Frikkin' Amish!

We hit the road around 9am this morning and (taking into account the hour we lost/gained by coming back into EST), were on the road for about 11 hours today. 630 miles. Not bad, not great. We hit traffic in the Chicago area…again. Rte 80 was actually closed down due to an accident so we peeled off to look at the maps – only to be told by a passerby that the highway had been reopened. Sure enough, we look back over our shoulders and see vehicles beginning to move again. We were torn – hop back onto the highway and hammer out another hour+ to get to Auburn? (Paul had recommended a great bar out there.) Or…stay in the KOA which happened to be right where we’d turned off? We left it to fate; I called the one in Auburn and they didn’t answer. F ‘em. I called the one that was where we were at, and they answered with a cheerful hello, and had a cabin available. Sold.

After we’d checked in, we asked where we could get a bite and a beer. And we were informed that since we’re in the middle of AMISH country, alcohol is pretty tough to find. She directed us to a bar that might still be open (at 8:30 on a Saturday? It MIGHT be open?) so we gave it a shot. Thankfully, they were open and we were able to chow down on pizza and BL’s. The hardest part was squeezing the bikes in between the horses which were tied up out front. Ha ha, funny, right? But seriously, there really were horses and buggies tied up out front. (Can you imagine if we’d needed a cab ride home? What would have showed up? Or, what do they do around here if their horse won’t start in the morning? Who do you call for something like that?)

But the best part of the trip to the bar was that we actually passed a mini liquor store on the way! (Lady at the KOA registration desk was holding out on us!!), so I’m happy to report that we are both holding frosty beerverages as I type this.

What else. Not much from today. No pics were taken; there wasn’t much of anything to see. Even though we’re already ahead of schedule, we opted to take the highway to speed things up even more. Why? Well, we already know what the back roads look like, and we already know what cornfields look like. And the highway doesn’t have small towns every 15 miles that make you slow down to 30 mph. So it was an easy choice for us.

But we’re really looking forward to getting to Olean and seeing some friendly faces soon. Don’t get me wrong; we’re having a blast, and if we could, we’d turn the bikes around and head right back out to South Dakota. Being out there is awesome. But the ride out there, and the ride back? It’s long days in the saddle, man. Long days in the saddle.

We did get a text from Lynner, inviting us to hang out at her pad on Monday (our expected Olean arrival day). Hanging poolside, grillin’, chillin’, and beer swillin’. Sounds like a marvelous plan to me.

“More pics?”, you might be asking? Sorry folks, the signal here is pretty bad. I guess the Amish aren’t big on phone/cell/internet coverage (among other things…like BEER!). I’m hoping this will post without probs, and then Zig and I are going to see if we can make some friends with the crew a few cabins down. They’ve got a fire going and a bus full of Amish strippers just showed up. Maybe these Amish aren’t so bad after all.

Ride Hard, Take Chances