Recovery Day

Yesterday was a long day.  We rode from Oromocto New Brunswick straight through Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont all the way to Williston.  We arrived home exhausted, around 21:30.  We took a couple of breaks along the way (we call them our "butt breaks"), but one in particular took longer than the others.

As we rode along I-95 through Maine, we met this scene unfolding.  The state police and Sheriff were just arriving on the scene of a car fire.  A few last cars squeezed by before they blocked off the road to through traffic...like us.  We were in the front row seat.  At first it was a car fire.

 But quickly the fire jumped to nearby grass.  Black smoke from the car fire.  White smoke from the grass fire.

 With the high winds whipping along the highway, the grass fire quickly turned into a small forest fire.  Multiple fire units from local houses and towns were dispatched to control the fires.

 The wind blew smoke everywhere.

 Hanging out by the highway (and, no, that's not her beer).

 It didn't take long for the traffic to back up for as far as the eye could see.  It also didn't take long for the news van to show up.  Here's the report from the local news.  You can even see me (blue shirt, standing in front of the semi truck) in the picture.  We were stopped for about an hour (despite what the report says).

Eventually they got the fires under control and opened one lane to traffic...starting with us.  It was the middle of the day, so the heat was brutal.  We rode on for awhile and then had to stop for a "butt break", a chance to sit in the air conditioning for a few minutes, and to get a "little" ice cream.

We made it home around 21:30, exhausted and...in my case...dirty.  It seems that *I* am the only one who gets dirty like this.  It was the same way for the entire trip.

I guess it should be no surprise that if my face looks like that at the end of the day, my glasses look like this.  Dusk is a rough time to ride if you don't like...bugs.

This morning, Joerg rolled the bikes out so that Patrick could give them a good cleaning with the pressure washer.  I took Katherine to get a new helmet (she has officially outgrown her first one) and have a repair done on Joerg's helmet (screws loose...on the helmet), but nobody wanted to go for a motorcycle ride. :)

All told, we rode more than 3,500 miles through Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland.  It was a great trip, and we're glad to be home.