ldmikemctouring

Made it to Madawaska!
Arrived about 1930, later than I really wanted, but that's okay.
Trip today was not about making distance, fer sure. In trying to be a good neighbor, I tried to hold Tigress a little at bay and kept it closer to the speed limit than yesterday. As a resolu, average speed dropped considerably as did total miles.
I left Belleville about 0730 CDT to sunshine and cool temps - high 40s. Had the same T-shirt, fleece, windblocker and Aerostich on today that served me so well yesterday. Today it wasn't enough. About 2 hours into the ride it began to rain and temps had risen to a whopping 50 degrees. I decided to tough it out and keep on going but the sky is getting darker and darker in the east and it doesn't look good for warmer temps or more sunshine, either.
So after about 3 hours of this, I'm cold, my fingers are getting numb and I'm kinda miserable. Enough of this... I stopped someplace for a Burger King,(I swear there are more BK and McDs in Canada than the US) took off the windblocker and put on the Kanetsu, my electric liner. Also switched from wet gloves to winter gloves, so now I'm ready for anything - I've ridden in this outfit down to low 20s, so I know it works!
So I ride along in this getup for an hour or two and the weather starts to clear up, sun is shining, temps are rising and it's beautiful riding along the banks of the St. Lawrence. I stop for gas and change back to the lighter stuff. There's still the low hanging clouds in the east and unfortunately, I'm catching up with them. As soon as I get under the coulds, the temps drop like a stone, it starts to rain again and I stll have some 75 miles to go. This time - smarter - stop early, change getup again and ride in the colder weather, but warm and dry now.
Lesson learned for today is to check your GPS route carefully before following it blindly. GPS took me thru downtown Montreal at noontime in the rain. I don't know what the attraction wa, but traffic was jammed up tight in practically all directions. Had I reviewed the route more closely, I probably could have avoided that mess by taking an alternate route, not thru the center of town.
I decided to differ with the GPS near the end of the ride today because I wanted to go thru Ft. Kent, ME - the ending point of US Route 1, which ends in Key West. Had to take a picture of that!
Stats for the day:
Miles today: 577
Cumulative miles: 1319
Driving Avg: speed: 59.9 mph
Overall Average speed: 49.4 mph
Drive time:9:38
Stop Time: 2:04
Total Time: 11:42
Found a very nice, biker freindly motel in Madawaska - Martin's Motel. Jean was very accomodating and helped me get settled, told me where to eat at this late hour and gave me a certificate for having arrived in Madawaska - which may just prove to be my documentation for being her, in addition to the other stuff I have to mail in. Nice clean room and inexpensive.
Later,
Mike