motoing up to maine

I rode up to the coast of maine last weekend. The round trip distance was a bit under 600 miles, including a stupid navigational error on my part. I don't know if I'll ever stop getting 95, 93, and 128 mixed up. Lets just say I got to see lovely manchester NH before I found 101 east that let me cut get back to the coast (porstmouth) and be on my way north again. I think I missed a toll thanks to my 50 mile detour.

The rest of the ride up was pretty sweet. The ride back down was going excellently until I got into southern maine, where the beaches are. Then it was literally jammed up all the way from there back into massachusetts, with only a few brief respites along the way. Every toll plaza was backed up for miles, and it was backed up for most of the exits....oh it sucked mightily. I was in traffic for easily an extra 1.5 hours.

No speeding tickets...excellent. Lets just say that at no point in the entire trip was I passed by anyone or anthing. And the VFR got 45mpg on the highway at those speeds. At one point I got 216 miles out of 1 tank!

I'm looking to be at the 5000 mile mark on the VFR at my 1 year anniversary with it, and while I do look forward to the day that it is paid off, I am delighted to say I'm more enamored with the bike 1 year in than when I got it.

In other news, impending chronological milestones have caused loved ones to purchase me a bit of moto gear I've been jonesing for but just haven't had the discretionary loot to make happen: a pair of aerostitch's "triple digit raincovers" to aid in the hardcore gear department. As the ever-excellent aerostitch catalog says: "The three digit design keeps your hands warmer, provides good finger control for clutch and brake levers, and lets you be polite to Vulcans (always)."
With these robstercraw babies I'll be able to keep my mits nice and cozy even when it rains chats and chiens.