It was an ambitious plan for us. I hadn’t been on a weeklong trip on a bike before. My son Raymond was only 17 in 2015. He had some experience; we worked on bikes together, fixing up a 1985 Nighthawk and a 1979 Goldwing. My son took the motorcycle safety course, and we did quite a few day rides and an overnight or two. We were up for a somewhat bigger adventure.

We decided to do something close to home, a northern New England and Lake Placid tour on back roads. It would be a couple of days in Maine, then a loop in Vermont and a loop in upstate New York, a total of about 1,300 miles.

I had a decent bike to take, a 1998 R 1200 C. I bought it from a retired airline pilot as part of my second go-round with motorcycles in my life. I could tell Bart wanted the bike to go to a good home. Bart, if you’re reading this, you may still wonder if I got the bike safely home in the back of my small Nissan Frontier with those old kayak loading straps. Yes, it did slowly go over while I drove back, but there was no damage.

When I took it to my local shop to have Rick check it out, I told him, “You can laugh all you want after I leave.” Rick told me with a straight face, “This isn’t the first bike I’ve seen leaned over in a pickup truck.” As long as no other customers showed up in the 10 minutes I was there, I’d be OK.

I sometimes feel like an outcast with an R 1200 C, since it was until recently BMW’s only foray into combining form with function in a cruiser. It’s been a solid, fun bike with the minimum needed for short tours. I love that confused looks from Harley guys that seems to say “What the heck am I looking at?” It’s strangely a Beemer dressed up with a little chrome and some leather.

Beemer riders usually can’t help saying something like, “Hey, it’s the James Bond bike!” I didn’t know about the model’s debut in Tomorrow Never Dies when I bought it. After watching the movie again after all these years, I have to say I’m disappointed I still can’t ride like that.

For my son, we decided to go with a used G 650 GS. It was about the right physical size for him with decent but not overwhelming power. It also has ABS, heated grips and hard luggage. We got some communicators so we could talk to each other as we rode. 

The loop in Maine took us up Route 201 with some views of the Kennebec River, then crossing over to Moosehead Lake before coming back to our base at the Wilson Lake Inn in Wilton. Wilson Lake Inn has beautiful landscaped grounds with access to a small lake and kayaks. One of my son’s favorite moments on the trip happened on the lake as we paddled around relaxing after the day’s ride.

As I started to relax, thinking how great life is on a trip like this, Raymond asked me why the back of my kayak was so low in the water. Not a strong swimmer, and despite wearing a life jacket, I started a panicked paddling back to shore as my kayak filled slowly with water and then ingloriously keeled over with me nearly hyperventilating. Raymond laughed the whole way back while towing me and the kayak, and he couldn’t help but chuckle any time later in the trip when I pulled soggy dollar bills from my wallet to pay for something. “No, it’s not sweat, ma’am. I just took an unplanned trip into the lake.”

We crossed through New Hampshire to Vermont. The remote forest section we passed through in New Hampshire was beautiful and serene. Coming into northern Vermont was a change in a few ways. The weather went from sunny and in the 90s in Maine to the 50s and threatening rain in Vermont. We were prepared though, and had ridden in rain before. We loved the seemingly never-ending rolling green hills and farms. Even with an overcast day, it was a beautiful ride.

From Vermont, we took the ferry across Lake Champlain into New York to ride in the Lake Placid area. On the ferry we met a fun group of Canadian riders, the second hardy and lively group of bikers from north of the border we met on the trip. After debarking, we spent some time on routes 9N and 22.

Raymond convinced me to do the Whiteface Mountain road despite my fear of heights, and I’m glad he did. One of our favorite moments in New York was meeting a Harley couple in their early 70s at a mom-and-pop market where we stopped for lunch.

“Where you from?” I asked.

“Well, technically from Texas” he answered. “When we retired a few years ago we bought an RV and have been on the road ever since. We take the Harley on day rides wherever we camp out for a while.” We were in appreciative awe as we watched them climb back on their Harley and ride away.

After the trip, I asked Raymond what he would do different if we did a trip like this again. “I want another cylinder,” he said, and I think we can all understand that. We put the G 650 GS up for sale and he later found a used Suzuki Bandit. It’s not a Beemer but I admit it makes a great sport-touring bike. He also got a job working at Bay 4 Motorsports in the next town, so he learned even more about taking care of motorcycles that summer and helped earn money for the trip.

For our next trip the following year we decided to go a bit bigger: Nova Scotia and the Cabot Trail. It would be about 2,000 miles in 9 days through Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. We again read up and planned together on routes, times, places to stay, how to handle weather and contingencies, what we absolutely needed to bring and what we could live without.

We stayed in St. Andews in New Brunswick both ways. It is a relaxing, uncrowded town on the water with great views and walkable streets. We stayed in Moncton, New Brunswick, and had the unexpected pleasure of running into a number of cars attending the Atlantic Nationals, a huge annual auto show. We went up to Antigonish, where we had to adjust our plans a bit due to expected bad weather on Cape Breton. It turned out that the Antigonish Evergreen Inn had not only great rooms, but accommodating owners and management. I can’t say enough good things about the place.

The Cabot Trail had some construction on the west side. I thought the temporary gravel section was dicey; Raymond thought was cool. Overall it was an awesome ride. As Raymond said, “The turns just never stop!” He also somehow convinced me to go down the partial gravel roads to Meat Cove on the tip of the cape. It was well worth it for the awesome views on the Cate Breton coast and a great lobster dinner in a small camp restaurant.

In Cape North, we stayed at the Oakwood Manor Inn, an old farm nestled in the mountains with pastures, an orchard and a home with wonderful woodwork the owner’s father did with trees from the land. It was another wonderful place to stay. 

On the last day or two of our ride we were already discussing ideas for our next trip. West Virginia and Pennsylvania? Newfoundland? Quebec? Lots of time to ponder and dream. In the meantime, I continue to reflect on the enjoyable time I had with my son before he went to college on Long Island, meeting great people, and of course enjoying the ride.

Photos by Richard and Raymond Gorzela (#211652)