6-3 to 6-5-17...Got caught up in events and failed to blog for a couple days.  Sat. the third we drove from Orford NH back to White River Junction because Katie's oldest, Owen who is 13 was playing Lacrosse.  So Bry and I went to watch him.  It was overcast but luckily no rain.  After his game was over we said our goodbye's and headed back to Orford.  On the way, Bry took me to this dairy farm.  They have between 450 and 500 Holstein cows and everything is automated.  The amazing thing is that all the cows know where to go and they amble around and wait their turn to go into the stall where their udders are automatically washed and then the milking machines are hooked on.  When the cow has been milked the stall opens, she steps out and another steps in.  Then they go to another station where a machine scratches their backs then they go to another location where they feed and lay down and sometime later back to the milking station.  Their are separate barns for birthing and then a separate barn for the heifers to grow.  It was really amazing.  Went out to a great place for lunch followed by a nap and then Suzie made another gourmet dinner and we watched Stanley cup finals hockey.
Sunday morning turned out to be sunny and nice.  Bry made waffles for breakfast and we said our goodbye's and I was off again to Littleton NH to visit Pete and Millie Smith.  Pete was a friend and classmate from college days.

Millie made a beautiful lunch including a Rhubarb pie which is my favorite.  Pete has been a competitive bike racer and bikes all the time so he showed me his stable of bikes which is very impressive.  Both are doing well and at the time he is getting the camper ready for a trip to Anchorage Alaska to visit their son.  To soon I had to say goodbye and continue on to my destination which is Industry Maine and the home of Bill and Nan Stanek.  Bill is an old Marine Corps compadre from back in the early 70's.  We played football for the Marine Corp Readiness Training Group at Cherry Point and won every game including the Marine Corps Birthday Bowl and then went to Camp Lejeune to play the Champion team from Fleet Marine Forces Atlantic and won that championship.  They were about to fly us to Hawaii to the All Marine championship when there was a fuel crunch so the Marine Corps frowned on sending a transport aircraft for a football game.  Instead, we went to Fort Bragg NC and played the Army's championship team from Fort Bragg and beat them 7 to 6.  At that time we hung up our cleats forever.

6-5-17  Today is overcast and dreary.  We just came back from breakfast at a nice restaurant on the lake.  Bill and Jan's place is on the lake and very secluded.  It's really beautiful.  It will be a slow and peaceful day and then I'll take them out for dinner somewhere this evening.  Tomorrow I'm off to Kittery Maine.  It's forecast to be another rainy day but by now I have webbed feet and can handle any amount of water.  Another nap might be in order this afternoon followed by a pick-me-up cocktail before dinner.  Hope y'all are enjoying the heat in Wilson and at the beach.  Have a great day.

6-2-17....This morning I am departing Katie and Davy's place in White River Junction VT and heading to visit another college friend Bry Beeson and his wife Suzie in Orford NH.  Before I do that though I am taking Liam, Katie's middle son to school on the motorcycle and then we are going to have breakfast at the King Arthur Café and Store and after that Katie is taking me to Davy's folks home to show me how they make maple syrup. 

From there I rode around beautiful Fairlee Lake and through some beautiful countryside to get to the Beeson reservation which is way out in the boondocks but absolutely beautiful.  Bry had some signs up to assure that I wouldn't get lost.

After we chatted for awhile he took me on a John Deere four wheel drive mountain climber and proceeded to give me a tour of his 375 acre estate, all the time telling me  to be aware of bears and snakes and this is the black fly season and limbs fall from trees and they are widow makers and a whole lot of other good information that I really needed to know to make my day.  And we're out there without any guns.  I miss my grenades and at least a good bayonet.  Then we stopped at Mud Turtle Pond and that made the trip most worthwhile.

 The pond has to be eight to ten acres in the middle of nowhere and just so quiet and peaceful.  I wanted to pitch my tent right there and spend the night but it's bad tick season so I gave up on that idea plus I had no tent.  We got back to the homestead where Suzie had a wonderful lunch waiting for us followed by naps and cocktails prior to departing for the Lyme Inn and a wonderful dinner.

It was a really nice day and I thank my host and for that matter all my hosts for putting up with me for as long as they had to.

My latest hosts, Bry and Suzie Beeson.  And with that concludes my reporting for the day.  If you have any problems with this reporters reports please take it up with the editor and you probably think he gives a s__t!!!

Good night all.

6-1-17....Yesterday I left Burlington heading for White River Junction and a visit with Katie and Davy Kitchel and their three boys Owen, Liam and Sebastian.  Would you believe it, the sun was out and it was a beautiful ride through the Vermont countryside.  I stopped in Stowe Vermont at the Alchemist Brewery because Katie had told me that Davy really likes their Heddy Topper beer (8% alcohol) and people come from all over to buy it at $12.50 a four pack.  So I picked up two four packs and naturally I had to sample some of the product.  The bar maid and I struck up a conversation about my travels and I might have still been there today sampling but for the necessity of getting to White River Junction.  Now to say the Kitchels live off the beaten path is a misnomer.  There is no path.  You have to make your own.  It was three miles of dirt roads and steep hills but once you arrive you are rewarded with a most beautiful view of I believe the Green Mountains.  There home is right outside Hanover NH and Norwich VT and the home of Dartmouth college.

Snow on the mountain

This is Stowe on the left & Killington Basin on the right.  Notice there is still snow on the top of the mountain.

This is the Kitchel homestead and what a beautiful home it is including the breathtaking views of the mountains from their deck

Katie and Davy put together a fantastic dinner and then we sat up until midnight solving all the worlds problems.  It was a fun evening.  Let me go back a little.  As I was riding this route to White River Junction I got a call from Lou Stroller wondering how I was doing with all the bad weather we were having.  Thanks so much Lou.  Then I was about three miles from my destination when I received a call from "Batman" Cenci.  Apparently he had been conjuring with the weather gods and they let him in on some secret info that a very bad electrical storm with hail was about to strike our area.  I thanked him but was not concerned because I was so close to my destination.  Katie let me park the motorcycle in the garage and a short time later we left to take her oldest, Owen to lacrosse  practice.  The storm erupted with lightning and hail the size of basketballs, well, maybe small marbles, but very dangerous with a deluge of rain. I was so thankful to be in a car.

"Batman", thanks so much for the heads up.

This morning I surprised Owen and took him to school on the motorcycle.  He thoroughly enjoyed it and as we were approaching the school he was waving to all his friends so it will be interesting to hear how his day went.  Then I met Katie at the King Arthur Café and Store and we had breakfast.  The King Arthur Flour Company has been in Davy's family for hundreds of years and was just recently sold to the employees.  Then I came back to the house and spent a couple hours cleaning up my bike after the many days (7) that I have been riding in the rain.

Now it is cocktail time and then we are going out to the kids favorite hamburger joint.

One note....Davy has a Tesla fully electric car.  Katie took me for a ride in it.  The acceleration was better than a cat shot off the USS Nimitz.  One second I was sitting in the front seat.  the next second the bottom portion of me was sitting in the front seat while my head resided in the back seat.  It was a hoot.

Well good evening all, it's cocktail time.  

5-30-17...Good morning to you all.  I'm at the Cenci's in Burlington VT and what great hosts they are.  Had a fantastic salmon dinner and great conversation catching up on all our classmates.  I want to add a bunch of pictures here that I previously had not been able to download from my phone.  I think they call that technically challenged.

This is George Pagnotta, a college classmate in Brewster NY where we met for breakfast.

This is from my home town, Brookfield CT.  It's a small, colonial town and the only reason I show this is to see the flags on every telephone pole for Memorial Day.  You don't see that many places in the South but all the small towns I've seen so far in New England really do it up for Memorial Day.

Above is a small park in Brookfield that was dedicated to the Veterans.  They made bricks for everyone they knew of and I was able to find mine.

I attended

I attended grade school at a Catholic school in New Milford CT. which was about seven miles from my home and another small colonial town.  the town has the above beautiful Green.  The bandstand is still there from when I was a kid.  On Sundays martial music and polka bands would play and people would sit all around the band stand.  That is the same tank I climbed all over as a seven year old.  The big beautiful colonial home was the home of our family doctor, Doctor LaTaif and he made house calls.  I went to school with his daughters one of whom became a judge in New Milford and unfortunately passed away a couple years ago from cancer.

My granddad used to take us kids on Friday nights to the movie theatre above to see Hopalong Cassidy and they always had a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

Ah, those were some great days.  I'm sitting in the house enjoy the warmth and watching the rain outside.  I think I must have pissed off all the gods.  The rain gods have dumped on me every day I've been on the road.  The sun god has turned his back on me.  The golf god is the only one smiling and that's because he doesn't have to watch my poor attempts at playing golf.

Funny story......As I arrived at the Cenci's they were in crisis with a bat flying around the downstairs.  They thought they had him isolated in the dining room with all doors closed.  Well you know, when you have bats in your belfry you call the Marines.  My original plan was to use a grenade or maybe bayonet the bat.  I decided against 12 rounds from my M-14 rifle for fear of the resultant holes in the hardwood floors and took the broom Anne handed me and dispatched the bat.  Gene swore the bat was still alive.  He took the bat outside and tried for the longest time to resuscitate him.  Gene was not aware that Marines are very thorough when dispatching the enemy.  Everyone enjoyed a cocktail shortly thereafter.

5-29-17...I've been so busy running around the last couple of days I failed to
make any entries in my blog, so here goes a catch up.  I have a bunch of pictures to add but having trouble downloading them from my phone.  I'll get to it I promise.  These past couple of days have been extremely nostalgic. 
After having breakfast with George Pagnotta I started riding the back roads in and around my hometown of Brookfield CT.  When I was growing up Brookfield was a sleepy little village of 1200 people located very close to Candlewood Lake which is a very large man made lake.  The town is about 50 miles from New York city and so in the summertime the size of the town almost doubled and during high school and college summertime was a gangbuster with parties and trips across the state line to Jimmies in Brewster.   The drinking age in CT. was 21 but NY state was 18.  We were a very short distance to the state line and so there were many trips over the line to Jimmies and other party locations.
On Saturday I had lunch with Linda Nohe Fernand, my high school sweetheart and first love.  It was fun catching up on all that had occurred in our lives and where we were today.  After lunch I got up with Fred and Linda Morlock and rode up to their house for a visit.  Fred and I were high school friends and every time I came back for a visit I would always stop and visit Fred.  From there I went back to the hotel.  There is an Outback Steak House right next to the hotel and Pete Ganio, Tommy Greene and Gene Previdi, all high school friends, joined me for drinks and catch up.  In the summer of 62 Pete and I jumped in my new 62 Chevy Super Sport convertible, put a cooler of beer in the back seat and drove 56 hours non-stop to Hollywood CA where we worked for the summer.  I was a page boy on the Queen for a Day show and Pete worked for Dan Blocker. Hoss Cartwright on Bonanza.  It was a great time and on the way out we drove the length of Route 66 which was pretty new at that time.  The rest of the time was spent riding around town seeing the old homestead and homes of friends and revisiting lots of great times.
Yesterday I left Brookfield and rode up to Colebrook Ct and had a three hour lunch with George Bodycoat, a boyhood friend from Brookfield.  I had seen George a couple of times in the past 15 years and every time we get together we have a blast reliving our younger days and all the pranks we were involved in.  I left George and rode the backroads through some fantastic scenery to Pittsfield Mass.
I want to mention something that was very pleasing to me.  As you go through these small colonial towns almost every home is flying an American flag.  In Brookfield as I rode on RT-25 from Brookfield Center to Brookfield, about three miles, there was an American Flag on every telephone pole along the route.  It was very inspiring.
Got to run.  I'm off to Burlington VT and a couple days with Gene Cenci.  They are calling for 90% chance of rain so I'm donning the rain suit.  It's also cold, 53 degrees.
Until the next entry.............

5-26-17...This morning I got together with George Pagnotta, a college classmate and good friend.  We had breakfast at a very nice restaurant in Brewster NY and spent a couple hours catching up classmates and our lives since graduation in 1963.

After breakfast George gave me a ride back to the motel and we said our goodbye's.  For the first day since I left Wilson we have no rain.  It is overcast but dry.  I hop on the bike and I'm off to my hometown of Brookfield CT.  I spent the rest of the day just roaming the back roads of Brookfield, New Milford Washington Depot and then it started looking pretty menacing weatherwise so I beet feet to the hotel I would be staying at in Danbury.  Luckily there is an Outback Steakhouse attached to the hotel so I could cover the motorcycle and stay in for the evening.

Tomorrow I will be getting up with old friends from high school days so I'll get a good nights sleep tonight.

 

05-25-17...The weather reports along my route for today were not good but I was hopeful that it might not be as bad as reported.  As I got underway I said a couple prayers for Marshalls grandson who is suffering from Leukemia and asked if it wasn't too much of a burden maybe he could help out with the weather.  For awhile I thought my prayers had been answered.  It was overcast but dry from Bowie to Chestertown Md., about 60 miles.  Then it started misting and I thought maybe he was testing me because it started to clear and I actually saw blue sky.  As I crossed the Delaware Memorial bridge it started misting again and as I got on the Jersey Turnpike the mist turned to rain.  Nothing worse than riding a motorcycle at 70 mph in the rain with 18 wheelers passing by leaving large clouds of spray.  That's what I thought but th en I got on the Garden State Parkway in NJ and was promptly in bumper to bumper traffic for 45 minutes.  On top of that we come to a toll plaza and there has to be ten entrances but get this, your on a motorcycle, visibility is much less than 100% and there are hundreds of cars behind you ready to roll right over you to continue on.  I'm looking for the cash booth but all I can find is E-Z Pass and correct change only and the toll is $1.50.  I can't find a cash booth so out of desperation I choose a correct change only booth.  Next I find their collection system doesn't take bills.  All I have is three quarters and a number of dollar bills.  I toss in the three quarters and notice a sign that says violators picture will be taken so I smiled and drove on.  I finally made it to Heidi's Inn in Brewster NY around 1730.  Tonight was a two cocktail night and a great New York Pizza both of which I did not need but they sure made me feel better and the pillow is telling me it is now time.  I'm meeting an old college buddy George Pagnotta for breakfast,
Good night all.