First, let me back up and re-explain who "The Girls" are, in case you joined us late. I refer to them often and on at least one occasion had someone ask who The Girls are. If you already know, feel free to skip ahead.
My GPS system feeds two female voices into my Bluetooth receiver to give me directions while I am riding (reading a road map on a motorcycle is neither easy or safe). The two females that are guiding me are Gloria Pauline Stewart and Gertrude Pauline Schuster. As discussed early-on they give me frequent and different directions. At first I thought Gloria was giving directions and distances (I.e. turn right in 600 feet) and Gertrude was giving me highway numbers (i.e. merge onto highway U.S. 2 west). I now believe Gertrude is Gloria's supervisor. If Gloria gives me several commands that I don't follow (for example, she is forever trying to put me on an interstate, so I often ignore her plea to have me turn onto an on-ramp) then Gertrude, who sounds somewhat older and has a tinge of attitude, gives me a different direction to see if she can reclaim command of the situation. This sometimes leads to situations where Gloria is telling me to turn left and do a U-Turn when Gertrude comes up with a right turn onto a different highway.
So today The Girls showed up for work (which is not always the case) but they apparently were out too late last night. Granted it was very heavily overcast this morning so they may not have had visual confirmation of my position, but they were telling me to turn "slight left" and "slight right" onto non-existent roads and highways! At one point Gloria kept repeating herself again and again (turn left on North U.S. 37, turn left on North U.S. 37, turn left ...), as much as three to five times. Once she was so insistent that I had to turn her off (how do you turn off a Bluetooth? Brush it!). Then another time when Gloria was stuck, Gertrude chimed in with something in French! She was either swearing at me or didn't realize I was south of the Ottawa border.
So I spent the day hugging the St. Lawrence Seaway (St. Larry to his friends) which I don't believe I had ever seen before. I was quite surprised it is as narrow as it is.
The one place where I was in visual contact with th S.L.S. was the Thousand Islands area (where they were all wearing Holiday dressings). The map shows islands everywhere, making one wonder how the big ships get through when passing to and fro from the Great Lakes and the Gulf of St. Lawrence near Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
From there, based on the mileage I saw on my map I opted to hop on the Interstate to make up some time. The primary reasons being to avoid Holiday Vacationer Drivers (HVDs) and to put myself in position to reach "Uncle" Bud's by the Fourth.
I pressed on, despite my rear-end telling me I'd gone far enough. There were rain clouds everywhere this morning and I left the motel in full battle gear; rain suit and leather. After lunch it cleared up and I got to ride for quite a ways without the rain gear, but the leather jacket kept me warm in sub-typical temperatures. By late afternoon the rain clouds were moving in again so I pushed my way down the New York Thruway as far as I dared, then found a motel for the night. The mileage I was seeing from my navigation program ended up being substantially less than what I had actually traveled - 365 miles!
The Wi-Fi appears to be dependable here at the Days Inn (or is it Daze Inn, I can't focus), unlike last night when I literally had to sit in the lobby to get a signal, allowing me to post my blog.
Tomorrow will be a late start but I should cross into two new states.
Question for my Grandkids:
Which two states will I cross into from upstate New York?
I got a kick out of this, posted in my room last night.. Apparently theft has been a concern, so some clever spin-master came up with a friendly way of telling people they would be charged for missing items. It doesn't give a price for that nice flat screen TV though.
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