Four Corners Tour – Ride Day 27 – Tour Day 0 – August 10, 2015 – Monday

Start Time: 6:47 AM EDT
Stop Time: 8:07 PM EDT
Start Location: Presque Isle, ME
Stop Location: Hope Valley, RI
Lodging: Whispering Pines Campground
Breakfast: Campsite (bagel with cream cheese)
Lunch: Subway (Turkey Sub)
Dinner: 99 Restaurant  (Lobster Roll, broccoli, cole slaw)
Miles Traveled Today: 520
Weather: 54-83, Clear and Sunny

Route:US-1, I-95, I-495, I-95.

My plan was to start early, but the fog was as thick as the proverbial pea soup.

So I postponed my start for about 45 minutes, which apparently was just the right time since the sky was clear within just a few minutes of me hitting the road.

As I was tooling down I-95, I noticed my shadow, and thought it would be cool to catch a photo of it. Don’t ever try this, it is not worth the risk. I’m quite pleased that I did not kill myself doing it (I did wait until there were no cars behind me for as far as I could see).

Then I caught another state (this one was taken at about 60 MPH).

My next objective was to stop by Andy Kalafatis’s shop for a tour, and then catch dinner with Andy. Andy’s shop made me miss mine a little.

  
  
  
Andy took me to a nice little restaurant  for dinner called 99 Restaurant, and I bet you can guess what I ordered.

As you can tell from the photo, this Lobster Roll is the real deal (no fillers or sustitutes, just very large chunks of lobster). This sandwich was extra-ordinary.

Ended up at a different campground than I had intended, but my planned campground was a first come first served campground, and I ran across this one on the way, which turned out to be a much better option.

Unless the Lord provides me with some sort of special dispensation, my rain free streak will end tomorrow, as it is supposed to rain pretty much everywhere I will be traveling.

It’s been a long day (520 miles), but a great day. Only one person lacked respect for my little piece of the road (not bad for traveling most of the day on I-95). The tolls were still pretty stiff (less per toll, but more toll booths).

I did pick up Rhode Island this evening, but the sign was impossible to catch unfortunately, maybe I can get one tomorrow when I cross into Connecticut.

Tour Tip:

A little 20/20 hindsight advice here. Carry a couple extra headlights, especially if you own a GL1800 Gold Wing. I’ve put two new bulbs in every year I’ve owned her, and every year that burn out within a couple weeks of each other.

Really want to get that taken care of tomorrow just in case I need to do some night driving.

Product Review:

Want to throw a little love towards Dunlop (the tire company, not the disease where your belly done lopped over your belt).

I got 21,000 miles out of my last pair of Dulop Elite III tires, and based on the wear patterns from this tour, I’ll have a repeat performance on these THREE tires (if you recall, I picked up a screw in Las Vegas in the back tire), but all of them are/were wearing well, and evenly.

I do think a couple other things I did are helping with the tire life. I think the Fork Brace helps, and I think the Centramatic’s help as well.