Burlington
VT
With
a warm send off from George and Polly Welch of Mountain View Campgrounds I was
back on US-2 heading for New Hampshire and Vermont, two states I’ve never seen
before. Just before entering New Hampshire I got this shot of the mountains. I
should note by the way, that throughout all of NE there were signs of Moose
Crossings, Deer Crossings, and Snowmobile Crossings….not sure which is the most
dangerous but I was told numerous times that moose are really dumbJ.
(there are a lot more pics to be seen in this post)
Prior
to departing the campsite I called the Harley dealer in Barre and was assured
by Roger that they could change my oil when I arrived there at 3pm. Wilkins H-D even advertises that there is no
waiting for oil changes…seems they have a rack dedicated for roll-ins. Too bad other dealers don’t do that cuz there
are a lot of distance riders that will need servicing.
Along
the way in NH I spotted this golf course with a gorgeous view of the green mountains
and hills. Ivan and Micheline from Canada were there and they took this photo for me.
I
continued on the Deuce and had a wonderful ride. Although Barre VT by 3pm was my target, I
came across Bath NH and a sign in the center of town pointing to Covered Bridge
#28. I decided to get a photo of the Sophia
and the bridge so I made a what I thot would be a quick stop. (And no, I did not ride the bridge!)
Since
I was stopped I went into the local retro 50’s ice cream shoppe to visit the
restroom before getting on the road again.
The shoppe was a cutie, lots of photo’s of all the 50’s singers as well
as 50’s music playing. I couldn’t find
the restrooms but spied an open entryway on the side wall that led into another
room. This room turned out to be an Art
Gallery with some of the most interesting portraits, scenes and other works
that I have ever seen. I’m not a good
art critic, but I really liked the paintings displayed about the Gallery.
A
voice welcomed me and I saw this big guy standing by a counter cleaning
brushes. Craig Pursely is around
6’5” and would probably be a better pick to play Jack Reacher than Tom Cruise
(Jack Reach Novels written by Lee Child).
Reacher is a big guy and Craig fit him to a ‘T’. As we’re chatting Craig asked where I was
from…turns out he lived in El Toro back in the 80’s. I asked what he did and he told me he was an
illustrator for the Orange Count Register (OCR). That blew my socks off as, ya’ll know, Landon
Hall (my son-in-law) is a sports reported for the OCR. Craig told me about his work there and how he
did some of the Dreamscape columns and showed me some of the old Accent
sections of the OCR that had the Dreamscape on it. That’s when I really identified with his
work!
So
let me explain. Craig created this
competition whereby he would illustrate a scene and readers were to write a fictional
short story of xx number of words that weaved around what Craig had illustrated. The one he showed me was of a young lady
astride a motorcycle wearing a leather helmet with a reverse gripped piston on
her right hip, looking over her right shoulder to look behind her. WOW!!
I remembered that one cuz I had submitted stories to some of those
illustrations (of course, reading my blogs you have already guessed that none
of my submissions were ever selected).
This is the famous Craig Pursley….con moi le auteur amateurJ. (By the way, the background to the horseman is Trabuco Canyon!)
After
the Bath NH adventure I finally arrived at Wilkins HD around 4:30p, later than committed to, but Roger
Clarke was still able to take care of me because one of his guys back there
volunteered to stay late and change the oil!
Now THAT is an OUTSTANDING dealership!!
While
there I also met Roley and Rene with her husband (I forgot his name). Rene and her husband, had on the left of their new Glide,
had some work done on it.
Then
it was back on the road heading up to Waterbury. My plan was to check out the town and the
start of VT100 (One of the USA Best 15 Roads Challenge), get a room there and
then head out to Lake Champlain in the morning.
However,
arriving in Waterbury I could only find a Best Western on the north side of the
89 (outside of town) and they were too expensive. This is also where Sophia and I took our 4th
spill. To get to the BW one must turn into
a steep road from which an even steeper driveway leads into the BW parking
lot. No problem getting up there. But it was coming back down. I miss judged both the steepness heading down
and the slope to the right along with the too slow of a speed with an extreme
right turn of the fork and over we went.
This time we both got banged up a little but we were ok. A hotel guest came to my aid righting Sophia
and I was soon back on the road.
I
tried two more exits to find a motel and had no luck whatsoever. So with that I decided to just head into
Burlington and find something there.
This is probably the better action as I will then be close to the Lake
to get my photo taken.
As
luck would have it…I found a Dreamscape motel for my blog.
C ya mañana,
Gonzo
Twitter:
@GonzoCrossUSA
Email:
GonzoCrossUSA@gmail.com
Cell:
949-433-0761
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