Ice cream!

Today we decided to run up to Vermont to visit the Ben and Jerry's Ice cream factory.

Mark, Lori, Me, Bryan, Tony,  Michaeleen, Roger,and his almost bride (they are getting married in Niagra Falls tomorrow) all took off at 8A.M. to see the factory. Conrad had laid out a route through the mountains, and as you know, I can't leave well enough alone, so I changed it. We rode up the west side of lake George (again.) and crossed over Lake Champlain on a small ferry. It was really just a barge with a tug attached, but it was still fun and chance to get off the bikes for a few minutes. From there we headed northeast through the Adirondack mountains towards the factory. They were great roads for riding, in that they were nice and curvy and major up and downhills. But they were also some of the roughest roads I have ever encountered. There were grooved and cracks and frost heaves and everything you could imagine on the roads including some locals straight out of the moonshining era. LOL

 The whole area is beautiful and we will have to come back to spend some serious time here when we retire.

We got into the Ice Cream factory and took the tour and had a good time. Mark was smart and didn't even eat the place out of ice cream. It would be hard to do anyway, they make 27000 pints a day.

We were running a litle late and had to get back to the Lake George area for the picnic, so we just hit the hwy (with one small turnaround, LOL) and headed out. It was hot by then anyway. Way too hot to be going slow.

We got back in time and had some delicious Brats and Hotdogs on the grill. (Thanks Will!)
There were awards given out and then we played a game of bingo for the door prizes. That done, a lot of picture taking was in order and we headed back to the room to pack up for the trip to New York City tomorrow.

We pick up Mark's Lori in the afternoon and start to see the city. I hope it is a little cooler there!

I should be able to post again tomorrow....

6 state fun run

One of goals of mine is to have driven a motorcycle (preferably mine) to all 50 states. Today Mark and I took off on a circle tour to get a few more states in. We left Lake George and went through New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, before coming back into New York again. It was a great ride of 571 miles and took just under 12 hours total. We met a few interesting people along the way, and got to see the Atlantic Ocean from a beach in Maine.

 Rhode Island is a quaint place with all the old houses and such, but the town of Thompson, CT reeks of history. Most of the outlying buildings are old, some from the 1700's and they have all the stone fences around everything and you can just imagine it looked very similar back then.

All of the NE states are really green and lush, It would be gorgeous in the fall. Mark says it is because the tree's don't have any real value as building wood. I don't really care, it is great to look at it instead of all the clearcuts in Washington.

Lori went out for a ride around the area today by herself. she got out a ways and was enjoying herself, when a deer jumped out in front of her and she realized that she was by herself and no one knew where she was. She promptly turned around and came back very carefully :-)

After a long day in the saddle it is good to back to the room and relaxing. We are eating dinner with "the group" at the restaurant here at the resort.

P.S. The dinner was good and it was hard work to finish off a 20oz. Delmonico steak after a salad and an appetizer, but hey I did it. LOL

Conrad was awarded the 1300tourer.com banner and it was signed by all the members here. Cliff awarded Conrad a patch for being a registered "Coonass" for trips to Louisiana to see him and Jackie. It was a fun time!

Now it is time to head back out to the gazebo to tell more lies and such :-)


Thanks for following along!

A relaxing day

The day started with a group meeting at 8am where everybody introduced themselves and the rides were laid out and a few other idea's put on the table also. Will and Chrissy are the owners of the 1300tourer.com web site and they are responsible for the get together and Conrad is the person that organized this years event.

Conrad put together a group event that most of the people here got behind and participated in. It was a ride to a local store where we picked up some items for the local food bank and took it all over and donated it to them for local family's. There must have been $3-400 worth of food and it was greatly appreciated.

 From there Conrad led a group ride up to the top of Prospect mountain. The views were great and it shows the New York area landscapes very well.

 From here most people were going back to the resort, but Mark, Lori and I decided to go a short ride around Lake George. Tony and Michaeleen decided to ride along too. It was about 95 miles and took a couple of hours, and it was fun.

We stopped off for Ice Cream (go figure) and this little place had what they called a pig trough and of course Mark and I had to have one. They were 6 scoops, 4 toppings and a LOT of whipped cream and nuts/cherries. They were good!

We are now at the resort, in the room and relaxing up for the long ride in the AM. I will try and take more pictures from here on out. see ya tomorrow!

Better late...

Than never! LOL

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...

We stopped about 15 miles east of cleveland for the night at a "America's best Value" motel. We have stopped at a couple in our travels and I can say for sure. Don't! They are all a dump!

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!

Into North Dakota

Well the first two days went ok. We got Mark out of work early and we made to Jeff and Karens earlier than we expected. As we pulled into the garage to park the bikes we were greeted with a homemade sign welcoming us. It seems that Marks Niece and Nephew, Jamie and Callie, made it for the adventurers.

We had time to talk a little, eat some popcorn, and have a brownie in honor of Marks birthday before heading to bed. As we got downstairs there was another welcome sign. Thank you Jamie and Callie for the warm welcome and thank you to Jeff and Karen for the hospitality!

Day 2 started off with a bright blue sky and a promise of a great day. We headed East and tried to make some time. We had planned on 800 miles for this day and we made it, but not how we expected. More on that in a minute.

Montana is flooded. Just an FYI...  It seems that every time we saw the river it was overflowingf the banks and filling fields and generally creating a mess. At least it was not crossing over I-90, but a couple of places it was real close.

We crested Lookout pass and it was COLD! There was still snow along both sides and it looked as if it could snow at any time. It sure was cold enough.

The continental divide was warmer and it was 2500 feet higher, but the roads were real rough. We coul not even go the speed limit because of the ruts and chuckholes.

Once we gone down to lower ground and leveled off it warmed up and we cruised along. We met a couple of other riders in Billings that were coming up from Florida and headed for Seattle. They had come over Wolf Creek Pass and it had just opened this morning. There were still a couple of spots that had ice on the road.

We finally got to Miles City in the afternoon and were debating on going farther or not. Everyone was feeling ok so on we went. Lori does not like driving the bike at night so we were pushing it to get there before dark and we almost made it, but didn't. My GPS went from day mode to night mode with 3 miles to town...

But, as all the best plans go awry, so did ours. We get into town and there were no rooms available out of 12 motels, None!

WE finally just started calling ahead on our route to find a room and Mark finally found one, 40 miles down the road. So much for not driving in the dark! Oh well. Life goes on.

Time for bed. I will post again as I can.  We are having a great time and the bikes are running great.

Almost Ready!

We are getting all the last minute packing done, getting the house picked up and food for Michael. (he is watching the house and the dogs. Thanks Michael!)

We are starting to get excited finally. It is going to be hard to sleep tonight...

We are going to Spokane tomorrow to stay at Mark's Sisters house for the night before starting the first of 4 long days. We have to do 3000 miles in 4 days to get to Lake George on time for the 1300tourer.com meet and greet. We will relax there for three days then move down to New York City and meet Mark's Lori for a couple of days of sight seeing before heading west.

Our plan is to wander back towards Yellowstone and entering by the Bear Tooth Pass side. We will look around a bit, then head west into Oregon. We will do a quick side trip in  the Hell's Canyon area before turning towards home.

That is the plan, but you know how plans go... LOL
I will try and keep up to date as much as I can so you can follow along :)

A continued saga!

Well, we are almost ready for the New York Trip!

Lori, Mark and I went out this past weekend (along with John and Gina) to make sure everything was working well with the bikes. We only have less than 2 weeks to go before we head out again in search of adventure.

This time we are headed to Lake George, N.Y. to meet some friends from the 1300tourer.com site. Afterwards we will drop down to N.Y. City and meet Mark's Lori for a few days of sight seeing before turning back west.

We hope to come back over Beartooth Pass and go through Yellowstone before heading for Home. We are on a shorter timetable this time, so it will not be as adventuresome as we would like, but C'est la vie!

We do have another trip planned for later in the summer. Sight seeing with John and Gina for 2 weeks in B.C.

I will post more as we take off in search of adventure again!