Americade 2007 - Day 2

This year I'm going to try publishing highlights of Americade 2007, day-by-day in this blog. This is the 25th year for Americade. It's scheduled for June 4-9 this year. The blog will also include my preparation in getting ready to take the ride to Lake George, NY, my observations while there, the ride home, and getting back to normal.

We watched the weather reports and finally reconciled ourselves to having to get on the trikes and ride in the rain from tropical storm Barry. I don't mind riding and having it start to rain. Usually, you can ride through storms like that. This was different.

We started out at 9:15 a.m. to ride four miles up the road to meet Valerie. We pulled in and looked for Valerie. No Valerie. She ended up arriving a bit late because of slow traffic in the rain. It was still raining as we pulled out with three riders. We rode up Route 9 to the Garden State Parkway and over the Driscoll Bridge and onto 440 leading quickly to Route 287. Last year Jane and I got separated on the Driscoll Bridge. (Check last year's blog.) This year we had already made a test run to the Jersey Shore to check out the CBs. The squelch had not been set correctly. That caused the communication problem last year that resulted in us getting lost.

We picked up Marion at a rest stop near Morristown. It was still raining as the four of us headed back out on Route 287. We rode on to our only stop at the second rest area on the NY Thruway. It was still raining.

We completed our trip which, for us, was 250 miles and it had rained the entire time sometimes so heavy that I had to stand up regularly on the pegs and look over the windshield to see what was ahead of me.

We arrived at registration about 4 p.m. and there was no line at all -- an advantage of arriving late.

We had dinner with NJ members of the GWRRA. It was still raining.

We are hopeful of a bit less rain tomorrow as we expect to have an early breakfast and hit the vendor area about 9 a.m. We are told that we may actually see the sun tomorrow although a thunderstorm with high winds is forecast for the afternoon.

Americade 2007 - Day 1

This year I'm going to try publishing highlights of Americade 2007, day-by-day in this blog. This is the 25th year for Americade. It's scheduled for June 4-9 this year. The blog will also include my preparation in getting ready to take the ride to Lake George, NY, my observations while there, the ride home, and getting back to normal.

This will be the 14th consecutive Americade rally that Jane and I have attended. I think we're in a rut.

I had bad arthritis last year at this time. For some reason, it seems to be greatly relieved this year.

Jane had knee replacement surgery on Election Day 2006. It took awhile for her to get back to a point where she could ride but she set riding goals and achieved them all. This trip of 270 miles will be the longest distance she has traveled on her trike since her surgery.

Today, we are getting packed for the trip to Lake George. We will be leaving at 9:30 a.m. Monday morning. Unfortunately, tropical storm, Barry, is bearing down on us and promises heavy rain this afternoon and tomorrow morning. That could make the ride semi-miserable.

Jane is the sunshine lady in our Gold Wing chapter. She announces birthdays and anniversaries and also has a remarkable record of making the sun shine when the chapter takes a ride somewhere. Right now, she's driving home on the Jersey Turnpike after attending a birthday party for our granddaughter in PA. The storm is right behind her pushing her north. She needs to somehow steer it to the right, out into the Atlantic Ocean to clear the way for our trip. Go Jane Go!

This afternoon we will be packing up and loading the bikes.

We will be meeting another female rider about four miles north tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. and then picking up another female rider near Morristown, NJ about an hour or so later. We'll have three trikes and one Gold Wing two-wheeler (could be a Valkyrie) in the group.

Next year, our daughter and her family will be moving from PA to Saratoga Springs, NY. That's only 20-some miles from Lake George and right on the way for us. We probably will be tacking a few days on the beginning and end of our Americade tour from now on to visit with them.

Tomorrow, we take the trip to Lake George. Rain, rain, stay away.