I've been trying to make a motorcycle trip to Maine for several years now.
A buddy of mine and me were talking about it just before Covid hit.
Of course that threw a monkey wrench into the plans for awhile.
In the meantime he wound up selling his bike and hasn't replaced it yet.
It turns out that it can be really hard to convince someone to ride 750 miles to eat some lobster and come back.
It took awhile and a special set of circumstances to find someone else that would take on the task.
Right after I bought the new Goldwing for our trip to the West Coast and back next year my friend Larry suggested that we do a shake down cruise this year before we take that trip.
Thinking that it would be a good opportunity to feel the bike out and make any changes for comfort etc, I agreed that it was a good idea.
I asked him where he wanted to ride to.
He said that he didn't care but that it should be at least 500 miles there and 500 miles back.
The lightbulb came on and I suggested that we ride to Maine and get some Lobster.
In full disclosure I must admit that I had an ulterior motive for suggesting Maine.
You see for years now Maine has been the "only" state east of the Mississippi River that wasn't colored in on my states ridden map.
It had gotten to the point that every time I looked at it in my signature line it was bugging the crap out of me.
In the meantime another friend named Tim decided that he wanted to tag along with us.
That was fine with me as we have all been friends and co-workers for about 40 years.
We made preliminary plans and set a general itinerary for our route.
As trips go it was an excellent one!
But, it wasn't without some hiccups.
About 125 miles into our trip we stopped at a rest area and I noticed that the front tire on Larry's bike was very much lacking some tread.
Apparently, he had looked at it about 2 weeks prior but didn't check it before leaving.
As we all know sometimes those last few miles of tread leave quickly.
The rear tire wasn't in dire need of replacement but it was questionable for a 1,500 mile trip.
Luckily a nearby Honda dealer had both the front and rear in stock and agreed to replace them both ASAP.
After about a 2 hour delay we were back on the road with fresh rubber on all 3 bikes.
We settled in for the night just north of Scranton, PA logging a 400 mile day in just under 10 hours total.
Day two began with the continental breakfast at the hotel.
Our final destination for the day would be Wells, Maine but there was a planned stop in Albany, NY along the way.
We decided that we wanted to avoid tolls so I programmed Google Maps accordingly.
Apparently, if you're in the North Eastern United States and you try to avoid toll roads you're going to see a lot of the countryside.
The reason for the stop in Albany, NY was so that I could tour a museum ship there.
It's the USS Slater which is a WWII Destroyer Escort.
My Dad served on a DE in the South Pacific during WWII and since learning of the Slater's existence I've been wanting to check it out.
It was very interesting to me because of the connection to my dad, but I would recommend touring the Slater to anyone that has any interest at all in WWII naval ships.
The two amigo's that I talked into this crazy trip (Tim L and Larry R):
Dad's primary duty on the ship was Boiler Mate but his battle station was on one of the 20mm anti-aircraft guns:
Somewhere at Mom's house are still some shells for these guns that "Found" their way home with dad.
The largest guns on the ship were 5" guns:
While not on them when they were built, later in the war 40mm anti-aircraft guns were mounted on the DE's as well:
This was the enlisted men's head:
Our tour guide told us that the RED seat was for sailors that came back from shore leave with more than they bargained for.
This was a chair that they used to transfer personnel from one ship to another at sea:
I remember Dad talking about how much they loved to rescue a downed pilot because when they returned him to his carrier they were rewarded with Ice Cream.
Our tour guide asked about this and I knew that the answer was Ice Cream.
He also told us that if the pilot was an A$$ while on the ship he got wet during his ride in the chair back to the carrier.
Sailors could buy non-essential items from the Ship's Store:
For those of you who smoke, check out the price of a pack of cigarettes.
After our tour we headed to our ultimate destination of Wells, Maine.
I will say that if you leave Albany, NY headed to Wells, ME and tell Google to avoid tolls it is a very nice route.
We arrived in Wells about 6:30 PM and checked into our hotel (392 miles in just under 8 hrs total).
The hotel was a little "Park at your door" place that although small was recently remodeled and clean.
We had to hurry to get dinner since things start closing by 8PM around there.
We found some lobster at a little place right on the beach:
Well what passes for a beach in Maine:
The food was good.
They had whole lobsters but everybody was buying the split tails so that's what we ordered.
When you have a chance to eat what the locals eat, I have found that's usually a good way to go.
After supper my partners in crime went straight to bed.
I chose to sit outside and enjoy a few adult beverages, chat with some other hotel guest and look at the bikes:
The next morning we hit a local breakfast joint before heading out.
I didn't get any pictures but I must say that a Lobster Omelet is a GREAT IDEA!
Sunday's ride included many states and more countryside still avoiding tolls.
We did go out of our way to hit Rhode Island so that Tim could add it to his states ridden map.
We landed in Wilkes-Barre, PA for the night (419 miles in 12 hours total).
The next morning we delayed our departure due to heavy thunderstorms that were passing through to the south of us.
A delay of a couple of hours didn't seem like that big of a deal because we weren't that far from home.
We toped off with fuel and got onto I-81 South, as soon as we hit the Interstate the Check engine light and the Temperature light lit up on Tim's Harley.
A call to a local Harley Dealer determined what the most likely problem was and that it would need to be repaired before he could continue.
They did tell him that it was OK to ride it to their shop as long as he didn't spend time stopped in traffic.
$700 and 2hrs later Tim had a new water pump, hoses and some other new parts and we were ready to roll.
This delay made us really late getting home but the rest of the trip was uneventful, EXCEPT for the encounter with an idiot in a cage that I posted about in a previous thread.
