Not a great night’s sleep.  A little paranoid about the incredibly sketchy motel.  But at least it was an early start.

At least getting out back into traffic was straight forward.  I stuck to #1 through Leonia.  Spotted a Super H-Mart and then a whole lot of Korean stores along the strip.  Made me really regret eating the bad chinese food the night before…  Could of had some decent asian food here!

But shortly after, I must have missed a turn in Englewood because I ended up in some residential neighbourhood.  Reminded me a bit of Burnaby back home.  After trundling through the quiet streets for a while, I picked a ‘big’ street and rode until I recognized some of the highway signs – 9W.  I followed that for a bit until I figured a way onto the Palisades Parkway north.  The Parkway was really nice – better than Natchez.   If I had known about it, I probably would have made a point to ride the entire thing, rather than just the short bit I was on.

Still, crossed over on a toll bridge – Tappan Zee.  First toll of the trip!  $5

Some random viewpoint.  No idea what it was.

Random bike shot.

After getting lost in Cape Cod – I knew I didn’t have time to make it to the National Park Visitor Centers and pulled over to find a place to stay.  The nice lady at the Tourist Info hut directed me to the possibility – Nickerson State Park.  I lucked out, the sign said they were full, but they had 2 sites reserved for the weekend and I could grab one for the night.  Picked one by the lake and put up my tent before heading out to the seashore.

The family across the way watched me set up my tent and commented that they were amazed that came off the back of a bike.  Their stuff took up 2 cars and they only came 6 miles down the road…  The reality is, I’m not really camping.  I’m road tripping with a tent.  I’d like to actually get back and ‘camp’ for a while.  Set up properly and enjoy things for a few days.

The rangers at the park told me to go to the Atlantic side first – while the sun was still out and go to the Bay side afterwards for the sunset.  They also recommended the awesome onion rings at Liam’s.   I only had leftover chinese food and a donut all day, so I thought a snack would be good.   Looking at the containers, the ‘small’ looked tiny and so I upsold myself to a medium.  Bad idea…  The containers on display were more of a target inside the tray.

Medium Onion Rings and Lime Seltzer

Way too much food for an afternoon snack – especially with dinner less than 2h away.    I had half of it before carrying the rest of it with me to the beach.  Just finishing it made my jaw ache.

After my snack, I rode over to the other side of the cape to watch the sunset.  After parking the bike and lubing the chain, I took up station at a bench.  Unfortunately, the weather system was rolling in and I only caught the sun dipping into the clouds as it got darker.

I stuck it out until dark before heading to the restaurant the rangers recommended.  Capt’n Elmer’s.  I looked at the menu and figured that I was far enough east to order lobster… Then I saw the Shore Dinner.  It seemed a bit much, especially considering my earlier ‘snack’, but it might be the closest thing I get to a clam bake.

Clam Chowder + Side Salad as substitute for the starch.

Steamers and my lobster.  Clams were very, very gritty.  Not sure if that’s just the style – ie, very fresh and not left around to soak to spit out the sand, or if I was just there at the tail end and they didn’t clean properly.

I ate half the lobster and the clams and packed the rest.   Stuffed to the gills again, I rode back to the campsite in the dark and called it a night.