Friday - Home to Waterville, PA - 233 miles

Finally ready to leave

Kickstands up at around 11am, after taking care of chores around the house including mowing the lawn.  I had originally planned to hit the road at 8:30, spend the afternoon at Knoebels Amusement Park, and end the day at Little Pine State Park near Waterville PA, so I had some time to make up.  Took the usual backroads to the Commodore Barry Bridge, where it was down to one lane as the zipper did it’s thing.  Temperature was in the low 80's, and I found the Phantom to be pretty comfy at that temp. The sleeve vents moved a lot of air, even more if I straightened my back and didn't slouch. I also found that my RAM camera mount blocked a lof of air coming toward the left vent.

Going over the Commodore Barry Bridge

The zipper doing it's thing

Short ride on I-95, then I-476 (the Blue Route) north to 422. There was a nasty section of what looked like aluminum shrapnel strewn across a whole lane of 476. I did my best to dodge the big pieces. The slab was moving well until the last mile of 422, where it just stopped. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, almost zero movement. I saw the bike's oil temperature hit 300 for the first time as another rider on a Valkyrie pulled up alongside. We then proceeded to hit the shoulder a few times to pick up some distance. Finally, after almost 25 minutes, we were free of that disaster and went our separate ways on PA662. I headed north, eventually picking up PA61 which took me right past Hermy's BMW.

Traffic on 422

My shoulder-buddy

His own little biker gang

I had noticed that the Multi was sounding a bit odd, due to what I think is an exhaust leak. I was hoping that someone there could take a peek at it and at least verify my opinion. I had to go past Hermy's and circle back, and ended up coming up the back driveway, which was quite steep and unpaved. Perhaps they use it to demo GS's? One of the service guys was nice enough to give the bike a listen, and I pointed out that you could feel air coming out of one of the joints on the rear cylinder exhaust pipe. He agreed with me that it most likely is an exhaust leak, and nothing to worry about in the short term.

Hermy's

Continued on PA61 to PA901 to PA54 to PA487 (overall a pretty crappy route) and arrived at Knoebels at 3pm. I figured I had time to ride some coasters and grab some dinner before I hit the road again. Cable-locked my Olympia Phantom to the bike and headed over to the Phoenix. The park was very empty, and I was able to get 3 rides in very quickly.

Dedicated bike parking at Knoebels

I haven't used the cable-lock since my cross-country trip 14 years ago.

My #1 coaster, The Phoenix.

Me enjoying a back-seat ride. Normally the front is my first choice, but the back has it's own charms

Dinner was a couple slices of pizza from Cesari's in the park, and a bottle of water. I had eaten the first slice while waiting on the second to be ready, so I had to make do with one slice in the shot. After dinner I got a ride on the Twister, the park's other big wooden coaster. Then it was time to hit the road again.

Took PA54 out of the park, then through Danville and got gas on the other side of I-80. Nice guy came over to talk gas mileage for a bit. Connected with PA44, through Watsonville, which was just gorgeous - like a little Cape May. PA44 coming into Jersey Shore was a nice ride, then I followed that all the way to Waterville. Got gas at the convenience store in town, which had a great old gas pump.

I think this was on 44 before Jersey Shore

I liked the fence above the guardrail - don't want to go find anyone down in the gully

Looking backwards riding up 4001 towards the campground

Arrived at Little Pines around 7pm, rode around to pick out a campsite. Found a very nice one in the tall pines, and went back to the ranger station to fill out my card and pay $22. As soon as I took off my helmet, there were little flying bugs everywhere. They kept heading into my eyes, ears and nose. Incredible. Setting up the tent was terrible, the bugs were everywhere. I must have looked like I was having little siezures - every 30 seconds some bug would fly into my eye or my ear and I would twitch and slap at it. Threw my gear inside the tent and started walking around the campground. As long as I kept a decent pace the bugs weren't too bad - just don't stop. I think I did 3 laps of the whole place, at which time I discovered the campground was located below a big earthen dam. Oh great. Once darkness came the bugs settled down to a reasonable level.

My home for the night

Careful which way you stumble out of the tent at night

Just has to hold for one more night

The lonesome traveller

There was no cell service in the campground, so my check-in phone call home would have to wait for the morning.