Today started with the promise of hot and humid weather.

Our first stop was Fort Ticonderoga. Built by the French in 1756 during the Revolutionary Wars,.it first successfully held off an English attack in 1758, before falling to them the following year. In 1775 it fell to Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold. giving America its first victory against the British in the War of Independence. It was coits reputationmpletely rebuilt over the last 100 years and has been a major tourist attraction over those years. A beautiful building and an impressive attraction.

From there we rode south along the beautiful shore of Lake George, stopping in Bolton for brunch at a cute diner that is pictured in our ride guide.

We pointed this out to the staff who had no idea their diner was so famous. It well deserves its reputation. The whole area has a great atmosphere. It has a relaxed summer holiday feel. There are parks on the lake with various boating activities and the normal range of cafes, pubs and shops. Photos were not possible when it rained.

Here we met a couple who have an earlier model BMW R1200RT. They opened the conversation with "What two things about the bike do you like least?"  I said the drone that sets in around 3000 rpm  and the fairings that I always hit my legs on when I put my feet down. We agreed the dashboard panel which cannot be read in daylight was another major sore point.

Rain had started drizzling down soon after we left Ticonderoga, and we welcomed it. The temperature dropped and riding was quite comfortable. The fairing and windscreen kept most of it off us and we were quite dry when we stopped.

We continued on through patches of drizzle alternating with dry, through the town of Lake George and north towards Middlebury, our nominal destination for the night. We had been making good time, and thought to ride on further. After about 8 miles the rain became heavier. We didn't want to get into our wet weather gear - they would have been sauna suits.  The temperature was still in the high 70's - so we continued on, and were quite damp when we arrived at our final destination. The rain looked like it had set in for the day, so we found a motel and changed.

The rain stopped soon after. We spent the afternoon reviewing our planned route for tomorrow. I had planned for us to do a day's riding in the Middlebury area, ending up quite close to where we were. We decided to omit that day and continue on into New Hampshire.

We had a pleasant evening watching the sunset as we discussed travel with the motel  owners. Their black Labrador tried to join us for dinner as we sat outside on benches eating crab legs.