This was my first experience at Americade, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. I planned to go up on Tuesday, and spend the week, coming back Saturday or Sunday.

Tuesday

Packed and ready to go

Got up at 6:05, kickstand up at 6:30. I wanted to hit the road before my 6 year-old son woke up, because it’s hard enough leaving him for a few days. Once he’s awake and hugging me and asking me not to go it would be torture. I did hear him saying “Daddy” in his sleep as I was getting ready to go. I went in to check on him but he was sound asleep.

Had to do a little highway to get out of town. Even at 6:45am there was traffic on Route 55.

After that, I-295 up to Trenton, and then off onto Route 29 up the east side of the Delaware River.

Some traffic around Trenton, 29 was pretty busy thru Lambertville. Once I got past Stockton, I took 519 for pretty much the whole length (except for a brief detour on 521 when I missed a turn). Stopped to call home and say good morning to everyone, happy that by 8am I had put quite a few miles behind me.

519 just north of Stockton

519 put me onto 97 which I followed into Port Jervis. For the most part, a terrific ride, especially north of 206. At one point I came around a curve on 519 and there was a really big-ass bird sitting in the middle of my lane. Buzzard? Turkey vulture? I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that he didn’t move at all. I swerved around him, and he stayed put.

My GPS (Garmin 2610) locked up about 10 miles south of Hope, got it working again at Tramontin H-D in hope, where I stopped for a bathroom break.

Somewhere on the northern section of 519

Passed thru High Point State Park

The rain started in Port Jervis, and I stopped at daycare center with a small covered porch to don the gear. Nice woman came out after a few minutes and asked if I needed help. Not sure if she was just being nice or concerned about some biker hanging out on their property.

Getting ready for rain

Did Hawk’s Nest in the rain. Not particularly fun.

Phenomenally nice ride up 94 to 206 thru Catskill Park and then onto 30. Well, except for the deer prancing along the side of 94 at one point. Got my attention!

Cruising up route 94 in NY south of the Catskills

30 thru the park was awesome – lots of nice sweepers, great scenery, and if I saw 10 cars the whole length I’d be surprised.

Black flies swarmed the bike everytime I stopped in the Catskills

Rained on and off. Followed 30 north all the way through Amsterdam near Adirondack Park. Cut over on 29 to hook up with 9N. Really started coming down when I got near Saratoga. Thunder, lightning, etc. Pulled over at some old abandonded restaurant and waited it out.

Waiting out the thunderstorm

On 30

Got to the Lake George area around 5pm, 10 ½ hours on the road, 400 miles with only one hour on the highway.

Passed my campground on the way in on 9N, passed Roaring Brook Ranch, got to the Holiday Inn at 5:20. Check-in was a breeze, got the parking pass (PP) for the week as well. $7 lets you park anywhere legal in town without worrying about meters. Good deal.

Registering at the Holiday Inn

Not as many bike as I expected at the Holiday Inn. I backtracked to my campsite at Fourth Lake, which was a scenic 6 mile ride from the main action on 9. I setup camp, and was surprised to see that the only showers in the campground were 1.5 miles on the other side of the lake. So that became an interesting ritual of packing new clothes, towel and toiletries and riding around the lake.

My campsite at Fourth Lake

Remembered to take the "from the tent" pic

I then went to RBR. Caught the end of Bill Dutcher’s trip to Tierra del Fuego – sounded excellent. Got a front row seat for Clement Salvadori’s presentation about a trip he did US border-to-border N-S on dirt roads. Front row seat. I’ve been reading and enjoying Clement’s articles for going on 20 years, and was very excited to hear him speak. His ride sounded great, and his story of a flat tire in grizzly country was priceless. Listened to a little of Lee Parks – really fast talker, but I was getting pretty beat.

Clement Salvadori

Walked around RBR a bit, then rode into Lake George Village to check out the bikes. Now THAT’s a lot of bikes! I parked across from Quizno’s, and some Long Island guys asked me about the multistrada. Guy #1 just bought a Guzzi le mans. Saw one other Ducati so far, a dark gray monster with nice pipes and a topcase. Had Quizno’s for dinner. Being up there by myself, I wasn’t really into eating at any of the cool restaurants/pubs at a table for one.

Back at the campsite at 9:30, downloaded pics from the 2 cameras (one on-bike and one carried around), and wrote in the journal some. Very tired.