Ride Report - Fall Colors Trip 2014 - Pic Heavy

[slick rick]

Great pics Kevin ThumbUp but I have to agree with Mary on the lack of safety rails on mountain curves , gives me the heebee geebees .:Agree:

 

[Papa Zook]

Loving the pics Kevin, keep em coming. ThumbUp

 

[DK Custom Products]

We left out of North Conway toward Maine. Had our first little rain of the entire trip so far...30-45 minutes of light rain...not enough to break out the rain suits.<br />
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We have been using the heated jackets for a few days now...makes all the difference.<br />
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Had some fog too, but check out that sign on this little back road!<br />
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Today we are headed from North Conway, NH to Rumford, ME, then Rangeley and then Solon.<br />
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Fun sign at a turn we made.<br />
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At one point Mary told me she felt like she was trying to take a picture of every tree. <img src="images/smilies/laugh.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Laugh" class="inlineimg" /><br />
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Even though it was overcast most of the day, and the pics don't capture the detail nearly as well, it was still an amazing ride!<br />
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One of the many stops we made....<br />
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...not sure quite where, but we had a sandwich and looked around a bit.<br />
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The sun did peak out a few times....<br />
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I think the last time we were on an interstate was on our way up to Watertown, NY. Up until today, every secondary road we have been on was in great condition. Today, there were two different roads that were in poor condition...like bad enough to rival some of the worst we saw in the Yukon.<br />
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Here's a pic of me riding where ever I could to avoid the heaves in the road.<br />
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When we got to Solon there was no where to stay, nothing in Madison either, so we headed down the road a bit to Skowhegan. We stayed at the Belmont Motel.<br />
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We've stayed at hundreds of Motels and Hotels over the years, and the Belmont is one of the best we've stayed in. Clean, and all the little details were just right for Motel "camping" on a motorcycle. Right down to the towel hanging on the post at each parking spot and a good grocery store right across the street.<br />
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I spoke with the owner to find out how new the place was. It was built in 1956! That was a surprise.<br />
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Kevin

 

[Brentwood Bob]

The colors up North look great. We don't see much seasonal change here in Northern California. Ride safe you 2

 

[DK Custom Products]

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<img src="images/misc/quote_icon.png" alt="Quote" /> Originally Posted by <strong>Brentwood Bob</strong>
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<div class="message">The colors up North look great. We don't see much seasonal change here in Northern California. Ride safe you 2</div>

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Thanks man, we will. Much more to come! <img src="images/smilies/smile.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Smile" class="inlineimg" /><br />
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Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

Today we rode from Skowhegan to Jackman, to Moosehead Lake/Greenville to Bangor.<br />
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It was a great day for riding and taking pics of the fall colors. Sun was out most of the day!<br />
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Headed toward Jackman, ME......<br />
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...it was fantastic riding and amazing views.<br />
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We contemplated heading on up into Canada a bit. When we were in Jackman it is only another 20 miles to Canada. Decided not to deal with the border, there is so much to see around here.<br />
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It was a bit chilly, but with the electric jacket liners we were toasty warm.<br />
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We stopped and had lunch at this little pull-over by the river....<br />
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...Fantastic views. Gotta keep reminding ourselves that in the winter it is bitter cold up here. lol<br />
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Taking care of some business at the shop. If you're on our mailing list, the email update you just received was discussed by myself and Devin right here. <img src="images/smilies/smile.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Smile" class="inlineimg" /><br />
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Trees everywhere!!!<br />
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The road up to Jackman was great, the road from Jackman to Greenville had its' share of road heaves, but still the fantastic views!<br />
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Really enjoying the GPS and finding small side roads that still get us where we're going.<br />
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Heading into Bangor. We used the infotainment system to find a small, cozy motel in Brewer, right outside of Bangor. Going to be here a few days, doing some whale watching, checking out Bar Harbor, catching up on some work.<br />
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More to come!<br />
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Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

The view from our room in Brewer before leaving for a day trip to Bar Harbor!<br />
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When we got to Bar Harbor we found out that the whale watching tour had been canceled. <br />
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We knew this was a possibility, it had been canceled the previous 3 days also. Swells 20 miles out were 5 feet tall.<br />
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So we had some lunch in a park overlooking the harbor.<br />
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Then decided to do a bit of riding around the Island and Arcadia National Park.<br />
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Inside Arcadia National Park we enjoyed nice roads, views and riding with no helmets...but we did make use of our electric gear. <img src="images/smilies/smile.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Smile" class="inlineimg" /><br />
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Stopped and walked around in the woods a bit....I did make it across without falling, but opted to take the easier way back across the stream on some rocks. <img src="images/smilies/laugh.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Laugh" class="inlineimg" /><br />
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Took a ride over to the lighthouse...it is still operational, and has been since the 1800's.<br />
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Walkway down to the rocky shoreline below the lighthouse.<br />
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Back over to the other side of the island, enjoyed exploring many of the roads at a leisurely pace.<br />
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Headed up Caddilac Mountain....<br />
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<img src="http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/i339/DKCustom/Fall%20Colors%202014/FCDay9/UpCadMT_zps5d3bb1f6.jpg" border="0" alt="" /><br />
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...Very nice ride up and back down. We had a camera malfunction, so no pics from up top, but google will turn up plenty of pics from the top of Caddilac Mountain.<br />
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Very enjoyable day, and a great place to take a bit of a break from being in the saddle 7-10 hours a day for the last 8 days. (yeah, that might not seem like much to some of you...but pushing 60, sometimes it's nice to slow down a bit. <img src="images/smilies/smile.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Smile" class="inlineimg" /> )<br />
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More to come!<br />
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Kevin

 

[steamer]

They cancelled the whale watching tour when we were there due to high sea's also, so we took the lobster fishing and sea lion tour.

 

[John Luciano]

Don't pass up a chance to ride RT 9 in lower VT or RT 2 the top of Mass. Great roads. Ride to the top of Graylock Mt would be nice too!

 

[DK Custom Products]

We've pointed our front wheel southwest and will be heading thru CT tomorrow. <img src="images/smilies/smile.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Smile" class="inlineimg" /><br />
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Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

We had a loose plan to head back west across the top of PA before cutting down toward DC.


Instead, we decided to take a more direct route to DC.


Leaving out of Bangor....

The entire time in Maine was very good, just amazing!




But we have other places to see, so we headed down toward Portland along the coast.

We have been mostly on secondary roads, and stayed on them most of the day...

...including a few rough ones!




I don't know if this was my 10 millionth tree, or 10 billionth that I've seen on this trip...but they are each unique!

Here's a little bridge we saw...got up to it, decided better not try to cross.

Mary usually take a lot of cloud pics, on this trip she's taken thousands of tree pics, and not much clouds...I think she is starting back on the clouds!

Rode down a little country lane and found a spot to pull over for lunch.

As we left out of Maine, across a bit of New Hampshire, and into Massachusetts, we got back on the interstates.


But right before getting on the interstate, we had a young man in a cage that did not seem to concerned about keeping his vehicle on his side of the road. This little video does not show him as close as he seemed.


The camera is a fisheye and makes things look further away than they are, plus, it is mounted on the right side of the bike. It was pretty close. Fortunately I was paying attention for both of us!


Click HERE to see the video




Back on the interstate, eating up some miles.

The TG is right at home with all the traffic running 85 mph.

More to come!

Kevin

 

[Sully]

That person in the cage was I bet Texing on the phone :Shrug:

Be careful out there.

 

[DK Custom Products]

Busy day! Hopefully will have time in the next day or so to catch up on the ride report.Yeah Sully, gotta keep watch! Kevin

 

[sparky1597]

Nice pics.
Miss the Finger Lakes in NY. Beautiful fall colors and twisting roads.

 

[steamer]

Nice pics.
Miss the Finger Lakes in NY. Beautiful fall colors and twisting roads.

When were you in the Finger Lakes?That's where we live.

 

[John Luciano]

Miss your pictures. How are you traveling?

 

[DK Custom Products]

Still traveling, taking lots of pics, just no time to go thru and post ride reports recently, will be catching up soon!

Seeing some beautiful countryside!

Kevin

 

[Sully]

Ride on, Brother epper:

 

[ride3]

what a great trip, really enjoying this.ThumbUp

 

[DK Custom Products]

Thank you, and glad you're enjoying it. It is an encouragement to keep posting when time can be a bit short.

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We left out of Lowell, MA headed toward Denville, NJ, via some interstate, secondary roads and some huge crawling parking lots. :laugh:


Leaving out of Lowell we got some steady rain for a bit, but it did not last long, and not enough to break out the rain gear.

It was cloudy off & on all day...but the countryside is stunning up here!

Crossing into Connecticut...

...we spent almost the entire time in CT on secondary roads, beautiful State.

We jumped onto the Merritt Parkway in CT. These few pictures do not do it justice. It is stunning. Check out this link on it - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merritt_Parkway

Besides being beautiful and a historic parkway....

....it is heavily traveled by locals who seem to know that there is little enforcement of the speed limit....

....we were traveling at 80 mph most of the time, and we were NOT keeping up with a good portion of the traffic. I would speed up with the majority to 85 and pass the few doing 70, then slow down to 80 and have a cushion of space around me until the next group came thru at 85, then do it all over again, until we hit the NY border, then any semblance of order disappeared.

We stopped in White Plains, NY for some gas, ate some sandwiches Mary had prepared, and then were on our way to Denville, NJ....we thought....

....we thought we were ahead of rush hour traffic, but EVERY WHERE we looked it was just a parking lot...barely moving, then stopping.

We ended up changing our route (thanks to the GPS) to take some secondary roads that had less traffic, and we ended up staying in Hackensack, NJ.

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

Headed out of Hackensack for the DC area, we traveled mostly interstates, with a bit of time on secondary roads. 3 States again today, NJ, PA and MD.

Here we are headed out of NJ-

None of the traffic we saw yesterday in NY and NJ. ThumbUp

When we started out on this trip we booked up to Watertown, NY, taking mostly interstates...then for the last week+ we've been exploring a bit of the NE on secondary roads.

Now, we are headed toward DC to check out the nations Capitol, so we are taking the fastest route there (while avoiding NY State)...even though there is so much to see, time is running out to be back at the shop, and we want to take our time in DC and on the ride from there to east TN.

More NJ interstate-....

....then we hit PA-

Lots of farmland...always reminds me to be thankful for those who still farm, making sure the shelves are full at the stores!

Today's shadow pic, got some sky and clouds in the fender too!

See some interesting things on the interstate sometimes...

....this is probably a bit older than the canoes!

Entering MD-

Dunno why we always thought the NE was all cities, it really is quite different than we thought....as long as we stay out of the cities.

Getting close to Gaitherburg, MD, which will be our home base for visiting DC.

Tomorrow it is off to DC for the day to see some of the sights!

Kevin

 

[John Luciano]

What back roads in Conn.? Glad you experienced the Merritt. One of the oldest high-ways in the country. No trucks allowed. Wish I knew when u flew through.... Yea! New England roads are well kept secret .

 

[Ed Hobgood]

This is a really great trip. Wish we were tagging along, I guess we are. Great JobThumbUp

 

[riden2low]

Great pictures. Keep us updated on the horn bracket. I checked mine today and looks fine but you have a lot more miles on yours than I have. So periodically will have to check on it as I rack up the miles.

 

[camacdonald78]

Great pictures! What kind of camera are you using?

 

[DK Custom Products]

What back roads in Conn.? Glad you experienced the Merritt. One of the oldest high-ways in the country. No trucks allowed. Wish I knew when u flew through.... Yea! New England roads are well kept secret .

Not remembering them all right now, but we spent some time on the 202 and the 8, not sure the others. Thanks for the encouragement to check out CT.

This is a really great trip. Wish we were tagging along, I guess we are. Great JobThumbUp

Thank you, good to hear you're enjoying it.

Great pictures. Keep us updated on the horn bracket. I checked mine today and looks fine but you have a lot more miles on yours than I have. So periodically will have to check on it as I rack up the miles.

Yeah, when I get back I'll be talking to our HD rep and see if the few I've seen are an anomaly, or if there is a lot of it going on.

Great pictures! What kind of camera are you using?

Started out with the Fuji JX500, then switched to the Fuji JX650 early on in the trip.


Apologies for not posting regularly recently, we've been having really full days and just no time to post. We'll be home in another couple of days and then I should be caught up pretty quickly after that. We've had some great riding and pictures since the last report!

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

We stayed in Gaithersburg, MD for a couple of days and rode the Metro into DC and were tourists for awhile.




Mary had never been, and it's been decades since I was in our Nations Capitol.




Mary is NOT fond of elevators or heights...so there was no walk up the 897 steps of the Washington Monument...not that I wanted to take that walk either.

There is work being done to the outside of the State Capitol, let's hope that there is more work done inside too!

I almost rented one of these, just because!


Our town has one stop light about 8 miles away from our house. The town that DK Custom Products is in has one 4-way stop sign. Having cars sitting in the street that can be rented with a card is a novelty, to say the least.

At the end of the first day we walked thru Chinatown to get to the metro.

Next day we rode in on the metro again, here we are in Union Station...

....Each day we rode TG from Gaitherburg to Rockville to catch the metro. This is where the TG sat while we were in the Capitol.

Mary at the Whitehouse....

...we had had begun the process of scheduling a tour of the Whitehouse over 2 months ago. There were emails back and forth, but still nothing scheduled...then while we were in DC on one of the tour buses Mary received an email that they had us booked for a tour on the 23rd, long after we would be gone from DC. So this is the closest we got.




We visited the National Archives, and were able to view the original documents of the founding of our Nation.

At Arlington Cemetery we were able to view the Changing of the Guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We were also able to thank the two WWII vets that were part of that particular Ceremony.

Mary's father served, and was injured, in the Korean War, and we were able to get some pictures and video of the Korean War Memorial for him.

It was a great experience wandering thru the streets of the Capitol for a couple of days. If we had 2 weeks there, it would not be enough time to see all there is too see! But we needed to get back on the road.


More to come!

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

Today we left out of Maryland, riding into Virginia, headed for Skyline Drive in Shenandoah Park. There was a bit of traffic and we were glad to get back to country roads.


Entering Shenandoah Park and getting on Skyline Drive was a breath of fresh air....

....and a lot of other people were doing the same...but we gave them space and rode by ourselves much of the time.

It is an amazing ride...slow, the speed limit is 35mph...but well paved and beautiful.

More pull-offs with scenic views that I bothered counting....

....we did hit a bit of drizzle, not much, and it did get cold...down to 40*....

....but the slow speed and electric jackets kept us warm.

About halfway thru we stopped at a visitor center, ate some lunch, got some gas, and looked around a bit. Mary really likes it up here!

Back taking more pictures of the trees!

When we planned this trip, we called it the "Fall Colors" trip on our calendar. We have not been disappointed. We have been told that if we had been a week or two later we would have seen even more dramatic colors, but this is the time we had to go, and we have been overwhelmed with what we have seen!

Periodically we rode in and out of the clouds. I have my winter windshield installed, it is a 14" recurve that I look through (or around- lol ) so at low speeds I need to wipe it off in fog or rain.

At the end of Skyline Drive we stopped in Waynesboro for the night. Tomorrow is the Blue Ridge Parkway!

Kevin

 

[Lucky]

Sure wish I was with ya'll. Not a better trip around. Are ya'll riding all the way to Cherokee? Thanks for the pic. RIDE SAFE

 

[DK Custom Products]

Sure wish I was with ya'll. Not a better trip around. Are ya'll riding all the way to Cherokee? Thanks for the pic. RIDE SAFE

Today we started at the northernmost point of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Our plan was to ride it all the way to Cherokee, NC. But it was not to be.

It was a bit foggy when we first got on the BRP, but not bad....

...the road was great, the colors spectacular, it was even better than yesterday!

Everywhere we looked was like a postcard!

Simply amazing-

But then we started riding into the clouds....

But then after a few miles of riding in the fog, we would see miles of this-

And this-

I've mentioned it before, but not only is Mary an excellent partner to ride with, she is fantastic at taking pictures in all kinds of circumstances.

We wanted to go further, to see more of this....

....But then we rode into thick stuff...and even after over 30 miles of it, there was not a single break...it was just getting worse.

So we pulled off the BRP and stayed in Hillsville, VA for the night.

Much more to come!

Kevin