wbrisett
05-07-2009, 04:26 AM
As Art was quick to point out, this ride report is WAY overdue. Thanks for the reminder Art. ;)
The company I work for, purchased a content management system and we needed to move to the next version of the software. After some negotiations, we were able to get us to give us the next version of the software free, but we had to do all the configuration and move all the data. It was decided that my counterpart in Colorado and I should go to the companies site and do the configuration. They are located in York, PA, and due to lots of things, we would have to be on-site Easter Monday. That meant flying out on Easter for us. Except my counterpart was going to see her son in college in upstate NY, and fly out early. I decided to ride there. I love excuses to ride, and this looked like the perfect opportunity, we were closed Good Friday, so I had an extra day to make it there. Well, sort of... My daughter's school is closed on Good Friday, so it was decided that I would stay until lunch, then my wife would come home and I would leave. The big decision was what bike should I take, the Buell Ulysses, or the BMW RT?
Prep:
I scoured the roads in my GPS software to plan a route. I wanted to take as many small roads as possible. I've found that the best way to do this is to pick my start point, my end point, let the software do the auto routing, then start trying to figure out where to end each day. Once that is done, I start studying the roads and if possible get recommendations from people who might have traveled those areas. That's the hard part. The computer age has helped, but in many cases it's still tough finding people who have traveled those roads. In many cases, I simply went with small roads that got me from point A to point B, or roads I hadn't gone on previously. In the case of the northeast, that was easy. I haven't lived in that part of the country since 1999, and I lived in New Jersey, and didn't own a bike at that time, so I didn't try to find the back roads.
Once I had my route picked out, I still hadn't decided on the bike. I attended the local BMW riders' club meeting and I was asked about what bike and I said, I really didn't know which I was going to take. I think that surprised them, I think most figured the RT was a slam dunk. In fact, it wasn't until it came time for me to pack that I decided what soft bags to pull out (I have one set for the Buell side and top cases and one set for the BMW), that I decided on the bike. The winner:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3517/3467971781_3621d72229_b.jpg
Day 1:
I guess I should mention that my company, like many are in the "starvation mode", that is, no money is available for travel or anything else for that matter. Having spent 12 years in the military, I don't care where I sleep. A motel/hotel is simply a place for me to sleep for a few hours, grab a shower and go. I found that I could book most hotels in advance and prepay for them and save 20%. This meant most hotels were in the $50 range. That was good because in order to justify the trip, it had to be in the same range as an airline ticket. I was given a budget for the trip, which I'm happy to report I undercut by nearly $150 dollars. My trip on day one put me at the Days Inn in Arkadelphia, AR. Things out Austin were fine, the same backroads that I'm use to to 79, up through Palestine, TX and over the Louisiana state line. The weather looked iffy just a couple of days before I left, but was awesome when I left. Things were green, and the temps were perfect for riding. Not too many bugs, but I still had to clean my windscreen every time I stopped for fuel. I crossed the Arkansas state line as the day was starting to wind down.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3509/3468077549_c3810f34a2.jpg
The roads were perfect though, trees lined the road and I saw few cars along the way.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3555/3468064065_7f57b48b4f_b.jpg
I made it to Arkadelphia around 8:30 PM, in the dark. I didn't stop to eat dinner that night (Sadly, a theme that seemed to follow). Sadly GPS issue killed the actual track for day one, but it was approximately 440 miles from the start.
Day 2:
Day two saw me get up at 6 AM, shower, pack and wander across the parking lot to the local Waffle House for breakfast. My destination was Richmond, KY. I left around 7:45 AM, and actually started out on I-30 for a while, after Benton, I got onto I-40 until I got through Little Rock. Traffic was pretty light, of course it was a Saturday and it was early. Once I got past Little Rock, I hit the back roads again. The further north in Arkansas I went, the less trees and more open fields I came across.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3632/3468893946_0f65e6508f_b.jpg
I would touch a small part of Missouri before I crossed into Tennessee. In fact, I rode through Kennett Missouri, a small nothing farming community that had a hand painted sign that read "Hometown of Sheryl Crow"... As I rode through the town, I wondered what would have happened to her if her singing career hadn't pulled her out of the town. Didn't look there was much outside of the rice/grain facilities around, and of course farming.
Day 2
As I crossed the Mississippi river into Tennessee, I entered US 155, which seems to be a little used road, so I had two lanes of asphalt free of traffic. Not long after entering 155, I was on US 45 which changes to the julian Carroll Purchase Parkway as you cross from Tennessee to into Kentucky. One of the things that I had to keep reminding myself was I wasn't in Texas anymore. No more driving 6-10 hours depending on direction to leave the state. Of course I also wasn't really seeing much of anything, I was on four-lane slab. One thing I did notice was that starting in Tennessee, was that the tops of trees were all broken, I imagined that high winds must have broken them. However, this assumption was incorrect as I was to find out later. Turns out Tennessee and Kentucky had some bad ice this winter and that was the remnants of the ice storm.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3604/3468897150_f5e4fc54f7.jpg
Honestly this was a bit of disappointment because there wasn't much to see on the highway. I would fix that around 4:30 PM when I got back to my two lane country roads west of Elizabethtown. Immediately, it was like a breath of fresh air moving back onto two lane roads with wonderful rolling hills.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3500/3468089383_67bd3575ec.jpg
I drove past Lincoln's birthplace. Unfortunately, it was too late to stop, and I didn't really leave myself enough time to stop even if it was open. As I continued towards my destination of Richmond, the sky continued on its path from blue to orange, and into darkness. I zipped past tiny towns and farms that barely had much else other than agriculture from what I could tell. Now, I do have to tell you if you ever find yourself on country roads in Kentucky, speed limits are all relative, and based on where you come from. I was doing 65 in the 55, but when a local in their pickup came up behind me, I would push it to 70-75, eventually however they would pass me and soon be out of my vision. So, 55 must mean 85 to most of them.
I stopped briefly to put my winter gloves and liner back on. It was getting pretty chilly once the sun set. When I finally reached the outskirts of Richmond, KY it was dark and I hadn't eaten dinner. It was nearly 9 PM, so I decided to skip eating and just head to the hotel.
Total Miles: 659
Total Time: 12 hours 15 minutes
Day 3
Today was going to be a light day of riding... less than 600 miles. I started out around 7:30 after another breakfast at what seemed to be a regular stop these days; a Waffle House, complete with conversations with locals who explained the broken trees I saw along the way. I was pretty excited about today's ride. I planned some very small roads up to York, PA. Things started out fine, I did a double-take shortly after leaving Richmond. In Hillsboro, KY, a horse and buggy turned left in front of me at an intersection. I then realized it was Amish folks. I guess I was surprised because I hadn't heard of the Amish settling in that part of the country. I knew they were in Ohio and Pennsylvania, but not northern Kentucky. I wish I didn't have my winter gloves on because they hinder my ability to take photos while riding. As I passed a covered bridge however, I had to stop. I figured it was too nice to not take the obligatory beauty shot with the bike. I also took one without the bike in front of it.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3514/3467971481_8d1d366336.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3551/3468090783_5486d73244.jpg
As I got back on the bike and turned off the "major" road, it was like a postcard. Two hills on either side of the valley, small houses dotted the 1 1/2 lane road (it really wasn't big enough for two cars), and a small stream hugged the road. With the morning sun throwing it's golden rays upon the valley it really was a picture postcard waiting to happen, so what did I do? Nothing. I ignored the picture opportunity and rode down the road. I did pass two locals who waved and smiled at me. I thought, "wow, they sure are a friendly bunch." However, later I wasn't sure if they were being friendly or just laughing at some stupid guy on a bike, for not long after I passed the second bike, I noticed that the road ended. Yet on the GPS it kept going. "Hmmmm..." Well, that's not entirely accurate, there was a 'road,' except it was dirt and not just dirt, but mud. Over the past couple of weeks this part of the country had been getting a lot of rain and without asphalt, I wasn't going to follow the road. I turned the bike around and started heading out, figuring the GPS would reroute me the best way it could based on the waypoint I set. Unfortunately for me, according to the GPS, it would add nearly two hours onto my time. I really didn't have two hours. I was suppose to meet my coworker for dinner in York and there wasn't any way I could be that late. I had a decision to make, let the GPS reroute me or try to see if I could go part of the way the GPS routed me, then go back to my original route. I would let the GPS reroute me, then try to go back to my original route. I found out that it wouldn't be that easy, seems once I got onto I-64, it would pull me further way from my original route than I had planned. Oh well, looks like I would end up slabbing it most of the way. As I crossed the KY, WV border, I was very thankful to have on my cruise control, I set the speed limit for 68, as I crossed into a 65 MPH zone from a 70, two WV state police cars were running radar on everybody entering. Later on the same road in Maryland, I didn't have my cruise control set and I was running 74 in a 65, next thing I know a MD state police cruiser comes up out of nowhere. "crap, busted," I thought. Nope, he was doing at least 80 as he flew by me. I knew I would have to be more careful.
Once I crossed into Pennsylvania, I finally was able to get off the main freeway and back onto smaller roads. Just in time, I was just outside Waynesboro, PA. While that means little to most people, it was where I was born and I haven't seen it since I was about 10, when we lived in Gettysburg. I passed right by the hospital I was born in. Sadly, my coworker was already at the hotel and checking in. I told her I would be there in about an hour. Now, I'm not sure what it is about the small town in PA, but they all seem to have at least a dozen lights and speed limits of 25 MPH throughout the town. Not exactly, the recipe for making up time. Just outside Waynesboro, I passed yet another state police officer, this time I was lucky since I was going 40 in a 25, but he already had somebody pulled over, so I was able to throttle off and not draw his attention. Originally I had planned to stop in Gettysburg to see my infant brother's grave site. However, I was running late, yet again. So I just continued on my way. It's funny how when you're a kid you always think things are so far away. I passed through downtown and by the area we use to live in (it has been replaced by shopping centers) all within about 4 minutes. ;-)
Once we got outside Gettysburg, traffic speeds picked up. Officially it's 55 MPH, but unofficially it must be 80 to 85, that's what the traffic was going at least. I pulled into York and my hotel around 6:40 PM. Not too bad, I was hoping to be there around 6 PM, but by a different route.
Miles: 580
Time: 11 hours 18 minutes
Day 4 / 5
Not much to report on Day 4, in fact nothing to report. My bike was parked in the hotel parking lot as my coworker and I drove the rental car to and from the vendor's site. Dinner was super exciting. We bought a bottle of wine, ordered a pizza from Dominos, and had pizza and wine in the hotel lounge area while we both worked on our computers. Day 5 saw me and my coworker again at the vendor's site all day. However, I planned to go to Allentown where we have an office, so after work, I donned my rainsuit because of the light drizzle and headed out of town towards Allentown. As I passed the Harley Davidson plant, I regretted not being able to see it. Maybe next time. Somehow I have a feeling that I'll be back in the area later this year if not York, in Allentown.
The ride to Allentown basically sucked, the drizzle just got everything wet and dirty. I left it was already getting dark, so 99% of the ride was in the dark and I didn't see anything along the way. I pulled into my hotel at 9 PM after a short ride in both the dark and rain.
Miles: 95
Time: 1 hour 55 minutes
Day 6
I wandered over to the Denny's across the street for breakfast, then hopped on the bike to the LSI building. This building was built by Lucent during the high tech heyday, and then when Lucent spun off the telecomm/networking side of things, Agere Systems used it as the headquarters. It's huge, not as big as the Apple building I worked in, when I worked in California, but still huge. When Agere and LSI merged, the headquarters was moved to Milpitas, CA. A lot of the people who use to work in the building are now gone, so it feels like a ghost town. Sad really.
I had meetings most of the morning with people I normally only speak with via phone, so it was nice putting a face and name together. After lunch I had a couple more short meetings, then bailed about 3 PM. I was heading to Chester, NY. A very dear friend and his wife live there (actually he was my boss at one time when my wife and I lived in New Jersey). I was yet again taking the scenic route and I have to tell you, I don't believe I have seen as many cops in my life running radar through these podunk towns. In one in PA, The cop was in the middle of the road, his squad car splitting both lanes. Aiming the radar straight ahead into the traffic coming into town. Geez, give me a break, I know times are tough, but you really can't expect all your general fund money to come from speeding traffic.
The further away from Allentown I got, the more open the roads became. I ended up taking all the back roads there, with one exception. When I crossed over into New Jersey, I got onto 80 for a very short time. I crossed into New York in the Warwick area. I use to live a few miles southeast from Warwick in New Jersey, and it felt good to actually know the roads I was traveling on. I ended up in Chester, NY about 6 PM, with Marc's brother, who lives next door, waiting outside for me. I taked with Evan for a bit and then said hello to my host. Not long after Karen and I started talking, Marc drove up. That evening we went out of dinner and had a wonderful conversation. We drove back to Marc's house and I crashed in their guest room for the night.
Miles: 104
Day 7
-------
April 16th... my birthday. I woke up and Karen made me some coffee. We chatted for a while and then Marc emerged from the bedroom. He was off to work. I told him I would stop by later and say hello to anybody left who I knew. Turns out that a lot of the people I knew still worked there. I packed the bike and said my good-byes to Karen. It felt odd. I was heading to Hartford today, but had time to kill. Something I wasn't accustomed during this trip. So far, it has been one time-table after another. I rode down the NY throughway, paid my toll. It's odd, I refuse to pay a toll here in Texas to ride on a road, but don't have a problem doing that in New York. My old company, Pentek is located in New Jersey. I figured I would stop by, say hello, then go wander down the street and visit the Campmor store. However, that like many of my plans, would get ditched in order to stay on schedule. Once in Upper Saddle River, I started making my rounds, saying hello to everybody I knew. Next thing I knew it was lunch time. Marc, another friend, and I went out for lunch. Now of course, time was starting to catch up with me. I had to ditch my plan to stop by Campmor and I had planned a route from Marc's house, so I was working on adjusting my route in my head, I knew I had to cross over to 287/87, cross the Hudson and work my way up to Hartford from there. I ditched my route and let the GPS route me. As I started to head out a different direction, the GPS would recalculate my route. I was pretty confident of my route, but soon there would be little mistakes, like missing a turn... How I did that with a GPS is beyond me, but that put me on roads I was unfamiliar with at the time. Turns out, they were very nice back roads though and I enjoyed them. My first sign that I was in CT and not NY was suddenly I started noticing more Conneticut license plates. The bad thing about missing my turn and going on the little roads into CT, was that the GPS rerouted me to put me back on the freeways. Oh well, my poking around without a schedule suddenly came back to bite me since I had to make it to Hartford, find my hotel, unload my gear, then meet my brother for dinner. I pulled into Hartford at the perfect time; it was rush hour and the cars were starting to stack up. I was staying downtown, my brother's place was only 4 miles from the hotel, so I figured that when I promised I would be there at 6 PM and I was checking in at 5:45, I would be fine. Oh, how wrong I was... The GPS put me back on the interstate to get to his house. It took me 25 minutes to go 3 miles on the freeway! I could have walked faster, I think. Later my brother told me that if I had stayed off the freeway, I could have made it in a couple of minutes.
{More later}
The company I work for, purchased a content management system and we needed to move to the next version of the software. After some negotiations, we were able to get us to give us the next version of the software free, but we had to do all the configuration and move all the data. It was decided that my counterpart in Colorado and I should go to the companies site and do the configuration. They are located in York, PA, and due to lots of things, we would have to be on-site Easter Monday. That meant flying out on Easter for us. Except my counterpart was going to see her son in college in upstate NY, and fly out early. I decided to ride there. I love excuses to ride, and this looked like the perfect opportunity, we were closed Good Friday, so I had an extra day to make it there. Well, sort of... My daughter's school is closed on Good Friday, so it was decided that I would stay until lunch, then my wife would come home and I would leave. The big decision was what bike should I take, the Buell Ulysses, or the BMW RT?
Prep:
I scoured the roads in my GPS software to plan a route. I wanted to take as many small roads as possible. I've found that the best way to do this is to pick my start point, my end point, let the software do the auto routing, then start trying to figure out where to end each day. Once that is done, I start studying the roads and if possible get recommendations from people who might have traveled those areas. That's the hard part. The computer age has helped, but in many cases it's still tough finding people who have traveled those roads. In many cases, I simply went with small roads that got me from point A to point B, or roads I hadn't gone on previously. In the case of the northeast, that was easy. I haven't lived in that part of the country since 1999, and I lived in New Jersey, and didn't own a bike at that time, so I didn't try to find the back roads.
Once I had my route picked out, I still hadn't decided on the bike. I attended the local BMW riders' club meeting and I was asked about what bike and I said, I really didn't know which I was going to take. I think that surprised them, I think most figured the RT was a slam dunk. In fact, it wasn't until it came time for me to pack that I decided what soft bags to pull out (I have one set for the Buell side and top cases and one set for the BMW), that I decided on the bike. The winner:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3517/3467971781_3621d72229_b.jpg
Day 1:
I guess I should mention that my company, like many are in the "starvation mode", that is, no money is available for travel or anything else for that matter. Having spent 12 years in the military, I don't care where I sleep. A motel/hotel is simply a place for me to sleep for a few hours, grab a shower and go. I found that I could book most hotels in advance and prepay for them and save 20%. This meant most hotels were in the $50 range. That was good because in order to justify the trip, it had to be in the same range as an airline ticket. I was given a budget for the trip, which I'm happy to report I undercut by nearly $150 dollars. My trip on day one put me at the Days Inn in Arkadelphia, AR. Things out Austin were fine, the same backroads that I'm use to to 79, up through Palestine, TX and over the Louisiana state line. The weather looked iffy just a couple of days before I left, but was awesome when I left. Things were green, and the temps were perfect for riding. Not too many bugs, but I still had to clean my windscreen every time I stopped for fuel. I crossed the Arkansas state line as the day was starting to wind down.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3509/3468077549_c3810f34a2.jpg
The roads were perfect though, trees lined the road and I saw few cars along the way.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3555/3468064065_7f57b48b4f_b.jpg
I made it to Arkadelphia around 8:30 PM, in the dark. I didn't stop to eat dinner that night (Sadly, a theme that seemed to follow). Sadly GPS issue killed the actual track for day one, but it was approximately 440 miles from the start.
Day 2:
Day two saw me get up at 6 AM, shower, pack and wander across the parking lot to the local Waffle House for breakfast. My destination was Richmond, KY. I left around 7:45 AM, and actually started out on I-30 for a while, after Benton, I got onto I-40 until I got through Little Rock. Traffic was pretty light, of course it was a Saturday and it was early. Once I got past Little Rock, I hit the back roads again. The further north in Arkansas I went, the less trees and more open fields I came across.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3632/3468893946_0f65e6508f_b.jpg
I would touch a small part of Missouri before I crossed into Tennessee. In fact, I rode through Kennett Missouri, a small nothing farming community that had a hand painted sign that read "Hometown of Sheryl Crow"... As I rode through the town, I wondered what would have happened to her if her singing career hadn't pulled her out of the town. Didn't look there was much outside of the rice/grain facilities around, and of course farming.
Day 2
As I crossed the Mississippi river into Tennessee, I entered US 155, which seems to be a little used road, so I had two lanes of asphalt free of traffic. Not long after entering 155, I was on US 45 which changes to the julian Carroll Purchase Parkway as you cross from Tennessee to into Kentucky. One of the things that I had to keep reminding myself was I wasn't in Texas anymore. No more driving 6-10 hours depending on direction to leave the state. Of course I also wasn't really seeing much of anything, I was on four-lane slab. One thing I did notice was that starting in Tennessee, was that the tops of trees were all broken, I imagined that high winds must have broken them. However, this assumption was incorrect as I was to find out later. Turns out Tennessee and Kentucky had some bad ice this winter and that was the remnants of the ice storm.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3604/3468897150_f5e4fc54f7.jpg
Honestly this was a bit of disappointment because there wasn't much to see on the highway. I would fix that around 4:30 PM when I got back to my two lane country roads west of Elizabethtown. Immediately, it was like a breath of fresh air moving back onto two lane roads with wonderful rolling hills.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3500/3468089383_67bd3575ec.jpg
I drove past Lincoln's birthplace. Unfortunately, it was too late to stop, and I didn't really leave myself enough time to stop even if it was open. As I continued towards my destination of Richmond, the sky continued on its path from blue to orange, and into darkness. I zipped past tiny towns and farms that barely had much else other than agriculture from what I could tell. Now, I do have to tell you if you ever find yourself on country roads in Kentucky, speed limits are all relative, and based on where you come from. I was doing 65 in the 55, but when a local in their pickup came up behind me, I would push it to 70-75, eventually however they would pass me and soon be out of my vision. So, 55 must mean 85 to most of them.
I stopped briefly to put my winter gloves and liner back on. It was getting pretty chilly once the sun set. When I finally reached the outskirts of Richmond, KY it was dark and I hadn't eaten dinner. It was nearly 9 PM, so I decided to skip eating and just head to the hotel.
Total Miles: 659
Total Time: 12 hours 15 minutes
Day 3
Today was going to be a light day of riding... less than 600 miles. I started out around 7:30 after another breakfast at what seemed to be a regular stop these days; a Waffle House, complete with conversations with locals who explained the broken trees I saw along the way. I was pretty excited about today's ride. I planned some very small roads up to York, PA. Things started out fine, I did a double-take shortly after leaving Richmond. In Hillsboro, KY, a horse and buggy turned left in front of me at an intersection. I then realized it was Amish folks. I guess I was surprised because I hadn't heard of the Amish settling in that part of the country. I knew they were in Ohio and Pennsylvania, but not northern Kentucky. I wish I didn't have my winter gloves on because they hinder my ability to take photos while riding. As I passed a covered bridge however, I had to stop. I figured it was too nice to not take the obligatory beauty shot with the bike. I also took one without the bike in front of it.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3514/3467971481_8d1d366336.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3551/3468090783_5486d73244.jpg
As I got back on the bike and turned off the "major" road, it was like a postcard. Two hills on either side of the valley, small houses dotted the 1 1/2 lane road (it really wasn't big enough for two cars), and a small stream hugged the road. With the morning sun throwing it's golden rays upon the valley it really was a picture postcard waiting to happen, so what did I do? Nothing. I ignored the picture opportunity and rode down the road. I did pass two locals who waved and smiled at me. I thought, "wow, they sure are a friendly bunch." However, later I wasn't sure if they were being friendly or just laughing at some stupid guy on a bike, for not long after I passed the second bike, I noticed that the road ended. Yet on the GPS it kept going. "Hmmmm..." Well, that's not entirely accurate, there was a 'road,' except it was dirt and not just dirt, but mud. Over the past couple of weeks this part of the country had been getting a lot of rain and without asphalt, I wasn't going to follow the road. I turned the bike around and started heading out, figuring the GPS would reroute me the best way it could based on the waypoint I set. Unfortunately for me, according to the GPS, it would add nearly two hours onto my time. I really didn't have two hours. I was suppose to meet my coworker for dinner in York and there wasn't any way I could be that late. I had a decision to make, let the GPS reroute me or try to see if I could go part of the way the GPS routed me, then go back to my original route. I would let the GPS reroute me, then try to go back to my original route. I found out that it wouldn't be that easy, seems once I got onto I-64, it would pull me further way from my original route than I had planned. Oh well, looks like I would end up slabbing it most of the way. As I crossed the KY, WV border, I was very thankful to have on my cruise control, I set the speed limit for 68, as I crossed into a 65 MPH zone from a 70, two WV state police cars were running radar on everybody entering. Later on the same road in Maryland, I didn't have my cruise control set and I was running 74 in a 65, next thing I know a MD state police cruiser comes up out of nowhere. "crap, busted," I thought. Nope, he was doing at least 80 as he flew by me. I knew I would have to be more careful.
Once I crossed into Pennsylvania, I finally was able to get off the main freeway and back onto smaller roads. Just in time, I was just outside Waynesboro, PA. While that means little to most people, it was where I was born and I haven't seen it since I was about 10, when we lived in Gettysburg. I passed right by the hospital I was born in. Sadly, my coworker was already at the hotel and checking in. I told her I would be there in about an hour. Now, I'm not sure what it is about the small town in PA, but they all seem to have at least a dozen lights and speed limits of 25 MPH throughout the town. Not exactly, the recipe for making up time. Just outside Waynesboro, I passed yet another state police officer, this time I was lucky since I was going 40 in a 25, but he already had somebody pulled over, so I was able to throttle off and not draw his attention. Originally I had planned to stop in Gettysburg to see my infant brother's grave site. However, I was running late, yet again. So I just continued on my way. It's funny how when you're a kid you always think things are so far away. I passed through downtown and by the area we use to live in (it has been replaced by shopping centers) all within about 4 minutes. ;-)
Once we got outside Gettysburg, traffic speeds picked up. Officially it's 55 MPH, but unofficially it must be 80 to 85, that's what the traffic was going at least. I pulled into York and my hotel around 6:40 PM. Not too bad, I was hoping to be there around 6 PM, but by a different route.
Miles: 580
Time: 11 hours 18 minutes
Day 4 / 5
Not much to report on Day 4, in fact nothing to report. My bike was parked in the hotel parking lot as my coworker and I drove the rental car to and from the vendor's site. Dinner was super exciting. We bought a bottle of wine, ordered a pizza from Dominos, and had pizza and wine in the hotel lounge area while we both worked on our computers. Day 5 saw me and my coworker again at the vendor's site all day. However, I planned to go to Allentown where we have an office, so after work, I donned my rainsuit because of the light drizzle and headed out of town towards Allentown. As I passed the Harley Davidson plant, I regretted not being able to see it. Maybe next time. Somehow I have a feeling that I'll be back in the area later this year if not York, in Allentown.
The ride to Allentown basically sucked, the drizzle just got everything wet and dirty. I left it was already getting dark, so 99% of the ride was in the dark and I didn't see anything along the way. I pulled into my hotel at 9 PM after a short ride in both the dark and rain.
Miles: 95
Time: 1 hour 55 minutes
Day 6
I wandered over to the Denny's across the street for breakfast, then hopped on the bike to the LSI building. This building was built by Lucent during the high tech heyday, and then when Lucent spun off the telecomm/networking side of things, Agere Systems used it as the headquarters. It's huge, not as big as the Apple building I worked in, when I worked in California, but still huge. When Agere and LSI merged, the headquarters was moved to Milpitas, CA. A lot of the people who use to work in the building are now gone, so it feels like a ghost town. Sad really.
I had meetings most of the morning with people I normally only speak with via phone, so it was nice putting a face and name together. After lunch I had a couple more short meetings, then bailed about 3 PM. I was heading to Chester, NY. A very dear friend and his wife live there (actually he was my boss at one time when my wife and I lived in New Jersey). I was yet again taking the scenic route and I have to tell you, I don't believe I have seen as many cops in my life running radar through these podunk towns. In one in PA, The cop was in the middle of the road, his squad car splitting both lanes. Aiming the radar straight ahead into the traffic coming into town. Geez, give me a break, I know times are tough, but you really can't expect all your general fund money to come from speeding traffic.
The further away from Allentown I got, the more open the roads became. I ended up taking all the back roads there, with one exception. When I crossed over into New Jersey, I got onto 80 for a very short time. I crossed into New York in the Warwick area. I use to live a few miles southeast from Warwick in New Jersey, and it felt good to actually know the roads I was traveling on. I ended up in Chester, NY about 6 PM, with Marc's brother, who lives next door, waiting outside for me. I taked with Evan for a bit and then said hello to my host. Not long after Karen and I started talking, Marc drove up. That evening we went out of dinner and had a wonderful conversation. We drove back to Marc's house and I crashed in their guest room for the night.
Miles: 104
Day 7
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April 16th... my birthday. I woke up and Karen made me some coffee. We chatted for a while and then Marc emerged from the bedroom. He was off to work. I told him I would stop by later and say hello to anybody left who I knew. Turns out that a lot of the people I knew still worked there. I packed the bike and said my good-byes to Karen. It felt odd. I was heading to Hartford today, but had time to kill. Something I wasn't accustomed during this trip. So far, it has been one time-table after another. I rode down the NY throughway, paid my toll. It's odd, I refuse to pay a toll here in Texas to ride on a road, but don't have a problem doing that in New York. My old company, Pentek is located in New Jersey. I figured I would stop by, say hello, then go wander down the street and visit the Campmor store. However, that like many of my plans, would get ditched in order to stay on schedule. Once in Upper Saddle River, I started making my rounds, saying hello to everybody I knew. Next thing I knew it was lunch time. Marc, another friend, and I went out for lunch. Now of course, time was starting to catch up with me. I had to ditch my plan to stop by Campmor and I had planned a route from Marc's house, so I was working on adjusting my route in my head, I knew I had to cross over to 287/87, cross the Hudson and work my way up to Hartford from there. I ditched my route and let the GPS route me. As I started to head out a different direction, the GPS would recalculate my route. I was pretty confident of my route, but soon there would be little mistakes, like missing a turn... How I did that with a GPS is beyond me, but that put me on roads I was unfamiliar with at the time. Turns out, they were very nice back roads though and I enjoyed them. My first sign that I was in CT and not NY was suddenly I started noticing more Conneticut license plates. The bad thing about missing my turn and going on the little roads into CT, was that the GPS rerouted me to put me back on the freeways. Oh well, my poking around without a schedule suddenly came back to bite me since I had to make it to Hartford, find my hotel, unload my gear, then meet my brother for dinner. I pulled into Hartford at the perfect time; it was rush hour and the cars were starting to stack up. I was staying downtown, my brother's place was only 4 miles from the hotel, so I figured that when I promised I would be there at 6 PM and I was checking in at 5:45, I would be fine. Oh, how wrong I was... The GPS put me back on the interstate to get to his house. It took me 25 minutes to go 3 miles on the freeway! I could have walked faster, I think. Later my brother told me that if I had stayed off the freeway, I could have made it in a couple of minutes.
{More later}