Day 19...a late start and new friends

Day 19 begins in Cape Cod and ends in Main... because I got off to a late start today I felt liked I walked, not ran....Walk, Don't Run

Ronnie was going to take me for a daytime whirlwind tour of Truro, the village in which she lives this morning so I was up early and finished my laundry.  Then I got the bike packed up while the furniture delivery people delivered a new bed to the house.   When the delivery people left Ronnie and I grabbed a bagel and diet coke and set out for the beaches of Truro.

 

The beaches are, for the most part, private.  In order to park you must display a permit available only to residents.  The walk to the majority of beaches from public parking is just too far for most people so the beaches are not heavily populated.  We ate our bagels while sitting in a beach patrol tower and watched seals and water birds cavort just offshore.  In the summer the beaches, both on the bay side and on the Atlantic side are calm and have broad, sandy beaches.

I got the grand (albeit quick) tour of Truro and the last place we visited was an old, abandoned USAF radar site from the cold war days.  We walked past empty and dead looking government housing that is quickly going back to scrub oak and pine forest.  It really felt like a ghost town.

Back at Ronnie's I helped her move some boxes, took things off the top shelves for her (she is vertically challenged), and generally tried to be a help as she put together the house for today's arrival of her husband and daughter.  I said it before, but she is a super lady and a great host.  I look forward to maintaining a friendship with her and her husband,

By the time I left Cape Cod it was noonish and I knew I wouldn't ride a long way.  I abandoned the interstate and jumped back onto highway 1 for the day.  I did use the interstate to skirt the worst of Boston traffic though.

Highway 1 was extremely slow today.  I probably averaged 35mph for the hours I rode today.  Some was faster, but much of it was creeping along through the villages.  If it doesn't get faster tomorrow I'll be forced to jump onto the interstate because I have a long day planned.

This evening I made two new friends, retired state troopers, who were also out on their bikes.  Tony and Andy (and their wives) invited me to join them at a motorcycle 'bar' called Bentleys.  It was full of riders and the parking lot had LOTS of bikes.  The décor was fun, the music loud (but good), and the crowd was pretty well behaved.  It was nice to unwind and swap motorcycle stories with new acquaintances.