Home finally

The old horse is back in the stable. The final 260 miles was windy, rainy and temperature in low 50's.
Overall the trip was just bit under 3300 miles. I visited 8 states, not counting Illinois. I think this was the most grueling ride I've ever had. I seemed to have forgotten during the planning that 500 miles a day on country roads is not quite the same as 500 miles on an interstate...  :-)

That's lot's of fours

Another surprise

Was checking the bike today and found a nail in the rear tire. It seems to be keeping pressure, so I'll just keep it in until I get home.

Taking a break

Reached Ft. Wayne around 1 am last night.  Will chill out for a day before heading home tomorrow.

Lost headlight

Connie decided a night on a highway is a perfect time to leave me without light. First I lost regular beam, then high beam too. Lucky enough I carried a spare bulb. All working now, putting bike back together and keep rolling

Heading back

Already in Ohio now. Will just ride all the way to Fort Wayne tonight.

Highway to hell

In fact turned out to be a pretty nice stretch of road through hilly Pennsylvanian woodlands, following a decent sized stream.

What a day...

I think this was the most unpleasant day in my riding career. It was raining like crazy for the first 6 hours. Some places I was riding through were getting up to 5 inches of rain. Rain gear held for couple hours, then I started to soak. Same with most of my luggage. 
The rest of the day I've been going through patches of rain, while the temperature kept dropping into 50's. Last 30 miles all I was thinking about was a hot shower. No pictures today.

Free bike wash

Bar Harbor

Staying at Bar Harbor, Maine today. Lobster and scallops for dinner.. yum!

West Quoddy Head

With nearly 1700 miles on odometer I reached the farthest point of my journey - West Quoddy Head lighthouse, the easternmost part of the continental US. Made pretty good time thanks to the great "bird dog" who helped me to get to Calais much faster than speed limit would've allowed ;)

North Conway

Finally reached my overnight stay. Stumbled upon some funny restaurant - Muddy moose. Buffalo burger was decent. 
Tomorrow riding to Maine. More rain in forecast...

New Hampshire

Quite a spectacular place with nice roads, low speed limits and even slower drivers. Views along the roads were great, but I only had time for couple stops - was running late and didn't want to ride in the woods after dark.

Vermont

Vermont greeted me with strong winds, rain (which of course stopped after I decided to put rain gear on again!!!) and ridiculous speed limits. Still no phone service.  It had some nice views though.

Upstate NY

... is actually quite nice place. Lots of lakes, wooded hills, or small mountains, hiking trails and campgrounds. Would be nice to come back on 4 wheels sometime. Only odd thing - I could not get cell signal anywhere I tried. They must not like AT&T 

My luck with weather just ran out

This morning was considerably colder, and after ditching interstate for some country roads in upstate NY it got even colder and looked like it's about to rain. Stopped on the side of the road to gear up.
P.S. Of course putting the rain hear on pretty much guaranteed there will be no rain. Couple hours later when I completely steamed myself inside the gear and pulled it off it started to sprinkle >:-/

New York, New York!

After 600+ interstate miles finally arrived into Syracuse. The ride was mostly uneventful,  apart from few wrong turns I took and the dreadful construction traffic jams. On a side note - was quite surprised that in NY state exit numbers on I-90 have no correlation to the mile markers, and instead go sequentially... odd.
Didn't have too many picture opportunities today, except for a brief stop in Buffalo, NY.
Tomorrow I should be off the interstate and onto the more enjoyable roads.

Blast off

Ready to rock and roll! Today is just a short hop to Indiana. The real trip starts tomorrow