We left Sanford around 8.30am. One van (with a bike aboard) and three bikes running. This was going to be our last day on the bikes and our planned destination was Albany in New York State where Ronnies motorcycles will store our bikes. Around 208 miles expected today.
We had some navigation confusion early on, mainly around avoiding freeways or not. However we sorted out the route and with the exception of a missed turnoff from the freeway, we did ok. Getting off the freeway a turn too late, we had to do a loop back to join the correct route which involved our only gravel today, a short link road. By this time, Keith who was following us in his rental van decided to make his own way and took his own route which coincidentally linked with ours 30 minutes later. Once again we had a van trailing us and now we were back to the route we had planned to get us to Albany, avoiding most 70mph freeways.
We were on great roads through more colourful fall trees, passed stunning lakes with holiday homes, boats tied up to jetties & some with
boat houses. We passed through many nice little towns and at around 10 am we stopped at a McDonalds for brunch. Later we again stopped at a country store for coffee and gas. Here a tradie, buying his lunch started talking to us. He had spotted our bikes outside and correctly guessed we were the riders given we were wearing the gear. He told us he had a BMW K100RS and us showed us a photo on his phone. He couldnt believe how far we had ridden on smaller dual purpose bikes. The conversation ended up involving 3 others in the store. This happens a lot here. People are genuinely interested in what you are doing & always finish the conversation with ride safe which even the girl on the counter said as I walked out. The other standard is keep the rubber side down
Out of New Hampshire State where the State motto is live free or die. This to me, whilst I can empathise with the free bit, seems a bit harsh. This would be especially hard on anyone who gets sentenced to prison in this state! I wonder what happens? Crossing into Vermont yet again, we rode through more nice little towns and enjoyed great fall colours from the trees.
Eventually we were into New York the Empire State. Arriving into Albany which is much bigger than we had thought, (complete with an International Airport) We encountered lots of school traffic due to riding through as school came out around 2.30pm. If we had jumped onto the freeway 10 miles out of town, we could have saved 30 minutes but hey, it was good to have a look at the city.
After checking into our excellent motel, we went to a local motorcycle accessory shop where Ian & Bryan bought tyres. Bryans been running a rear flat track tyre (in the forlorn hope he gets the call up to race 🤣) and Ian had worn out his front.
Tomorrow we are taking bikes to Ronnies Motorcycles, Keith takes the van back to Budget & we relax before taking a train to New York Sunday morning.
We are all a bit exhausted but very satisfied with the goal achieved. No major incidents, not even any punctures and a apart from Keiths bikes electrical problem in the last day. no mechanical issues of any note. I told a young guy at the motel, asking us what we were doing, where we had been etc. that I am only 25 and this is what all those miles have done to me.!!
I will let you all know when the book is in print, film rights being negotiated as we speak. I will be played by Anthony Hopkins if they can make him look old enough. The others by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Brad Pitt and Tom Hanks.
