Back to NYC

Note: mileage totals are wrong in the posts. Actual mileage after today is 2535. I'll find the error later.

More notes to come. But the Cliff Notes are:

Woke up in New Bedford, MA. Speed run through Rhode Island to New London, CT. Ferry to Orient Point, Long Island. Ride out to Montauk and then back to Brooklyn. 297 miles on the day.

Recaps, Bulleted.

• We both best the 6am wake-up call by waking up on our own at 5:30 am.
• We're rolling by 7:40.
• A high-speed burn on I-95 straight from Massachusettes, across Rhode Island and into New London, CT.
• Eric hits the left lane, sticks it at 75mph and holds the pace all the way through. No visor makes all the concrete dust very annoying. One wonders why anyone would voluntarily do hi-speed slab riding without a full face helmet.
• RP meanwhile, no doubt calling on his DC beltway skills, weaves and winds through traffic at all speeds.
• We make the 90 mile journey from New Bedford to New London in one hour, 20 minutes, just in time to get on the 8:am ferry.
• The bikes get loaded, we head upstairs. The ferry has seating for like 900, a lunch counter, a bar and a fore and aft sun deck. We get some breakfast. Eggs and V-8's.
• Rich heads into one of the lounges to work on the blog, Eric stays topside reflecting on the journey.
• At 9:20 am, we're on north tip of Long Island, New York -- Orient Point. Welcome to New York.
• We hit NY Route 25 West and start heading in toward the city. NY 25 is a really nice road, very pretty, and we're taking it in the 40-60 mph range, and it feels good.
• Then, at Riverhead, we about face and hop on 24 to 27 East and make way to Montauk, the south eastmost point on Long Island.
• But to get there, we have to drive through the goddamned Hamptons. On a Friday afternoon. One lane each direction, completely filled in every direction with bumper-to-bumber, stop-and-go traffic. We're getting 10 miles per hour and its requiring an awful lot of cluth and throttle work. In a blazing heat -- the first real heat we've seen since getting out of Manhattan on the Major Deegan 6 days before.
• Having passed the Hamptons, throttles are rolled open and speeds approach a very cooling 60 and 70 mph. Buildings are replaced with trees, streetlights with open stretches. Traffic with fresh air.
• Out toward Montauk Point, small but extremely charming seafood shacks start appearing. First one has Lobster Rolls, the next Clam Strips. We press on toward Montauk Point lighthouse.
• We reach the Montaul Point and its lighthouse, and for the first time (after 7 days and 2,200 miles) RP and Eric lose each other. Its takes a text message to get us back in sight on the exit end of Montauk Point park.
  
• Next stop: the Red Clam bar we saw on the way in. We get there, park the bikes, grab ourselves some Arnold Palmers and Fried Clam Strips. Hot waitstaff is interested in our travels. Everyone else there is dressed like noveau riche jackasses.
• Back on the road, we hit Route 27 West which goes all the way from Montauk straight to where it ends -- ten blocks from Eric's Park Slope apartment.
• Impatient with the traffic patterns on Route 27, we dump off of it in favor of the Belt Parkway and take that to the BQE. Rich takes the lead spot and takes us home.
• We get the bikes on the curb outside of my apartment, hot ticking metal and aching muscles under the shade of a tree. Lots of smiles and Eric's roommate's boyfriend Sandor (who was just walking by) comes over to offer a congratulatory handshake.
• We do shots of the (now very warm, after having been in the saddle bags all day) leftover Vodka from New Bedford right there on the street as we pack up the bags and lockdown the bikes.
• The trip is officially over for Eric (at 7 days and 2,333.1 miles) whilst RP has another 250 miles to get him to DC.