Travelling Tales- Part 18

Next stop on the journey - New York state.  Another dealership who parted us from our cash.  In fairness I did get my purchases on sale and Peter got more bits for the bike.  Its amazing how many shiny bits you can put on a Harley! It was mainly riding all day on the 22nd, overnight in Binghamton.



Woke to pouring rain on 23rd, the first time for the entire trip.  I hate wet starts, but it cleared to give us a dull and humid day, waterproofs on. As usual, every time we stopped someone would come over for a chat, give us advice on a route etc.  Today was no exception. We were given a route that took us via Lake Champlain and by 3pm we decided to ditch the waterproofs as we were getting warm.  Big mistake, by 4:15 we were so soaked we looked like we had been under a shower, soaked to the skin.  We ended the day in Essex, cold, wet and miserable.  Luckily for us the Essex Inn had a room. We were able to dry off all our things and once warm and dry we headed down for a lovely dinner. We spent the evening chatting with a French couple from Montreal and the waitress who was very entertaining.  We had stayed at the Essex Inn previously when we had been on a New England Bike Tour, and the owner remembered us.  The only problem with this quaint inn, is that the bathrooms are across the landing, and whilst getting ready for bed we were joined by a lady from the adjoining room (Peter hadn't locked the door!) not sure who got the bigger surprise as he was completely naked, gave us all a good laugh though!

Breakfast on the verandah

Trying to dry the gloves still

On the ferry to Vermont

Lake Champlain

Maple Syrup farm shop

Nightmare trying to find somewhere to stay as the Nascar Racing was on, we ended up in a smoking room which they gave us a discount for and a can of air freshner!!, but it was awful, even with all the windows opened.  To cheer ourselves up we went out for a Lobster dinner at Browns in Seabrook, to say we were in lobster heaven was an understatement - 2 x 1.5lb lobsters, small order of fried clams, onion rings and fries, washed down we a coke each  - $53.  It was a great place, very informal, everyone was coming in with coolers of wine and beer as they don't serve alcohol.  Great atmosphere, highly recommend it. (Not sure why the pics say 25th)





We had a rotten night due to the smell of cigarettes in the room, awake very early and very grumpy. We took some more ABC pics for Harley - thats what we were doing if you wondered why our state line pics all had a copy of Hog Tales in them.  Posed for some photos with a group of very excited Harley riders who were on a scavenger hunt, we gave them one of our flags and a pin.  Another coastal route given to us, nice ride along the New Hampshire coast into Maine, lunch in Kennebunkport - clam chowder and a BLT.  We ended the day in Kittery. Peter still grumpy so I left him putting bits on his bike and went shopping in an outlet mall.  We finished the day friends again after a huge seafood dinner, I just love seafood and when its that fresh why eat anything else.

grumpy

still grumpy

Smiling again