Sorry about not posting for a couple of days, but it has been hectic. If I could just do this while riding, it would be much easier.
It seems like a lifetime ago that I last posted. so much happens when you traveling, but I will hit the highlights.
We left Saturday morning and North Dakota is BORING, (But I will take that over the 40 MPH crosswinds and driving rain of South Dakota.) The road goes on and on. At one point Marks bike started weaving a little and Mark was celebrating. He was doing a little happy dance on the bike. I later asked him what he was doing and he said " There was a corner!, we finally had a curve!
The actual day was pretty uneventful for the most part. we crossed through North Dakota, Minnesota, and into Wisconsin. The last few miles of I94 was nasty. The roads have a break every 3-400 feet and the seam is raised up about 3" above the surrounding blacktop. Mark says the state of Wisconsin owes him a new Kidney.
We stayed at a real nice "Days Inn" in Black River Falls for the night and managed to eat a little before crashing for the night. We were all so exhausted, we couldn't do anything but just crash.
Sunday we left town and merged back onto I90 and it was spooky. The fog was so thick, you could not see more than a couple of hundred feet. It seem like even the bikes were hushed in reverence. Cars going the other way were visible only for a second before they were gone.
After the fog burned off we cruised south towards Chicago. The traffic was a little crazy.
Ok, scratch that, a lot crazy! Whomever laid out that town has some serious mental problems, and the toll booths on the express ways are crazy! You have 5 lanes going into the toll booths and three of them are for passes only and 2 are for cash. None of them are moving at all because everyone is waiting for the last second to merge over for the cash booths and they are stopping in whatever lane they are in to try and merge. 5 lanes totally stopped with nobody going through the I-pass booths because they can't get to them through the people trying to merge into the cash lanes. People are getting out and threatening other people and yelling at each other... I was glad to get out of there. If that is what Chicago is like, they can keep it.
So we get through the toll booth for a cost of $3.50 per bike. We get going and within another mile there is another booth! We finally get to a booth where you have to take a ticket and from there on out they charge you by how far you go before getting off. Boy what a racket! Nobody wants to get off and back on, so they have set up Convenience centers about every 30 miles where they have fast food and gas for 30-40% more than off of the tollway.
We crossed into Ohio and promptly got another toll booth. The 2 states are totally separate so you have to pay to leave the state and have to start over in the new state.
We made a quick detour in Cleveland to the Rock and Roll hall of fame, but it was closed. At least Mark got to see the outside...
This Morning we started our final day into New York and it was a fun day. One of the best so far. Not only because we were stopped by 4:30, but also we took the southern route on I86 through the mountains and it was nice ride with very little traffic and no tolls.
We had still not hit any rain until we were almost into Lake george and then we got a little sprinkle, but not enough to be concerned about.
We checked into The Georgian resort and parked, unloaded the bikes and went down to meet everyone. It is great to finally get to see people that you have only made comments to on the internet and everyone was real nice. We did get to see Cliff and Jackie again from New Orleans. It is great to get reacquainted!
I am tired so I think that is enough. Time to go to bed. We did 3033 miles in just under 4 days traveling time and we are exhausted!
The Meet and Greet in at 8AM in the morning and we will see what happens from there.
Goodnight for now!
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