Woke up tired, as it took me a long time to fall asleep as I planeed out a possible SaddleSore 1000 in my head. Met Frank downstairs at 7:30, and grabbed a donut from the lobby (that was their entire continental breakfast menu). The bikes were covered in dew, as the morning was pretty chilly. I couldn't plug my heated jacket in on the Uly, but it did have heated grips. The guy getting me checked out on the bike when I picked it up described the two heat settings as "one is really hot, and the other so hot you'll never use it". I stuck with the lowest setting, and they were indeed quite hot.
We hit the slab briefly before devoting the rest of the morning to twisties. Since Frank had a GPS on his WeeStrom he laid out a route for us.
He also had the route laid out "old-school"
We rode past Berkely Springs and the castle, and the big overlook we hit on the WV Winter Meet. We also ran into the first of many construction delays we had to wait for a signal to proceed through (I think we hit 4 of these in one day).
At one point we turned off Grassy Lick Rd onto some goat path that SWRiverstone would be proud of. We bounced along the broken pavement for a mile or two before coming upon road work that we did not want to try to get through. The road had been completely torn up, and there was a grader scraping the deep mud flat. We thought about it for perhaps 5 seconds before agreeing it would not be a good idea on a rented bike. The dump truck driver came over to advise us that he wouldn't take his bike up there, and then asked me the oddest question of the day.
He looked at the bike, and asked me "What kind of Benelli is that?" How could someone know about Benelli but not know a Buell?
Um, I don't think so
Frank chatting with the dump truck driver
We made our way back to Grassy Lick Road and 29 before finding a little store to stop for a snack. Frank picked up a sandwich for later while I just downed a KitKat bar (healthy...). We traded bikes for a bit, and Frank's one-word review of the Uly was "shaky!".
We had a hard time finding Old Route 55, which I didn't mind because we were having fun trying. Some of the roads did get pretty gravel-strewn which cranked the fun factor down quite a bit. Eventually we gave up and got onto the bigger 55 and immediately saw an exit for Old Route 55. Kind of a zen thing - the trick to finding it is not to look for it. Nice run on that for a bit, then a direct route back to Frederick to return the Ulysses. I logged about 200 miles on the Uly this morning, for just under 400 total. Not a bad demo!
Ran into the same 1125 rider at the dealership, standing outside in his leathers just as he had been yesterday. Odd.
Swapping my belongings back to the Multi
We grabbed lunch at the Quizno's in Frederick (best Quizno's Prime Rib and Peppercorn sandwich ever!) before beginning phase 2 of the day, the long way up to Clearfield. We had a scary ride on I-70 to start off, with tailgaters, lane-changers and general idiocy before exiting onto the backroads. Very little traffic and perfect temperatures made for a great riding afternoon.
Saw a Victory Vision along the way, and a Can-Am Spyder. Don't see too many of those in the wild. Had to stop in a school parking lot to adjust the chain on the Multi, not happy with that. Good thing I brought along my torque wrench! Frank was nice enough to roll the bike along so I could look for tight spots (the one thing a centerstand is really useful for). Highest elevation I saw on the GPS was 2270 feet, riding along a cool saddle between two ridges.
Couldn't pass up a stop for ice cream at Paesano's. Best raspberry shake I've ever had. Frank's enjoying his in the picture.
GPS tracklog for Friday's ride to Clearfield
After the 180 mile ride from Frederick (making it a quality 380 mile day), we pulled into the Days Inn in Clearfield around 6:45, and met 4 guys who came down from NY. Bob, Ed, and....2 guys who's names I can't recall.
It was at this point that we found out why the Days Inn was booked up so early this year - there was a swingers convention scheduled in the hotel for Saturday night. Oh, this is going to get interesting.
Frank chatting with the NY crew
I got checked in over at the Super8, and we met up with the NY guys for a trip to Denny's for dinner. Took a scenic route to get there since we all made the same wrong turn right before the big hill. Great dinner, good conversation about swinging, eating maggots and puffins, double-yellow passing, why Maryland sucks, crazy NYC bikers and what constitutes "early afternoon" to his wife (Ed assumed 1pm, I assured him early afternoon was 4pm, 6 with an apology). Ed was having a good-naturedly bad time with the waitress. It seemed whatever he wanted, they couldn't quite get. From his drink to getting 2 1/2 pound patties, she'd always come back to the table in a bit with "I'm sorry...." Funny stuff.
Arriving at Denny's (for the first of 3 dinners in a row)
On the ride back to the hotel (again we all chose the wrong way out and had to u-turn) I stopped for gas. As soon as I put my credit card in the reader all the lights in the station went out. Huh? Oh, 10pm. Oh well. Back to the room completely beat, have to get a good night's sleep for the ride tomorrow.
