Hurricane Arthur, The East Coast, and Lammyjammy, part 8

Well it's Friday and Lammyjammy is well underway. As you can see, the weather is great and everyone is slowly waking up and or arriving. Time to head down to breakfast and see who's showed up:

 My bike has a new friend. One of many over the weekend. Parking was at a premium over the weekend so that's where she stayed parked.

Gonna have that coffee first before unloading ;-)

One spot, 8 scooters.

The ever so fun, "Hey, can you help me for a minute" I don't mind as what comes around goes around.

Filling every spot!

A few of the scooters outside my room this morning. 

Hey auto focus, what happened?

One rather full hotel breakfast room with some of the usual suspects from Canada.


I've been living on the road for a week and let me tell you, just because the breakfast is included in your room, it really isn't the best. The coffee is about average for a hotel, which means weak and rather tasteless. But it will get you started.

I might as well get registered and get my goodies before the hordes show up.

Woody working hard filling the goodie bags with T shirts

Well, I've got my goodie bag and all the reg crap out of the way, so now it's time to catch up with friends and see who has arrived. No sooner than that, everyone is getting ready for the Friday ride around Boston. Since I've got no scooter and there's no way I'm driving the BMW in Boston, hey I did that just to get to the hotel, so no go.But I did get invited to go to Salem, MA to burn a witch with Andrea and some of the Toronto crew, but I did want to see Boston this time.  So after everyone has left for the ride, the hotel is pretty deserted. But no problem as Gene from Scooters "O" has set up his booth. After talking for Gene for way too long, and I don't mean that in a bad way, it's time for me to head downtown and do some of the tourist things. The last time I was in Boston was for a  scooter run, in which we all piled in Pattie's van and stayed at Diane's place when she lived in Boston. My one regret was not doing the tourist thing, and that I would correct this time. They went to Salem that time as well, now I'm wondering if all my friends are witches?


So, off to the front desk and to ask about Boston's fine transit system. Which turned out to be pretty easy. All I had to do is head down to the 7/11 and purchase a "Charley Card" which to load some money on and the fare is $2.05 per trip. I wish my hotel room was as reasonable!

Glad I took this pic as I almost got on the wrong branch to head back to the hotel. Washington square instead of Street!

First and closest attraction on the T was Fenway Park. I wanted to stop here as they bought Liverpool FC a few years ago and I was hoping they have some gear in stock. I wasn't too hopeful as I'd already looked into it. But with the big Roma vs Liverpool game to be played at Fenway in a few weeks, one can always be hopeful.  Great shop if your a Red Sox's fan, but nothing for me.

Just one cool bus, I need this for the camping runs!










As I was walking around Fenway I spotted the tour trolley bus unloading/loading. So off I go to catch it. The friendly driver said I could pay at one of the manned stops and to enjoy the ride.

Boston Trolley Tours    Good tour and friendly staff, I'd recommend the tour.

Great guys and tour, so here's the link if you ever make it to Boston. Anyway, while going over the river to MIT, which by the way looks like every other campus that you've been by or to, I go online to get my trolley tickets and hopefully a discount. Which surprisingly I get. A few stops later I come across the "Boston Tea Party", which if I choose is included in my ticket. So why not?

Looks good and the next show starts in 5 min.

Modern day Boston is 60% landfill. So even where the Boston tea party happened has long been filled in. It actually happened where those 2 tall buildings are. Not where the tourist bit is.

It was an interactive tour. Great if you have kids, but not for someone pressed for time like me.

The tour was so interesting I was more interested in looking at the Jellyfish. I didn't know they were this far north.

Yes you too can throw overboard your own tea box. I left that chore to the kids.

These ships were a lot smaller than I thought they be. I was told that it was due to the shallow harbour. Hey guess I did learn something.

Only the captain got the good spot. Really everyone else had to fend for themselves.








It's a ok tour, if you want to learn about the history of the tea party. Also having a actual tea box from the Boston tea party was cool. Not being able to take a pic of said box was cheesy. Here's a pic of it from the web anyway.

2 hours later and I'm back on the tour trolley. If I could do it all over again I'd go for the tour of Fenway Park. Here are some assorted pics I took while on the bus.

"Cheers" Bar. Line up outside and totally different that the tv show bar. That's about as close as I need to get to that tourist trap

No idea why I took this pic?

Boston common. It gave me a better understanding on the whole Boston bomber thing.

Police station and now a restaurant, what a great idea.

Well all good things must come to a end, as the tour trolley stops picking up after 5 pm to end the tour day. You do get a 2 day pass so it's not to bad. So back on the T and back to the hotel. This is where that pic of my starting stop picture came in handy.


Friday night, and I'm almost embarrassed to say this, but for the second night in a row I went to sleep with the intention of waking up in a few hours and joining everyone. But no, my body has other ideas like sleep and I wake up in the morning. I must buy more doubleshot starbucks to stop this from happening.


Day 8 0 miles.

================================================================================================================================================

Just to add. I guess you've been wondering why this update has taken so long. It's not by me trying but I've had some major problems. On Saturday I decided to update my ROM on the phone. It worked great for a couple of hours then boom. No phone, as it wouldn't get past the start up page.  I did bring a backup phone for emergency's, but the camera sucked so no picks from Sunday on.

The second problem I had was with the actual blog (Blogger). Every time I'd do an update it would erase it back to an earlier point. This went on for about 2 weeks. Finally I figured it out. Having more than one page open on a different phone or computer would do this. It came to a point that if I couldn't get it going today, I was seriously thinking of stopping or changing to a different site. Just glad I got it figured out finally.

Hurricane Arthur, The East Coast, and Lammyjammy, part 7

Well I wake up to a nice sunny morning. It looks like it rained last night, but I didn't hear a thing :-)  The first place I head to is Starbucks, it's always nice to treat yourself once in a while. Also for the first time ever I was the only one in there, that is if you don't count the drive-in though.

No hurry today as I've only got 100 odd miles to go. But first, I've got some laundry to do. I've been on the road 7 days, so it's time. I didn't pick the best place, as they charged $2 for one of those small boxes of soap. But to have clean clothes, so it's worth it.

In just a little over an hour its done, well dry enough to hang dry in my room later. So back on Hyw 1. I really tried to like this road, but mile after mile of lights and things like the auto mile (car dealers) I head back on I-95. With Hyw 1 running along prime beach coast I shouldn't have expected nothing else. Now I totally get were Henry Cole from "The worlds greatest motorcycle rides" is coming from on his Route 1 comments and why to start the ride from Washington DC instead of Boston.  Unfortunately the best part of Hyw 1 is the part from Canada to Portland or Washington DC to Florida , and I missed the part that the ferry cuts out.

Well its time for lunch and I'm looking for a lobster roll. Which I find. I also hit the local Max BMW dealership, a highly recommended shop for repairs and customer service. but on the accessories side, nothing interesting, but I did buy some nice riding socks and some waterproof stuff for my gloves.

Lot's of lobster makes Alby happy.

As I get nearer Boston I follow the GPS. It was a bad idea, as it wanted to send me on all these secondary roads. So now I'm in traffic, and Boston is not known for its flatness. I do manage to get myself back on the interstate and into downtown Boston. Traffic wasn't too bad, well to Toronto standards anyway. I end up going by a Whole foods which is just down the road from the run hotel. So I stop in to buy supplies for the weekend, something I would do a few times. I also forgot that I booked the room from Friday to Sunday, it's my fault as I couldn't find the info before I left. For the next big trip, I'm starting a folder to keep everything handy. Not a problem as they had lot's of people checking out for all the arrivals tomorrow. I ended up getting a ground floor room at the end. Nice with a kitchenette, so I can eat in, which means reheating those wings I bought at Whole foods.

This is where the bike would stay all weekend, Boston and BMW don't go together.

A few showing up early and unloading

 

And a couple of more.

Now for the bad news, I didn't really feel like going to the BBQ, so I ended up getting some sleep with the intention of getting up later on and seeing everyone. Well I slept through until morning. I've been on the road a week and guessed my body needed some sleep.


Day 7

Daily mileage 120 miles/193km
Total mileage 1702 miles/ 2739km

=====================================================================
=====================================================================

Hurricane Arthur, The east coast, and Lammyjammy, Part 6

Well,  I wake up to a foggy and cool morning. I do all the usual rituals and pack up the scooter.

The bike is all wet and needs a good wipe down.

Actually I'm glad that I'm not riding this morning as the fog is really bad.  McD's breakfast and pack up. Since I've got to check in 1 1/2 hours early.  I head over. Also because of the fog the ferry is late. It's a shame as I could have checked out at lobster Fisher supply place.

Yarmouth is a nice little fishing town.

Well at least the terminal has a Timmie's.

Must not forget about the time change.

So I get a large double, double and talk to the other riders on their adventures. About 9 am the ferry comes into port.

Biggest ferry I've been on and one of the biggest on the east coast. 

It does seem to take forever to unload but it gets done and we board.

They give you little white straps that you put on your bike for them to use the bigger ones to ratchet down. New ferry, nice new straps :-). From here it's over to the elevator and up to check in.

I'm not really crazy about ship elevators. They move in weird ways.

I check in and head down to my room. As I would find out later, getting the room was a wise move.

I drop off all my crap and I'm off to explore the ferry. Being brand new it's so nice and clean. Bars, pubs, restaurants and even a Duty-Free. 

Cheap smokes.

I head up on deck to take some leaving pics.

Leaving Canada for the second time this week.

Foggy, windy and cool. So cool I could see my breath, and it's July.

I pick up some snacks at Duty free and some pop/soda at the bar. After exploring the boat I head back to my room for a nap. I wake up and I don't feel so good. I guess because were in the Alantic ocean and there's some waves and the ship is rolling. I've got a nice private washroom. So after throwing up and resting a bit more I started to feel better.

The sun comes out and the big game begins. 

It also helps that the seas seem to have calmed down a bit. Plus the game is a bit better than the German blowout yesterday. 

Well the game did go right down to penalties with the Argies winning it. Now that I'm feeling better, well not going to have dinner better I head down to the Casino. 

I like this pic because its so screwed up. Its the panorama setting.

Finally Land.

Well time to head down and see if the bike is still wheels side up. The crew had already had taken off all the straps. So now it's time to wait our turn off. Unlike most ferries we're off last.

 Goodbye Nova Star, your new ship was fun.

I ended but changing lanes. This custom's guy was inspecting the cars. Quick lane change. 

Well they let me back in again. Portland, Ma is a nice city that has a great revitalized port. Lots of nice resturants, shops, etc. Nicely happening on a Wednesday night.  As it's getting dark and it's been a long day, but notice I didn't say hard. Before I left Canada, I managed to score a Doubletree room cheap on Priceline.   A Starbucks right next door, I like that, and the second time this trip.

Never stayed in a round hotel.

Good night. 

Tomorrow via Boston.

Day 6

Daily mileage 20 miles/32km

Total milage 1582 miles.