Road Trip: The Finger Lakes (Cross Country Road Trip Ep. 1)

This summer marked the beginning of a new chapter in our life. My wife and I decided that we would be departing from the East Coast to return home to California to be able to spend more time with our families. Rather than just pack our stuff up and fly across the country, we decided this was the perfect opportunity for a cross country road trip as who knows how long it would be before another chance came along. This series will chronicle our adventures, which were partially shared on our Facebook page during the trip, as we explored many parts of the US that neither of us has spent much time in. We hope you enjoy the adventure!

Our departure time already upon us, I quickly scrambled to get the final items loaded into the back seat of the TSX. The trunk, strategically arranged for priority of access, was already full to the brim and the bikes were already on the rack. My wife's aunt, who had kindly allowed us to bivouac at her home for our final few days in the Boston area, saw us off as we finally set off, a bit later than we had originally anticipated.

Despite being loaded like a pack animal, its rear end sagging noticeably, the TSX still felt sprightly, turning with aplomb and only suffering modestly in acceleration. Of course, with the added weight of both of us, our luggage, our provisions for the trip, and the massive bike-rack with two bikes on it, I was most concerned about stopping more than going, Acura's brakes having long been one of the weakest links in the performance chain. Still, aside from a bit longer stopping distance, the TSX delivered predictable stopping power and got us safely to our destinations.

Jumping on the Mass Pike, we crept our way through parts of central Massachusetts before the roads cleared and we cruised through Western Mass into upstate New York. The setting sun, hanging low in the early evening sky, cast a pale pink glow over the vast expanses of greenery bordering the Mohawk River. As we drove on, and the sun set further, the areas bordering the road filled with dense fog covering up most of the scenery and making for a rather eerie experience. We pressed on, passing through the college town of Syracuse, chasing the final glimmers of daylight.

Road Trip: Seeking a great burger in Western MA

Sometimes, I just get a craving for a great burger. It might just stem from growing up in Southern California and having regular access to In'N'Out or it might just be that most burger places I had come across in New England were pretty mediocre at best. Whatever the reason, this particular weekend, I had a craving. Digging through my list of highly recommended places, I spotted one that looked like it would fit the bill - local owned burger place specializing in grass-fed beef on house-made buns with a great selection of options to go on top. Best of all, it was located out in Western Massachusetts, which would mean the opportunity to explore some great roads on the Beemer. Not even 20 minutes later, I was geared up and headed out to start my quest.

Road Trip: Fort Revere and the Tiny Town of Hull

The night before, the weather had been promising. All signs pointed to only a slight chance of rain and only in isolated patches. I made up my mind to go for a ride and went to sleep. When I woke up the next morning, the ground harbored small, but shrinking puddles. I took that as a sign that whatever rain was going to happen had already passed, although the sky was gray and thick with clouds. Throwing on my gear and grabbing my pack for the day, I confidently stepped outside to prep my motorcycle and brought it alongside the house as I finished putting on my helmet and gloves. The moment my visor came down, the first corpulent drop of rain splatters itself all over my field of view. Crap!

Riding in the rain is never much fun. The slicker road conditions mean not only less lean angle and more tire slip, but also crazier drivers who seem to have no clue how to deal with the slightly wet conditions. Add to that the possibility of ending up soaked from being exposed to the elements and you might start to see how the enjoyment can be sucked out almost entirely. Still, on this particular day, traffic was light and it was early enough in the day that I figured things would still be pretty calm by the time I returned. With those thoughts barely having time to fully register, I pressed on to the coastal town of Hull in Massachusetts where the remnants of Fort Revere sit, slowly being worn away by visitors and the ceaseless beating of Mass weather.

Long Term Test: 2007 BMW K1200S post #2

Second update
Current miles: 23,065

With just over 23,000 miles, the K1200S has been nearly flawless. The power is still utterly intoxicating, offering speed on demand anytime I want it. The versatility is amazing, as I have used the big Beemer for everything from canyon carving in the mountains of New Hampshire to picking up groceries from at the Chinese grocery store in Downtown Boston to day tripping down to Cape Cod for whale watching. In every situation, the bike proves that it is capable of everything I have to throw at it and I continue to explore the limits of its usability. As I ride pretty much year-round, it has experienced temperatures ranging from well down into the low 30s all the way up to well into the high 90s. No matter what the temperature, the bike is comfortable and offers a sense of stability and security that my much smaller Kawasaki Ninja 650R was unable to provide.

Of course, as with any high performance vehicle purchased pre-owned, it has not been entirely without issue. Last fall, the battery started to struggle to provide sufficient amperage to overcome the resistance in the wiring, leading to challenges starting the bike when the engine was hot. That created a few embarrassing moments at gas stops when I had to push start the bike in order to get it going and on more than one occasion, had to jump-start it to get it running. Luckily, a swap of the battery from the older and less efficient lead-acid variety to the new
AGM model used on current BMW motorcycles more than cured the issue. I have also taken to pulling the battery and storing it on a trickle charger anytime I expect to be unable to use the bike at least once every 2 weeks. The battery issue also created a minor problem with the electronically adjustable suspension, causing the damping setting to get stuck. Luckily, it was stuck in SPORT mode so I was still able to really enjoy the ride, though I do admit that I missed the other damping options on some of the longer trips.

In July, when I had the bike's inspection brought up to date, the mechanic doing the inspection notified me of a few items that needed to be addressed in the near future if the bike was to remain safe on the road. This is what prompted my detour to MAX BMW during the Kancamagus Highway trip. While I did not get the service performed that day, I did collect enough information to feel confident that these were the guys I wanted to use when it came time to have the service done.

Halloween: Our Favorite Frights of 2013

Another year, another Halloween, the one day a year, when it becomes appropriate to dress all in black and creep out your neighbors. To honor this most frightening of days, we thought we would take a look back at some of the scary moments we have encountered behind the wheel or in the saddle during the course of this year. Some of these were genuinely scary moments where genuine unease washed over us, while others were merely close calls.

In August, East Brother shared with us his trip to several haunted sites in the city of Waltham, MA. Joining him in the saddle of the K1200S, we toured the creepy remnants of several mental institutions as well as the grounds of a school and residential facility that is still actively serving residents, but is the site of one of the most haunted places in the Boston area. Just the thought of trekking back to the Fernald School is a chilling prospect.

Our modern cars are also so filled with computers and electronic nannies that the modern automobile can now be easily hacked and taken over. Everything from opening car doors to forcing the car to drive anywhere but where the driver wants is entirely possible. Can you imagine driving along the road when suddenly your doors lock and the steering wheel seems to take on a mind of its own? It is like a ghost has taken over your car. Scary thought, is it not?

There were innumerable close calls, including run-ins with total lunatics perpetrating road rage like nobody's business, near misses with wildlife while biking (damn those squirrels are crafty), and, of course, the death of common sense behind the wheel. Getting on any form of two-wheeled transportation was sometimes frightening enough on its own, with drivers today seemingly completely oblivious to their surroundings and hell bent on doing anything behind the wheel except drive.

On a final note we just want to remind everyone to be safe, be courteous, and to never drink and drive.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Road Trip: The haunts of Salem, MA

Massachusetts is one of the oldest states in the US and has a tremendous amount of history contained within it. Some of that history dates back to the colonial era, with many Revolutionary War battlefields and monuments to visit, making it a great place to go sightseeing on a motorcycle. But of course, not all of that history is quite so illustrious. Salem, MA is a town that has a dark history associated with the infamous Salem witch trials. These proceedings, which often were done out of fear of the unknown, rather than a desire for justice, brought many lives to premature ends. It is believed that the souls of these individuals who met an early death may still haunt several sites around the city. With such a rich history, I could not resist the urge to hop on the K1200S and tour around this most notorious of Massachusetts towns.

Road Trip: Haunted Waltham, MA

Imagine a sterile hallway, painted a soothing shade of off-white to calm the frayed nerves of the patients locked behind metal doors. The eerie sounds of whimpering, crying, laughing, and talking, dampened by the steel, glass, and concrete, permeate the hallways. Down at the other end of the hall, a pair of double doors swings open and a pair of hulking orderlies escort a young patient, eyes glued to the floor, towards his windowless room. The reflection off the polished floor of the hallway shows the young man's dead eyes, limpid inky pools, like staring into a singularity.

These are the images that came to mind as I read about the Metropolitan State Hospital, one of the many supposedly haunted places within the town of Waltham in Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. As someone who has always been intrigued by the occult, digging through a variety of sites to locate some background on the exact locations of the various haunted places in this small suburban community tickled my sense of adventure. I was stunned to find so many potentially haunted places crowded into a single stretch of one single road, each location with its own rather sordid history. Out of sheer curiosity, and perhaps a bit of thrill seeking, I decided to take a morning ride to visit a few of these sites.

Video: St. Patrick's Day Ride Highlights

So far, New England has proven chilly this year with a very limited number of days that are suitable for riding. Getting a little stir crazy, I decided that it would be fun to head down to Wood Hole, MA to the Pie in the Sky Bakery for some breakfast. Setting out in the morning, the air temps had barely crested 30 degrees, making for a rather brisk ride when factoring in the wind chill. I opted to keep things dialed back given the low temps and the amount of sand and gravel still left on the roads, but it was still a good day to be out riding.

Watch a selection of highlights from the ride after the jump.

Editorial: Courtesy, road rage, and driving in Massachusetts

Since relocating to Massachusetts last year, I have reduced the amount that I drive by over 50%, going from just over 800 miles a month to just under 400 miles a month. Yet, despite my reduction in miles driven, I have continued to encounter the same amount of poor, and oftentimes downright dangerous driving, that I did before when living in the DC area. While some of this trend can be attributed to the poorly maintained and often confusing roads in the area that I currently reside, a lot of it has to do with a general lack of courtesy among drivers in the greater Boston area.

One of the most recent examples that I encountered took place a matter of days ago at an intersection of two major arteries in the area controlled by a rather confusing array of traffic lights. Approaching the intersection from one of the roads that has two lanes, with a portion of the right lane splitting off into an island-divided right turn lane, I was able to catch an opening and accelerate briskly into the now empty right hand lane as the light was green and cross the intersection. However, as I approached the other side of this intersection, an SUV that had previously been in the left lane made a sudden, and un-signaled, change into the right lane that I was about to occupy, merely a few feet from the nose of my car. To avoid a crash, I promptly applied near full-force to the brakes, hit the horn, and dove for the now empty left-hand lane.

While the incident itself was enough to get me upset already, what happened next truly sent me into a rage. The driver of the SUV pulled up alongside and proceeded to yell at me, level a false accusation of running a red-light, and threaten to call the police to report the incident. Not only had this arrogant, and clearly clueless, individual nearly caused an accident, but was now making an effort to threaten me for the mistake that he clearly made. This set me off and I laid into him, reminding him just how dangerous his little maneuver actually was and sprinkling my tirade with choice swear words to emphasize just how pissed off his actions had made me. However, rather than having the intended effect, this moron then attempted to play the victim and used his family as a human shield to dodge my offensive of words. It was at this point that I realized I was dealing with a totally self-absorbed and entitled idiot, promptly rolled up my window and proceeded along.

But this incident illustrates one of my biggest pet peeves about driving in the US - the lack of accountability of American drivers. The fact that a man with a car filled with his family, including small children, would perform such a foolish maneuver and then proceed to get insane about it seems indicate that we as Americans have a responsibility to change our attitudes towards each other while behind the wheel. The entire situation could have been diffused had the irresponsible driver simply acknowledged the lapse in judgement, apologized for the mistake, and driven off. Instead, he put his family in even greater danger by approaching me and launching into his indignant, and completely fabricated, defense of his actions.
This is what leads to road rage and to people getting injured for no good reason except to defend their own stupidity.

A few days later, I pulled into the parking lot of a local shopping center and was still in the car, finishing a conference call for work when the driver of yet another SUV pulls into the vacant space next to me, performs a sub-par parking job, and proceeds to ding my door twice and starts to walk away. As I was sitting there watching this happen, I honked at him and gave him the "what the hell?" look to indicate my displeasure at what he had just done. This causes him to suddenly get defensive and he starts yelling about how he did not do anything, did not hit my car, blah blah blah, then walks off to the store. As I was still on the phone, I could not exactly chase after him.

5-minutes later, now finished with my call, I exit my car and proceed to the passenger side to inspect the damage. Two small chips in the paint on my door with clear red paint from his car clearly visible on the edges of the chips. I step behind our vehicles and confirm the miserable parking job, then step into the middle of the aisle, prepared to document the situation with my phone when a police offer happens to walk past me. I stop the officer, explain to him what I was doing and the situation that prompted me to do this. As I am chatting with the officer, the driver of the offending vehicle returns from the store and sees me standing there with the officer chatting.

All of a sudden, the driver's tone goes from dismissive to conciliatory. Now he says he is sorry for the incident, but insists no damage was done. I promptly walk him over and point out the two chips in my door with red paint in them to prove my point. He promptly apologizes and offers up a myriad of excuses for the benefit of the police officer who was standing there with a rather amused expression on his face. The officer kindly points out the rather crap-tastic parking job and the guy sheepishly admits that it was pretty bad. I kindly ask the driver to please be more careful in the future and we all part ways.

This is yet another incident where a little bit of common courtesy would have smoothed the entire situation over much more quickly. Instead of being dismissive and argumentative, had the driver simply demonstrated contrition and apologized, then I would have written off the situation and let it be. I understand that door dings happen. But because he was a jerk about it, I could not help but capitalize on the opportunity to waste some more of his precious time, keeping him there for an extra 5 or so minutes. If he was genuinely in a rush, he would have saved himself time re-parking his vehicle, exiting it without hitting my door, and still would have been able to leave faster.

My only point with these two stories is to point out that we, as a society, should hold ourselves to a higher standard of courtesy behind the wheel. So many of the inane and problematic situations we find ourselves in are the result of an unwillingness to take responsibility and to demonstrate contrition and courtesy to our fellow drivers. By making a change to how we think about things behind the wheel, we can avoid so much confrontation and collectively lower our blood pressure when driving, making everyone's collective experiences so much more pleasant.

What do you say folks? Let's try a little courtesy for a change.