HRCA - August Ride

The Wesley Chapel chapter of the Honda Riders Club - "The Holeshots" took place on Sunday, August 17th. Meeting at 10am at Performance Honda, the ride would take us to Inverness over the back roads of central Florida. A mere 60 miles, the ride took almost three hours. A break after the first thirty miles was a hydration break. The temps were HOT!

Twenty seven motorcycles of various types formed two groups as we headed out. I was hiding in the corner. The lime green shirt gave me away!

There were actually a few twisties along the route and after the rest stop at Hess, we continued on to the Cove restaurant in Inverness. A nice burger, some good conversation, and air conditioning. Not sure which was best....

Looks like I'm holding court at the head of the table. Hmmm...hope that doesn't mean that I have to pick up the check.

After spending an hour at the Cove, I headed back to Riverview. Needing to get back quickly, I took the more direct route on I-75. It was 91 miles of slab. No scenery but the time savings was a necessity.

Not sure where the September ride will be but it's a plan. Two more rides and I get a T-shirt!!!

The Last Leg

Seems that getting up early is not part of the last part of this trip, regardless of the planning and the promises.

After an uneventful evening in Perry, GA, we mounted the scoot for the final leg of our 12 day journey. 356 miles were all that remained of the 3800+ miles of our excursion. Our 9:00am departure was good for the body as far as rest was concerned but was not so good from a temperature aspect. By 10:30am the temps had risen to the 93 degree point and the thermometer on the bike was registering 104 degrees. HOT! HOT! HOT!

It was a straight shot down I-75 and we made stops about every 75 miles to rehydrate, cool off, and sneak into a DQ if it happened to be close. It was less than 5 hours of riding time but in the end, it took over 7 hours. Better to be safe.

James was a bit excited as he saw signs indicating Tampa to be less than a three digit distance away. I think he began counting down at the 50 mile mark. We turned into the driveway at 4:20pm to end our journey.


It was quite a trip and we changed nightly stops quite a few times. Hilton was very understanding and kept changing our free rewards stays as we made our decision to route differently.

It was lots of fun and we saw many places that neither of us had ever been to. Now is the time to recover and plan next years travels.

On The Road Again...heading home

We are close to the end. Of our twelve days on the road, only two are left and our destination today is Perry, GA. Nothing special about the selection other than the fact that it is about half way from Tennessee to our house.

We started off in nice temperatures that soon changed to unbelievable heat. We found that hourly stops to hydrate were a necessity. With reported temps in the high 90's and the thermometer on the bike indicating 105+, we couldn't go too long without water and rest.

We made but two stops today. First on the agenda...Chattanooga, TN and the home of the "Chattanooga Choo Choo". Now a Holiday Inn, the original train station and home of the Choo Choo, the location has must history on its grounds.

Sitting on top of the old station, the Choo Choo sign announces your arrival. Viewable from many blocks away, it draws tourists to the exhibit.









The station does not look like a hotel unless you happen to observe the Holiday Inn sign flying in front of the building.

The interior has not been changed and the front desk is the old ticket area for the arriving passengers.

Passing through the station to "Track 29", one finds the train standing guard over the loading area.

Many children were at the exhibit, viewing the transportation of old and taking in the "old world" sights. Hard to believe that air travel was not the way to travel but fifty years past.

Landscaping was well planned out with fountains, plants, shrubs, and flowers throughout the grounds.





The locals have taken history to the next level with the largest "HO" scale model train exhibit in the eastern U.S.

Well over 300 feet long, many trains weave through mountains, tunnels, and cities, on the miniature locale.











Keeping with the theme, you need a "ticket" to get on the train...







The intricate display must have taken hundreds of hours to build and an equal amount of hours to maintain.















OK. We have seen the trains and the exhibits. Now it's time to head out again.

We have one more stop to make before we get to the hotel...another NASCAR track! Atlanta Motor Speedway was the photo op for the day!

Our timing remained consistent... the track was closed for the day and there was no opportunity to take a tour of the facility. We spent just a couple of minutes here before continuing our travels south.

The backroads traveled back to I-75 took us past what could be described as rural areas interrupted by huge, and very expensive, housing! A fly-in community is being developed and we observed many homes with aircraft in the "driveway"!

An hour later, we were in Perry for our last night on the road...

Tennesee

Wytheville, VA to LaFollette, TN is the order of the day. As we rode through southern Virginia, the sights were few and the temperatures were hot. Our first stop is NASCAR's famous short track, the Bristol Motor Speedway.


The track was not open as we arrived so we were forced to settle for a picture at the entrance.


After taking a few minutes to rest and cool off, we headed back towards the slab and our next destination, Caryville, TN.



Caryville is six miles from our final destination of La Follette and a visit with our cousins. I had not seen them in over 35 years and James...this would be his first opportunity to meet them.

The Hampton Inn overlooks a state park and has a theme that reflects the historical aspects of the location. There are plenty of statues, old vehicles, and views of the state park from this perch, located on the top of a hill overlooking the area.








The hotel owners purchased many items belonging to Alex Haley, author and local resident, most famous for "Roots". Many of the props used in the movie are located here along with some old Ford Model A cars.



Here are a few pictures of the equipment and cars which are located on the hotel property...












The cars...




Not exactly what one expects at a national chain hotel property. A nice change of pace and an interesting take.

We made our short ride to the home of my aunt and spent a few hours meeting and greeting our family before heading back to the hotel for some sleep before heading out on our return to Florida.

It's only a travel day

Plans were to leave early in the day and ride to Wytheville, VA. Originally, we had intended to head towards Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway. James wanted to spend more time with his cousins which meant a more direct, and faster route.

Issue number one...the wake up call. Nada. Fortunately, we woke up at 8am. Unfortunately, we didn't depart until 10am. The benefit to the late departure was that the fog was burning off. It was a bit like soup earlier in the morning.

So be it. Better late than never!

Today's distance was 430 miles of slab. Over the course of our route, we passed through four states... Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. Getting up late also meant passing on some great attractions such as Hershey and Gettysburg, PA and the memorial at Virginia Tech in Blackburg. Skipped the Natural Bridge outside of Roanoke too.

Amazingly, the scoot, which thinks it's a baby "Wing" displayed some of the behavior of it's bigger brother. We were looking for food and low and behold...


It found a Dairy Queen. The Gold Wing would have been so proud.

While eating, I noticed that I still had the stamp from the Baseball Hall of Fame on my hand. Hmmm... if I don't wash it I can get in free next time. Nope, I think not. Here lies the last remaining evidence of the stamp!











Our trip somehow took all day. James was in the "my butt is sore" mood and we took plenty of breaks in addition to the DQ. At one rest area, James determined that the name was appropriate and he proceded to do just that...rest. In fact, a nap is a more fitting description.

As you can see, waking up is less than pleasant!!!!

One event that did take place on our trip was the spotting of numerous NASCAR team haulers. The race was in Pocono and all were making the trip from North Carolina to the track in Long Pond.

A few of those we passed intermittently over a two hour time frame... Matt Kenseth (#17), Elliott Sadler (#19), Regan Smith (#01), Kyle Petty (#45), Bobby Labonte (#43), Scott Riggs (#66), Kurt Busch (#2), Sam Hornish (#77), Kasey Kahne (#9), Denny Hamlin (#11), Tony Stweart (#20), Travis Kvapil (#28), Jeff Gordon (#24), Jeff Burton (#31), Kevin Harvick (#29), and David Reutimann (#44). Sixteen of the field of forty three were on the road. For those NASCAR fans, the parade was quite a sight!!!

Tomorrow we are stopping at the Bristol Motor Speedway for a photo op and then we head to Knoxville.

The Last 48 hours

After spending the weekend and Monday in Vermont, we packed up and headed east! First stop on Tuesday was Mt Washington, NH. Our ride took us over Route 2 through St Johnsbury, VT as we motored on towards Conway, NH and the Auto Road to the summit of the highest peak in the eastern United Stated.

We took a short break at a rest area overlooking the valleys near Danville, VT.

While there was no rain forecast, the cloud cover did look less than inviting.

The GPS routed us over the Dolly Copp Road, a shortcut to Route 16. About a half mile up the road, a sign announcing that the road is not maintained for winter travel comes into sight. The truth be known, it is not maintained for any travel, much less on a street scoot! Narrow dirt roadway; many ruts (some deep). The paved portion of the road stopped immediately after the sign!



This part of the road was ok as long as we kept our speed down to 10-15 mph. With a total weight of over 1000 pounds, our VTX was not quite the nimble dual sport.

A couple of cars did approach us from the other direction. Each one was courteous enough to give us the room we needed and not force us to the side of the road.





A bit further up the road we found that it again smoothed out and ws nice hardpacked dirt. The tree cover was thick but the sun was still able to peek through. Take note of the GPS. The only civilization was on the road. Not much to either side!!






We found the Auto Road and paid the fees to start our ride to the Summit.
They post the current weather at the summit and we should have paid attention. 100 foot visibility and wind speeds of 45mph. But we didn't. Oh, by the way, James is quite afraid of heights. Should have paid attention to the sign as the base of the road too!

The pavement ends at roughly the 4500 ft altitude mark and becomes a dirt pathway. The picture to the right was one taken when the weather was good. We were not fortunate enough to have weather like this and as we approached this point in the climb, visibility was maybe 50' and we could not see approaching cars. It was raining and the winds were gusting.

After continuing another mile, we began to pass other motorcycles on the way down. Most were shaking their heads "No" and one finally stopped and recommended that we forget it. Everyone was turning around in the pull off area at 5500 feet. You could not see the road! James had decided that he had enough so we called it quits at the turnoff and headed back down.

The bike had a bit of mud on it and so did we as we reached the base of the mountain!

It was asy to clean the boots. The scoot...not until we get back home.

After leaving Mt Washington we headed south and then east. Passing through North Conway, we ventured into the lakes region and rode through the scenic Meredith area before meeting up with I-93 for the ride to Manchester, NH.

We met Pat McGhie (RockyNH) for a quick bite and then it was off to Lowell, MA for the evening.



Wednesday was to be a fun day as we headed from Lowell to Hazleton, PA. On the way, we would detour a bit north and stop at Cooperstown, NY, home of the Baseball Hall of fame. It was another great weather day and after a late start, we crossed the Berkshires of western Massachusetts and entered New York. It was a quick ride to I-88 and a lunch break. We left the slab about 5 miles from our destination and rode the back roads to Cooperstown. Nice scenery and no traffic to speak of.

There is limited parking near the HOF so we parked about four miles away and rode the Trolley to the center of town.

Strolling up Main St, it doesn't take long to realize that this area is supported by tourism and specifically, the history of baseball. The shops all have a baseball flavor and there isn't much else to do unless you are a baseball fan.

Hank Aaron was one of those enshrined that James had heard of! Here is his plaque. And he did recognize the "Babe", George Herman Ruth!















We were unable to attend the first induction and we would miss the 2008 ceremony as well.

Too bad we scheduled our trip but one week late.

The crowd was good sized for a mid week visit but we enjoyed ourselves as we dove into the history of America's pastime.











Maybe we will be able to attend the induction ceremony of the future Hall of Fame'r pictured to the left!


We departed Cooperstown on Route 28 and rejoined I-88 for the ride to Binghamton before heading south on I-81 into Pennsylvania. We had missed rain (except for on Mt Washington) and had always stopped before dark. Today was the exception. Our stay in Cooperstown put us at a 9:00pm arrival in Hazleton, PA and it rained steadily for the last hour. My driving lights are non-functional and that did not help one bit.

But we did arrive safely, watched TV for a few minutes, and drifted off to sleep. Thursday was a travel day with no planned stops. The route is entirely along I-81 from Hazleton to Wytheville, VA as we head towards a family visit just outside of Knoxville, TN.

Arrival in Vermont - Day 3

Day two was a nightmare. Traffic was miserable throughout the DC area and the temperatures were approaching 96 degrees. Slow speeds and hot temperatures. No fun.

After sleeping in until 7:00am, we departed the Embassy Suites in Newark for the short jaunt to I-95. Northward bound, we zipped right through Delaware and crossed the bridge into New Jersey.
While the toll roads are expensive, the limited traffic makes it worth it. We made great time as we traveled up the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway. We made Suffern, NY before noon!

The trip up to Albany was uneventful and after we passed through the toll booth we headed for upstate New York and the Adirondack mountains. Our route would take us through the Lake George, Scroon Lake, and the Tupper Lake areas. The scenery was exceptional and nothing like the flatlands of Florida.

While we were viewing the scenic areas of the lakes region, the bears were viewing us!

Speeding would not be an option. Radar traps were the rule and not the exception over the last 200 miles of the Northway.

Services, including fuel are in limited availability between Lake George and Plattsburgh. I knew, or at least hoped, that I could get to the Port Kent ferry dock. There would be plenty of fuel on the Burlngton, VT side.




We passed a number of old barns, farmhouses, and wide open pastures as we rode the final 5 miles to the docks.

This patriotic barn serves as the sentinel over an intersection which seems to come from nowhere.

We patiently waited for the ferry, boarded, and one hour later arrived in Burlington!!! Stage one is complete and we tripped the meter at 1498 miles.

Our first stop, even before heading to the hotel, was for James to visit "Grammy", my mother. He is her only grandson and it the light of her life.




We spent an hour there before checking in for a relaxing night.

Saturday through Monday will be spent visiting Grammy in Burlington, "Aunt" Michelle in Colchester, and Papa (his grandfather) in Barre. Aunt Carmella, Uncle Russell, and Ashley (Tucker) would join Papa as we had a nice lunch in Berlin, NH.