Day 9 - Americade/New England

Thursday, June 9: I can't believe we'll be leaving tomorrow... or that I'm actually blogging today's events! Today was a rest day for us.. haha... we didn't have any tours planned for today, we slept LATE! (7:15am) took our time eating breakfast, then headed back to the expo to look at everything we looked at before and decide what we were going to get. We got a new front tire for the motorcycle, it probably would have been ok for the rest of the trip, but we went ahead and had it done now so we wouldn't have to worry about it. While we were getting a new tire put on we shopped. I decided on the luggage for the bike, got a face shield for my 3/4 helmet and of course we ate!!!!

We talked to a couple of guys from the NY motorcyle safety, they give motorcyle safety classes, which you have to take before getting your license like Georgia. Ray told him about the bumper stickers, they asked for some. So when we left the Expo we left them a small stack. They loved the stickers!!! I was tickled of course. We've given away well over 100 stickers since we've been up here. The hotel also has a small stack at the registration desk.

We ate at Christie's tonight for dinner, overlooking Lake George. It's a really nice restaurant off Canada Street (the main drag in Lake George). The pictures today are of us at Christie's and our view while we ate. Canada Street was packed with motorcycles. People sit off the street in lawn chairs and blankets watching the bikes. We were told there are about 70,000 bikes here!! It's incredible, every make, model, color, style..... Some amazing paint jobs, one of them is the Gieco bike! Actually they had two of them at the Expo. While we were eating dinner watching the boats on the lake I noticed one of the cruise boats was heading in, it happened to be the Kawasaki sponsored cruise which Barbara and Barry were on, so we met them when they got off the boat and they wanted us to.... guess..... yep, go get ice cream.....

Well, I'm all caught up for now, tomorrow we'll take half a tour... sort of... and of course barbara and Barry are taking the same tour... it's so funny how we picked the same schedule except the dinner cruise today. We'll go to the destination, but instead of returning back to Lake George We'll be meeting Sue and John, then heading to NH. We've had incredible weather, a little cool in the morning, but only a few sprinkles. You know us... that's amazing that we've been gone for over a week and haven't had to ride in downpours yet. Even if it rains every day from now until we get home, we're still ahead of the game! ;) We heard last year that it was miserable the whole week of Americade, raining almost every day and very cold. (highs in the mid 40's, now that's cold for JUNE!) We were prepared for cold weather, bringing all our electric gear, fortunately we haven't had to use them at all. Not even me! :) hurray!

Well, I'm off to bed, we'll have a long day tomorrow, meeting Sue and John in Vermont, then they will lead us on a ride to their house in NH where we'll stay until next Thursday.

Day 8 Americade/New England

Wednesday, June 4: Today we were up again early for our tour. This was be a shorter ride on the bike but encluded a train ride alongside the Hudson River. When we got to the staging area there was Barbara and Barry. We were heading out by 8:30am again passing some beautiful scenery, much like North Georgia/North Carolina/Tennessee areas. We rode to 1000 acre Ranch were we left our bikes and got on the train. Barbara and Barry are the ones in the picture with us on the train.

When we got back to Lake George we walked through more vendor areas. We headed to Painted Pony Ranch for a BBQ and the Rodeo. It was my first Rodeo and enjoyable. On a very small scale I was told, but since it was my first one I was impressed. I played around with my camera trying to get a fantastic picture.... maybe by the time our vacation is over I will have figured it out.

It seems all we've done this trip is eat, ride, eat, ride, eat, ride.... you get the point.... I'm scared to get on the scales when we get home! There is an ice cream place on every street corner!!!!!! (and putt putt golf, which is what we should have been doing instead of eating ice cream on every street corner)

Day 7: Americade/New England

Tuesday, June 3: We took our first tour, Covered Bridges in NY and Vermont. We were supposed to go by 9, but our guide got off track and missed the last 2. We had a great lunch at an old train depot. I did get a few pics of covered bridges and passed by some beautiful countryside. Had we not been on a group ride I would have made Ray stop many times to take pictures. We've already met so many interesting people. Motorcycles bring people from all walks of life together, pretty cool. For the most part bikers don't care what you ride, just that you ride. (there are a few "brand snobs") We had lunch with Barbara and Barry, they live in Delaware. We choose the same tours and times so we'll get to know them better I'm sure.

The pics above are scenes from our trip. I'm standing in front of the covered bridge, this is the only one we stopped at and got to get off the bikes and walk around. I didn't bother taking my helmet and jacket off. Ray's standing on the caboose at the old Train Depot where we ate lunch.

When we got back to Lake George we walked through the Tour Expo, lots of vendors. I looked for luggage for my motorcycle. We found several options but won't decide until tomorrow or Thursday. Again, by the time we got back to our hotel we were worn out.

Day 6: Americade/New England

After breakfast we tooled around the area some since we couldn't register for Americade until 10:00am. You know us, early birds! AMAZING how many motorcyles there are, the variety is vast. This is the first official day and many, many more bikes will come later in the week. We were told there will be around 70,000 bikes here!!! Registration went very quickly, even quicker for us. The lines for folks with names beginning with A - P were dragging, so even though we were outside wrapped around the building one of the staff members called for Q - Z people, sooo... we walked past all those A-P people and right up to the R line... ha ha... As we got booed (fun harrassment from those we walked past) I replied.... It's about time those of us at the end of the alphabet had an advantage! lol

After we registered we signed up for the Scavanger Hunt, a first for this year. We were handed a map and places we could get stamps. If you fill 8 of the 10 locations with stamps you get a ticket for a raffle - a $955 garmin GPS, yep, we started hunting locations and got 4 stamps the first day! not bad. We plan on getting all 10 locations stamped for 2 chances for the drawing. (We NEEDED that darn GPS to find some of the places) We'll have all week to find them all. We spent so much time on the scavanger hunt we lost track of time and missed the First Timers meeting... oh well, we'll just ask staff when we have a question.

John, did you notice we thought of you? This train was just sitting there, the poor engineer was just waiting and waiting....

Day 5 Americade/New England

We left George and Mary's bright and early to head for our fist exeperience at Americade in Lake George, NY.

We stopped at the Welcome Center in Binghamton, NY on I-81, there were a couple of guys there with free coffee and snacks (we made a donation for Little League) they were very helpful, asking us if we were headed to Americade. We left several bumper stickers with them, they both promised they would put bumper stickers on their vehicles. Although we were on the Interstate it was a beautiful ride! The pics above are at the Welcome Center, what a view huh? (yes, for those of you with photography experience...I'm learning how to operate my surprise gift from Ray the day before we left on our trip, a very nice digital camera. I read I should use the lens hood...(I had no idea what that was until I looked it up on the computer) and as you can see, I didn't exactly have it on right.... sigh.... there will be a few more pics like that before I realized it was on wrong. oh well, I'm trying to be more high tech... do I get any points for that?

On with the adventure!

We arrived in Lake George around 5:00pm, LOTS of motorcycles!! After checking into our hotel we walked a few blocks to eat dinner at a local restaurant. (the food was great!) Then we walked around a few outlet stores nearby. One of the stores was going out of business and everything was 50% off, well, you KNOW I had to go in that store! :) I found a pair of timberland boots perfect for motorcyling marked down from $100 to $50, I was pretty happy with that since all the other quality boots I've found were at least $100. We went to check out and wha-la.... they were only $25!!! So, I've been wearing my bargin boots all week. After that, we walked back to the hotel, and shortly thereafter fell asleep.

Day 4 Americade/New England

May 31, 2008: We picked up Debbie and went with Uncle George and Aunt Mary to visit Aunt Carol and Uncle Gary who were camping. It poured while we were driving to see Carol and Gary, we didn't care because we weren't on the bike. :) We had a great time. When we got home we took a nap! lol boy are we getting old! Ray and I met Aunt Shirley and Uncle Ray for dinner at a great Diner, (A & N) Ray finally got his Chicken Croquettes, I had them too so I could say I did, they were delicious I have to admit.

After dinner we drove by Grand View Hospital in Sellarsville, PA. (where Ray was born) We drove home in the blinding rain, but again, we didn't care because we were using Mary's car! Thanks again Mary! :)

Day 3: Friday, May 30, 2008 - I woke Ray up at 7:00am, I was already dressed and ready to go. It's been a long two days and Ray needed the extra sleep.
Ray had parked the bike next to two other bikes. When we went to load up before breakfast we met the owners of the bikes. Jim and Linda, they were headed back home, Allentown, PA. We told them we were heading in the direction ourselves. We chatted with them for a LONG time...exhanged business cards and we also gave them some bumper stickers. (always giving those out) We bid each other safe riding then headed in to have breakfast. There was Jim and Linda, having breakfast so we joined them and chatted some more.

we didn't get on the road until 9:30am, over an hour later than when we wanted to be on the road. We decided to stay on mostly back roads in the morning, came across a covered bridge, took some pics then headed for Shanksville, PA to the temporary Flight 93 memorial. It was humbling and very emotional to say the least. I took many pictures but am still not sure how to put smaller pics on here... just gigantic ones... sigh.... The most ironic thing there at the memorial was the transcripts from the black box. As we glanced over the conversation between the pilots and hijackers there was something that stood out to me, making me sick to my stomach. the hijackers said this is for Allah the greatest, the most merciful and the most compassionate!!! Imagine that, they were on a mission to kill THOUSANDS of people for a "merciful and compassionate" god. I was very proud looking at where the plane landed for the families of the brave men and women who, knowing they were going to die in moments, put their lives last so many more lives would be saved. One thing you didn't hear about in the news is that amoung the wreckage, they only found 18% of body parts but enough to get DNA to identify all 40 people on the flight, the largest piece of plane they found was 3' x 6'. But they found an untouched bible near the wreckage belonging to the youngest passenger, a 20 year old kid from Japan. There were also two additional bibles found, not completely untouched, but in good shape. Cool huh?

We rode through beautiful countryside and arrived in Richlandtown, PA at Ray's Uncle George and Aunt Mary's. We ate dinner, visited for a short time, then off to bed! Once again we were exhausted.!