Northeast Ride #2 – Day Four

The loneliness hit pretty hard last night. I sat and watched my fire for a couple hours. The park was dead quiet aside from the insects chirping in the woods. I was missing a good conversation. I was missing Dad. Always do of course but last night was one of those bad moments. It’s gotten better as the years pass but I still get those hard moments once in a while.

When the fire died down I crawled into my tent and slept well. I was up shortly before 8:00am which was actually early considering the time change yesterday. Being on the road no later than 9:00 was fine by me. Had a couple of people stop on there walks to wish me safe travels as I was packing up camp. No real conversations this time.

The morning was cool. Temp was sub-70 so I decided to pull out my jacket. Less than 70 is tolerable but only for so long and I don’t know how long I’ll be under cloud cover and I certainly don’t want the chills to set in.

I hit the road and head towards Vermont. I’ve got no set destination in mind, just going until I’m ready to stop. It doesn’t take long for the drizzling rain to start. I get no more than 20 miles down the road and pull off, finally breaking out my rain gear. My jacket has kept me dry but my pant legs are already soaked. I’m stopped at a gas station and am approached by another rider. He’s on his way back from Colorado and headed home to New Hampshire. We spend a few minutes chatting before I start suiting up. An older gentleman approaches me as I’m getting my gear on. He’s likely an alcoholic, it’s barely 9:00am and he’s sipping on something that’s definitely liquor. This isn’t a typical conversation, it’s mostly one sided and everything he says is a one-liner. Not good jokes either. Hell, not even dad joke bad. More like dime bar comedy night. I finished gearing up and excuse myself, was happy to get away from that one.

I moved on down the road towards the upper part of Pennsylvania. Didn’t catch much more than drizzling rain but cloud cover is still heavy and fairly dark. I’m making good time, maintaining a steady clip of 80mph, and cross the stateline before long. Doesn’t take much time to get into past Erie and into the forested mountains of New York. I’m running all interstate and the ride would have been amazing on a sunny day.

The rain is still holding off but by late morning my eyes are getting heavier than I’m comfortable with. I pull off to fill up Libby’s tank grab my first Red Bull of the trip. I’m not big on energy drinks and Red Bull certainly doesn’t give me wings but it helps keep me alert.

The highway winds through the mountains, some straight stretches but mostly the large curves that are fun to ride but certainly not twistys. Before long the rain sets start. More spurts of a few miles, most of it is light stinging rain but still enough of it to slow me down. As soon as I see spray coming off the cars ahead of me I back off the throttle and stay in the far right lane. Libby’s back tire has been good on wet roads so far but I’m not going to push it. I think last year’s fishtail excitement was just about the tire still being too new.

It’s 3:00pm before long and I’m hungry. Not hungry really but I need something in my belly and nothing outside the the normal fast food places has been coming up. I finally get to the small town of Owego. Probably more here but I find a little place called the Rainbow Trail. It’s a small bar that happens to serve food. Not really what I imagined but it’s raining and I need to eat something, bar burger it is. It’s the kind of place where the regular joes meet up after work everyday for a couple of beers. They don’t accept anything other than cash, it’s that small.

The rain stops before I leave so I’m good getting back on the road, they’re wet but I can see at least. I’ve made it just over 350 miles so far, not bad with the rain I’ve run into. I want to get at least another 50 miles in before stopping but try for Albany. By the time we reach Binghamton the real rain starts. Binghamton is one of the larger towns out here and the rain comes in pretty hard the whole way through it and beyond. Several miles of downpour but I’m still able to keep a steady pace of 60mph. It’s difficult to see the lane markers but make it through just fine.

The roads dry up and I get to pick up speed again. Nothing more after that than a few light showers. I make a final stop at a rest area. I’m less than a hundred miles from Albany but I’m beat and it’s already 5:00. I chat up the attendant and fine out there’s a few hotels the next town over, just a few miles down the road. He’s a bit chatty, I keep trying to break away because I’ve got to hit the restroom, he just keeps talking. It’s understandable though, aside from a few trucks with their curtains drawn, I’m the only one there. I’m sure his job can get lonely.

Just a dozen or so miles down the road is the town of Oneonta. I’ve got a room here because the only falling water I want to deal with right now is from a shower head. I’m no stranger to the rain but it is exhausting to ride through. I’ll spend the next couple of hours lounging and watching anything on TV, grab a nice hot shower and good night sleep before heading off in the morning. I should make it into Maine tomorrow if not further. I’m hoping to have both of those signs marked off my list by the end of the day. I’m also hoping this system moves on and I can start getting some photos to share. I had one scenic pull off today. Stopped but there was nothing to see. The clouds covered everything.

Tomorrows another day so we’ll see what happens. But like I said, I’m no stranger to the rain so we’ll deal with it if it decides to hang around. Wish us good weather, we need it!