A visit from a member here from Conn. tomorrow

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Well "Yabbadabbadoo" is coming to visit tomorrow. He wanted to ride the "Lincoln Gap Hillclimb", but unfortunately, he missed it by a couple of days .... It was closed for the season on Mon. '10/16 ..... However, we plan to do the "Notch" up at Stowe and a few other 'Special' roads .... Then I get to test my "Pulled Pork from a Pressure Cooker" method on Him ..... So I'll have an un-biased up-date soon .... Mike

[pegasus1300]

Sounds like a great time will be had by all Mike. Looking forward to the writeup

[safecracker]

Mike, you should have a great time.

[ARtraveler]

Entertaining guests from elsewhere is always a fun time.

We recently had two from NC and one from AZ come by our home.

[Yabbadabbadoo]

I'll start off my write-up first with many thanks to Mike for offering to host me. It was very generous of him and greatly appreciated!

As a bit of background I like to do an occasional single day mega solo ride to get to the scenic or fun areas not normally reachable with a group. It's foliage season here and Vermont of course is a top destination. Last year I did a one day solo ride up from my home area, Waterbury CT to Waterbury VT and back. I get out early in the morning, take the highways (I91 and I89) all the way up and then take the VT scenic routes back down south. I came down VT 100 which is great but I didn't want to do it again this year. So it was nice to be able to break it up into two days and get some additional routes in that I didn't do last year. Rt 108 through Smuggler's Notch was on the bucket list.

So I left my house at 7:00 am on Thursday morning and highway-ed it up to Mike's house. How convenient it was that he lives in the Waterbury VT area where I wanted to go!
It was 54 degrees and mostly foggy the whole ride up - bit of a shame because I91 and I89 are scenic highways but nothing could be seen past half a mile or so. A couple of pit stops and about 270 miles and I arrived at Mike's about 11:15 am. Mike came out and greeted me and I was happy to get off the bike for a bit. We planned on an afternoon ride up through Smuggler's Notch and beyond and loop back to his house. I took a couple layers off my clothes and changed my seat pad for the afternoon ride. I find it very helpful to ease butt soreness to switch between a couple of different pads when riding all day.

For the afternoon ride Mike led up Rt 108 by Mt Mansfield, Stowe ski area, through Smuggler's Notch, then a loop near Jay Peak ski area and then southwest towards Richmond and back to his house around 4:30 pm. We had a couple pit stops along the way. I had a total of about 370 miles for the day.

Settled in for the evening. Mike's special pork dinner was great! Delicious gravy and very satisfying after a long day riding. Mike put the TV on and I got out some Crown Royal "muscle relaxant" I brought, put up the Lazy Boy recliner, talked for a while and eventually I was falling asleep in the chair. I hope I didn't go into full snore mode for Mike's sake!

I have a dash camera mounted on my F3 and I was also doing some clips using my new Sena 50C helmet camera. It will take me some time to look through the videos, edit/post them so I will do that over the next couple of days.

I will write up day two, my return trip in a little while.

Attached is Google Maps data from day one and a pic from helmet cam with Mike in front of me. Not sure where exactly that was.

Thanks for reading..
Yabbadabbadoo (my name is also Mike btw)

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

I'll start off my write-up first with many thanks to Mike for offering to host me. It was very generous of him and greatly appreciated!

As a bit of background I like to do an occasional single day mega solo ride to get to the scenic or fun areas not normally reachable with a group. It's foliage season here and Vermont of course is a top destination. Last year I did a one day solo ride up from my home area, Waterbury CT to Waterbury VT and back. I get out early in the morning, take the highways (I91 and I89) all the way up and then take the VT scenic routes back down south. I came down VT 100 which is great but I didn't want to do it again this year. So it was nice to be able to break it up into two days and get some additional routes in that I didn't do last year. Rt 108 through Smuggler's Notch was on the bucket list.

So I left my house at 7:00 am on Thursday morning and highway-ed it up to Mike's house. How convenient it was that he lives in the Waterbury VT area where I wanted to go!
It was 54 degrees and mostly foggy the whole ride up - bit of a shame because I91 and I89 are scenic highways but nothing could be seen past half a mile or so. A couple of pit stops and about 270 miles and I arrived at Mike's about 11:15 am. Mike came out and greeted me and I was happy to get off the bike for a bit. We planned on an afternoon ride up through Smuggler's Notch and beyond and loop back to his house. I took a couple layers off my clothes and changed my seat pad for the afternoon ride. I find it very helpful to ease butt soreness to switch between a couple of different pads when riding all day.

For the afternoon ride Mike led up Rt 108 by Mt Mansfield, Stowe ski area, through Smuggler's Notch, then a loop near Jay Peak ski area and then southwest towards Richmond and back to his house around 4:30 pm. We had a couple pit stops along the way. I had a total of about 370 miles for the day.

Settled in for the evening. Mike's special pork dinner was great! Delicious gravy and very satisfying after a long day riding. Mike put the TV on and I got out some Crown Royal "muscle relaxant" I brought, put up the Lazy Boy recliner, talked for a while and eventually I was falling asleep in the chair. I hope I didn't go into full snore mode for Mike's sake!

I have a dash camera mounted on my F3 and I was also doing some clips using my new Sena 50C helmet camera. It will take me some time to look through the videos, edit/post them so I will do that over the next couple of days.

I will write up day two, my return trip in a little while.

Attached is Google Maps data from day one and a pic from helmet cam with Mike in front of me. Not sure where exactly that was.

Thanks for reading..
Yabbadabbadoo (my name is also Mike btw)

Thanks .....nice write-up, but I doubt many ( if anyone ) is going to read it ..... After I created this Thread only THREE people read it ..... The heading apparently wasn't interesting, so it dis-appeared quickly ..... that's normal for this Forum ...... Mike

[Yabbadabbadoo]

Thanks .....nice write-up, but I doubt many ( if anyone ) is going to read it ..... After I created this Thread only THREE people read it ..... The heading apparently wasn't interesting, so it dis-appeared quickly ..... that's normal for this Forum ...... Mike

That's okay Mike, it'll be here for posterity... wait til videos get posted...

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

That's okay Mike, it'll be here for posterity... wait til videos get posted...

I have seen posts / threads resurrected from 14 years ago ....however it's not often ............When you do post I suggest starting a new Thread .... it will get noticed ....JMHO ....Mike

[Yabbadabbadoo]

I have seen posts / threads resurrected from 14 years ago ....however it's not often ............When you do post I suggest starting a new Thread .... it will get noticed ....JMHO ....Mike

Maybe I'll do it in Ride Reports section

[Fvee3]

Sounds like a great trip. I miss riding up to Vt. I lived in RI my whole life until moving to NJ in 2020. Use to ride up to VT almost Saturday am for some great rides. Look forward to some clips.

[Peteoz]

Thanks .....nice write-up, but I doubt many ( if anyone ) is going to read it ..... After I created this Thread only THREE people read it ..... The heading apparently wasn't interesting, so it dis-appeared quickly ..... that's normal for this Forum ...... Mike

Well I certainly read it, Mike……and I’m STILL waiting for the “review” of the pulled pork in the pressure cooker.

…….ahhhhh….I see it was just posted in Yabba’s ride report.

Pete

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Well I certainly read it, Mike……and I’m STILL waiting for the “review” of the pulled pork in the pressure cooker.

…….ahhhhh….I see it was just posted in Yabba’s ride report.

Pete

....Well He did have seconds ............Mike

[Peteoz]

....Well He did have seconds ............Mike

Yes, but was he just being polite? ……I trust your opinion, Mike……how was it ?

Pete

[Yabbadabbadoo]

If the food was bad, I would be polite and say "oh it was great, but I'm so full, no room for seconds". Mike's dinner was in fact very good and yes I had seconds!

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Yes, but was he just being polite? ……I trust your opinion, Mike……how was it ?

Pete

OK , to be honest .... this was my second Pork Roast, and truth be told it could have been cooked another 10 to 15 min. because it was larger than the first one ( I'll remember that for the future ) ..... but it was very good and the gravy " was to die for " .... I'm now looking for a Chuck Roast 3 to 4 lbs...... Mike

[Peter Aawen]

Thanks .....nice write-up, but I doubt many ( if anyone ) is going to read it ..... After I created this Thread only THREE people read it ..... The heading apparently wasn't interesting, so it dis-appeared quickly ..... that's normal for this Forum ...... Mike

I dunno Mike, if you check out the Thanks & Likes under your first post in this thread, there's 10 different usernames in there; and if you scroll down past the last post in the thread to where it shows all the usernames of 'Members who have Read this Thread', there's 66 names in there as I post - and that DOESN'T count the people who've looked at the thread more than once, it just moves their place up in the listing order!! And since the Replies & Views tally on the Index page shows 169 as the total number of views of this thread as I post, rather than just the 66 members who have visited, it means that at least a few of us have been interested enough to visit more than just once, in fact, possibly as many as 37 of us may have checked it out 3 times!

So that's nothing to sneeze at, and I'm sure there's people besides me who'd be interested in seeing (the other) Mike's vids too - here or in the Ride Reports section if (that) Mike feels that necessary... Altho from my point of view, I'd suggest that if at all possible, it would be nice to see at least any 'Visiting Blueknight911' & 'Check out this Great Pulled Pork' parts end up here in this thread, even if those bits are duplicated elsewhere, just so it rounds this thread off nicely and to keep all the related bits in the same place instead of just leaving us hanging and never knowing the final outcome, like so many threads here do!!

Mind you, I won't say that 'Ride Reports from Vermont' are aplenty out there, but hey, it's the 'unique & special' bits about this particular 'ride' that are the bits we really want to see here! ....Altho thinking about it, I suppose you could've called it something like 'The Pulled Pork Ride' & put it in Ride Reports to start with...

[oldgoat]

I read it and enjoyed it having covered all those VT roads myself.

[Pooch]

I thoroughly enjoyed this writeup and look forward to Day 2.
I didn't see this writeup until this morning as I was out riding all day yesterday, got home, glanced out here quickly, then had to play catch-up with home chores.

[Lew L]

.

Was out ryding all day yesterday also. Up and down the Sierra passes. 6 BattleBorn Spyders had a great time with no "incidents". Had lots of fall color in groves and mixed with tall pines.

Read it ALL............

Lew L

[Tango]

I have had the pleasure of meeting Mike in person at a rally. He's a great guy. And will blow you away with his knowledge. Yes he's very smart. And very inventive. Tom

[GS1]

sounds like a good time for all

[pegasus1300]

Wow 370 miles on a day ride, that is covering some ground. Glad you got see some beautiful country and I am looking forward to seeing the videos and part II.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Wow 370 miles on a day ride, that is covering some ground. Glad you got see some beautiful country and I am looking forward to seeing the videos and part II.

Mike ( Yabbaddabbado ) pm'd me about the " Lincoln Gap rd. " ( that I love and have mentioned a few times ) .... I gave Him the Bad news that He had AGAIN missed the opportunity to ride it, because it closed the day of His PM .... He said He was coming up anyway to ride the super twisty Stowe rt 108 " Smuggler's Notch rd. " .... I sent Him my home cell number & we talked about it .... He said He was coming for the day and would return to Ct. that same day .... I told Him He could stay at my hoiuse and leave on Fri. ( which He did ). I have hosted a quite few folks from Spyderlover's over the years , dating back to 2012 when " Murphy Brown " stayed for 4 days on Her way home from Nova Scotia. .... This is what Spyderlovers is all about ... at least for me it has been ....Mike