Trip Stats:
Total Days: 37
Total Miles Traveled: ~955 miles
Breakdowns (*Mechanical*): 1.25
Gallons of Gas Purchased: ~9 gallons
Longest stretch with no showers: 6 days
Hanover, NH
I spent the last week in Hanover visiting my sister at Dartmouth. My first night there, we went to one of her sorority's "weddings", a very interesting tradition in which two people get fake married. The next day we went to the river, where students can take out kayaks, canoes and paddle boards for free during the summer. During the week when Ava had classes, I went on a hike and also went on a white water canoeing trip with one of her friends Ben. I also learned how to play Dartmouth beer pong, a version of pong where ping pong paddles without handles are used. Apparently Dartmouth invented pong and the "regular" pong without paddles that every other university plays came later. Dartmouth pong takes a while (especially if you're bad) but I played at least 4-5 games. My second game I played with Kled and we got tree'd, that means we hit none of our opponents cups (and also means you have to take a naked lap around the frat house/frat row, we did not do this). I met Jacob, one of Ava's friends who was into cars. We hung out a bit, went for a ride in his corvette and I let him rip around the moped. As of today he just bought a puch moped to fix up and ride around campus.
My sisters boyfriend Dan was coming into town for the 4th of July, so I got kicked off the dorm floor and moved in with her friend Kled and his roommates Dylan and Tobin. On the 4th Ava, Dan and I got breakfast and dinner, we also went to some frat parties/events with Kled and her other friends.
Hanover, NH to Deerfield, NH
I left Hanover Saturday morning to go meet up with my college friend Daniel in Lebanon, it was raining but also 75-80 degrees out, quite possibly the worst weather combo. After about 5 minutes of riding, the bike felt super unstable. A few minutes later the rear end almost completely slid out from under me but I was able to save it and pull over. I looked back at the rear tire and it was completely flat. I pumped the tire back up to see if I could spot the leak but it kept holding air. I drove 10 minutes down the road to the diner I was meeting Daniel at and it was still holding air.
I caught up with Daniel over breakfast, he just graduated from CWRU with me and started working at Hypertherm in the area.
After breakfast I got on the road again, a little nervous about the tire. I road for almost 2 hours with no issues, I kept checking the rear tire but it held up fine. About 20 miles outside of Deerfield, my next stop, the moped died. I kept telling people how surprised I was that nothing had broken so far, well something finally did. I'm selling the bike and going home...is what my parents would like to hear. After 5 minutes of troubleshooting I determined that I had no spark and that the CDI/coil pack had probably gone out. Luckily my next stop with my Aunt's sister who was only 20 miles away. They had a pickup truck that we strapped the bike to. I ordered the new parts and hopefully the moped will be drivable soon. I still haven't decided if I'm going to Boston or straight to Long Island yet, but either of those places will be my next stop.