DAY 12
Sun 9/28/14
Originally I had the 1st part of this going on the fun roads prior to the slab. Leaving at 4:30am, our goal was to be home by darkness. Well, after setting out, it was cold!, we opted to get some miles down and steer towards almost all slab, which cut this leg down from 873mi to around 730mi.
Temps are in the low 40's, here we are wrapping around the Bristol Motor Speedway on the top side of Tennessee.
Daylight appears and I watch the temps SLOWLY rise. A quick look back at what we left...
I-81 is basically quite boring, especially after what was had down in NC & TN. A Let-down for sure, but it is 'Ride Home Day" which is depressing all in itself.
Finally off of I-81 (Harrisburg PA), and now on PA15 which will shoot us up to the NY's Southern Tier region.
...still better than slab!.. but still bland as I have now been to these area's lot's of times before. Willamsport PA, home of the Little League World Series. When I was a kid, you could see the whole field from this view. Built-up I guess with a parking lot obstructs the fields view, but it's just down the edge of the hill.
Ya never know about da' Steamer, he's been known to just float off like to some Gentlemen's Club, or whatever catches his eye
...so I keep 'my' eye on that boy...
We start to see
Gold instead of all the Green that we have when we started this venture...
Still about 2 weeks away from prime-time foliage colors...
Coming into the Southern Tier (NY). 15 runs the gap between the Allegheny (West) and the Appalachian ridge (East).
Home turf! (South end of Seneca Lake, Watkins Glen Rte-414). Y'all know it's kinda nice to return but sad also that your trip is pretty well shot.
So I'll give you some of my home turf views, I'm running up the East side of Seneca Lake on Rte 414...
Seneca Lake is the deepest freshwater lake east of the Rockies. Some reports have it as they have not found the bottom in some spots (lol) but generally 800-900ft depths are recorded for the lake. The Navy has a Sonar and Submarine testing location on it. Overall the lake is about 34mi long, 3.5mi wide at it's widest spot (midway).
Hector Falls drive-by right on Rte 414
So what's the area got beside lot's of lakes?
Wineries, thousands of them. NO, really, we are saturated with them. The Finger Lakes makes a prime extended growing season for the grapes. The heat from the lake(s) in the late fall give the grapes that additional time needed to finish-off.
Here's of sprinkling of some of those wineries, and with a couple of miles of one another...
And endless grapes...
So the big business here now is the tourists (or Wino's would be more appropriate!). All the Wineries give "Tastings" or samples of their wines. You enter, get a menu of the wines, you point to one and they have a bottle being tipped in your glass before you can say thank you. Of course the name of the game is that you hopefully end up buying a bottle (or two, or even a case!) to take home with you.
Wine touring is basically; you get a DD or limo/bus etc. and your group goes "Wine-ing". After about 6 or 8 stops, most are pretty buzzed and it's a show within the wineries and parking lots. Half the fun (for me) when I do a Wine-hop, is all the fun (drunk) people. Oh yeah, mega groups of women do this by the bye, and I'll let you vision the rest
Here's a couple of large group Wino's, daily routes from Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo flock in on the weekends. It's a Sunday nite now, so kind of mello here and some are now closed being that it's after 6pm..
Getting real close to home, I'm going to veer off of 414 to the lower lake road, I can see my day ride has consumed 735mi (much shorter than planned)...
Yeah, we got these also...
Our curves are just so mello compared to anything we had on this trip...
Good timing, Sun is dipping, pretty much my planned landing time...
Albino Deer (it's there, look close). This area is loaded with them.
Home Safe!
Debugging slash wash time. And her first real wash since we left 12 days ago (Geezer would be proud). What great weather, man, I cannot say that enough. THANK YOU Weather Gods!
I know the 6 cylinder beast really get's outstanding mileage, so I had to check...
Total trip was 4540. Just about what I had planned prior (5K). Having 2 tires replaced on 2 different (1/2) days, a small shortcut on the way home and it is pretty much spot-on subtracting what we lost with those.
Some people mover observations;
Mileage? Was awesome as usual, no I didn't average 50 like some can/do on K1600forum.com. I was still happy, true I could of babied it but what fun is that? I rode several matching rides with some FJR's as well. They were almost as efficient, but for 5 speed, very respectable.
Performance? Holy, we don't even need to go here.
Comfort? Awesome. Maybe not what a Hondapotumus is or would of been, but still a real treat! Seat fatigue was nothing like my FJR. I will bow and say the RDL owners still have it much better. Hey, some day maybe
Weather? Unbelievable. It rained on us 1 morning, starting out from Gaylord MI. It was cold and dark (6am) but it gave way by the time we reached the Mackinac Bridge. Another morning we saw some rain (I think it was Sat AM in LaCrosse). We just extended our Coffee at the Days Inn and it passed by. Other than that, it was perfect.
There were some things I would change if I were to emulate the ride again. Most of the lodging was done on an economical basis, Stan appreciated this but also was the first to complain. It is what it is, our lodging per nite
average (non Rally nites) was $66.23 (incl taxes). I pre-booked everything through Choice Hotels or Wyndam Rewards, the savings were quite substantial. eg; Checking-in at Fayetteville AR, a ride-up guest inquired about a double bed room and the price given was exactly $40 more than our room was. I just smiled at Stan and told him after. So ad-libbing may be nice, pre-booking with the discounts was a definite savings. Benefit both ways, depends on what you like the most I guess.
All the people I met were great. Both FJR Rally's were awesome, both different in their own way, both with totally different surroundings. I'm glad we took in both and I don't have any regrets.
I've already serviced my bike, it's ready for my next endeavor, but it may have to wait for the white stuff to come and go. In the mean time I will continue to drool over your RR's and especially the good weather folks who will continue to ride. Awesome guys and I'm jealous!!!!
KJ
Navigation:
-----------------------------------------------------------
Day 1 Central NY to Gaylord MI
Day 2 Gaylord MI to LaCrosse WI
Day 3 & 4 NAFO Rally
Day 5 LaCrosse WI to Hannibal MO
Day 6 Hannibal MO to Fayetteville AR
Day 7 Fayetteville AR to Memphis TN
Day 8 Memphis TN to Nashville TN
Day 9 Nashville TN to Maggie Valley NC
Day 10 EOM Rally
Day 11 EOM Rally
Day 12 Maggie Valley NC to Central NY
-----------------------------------------------------------
...just a couple of days left, I'm trying to fit them in!
