5/30/05 Today was the day that was scheduled for departure from Boston, wasn’t that supposed to be yesterday Josh, well it was but everyone knows I am can be easily distracted so today it is. Well fate wouldn’t allow that when the little girl decided to test me once again. She started up fine and even idled for about 5 minutes before dieing on me and then only making a clicking sound when the starter was pushed. So my first thought was it was the starter again. The good news was that it was not only Monday it was also a holiday so there was no chance of getting this solved today, So uhh Fisha you know a good bar to go to. I actually opted for a mellow day so I could deal with this situation on a clear head tomorrow since I do have to be in Toronto on Wednesday to ship the bike to Ireland. Did I mention Toronto is over a 10 hour ride away so best case scenario is it gets fixed by sometime Tuesday it is a long haul to Toronto. Today’s Specs Weather: Mostly overcast, some rain and some blues skies Distance: 0 miles, still in Boston 5/31/05 Up early and on the phone with the BMW dealer who says no problem a truck is on the way to pick up the bike and they will do everything in their German (ok they were all Irish) blood to get me on the road ASAP. Next to call Motocycle Express and see what the consequences are if I miss my shipping date. Well Gail from Motorcycle express was awesome and said she would take care of everything and just let her know when I would be in Toronto. So all that stressing I was doing, uhhmmm Josh you weren’t stressing about it - well ok but I thought about stressing about it does that count. Well about an 2 hours after the guys came and picked up my finicky girl the mechanic called man and said everything was ok and she was ready to go. The good news is the starter was fine the bad news I could fuck up a bowl of cheerios. As it turned out when I wired in the voltage regulator for the GPS there was a speaker attachment for when using it in a car, well that speaker always draws some voltage or is it amperage, see what I mean. So with the battery being low and when I was coming into Boston it was cold and rainy so I had everything from my heated vest/grips to all 6 lights on it was just too much for the poor battery. So for a $140 a new battery and a stupid look from the mechanic I was on the road. By the time I was fully loaded it was almost 6:00 pm and I decided I could make it to Toronto by tomorrow. A little bummed I had to stick to the Turn Pikes (a fancy east coast name for expensive toll road) to make to Toronto because I really wanted to drive through New England. By 2:00 am I decided I had better stop for some sleep, I didn’t want to deal with camping I was so I stopped at the first hotel I came to. When I walked in and asked the girl how much a room was she quickly responded $82 so I quickly responded does that come with a midget and a massage, she quickly said no, so I quickly said no massage or midget, she didn’t appear to be having fun with this conversation. Well refusing to pay $82 for 4 hours of sleep I walked out of the hotel wondering where I should sleep when I spied a nice piece of flat grass behind the hotel which my tent would fit nicely on. Today’s Specs Weather: Rainy till New York then clear skies Distance: 330 miles, Boston to upstate New York