It was a perfect start to a day.  I was loading my bike in the hotel parking lot and my good friend Tom, who lives just south of Hartford pulled up.  While we speak on a semi-regular basis, I hadn’t seen him for over a year.   The boys came out and it wasn’t 2 minutes and Tom had started in with the stories about their dad.  :-).  That’s ok, nothing they haven’t heard before..   We migrated across the street to a nice little diner for breakfast.  We laughed, got caught up and the time went by fast.  Too fast.  Promises of staying in touch.

We got on the road.  A spectacular sunny day.  Highs projected to be in the 70’s.  Connecticut’s scenery rolled by.  Mountains, creeks, hardwood forests, narrow winding roads.  We have been on winding roads for days, since eastern Ohio.  Nice to actually ride into curves, leaning through, downshifting before and powering through.  Helps with the monotony of the miles.

In time we crossed the state line into Massachusetts.  We were in the Berkshires.  Lots of the same.  Great scenery.  Small lakes in the mountains.  Small towns with history going back into the 1700’s.  We even began stopping for a few pictures.  MA was kind enough to put ‘parking areas’ here and there.

At some point we fueled up.  Down to a routine.  Gas up.  Pull the bikes over to park and take about 20 minutes to get refreshed.  We start looking for gas at about 100 miles.  Maybe 90 minutes.  You need that time.  We could go probably 2 hours but that wears on you.  Plus when we hit around 150 miles we have to go to reserve.  Then we have about 20 miles of fuel.

In northwestern MA we passed through the campus of Williams College.  Apparently it is one of, if not thee, top liberal arts college.  It was, with out a doubt the most beautiful campus I have ever seen.  In your mind, picture what a beautiful New England college campus would look like.  This is it. If you kid’s are looking, send them there.  Go ahead, spend the money.  Trust me. Just do it.  Google it.

After mid-day, we came upon Vermont.  Nice.  Very nice. Southern VT is not too populated. Great roads.  Moose crossing next 15 miles.  Lot’s of mountains.  Green.  Lot’s of construction.  Actually we have been hitting that the whole trip.  50mph speed limit most of the way.  Same in MA and CT.  You usually can’t go that fast.

We fueled up in somewhere in VT.  Jon’s bike needed to have the chain adjusted so we pulled the tools out.  Jon had it done within 30 minutes.  A local came up to talk.  Did we trailer the bikes out here?  No, we have been riding.  One look at our bikes and you could tell they are not ‘trailer queens’. We get that a lot.  People are surprised about how far we travel.  He gave us directions to all the covered bridges in the area (after he found out we didn’t have them in MI).  He was very excited to share.  After Jon wrapped up, we got on the road towards the city on Lake Champlain, Burlington.

About 50 miles south of Burlington, it was construction sign.we came on a sign say ‘One lane road ahead.’  We started slowing, crested a hill, traffic was stopped and another sign, ‘Pavement Ends’.  We waited about 1/2 hour as the oncoming lane passed through a section of road that was just loose gravel.  All were going 2-3 mph because of the condition. Anxiety was building because loose gravel and bikes don’t play well.  And we were watching the trucks bounce going so slow.  When it was our turn, there was a big sign ‘Motorcycles – Use Extreme Caution’.  Good tip.  We traversed with no incident…   Started blasting north again

Found a great little mom and pop motel just south of downtown. Nice owner.  Got some area tips.  Unloaded, cleaned up a bit and headed into town.  Found Church St, great pedestrian mall downtown Burlington, where most of the restaurants and bars are.  Pulled the bikes into an underground parking lot and found an Irish Bar named Ri Ra recommended by a good friend.  Great, great whiskey selection.  Dinner was very good. As we got back to the bikes, I realized I lost my parking ticket.  So, I had to sneak out the gate w Jonathan…  Oh well.

Stopped at a package store on the way back.  The guy had to use two registers.  One for spirits, other for beer, wine and mixers.  It seems the state of Vermont owns all the liquor.  The state doesn’t take Amex.  The other register did.  So there ya go..

Ended the evening, and a beautiful one at that, in our typical touring routine.  Chairs outside between the bikes, reliving the day, past days and future ones.  We had taken the talk until we breached the next day.  We realized it was time for bed.

Today, Wednesday, we will start meandering back.  Head north to the border just south of Montreal, then west and follow the St. Lawrence Seaway to Lake Ontario..  At some point we will find a place to stay.  We haven’t thought that far ahead yet

Life is good.