Day 1: Hackensack NJ, NYC.

Well, after the trailer's blowing-fuse problem was finally solved and after having paid the State of Maryland a fortune (same as a car) for the privilege of driving the trailer 11 miles on Maryland roads, we got 'er on the road and set out this AM.  The FJR pulled the trailer effortlessly:  I really couldn't feel the trailer at all.  We drove through PA on I-81, I-78 and I-287 to NJ.  The 240 mile trip took about 5 hours with pit stops.

Everything worked well, for the most part.  The intercom was inaudible at speeds over 40 MPH and I couldn't read the GPS in the tank bag that was made specifically for it.  There was a glare that made the screen virtually invisible.  The bungee cords that we used to tie down the baggage on top of the trailer frayed badly and we were lucky not to have lost our luggage. That said, we made it to Steve and Cynthia's beautiful 17th floor high-rise apartment in Hackensack in one piece with everything in place.

Frayed bungee cord.

 

Hackensack was founded in 1693 and is located on the Hackensack River just 15 minutes from NYC.

Steve and Cynthia were fabulous hosts.  They introduced us to their three cats (one invisible).  The latter  may be a one of Steve's "pretend friends."  Then they drove us to Manhattan.  That was a wonderful experience.  I have not been to Manhattan in 40 years.  What I remembered of it was not pleasant--dirty, crime ridden, unfriendly.  Today it is beautiful, bustling, but not as overcrowded as San Jose seems.  It was sparkling clean and I felt safe everywhere.

We drove along the Hudson and the East Rivers and saw wonderful pathways where people would walk, jog, or cycle along the river.  We saw a gizillion high rises built by Donald Trump,  We saw Yankee stadium across the River in the Bronx, and Roosevelt Island where there used to be a leper colony.  We walked across the upper level of the Brooklyn bridge, where we could see the Manhattan and the Williamsburg bridges too..  When the Brooklyn bridge was first built in the 1860's, the bridge was the largest suspension bridge in the world.  It remains a tribute to American engineering.

View of NJ from Steve and Cynthia's 17th floor apt.

On the Brooklyn Bridge NYC, Manhattan Bridge in Background

Steve and Cynthia took us out to dinner at an Argentinian restaurant in Manhattan where we had a fabulous dinner and desert.  I think they bought part ownership in the restaurant because the bill was more than Jo Ann and I spend on food for a month.  They say that the best way to leave New York with a small fortune is to come in with a big one.  Money evaporates at the speed of light.  We stopped at a bagel shop to pick up breakfast for tomorrow.  6 bagels, cream cheese, and a 1/4 pound of lox ran about $30.  While we were leaving the bagel bakery, a 65 year old man rode his bike next to us on the pavement.  He was a nice fellow, probably Latino by his complexion, with a broad smile.  He was wearing a statue of liberty tiara, with a matching pink two piece dress.  Steve exclaimed, "Only in New York!  This is what I love about New York!"

We'll have an early breakfast tomorrow before starting out for Cookshire-Eaton, near Sherbrooke, Quebec.

Historic Hagerstown

Mile 0.  Staring Point

 

We begin our trek in Hagerston, MD.  Home to about 40,000 Marylanders, Hagerstown is one of the largest cities of Western Maryland. Although Hagerstown is gritty, with high unemployment and a lot of people on disability, it has a very involved active church community. County seat of Washington County, Hagerstown is situated on the intersection of Interstates 81 and 70 where it serves as a hub city for major trucking routes. Mack Trucks are built here. Hagerstown is located in the beautiful Cumberland Valley region that provides the local Stonehenge limestone of which may of the fences and older homes are made.

Hagerstown is only 15 minutes north of the C&O Canal National Park, the 184 mile-long  hiking, biking, and camping trail along the Potomac River that stretches from Cumberland MD to Georgetown, a neighborhood of  Washington DC. Up here, the Potomac is a clean and wild. Only two weeks before our motorcycle odyssey began, Aaron, my daughter’s boyfriend, and I caught 7 nice channel catfish here in less than 2 hours. Madeline, my youngest and I, came back yesterday for a few more catfish.  The Potomac also provides fine smallmouth bass, carp, Walleye Pike, and even the occasional Tiger Muskellunge. 

Burnside Bridge at Antietam Battlefield.

Nearby Sharpsburg, MD is home of the Antietam battlefield, where, in September, 1862, twenty-three thousand Union and Confederate soldiers died in the single bloodiest day of battle in US military history--ever!. It was the first Civil War battle to take place on Union soil.  In 2011, over 330,000 people visited the historic site.

Prologue

May 3, 2012. Day –15. 

Call us crazy.  60 something and planning a cross continent motorcycle/camping trip. No fixed address, no fixed timetable. Tsk. Tsk.  But that doesn’t mean no plans. Planning.  Now there’s a joke and we haven’t even started.  As the Yiddish expression goes, “Man plans and God laughs.”דער מענטש טראַכט און גאָט לאַכט . Der mentch tracht un Gott lacht.  Or, as President Eisenhower put it, "Plans are worthless but planning is everything." Slavish adherence to plans defeats the purpose of the trip, preventing serendipity from leading us to happy surprises.  Poor or no planning leads us to places we don't want to visit.



Maybe the best place to start is not with an itinerary or destination, but with an objective.  For us, the purpose of the trip is to have an adventure and to see and feel what is left of our country, while we are still able to do it.Why are we going by motorcycle and not by car?  If you have to ask, you won't understand.  There is an intimate immediacy that one experiences on a motorcycle that cannot be experienced in a car.  There is no easy or accurate way to describe the experience of being hurtled through space at 88 feet per second with neither glass nor steel separating your five senses from your environment. However, this is a good thing only if one can manage to keep the shiny side of the bike up and the rubber side down. Trust me on that one. 

Jo Ann at mile 0

And that begins with a safe and sound motorcycle. Having the motorcycle fail or breakdown in the middle of nowhere no fun. And we riders have to be in good enough shape too--physically and mentally.  We are in as good shape as we are going to be.  And as for the requisite mental toughness, Juanita and I have a simple rule of thumb for when bad stuff happens.  No whining.  A couple is rarely as together or as isolated from one another as when they are traveling two-up on a motorcycle.  What happens to one, for better or worse, happens to the other. We have a passenger to passenger intercom that will help us share our thoughts while we are riding, but with the turbulence caused by winds, communication will not always be 100%.  Frequent stops will help alleviate the problem.  They will also give us the opportunity to rest and stretch before rigor mortis sets in. Rest stops also prevent another type of accident.  

We begin the voyage Saturday, May 19, God willing and the creek don't rise.