In reply to slantsix :
We might have to take you up on the shop tour offers! Also always take suggestions! I sent you a PM .
In reply to slantsix :
We might have to take you up on the shop tour offers! Also always take suggestions! I sent you a PM .
Got it. Thanks!
First 250 miles down. This is my let's start this trip pic.
Some automotive highlights. Bigger post when I have time. 
In reply to Purple Frog :
Love this, haven't had time to touch up photos yet.
Nice We were at Watkins Glen Last Year. The State park ~ 5 miles from that gate is a nice hike.
Where is the Rocky place with the towers?
Looks like you'll be going a bit further south in to RI and southern CT, but Purgatory Chasm is a pretty cool little park in MA that's a quick hike (< 1 hr total) through a neat geologic feature.
https://www.mass.gov/locations/purgatory-chasm-state-reservation
I'm in Stafford, CT, and if you're coming through NE CT on 84 near the MA border, I'm happy to meet up!
Friday, Oct 3rd is an open lapping day at Palmer Motorsports Park near Palmer, MA which is an amazing track.
While you're visiting Mount Washington, I recommend the cog railway, that's pretty cool. Club Motorsports reasonably near there is a beautiful track, might be worth seeing if you can at least get a ride-along if you're passing through that area.
In reply to slantsix :
Rocky place with the towers is top of mount Washington
In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :
Great, thank you from those of us who are uninformed.
In reply to WonkoTheSane :
We are currently figuring out where we are coming through CT at.
I managed to break my phone during the trip so sorry for anyone I didn't get back to, we also had a change of plans about half way through the trip. But overall it was a success. Gonna do a day by day write up as I have time.
Adding some food reviews in as we go, nothing to in depth. Also some of the stuff within the days will be out of order because our document got messed up.
09/25/2025:
Drove to Erie, PA after work. It rained the whole way up, stayed in a AirBNB and was super cute. NC got called a BMW.
09/26/2025:
Presque Isle, Very nice park, super beautiful.
Brewhaha Coffee Erie, PA wonderful food and coffee 5 stars.
We went and saw the first natural gas lighthouse in called Barcelona lighthouse in upstate NY and it was super cool.
Random photo on the way to Niagra falls.
Niagra falls was not my jam. Was pretty, to many people and very rude people at that.
We did some stopping and running around at some random places including old house stores and others.
We got dinner at Big Wills Kitchen in Lockport, NY and that was a meal. I cant reccomend it enough.
Ate the food at Union Station (Lockport, New York) and met the guy who owns it and is redoing it. Super nice guy.
We stayed in Rochester NY that night.
09/27/2025
Drove to Watkins Glen and the drive was beautiful. We ate breakfast at Curlys Family Restaurant and it was very good. The kind of homestyle breakfast you just expect.
We walked around town some and went out to the track, we did "drive the glen" it was a fun little trip around the track.
Already joined the local BMW club so I can do a HPDE there next year. We left the track and did the waterfalls in the park and just wow.
Even being super busy it was a great time. highly recommend. We got some bubble tea and ramen at Taichi in town and id give it a 3.5/5 overall. We left there and drove around/through cornell university, it was super cool to see. We got to Norwich and got pizza from a place called Angelas and it was like a fever dream in the best way possible, food was killer and the vibes where super good. We stayed in an Airbnb called "1875 Thronfield" in Norwich, NY it was also amazing and cant recommend it enough. Beautiful house and the host was amazing.
09/28/2025
We drove out to the Adirondacks and we have a Revolution rail tour booked for mid day. We got to the town its in and got breakfast at Marshas Family Restaurant, it was also very good homestyle breakfast.
The rail tour was amazing, they told us a ton about the area and the views were amazing. During the tour they told us the rail was once used to move mined garnet. We also had a new parking lot friend when we got back.
My better half loves rock so we had to see if we could visit any mines. She found that Gore mountain/Baron mine does tours where you can look for them yourself so we went there. There was a Cornell geology class there that we did the experience with so we got extra good education on the place.
It was a very good time and cool getting to walk down into the mine. We left there and headed to our next place we where staying in Saranac lake and got dinner in town, it was a great dinner and the vibes and people were very odd but fun. That was easily the worst Airbnb I have ever stayed in.
Looks like a ton of fun, I stopped at Watkins Glen State Park last month after the Classic Motorsports Empire State Tour and even though I only had an hour to hike it was amazing. It is definitely on my list to do again when I have more time. How was the rail tour? My uncle was telling me that I need to do one next time I am up that way and it sounds like a fun way to see some sights, especially in the fall.
In reply to Chris Tropea :
I could have spent a whole day at Watkins Glen State Park and been a happy boy.
The rail tour was super neat. I really enjoyed it. Pretty slow pace, all of the staff was super nice and you could tell loved the area and had all kind of cool history and facts to tell us. It was a really good way to see some sights and be outdoors that is not hiking and not have to bring he bicycles with us.
09/29/2025
We woke up and drove all around Lake Champlain and went to Burlington VT to a house salvage store that sucked. We left there and went to Morse Farms Maple Sugar works and it was super cool seeing the process and getting to buy good Maple and try all the different quality's of it.
Photo at the Maple place
We were heading to Mount Washington auto road next and got lunch in a little town store called Saint Johnsbury Country Store that had a top 10 ever Cuban sandwich I have ever had.
I could write a huge post on the Mount Washington auto road but the whole thing was very cool. Top down in a Miata was perfect. It was a great time. Better half was a little surprised when it was 30 deg cooler at the top plus a 50MPH steady wind.
It was fun bombing down the MTN with almost zero worries about the brakes getting hot or really any car worries in general. We left there and had a terrible dinner and ended up in Bangor.
Keith Tanner said:Cross the border.
Visit Montreal and feel like you're in a different country.
Visit Quebec City and feel like you're on a different continent.The back roads north of Montreal are rowdy, fun, battered things and there is nothing there BUT trees. Go to Mt Tremblant. Stay in the Chateau Frontenac in QC and explore the old city. Eat poutine.
Couldn't agree more. Lots of great driving in Quebec, including my favorite racetrack: Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant.
The leaves had already started to change when I was at the Fall Classic a couple of weekends ago:
9/30/2025
Started the morning in Bangor at 2 cats, was very good food and drink there.
We make our next stop to a impossible to get steven king tour. Next stop was bar harbor and it was beautiful and walked the beach a bit.
We made our way to Acadia National park and boy was it busy. Like wow. we did some small hikes and side quest but it was a wonderful little top down drive.
we once again tried for a steven king tour with no success. so with that failure we made a few thrift store stops that sucked and it was my turn to pick next. We went to the Bangor Land transportation Museum and it was super cool. we showed up a little late and didn't get to see the whole thing, but just going and seeing the snow plows and snow equipment was worth it by its self. Super cool place.
Had dinner at the butcher the baker and it was 5/5 also.
10-01-2025
We started at Belle Boulangerie for some bedfast pastries there is a reason they have good reviews on google, but you got to have some coffee and we got some at reverie coffee house and it was also just what we needed. We made a pit stop in Freeport ME and ill keep my opinion to myself. Next side trip was to the LL Bean main store, the coolest thing there was a GMT900 shoe with 1st gen neon headlights.
WE made a stop in Portland ME and it was jammed packed and had some good lobster. We stopped by 2 architectural salvage companies on the way and they both deserve a shout out. Old house parts company had a bunch of nice stuff that was very fair priced. Noreast architectural antiques had some cool stuff but BIG stuff. Like huge huge items. We ended up in Salem MA
Tip for Mt Washington: when I drove it 25+ years ago, it opened at something like 7:30 in the morning. If you get there a bit before, you can be the first one up the road and basically get to run your own hillclimb without other traffic :)
In reply to Keith Tanner :
We did our time up on a Monday late afternoon and we had zero traffic till about half way up. Had a pretty good pace going up. Half way up we ran into a CUV going like 5mph so we pulled off till we could see the next car coming and had our fun.
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