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My first day out started
late, but the weather was fairly good, if a little hot. I decided to
take I-80 across to Sturgis and headed out across the top of New Jersey.
Like most trips, my first hundred miles took forever, lots of stops
for this and that. Finally I really got moving.
Along about my second or third hundred mile, the clouds in Pennsylvania began to look pretty bad, so I pulled over at some no-name gas station. After fueling and while sugging down a Gatorade (one of thirty or forty over three weeks), I began pulling on my raingear. I noticed three other riders off to one side, also frantically putting on rain gear, so I wandered over to talk to them. Before I can get three words in, one of them recognized me!
Well, actually
Shadow recognized my bike, but close enough. This is where I met Al,
EZ, and Marje. She invited me to ride along with them, so I did. Now
what kind of shit luck is that?
It did rain. A lot. Somewhere
along the way, Marje announced we were all staying at Gary's place that
night, somewhere's around Cleveland. I've never been to Cleveland, or
anywhere near, so all this riding was new to me. And, as it turns out,
fairly pleasant, aside from the rain.
We arrived at Gary's not too wet, though I do recall laying out the raingear for the night to dry. Gary had assembled some of his friends in his very nice garage (that's Gary on the right) and we had a little party with beer, venison, fried fish, and some very very hot cucumbers, which are AWESOME! Wouldn't mind working out a deal to get a regular supply of those puppies, Gary.
Gary's garage was quite fitted out, complete with a darboard, TV, hand-painted HD logo on the wall, and a REAL nice Dyna. (Is that right?) His home is a tightly run ship, too, with a lot of his furniture hand-built; very high quality, very professional. Gary's got some skills alright.
That was
day one. 353 miles, roughly. (Unlike Marje's, MY speedo is accurate. :)
