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Trippin’ Connies 8 – The Northeastern 12

Joined
Sep 11, 2006
Messages
2,531
Reaction score
93
Location
Houston, TX
First Name
Kory
Last Name
Burleson
I’m way behind on getting this year’s report out. I blame life.

There wasn’t much debate on which direction we were headed this year. Twelve states remained for Dad, the Connies, and I to check off within the Contiguous United States. Those states all reside in the Northeast. While we’re up there, we might as well see Niagara Falls, Mount Washington, and Acadia National Park. And to add an extra twist this year, 1,000 of the miles this year would include riding two-up with the ladies… my mom and wife. As always, I spend a ton of time planning the yearly ride, but it felt like this year was doubled with the twist.

The original plan was to leave the Tuesday after Father’s Day. A couple days prior to leaving, my wife asked me why we were leaving on Tuesday instead of Monday. I sat there for a second not knowing how to respond, but explained how I was already going to be gone for 11 days, I didn’t want to push it for more days away from the home front. The plan was to make it to Buffalo, NY in two days, splitting the mileage per day right down the middle at about 770 miles a day. She said why not leave on Monday and take 3 days to get there instead of 2. That was music to my ears. I gave Dad a call and he was perfectly fine with that, but he also knew I would be able to help myself with making it a little bit more difficult than that. Original plan was all Interstate miles, but with having an extra day I tried to mix it up a bit on days 2 and 3 with getting off the beaten path.


Day 1 – 6/20/2016 – Houston, TX to Jackson, TN – 657 Miles

Houston, TX to Jackson, TN – 657 Miles – MAP LINK


My bike began this year’s trip with 50,094 miles on it, just starting to get broken in. GPS data was cleared.
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Instead of leaving super early on Monday morning, I wanted to see my wife and daughters off for the day before meeting up with Dad and heading out. They left the house at 7 am and I finished loading up the bike and took off shortly after, getting to Dad’s house around 7:45 am. Shortly after we began the journey getting to US 59 and heading north. It was going to be a long, hot day of chewing up miles.

The first stop for the day was just shy of 200 miles in Carthage, TX. We filled up on gas and took a little break. It wasn’t even the heat of the day yet, but it was still plenty hot.
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Just before suiting up to leave, a 2015 Chevy 2500 diesel pulled up on the opposite side of the pump from us. This was only interesting because dad was in the market for a new truck. He’d been doing a lot of research and the new Chevy diesel was at the top of his list. I had an interest in his new truck purchase because I wanted his old one, a ’99 Ford F-250 diesel with a hair shy of 100k miles and in excellent shape. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on that bad boy. But back to the Chevy, Dad asked the guy what he thought it. After a 10 minute conversation, the guy was giving off mixed vibes about it. His company owned 16 of them and all of them had injector problems at the 80-90k mark. He said you might as well start saving $8,000 for the replacement. The best part of the whole conversation was when dad mentioned his current truck. The guy said he actually still has his ’03 Ford F-250 diesel and referred to it as “the best diesel ever made.” Music to my ears of course, and nothing dad hadn’t heard before. The chat with the guy gave us plenty of conversation for the upcoming miles.

In between Marshall and Atlanta we rode through intermittent rain. After we went through the rain it got really hot, especially on dad’s bike. I had given him some Baker hand wings for Father’s Day and he realized there were still in the “closed” position. The little ambient temperature gauge on his bike got all the way up to 133 degrees! He opened them up and said it was like he turned the A/C on. The hand wings work. I’ve had mine for years and love them. US 59 took us to Texarkana where we met up with I-30 and headed northeast. Another 200 mile stretch put us in Malvern, AR for the next stop. This is where my road trip love affair with beef jerky began.
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In Little Rock I-30 intersects with I-40, which we continued east on. Everything was going great until Memphis. We crossed over the Mississippi River to enter the city and everything was fine. As we were passing the skyline there were solid brake lights ahead of us. I noticed on one of the traffic boards that there was a reported accident ahead and two lanes were closed. We quickly made our way into the right lane and took the I-69 exit. I wasn’t 100% certain where we were going, but I do remember a southern route around Memphis when I was making the routes. As we now headed south we received a call from Mom, aka Mission Control. She was watching our Glympse at the time and was curious as to why we headed south. She was able to route us on the southern loop around Memphis using I-240. Unfortunately this route was not only a bit longer, but was also littered with traffic and light rain. In the end, the detour to avoid the wreck probably took more time than if we would have just stayed on I-40. As we cleared Memphis I was getting dangerously low on gas. I was able to stretch it out to 225 miles and we stopped in Mason, TN. The place was pretty disgusting with some interesting people there.
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This beauty has been worked to the bone, but fit right in at this station.
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Continuing on I-40, the good news was we were only 50 miles away from our destination of Jackson, TN. We made it to the Quality Inn without a problem and got checked in. Across the road was a restaurant named Redbone’s Grill and Bar. It sounded good so we walked across and gave it a try. The beer was good and cold and the food was delicious. As for the beer, dad had some popular domestic while I like to go the local route. This time it was a Ghost River – River Bank Red. For food, dad had beef tips while I had bacon wrapped shrimp and veggies.
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Back at the hotel it was time for a shower and bed, we were asleep before 10 p.m.
 
I'll pull up a chair with Scott....:popcorn:
 
Day 2 – 6/21/2016 – Jackson, TN to Barboursville, WV – 525 Miles

Jackson, TN to Barboursville, WV – 525 Miles – MAP LINK


We were up bright and early, 5:35 a.m. to be exact. I had a little breakfast at the hotel and we packed up to hit the road.
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We were off and running a little before 7 a.m. Back on I-40 we headed towards Nashville with the sun in our eyes, hoping to get through there before hitting any morning traffic. It was really comfortable out though with temps in the low 70s. We lucked out and cruised through the city without a problem. In the city we began heading north on I-65. We cleared the city and it was time for gas so we made a stop in White House, TN.
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I-65 north took us into Kentucky and after riding through Bowling Green we exited onto the Cumberland Parkway and headed east. This began our getting a bit off the beaten path portion of the ride to Buffalo, NY. The Cumberland Parkway isn’t exactly a back road, but it was nice compared to the interstate. We basically had it to ourselves and it was quite peaceful. I told dad you could easily cruise down it at 120 mph, not that we would do that. The Cumberland Parkway runs out in Somerset, KY and we used Highway 80 to connect us to the Hal Rogers Parkway in London, KY. Somewhere along Highway 80 we could see something smoking bad ahead. A couple corners later and we found the culprit. It was an early 2000s model Ford F-150 absolutely engulfed in flames. There was another truck behind it and people outside, so I assumed everyone was ok. There were no emergency vehicles on the scene yet. The truck was on the shoulder and we got over as far as possible as we rode by, but we could still feel the immense heat coming off the truck.

After getting on Hal Rogers Parkway I started thinking about getting gas. I didn’t realize that this little parkway was similar to the Blue Ridge Parkway in that you have to completely exit and take a different road to get gas. I realized this after passing several exits and nothing was in sight. We kept riding on and I started to panic a bit as I checked my GSP for gas. We ended up exiting Highway 118 and riding 4 miles to the town of Hyden, KY.
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Other than beef jerky, my go to snack during the breaks was going to be almonds and cashews. I’m down 40 lbs. in the last several months. I’ve completely changed my diet and finally realized that everything I’ve been eating for years is not good for me. No fast food, candy, processed sugar, etc. It’s not as fun, but I like the results and I’m sure my body appreciates it.
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Getting back to Hal Rogers Parkway we finished it off and continued on Highway 80. Soon after, the sky began changing and the threat of rain appeared. The further we rode, the more intense the storm got. As we turned north on US 23, there was some serious lightning. It wasn’t much longer before it started raining, and then absolutely pouring. I started feeling really uncomfortable and told Dad I was looking for a place to pull over. It was coming down so hard I was worried about sitting water on the road. I finally found a gas station in Louisa and we pulled in. I couldn’t see that great and started riding through about a foot of water that was in the parking area of the gas station! Luckily I was able to navigate out of the deep water and we found a semi-dry spot to wait out the weather.
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We found the first waterfall of the trip.
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Parked on the opposite side of the pump as us and waiting out the storm as well was a rider from Huntington, WV, the town right next to our destination town of Barboursville for the night. We talked to him the whole time we were there. He was a very nice guy and military veteran, and also Kawasaki brethren. He had completed 3 tours, a true American bad&$$ in my book. He was just starting a trip of his own, trying to make Bowling Green by the night.
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The storm was moving quick and within 30 minutes all the water at the gas station was gone and we were able to take off safely. When we did leave, thankfully there were only 45 miles to travel to Barboursville. A short ride up US 23 took us to I-64 where we turned east and crossed into WV. Not much later we arrived at our destination.

While riding along today my sister-in-law got wind that we would be staying in the Huntington, WV area. She told my wife we had to try Fat Patty’s. My wife looked it up and there was one right by our hotel, literally a 2 minute walk. I had even confirmed with the Veteran from the gas station and he said it was good. That’s where we headed after checking into the Best Western. Unfortunately there was a wait and it took 30 minutes to get a table. I didn’t feel like going anywhere else, so we waited it out. The place was packed. We realized Tuesday was buy one get one night on burgers, thus the crowd. Dad had a lava burger with some lightly flavored water domestic and I had a bun-less Cowboy burger with a Country Boy – Shotgun Wedding beer. Who could resist a beer with that name? Not me. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit.
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We walked back to our hotel and relaxed. Our room had a view of the pool, very fancy.
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We were asleep before 10 p.m. again, this time with losing an hour during the day somewhere in Kentucky.
 
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I look forward to your reports every year.

I do too, though I've already cried. You were in Mason Tn at about dinner time and missed an amazing dinner at a 93 year old amazing BBQ place. It's good enough to ride to for lunch from Dallas. :rofl:
 
Which camera/lens did you bring for this adventure?
Scott, I wanted to pack the D810 and a bikeful of gear, but ended up only taking the Fuji X100t and the wide-angle converter for it. I just didn't have the room to take my big stuff with me.

I look forward to your reports every year.
:thumb:


I do too, though I've already cried. You were in Mason Tn at about dinner time and missed an amazing dinner at a 93 year old amazing BBQ place. It's good enough to ride to for lunch from Dallas. :rofl:

I remember your report about it, too bad that didn't register with me before-hand. :drool:
 
Day 3 – 6/22/2016 – Barboursville, WV to Buffalo, NY – 480 Miles

Barboursville, WV to Buffalo, NY – 480 Miles – MAP LINK


My alarm was set for 5:35 a.m. again, this time I hit the snooze. I just couldn’t open my eyes yet. When it went off again I forced myself out of bed. We were slow moving in the morning and didn’t get rolling until 7:30.

We backtracked a mile on I-64 and exited onto Highway 193, which connected us with Highway 2. Highway 2 was a nice ride along the Ohio River. In Silverton we jumped on I-77 and headed north. My stomach had been bothering me all morning and, as if it was dropped out of heaven, a rest stop appeared at just the right time. We pulled over and I was able to make my stomach feel 100 times better.
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Shortly after getting back on the interstate we were finally crossing the Ohio River and into Ohio, the first of the new 12 states. The construction gave us the perfect protected place to pull over for the picture.
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Less than a mile later we exited on Highway 7 and made our way to Highway 26. After I had received the “ok” to take an extra day to get to Buffalo, I started looking to see if there were any recommended twisty roads, trying to work in at least one on the way up. Highway 26 in Ohio seemed to fit the bill and it looked twisty on the map. My source is usually www.motorcycleroads.us. There’s lots of outdated information on there, but it’s a good place to start. So back to Highway 26, for the first several miles I was basically laughing at myself with how much of a rollercoaster of a road it was. Not necessarily the best thing to do after riding interstate for the last 2 days. I was completely out of whack when it came to the tight turns. And with Highway 26, on top of those tight turns were blind hills. It was quite a bit of fun though. Somewhere in the middle of the Highway 26 we stopped for a break at the Rinard Covered Bridge. We initially passed it up bit I had us loop back because it looked interesting.
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The next stop was for gas in Woodsfield, OH. After filling up I headed inside to see what sort of snacks I could find that would be good for me. I found some Duke’s Hot & Spicy “Shorty” Smoked Sausages. They were really good, the problem was I couldn’t find them anywhere else on the trip. While I was in the store I overheard a bit of the conversation behind the counter. The guy was entertaining and used the phrase “explosive diarrhea,” which had dad and I laughing uncontrollably when I told him back outside.
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Out of Woodsfield we took Highway 78 to Highway 7 (Ohio River Scenic Byway). We were on Highway 7 for a while and took it north along the Ohio River all the way to East Liverpool. It didn’t take us long to start running into construction stops. Dad loooooves construction stops.
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The truth is, they bother me much more. That’s the downfall of having planned routes and destinations. It always seems like a race against the clock. I’m trying to get us to the hotel before sundown. For the next backup, dad got off and took a break.
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All the towns along the river seemed the same and felt really old with tons of old houses and buildings. In addition, there were, what I assume, were coal refineries all the way up the river. Most of them were on the West Virginia side of the river, but there was one big one on the Ohio side.
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In East Liverpool we took Highway 39 to the Pennsylvania border for new state #2. There were some historic markers at the border that we checked out as well.
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When I got back to my bike, I noticed a small snake that I probably stepped on as I got off the bike. I’m pretty sure it was dead prior to our arrival.
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In Pennsylvania the road turned into Highway 68. We were making our way to I-79. In Freedom, PA we ran into a bit of a problem when our exit was closed. We ended up having to go down several miles and at the end of that was a long line of construction traffic. While sitting in the traffic I was able to figure out how to get us back over where we were supposed to be without having to back-track any. We got to I-79 north of Pittsburgh and started to make up for lost time during the day. We ended up needing gas and making a stop in Edinboro. We took a little longer than usual here because we had been on the bike for a long time due to the slower roads and construction.
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Back on the road we took I-79 north to I-90 and headed northeast. It wasn’t long before we were crossing into New York, new state #3.
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In New York I-90 becomes a New York State Thruway, meaning no free exits. We collected our toll ticket right after getting our state sign pictures. We exited after 40 miles and paid $1.95 to do so. We rode Highway 5 to get a look at Lake Erie. We were riding along the lake and I wanted to find a good place to pull over. I spotted Hamburg Town Park, which was the perfect little spot to take in the view. We could see the Buffalo skyline in the distance.
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While there, dad got the idea to take a piece of driftwood home with him. There were piles of it lining the shore. He picked out a perfect little piece, but decided against taking in the end. He remembered the story of people taking pieces of petrified wood from the Petrified Forest National Park and it being bad luck. We didn’t need anything like that happening, so he put it back where he found it.
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After leaving we took Highway 179 back to I-90. We got on I-90, but not before collecting our toll ticket. The next toll booth was exactly 1.7 miles later and we had to fork over a whopping $0.15. It was pretty hilarious, but it actually ended up being the last of the toll road.

We finished off the day’s ride by taking I-90 north to Highway 33, which took us to our hotel right by the Buffalo airport. We were technically staying in the town of Cheektowaga, NY. We checked into the hotel, and before I could even ask about the packages we were expecting, the woman behind the counter said she had them. Each box contained the helmets, jackets, pants, and boots of my mom and wife. It was much easier to just ship them than pack them on the plane.

There were 3 options for dinner without having to ride anywhere. A Denny’s was in the parking lot, but that was worst case scenario. There was also a café on our side of the highway called Max’s, which the woman at the hotel recommended. We tried Max’s, but it was temporarily closed. Across the highway was the Olympic Restaurant, so we gave it a try. The food was pretty lackluster, but it was better than going to Denny’s. I must have had Denny’s on the mind though because for some reason breakfast and a beer sounded good. I had the breakfast plate pictured below with an Ellicottville Brewing Company Blueberry beer.
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Dad had the meatloaf and asked for Tabasco. The waitress ended up bringing him Frank’s Red Hot and acted as if all hot sauces were created equal. There’s only one hot sauce in Dad’s world, but he went ahead and put that **** on everything anyway.
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After eating we walked back across to the hotel and then the waiting game began. My mom and wife were scheduled to arrive at 11 p.m. Dad crashed out waiting and I went to the computer station in the hotel to purchase tickets for us to take the Hornblower Niagara Tour the next day. The ladies didn’t arrive at the hotel until midnight. I was outside to greet them being dropped off in the hotel’s shuttle. We walked to the room and tried to get to sleep as soon as possible.
 
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I always enjoy your ride reports. I loved my 08 C-14. Your journeys are always great and its so cool that you get to do that with your dad. My father got me into motorcycling, but was taken too quickly. I still cherish the rides hat we had together. Great stuff and I can't wait to read the rest.
 
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"Destoryed in a flood"? Seriously, the National Forest Service should spell-check their signs.

Love the Lake Erie pictures. Great trip so far; keep it coming.
 
I always enjoy your ride reports. I loved my 08 C-14. Your journeys are always great and its so cool that you get to do that with your dad. My father got me into motorcycling, but was taken too quickly. I still cherish the rides hat we had together. Great stuff and I can't wait to read the rest.
Thanks! Sorry to hear about your father, thankfully you did get some rides together.

Kory......PA does have a Grand Canyon of its own. Ck it out.

I checked it out, not sure if I could have worked it in this year or not. Interesting though, I had no idea it was there.
 
Day 4 – 6/23/2016 – Buffalo, NY to Oswego, NY – 215 Miles

No Map for today, Google will not let me save a route that goes into Canada and back with all the proper stops.


I woke up at 6 and tried my best to let everyone else sleep a little longer while I got ready. We had a small breakfast at the hotel and then tried to figure out how to get everything we now had packed onto the bikes. Our panniers and top boxes were bursting at the seams, but we made it work. Here were our guests for the next 4 days.
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The next obstacle was just taking off. Dad’s used to riding with mom on the bike and does it several times a year. Me on the other hand, I hadn’t ridden 2-up in over 5 years, since before my wife was pregnant with our first daughter. Not only had it been that long, I was now doing it on an absolutely loaded down bike and after I was sore from riding 1,600 miles in the last 3 days. It was going to take some getting used to. To make everything even more intense, there was a busload of foreign tourists standing right at the entrance to the hotel watching us take off. We had to maneuver and squeeze between them and the bus, I was hoping I didn’t mow them all down. I don’t know about dad, but I was as wobbly as could be. Kudos to my wife for not jumping off and renting a car.

On top of it all, we were using Sena headsets to communicate to each other. Dad and I have newer units, and didn’t have a single problem the whole ride up. Mom and Lacey were using older units. In the morning we tried several times to get them all synced up but didn’t have any luck. I could talk to Dad and Lacey could talk to Mom, but we couldn’t all get together. The crazy thing was Dad and I could hear the wind noise from the ladies through the headsets, but couldn’t hear them. It was frustrating us all so we just took off and would try to figure it out throughout the day.

We took Highway 33 into downtown Buffalo to get to I-190. This took us to the Peace Bridge where we crossed over into Canada. Having never crossed a border on a motorcycle before, I was nervous about this, mainly just due to time. This first border crossing put all my fears to rest. We were both through in a matter of minutes. I’m thinking it helped being there early in the day.
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Once in Canada we quickly exited and got to the Niagara Parkway. It was a scenic little ride with the river on one side and gigantic expensive houses on the other. As we rode along it was a build up of sorts as we got closer and closer to the falls. Once we were parallel with them you could just feel the power as well as spray reaching all the way to the road. We found a place to park in a metered spot and that was CAD 20.00. In the picture below you can see the American Falls with a hint of spray from Niagara Falls.
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I have to admit, I was very naive when it came to the town of Niagara Falls. We could see a skyline as soon as we entered Canada. Judging the size of it, I thought it was of Toronto. When we finally realized it was actually Niagara Falls, I was in shock. I couldn’t believe the size of the hotels there. It seemed like a mini Las Vegas. We didn’t explore anything other than the falls, but you could just tell how commercial everything there was, a definite tourist trap. These are just my impressions.

Walking up to the edge gave us this view…
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We walked down to where the Hornblower Niagara Cruises take off. When we were finally down at the bottom we scanned our tickets and walked passed a huge group that was eating breakfast, it looked like a company event. We got in line and there were not many people in front of us. They give you a fancy souvenir poncho to try to block some of the spray. We only had to wait about 10 minutes to get on and get going.
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The tour boat took us up close and personal to the falls. It was a quick trip, but it was an interesting experience and nice to say we’ve done it. Been there, done that, got the poncho. Here are some pictures I got while we were on the boat. The ponchos were useless for the most part. I probably shouldn’t have even tried to even take any pictures while we were close, but I thought they might come out interesting. Luckily my camera still works.
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This is what the line looked like after our 15 minute tour, I’m guessing the event breakfast was over and we made it just in time.
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Walking back to the bikes I remembered that I wanted to play around with the miniature mode on my Fuji X100t. It’s an interesting effect, and in the right situations I like it.
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Back on the bike we crossed the Rainbow Bridge to make our way back into the Motherland. Getting back in wasn’t as quick. It was backed up onto the bridge. While waiting I was able to get one of my favorite pictures of the entire trip.
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By this time it had already warmed up and we had heat coming off the bikes, so it made the wait a bit worse. We were probably in line for about 20 minutes, but overall no problems getting back in.
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Next on the agenda was to go check out Goat Island. The original plan was to view the falls from the U.S. side. As we were waiting in line to pay fees to get into the main parking lot a guy on a Bergman 400 rides up and tells me not to pay to park, follow him and there is free parking. I was sick of sitting in lines so we followed him. When we came to the first stop sign he explained himself further. He said how he was a local and that all the locals park in a different area and view the area around Three Sisters Islands. The he said, “just follow me… it’s f&c*i#g magical!” With words like that, I continued to follow the crazy guy. We pulled around to a small free parking lot by the Three Sister Islands. Once parked he continued to explain himself more about how much he loved this spot. What was odd was he told us to head out and have a look while he watched our bikes. I thought the guy seemed harmless, but dad was uneasy about it. We originally all walked away but dad ended up walking back and staying close the bikes. In the end the guy didn’t have any ill intentions, he was just a bit odd.
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Lacey, as always, offered her photography skills to a family.
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The area was nice, but I think the guy built it up a bit too much. Seeing as we had already seen the big falls from the best view, we were fine with not seeing them from the U.S. side and it was nice to see something in addition. Here are some pictures from Three Sisters Islands.
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Leaving Goat Island we headed north on Robert Moses Parkway. This took us along the east side of the river and all the way up to Lake Ontario, the last of the Great Lakes for us to view. We turned east on Highway 18 which was practically empty, but super rough. That may have been a reason no one was on it. We made a detour off of Highway 18 to go to Golden Hill State Park, which contained Thirtymile Point Lighthouse. We had a nice little break there but the keeper was about to take off for lunch, so we were unable to go inside, not that it mattered much to any of us.
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Sometimes hydration is really funny.
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We got back on Highway 18 and took it to Lake Ontario State Parkway. This was all a nice scenic ride. It’s a beautiful and peaceful part of the state. What wasn’t great was my comfort. At about the 30 mile mark each time we would take off I could get very uncomfortable. It was a whole new world riding with a passenger and not having the ability to move around. Dad was having the same issue. On another note, we were able to get the Senas all synched up to an extent, but they would not work without problems the next several days.

We continued on to the town of Charlotte where we made another stop at a lighthouse. This one was called the Charlotte Genesee Lighthouse. The placement of this one was odd as it was up the river and not too close to the lake.
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I set the camera up for a couple group shots. What is creepy is if you look in the first picture below there is a face in the top left window. And it’s not just a normal face, it’s a face that appears to be screaming. It was only in the one picture I took. I put a crop below it.
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After getting through the north side of Rochester, we were now on Highway 104. It was time for gas so we stopped and filled up in Ontario, NY.
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From there we continued on Highway 104 and then took a detour to go and see Sodus Bay Lighthouse.
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We got back to Highway 104 and finished off the day’s ride getting to Oswego, NY, arriving a little before 5 p.m. EST. Our hotel for the night was the Best Western on the Oswego River. We checked in and then decided to eat at the restaurant connected to the hotel, which was Alex’s On The Water. I was way underdressed, but didn’t care much at that point. I had a sirloin with a ragu on top of it was a side of asparagus. It was absolutely delicious! The beer was a Pale Ale from Middle Ages Brewing in Syracuse. Dad was rubbing it in eating bread with dreamsicle butter as we waited for our food.
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After dinner Lacey and I went for a dip in the hot tub and then back at the room everyone was exhausted, but I wanted to make the most of our view. I sat out on the patio and watched the sun go down and the seagulls flying around. It would have been amazing if there had been some clouds in the sky, but it was still nice. We were all crashed out before 10 p.m.
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Your wife has a 5,000 watt smile.

Great pictures of the falls. Even the up close ones you didn't seem to like provide a feel for the massive power of the water. As for the picture below, did you accidentally find your way onto Shutter Island? :eek2:


I set the camera up for a couple group shots. What is creepy is if you look in the first picture below there is a face in the top left window. And it’s not just a normal face, it’s a face that appears to be screaming. It was only in the one picture I took. I put a crop below it.

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You guys seemed happier that you had travel companions. Excellent pics too. Love the NE.
 
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