Every summer, the spousal unit and I like to take a good road trip (one thousand miles minimum). This summer, we had thought of going south until the 90 and 100 degree temperatures changed our minds. Of course you know what it’s like to ride on a motorcycle in those temperatures. I find, riding on the "mezzanine seat" of our Goldwing, that I get the brunt of the hot wind coming around the full faring and hitting me full force until I’m ready to faint and my legs are swollen from the heat.

So we changed our plans and decided to head toward to the hopefully cooler mountains of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, landing eventually on the shores of the cold seas of the north of Maine near Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.

We’ve been going to Maine for over twenty years. Our first trip was on a 500 Yamaha when we were both about thirty pounds lighter and as many years younger. On this trip, we welcomed the comfort of our 1993 Honda Goldwing GL, which pulled our 1988 trailer.

We take our normal backroads route out of Rome, NY, which is to go up through Lee Center along the shore of Delta Lake into Westernville, New York.

If you’re coming toward the Adirondacks from downstate, you might want to take the New York State Thruway to Exit 33, the Verona exit (and home of the Oneida Indian Nation Turning Stone Casino). Take a right off the exit onto Route 365 (the casino would be to your left off the exit, at the next set of traffic lights if you feel like a couple of games of Black Jack first) and follow Route 365 toward Rome and Route 49. Watch for signs to Route 46 north, which travels along the Black River Gorge up to Boonville, New York. Take Route 46 through Rome and to Boonville. This is a really nice ride on a bike and shouldn’t be missed, especially if you’ve been doing the super highway ride for a time, trying to get north as quickly as possible!

A little-known short cut can be utilized to the Adirondack Park from here; you’ll like the windy way that this takes you, as well.

In Boonville, at the traffic light, turn right and bear right to the stop sign at Route 12. Turn right onto route 12 go to the Chevy dealership on the left, look for Forestport Rd, and make a left. That road is a little bit rough but it is being repaved and large portions of it especially from the midway point at Hawkinsville to Forestport have been repaved. A very nice, windy umbrage covered road. Maple stands on both sides, a few houses here and there, but basically some nice soft curves. Watch out for traffic coming toward you. They do tend to go a little fast there. I guess curves like these get people in the mood for cruising and even a couple of big trucks come sliding along them, sometimes a little too close for my taste!

There's a real nice "tummy tickler" as I call it, on this road, too, at the Forestport end, as the road begins to flatten out. You notice that you're going through a lot of sand flats which could be another area where there are active sand dunes as there are in our hometown of Blossvale, which is located just west of Rome.

Once you get to the traffic light in Forestport, just past the Forestport Library and the Forestport Post Office, you'll see a little restaurant just across the intersection on your left--called Ron’s--a nice little place for breakfast or lunch if it's that time of day for you. Nothing fancy, but good, hearty food as you'll find in the Adirondacks.

Turn left onto Route 46 and you are just below White Lake and just below one of several entrances to the Adirondack Park. This is a main entrance, as Route 28 is a main thoroughfare through the Park; two lane, black top , curvy in many areas, well paved for the most part. In foliage season, this road tends to get a lot of traffic, so avoid it in mid-day, especially on weekends. Along the road you see a number of small camps with inviting names like "Dun Rovin" or "This'll Do." In White Lake, on the left, there's a cute no-name gift shop (look for the Standard Oil sign) where you can pick up something Adirondack-y, like one of those balsam-filled pillows that give you the sensation of walking in the northern woods.

There are campgrounds along the way, too, if you're camping. "Singing Waters" Campground is just before Otter Lake, a few miles up from White Lake. It’s a decent, peaceful place to set up your tent for a night or so for under $20 a night.

There are a number of hiking trails along Route 28 as well, if you care to stop off for a few hours or part of a day and if you brought along your hiking boots in your trailer or side bags. You can even bungy strap your favorite walking stick to your motorcycle’s radio antennae.

And this trip, we had a new acquisition: an inflatable two-person kayak. It fits right into the motorcycle trailer because it only weighs about 35 lbs., and folds up into its own waterproof duffel bag. The bag even holds the paddles (they come apart into four sections) and a foot-operated bellows pump. We planned to see Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park from another vantage point, and we did!

If you’d like more information about the line of inflatable Helios kayak we bought, check with a catalog company called "Field Trips." Their number is 1-800-500-9266. The kayaks tend to be a little pricey, but if you can justify the cost divided by the number of times you’ll be able to put into that inviting pond or lake along the way, and the rental fees most resort areas charge, it may be worth the initial investment.

About six miles from the blinking light in Forestport up to the larger town and center of recreational attractions, Old Forge, NY., where you can find the Adirondack Scenic Railroad making several trips into the Adirondacks each day during the summer and early fall. Ticket prices are generally $12 per person. If you arrive on a Tuesday, you may even be treated to a "train robbery," compliments of local rabble-rouses for hire.

On the train, you can relive and experience some of the rich railroading history of this area. Take the train from Thendara Station to Carter Station, through scenic vista after scenic vista; now offering round-trips from Utica to Old Forge/Old Forge to Utica, Train robberies, Bike and Rail mountain biking packages, Canoe & Rail canoeing packages and many other special events and trips can be arranged.

The railroad station has been restored and sports a small gift shop with train-type items as well as a few showcases of old photos and memorabilia from some of the old Adirondack Railroads from the days of the Adirondack Great Camps.

Right behind the rail station in Thendara, the bit of road just before Old Forge Center is a nice old inn with rooms and a restaurant serving lunch from 11:30 to 2:30 p.m. and dinner starts at 5 p.m. It's called Van Auken Inn. You can call them about accommodations and such at (315) 369-3033.

On the inn's great veranda, which faces the train station, check out the "wood butcher's" art of a bear serving a meal created by artist, D. Dempsey in 1990. The bear, symbol of the ever prevalent Black Bear known to travelers in the Adirondack Park, stands in greeting at the door to the Van Auken Inn where luncheon sandwiches can be had for six or seven dollars and rooms start at $56 per night for a double.

You can stop in Old Forge for some respite, or for an overnight. You’ll find a variety of shops, restaurants and diversions . Try Keyes Pancake House, about mid-village on your left for breakfasts running around $6. It’s a family-style restaurant, so if you’re not into hearing kids’ voices and a lot of clatter, you might try elsewhere.

On the outskirts of town on your right, and directly on the lake, you’ll find the Pied Piper Restaurant, which is a drive-in style place serving burgers, fish or chicken sandwiches, drinks and ice cream. It’s an inexpensive place to chow-down as is the usual McDonald’s just up the way from the Pied Piper. Enjoy the fine view of the Fulton Chain of Lakes as you munch your sandwich on a bench lakeside behind the restaurant. Public restrooms can be found in the second brown building over the covered-bridge to your right.

Before you leave town, you might want to make a visit to the Old Forge Hardware and Furniture Company, Inc. It’s located on your right at the far end of town, on a bit of side street that "V’s" off the main road. Here you’ll find just about any gadget or gazingus pin you might ever have been looking for. It doesn’t cost a thing to browse, but you may end up spending a few dollars and walking out with that little something you’ve been looking for.

If you’re boiling hot (pretty rare in the Adirondacks except in the days of heavy drought and high temperatures) and want to stop for a cooling off, there’s the Water Park at Enchanted Forest, almost directly across from the Pied Piper Restaurant.

You’ll find lines of people, mostly kids, with tubes in hand, waiting to get a swift, slippery ride down their variety of water slides, but it might be fun for a couple of hours to float in a tube under their sprinklers.

The Park is open daily beginning in mid-June, from 9:30 am to 6:00/7:00 p.m., Call for hours and other information: 315-369 6145. The Enchanted Forest/Water Safari is open until Labor Day. Entrance fees run around $15 per person for the day and are all-inclusive, including lunch!

A nice gift shop, Woodsy Gifts, is just out of town on your right where you’ll find a good selection of inexpensive-to-expensive gifts and souvenir-type items. Of course, traveling on motorcycle, you’ll want to buy something small, flexible and flat. Or, have them ship for you.

The remainder of Route 28 takes you through another small town of Inlet, a smallish Old Forge, but with some public hot showers ($1 per shower) and laundromat, if you’re in need of some refreshment, or you’re soaking wet and cold from riding in the rain! You’ll find the showers on your right, just out of town.

Near Raquette Lake, look for a sign on your right for Great Camp Sagamore, one of the Adirondack Great Camps and a National Historic Site. Sagamore was built by William West Durant, one of the most prominent figures in the development of the Central Adirondacks. Durant was the son of Thomas C. Durant, General Manager of the Union Pacific Railroad, one of the prominent figures of The Gilded Age. Thomas Durant had the opportunity and foresight to purchase vast tracts of the Adirondacks for as little as 6 cents an acre while planning to drive railroad lines into the bountiful mountains. To implement this ambitious plan, he called his son William home from Europe to begin developing the "family" township. William West Durant undoubtedly conceived the Adirondack Great Camp having visited hunting and fishing camps of the European upper classes.

Fees for a two hour guided walking tour of its 27-building complex which take place at 10am or 1:30pm (only) daily in summer or on fall weekends: adults, $8. Children,$3. Coffee shop and book store is also open. Group tours by arrangement.

Sagamore, dating back to 1897 was the 27th building, wilderness retreat of the famous and famously wealthy Vanderbilt family for over 50 years. They offer daily tours, a gift shop, and coffee shop as well as the Sagamore Institute, which annually provides a variety of adventure and arts programs for individuals and families. If you want to call ahead or get a brochure for next year’s offerings, the number is (315) 354-5311. You can’t stay overnight at Sagamore unless you’re participating in one of their many weekend events.

Continue on Route 28 to the lovely town of Blue Mountain Lake. Here, Route 28 turns right and if you continue on straight (which you should do), you are now following Route 30. On the far end of Blue Mountain Lake, you might want to stop and hike to the top of Blue Mountain (trailhead parking lot is on your right, up the hill, almost across from the Adironack Museum.) At the pinnacle, if it’s a good clear day, you can get a good view of the Fulton Chain of Lakes, which you’ve been driving past for the past hour or so, as well as even some of the Adirondack High Peaks where you’re now heading. It’d say it’s a moderate to difficult trail, quite steep and rocky in many places, so don’t attempt it in your motorcycle boots or if you’re pretty much out of shape from riding too much and doing little else!

The Adirondack Museum just on the outskirts of Blue Mountain Lake is also a good stop over where you can gain an as-extensive-as-you-like historical perspective of the Adirondacks and their hey day around the turn of the century when "roughing" it in the mountains was de rigeur for the well-to-do from down-state. It took many hours to travel to the Adirondacks utilizing a variety of train/stage coach/boat rides to make one’s final destination, one of the grand hotels built by and for the likes of the Vanderbilts. The museum phone number is (518) 352-7311 if you’re interested in times and entrance fees which are generally around $10 per person.

On down the highway from Blue Mountain Lake, stop for a few minutes at Long Lake. It’s a lovely view and you can even get a seaplane ride for $15 per person up and over the Adirondacks. The Adirondack Hotel just at the bend offers rooms and meals, too. Meals start at $7.95 with specials offered each evening; rooms are a little sparse, but so’s the price, $49 for a double. You get the historic ambience thrown into the deal.

My least favorite of the towns beyond Blue Mountain Lake is Tupper Lake where you’ll pick up Route 3 East. The lake itself is rather shallow and grassy in spots and one of the first things you see is huge factory smokestacks across the water from the highway. But there’s a good seafood store/restaurant just across from the rest area, if you’ve got a hankering for some clams, crab, or the like, imported of course from elsewhere, but also served with the fresh local catch of the day.

About twenty miles north of Tupper Lake is the pretty town of Saranac Lake that could easily make you feel like you’re in Switzerland. As you come into town, pull into the public boat launch parking area on your right which also offers a grassy area, picnic tables, a nice view of the town-center and the lake, and even a few ducks to feed. This is a good place to stretch out on the grass and do some back exercises to limber up. There isn’t a public restroom here, but you’ll find a Burger King directly across the street and no one has ever yelled at me for using a fast food restaurant rest room, even if I wasn’t buying something to eat!

Saranac Lake is a good size town with the usual chain stores and restaurants. As you leave here you see a tremendously devastated area of woods just outside of Saranac Lake, no doubt the remnants of the great ice storm of a winter or two ago that hit the northeast.

You’ll find a campground and barbecue-type restaurant on the outskirts of town, as well as cabins with stone fireplaces for rent directly across the road. Looks like a cute little place to hunker down for a meal, or for an overnight.

This isn’t a good place to pass, but you’ll find some passing lanes along the way to get by the RV’s.

Look for Route 86 and take it East. You’ll have a beautiful view of the high peaks as you descend into the village of Lake Placid which has more restaurants, shops and motels than you’ll ever need.

Just before going into Lake Placid, you’ll find a small shopping center on your left at the traffic light. You can get some food supplies at the larger supermarket, grab some aspirin or ginkgo biloba at the chain drug store, or even pick up that last minute film or ice. If you’re in need of a public rest room at this point, you’ll find one in the Grand Union grocery store at the end of aisle 11 next to seafood!

In the very "alpine" looking village of Lake Placid, we’ve stayed at the Town House Lodge, on your left on Route 86 going up the hill, prior to the village center and had dinner at the Rathskeller on the road to Whiteface Mountain, on your right. Good Germanic-type food, but nothing like Germany itself, I’m sorry to say!

The village is rather congested and Route 86 will take you directly down Main Street, so watch for traffic and pedestrians. It’s a true resort town with a nice view of Whiteface Mountain, one of the highest peaks in the Adirondacks (elevation 4867 ft.), just ahead as you pull into the village. The highest peak in New York State is nearby Mount Marcy, weighing in at 5344 ft.

You can take a drive to the top of Whiteface Mountain, located about nine miles out of town, if you like, or if you need to stretch your legs at this point, get out and take the elevator up to the top which runs directly through the mountain. Then take the easy to moderate walk back down to the parking lot. It can be windy on Whiteface Mountain, and as usual, if it’s overcast, be fairly uneventful because what is wonderful is of course, the view. You can also get a bite to eat in the restaurant topside. The fare is national park restaurant-style. Or, perhaps you’re acquainted with some of the food establishments at Disney World. This would be comparable, but not quite as pricey.

The road out of Lake Placid is spectacular, windy, with no passing. You’ll want to take your time to look at those beautiful mountains all around you and watch the trout fisherman in the Ausable River on your left. Or stop in at a restaurant along the way and have yourself a fresh trout dinner. I’ve never eaten trout myself. I think it’s the word "trout" which prevents me from being turned on to this supposedly delicious fish that anglers everywhere covet.

There are many trailheads along this route if you care to indulge. At the time of this writing, there is tremendous damage to the white birch trees that line this route, again, left over from the ice storm of two seasons ago.

Watch for fallen rocks on your right as you go along. On a motorcycle, if one of these rocks hit you, you would turn into Adirondack Puree without a doubt! But fear not. Most of them don’t reach the roadway. There’s a place called High Falls Gorge that you stop at if you like, offering a view of the gorge and falls and sporting a small snack shop and gifts. Later on, you’ll come across the famous (in our parts, anyway) Ausable Chasm, a deep crevice in the mountainous terrain. You’ll cross a bridge going over a less-deep part of the chasm and can pull in if you care to stay and look around a bit more.

At the stop sign, turn right and continue on Route 86, missing Santa’s Workshop (for people with small children or those who are easily amused), or turn left there if you want to go to the top of Whiteface Mountain. If you’re ready to head toward Ausable Forks and Lake Champlain to catch the ferry to Burlington, go right at the stop sign.

Continue on to the junction of Route 9N at Jay, New York and go north on that highway, or take Route 87 (also called the Northway) at the entrance provided for that highway’s access. You’ll want to look for the exit to Fort Kent for the ferry.

Go through Ausable Forks bearing right and about five miles along, you’ll find Route 9N ending. Follow the signs for the ferry to Vermont, over the Ausable Chasm bridge. It’s well marked.

And suddenly there before you is the great Lake Champlain and directly across, somewhat to your right, you’ll see the city of Burlington, Vermont.

Stop at the tollbooth and pay your fare. It’ll cost you about $12 one way for the bike, two passengers and a trailer, less if you’re doing a solo ride and your sleeping bag is strapped to your luggage carrier. You’ll be directed where to park and wait for the ferry. There’s a small snack restaurant and the requisite gift shop, as well as a kiosk where you can pick up brochures for area attractions.

We like to take a cooler loaded with picnic lunch items with us on our trip, stocked with cold drinks, water, fruit, bread, and cheese for what we like to call a "ploughman’s lunch." The ferry ride over to Burlington is a good place to picnic. You can stay right with your bike for your lunch, or go upstairs for a view, to grab a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, or a cold drink.

When we get to Burlington, we’re usually ready to travel on and get into the beautiful Vermont countryside. But often a Sunday afternoon band session is taking place near the ferry dock and you might be tempted to stop off for a few tunes before heading out.

Take Main Street, also called Route 2 East out of Burlington. To save a little time, we picked up the I-89 to Montpelier since we wanted to make camp before it got too late. The road was well paved and the scenery pretty nice, but as usual, I didn’t care for super highway traffic. Luckily, we weren’t on the interstate long before we jumped off in Montpelier and picked up Route 2 again, jockeying down to route 302 and across into New Hampshire.

We’re going to follow Route 302 and then drop down onto the Kancamagus Highway (Route 112) through the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Because it was getting and we were only a few miles from the start of the Kancamagus Highway we stopped for the night at a roadside campground in Woodsville, New Hampshire, just at the junction of 302 and 112.

The looks of the place weren’t too appealing: open field with RV’s parked in rows. But the tent sites were secluded and up the side of a hill into the woods, surrounded by wild raspberry bushes. So we lucked out, for $18. And there was even a small camp store where we picked up a $10 phone card to call home with. You could swim, too, in the camp pool, but it didn’t look heated and we were in the mountains. As a matter of fact, we froze that night.

We had bought a queen-size inflatable mattress to put into the tent and even spurned sleeping bags this trip, in favor of a set of sheets and a favorite comforter. Hey. I’m built for comfort.

But I had forgotten a mattress pad and we put the sheet directly over the plastic mattress, which apparently allowed all the cold air from the ground to chill our bones during the night. After that first night, we used a duvet cover I had brought for the comforter as a mattress pad and put it underneath us. We weren’t cold anymore thanks to that, and to the warmer temperatures on the coast of Maine!

These parts of Vermont and New Hampshire are lovely to drive through, but you can’t beat the Kancamagus Highway for beauty (and in summer, congestion!).

Recently dedicated by the US Forest Service as a Scenic Byway for its recreation opportunities as well as its aesthetic, cultural, and historic values, the Kancamagus Highway stretches from the Pemigewasset River at Lincoln, New Hampshire 341Ž2 miles to the Saco River at Conway, NH. The route climbs to nearly 3000 feet as it traverses the flank of Mt. Kancamagus near Lincoln. It is open year-round, weather permitting.

The mountains here bear the names of some of New Hampshire's most legendary inhabitants. Passaconaway (Child of the Bear) was a peace-loving chief who in 1627 united over 17 tribes of Central New England into the Panacook Confederacy. As first "Sagamon," he ruled wisely until his death in 1669.

Kancamagus (The Fearless One), grandson of Passaconaway, succeeded his uncle, Wonalancet, around 1684 as third and final Sagamon of the Penacook Confederacy. Kancamagus tried to keep peace between the Penacook and pioneering whites, until aggravated English harassments brought war and bloodshed. The confederacy's tribes scattered after 1691, and Kancamagus and his followers moved north to upper New Hampshire and Canada.

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White men around 1790 first settled Passaconaway, or Albany InterVale, the fertile land on the Swift River 12 miles from Conway. Early settlers eked out a living in this isolated valley for over a century by farming, taking in summer boarders, and logging, an industry that peaked around 1900.

A town road to Passaconaway was completed in 1837. One hundred years later the route was extended eastward and westward from Passaconaway and from Lincoln. The two sections were at last completed and opened to through traffic in 1959.

The US Forest Service provides many conveniences along and near the Kancamagus Highway. Picnic sites have tables, drinking water, and sanitary facilities; campgrounds offer family units with parking, tenting spaces, open fireplaces, tables, drinking water, and sanitary stations. Campsites are generally available on a first-come basis. Pets are allowed on leash. Camping fees are posted at each area's entrance.

There are also numerous day hikes easily accessible from the Kancamagus Highway. Detailed trail maps can be obtained at the Ranger Stations or visitor centers located at either end of the Kancamagus Highway. You’ll also need a recreation pass for your bike if you want to park it alongside the highway to do any kind of site-seeing or hiking. There are pull offs at various overlooks and scenic areas, however, where no pass is required.

If you run into trouble with your bike, whether a Honda or another type, you can find dealerships in Conway, New Hampshire. We found this out along the road from some other motorcyclists after we discovered that we’d thrown a weight in our front tire and it was scalloping itself into a slick quicker than we cared to think about!

Travelers love to talk to motorcyclists, even if they’re driving the family truckster with the kid, or have an RV full of extended family in tow. There’s something about the adventure of seeing someone on a motorcycle that attracts them like bees to honey!

One such traveler suggested to us that we take the Bear Path Road to our left off the Kancamagus Highway, which would then put us onto Route 302 and then to Route 2, our ultimate destination to begin crossing the state of Maine toward Bangor.

We ended up heading into Conway to buy a new tire (the dealership is to your right at the intersection in Conway) and put it on ourselves! The guys at the shop lent us a hydraulic jack and pointed out a great deli just across the street at the Mobil Shop where they recommended the steak and cheese subs. We took their advice and had a great meal while we waited for the new tire to be mounted. And pretty soon, we were on our way, going back to pick up that Bear Path Road we’d been told about. Hey. We were on vacation. So what if we digressed here and there?

But, it was kind of a bum steer. The promised ride wasn’t as spectacular as the fellow made it out to be. Maybe it’s nice in a pick up truck, I don’t know. And at the end of it, when we came to Route 302, we found that the road had been taken down to the gravel for a good-sized stretch. We ended up sitting in a stream of traffic that had been held up so long, people had turned off their engines and let their kids get out of the car to stretch their legs! Not a good sign.

It wasn’t so bad, though. After about a ten minute wait, luckily stopped under the shade of a roadside tree, we were on our way again and picked up Route 2 without further ado.

Once beyond the Kancamagus Highway, it’s only a hop, skip and jump into Maine, where the ride along Route 2 is pleasant, but definitely not as spectacular as the ride thus far. You’ll find plenty of amenities along the road, as well as some fruit and vegetable stands where you can pick up some fresh produce for a meal.

But at this point, you’re ready to get to the Bar Harbor/Acadia destination. And it’s well worth it when you finally arrive.

About 26 miles south of Bangor on Route 2, we stopped in at a Dunkin’ Donuts for a rest and decided to take Route 95 the last bit to miss going through Bangor proper. From there, it was an easy drop onto Route 1 and then to Route 3 onto Mount Desert Island. Bear left toward Bar Harbor and if you’re camping, stop at the Bar Harbor Campgrounds, about 3 or 4 miles from the Trenton Bridge. (If you can’t wait, stop for your first lobster dinner at either Lunt’s or the Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound!). Lobster dinners will run you anywhere from $7.95 to $12.95 for most places. Later on, if you get really crazy, go down to Bill and Ben’s ice cream shop in downtown Bar Harbor and get yourself a lobster ice cream cone.

The Bar Harbor Campground doesn’t take reservations, but we’ve never been turned away. The cost without any hook ups is $19 a night, and if you stay for 7 nights, you only pay for six. We like the sites around FLOOP and GLOOP (that’s F Loop and G Loop and also in R and Q, where only tents can set up). They have nice views of Frenchman’s Bay, are right near the wash rooms and the supposedly heated pool and the wild blueberries all round are free for the picking. Grab yourself some and cook up some pancakes for breakfast!

A really nice fellow comes by the campground every evening around 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and sets up to sell live lobster, crabmeat, clams and more to campers, for a good price. He got to feeling like we were family, we bought so much seafood from him! He lent us a pot to cook our lobsters in back at our campsite, and then told us to keep it! What a great souvenir and remembrance of a great vacation. It was small enough to fit in the trailer, too!

There’s a rather elaborate bus system that travels the island and stops at all the campsites, too, which you can use if you’re sick of driving, or if it’s rainy. They’ll take you to all the major spots in the national park as well as into downtown Bar Harbor. And it’s all free! An attempt by the locals to keep traffic, especially RV traffic down. The campground office and most publications will have a schedule.

I wasn’t too sure how to read the thing, but have it from a reliable source, a young camper in the site next to ours, that the whole system is very easy to use and is very helpful for hiking in the park and then picking up another bus at the other end of your hike, to get back to camp.

I can’t begin to tell you all there is to see and do on Mount Desert Island, Maine and in Acadia National Park, the first national park to be created east of the Mississippi. It’s 41,000 acres of pink granite, forest and mountain scenery, surrounded by ocean and bay. Every year that we go there, we return to our favorite places and always find something new that we haven’t seen or done. There are some 17 mountain peaks within the national park, the highest headlands on the eastern seaboard, almost a dozen glacier-formed lakes and ponds, salt marshes and Somes Sound, the only natural fjord on the East Coast. There are 120 miles of hiking trails and 57 miles of carriage roads open to walkers, bicyclists, and horseback riders. These are a few of our favorites, but I’m sure you’ll find your own favorite things about this little part of the world:

If you didn’t pick some blueberries for your own pancakes at camp, chow down at the Log Cabin Restaurant on your way. Later on, when you find your bearings, get to Jordan’s Pancake House, located on Cottage Street in Bar Harbor for what most of say, are some hot-damn pancakes!

Go to the national park visitor’s center, first, which is a left out of the campgrounds and down on the right just a few miles. It’s all well marked. There, you can pick up information about all the doings for the whole season in the park and get advice about ranger-guided boat trips, hiking, bird watching and more.

We chose not to get too involved in all that because we’d done enough of it when our kids were little and we weren’t into watching the clock to make sure we didn’t miss the appointed time for one thing or another.

Get a park pass (it’ll cost you $10 for the motorcycle and two riders) and take a ride around the park loop just to get the views of mountains, woods and ocean.

We always use a helmet when we ride because it’s NYS law, and even when it’s not, like in New Hampshire, we kept our helmets on. But in the park and the surrounding roads, we decided to abandon safety for comfort and donned baseball caps while we were there. Ah! Freedom! It was really nice not to have to wear leathers and helmets, worrying about where to stash them when you wanted to do something, locking up the helmets, unlocking them ten minutes later…you know.

Stop at Otter Cliffs and take a picnic lunch or snack and just hang out for a while. It’s one of our favorite spots in Acadia, where I’d like my ashes to be thrown when I’m "gone to the other side."

At Jordan Pond in mid-afternoon, have some tea and popovers with strawberry jam on the lawn overlooking the pond and two mountains called "The Bubbles." Legend has it that the twin mounds were named for the anatomy of a "Miss Bubbles." Oh well, whatever. They’re nice anyway. You’ll see lots of people milling around. It’s a busy place most any time of day, and the popovers and tea will cost you $6 each, but it’s worth the experience to sit out there and enjoy the view.

Pick any one of dozens of hiking trails and head on up there. You can get some advice and a trail map at the visitor’s center, or buy a book like, "A Walk in the Park" which gives you more detailed information about each hike. The best ones are those that give you some breathtaking views of the ocean below.

Drive up to Cadillac Mountain’s summit for sunset. You won’t be alone, I guarantee it. But it’s fun…and you might see "Cadillac Man!" He’s a legend in my own mind, based on a story my daughter wrote about an experience she had on Cadillac Mountain as a girl.

Catch a show at the Acadia Repertory Theater in the lovely town of Somesville, on the shore of Somes Sound, called the only natural fjord on the east coast.

Sit on a bench in downtown Bar Harbor with a lobster or other flavor ice cream and just people watch.

Take the mailboat to the Cranberry Islands and visit the Islesford Historic Museum. You can pick up information about times at the visitor’s center.

Grab and early bird lobster dinner at any number of restaurants in Bar Harbor. We liked the Maine Street Café, down Route 3, outside of town about two blocks. They had some delicious clam chowder, too.

Go on a whale watch from Bar Harbor. If you’re lucky, you’ll see dozens of whales as we did the evening we went out, just after a heavy rain. The whales were beginning to feed and we got into the thick of them!

Drive down to Seawall (Route 102A) and have a picnic dinner on the natural stone seawall or go birdwatching at nearby Wonderland, also on 102A going toward Bass Harbor.

Go to the "quiet side" of the island down around Bass Harbor and visit the lovely Bass Harbor Light House. In town, you can pick up lobster and crab meat at Rich’s Seafood Distributor, just next door to the Ketch Restaurant. There’s also a cute little gift shop across the road and on the curve.

Across the Harbor, taking Route 102 off Route 102A and drive around to the road going off to the left toward Bernard (look for the sign), where you might enjoy Thurston’s Lobster Pound. They’re strictly a la carte and we think a tad pricey, but they have a nice screened in dining room looking out on Bass Harbor. And they’re famous: you may have seen the lobster pound in the Steven King TV movie, "Storm of the Century." And they’re also featured in a film based on John Irving’s Book, "Cider House Rules!"

Take one of the new catamaran ferries over to Nova Scotia from Bar Harbor! The once six hour trip is now only 2 1/2 hours because you skim over the water at 55 mph! Round trip for a motorcycle, trailer and two people will run you around $150. But once you get into Nova Scotia and then up to Cape Breton, you’ll be having the ride of your life.

But that’s a story for another day.

Our typical day in Maine included getting up very early, showering and cooking up breakfast at our campsite. If the fog wasn’t heavy, we enjoyed our picnic table meal as we looked at the view of Frenchman’s Bay. It doesn’t get much better than this.

We got on the road around 10:30 a.m. for a day of kayaking or hiking. We hauled our trailer when we kayaked, and paddled Jordan Pond, Northeast Creek (where we saw lots of birds) and Western Bay (past Pretty Marsh at Bartlett’s Landing) on the quiet side. In the Bay, we saw osprey, harbor seals, loons and more.

We generally had a picnic lunch with us and then got back to camp by around 5 to grab a couple of lobsters and a couple of dozen clams, and headed back to the campsite for a fire and some dinner. We kept a supply of leaf lettuce, onion, cucumber and dressing in the cooler and every evening, had a wonderful dinner of boiled lobster, clams, crab, and salad. Once in awhile, a fellow came through the campgrounds selling home baked goods: brownies, cookies and pies for dessert. But usually, the spousal unit made me hold off on the sweets and would give me a peanut butter and jam on bread treat to tide me over.

Once you figure out how to stay away from a few of the more congested intersections on Mount Desert, where you can get stuck in traffic, you’ll love driving around on your bike. We had thought of taking some day trips from our campsite, but we never left the island the entire eight days we were there. And we could have stayed longer and found plenty to do.

Upon leaving Bar Harbor after eight nights at the campground, we drove down Route 1 toward Freeport, Maine. I can’t say I really enjoyed the ride all that much. You don’t get a lot of ocean views and the traffic starts to pick up as you get beyond mid-morning. But if you like flea markets and antique shops, you’ve got to do Route 1!

We hadn’t had breakfast yet as we started on Route 1 and I wanted breakfast type food while the spousal unit wanted just one more bowl of clam chowder. We found a restaurant that served both, when they got around to serving you at all. I had an omelet, he had a bowl of chowder. And then, he had an omelet!

About three hours down Route 1, Freeport was a disappointment. For several years, we had a habit of stopping there on the way home from vacation to do some school shopping with the kids. It’s supposed to be a town full of outlet stores, and of course, L.L. Bean is in Freeport. But we didn’t find much of interest this trip around and only spent an hour or so, picking up some socks on sale at the Bass Shoe outlet. But if you’ve never been there, or if you want to go to L.L. Bean, it’s worth a visit.

From Freeport, it was easy to pick up I-95 and head south. Over the border into a short bit of coastal New Hampshire (and that’s about all there is of "coastal New Hampshire!), we started to head west on I-495 toward Worcester, Mass. From Worcester, we picked up the Massachusetts Turnpike to the New York State Thruway and home.

It was a seven hour drive from Freeport to Rome, including a stop on the thruway for what I like to call "Trigger’s Revenge." That’s what I got when I ate some Roy Rogers Chicken. Not my idea of a healthy meal. But oooh, the hot cinnamon buns they sold at another kiosk in the same rest area were yummy!

I have to end by saying that I was exhausted after that grueling ride from Freeport home on super highways. It is definitely not my kind of motorcycling. I was a little concerned, too, because our back tire had begun to wear badly. Even though it was beastly hot, I kept my leathers on. By the time we got home, my legs and feet were beginning to swell.

So I’ve warned the spousal unit: no more deals like that where we take the blue highways out and the supers back home. It’s blue highways all the way for me, from now on.

"OK," he said. "Next year, we’ll do it your way."