Day 1 - Sunday April 3, 2011 - Chestnut Hill, MA to Cherry Hill, NJ - 304 miles

     I began the trip on day later than I'd planned due to snow and cold in the New England area. I was finally able to get everything packed on the bike on Sunday morning, and about 830am I was rolling down the driveway. It turns out I had violated one of the cardinal rules of motorcycle touring, which was, don't change anything on the bike which is really important. I did change the mounting location for my GPS unit, and found that I could not read it as well, and it just wasn't steady. I discovered this about 50 miles out, so decided to press on.

    This journey turned out to be non-eventful...that is no traffic, no scares, nice weather, and a generally pleasant experience. Unlike last October's trip, I had Gerbing's electrically-heated clothing (jacket liner, gloves and boot liners) connected to the electrical system of the bike. Thus even though it was 39F when I left, and never got above 60F, I was toasty. See me at the first stop on the Garden State Parkway:

The bike is pretty-well loaded this time. I've eliminated some pieces of photo equipment, and have fewer clothes, but also have taken along my foam roller which helps me with some stiff muscles at the end of the day. Here's a look at the loaded bike...again in New Jersey:

In any case, I glided down to Cherry Hill, had a fine time, and got to spend 12+ hours with Meredith, Meghan and Noah. Noah likes my motorcycle a lot, but really likes to try on my helmet, gloves and boots: 

We had a fine dinner at the "Thai-Taste" restaurant near Cherry Hill. Noah ate just about everything in sight...3 and a half years old, and growing like a weed.

First day over, it was time for a snooze...