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 Laconia 2004 Chris Stanley and I departed Georgetown at about 6:20 a.m. Chris was having a problem with his onboard music, so we went back to his house he sorted it out and were on our way shortly. We traversed Texas diagonally, by lunch time we’d been in and out of raingear twice already (a typical start for most of our trips!) We stopped at the HD Dealer in Texarkana (Doolins), Chris’s passing lamp had fallen apart so we stopped for parts and got back on our way. As the day wore on we departed Texas, blazed effortlessly across Arkansas and around 8:00 p.m. we were just east of Memphis and we decided that we were close enough to an “Iron Butt” to make a run for it. An Iron Butt is 1,000 miles within 24 Hours. We ate on our east Memphis stop and when we got back on the road it was dark (about 9:30 p.m.) We rolled through Nashville quickly and quietly, okay quickly anyway! Stopped in Cookeville for gas around 1:00 a.m. now pretty tired and glad that we are over 900 miles for the day and the end is near! Final tank for the day takes us through Knoxville in a sleepy blur, finally on the east side of Knoxville we stop and call it a day. We went 1015.4 miles in 18 hours 34 minutes, I’ve done an Iron Butt, I don’t think I need to ever do that again. Day 2- We went through Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg and the Smoky Mountain National Park. The Smokie’s were beautiful, easily one of the top 5 riding days I’ve ever had. It rained lightly while we were in the park and the clouds looked just like smoke, giving me a first hand understanding of its name. After departing the park, we rode through Maggie Valley and Cherokee North Carolina, got rained on hard enough to hole up in a little Mountain store for about two hours, its funny, Stops like this are unplanned and comparatively insignificant but create good strong memories. On the road again we stop in Asheville NC for the night. We ate at a “Texas Roadhouse” in North Carolina, it seemed funny at the time. Day 3- We get on the Blue Ridge Parkway and ride for a few hours, a “must do” if you’re in this area, however plan for covering almost no true distance, after about Four hours we got off the Parkway and got back on I-81 (Interstate) we shot up Virginia, and headed into The Shenandoah National Park and rode this from end to end, we have great pictures of Thirty foot visibility (we were riding in the clouds as a result of being at a higher elevation). When we came out of the park at Front Royal the visibility got better but not great as it was still raining, as it had on and off all day , we stayed in a small town (the name escapes me) just outside of Washington D.C. Day 4- Beautiful weather, we headed into D.C.,we spent the morning at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, that was a highlight for me , I really liked it there , lots of cool stuff. After that we headed towards the “Mall” which in DC is where almost everything that would attract visitors is. We went to the Vietnam Memorial Wall, the Korean War Memorial and the Holocaust Survivors Museum as well as a bus tour that took us past every imaginable Museum, The Capitol and The White House. After all of this culture we decided some Primal fun was in order, Chris had his Secretary back home hook us up with tickets to an Orioles Game in Baltimore, it was Inter-League play so It was the San Francisco Giants visiting, we weren’t in our seats (good seat at that!) for thirty seconds and we were treated to seeing Barry Bonds knock one out of the park, this was when Bonds was on a home run terror (now we would suspect it to be steroid induced!). After the game we headed out of Baltimore and up to Pennsylvania and stayed in York. That night I went to see my aunt who I hadn’t seen in many years and had a nice visit. Back at the hotel Chris and I ate at a Diner, largely unremarkable. Day 5- We went to the Harley Davidson plant in York, took a tour, it was interesting to see how the parts were manufactured, as well as the bikes assembled. About noon we got on the road again, it felt good to ride , really ride , not go an hour and stop , that is much more the nature of our trips , 600 – 800 miles per day , three or four states , maybe another time zone , a new climate ,Breakfast(Red Bull) in the Mountains, Lunch(Zingers) in the Desert and Dinner (Red meat and Cold Beer) in a far away City. We had a late lunch and nice visit with My In – Laws in Wappingers Falls New York (The Hudson Valley Area) we stayed there for a few hours and around 5:00 p.m. we were going again, we rode up the Taconic Parkway and then up Route 7 in Massachusetts , through the Berkshire Mountains , and into southern Vermont at dusk, Through Bennington , then Manchester and into Rutland where we stopped for the night. This was kind of weird for me, as Lynda ( the Kids also) and I lived there from 1992-1995 , I hadn’t been back there since , remarkably not much had changed , New England is a funny ,quirky region its very pretty but the Winter ( all year except for June, July and August!) is oppressively cold and the climate seems to be the fuel for peoples interpersonal skills , they aren’t nasty or mean , just keep to themselves and hard to get close to, I think I was born in the wrong place ! That night we went to CJ’s (The bar across the street from the hotel) we ate bar burgers and drank beer. Once they figured out we had ridden our bikes all the way from Texas we had a lot of our beer bought for us, we were clearly the most exciting thing that had happened that night, (Probably all week!) Day 6- We leave Rutland behind on a typical Vermont summer, blue sky morning, rode by the base of Killington (resort) where Lynda and I used to work, I would have liked to have stopped there, but that’s a cost of traveling the way Chris and I do it : You can’t stop every 10 minutes and still have 700 mile days , the math doesn’t add up. We passed by Woodstock and Quechee Gorge and into New Hampshire. Unlike Sturgis or Daytona we were now less than 100 miles from the oldest bike rally in the country and hadn’t so much as seen So much as another group of even two bikes together, let alone the typical rally bound packs of bikes , it was kind of weird , bit unlike anywhere else in the country, there is literally 100 different ways ( roads) to get anywhere you might want to go in the Northeast, leaving it very easy to conceal 100,000 bikes. When we got into Laconia (Actually Weirs Beach on Lake Winnipesaukee is the epi-center of the rally) we did a lap of the vendors , same stuff as every rally , ordered our trip patches for our vest’s and waited about two hours for them to be done and sewn on , and as unceremoniously as we entered ,we departed Laconia. Laconia was just one stop on our trip , if it had been our destination it would have been a disappointment , we were there less than Five hours and it was probably Three hours longer than we needed. Bike rallies are like Carnivals, after a couple they all look the same. The vendors have the same pins, the same shirts, cheap (crappy) leather goods and lots of greasy food. This is not to say that this isn’t fun, it’s just that with a finite amount of trip time, I would rather spend it with my feet up on my highway pegs, seeing the sights of our Country looking through my handlebars. Laconia gets dim in the rearview mirror quickly and we head Southeast across New Hampshire towards the coastal town of Portsmouth where we stop for the night. At a local Applebees where we dine and rehydrate on suds there is a lot of Red Sox pride being spoken ( Shit talking!) and for the first (and only) time on this trip my Yankee fan defenses are up . Baseball up there is more than just a game, it’s a lifeblood , I can’t explain it ,but I know it when I feel it , people are behind their teams with everything they have, for better or worse. Day 7- We depart Portsmouth and head north to go into Maine, and in about 10 minutes we are in Kittery Maine and have filled the “I went to Maine” square and head south again down I-95 towards Boston but then head west on 495 towards Leominster and Greenfield and then get on Rt. 2 and ride the Mohawk Trail almost back to the border of New York, the Mohawk Trail was very pretty and almost completely without traffic. We enter NewYork and make our way across Albany and onto the NY Thruway which is a toll road , but with limited access so we are able to “Fly” from Albany to Buffalo in near record time , when we get into Buffalo its starting to rain ( should be an Omen for tomorrow , but were apparently not that smart , and it wouldn’t matter anyway, because when were on the road we ride , with or without the assistance of Mother Nature). We ate dinner in a bar (Again, as usual!) and ponder the travels of tomorrow. Day 8- We are looking at rain, alternating from heavy to heavier, we head into Canada and are greeted by the snotty Canadian customs lady that makes you feel like she’s doing you a favor letting you in and you’d better not steal anything! We go to Niagara Falls and visibility sucks, at the edge looking down you couldn’t even see the bottom, I felt bad for Chris, Id Been there before and knew what he wasn’t able to see. When we saddled up there I noticed my rain gear (Pants) had blown a seam and this would suck for the rest of this day. We rode across Ontario , through Toronto and stopped in London (Ontario) at Rocky’s HD and got our oil changed ( See Heroes and villains page for my review) After this we are now aiming for Port Huron Michigan , to re-enter the US . The Canadian drivers were the most combative towards bikers that I’ve ever experienced, I’ve ridden through the biggest cities in the US and nothing compares to the hostility of the Canadians. I base this on the distance / space (Lack of it ) that they give you , even when gesturing to back off , and you felt like the bigger the vehicle the worse the driver was , which is not comforting. I’LL NEVER RIDE A MOTORCYLE IN CANADA AGAIN! We reach Port Huron about an hour before sunset, the rain stops, the clouds are parting and the US right in front of us, things are looking up. At US Customs the guy was puzzled by the fact that we were “Just Riding around the Country” as he put it after a series of questions that led him to his own conclusion, that we had no true destination, except to start at home and end at home. Now in Michigan we ride through Flint, Lansing, Battle Creek and then into Kalamazoo where we stop for the Night. We rode until about 1:00 a.m. because we were having a good ride and it was all flowing, firing on all pistons etc… We ate at a Denny’s (that didn’t sell beer, this was a problem!), then got back to the hotel about 2:30 a.m. Day 9- We split from Kalamazoo, nice weather, we head down Route 94, cut the corner of Indiana as we round the corner of Lake Michigan heading now north through downtown Chicago where Chris and I get separated in traffic and would not see each other for about an hour ,well north of Chicago enroute to Milwaukee. Our riding together is strong enough to know that we aren’t going to ride half assed through a city like Chicago where it’ll get you hurt or even killed. Ride your ride and we’ll meet up on the other side. Riding like that requires all of your attention and trying to stay together uses attention that should be focused on riding and we both know that. Now hooked back up and Wisconsin coming quickly on the horizon I calculate this to be our fastest states ever. We were in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin in under Two hours. As we get into Milwaukee we quickly find out that the place where we wanted to be was North in Wauwatosa , this is home to the Harley Davidson Power Plant (Engine) Factory. We arrived at 2:45 p.m., the plant closed at 2:30 , we couldn’t even get a pin , nothing, so we got a Hotel room and got beer instead, this night had that “Trip wrapping up quickly” feeling , even though we were still well over 1,000 miles from home, the only thing that remained was the downhill run ( Riding home). Day 10 – The coldest morning of the trip, its about 45 degrees and were hoping it would warm up quickly . We ride ‘em like we stole ‘em until around 1:00 p.m. when in Illinois Chris front brakes go out and his floorboard falls off. We stop in Bloomington (See Chucks HD for review) repairs are made, eat food , get gas and get rolling, we blast into Missouri and see the Arch signifying the gateway to the West ,crossing the river ( Mississippi ) and make it to Springfield MO for the night. Red meat and Cold beer in Springfield we celebrate our last night on the road, this time tomorrow we’ll be home. As always the trips been fun, lots of great riding and memories, but I miss Lynda and the Kids, and I’m ready to go home. Day 11- Nice day, warm and sunny, we depart Springfield and head south through Branson , I’ve seen it and Its not for me : Been there, done that . We enter Arkansas and head South on Rt. 65 for what seems like an eternity, one of my riding faults is when I’m ready to get home , I’m ready to get home, I know this drives Chris nuts and for that I’m sorry but things are what they are and that’s me at the end of a trip. We finally get on an interstate (I-30) in Little Rock and rip over to Texarkana and then to DFW where we make a stop to get gas and avoid riding directly into the sun as it sets. Back on the road we ride down I-35 for the final few miles, we stop up around Moody for our last Gas, picture, and goodbyes. Around 10 P.M I pulled into my driveway with 5,400 miles ridden in 11 days , one of them over 1,000 Miles and all of them good! | Hero's and Villain's | Daytona 2002 | Sturgis 2002 | Sturgis 2003 | Laconia 2004 | Arkansas 2003 | New Orleans 2004 | South Padre Island 2002 | Daytona 2005 | Lake Tahoe 2005 | Big Bend 2005 | | Return Home | Map to Hare | Pictures from all over | Links | Contests and Winners | Rides | contact us | Upcoming events | The Big Kahuna Burger | Menu | |
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