Day Three - Haverstraw NY to Boston MA (337 miles)
Leaving our motel we continued north on NY 9W. Following the Hudson River we came upon Bear Mountain State Park. We turned left into the park began an ascent up the mountain. We took a road to a scenic overlook, and had the place to ourselves. Not much tourism happening at 8:00 on Monday morning. The view of the still wide Hudson , and surrounding hills was below us. The road in Bear Mt. St. Park led us back down the other side to the Palisades Parkway . The Parkway hooked us back into NY 9W where tuned once again to the north and into the West Point area. We considered some sightseeing at West Point, but with the roads in Connecticut calling us, we continued on. We intersected with I-84 where we turned east and crossed the Hudson one last time. I-84 took us toward CT. We exited the I-84 at exit 18 where we took NY 164, and NY 64 into CT. Once in CT., we began northward on CT 37. Route 37 north took us to Sherman where we turned on CT 39 up to Gaylordsville. At the intersection of U.S.7 we turned left and again were heading north. The Housatonic River was on our left running between the road and the Appalachian Trail . At Bulls Bridge there is a covered bridge, and Kent Falls State Park looked like a nice spot for a picnic lunch. At Cornwall Bridge we turned left onto Route 4 in the Housatonic Meadows State Park, heading for Sharon , where we took Route 41 to Lakeville. We turned right onto U.S.44 which took us northeast to Salisbury , and Canaan . All of the roads we were traveling on were nicely kept and great motorcycling roads. Traveling southeast on U.S. 44 we headed for the town of Winstead . There, as we were going through town, we experienced a good all fashioned speed trap. The posted speed limit through town was 30 M.P.H. We did not think we were going that fast, but two police waved us over in the middle of town, and proceeded to give both of us tickets for 18 M.P.H. over the limit. We did not argue the point that they could not have gotten Steve who was behind me. Nevertheless the ticket was for a robust $134! We decided not to let this get us down. This was only our second ticket in all of the miles we have ridden. We proceeded on towards Hartford . U.S.44 dumped us into a shady part of town, so we elected not to gas up despite the fact Steve was on reserve. Before we knew it we were headed down CT 2 where there was no gas station to be found. Sure enough the Venture ran out of gas. Fortunately Steve had packed a siphon hose, and after some serious spitting, and gagging we were back on our way. The next exit we came to did not look particularly promising but we exited anyway. After seemingly another 10 miles we happened on a gas station in East Glastonbury just as Steve ran out again. We filled up, and went on our way. We had to get to Boston by 5:00 to hook up with a colleague of mine who was taking us to Fenway Park . Riding through Boston to our Courtyard Hotel in Revere was not particularly fun. The entire downtown area was under construction. It took us some time to get to the Hotel but we pulled up right at 5:00. After quickly getting ready for the game, we jumped into a taxi and headed to the game. We had decided to try our luck on scalping tickets. Our thought was Monday night against the Twins would not be a terribly large draw. We thought we had a coup when we purchased $21 seats for $50. We headed to the beer stand slapping ourselves on the back. Heading to our seats we were stopped and informed the seats we had purchased were in an alcohol-free zone. What? That's right alcohol-free zone! Needless to say we did not sit in our wonderful seats. We stood in the back, and drank our beer. It was a 4-0 nothing game in favor of the visitors, but no one left the park. But by the 8th inning we had spotted some seats down close. We parked ourselves in these seats, and watched the rest of the game. Afterwards we checked out the night life around the park, and had a wonderful time.
