Day Forty Five - 1st half of New England Loop

Heading for the home stretch now! This would be the last day on the road to end in a hotel. Again, our planning was deliberate so that we'd be in the most congested areas on a Sunday and that really paid off. Had this been a weekday, we never could have gotten so far in the day.

We started late today. Larry went to church in the morning so we didn't get out on the road until 10:30 AM. 

Day 45 Track

We headed south to Harrisburg where we picked up I-78 eastbound. It was just 40 miles to the exit onto 183 south which would bring us down into Reading PA where we would grab our first checkpoint for the day - the First Energy Stadium - Home of the Reading Fightin Phils 

First Energy Stadium - Home of the Reading Fightin Phils - Baseball Tour

From there we would head east on US-222 to get us over to Allentown where we two checkpoints to get. We went to get the post office first, but when we got there, we found yet another old, but large, post office with no city/state identifications showing, not even on the doors. We rode all the way around the building, but we weren't going to get what we needed here. There were no other post office listed in the GPS for Allentown, so we decided to just head over to our 2nd checkpoint in Allentown - the Coca Cola Park - Home of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs baseball team - for the Baseball Tour.

Coca Cola Park - Home of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs - Baseball Tour

After getting the baseball field, I decided to check google maps on my phone to see of it showed any other post offices and sure enough, it did! We punched in the address and headed there, but what we got to was a shopping center with a grocery store and on the outside of the store was a sign for a branch post office located inside. Still no city/state markings so this would not help us any.

What is so important about the post office having the city/state name visible? One of the tours we are doing is the TS30GT (Team Strange 30th Anniversary Grand Tour) The initial goal is to spell out the words "Team Strange Airheads 30" using letters from city names and a route 30 sign for the 30. We could have done this with city names from any state, but we opted for a special "Eddie James Award" option where the city names must each be from a different state - and thus we need to have proof of that via city/state names. If you click on the highlighted text it will open the page explaining all this in more detail.

At any rate, we headed out again to get back on I-78 heading east towards our next checkpoint in Clinton NJ - for the presidential tour, but while riding down the interstate, Larry's head was working overtime and he developed an alternate plan to deal with missing Allentown. Just shortly ahead, off the interstate a bit was the town of Asbury, NJ. We could get that to replace Allentown, but that would also mean that we would need to drop Morristown (the "m" in Team), because we need the letters to be each from a different state. (Yeah, my head's exploding just recounting all this!) So, we jumped off the interstate and grabbed the photo needed for Asbury, NJ as the "a" in Team.

Asbury - the "a" in Strange for the TS30GT

From Asbury, we'd head back to I-78, picking up our Clinton checkpoint for the presidential tour just before getting to the interstate. Also note that we opted for the pretty city sign instead of the post office - wish we'd done this more as some of the signs were really nice and it avoided having to go into the downtowns for the post offices which sometimes didn't even have the city names on them.

Town of Clinton - Presidential Tour

From Clinton we jumped back on I-78 eastbound over to I-287 northbound, up through Morristown (skipping the checkpoint there for previously listed reasons), and then onto I-80 to get us on into Hackensack for our 5th checkpoint of the day - for the I've Been Everywhere Man Tour. We got this photo at 3:45 PM.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Hackensack

Now, it's onto I-80 for just a bit, almost up to going over the George Washington Bridge, but then jumping onto the Palisades Parkway heading north along the Hudson River. Some really nice scenery along here and no commercial traffic made it a welcome relief from the interstates. We did have to jump off the Palisades just before the NY state border, in order to get onto US-9W which would take us on into Haverstraw for our 6th checkpoint of the day and another I've Been Everywhere Man Tour item. We got here at 4:58 PM.

I've Been Everywhere Man - Haverstraw

Normally, we'd be looking for a hotel for the evening by this time of day, but if we stopped anywhere short of our next checkpoint in East Hartford CT, that would mean dealing with Monday morning commuter traffic which neither of us was really looking forward to. So, we pressed on, crossing over the Hudson River at the Bear Mountain Bridge (yes, a $1.50 toll), and then a short, but nice twisty ride down US-202 and then the Bear Mountain State Parkway and then back onto US-202 which would take us all the way over to I-684.
From thre we headed north and then up onto I-84 eastbound which took us all the way up to Hartford. Normally, this stretch of road is filled with traffic, and on the southbound side it was backed up quite a way for weekend vacationers heading back into NY, but on our side is was the lightest I have ever seen it and I've been through here on more than 20 occasions. We were running 10 to 15 over the speed limit and were getting passed like we were standing still by numerous cars. We saw only on State Police car the whole way, and that was at a vehicle that slid into the median just a little south of HArtford - and even that didn't cause any backup! We rolled into East Hartford CT to get the "e" for Team in the TS30GT. What we found was this:

East Harford Post Office

I had to crop and enhance the photo in order to show the name more clearly, but we had a concern that this one might not be acceptable because although is says East Hartford Branch - it appears to indicate that we are actually in Hartford, CT and we NEED the letter "E"... So while we are sitting there pondering what to do, I spot a sign just up the street and we go over to investigate it. At first, while it clearly indicates we are in East Hartford, it appears that there is no needed state designation on it. Upon closer inspection though the medallion to the left of the town name has our gold - the city and state name together!

East Hartford - the "e" in Team for the TS30GT

Close-up of the emblem because the photo above it is washed out in the sun a bit.

East Hartford Connecticut emblem

It's now 7:21 PM and the sun is just about set. We do a quick GPS search for hotels and pick a Super8 just 1.5 miles away. As we are nearing the hotel, we notice lot's of pedestrian traffic, lot's of signs for "event parking" and a TON of local police scattered all around. We manage to get to the hotel and check in - withoug paying much attention to the details of the hotel itself as we are glad to just be in before dark. We unload the bikes, change and then walk out to a local McDonalds where we grab some supper. There we discover that the activity we saw is for a Kiss Concert.

When we get back to the hotel only then do we discover that the Wi-Fi is NOT working - at all. You can connect ok, but there's no connection to the internet. I call the front desk twice an they tell me they will reboot and try again. After 30 minutes of that frustration, I go down in person and the clerk just say's sorry - they don't know what's wrong and will have to report it to their service provider. Too bad...So never did get service there which is why I am writing this blog entry 2 days later...

Today's Stats: 359 miles in 9:05 elapsed time, 7:26 saddle time