Trip days: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8-9 | 10-12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20
I finished doing my laundry and got everything buttoned up, had lunch with Ron, and headed out of Methuen on I-495 at 2:15 pm. I stopped at Turner Motorsports to say hi to Will Turner who I didn't see on friday because he was up racing at Mosport in Toronto. Then I stopped by Turner's new tuning shop just down the road. The Turner Motorsports operation has grown a lot since I was out here a year and a half ago. The new shop had 3 or 4 lifts in it, a portable dyno, a bunch of metal working tools, bead blaster, a bunch of stuff for the race cars, and a whole lot of BMWs all over the place. After wandering around and chatting with all the guys, I got onto I-95 up to Portland, Maine where I was going to catch an overnight ferry to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. I got off of I-95 briefly to follow highway 1 that run parallel to it through York Beach and Ocquina-something. The towns were pretty quaint and New Englandy, but the 25mph stop and go was a little painful so I quickly got back onto I-95 and zipped up to Portland. I purchased a ticket on the Scotia Prince Cruise line to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia for $161. That included transport for me, my motorcycle, and a cabin for the night. Not too cheap, but it was one less night to camp or get a room for, and it would get me to Nova Scotia early tomorrow for a full day of riding. I'm getting a little bit worried about making it back home in three weeks. I think I may have to alter my flight plan to compensate for the stretching of my stays in Phoenix, Las Cruces, D.C., and Methuen. We'll see though. Have I mentioned that the weather has been great? Well it has. Just perfect from Tenessee all the way here. Never hotter than 80 and never cooler than 60 during the day, and generally sunny. I couldn't ask for better weather for this trip. Though, in the back of my mind I wish it would rain some so that I can be glad that I purchased new all-weather riding gear before leaving home. The cruise ship has a Casino, hair salon and massage parlor, a broadway themed lounge, a Tiki bar, a duty free store, and a full restaurant on board. Most of the crew is black or some sort of polynesian islander. Most all of them have thick french?! accents. It's pretty weird having a carribean cruise ship crew in the northern atlantic. Crew members we're even selling exotic cocktails, with names like Polynesian Delight, at every turn as I was looking for my cabin. After watching Portland and the Maine coastline fade away into darkness as the cruise ship rumbled east towards Yarmouth, away from the setting sun, I wandered around and checked out the ship. Most of the passengers were in their 40's somewhere and had a very cruise ship sort of aura going on. They wandered around pointing out all the "great" little things about the cruise ship to their significant others and acting so excited about all the amenities. Whatever.
Total Mileage for Day: 101 |
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©2003 John Meloy <jam@nas.com>