On the road again

No.  I don't believe we get tired of sightseeing.  ;)  We are leaving in about an hour to start our next road trip.  This time, however, we will be driving.  The main purpose of this trip is to follow a rather detailed itinerary up to Tobermory and then on to Manitoulin Island for great photography opportunities.  I actually have no idea where we're going (in terms of specific destinations) and what we'll be seeing.  How exciting! 

We're pretty much all packed up.  I've made breakfast.  I can hear that Matt has finally gotten out of bed to do some last minute tending of our plants.

Onward, ho!

What happens when you leave two Italian bikes unattended?

They clearly give birth to a mutant love child.

Last night I went to see, and ultimately bought, a 2004 Kawasaki ZX-6R track bike.  The bike was previously owned by a regional racer who will be upgrading to a more recent bike.  Knowing the history of this bike, along with it having a handful of track relevant upgrades (suspension, brakes, steering) made this a pretty good deal.

I'm hoping to do 2-3 track days each season, starting next Spring.  Having done Fast Phase 1 several years ago, this should be a nice way to get back into track riding.  I'll just have to figure out how to transport this thing to the track ... but hey, I got all winter for that.

Now for the pictures...

Day 4: Home

Yes, we made it home last night just fine.  More details to come.

Update on Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 12:23AM by Cess

First of all, a quick update from Day 3.  Matt and I sat ever so patiently in the hotel's dining room until 7pm. At that point, we asked the front desk staff if we could have a room.  We were getting tired and wanted to lie down.  We set ourselves a 7:30pm alarm.  If the rest of the group did not arrive by then, we would go out and get dinner for ourselves.  Lesson learned: restaurants in small towns tend to close fairly early.

Zzz ... bzzt!  7:30pm!  We poked our heads outside of our room.  Lo and behold: no other bikes.  =(  But 5 minutes later, we heard the rumble of bikes and yes, the rest of the group finally arrived.  Thank goodness.  Everyone quickly unloaded their bikes and we all set off to a local steakhouse for dinner. 

Now, back to Day 4.  Once again, the group split up into smaller sub-groups.  4 people left before we did.  We left about 10 minutes after them.  It was going to be a looong ride home.  We rode through New Hampshire and into New York state.  Somehow, the majority of us managed to meet up at lunchtime.  Matt and I stopped when we saw 2 bikes from our group stopped at a little diner in Speculator, NY.  We pulled into the parking spot beside them.  When we walked into the little diner, they were no where to be seen.  Regardless, we were pretty hungry, so we put in our order and stepped back outside to sit at a patio table.  While we were waiting, the rest of the group that had set out from the hotel after us appeared.  When our food arrived, we ate quickly.  Just as we finished lunch, the 2 people who were seemingly missing made their reappearance.  As it turns out, they had lunch at the little café right behind the diner.  I perked up when they told us that they had seen baked goods offered at the counter.  I walked over to the café and purchased a few cookies as snacks for the rest of the ride home.

Once more, we headed out on the road.  This time, we left together with Darlene and Kevin.  We reached the border and crossed back into Canada without incident.  Once back in Canada, we quickly decided to stop in Kingston for dinner.  And then it started raining.  Figures.  "Welcome back to Canada.  Please have some rain."  Ha. =) 

After dinner, we got back on the 401 for the final portion of our ride home.  As much as we hate the boring, straight-as-an-arrow 401, it was going to take us all the way home.  We would tolerate it so that we could sleep in our own bed that night.  The 4 of us said our good-byes at our final gas stop in Oshawa.  We continued on together, but parted ways when we passed through Scarborough. 

Good weather, good roads, good food, and good company.  What more could we have asked for? =) Thanks, everyone!

Day 3: Rawr! More seafood, please!

We decided to split off from the group this morning. We left about 20 minutes before they were to be setting out. We stopped in Naples, ME for lunch. We both had a cup of New England clam chowder and a lobster roll. Very tasty.

We had a bit of a laugh as we rode along after lunch. The eastern US states seem to enjoy naming their towns after far-off places. We rode through South China, Poland, and Naples to name a few. It was almost like we had a whirl-wind world tour in the span of a few hours!

So far we have found the majority of US drivers to be extremely courteous. Not only will they move over for you if you are merging onto any of the interstate highways, they also move over (one single lane highways) almost onto the shoulder to let you pass if they think they're holding you up. Wow. Many thanks and kudos to all of you. =)

The highlight of the day was riding on Route 112. It was obviously a favoured local riding road as we saw many, many motorcycles on it, travelling in both directions. This was the only time that we got rained on. And it was only a very light rain.

We arrived at the hotel about an hour ago. To our surprise, we're the first ones here. Unfortunately, we are not able to check-in until Rory arrives. So in the mean time, we've worked on yesterday's and today's postings. We hope you've enjoyed them. =)

Day 3 route:

View from our lunch spot:

Bikes, resting:

Lunch spot:

Cess about to dig into her lobster roll:

Day 2: Chasing Hurricane Earl

Day 2's ride would take us from Barre, Vermont all the way to just outside Bar Harbor, Maine - our main destination.  By Saturday morning, our group had grown to 16 people.  Given the size of the group, this meant that throughout Saturday's ride we would most likely break into several smaller independent groups.  Can you imagine a group of 16 bikes pulling into a gas station to fill up...?  It would take forever!

As we were preparing for this trip, we fully expected Saturday to be the "bad day", weather wise.  We would be chasing Hurricane Earl and likely be riding through rain, gusty winds, etc.  Instead, we were greeted to beautiful sunny and warm weather for the entire day's ride, which wound eastward into Maine.  After arriving at the hotel at about 6pm, Cess and I relaxed for a bit, before venturing into Bar Harbor (a 30km ride) for dinner to meet the rest of the group.

We had dinner on Bar Harbor's main stretch, and as can be expected, the local specialties were various types of seafood.  Dinner was pleasant, if not awesome.

Day 2's route:

Hurricane Earl at full strength:

Cess saying hello:

Day 1: Rain? What rain??

We made it from Toronto to Gananoque yesterday through ZERO rain. We made it from Gananoque to Montpelier, VT through ZERO rain. We're very happy campers. ;)

Our adventure started by crossing the Canada - U.S. border at the 1000 Islands bridge. While we were waiting our turn, a friend of ours pulls up behind us and joins our line! Darlene had spent the night in a local B&B. After crossing the border, we stopped in Watertown. We would meet up with the rest of the group at the first gas station off the interstate. Or so we thought. As it turns out, they got off one exit before us and were waiting at a different gas station! We eventually met up for lunch after Darlene received a text message from the other group telling us their location. Once we met up, we rode together until we arrived at the hotel at 8pm. Once there, we had to leave quickly for dinner. Montpelier is a fairly small town. The restaurant we had dinner at closed at 9pm. Unfortunately for us, we arrived late enough on a Friday night that they actually ran out of several menu items. The majority of us ordered their clam chowder and spinach ravioli entree. A few of us also sampled some of their local beer.

Tomorrow's forecast for Bar Harbor, ME: 10% POP. Hahaha. =)

Good night!

T - minus 30 minutes. Destination: Bar Harbor, ME

Ride or drive? Ride or drive?? AAAUGH!! Hurricane Earl has been the bane of our existance for the week or so. Every night, we would come home and anxiously peer at the weather forecast websites that were predicting Earl's path of destruction.

We're riding ;)

Salt!

No. Not the movie. Though, the movie *does* look interesting ;)

We picked up some salt while we were at the Wieliczka Salt Mine. We have never had the need for a salt mill before, so we don't own one. Shortly after we returned home, we went into one of our local kitchen stores to see what was available. Since we already own a Peugeot pepper mill (http://www.swissmar.com/product_images/PM90401_large.jpg), we thought we should get a matching salt mill.

Who knew that getting a salt mill could be complicated? The staff at the store asked us if the salt was sea salt or rock salt. We were pretty sure it was rock salt. As it turns out, there are different mills for different types of salt. We were informed that for rock salt, we would need to get a mill with a ceramic grinding mechanism. Since we were not 100% certain what sort of salt we had at home, we decided to hold off on purchasing anything until we had all of our facts straight.

Stay tuned!

Update on Sunday, August 1, 2010 at 2:07PM by Cess

I've poked around Peugeot's website (http://www.peugeot-saveurs.com/Accueil/) a bit more. All the salt mills they manufacture can only handle salt crystals with a maximum diameter of 5 mm. Seeing as the salt we got is waaay bigger than that, we will have to look at other brands. Darn!

Update on Sunday, August 29, 2010 at 3:08PM by Cess

Despite the fact that our rock salt is most definitely larger than the recommended maximum of 5 mm diameter size, I picked up a Peugeot salt mill. I have included a comparison photo of the different salts that we have right now. The salt that came with the mill resembles the pieces of salt that you would find on a salted soft pretzel. The Wieliczka salt is probably bigger than road gravel. And our fleur de sel is the most delicate of the bunch. It looks quite similar in size to like refined sugar.

I am a little apprehensive about just sticking the rock salt, as is, into the mill and seeing what happens. We might have to go through the troublesome exercise of breaking them down into smaller pieces (probably with a mortar and pestle) before hand. Who knew salt could be so complicated?? =(

Day 20: Last minute details

We left Stuttgart and drove to Frankfurt. We had much less trouble getting out of the city than we had anticipated. We did, however, encounter quite a bit of road work on the autobahns. We arrived around noon and checked into our final hotel. Quite by happy coincidence, the hotel is located on a main street with a tram line directly to the main square at the city centre. We consulted the gentleman at the front desk of our hotel and he assured us it was far easier to take a tram to the city centre then to drive and park. Armed with his advice, we set off for the closest tram stop (which was right across the street). We had a bit of difficulty trying to figure out how the ticketing system worked at the ticket machine. Once we sorted that out, we purchased our tickets and hopped on the tram. Away we went!

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the downtown and doing some last minute shopping. We eventually returned to the main square and met up with a fellow World of Warcraft player from our guild, Elysian Conclave. We had no pre-knowledge of why Jaime (a.k.a. Gaudi) would also be in Frankfurt while we were there. As it turns out, he had just relocated to Frankfurt a few weeks ago and had simply kept quiet about it. We went for drinks (beer!) and then dinner (beer and sausages!). Ok, I'm the only one who had beer and sausages. =) Jaime had schnitzel and Matt had pork knuckle. Great company, conversation, and food. Thanks, Jaime! We'll be sure to let you know when we will be in your neck of the woods again!

Day 19: Auto museums, the final chapter

We had several things planned for Stuttgart.  However, only one of those was totally safe for the questionable weather we had today: the Mercedes-Benz museum.

Of the three automotive museums we've been to, this one was by far the most exhaustive when it came to the various vehicles on display.  I guess that makes sense given that this is the oldest of the three companies.  Of all the things at the museum, three things in particular stood out for me.

First was the world's first high-speed internal combusion engine developed by Daimler, dubbed the Grandfather Clock due to its shape.  It was fascinating to learn how many different applications were evaluated for this engine from the start.  Anything from a engine powered carriage, motorcycle, train car, and even air ship. 

The next exhibit that stood out was the museum's collection of 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLs and 300 SLRs (aka Gullwing roadsters), arguably the most beautiful cars ever produced.  I've heard and read about these for many years, but this was my first chance to get up close to them.  Very impressive.

The last notable car for me was the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 180.  Many years ago, my Dad used to have the latter revision of this car from the late 50s.  Coincidentally, the car they had on display was also black, just like the one I remember from my childhood.  While at this display, I bored Cess with the various small differences I could identify between the original 1955 version of the car versus the one Dad had.

Our hotel was less than 10km away from the Mercedes-Benz museum but it took us about 30 minutes to get there.  Between tricky Stuttgart roads and Friday afternoon rush hour traffic, getting to the hotel was a challenge.  I'm glad to see that there are other cities with traffic just as bad as Toronto.

Mercedes-Benz "riding car" utilizing the Grandfather Clock engine:

Interior of the Mercedes-Benz museum.  This exhibit shows the various 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLs and 300 SLRs in addition to the 1955 180:

1955 Mercedes-Benz 180:

1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL: