Monday 4th June 2001, Boston MA
The morning was grey and overcast, but otherwise dry. It had obviously rained overnight, as the ground was damp. There was a delicious smell of pine woodland in the air as we walked down the hill to find breakfast.
Montpelier is the capital of Vermont, but equally seems to be a ‘New Age’ Mecca. Every other store advertised ‘alternative’ clothing, therapies and jewellery. It seems the City got left behind in some 70’s time-warp! Having said that, it is a pretty place, surrounded by forested hills, and within a short distance of Killington and Stowe ski resorts.
It was now time to hit I-89 again, and return to Boston, where we were to stay with Deborah Valianti, a playwright friend of Brigid’s mother. It was thanks to Deborah that we were able to purchase the motorcycles at all, as it was she to ‘loaned’ us her Brighton address for the registration.
The sun had dried out Brigid’s electrics, and within a few miles, the speedo, tachometer and LCD displays had come back to life. Apart from the appearance of a rogue oil warning light they gave no further trouble.
We hit Boston at about 3.30pm, stopping once to ask directions to Brighton. We pulled into a gas station, where building work was in progress. We were heading in the right direction, but within ½ mile, John suddenly stopped at the side of the road realising he had a flat tyre. The nearby tyre station didn’t do bikes. So, half an hour and many phone calls later, we eventually located a dealer in Framingham who could sort us out.
Anderson Cycle Works of Framingham proved to be some 15-20 miles away, and our trip was slow and tortuous (we had to stop several times for air and directions) – and not entirely good-humoured.
The people at Anderson’s were friendly and efficient. While the engineers worked, Jay Tonry pressed a couple of very welcome cold beers into our hands. He spotted Brigid’s Ogri T-shirt, and surprisingly turned out to be a keen collector of British bike mags– including Bike – and Hell’s Angels memorabilia! Within the hour, we were back on the road – albeit arriving at Deborah’s several hours later than we intended.