Summah Vacation Ride 2009

The vacation dates were locked in. It was to be the week following the July 4th weekend. The players were signed up: Me, my better half (Joann), my son (Freddie) and his girlfriend (Amy). The itinerary was wide open, with the general idea being to get out and ride for as much of the week as possible, in the general direction of the fine roads I experienced last year at EOM. Joann and I would ride on the luxo-sport touring FJR machine while the "kids" would ride our VFR800 outfitted with hard bags and a trunk.

Prior to our departure I checked the long range forecasts and was kind'a glad we all had rain gear. Thunderstorms in the future here, there and everywhere. But the loose schedule, and lack of any sort of reservations anywhere along the route meant we could ride as much as we wanted aon any given day and if the weather got poopy, we'd just pull over and wait it out in style at some hostelry.

Sunday we rose and packed up the bikes, heading west in the general direction of Albany. I wanted to make the first day relatively easy to let the gals get used to longer times in the saddle, especially Amy on the back of the Viffer. Even with the upgraded Sargent seat, that pillion post is no Barca-lounger, I gotta to tell ya'. We took some familiar roads and stopped for a kick-off breakfast feed at Parker's Maple Barn in Mason, NH. If you're in the area, ad have never been, it's well worth a visit.

After stuffing our bellies with pancakes, fresh maple syrup, cheesy omelets, deep fried french toast, corn beef hash, bacon and sausages (yeah, it's all good health food) we set out westward in earnest. Rode across Rt 119 thru NH and then shot north into southern Vermont for a little diversion. Then we dropped back down into the north of Massachusetts again to run the Mohawk Trail (Rt 2) across into New York state.

The pillions made busy with the cameras as we drove along:















Views from the Rte 2 overlook of the town of North Adams in Western Mass:





Me and my best friend, and passenger, Joann:



Our son, Freddie and his girlfriend Amy. They make a cute couple, don't you think?:



We finished the day, riding down thru the Berkshires and into New York (state, certainly not the city) and through the town of Troy, to shack up in Freddie and Amy's apartment in Albany. It was intentionally a short day to let everyone get used to their saddles, and to give us a good launching point to the south for Monday AM. We had dinner and good beer at Browns Brewpub over in Troy overlooking the Hudson river. Having experienced the highly rated "Albany Pump Station" in the past, I can say without reserve that Browns is a far better place to go when in the capitol area and in search of craft beer. Food was damn good too. Sorry, no pictures as we forgot cameras in haste to gorge out.

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Monday we headed south toward the Catskills. It is pretty amazing how quickly you go from the urban sprawl of Albany to pastural farmland in upstate New York







See those mountains in the back round of that last picture? That was our immediate objective...



Getting closer...







Just as we were leaving the Catskill village of Windham we spied a likely spot to stop and grab another big breakfast. Are you sensing a theme here yet? I forget the name of the place, but it is a country store looking place with a small greenhouse along side and a sign for breakfast and lunch. It was good chow, but somewhat over priced. Probably catering to the NYC traffic from "downstate".



After a good feeding, we rode the sweepers through the Cats' and down to the (in)famous Rt 30.













Those who have made ZOOM and HERFJR's Cats rides in the past will know that Rte 30 skirts along the Papacton reservoir. It's quite pretty and natural looking considering it's in in NY.









Gradually, we passed though the pretty NY farmland and villages, on down into North Central Pennsylvania.











Somewhere along the way here, we took a little back-road short-cut down some dirt lanes.

What better way is there to get the true feel of the country?:







And then back on the county roads.







It's amazing the amount of traffic one encounters on a weekday...





By the time we pulled into to the town of Lewisburg, PA there were stomachs growling and butts were beginning to burn, so we holed up at the Best Western on Rte 15. A nice little place with reasonable rates, a swimming pool and hot tub. Lots of food ops all around. We opted for the Applebees in the adjacent parking lot so we could walk over and drink a few brewskies. I'm sure there is better dining available, but those beers sure did taste fine.

(to be continued)

Tuesday morning we loaded up and headed south and west between the Allegheny ridges of Pennsy over Rte 22 / 522. If you've never been there before, it's some pretty strange topography. It's a series of parrallel mountain ridges curving around to the south and west.











After a while, off in the distance we spied a large series of windmills whirling at major speeds.

Nice to see in this day of energy concerns...





And then we dropped down into that little part of Western Maryland that is almost landlocked between Pennsylvania and West Virginia



My master plan was to hook up with US Rt 219. Yeah, baby, 219! (Drive gently? :blink: )

Rte 219 splits right through the resort area (?) of Deep Creek Maryland. I never knew it existed before, nevermind a resort area...





After a really short time we buzzed past the massive sign announcing the entrance to West Virginni! They spare no expense for the tourist trade there...



And right away we found ourselves headed for another wind farm. This time our route on the magfnificent 219 climbed up the rideg the farm was situated on for a much closer look at the whirling generators.





At one point near the top of the ridge, the road takes you so close to one of the whirling turbine blades that it seems as if it could almost hit you. Those things are pretty cool.



Onward we go down the fabulous Rte 219. Beautiful scenery interspersed with little twisty bits through the passes.















Boy meets curvy road. Boy likes curvy road. See boy smile...







The original plan was to try and make it down to Lewisburg WV (to the scene of the EOM crime) but the lady butts were crying for relief, and when the lady butts aren't happy, nobody's happy. So we pulled off in Elkins WV for the night. I'm not a road racer, but I did stay at the Holiday Inn Express in Elkins, WV... Another nice clean place, another reasonable rate (with no advance reservations) and anotherplace with the requisite hot tub to sooth those sore butts.

But before the big soak, we walked about a block from the hotel to a tavern / pub / eatery called Beanders. Reallky good mess o' chow and running a two for one draft night. Hells yeah, we saved >$15 on free beers. And the food was damn good too.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday AM, up and out to ride a day loop through West Virginia. We continued on down 219 a while and then cut across Rte 39.







Up on 39 we stopped at the Cranberry Mountain Vista for a butt break and photo op:











OK, enough lolly gagging... Time to gear back up and get back to the roads...



Woo hoo!!!





When lunch time was closing in we were rolling into the village of Craigsville. I punched into the GPS looking for a lunch spot and found an A&W only 10 miles away. Great, take me there Garmin! Hmmm, I suppose that this dirt road is a short cut.





Right about here is where Garmin told me the A&W was supposed to be:



Oh well, at least the road is (sort of) paved now. Lets just loop back on this goat trail to where we left the main track and take in some of the local flavor. What's that I hear? Dualing banjos?



Whew... back to the real road, and just in time, before they got their strings tuned up.





Just before we got back to the main route 20, we came across a great little local diner and stopped for lunch. The first clue it was local hangout should have been that every vehicle in the parking lot where we parked the bikes was a pick-em-up truck or big SUV. Then when we first walked into the joint the entire crowd of about 20 locals stopped talking and craned their necks around to get a good look at the wah-hoos that had just walked in with the funny *** clothes on.

We ordered up some grub and then headed outside on the patio as it was a beautiful day. Why they all sat inside the stuffy restaurant when they had such a nice outdoor sitting area was way beyond me. I had a Hot Roast Beef sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy that was to die for. Freddie went with something called a "gutbuster" which was a big sliced steak sammich with peppers and onions. The ladies had salads or something lady-like...

Hanging out on the patio:





Back on the road we skooted up Rte 20 the across Rte 33 to US Rte 250.











We stopped for the night in the megalopolis of Hazelton, WV. I had a note that there was a good (and cheap) Microtel Inn there which we managed to find with no problem. It was nice and clean, and cheap, as advertised. But it was in the middle of no-where's ville. When we asked about food they sent us off looking for a place called Olivia's Italian restaurant. We followed the directions and the only thing there was a gas station and a place called the "Blue Star" cafe or something, that looked like it had seen its better days back in about 1955. Beating a hasty retreat we found a country store to sell us some beer and hot sandwiches and took them back to our cut-rate room to chomp down.

Ah well... life on the road.

(to be continued)

Man oh man Fred! Everything is green there!

I suppose things don't get fried brown and yellow like they do out west here.

Is this the first time you've taken a long ride with "the kid"? How'd it go - Dad?

nice ride report, but agree^^^, where's the sagebrush and brown color?

Oh, and thanks for using moderate size photos.

threads w/ big photos take so long to load up...

Great pictures and report.....thanks for sharing...

WV kicks major buttass! Is it Sept yet?!

very nice report Ole Mich...I mean Fred...very nice

look forward to more to come

Nice report there Fred.

Enjoy the time with the son life is short.

Dave

This is my kind of ride report, Fred! Nice! Keep it coming!

I'll add that it's nice to see you taking a road trip with your son. Mrs. BG and I went to your neck of the woods a little while back with my dad. It was, ah, an experience.

Great ride report!

I agree with the others.

Great job. :good:

Thanks for all the kind words.

Yes, green is the word! Especially further up north and east as we have taken over the weather pattern from the PNW this summer. The only brown fields we saw on the trip were some cereal grain fields or hay fields that were nearing harvest.

And yes, this was the first trip over 2 days, or outside of New England, that we have taken as a family. We've done a few weekends around here, which encouraged us to do this trip. The boy (he's 22 actually) did great, as did both of the ladies. But I am now duly charged with upgrading the rear seat at Russell to a custom "butt cradle" version like my front one (I just had it recovered when I did mine).

And I think that before we make another family ride of this length (hopefully longer next year) we'll be retiring the VFR to local duty only in favor of a second FJR or some other more touring comfy bike. The riding position of the VFR, even with HeliBars and a Sargent seat, was responsible for most of our riding day limitations.

This will be the wrap-up of my vacation ride report.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thursday AM we shot directly north on some county roads out of Hazelton, WV and were back into PA in about 5 minutes.



We continued northward and veering a bit to the east so as to pass-by the mess that is Pittsburgh to our immediate west. The route I had planned out was a mix of US routes (2 laners) and county roads. The CRs are the best as you really get immersed into the countryside and can smell and feel the farm life all around you.





Along the way, while riding a faster stretch of Rte 119 (that had recently been repaved and was as smooth as glass, BTW) the FJR engine started to cut in and out. Oh great, I think to myself, the friggen TPS is going to **** the bed in rural Pennsylvania. Guess I should have had the recall done. Arrrgh...

But then the symptoms worsened and I found that twisting the right hand thingee had no effect whatsoever on whether I lost power or not. Guess it's not the TPS then. Eventually the engine power cut-out completely and I glided over to the side of the road to check things out.

I noticed that all the gauges and lights remained completely normal when I didn't have any engine power. Also the starter was inhibited. And when the symptom would (intermittently) go away I could hear the fuel pump doing its 1 second run, just like when you first turn the key switch on. Tried wiggling the ignition switch, no joy. Flip the kill switch off and on, no joy.

Then I remembered from when I had previously been messing around under the seat that there was some electrical tape (from the previous owner) on one of the wires going to the tip-over switch behind the tool tray area. Thinking maybe that was the source of the problem I pulled the tape off, and as I did I could hear the starting circuit cut-off relay next to it chattering on and off and the fuel pump doing a jig.



Well, the taped up wire was intact underneath the tape, so that wasn't the cause of the problem (though I now need to do a better job of repairing the spot where PO had used one of those evil scotch taps), but at least I knew I was close. After wiggling the wires around "just so" I was able to get the bike to run solidly enough so that we could motor on down the road to someplace safer than the side of the road for further investigation.

That brought us into the World Famous Town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

Not really sure what they're so famous for. Anyone know? :blink:









Stopping in a gas station with an area to the side to work on the bike, I pulled out the tip over switch and disassembled it, only to find nothing wrong. Then I pulled off the connector to the chattering cut-out relay and found a small amount of corrosion on that connector and the corresponding relay pins. Scraping them off the best I could with the tip of a small screwdriver, I found that I still had the problem if I wiggled the wire bundle.

Finally, by wiggling each wire individually, one at a time, and listening to the relay and fuel pump (which I could hear way better now not on the road side) I found the smoking gun. One of the electrical pins had actually broken in half inside the connector body and was just sitting there. The wire literally came right out of the connector body when I wiggled the wire.



Phew... I can fix this, at least temporarily. So I shoved the half of the broken connector back into the connector body with the small screwdriver, wedging it firmly between the other half of the connector and the nylon connector body and I was back in business. My temporary repair was good enough to last until I got all the way home 2 days later. :yahoo:

Back on the road (full time engine power, it's a good thing), a little bit sweatier, we hooked back up with our good friend US Route 219 for the remainder of the run up to the New York state border. Along the way we passed a few of these guys:







Onward and upward...



...and back into the "Evil Empire" State.



Our destination for the day was the town of Springville, NY. We stayed at the only hotel in town that I could find, another Microtel Inn, which was just as clean (and cheap) as the one the prior night, but this one was within walking distance of a lot of eateries, mostly fast food places, but better than the Blue Star Cafe of Hazelton.

As a side note, after dinner we scored a six pack of Spaten Optimator at the local grocery store to bring back to the room. Very nice... :drinks:



In the grocery store parking lot was a pristine, super gay clean looking 2006 FJR. Anyone on here by any chance? V65, wazzat you?

Zzzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzzz

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday's ride was intentionally planned as a short day, just a little over 4 hours and less than 200 miles. We headed north and east east out of Springville and looped up, over and around the Finger Lakes of central NY with the destination being the tiny hamlet of Groton; that being the home town of our pillion #2, Amy.

























Friday afternoon, after arriving in Groton, we changed into some comfy clothes and went out along with Amy's Mom (also named Joann) for a little touristing in the local area. First stop was one of the better local vineyards, Americana Vineyards and Winery.



Of the dozen or so wines that we tasted, my favorite was the dry Chablis. We scored a bottle for sipping later that night.

Next we went to see one of the many local waterfalls that cascade from the steep side hills down into the finger lakes. This one is called Taughannock Falls, which flows into Cayuga Lake.



Los Touristas:





Our gracious tour-guide and hostess Joann with her daughter Amy:



Before dinner, we took a short auto tour of the small city of Ithaca and around the Cornell University campus. My God, what an amazing campus that is. Ive been on lots of College and University campuses and never seen anything quite so impressive. The place is huge, really a city of it's own. The student population of Cornell is larger than that of Ithaca itself. Joann brought us up the hill to "College Town" where we were treated to some delicious deep dish pizza (and a few brewskies of course) at a place called "Nines". It is located in what used to be an old fire station. Neat-o. Definitely recommended!!

After dinner, we had a little fire in the backyard, sipped some Chablis and relaxed before the morning dash home to New Hampshire.

Zzzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzzz

~~~~~~~~~~

In the morning we rode mostly across US Rte 20 to get from central NY to Albany, then up the Northway just a few exits (the only slabbing we did all week) and across via Rte 7, back through Troy, NY and on to Vermont.

We stopped for lunch at the "Big Moose Deli and Country Store in Hoosick, NY. I had driven past the place innumerable times and they almost always have a smoker going out front to lure you in, but had never before stopped. We had their BBQ pulled pork sandwiches , which they serve on a foot long sub roll, and were very good eating. But plan on splitting one between two people as none of us could finish our sandwich.



The final leg was over familiar roads of Rtes 7, 9 and 101 back to the Wills hacienda. These familiar roads felt a whole lot bumpier, and incredibly traffic congested after our week in the countryside.

Our riding stats for the week were not all that impressive compare to what I read about on the forum. We covered just 1797 miles in ~ 6 1/2 days.



But the ride was intentionally a leisurely one, with lots of stops along the way. We stuck to the backroads, only touching the highway a couple of times, and only for a few minutes. Everyone had a great time with no real complaints, and no major problems along the way. I even managed to get back home just as the last vestige of tread was disappearing from the center of my Roadsmart rear tire.

The weather, which had looked somewhat ominous at the outset, ended up being glorious for the entire week. We felt exactly 2 raindrops all week, so the raingear never left their bags. It turned out to be a fabulous vacation, one that I will never forget. Spending time with some of my favorite people in such beautiful surroundings. What could be better?

Fred W said:

It turned out to be a fabulous vacation, one that I will never forget. Spending time with some of my favorite people in such beautiful surroundings. What could be better?

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Bingo! Very nice RR, Fred, enjoyed every pix and word. As others have said, sure is green. And the deep blue skies too. Wow, really nice.

Great report Fred! I found this report after I had emailed you so disregard the questions, they have been fully answered. Looks like you all had a blast.

The pics of the falls brought back some memories. I used to hitchhike down the west side of Cayuga Lake (Rt 89?) from Seneca Falls NY down to Ithaca to hang out on the Cornell campus. Boy was there some fun to be had there.....

TheAxeman said:

Great report Fred! I found this report after I had emailed you so disregard the questions, they have been fully answered. Looks like you all had a blast.
The pics of the falls brought back some memories. I used to hitchhike down the west side of Cayuga Lake (Rt 89?) from Seneca Falls NY down to Ithaca to hang out on the Cornell campus. Boy was there some fun to be had there.....

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Yup, Rte 89 it is. AKA Taugahannock Rd, (same name as the falls). Yeah, the whole Cornell scene really impressed me. I think that's where I'll go to school when I grow up.

Wow....looks like an awesome adventure for you all. Thanks for taking us along!

Congratulations on a wonderful trip... Memories for life. The pictures of the countryside were spectacular. Great Job! Rich

Great report, another place I need to visit!

Great report Fred. We've been on a few of the same roads. Ya gotta like that 219 though.