Making Plans to Travel

To plan or not to plan that is the question. Or is it?
How much to plan...that's more like it.
Lisa and I are heading to the BMW MOA Rally in Johnson City, TN in a couple of weeks. I've finally gotten around to planning for it.

I'd love to just hop on the bike and head southwest and meander to the Rally. But as seems to always happen, I just don't have the luxury of time and money to do that. If I had the money I could find the time, but I'm on a tight budget this year due to my lack of outside employment. I'm working hard to get my business up and running; going to the Rally will be an excellent opportunity to meet with potential clients, so I can justify going for that reason alone.


I've decided to split 1,100 miles up in two days, which means 2 long days in the saddle. I booked a hotel in Harrisburg, PA for the trip down; I’ll be able to wing it a little more heading home. In the coming week I’ll be plotting the course in Garmin. I just as soon turn Garmin off, until I get lost, but again, I’m on the clock, and the days are long as it is.



We'll be coming out of the gate cold; except for my trip to Acadia I've not had much long day prep. More of a concern is our lack of acclimation to the heat. I hear from my colleagues that it's 90 degrees with high humidity. Here in New Hampshire we've been stuck for weeks with cool misty wet days in the 60's. I don't want to fall victim to optimistic packing disease. You know what I mean? You pack for where you are, not where you're going? I do that a lot early in the summer. But I'm keeping that in mind.

In the past we've really enjoyed Sherpa Ted's services. The joy of having a tent set up waiting for you, a clean towel everyday, and coffee brewing the morning. And while his service is reasonably priced, it's an expense I had to cut this year. I’ll be shipping the camping gear and accessories ahead. My gear is just too bulky for the bike when we travel two up. It's nice that the Rally offers a shipping/receiving option.

Are you making plans for the summer?

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Ride Report: Acadia National Park

Prior to last weekend, I had never ridden in Acadia National Park.
I guess I thought there would be too much tourist traffic
Or that it always rains when I go to Maine
Or it just wasn't going to be worth taking the extra day off.
Boy was I wrong, on all counts!



We left Friday AM in thick clouds, but never saw rain.


We camped at Seawall Campground, Southwest Harbor, one of two park camps. A bargain at $20/night, all the wood you can burn...but no showers on site.
There is a "camp store" down the way that has a sign for hot showers. But they didn't seem open very much. In fact, it seems that we missing the big opening by a week. This was not a plan but worked out in our favor :thumb
We had the place to ourselves...maybe 25% occupancy.

We were not familiar with the one way section of the Loop Road, and its not obvious on the map, it is one way toward Sand Beach, that means you have a glorious 2 lane (freshly paved I might add) winding road all to yourself, pass cars and bicyclists as needed.



Late afternoon sun at a bay near Pretty Marsh. hard to say exactly, I was leading...and getting us...misplaced.


Top of Cadillac Mt. on a sunny day


This was the top of the Mt. during the first part of the day, cloudy, cold and misty.


Sand Beach




Not much traffic...


Dinner, sweet potatoes and russet potatoes cooked on the coals, served with bubbling hot chili over the them.


This is a summary of our camping at Seawall Campsite...everything except the Maine State bird (mosquito)


Acadia is already on next years list! Hope you are getting out and finding new favorite spots!

Take a Virtual Ride to Maine, NH, Quebec

A friend of mine put this nice 8 minute video together,here is the ride report to read. Enjoy!