To The Colonel’s for a Cup of Coffee

[AgSTreak]

I was asked if I wanted to go to Farmington, Maine for an overnight trip. I said “Ok, but we keep the slab to a minimum.” Why were we going? My buddy, Frank, wanted to go have a cup of coffee with his brother-in-law Clarence, “the Colonel”. Out came MS Streets and Trips. Trip one-way- 387 miles, cool. I arranged to meet with Greg (GRN) at the Fairlee Diner in NH at 11:15 for lunch, so we were on a tight schedule for the first part of the trip. We started at 7:30 on some back roads to rt691, which connects to I91. Leaning into the on-ramp I noticed Frank’s Voyager bottomed out on a rather mild lean with a small bump in it. Riding behind him, I saw that his clearance had been severely diminished by the hardware for his Voyager Trike Kit. The trike assembly had been removed, but the attaching hardware would seriously impact his cornering. This would haunt us on the whole trip.
I91 was busy as usual but not bad at all for July 4th weekend. In Vermont we stopped for a map and to get rid of the morning coffee. As we were returning to the bikes I heard “Hi John, I thought I recognized the Laminar Lip.” It was Bones, in a pickup, with his lovely wife, daughter and two dogs. His daughter, Summer, is every bit as beautiful as the photo would have you believe in the Farklemania Showdown. We had to leave quickly and social slug that I am, I neglected to ask if they wanted to join us at the diner for lunch. Sorry Bones, my bad. The rest of the ride up I91 was uneventful. We pulled into the diner parking lot on time and Greg showed up about a minute later, great timing! We had a pleasant lunch and talked about STuff, the upcoming NhfcSToc and bikes in general.
After lunch we headed out on rt25A (beautiful road with nice sweepers and scenery), over rt25 to rt118 (awesome sweepers, twisties and scenery) and finally onto rt112. Lincoln was packed on this weekend and the Kancamagus trail was busy. Busy or not the Kanc is still a great road and the vistas are breath taking.

[AgSTreak]

Greg left us after crossing Bear Notch Road. Very nice ride with almost no traffic. Beware,a good portion of the Kanc is torn up due to a long overdue repaving project. We headed up rt16, which has MT Washinton's East face for scenery most of the way. BTW, I forgot to mention the weather was a perfect 10 out of 10. What a fab weekend. We followed rt2 into Farmington Maine. I had forgotten just how pretty Maine is. Beautiful state I'll have to go back soon. We made reservations at a motel and had dinner at The Family Fair restaurant, (very good prime rib).
After eating we went looking for The Colonel. Took us a while but we found him at his daughter's house. What a character! He was a successful moonshiner at one time, but I'll reserve the details for campfire talk.
Saturday we awoke to another absolutely astounding day. Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and we were off again. We took rt2 (a little construction there too) back to NH and followed it almost to the VT border. In Lancaster we picked up rt135 which follows the Connecticut River down to rt302, absolutely gorgeous ride through here! You're right Greg this road needs to be included in our fall group ride.
We crossed into VT on rt302, which is very pretty with a lot of great sweepers. Made a small mistake and took rt100B instead of rt100 directly. Mistakes like this are made in heaven, see for yourself. Beautiful, just plain beautiful and not a straight section to be found. The car just past the bridge slowed down and almost stopped. I thought it was because I was blocking the road. But as the car passed, I noticed the passenger was video taping me as I photographed her videotaping me photographing her etc.

[AgSTreak]

The ledendary VT rt100 is a great long (200 miles from Mass to the Canadian border) ride but the road surface can get pretty rough at times. Frank was bottoming out on some straight sections. Finally left at rt107 over to rt14 which follows I89 through the green mountains. Words are hard to find to describe the scenery. Sorry no pics, too busy riding. This will be included in our Fall ride. Our butts were getting pretty sore when we stopped at a rest area on I91. I told Frank I would skip VT rt9 if my butt was screaming when we got to the Brattleboro exit. RT9 has some of the most awesome sweepers I have ever seen, even behind a truck part of the way. Passed the truck leaned way over, love them Z6's. We stopped at the 100 mile view (and the rightly named Hogback Mtn) and took some pics. This included watching some bikers doing the Harley two-step. this part of Rt9 will also be on the Fall ride.

[AgSTreak]

The rest of the ride was anticlimactic. There were some really great roads left, but been there, done that. This was my first long ride with the Z6's. On those roads I know well, the Metzlers were amazing. Twisties that were scary and thrilling with the Dunlops are now just fun. I feel like I could scrape pegs on every one if I wanted to. The confidence they inspire in me amazing. Even Frank couldn't believe how far I was leaning over and how fast I was moving. I didn't tell Frank that the traffic and waiting for him (clearance problem) kept me from really openning up the throttle. Awesome weekend, awesome ride in the NE, life is good.
Thanks Greg for joining us. Bones, it was great seeing you again.
Thanks Frank, let me know when you want to go for a cup of coffee again. Over 950 miles!!! :bow1: :bow1: :bow1:

[Carl_T]

I bet you wore that sheepskin clean out John. We'll be calling you Baboon Butt for awhile now. I followed your route on Streets and Trips, and 100B looks like a far better corner road than 100 is in that area.

Great pictures, cool report. No moose sightings up Lancaster way huh? I can't wait until NHfcSTOC :) Wish I was heading out on the pre-ride with you guys. We got out locally yesterday for a couple of hours that's it though.

[AgSTreak]

No baboon butt yet and no moose sightings. The sheepskin held up better than my posterior. I found that if I took it off when I got real sore it would give some areas a rest.
The only problem with the fall ride is how to choose from all the great roads and still keep the saddle time reasonable. About 8 hrs is the best I have been able to do. :D

[Kempo-STer]

Hey Guys..I may join you for the pre-ride. (AGStreak and GRN can you repost the details)
I'm back from a long vacation (19 calendar days) and sporadic postings but I can now start working on the future riding plans.
John.. You mentioned 691..goes right through Meriden where I live. Should be very easy to hook up with you.

[AgSTreak]

Great to have you along. Be ready for some excellent roads and some mighty fine exploration. You should see the pictures we didn't stop to take. Looks like we may have four for that weekend.

[Kempo-STer]

When I was in Laconia 2 weeks ago..I did the Kanc (twice), Route 16 up to MT Washington (then up Mt Washington itself)

Our way back to CT was on Route 9 (from Concord to Brattleboro VT and then 91) The roads are great.

[Bones]

It was indeed a surprise running into you, John. Two hours after I saw you, I parked the truck at my sister-in-law's place at the lake, and it sat until we left Monday afternoon.

The loons had young and filled the morning air with their haunting calls. Stunning creatures. My daughter Summer (also a stunning creature!) swam and sunned and hung out with her aunt and cousins. My dog Sally was in heaven jumping off the dock all weekend with an uninterrupted supply of people happy to throw her ball in the water. My dog Winston (elder stateman of the family) made friends wherever he went. Sheila found a giant wolf spider sharing the dock with her...it really was that big! We dined on roast venison, pulled smoked chicken, fried turkey, and lots of bacon (John will attest to my affinity for smoked pig bellies). Claude picked bluegrass on his guitars, the girls picked strawberries, Mud and Morris spun yarns, John got the Johnson V4 running, and Tom and Kathy reveled in hosting their family and friends. Caveman TV burned bright and long into the night with the Dead moving the jam. It was a good weekend for bonding with my inner hippie.

The one downside to all this wonderfulness is you'd want a dual sport to get down the miles of rutted and slanted dirt roads to the house on the pond.