Two Brits and Two Questions....

I stayed in a B&B last night not far from Newburgh where OCC are located. Almost as soon as I turned north on the Taconic State Parkway, there was another bike behind me and as the guy went passed me, he pointed to something on his leather vest – a Union Jack flag! We pulled over to discover that we were both British, riding the same road at the same time. He had recognised the number plate (licence plate) on my bike as being from the UK. We couldn’t talk there as it was a busy stretch of road, so we rode 60 miles together and pulled off for a coffee.

Let me introduce Ian Tyrrell to you.....









































He was born in Nottingham in the UK and moved to the US about 12 years ago and has stayed ever since. Ian now lives in Baltimore and was riding to Williamstown after having left at 0530 in the morning. Ian was riding a Vulcan as is VP of the Maryland Vulcan Riders (www.mdvulcanriders.org).

We sat and chatted for a while before moving on and going our separate ways. It was good to meet you Ian.

I have a question for you. I have seen stars fixed to the outside of houses and garages like the one in the photo below. It has been bugging me all day, trying to work out what they are for, or what they represent. Can anybody answer this?..........





















As I rode on I reached a place called North Adams in Massachusetts and just south of this is Mt Greylock, so I rode to its summit, which is at 3,491 feet is the highest mountain in Massachusetts and the highest I have been so far on my tour. At the top is a monument to the war dead from the people of Massachusetts and I suppose it is quite fitting that this memorial should stand on the highest piece of land in the state.


























The keystone above the entrance door is a very striking eagle....





















Inside the monument is a large inscription that reads “Those Immortal Dead Who Live Again In Minds Made Better By Their Presence”. I like the way that America honours its war dead, probably more than any other country I have visited.



This is the view from the top of Mt Greylock looking towards North Adams.





















Next I went to Florida. Not the one in the southwest, but Florida in Massachusetts. There is a railway line here that dates back to 1877 and I wanted to check it out where it passes into a tunnel. I easily found the tunnel entrance and noticed a sort of mist near its entrance. I quickly grabbed my camera and got a shot of it – it was both cool and a little bit spookyat the same time. Maybe ghosts from workers who may have died building the railway hang about here.... you might be able to see the mist better if you enlarge the picture by double-clicking on it.....




























Nearby sat a pile of dead railway sleepers....





















I rode back up the hill to Whitcomb Summit, where there is a motel which is where I am staying tonight and where I type this from. It isn’t a great motel, but the view is spectacular.....





















There is a statue of an Elk nearby so I took a walk to photograph it.....





















Now to the second question I want your help with. Many of you will know my bike was recently painted with portraits of mainly 40’s and 50’s black and white movie actresses (see this link for pictures). My bike has never had a name, so I think it is now time it had one. I have been thinking about what to call it and I have something in mind, but before I commit to this, I want to give you, my readers, the chance to think of a name. Who knows, I might use a name that you suggest! Let me have any ideas you might have....

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Good Decision, Sweetheart!

I arrived back in New York City (NYC) a couple of nights ago to meet my wife, Jackie.

This is my lovely wife (and me)....



















It had been a few weeks since she had dropped me at Heathrow Airport when I flew to the US, so it was fantastic to see her again. We had dinner in New York, intending that we begin to travel north together the next day. However, there was to be a problem....

I should have thought more about this beforehand and it was totally my fault. As you can imagine, I have packed for a 4+ month tour and that means I am using both saddlebags on my bike along with bike luggage which is strapped to the rack on the back of my bike. Collectively, the items I have with me weigh quite a lot especially as these include tools, cameras, clothes and everything else that I will need for 4+ months. Well, Jackie is tiny and I hadn’t given it much thought, but with all of my gear, Jackie and her gear, the bike was a struggle to control as we set out north. It just didn’t feel too safe as we travelled the first 10 miles and I realised the bike was overloaded, but I pressed on, reluctant to admit to myself that I had made a big mistake.

Very soon Jackie asked me to pull over and she told me that she was worried as she could feel how tense I was as I struggled with the bike.

Why is it that women are much more sensible than us men? I was (stupidly) prepared to carry on but Jackie (the wise one) made the decision that we should not. She was right – Good Decision, Sweetheart!

Deep down, I knew she was right so the bike was turned around and we returned to the hotel we had just checked out of. We agreed we couldn’t discard much to lighten the load so we made a plan that we would meet up again later on the tour where we could base ourselves in one location and ride out on one or two day trips without as much to carry. This was much more sensible and we chose Flagstaff to do this from, as there are many places we can get to easily in one or two days and we would not need to carry everything with us.

So, I stayed in NYC another day and this morning, Saturday, set out on my own with Jackie about to travel to Seattle to see her family. Jackie is a US citizen and most of her family are in the Pacific North West. So, in a sad mood, I left NYC.

My mood didn’t do anything to help me enjoy the ride out of NYC. I have to say the roads in the city are pretty awful, with shocking surfaces, huge bumps, large holes, 3” thick steel plates sticking up and lots of other obstacles that you need to avoid and sometimes hit. Ouch! I did a fair bit of swearing as I rode and it seems to me when riding in NYC you spend....

25% of your time looking out for bad drivers (especially the taxi drivers – which ever planet they are from, they sure don’t have good driving education)
25% of your time looking at the poor quality roads
25% of your time looking at the sights and the people
25% of your time looking at which way to go
25% of your time trying to work out how to get around the never ending road construction works

Yes, I know that adds up to 125% of your time – that is why you get so stressed riding a motorbike in NYC and probably the reason why you don’t see many bikes there!

NYC? Carrie Fisher is welcome to it.... !

So I got out of Dodge by crossing the river to New Jersey, the 7th state I have ridden in on this tour so far and I am very glad that I did because I found this house for sale....





















I suspect you might be wondering what is so special about this house. The reason is, whoever buys this house will have these views every day....





































Fan-Bloody-Tastic!

My journey into New Jersey was very brief as I re-entered New York to go see what Yonkers was about. It is a place with a silly name, but one that is well known, so I went and had a look what was there. Hmmmm. Let’s be positive and call it vibrant and multi-cultural, perhaps the best things I can say about the place. I wish I hadn’t bothered. Now I wanted to leave the city as I was pretty fed up with it. I longed for some open roads where I could achieve more than 10 mph riding on surfaces so rough that I imagine them having off-road aspirations.

Sometime later, I reached the tranquillity of Tarrytown which is like satin sheets compared to the harshness of NYC. Tarrytown was green, peaceful and a wonderful haven that eased my stress levels back to something bearable.

I carried on to Bear Mountain on the west bank of the Hudson River and decided to ride up it. If you ever get the chance to go up Bear Mountain then you should. Not because it is high and not because the views are spectacular, but because there are twisty roads!!! These bought the smile back to my face in a hurry!

The view from the very top is ok, but even better from a small viewing area overlooking the Bear Mountain Bridge.....





























































































The next place I stopped at today was called Cold Spring. The main street through the town (village?) is tree-lined and slopes down towards the Hudson River and due to the towns galleries, antique shops and cafes would be a terrific place to walk and browse. This is the main road and one of the typical antique shops....









































Down by the river there was a wedding party and I couldn’t resist snapping a picture....








































I was in two minds about visiting the final place on my list for today – Orange County Choppers, or OCC as they are more commonly known. I had enjoyed watching the early series’ of “American Chopper” as tv programmes about motorbikes are rare. The early programmes looking at the relationship between Paul Senior and Paul Junior whilst building bikes was fascinating, but it began to wear a little thin when they became dickheads and the business obviously got in the way of what should be a good relationships between father and son. Their ridiculous recent tantrums was what made me unsure about going to see OCC, but I decided to anyway and just not buy anything – why should I line the pockets of these idiots?

Seeing the bikes was cool and the build quality was better than I had expected. Like many others there I walked around taking a few photos that I am happy to share with you......
































































































































































































Due to the sad morning I had leaving my lovely wife behind, this was the worst day of my tour so far. Kz. G.

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Shame On You Roxbury, CT.

Last night I made a short video of Paul and I riding around Provincetown and Cape Cod....




Today was a mixed day. It had cooled off a little and I set about riding from the middle of Connecticut back to New York City. Almost as soon as I started riding today I saw a road sign which made me smile, simply due to the name of the place it was giving directions to. I smiled because it has a very famous counterpart in Europe....























As many of my readers will know, I am doing most of my riding on the smallest of roads, which generally means just one lane in each direction. In this way, I get to see much more than I would on highways and interstates. I knew that today I would be on a particular small road and would pass the Burlington State Fish Hatchery, which I decided I would go and see. I am glad that I did, for it was very interesting. They do everything from catching adult fish, collecting their eggs and milk, right the way through incubation and rearing of the fish until they are 3 years old.

This is the building that they incubate the eggs and keep the small fish (fry then fingerlings) in long troughs until they are about a year old....

































































The hatchery raises about 200,000 fish each year and as they are kept until 3 years old means they must have 600,000 fish at the facility at a time. They use 600 gallons of water a minute and all of this water is naturally flowing through the whole place on the slope it sits upon – there is not one pump needed.

There are numerous outside ponds where the fish are kept until 3 years old...







































The fish they raise are Brown Trout and Kokanee Salmon, which are released across the state in hundreds of locations. I enjoyed visiting the hatchery and seeing the work they do there.

Next I saw something pretty cool on the road. I was passing a school where I saw lots of plastic cups had been placed and jammed into a wire fance. I couldn’t make it out at first.....




















Then I went back for a closer look. It seems that love is in the air...




















I rode through and stopped for lunch in a called New Milford, a very pretty place, with a tank sitting way out of context on the village green. I never did stop to ask why but it was close to a war memorial, so I guess the two were related....




















Nest I get onto the subject of what the title of this blog post is about “Shame On You Roxbury, CT”. When I was leaving New Milford, it was hot and humid and I Iooked at my map and saw a place called Roxbury Falls was nearby and decided to try to find it to see what was there. It was a little gem – a river running over rocks that formed small pools that were just perfect for cooling off in this heat....


























I parked the bike and started to walk towards the river to be confronted with this sign...


























It seems that this piece of nature is reserved for a small band of local residents only! The falls are nowhere near the town so reserving it in this way really pissed me off. What a cheek they have to try to keep it for themselves – it is a natural resource that anybody should be able to use! Anyhow, I left without cooling my feet in the river in a bad mood. I do hope that the residents of Roxbury (or at least those that make the rules) are proud of themselves. I hope they are able to one day come to England where they will be welcomed with open arms and able to share everything that all citizens are able to use, then they will understand what true freedom and sharing our environment really means. I am going to write to the town mayor / council to expressed my extreme annoyance with their petty stance.

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I Went Naked Today.....

....which for a Brit means no more than riding without a helmet! I wanted to try it and I had the perfect opportunity – a very slow ride on wide safe roads in a residential area. It was so hot again and going without a helmet was really good, but not so good that I would do it regularly. It did give me a feeling of freedom though....

As I was riding today sans helmet, I was thinking about the different names we bikers use for helmet. Here are a few I thought of.... please let me know of any others and I will add them to this list.....

Bash Hat
Bone Dome
Brain bucket
Bumper Cap
Crash Helmet
Der Sturzhelm (German)
Lid
Skid lid

Thanks to Axel for these....

Deutsch: der Sturzhelm
French: Casque de moto
Suomi: Moottoripyöräkypärä
Bahasa lain: Topi keledar
Norsk: Motorsykkelhjelm
Portugese: Capacete motociclístico
Русский: Мотоциклетный шлем
中文: 機車安全帽
SvenskaMotorcykelhjälm


Today, I was in Newport, Rhode Island and I rode around Ocean Drive which must be one of the most opulent areas in the US. Some of the houses here are magnificent and some steeped in history. Here are a few photos of the biggest....

The gates to Belcourt Castle....




























Belcourt Castle ( a very French influence at work here)....






















A very traditional mansion....




















The Marble House (front).... I went for a tour around this one, but they didn’t allow photos to be taken inside....




















The Marble House (rear)....




















Not sure of its name, but a French Chateau style house....




















One of the bridges I went over today in Rhode Island....




















Today I reached the 2000 mile point of the tour and to follow what I started at 1000 miles, here is the view of what was exactly at the 2000 miles point. This was near Charlestown, Rhode Island and the lady that owns the little shop came out to see why a biker was taking photos of the road outside her shop!




















To continue with the opulent theme for today, this is the Ocean House Hotel, in Watch Hill which is almost the most westerly point in Rhode Island.... I did like the look of this hotel.....




















My journey continued into Connecticut and I sheltered from the rain and met Rick, on his Harley. We rode together to the local Harley dealer – Mike’s Famous of Groton, CT, where I bought a couple of long sleeved shirts to help protect me from the sun. Thanks Rick for introducing me to the Mikes – the timing and hospitality was just perfect!

Tonight I am staying in Rocky Hills, CT.

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