2011-09-04

Pennsylvania Bound

Willie and I had been planning a three day trip into the States, as he'd been hard at work pouring money into his home renovation project this year, and hadn't had much opportunity to ride at all, then a new-to-him 2004 Honda ST 1300 came his way, he sold his DL-1000 VStrom, and we simply had to test the legs on the Honda, so it seemed like a good time to ride my newly plated and insured Suzuki Bandit and see what it was like to tour on four years after my collision with a deer on the same bike. I dropped my dog Suzi Bandit off at his house the preceding Friday evening so she'd have the company of Honey and Scruffy that weekend while we were enjoying ourselves on the roads down south of the border.






Day 1 - Newmarket ON to Muncy PA

We had an early start, about 630 in the morning and were at the Lewiston crossing early that morning, but as it was a long weekend, it was a very long line up of cars that started just past Canadian customs all the way across the bridge to the other side of the river! Wow, talk about overheating, we shut off our bikes, and for the most part walked them across the border. 

Once into the states, we took mainly highways until we found ourselves in Oleans NY where his Garmin had plotted him straight through the centre of town. I'd done that enough to know that I try to skirt Oleans to reduce time and traffic, but for once I got to stop at the KA-BAR factory outlet instead of driving on past it. What a treat to see all those knives, especially the museum pieces on display that showed the past of this large company. I didn't buy anything as I wanted no difficulty with our Monday border crossing, and it just wasn't in the budget.



This is where the riding began to get entertaining...







Black Forest PA - Daddy Warbucks counts his stash.





Hyner View State Park
Paste these coordinates into Google Maps 41.32655, -77.62397
The road leading to this viewpoint is worth the ride down into PA!!!

































Offroad on the Bandit is not anywhere as much fun as on the  KLR. :)
Day 2 - Muncy PA to Watertown NY


























This is NOT a problem! We're fine!

Oh bother, we have a problem...

























The raging river waters flattened that cornfield, taking the shortest path through the field and into the river beyond...


Here you can plainly see the river washed up over the road along with flotsam and debris



Day 3 - Watertown NY to Newmarket ON

Unfortunately day three was on and off again rain, as well as some supremely boring superslab, so I left the camera warm and dry in my side case.

Is that rain up ahead?

Yep, time to put the camera away. :(

2 comments:

  1. Awesome mate, makes me want to just leave and ride.....sigh...man I need aholiday. Road trips are always great.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Read youor report on the GTAM site. Really liked it - all but the obvious camping part!! At 67, my cranky ass won't camp anymore.
    This 5 day period of October sunshine will find me an a buddy on our way to West Virginia. I wanted to see Renovo's fall colors festival, but we'll see plenty of colors in WV.
    On the way back, we will spend a night in the Benezzette (555) area to meander with the rutting elk!!
    Enjoyed reading your post.
    Mototrek

    ReplyDelete