DAY
12, THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2013
My alarm sounded at 6:30 AM, as usual. J.B. was awake and told me that it looked
nasty outside. He told me that it had
been raining and that just before my alarm sounded, there was a clap of thunder. We got up and got dressed, packed and J.B.
was done before I was. He headed to the
breakfast room and told me that he would meet with me there. It didn’t take me long to finish packing and
I was downstairs with J.B. having breakfast.
The others soon started to arrive.
After breakfast, we started packing our Motors to get ready for the
day. We also got our rain gear from our
Motors and got into them. We were
leaving in the rain. We were all packed,
ready and sitting on our Motors, except for Chuck. He was getting his last minute things
packed. We rode across the street to the
gas station and gassed us. It was
Chuck’s turn to lead and we left, in the rain, at 8:30 AM.
We headed north on I-81.
It was hard to see through the facemasks with all the rain drops on
it. It was also cold, at about 57
degrees. We rode north for about 32
miles and Chuck stopped at a large Truck Stop in Jim Thorpe, PA. Chuck stopped because it was difficult to
see, it was cold and a few of us needed a pit stop! We all parked in the covered loading dock at
the side of the large building. This
building had about five or six stores under one roof. We went in dripping and the maintenance
people followed us placing a couple of “Caution: Slippery when wet” floor signs. Most of us didn’t want to drink anything for
fear that as soon as we got on the Motors and left, we would need to stop
AGAIN! While we were on our break, a
lady with her son and girlfriend spoke with us.
She had asked if we were the group on the Motorcycles that she had
passed on the interstate. She told us
that she felt sorry for us to have to ride in weather like this. I looked at her and stated, “So, you’re the
one that splashed us!” She looked
flustered and pointed at her son and said that he was driving. I looked at the son and again stated, “So,
you’re the one that splashed us?” He
said, “Sorry!” and I laughed. He saw me
laugh and he and his girlfriend felt a little relaxed. We talked to them about our ride and they
soon left wishing us good luck and good weather. We were done with our break and headed out to
our Motors. As we were getting ready to
leave, Ken had already got on his Motor and moved it out of the covering. A large delivery truck was backing into the
loading dock and we could hear Ken laughing.
We hurried as fast as we could and got out of the way. The truck had stopped and left room enough
for us to ride around him. The crew of
the truck was laughing also. We left at
9:47 AM.
As Chuck led us north, it was still raining and cold. The temperature was 57 degrees. The road was good, although wet and we rode
at a steady 65 to 70 mph. We rode for
another 77 miles and at 11:01 AM; we stopped at a Flying J Truck Stop in
Gibson, PA. It must have been the cold
and the rain that was causing us to need the bathroom so often. We all got off our Motors and rushed into the
restroom. It was standing room
only! Relieved, we started to get ready
to leave when Chuck was at his Motor and yelled, “Son of a _____!” I looked at him, he was parked next to me,
and he told me that he had forgotten his lap top and atlas at the Best Western
Hotel where we had stayed last night. I
told him to call them to confirm and he stated that he would call later. The other guys urged him to call now. Chuck called the hotel and the staff of the
hotel had found the lap top and atlas and had secured them in their
office. Wow! He was lucky.
We told him to ride back and pick it up and we would all wait for him
inside the Truck Stop. Since Bruce was
his roomy last night, we blamed it on him for not picking up after Chuck…after
all, Chuck has priors! Chuck asked the
Manager of the hotel if he could simply ship the lap top to Chuck’s home. The Manager told Chuck that he would. Chuck told that Manager that he didn’t need
to ship the atlas at all. Chuck went
back into the Truck Stop store and bought a brand new, 2013 edition. His was a 2010 edition. Chuck also said that it wasn’t Bruce’s
fault. Chuck had his lap top and atlas
in his hand and placed it on the sidewalk next to his Motor by the front door
so that he could put on his gloves and helmet and forgot to stow the lap top
and atlas in his Motor. Again, he was
lucky. As we were getting ready to
leave, we put on some additional clothing under our rain gear…jackets! It was cold.
We left at 11:25 AM.
We continued on in the rain and the cold. I put on my heater on my Motor. It was starting to get a little warmer. I went one step further and put on the seat
heater. My tushi was very warm! It got so warm that I know that if I sat on a
wrinkled shirt, the warmth would iron the shirt. Hey!
Be nice. I said the warmth, not
the weight! As we rode north, Chuck saw
a sign by the side of the road that advertised a Subway. Chuck exited the interstate and headed to
where the Subway would be. We found
it! After riding for 24 miles, we
stopped in Binghamton, NY at 11:49 AM at the Subway. It was still raining; however, it lightened
up a bit. We were glad we arrived when
we did because it got crowded in there.
We finished our lunch but it was raining too hard to leave. We waited around and I won’t tell you what we
talked about! It wouldn’t be nice. The rain lightened up a little so we decided
to leave. We left at 1:16 PM.
We rode north on I-81 and transitioned to I-88 East. We were headed towards Albany, NY. We rode for 39 miles and Chuck stopped at
1:54 PM in Bainbridge, NY for gas. Chuck
was concerned with C.E.’s situation on gas.
His Trike doesn’t get as good of gas mileage as do the Motors. We all gassed up and again, went inside to
use the facilities. We left a lot of
water on the floor and those signs came out again. The Manager was very friendly and asked to do
anything for us to make us comfortable.
We thanked him and told him that we were about to leave. We left at 2:13 PM.
It was Greg’s turn to lead. Greg led us east on I-88. Chuck had told Greg after a while to stop at
the first Best Western that he came across.
We rode and didn’t see any signs.
Chuck then saw a sign and told Greg to get off at the exit that we were
at. Greg made a quick lane change and
onto the exit ramp. The others
followed. Iit was a quick maneuver. We were concerned with C.E., but he made it
OK. We got off at the exit for a Best
Western AND Cooperstown, NY. We rode 16
miles from the interstate and after riding 48 miles, we arrived at the Best
Western at Cooperstown at 3:04 PM. A
couple of the guys went in to “make the deal.”
Chuck rode next door to a Holiday Inn Express to check the rates
there. It was more than twice what Best
Western’s rate to us was, even after they gave Chuck a “screaming deal!” The screaming deal was still $45 more a night
than what Best Western charged us. Best
Western it is! We unloaded our Motors,
parked them under the awning and “tucked” them in for the night.
We talked about going to the Baseball Hall of Fame and
Museum. We decided to go and Bruce
called for a cab for six of us. Ken had
already been there and C.E. chose not to go. We went to the Hall of Fame, toured and took
several pictures. We were here in town,
might as well go! We are all glad we
went. We did a lot of walking and my leg
was stiff and sore. Oh, by the way, my
head cold is better and I can hear! We
left the Hall and walked down the street for dinner. After dinner, we returned
to the Hall and finished our tour. We
were done and Jan called for our cab to return and take us back to the hotel.
Rain, Rain and More Rain!
We rode in the rain all day. It
was cold, which made us take more pit stops that normal. We rode for 220 miles. We didn’t make it to Albany today, but
tomorrow we should and, hopefully beyond.
It is supposed to rain, again, tomorrow.
Hopefully it won’t rain hard! We
shall see…
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