Day Thirty - Live Free or Die......

..... Is it possible to do both (or nearly) on the same day?

First of all, it seems incredible to be typing Day 30.  We always said we would be away 4 weeks or so, but neither of us really knew what that meant.  We are in Laval now, the place where they have GUARANTEED they can ship our bike from - and they had better be right because we can think of no other reason why we would possibly want to spend 2 nights here!

Well, maybe one reason, The wanted a room with a bath and so I picked a room with a whirlpool.  Little did we know!

This thing will easily hold 6, so if any of you want to come out this way for St. Jean Baptiste day we can entertain you!

Now for the real entertainment of the day.  We left beautiful, sleepy, peaceful Bethel this morning after what was undoubtedly the best breakfast of our trip made by Fred, the owner of the Chapman Inn.  Fred, you are an artist with omelettes, french toast, muffins and probably much more.

We rode up north by northwest through northern Maine and into New Hampshire.  On the way we passed through Dixville Notch with this beautiful resort.  

Today's quiz ( and possibly the final quiz of our trip) - what is Dixville Notch famous for?  (Hint- possibly only a political junkie like LZB would know this!)

New Hampshire - the live free or die state - and just as LZB said on the radio that he didnt't think we had a hope of getting a latte out here we hit the town of Colebrook and the Moose Muck cafe and...... the Creators of Chaos!

At first we were a little apprehensive about this tough looking motorcycle gang, but their kids seemed friendly and before long the matriarch Barbara engaged us in conversation.  By the way, we were enjoying a wonderful latte!

Their full name is the SANBAR Creators of Chaos and it turned out that Sanbar comes from Sandy and Barbara, the leaders of the pack!  Grandparents, parents, children and many awesome sounding motorcycles.  It turns out there is to be a blessing of the bikes in Colebrook tomorrow at 'the Shrine'. The roads coming into town were increasingly packed with bikers arriving by the minute.

Barbara can be seen above in the blue denim shirt.

They are a wonderful family and they certainly seem to embody the motto of the State!

From there we finished off New Hampshire, got into Vermont for just enough time to get into 3rd. gear and lo and behold, we were at the Canadian border.  Pretty soon the rain started again and it got increasingly worse as we headed down the Autoroute into Montreal.  As for the nearly die part, I really don't want to talk about the drivers  here.  Neither of us can understand what suicidal urge compels them to drive as they do.  Perhaps lemmings would understand it?

You all know what care The takes in life with her diet and exercise program.  Here is today's bill of fare for her.  French toast for breakfast, a mid-morning latte, skip lunch, Jack Daniels on ice on arrival at the hotel, then white wine when the bar opened.  Finally back ribs with veg for supper before a scary cab ride back to the hotel. What have I done to you The?

And so here we are, less than 2km from the bike shipper who has promised to come in on the public holiday of the year here at 8 am to take possession of the ' Wing. We have flights booked on Westjet for noon and so should be back in Vancouver Monday afternoon.

It's time.