Wanderings and Musings

Monday, June 29th, 2008 – My first stop today is Mystic, Connecticut. There is supposed to be a pretty cool maritime museum there, and for anyone who has seen the movie ‘Mystic Pizza’ it was filmed there.

The ride out of New York is as bad as the ride in, but at least the traffic slowly gets less as you get away from the city. Whenever I’m in a big city I wish for the ability to lane split like they can in California. It really makes sense.

After a few hours of riding, I reach Mystic. I punch in Mystic Pizza (which seems there are two in town…), and attempt to figure out which is the correct one to go to. My first try was correct and I’m feeling hungry, so I decide to stop in and eat.

The walls are covered with memorabilia from the movie. Screen shots, autographs and more. They’re really cashing in on the movie draw, but they also have good pizza. I have a chicken and spinach Calzone, which is just awesome although a bit too much for me to eat.

Stuffed to the gills, I head off in search of the Mystic Seaport to go check out the old ships. When I find it, I also find out that there is a wooden boat regalia going on and so they are charging about $30 to get in. No thanks! I move along my way without being able to see what I would have liked. Turns out this will be a theme for today.

Now I’m headed towards Nantucket.

There once was a man from Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
But his daughter, named Nan,
Ran away with a man
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.

There are so many variations and possibilities on this rhyme that I remember as a kid. Most of them dirty of course. But the main reason I want to visit is that this was once the world’s leading whaling port. I have never seen a real whaling boat like what was written about in ‘Moby Dick’, and although the barbarism of whaling disgusts me, the ability of men to live on a tiny vessel for many months with no land in sight is fascinating.

I find the ferry leading to Nantucket and am about to get in line, when I think to ask when the last ferry comes back from the island… The answer: this is the last ferry. So if I take it, I’ll be stuck on Nantucket with nowhere to go and nowhere to sleep. I decide to skip this one too.

At this point I should have found a place to bed down for the night, gotten up and seen Nantucket and Cape Cod, but instead I decided to forgo Cape Cod too as it was nearing dark and head on in to Boston.

Three sights I missed today. This was likely because of my mood and being impatient, along with poor planning. I need to remind myself to slow down on days like this.

I had placed a few messages on the Boston CS group asking for any help I could get in finding a place to stay in Boston. As I rode I was hoping that by the time I got there someone would have answered or offered me a place to stay, but no such luck.

It’s cooling off quick and feeling like it might rain, so I look into finding an inexpensive motel. Motel 6 has been my mainstay while traveling as they usually are the cheapest and have decent rooms with wireless. Well not in Boston! Of the two in the area, one was about $70/night with no wireless, and the other was almost $90 per night! I don’t think so.

Ok, plan B. Time to ninja camp. Using my GPS and maps I find a suitably sized State Park that looks like it might have some wooded areas. This will just have to do for tonight.

On to the freeway for a quick drive, as I turn my head to look for merging traffic… MY FACEMASK FLYS OFF!!! Man!! I quickly pull over to the side (it’s totally dark here with only the headlights of oncoming cars to give any light), and attempt to walk back 100 meters and get it. When I’m about 20 meters away… blump, blump… a car runs right over it. Ooyyy!!

Ok, lovely, it’s now sprinkling rain and I have no face shield on my helmet. Oh well, I can make do. I get back on the bike and start riding about 2 miles to the exit I need for the park. As I get up to 55 mph the slight drizzle is really stinging my face and I can’t keep my eyes open except for tiny slits or it really hurts my eyes. This sucks…. but here’s the exit.

Unfortunately, because I’m squinting from the stinging rain – in the dark and it’s raining and slick, I don’t see that the exit is a sharp turn right off the freeway and I’m going WAY too fast. As I see the curb and grass approaching quickly, I lock up the brakes and slide. Anyone who’s done this on a bike knows that it’s a sickening feeling. You’re more likely to go down hard than to keep the bike up if you slide for more than a half second. So I let off the brakes as to not put the bike all over the road, and ride it up onto the grass. Slick grass and muddy dirt aren’t a place for a high speed motorcycle either and I’m still in some serious trouble going about 30 mph. I slowly apply the back brake so that any skidding is more of a dragging action rather than a crash and thankfully slow to a stop. Whew! I made it through another huge mistake.

Back onto the road with my adrenaline shooting through the roof, I carefully make my way to the park. The road I’m taking suddenly has a barrier across it, but there is just enough room on the side for me to squeeze through. About a half mile in, I find a fairly secluded bit of woods and settle down for the night. This is definitely not legal camping, but following the ninja principles I try not to be seen and leave no trace, so no harm – no foul.

When I wake in the morning about 5am, it’s raining. I really don’t want to tear down the tent in the rain and suit up, so I go back to sleep until about 9am and find the rain has stopped.

I break camp and make a B-line towards the nearest motorcycle shop to go buy either a new helmet or a replacement face shield. I end up buying a new helmet as my old helmet is getting pretty ragged and a new shield is not sure to stay on any better than the last one did. Better safe than sorry in this case.

Now it’s time to check out Boston.

I ride into downtown Boston in search of the historic areas, but they are all modern buildings. Then I came upon the Old state house which is the oldest public building in Boston. It was being remodeled and is surrounded by all the modern high rises. Where is all the history going?

Down to Boston Harbor. I find Long Wharf and walk around a bit. I don’t know where the site of the “Boston tea party” was actually at, but I was hoping I could find it easily. It turns out I wasn’t really even close. The original part of the harbor has been filled in, but there is a museum and replica of one of the ships somewhere along the waterfront.

I’m really tiring of big cities now, and want to find some countryside. I cut short any more exploring of Boston so I can get up to Maine and ride along the coast before having to come back to Portland to meet up with my CS contact.

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