived 30 minutes after closing:

As an emplyoee appraoched the door from the inside, Hank described his emotions ranging from the highest high (she is going to let us in) to the lowest low (she is going to tell us to go away).

Victory!  She let us in and gave us icecream 30 minutes after closing.  A great finish to another fun day.

 We rolled into the hotel around 7 – but we made it!

Rain forecast for today!  We are riding the green section marked on the map above.  We will be in Massachusetts tonight.