Olean, Part III; Saturday...somewhat

I screwed up.  I'd said that we rode out to the Kinzua Bridge on Saturday.  Nope, that was Friday.  Oh well - I was on vacation, you can't expect me to keep things striaght in my head.

Anyway; when I'd arrived on Thursday, we'd put the word out to Jerry to see if he was up for a ride with us.  I was quite psyched when he said yes, he wanted in.  King was up for it as well, so we all agreed to meet up at Mark and Mary's (which was easy for me, since I was already there).

The day was bright and shiny, the temps were superbly comfortable, and off we went...

This first pic has a bit of a funny backstory.  I've been to the Kinzua Bridge before, but didn't remember the way there, so of course I was taking up the rear and enjoying the scenery, following our trusted leader.

As we were rolling along, we came to an interesection where Mark wanted to take a left.  But there were signs saying that the bridge up that way, was closed for repairs.  Well, we went left anyway.  And as we got closer, we passed more signs saying the bridge was closed.  I guess Mark didn't beleive them, because we rode with up to the barricades.  Only then did we turn around and discuss a different route.

The first pic doesn't give you the full effect of the ROAD CLOSED signs...

 ...so I zoomed in for ya...

But after that minor bump, we were off in another direction, and sailing along the beautiful roadways.

Jerry was having a really good day - he was steady, solid, and kept right in the middle of the lane.  It was such a great feeling to see him having a good day and being able to be out and enjoying it.

Kinzua Bridge!

I did a write-up on this the last time I was here (something like 6 years ago or so), so I won't go into all the details again, but for anyone that is curious; Google the Kinzua Bridge and you'll find all the info you need.

They'd done some serious upgrades since the last time I was here.  A nice path leading up to the bridge, not to mention an observation deck all the way out at the edge of the tracks.

Amazing to see this behemoth split in two...

Here I am on the observation deck.  Thick (thick!) panels of (glass? plastic?) are secured in the floor so you can look straight down.  Yeah, no vertigo going on here!

Amazing scenery all around the valley around us...

The wreckage reminds me of the electrical towers in that made-for-tv-move The Langoliers, right when the Langoliers were coming over the hill by the airport and the towers were buckling...

More great scenic shots...

And what a beautiful day, too!

The last time I was out here, the public wasn't allowed to walk on the tracks (I'll let you guess if that stopped me).

Here's a shot looking back at the tracks...

Here's King, pointing all the way down to the ground, below.  When we first started walking out along the tracks, King was talking about the platform and how safe it was.  He proved that he had complete faith in the stuctural integrity because as soon as we got to the platform, he walked out to the middle of it and jumped - and I mean Jumped! - up and landed with a solid Wham!.  Everyone that had been on the platform bolted for the edges, fearing it was about to shatter, but King just stood there, laughing.  Oh that King.

After King cleared off, I walked out into the middle as well.  Man, it's a long way down!  I jumped up and down on the platform as well, but my jump was pretty tame - I wasn't as daring as King.  As I walked off the platform, Jerry smiled and said "That looked pretty half-hearted to me." I laughed and replied "Yup, and that's all you're gonna get outta me."

Walking back along the tracks, you can see between the wooden beams...again; all the way down...

A quick bit of history on the place...

And there you have the trip to the Kinzua Bridge.  Now let's move along to Saturday, the original plan for this posting...

I did make it over to King and Pat's house on Saturday, for the annual water fight with Alyssa.  I didn't take any pics of this, but Pat had a great view, watching from the deck above us.  She even got squirted a couple of times - I'm pretty sure it was Alyssa that did it.  :-D

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  When I showed up, I was handed a bucket and a squirt gun.   Ok, seems pretty legit.  But then I noticed that Alyssa's bucket was at least half-again as large as mine.  What the?  I see house rules benefit the family that lives here.  Ok, ok, not an insumountable obstacle, I'll just have to think outside the box...

...which is why I excused myself and went out to my bike and put on my rain gear.  Ha!  All's fair in love and water fights!

Ok, I didn't put on the full suit, just the jacket.  I had plenty of confidence in myself that I'd be fine with just the top covered.

When I came back the house, Alyssa wasn't too keen on my whole rain gear plan, but she accepted it like a champ and we got to work.  The battlefield would be their back yard, and we each had one bucket of water to work with.

As soon as we started trading water shots, I realized that my legs were going to get pretty wet, so I kept running away and circling back, doing my best imitation of kamikaze attacks.  It worked ok for a short while, but my pounding chest soon remined me that running is a young man's game, so I had to come up with a different plan...

...so I hid behind a tree.  It wasn't a huge tree, just wide enough for me to safely hide behind while I blasted Alyssa over and over again.  And when she realized that she needed to hit me in the eyes in order to improve her odds of winning, I simply slid my riding shades down, allowing me to continue firing, unfettered.  Winning!

Alyssa quickly realized that she, too, needed a different plan.  So she picked up her bucket and tried throwing the water on me.  This, was easy to dodge, and her bucket was soon empty.  Nice!  Uh-oh...now she's going for my bucket.  Ok, no problem, I'll just dodge it again.  Piece of cake!

Before she knew it, she'd just about exhusted the water in my bucket as well.  There was just one more slug at the bottom, and she was lining up to try and toss it again.  This was too easy!

And then she pulled a fast one - she tossed the entire bucket.  I blocked it with my hand...but the water launched past my hand, past my arm....and landed square on my legs.  Drat!  Foiled!  And soaked!

Next year, I'll have to keep that little trick in mind...

With the water fight concluded for yet another year, I retrieved my phone and wallet from inside.  Uh-oh - I had messages.  Myszka was at the V and looking for me!  I hadn't thought I'd be seeing him on this trip since he was running a separate charity event of his own that day.

Saying my goodbyes, I shot over to the V and caught up with lots of folks I hadn't yet seen this weekend.  The libations were flowing, the food was cooking (and looked and smelled great!) and it was nice to kick back and catch up with folks.

A bit later, I was off to one side, shooting the breeze with Tim, when we suddenly noticed everyone out front was walking up toward the road.  Joining them, we saw that a deer had just been struck by a pickup.  The folks in the truck were ok, but their truck was going to need some attention.  Sadly, the deer didn't make it.  :-(  But, ever the resourceful folks at the V made the most of things and soon the pork on the grille was joined by some venison backstraps.

The rest of the evening was uneventful by comparison and we all filled our bellies with some excellent fare (no, I didn't have any of the venison).  When dinner was done, we got a decent sized game of 1-card going, and that was a blast as always.  Rob's daughter Natalie was seated across from me, so I was safe for a little while.  She's like a mini-Jerry!  Sit next to her, and you'll soon be broke!

King will attest to this.  He was sitting next to her and wasn't faring terriblly well.  Natalie looked at him at one point and said "We're kickin' butt!".  King looks at me and says "More like suckin' butt..."

I managed to stay in the game for longer than I usually do, but it didn't matter. The end result was the same; I was out, and someone else went home with my quarters in their pocket.

When the sun had set and the darkness was beginning to settle, I said my goodbyes and headed back to the homestead.  I wasn't going to be staying over this year - I needed to be up and on the road early (and with a clear head) the following day and staying over at the pig roast would not be conducive to that plan.

Back at the house, Mark and Mary had more food cooked, and while I wasn't hungry, I of course still ate some.  Not because I'm a fatty-atty-ola, but because I knew it would be delicious as always, and it was!

We hung out for a bit longer and then it was time to hit the hay.  Rob and Natalie also turned in as they, too, were making for home the following morning.  Damn...another Olean trip was drawing to a close.

The next day, we were all up quite early, and saying our goodbyes.  Natalie wanted more pillow time, and as soon as Rob set her down, she went right back upstairs and into bed, LOL.

I said my final goodbyes and hit the road.  The trip home was rather uneventful, save for the horrible traffic and the heavy downpours for the second half of the trip.  Oh well, at least there was a great lightning and thunder storm going on above me to keep me entertained.

Arriving home safely, I washed the bike out back (yes, it was still raining, but I needed to get all the road grime off).  Once that was done, into the garage with her and then I could towel her off completely.

And there you have it - the Olean Pig Roast trip of 2014!!

Wait...what's that?  I'm skipping something?  There was something else that we did while out in Olean this year?

Maybe you're right...maybe there's one more post coming...but that will have to wait until Monday...