Last weekend I (willfully) gave up an opportunity to go to the Delmarva Bike Week. My wife and I went last year and had a great time.
The reason I was so quick to give it up is this: my anniversary is October 10 and my wife told me she wanted to save the money we'd spend at Delmarva and take the bike on the weekend of our anniversary to go to Salem, Massachusetts.
A couple of things have me concerned, the least of which is the bike itself. She's been runnning like a champ! I am concerned about the weather. We're both pretty "fair weather" riders. I definitely can handle the cold better than she can, but it does put a damper on the fun if you're cold. I ride a little even in the middle of winter (usually 30F or so around here).
Mapquest calls it a 6.5 hour ride. 350+ miles each way. The miles don't concern me too much, we've ridden that much in one day on several occasions. Of course, the extra stops to stretch them legs means about 8+ hours at least.
Also looking into a good sissy-bar bag. I've only medium sized saddle bags and I don't know if we can carry 3 days worth of crap in them. Especially her. She travels "heavy". Along with the sissy-bar bag, I guess I need a luggage rack for it to sit on.
So, weather's the biggie, hoping for heat... luggage a close second, hope we can manage to get all we need by then (financially).
Anyone here know the area that can recommend decent hotels, restaraunts, etc.?
Thanks,
Carmen

Maybe do a web search on "travelling light"? One thing I do, I use the synthetic (not cotten) underware, sox, and long sleeve shirts. Wear 1 set, pack 1 set. Every night, hand wash the set you wore, wrap a towel around them as tight as you can to get the water out, then hang overnight to dry. Sometimes you might need to use a little bit of a hair dryer to finish them in the morning. You can even get by with just 1 set, but I like the spare. Also, you can get the pants that have zippers so they can become shorts, these are usually a light nylon, and can be rolled into a very tiny space, so then you can get the heavy grimmy leathers off when you get to a motel.

As for food, there are lots of fancy places up that way, but in the next town over, for the 30 years I lived in that area, there was a place called the "Hilltop Steakhouse" which has great steaks at decent prices, and a thing called lobster pie. They put the meat of a lobster in a dish, cover with breadcrumps and hot butter. Its not only a lazy man's way to eat it, it is really excellent. The place is huge and seats a million people, and everyone knows about it, so anyone can diret you to it.

Kurt

You will only need 2 sets of clothes each. One for the ride and one to go out to eat. It is your anniversary, you won't be wearing clothes most of the time..

Mate, as far as a sissy-bar bag goes. You might want to consider RJays Expandable Bag. The link below is an Aussie link but you should be able to pick one of these up locally fairly cheap.

Teammoto

Close to the best bit of luggage I've ever purchased. You can have it compacted for travelling light or expanded to increase the volume to carry more than enough for you and the good lady for the trip.

Hope this helps....Emu

kurtfriedrich wrote:

As for food, there are lots of fancy places up that way, but in the next town over, for the 30 years I lived in that area, there was a place called the "Hilltop Steakhouse" which has great steaks at decent prices, and a thing called lobster pie. They put the meat of a lobster in a dish, cover with breadcrumps and hot butter. Its not only a lazy man's way to eat it, it is really excellent. The place is huge and seats a million people, and everyone knows about it, so anyone can diret you to it.

Kurt


This sounds great. Can you be more specific when you say "next town over"? What town? Thanks,
Carmen
Ooops. After posting this, I looked online and found it quite easily. Thank you.
CD

http://hilltopsteakhouse.com/

I always went to the one on Rt 1 in Saugus.

go hungry, they will give you a lot of food.

Kurt

i'm an hour south of salem in wrentham right next to foxboro stadium.

this time of year up there is awesome!!! i live in ny and me and the boys go up there in mid oct and i love the cool air..night time low 50's hope you and your wife have a great time

Salem is great this time of year. You should have a wonderful time.

http://www.bellaverona.com/menu.htm
http://www.caffegraziani.com/
http://www.capts.com/ - the pub menu is very reasonable. I haven't eaten here yet...

Have a Wicked Good time!

CSnakes

This is a nice restaurant on the water.
http://www.hipfinz.com/