The MisterEd 8000; Grande Tour of America

August 25-31 - Various areas around New England

Home for the week

That picture up there is a big reason why I work so hard to make it back here as often as I can.  My folks' house is on the eastern shore of Seven Tree Pond in Union, Maine.  They've owned the land since 1960 and the original part of the house has been there since they built it in 1965.  It's a quiet place that hasn't changed much at all for my whole life.  It's the kind of place where I can recharge and relax and forget about my sometimes hectic life.

This particular trip, the Northeast was experiencing unseasonable cool weather by the time I got there.  Most of the country had been in the grip of record heat the week before - I know, 'cause I rode through much of it.  But by the time I got to Maine, most of the norteast was behind a cold front that was allowing some chilly Canadian air down into the area.  The pond gets a bit chilly if the air temp isn't up a bit, so the first couple of days, swimming wasn't something on the agenda very often.  I did finally get in when the weather warmed up in the middle of the week.


Here's that same view at sunset.


Here's the whole view (click on the image for a full sized panorama)

And, here's the view from the driveway

Over on the coast, about 15 miles from Union, is the little city of Rockland.  This is the town where I was born.

I spent several days tooling around the area and visiting with folks.  There's some not bad motorcycle roads around the region - not necessarily a lot of major twisties, but great cruising roads.  The Appleton Ridge Road in western Knox county is one of my favorites because of the various places it goes where you can see through the trees for miles over the hills around the area.  Over on the coast, a lot of the little roads that go out to the tiny coves and inlets that dot the shoreline are terrific rides.

Thursday of that week, Quicksilver got an oil and filter change at North Country Harley Davidson in Augusta while I drooled over a new Buell XB12R they had sitting in the showroom...

I spent Saturday visiting with friends in Boothbay Harbor:


They have a cool hammock hanging in front of the house that I like to spend time in

Then Sunday of Labor Day weekend, I braved the Boston traffic to go visit my aunt and grandfather in Hingham, Massachusetts.


This is the view essentially from their front yard - or at least the beach across the street.  That's the Boston skyline that you can see about a third of the way over from the right hand side of the picture.  The Prudential Center tower has been a fixture of this view for many years.

A quick week back home.  My mom and dad's minvan died a 170,000 mile death while I was there, so I went with them to help them decide on a new one.  We did little chores around the Union house and I played slug for a lot of the time.  It was nice, really.

On this last night of August, sitting in my grandparent's house south of Boston - the place that I had grown up through age 13 - I was spending a lot of time looking at the weather and thinking about the six or seven days to come on the westbound half of the trip.  I'd had fun so far and only got a little nostalgic as I pondered the end of another summer.

I hit the sack early that evening, since I wanted to get a very early start on Labor Day morning - I'd be heading out through Boston again.
 

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