Rex Makes It To Mile Marker 0

 

It was an audacious plan I put together for poor trusting Rex.  We’d head up to Mount Washington in the morning, knock that out of the way and be on the road again by noontime, finally arriving in Fort Kent by 6 or 6:30.  That would give us plenty of time to snap his Mile 0 pic and get settled in for the evening.

Ahh, but the best laid plans.  Or perhaps more accurate; the plans when Dave-O screws things up…

I’d laid out our routes about two weeks prior to departure, had printed them up and had them ready to tape to the windshield.  And then I neglected to review the directions on-line before we left, so that I’d know specifically what turns needed to be made, and where.  So what happened was a missed turn on the way to Mount Washington, which left us completely off the map with regard to my planned route.  Fortunately, Rex saw a sign for Mount Washington which I acquiesced to after driving us around in circles for a bit.  The sign took us the long way but at least it got us to the auto road, albeit about an hour behind schedule.  Dammit!

We made it safely up, took in a few pics...

 

Completely clouded in when we arrived...

 

But it quicly cleared off...

 

 

 

 

Checked out the train...wait, what...train?

 

Yeah; train.  Unbelievable!  And check out the decline this thing takes!  (The pic doesn't do it justice.  These tracks literally almost drop away to nothing...)

 

 

We grabbed a quick lunch at the cafeteria on the summit, then rolled back down.  Ok, now to make up some of this lost time that I’ve caused…

Cue another missed turn.  I took what I thought was the correct turn but soon realized it wasn’t what we were looking for so we turned around and kept on going…right past the correct turn which was only about an eighth of a mile beyond where we’d just turned.  And that took us way out of the way.  My directions had us turning on to route 26, which we did come across…but I took us north…and we wanted south.  North brought us back in to NH (there was even a sign which said “to New Hampshire” which I ignored, stupidly).

After realizing that I’d once again gotten us way off course, we stopped to check our phones – and realized that we had no signal, here deep in the scenic national forecast we currently found ourselves in.  We lucked out in that a very attractive hiker happened upon us, and although she tried to walk by us – twice – without speaking to us, we caught up to her and asked for her help.  She got us turned back around in the correct direction and off we went, eventually picking up Rte 2 and taking this all the way to 95 north.  How much time had I cost us this round?  At least another hour, maybe more.  Fcuk!!  (I was mentally punching myself in the eye socket the entire time.)

 

Here's the patient fellow traveler, motoring along happily...

At one gas stop, I noticed this in the trash...and wondered; did Matt just come through here?

Once we found 95 north, we opened things up and the road gods apparently felt badly for Rex, for the cleared the highway of most of the traffic and we made great time.  Picking up Rte 11, we were also blessed with light traffic and an open roadway.  Still, though, time was working heavily against us, and there’s only so fast you can go on a scenic winding wooded road.  Just kidding, we were doing about 85-90 mph along the stretches between towns.  Not exactly the smartest idea, when the daylight is waning and the road signs are warning of high moose impacts in the area.

As the sun set lower and lower, and the shadows stretching across the road became longer and longer, I was beginning to think we were going to run out of daylight before we arrived.  Thankfully, we did arrive just in time to snap a couple of pictures before all daylight faded from the sky.

However, even that was not without incident.  Those who have been there, know there’s a bricked path leading right up to the marker, and is perfect for riding your bike up to get a picture right in front of it.  Rex had started to park his bike out closer to the road and I pointed out that he needed to get his bike right up to the marker for the picture.  He said ok, pulled a u-turn and proceeded to head up over the manicured grass.

Rex!!!  What are you doing!?!?  The path is over here!!!!

So he turns toward me…and rides right through the flower bed lining the right side of the path.

REX!!!!  WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!?!?!?!

So he stops to look at me…and now he’s perfectly perpendicular to the bricked path, .  His front tire is completely mashing a plant on the left side of the path, and his rear tire is sitting squarely on top of another plant in the right side of the path, certainly doing it no good at all.

Rex, seriously; What. The. Fuck. are you doing?  Get off the landscaping.  Get your bike onto the bricks and get over to the marker so we can take your picture and get out of here before we get arrested.  (Fortunately, we were able to succeed in both; getting the picture, and not being arrested.)

Now we needed to find accommodations.  After a quick search on-line, then some driving around, we realized the place we were looking for was basically across the street from the Mile 0 marker.  We got checked in...

 

Separate beds, just in case any of you were wondering...

 

 

The motel recommended a place for us to grab dinner, and off we went...

Dinner was an atrocious experience.  The first thing we ordered; they were out of.  The second thing; also out of.  The third try was something that came with pasta, but the waitress said they don’t carry any pasta, just rice and potatoes.  I pointed out the menu said it came with pasta and she was very surprised to hear that.  After checking the menu, and then with the kitchen, it turned out they did have pasta, so we each ordered the chicken parm.  (At this point, it seemed the safest bet – how hard is it to make chicken parm?)  Apparently it’s quite difficult because it was horrible.  They did have a nice porter on tap, though…so of course the keg kicked when I ordered a second one.  Suffice to say; we won’t be going there again – if we’re up there again.

Next up; park the bikes and stroll to the bar next door.  Bee-Jay’s was the establishment and who can resist such an alluring name?  Well…apparently just about everyone because the place was empty.  At first we thought it was closed and they’d just forgotten to lock the door and turn the lights off.  But wait – there were two drinks on the bar and a pack of cigarettes.  Ok…so where are these people?  And where’s the bartender?

(shrug)  We sat down and waited.  And before too long, the two guys (patrons) come from around the side of the bar and the bartender appears on the inside (of the bar).  She walks up to the sink and immediately washes her hands, as the two guys sit down, not saying a word.  Ok, so what just happened?  Maybe the bar should change its name from Bee-Jays to Hand-Jays?  Or maybe not, who can say.  We didn’t want to think about it.

We ordered a few rounds of beers and sampled different bottles (shots) and before too long, it was just us and the bartender.  We asked what time she closed and she said “whenever you’re done”.  So we had another round and then asked again.  Her answer was the same so we said we didn’t want to keep her open just for us, was there something we could to do help?  There were peanut shells on the floor so we offered to sweep them up and she said no, it was her job, and she wasn’t going to budge.  So we figured just one more round and then we’d call it a night, which we did.

We set a tentative plan to leave at 8am, but didn’t bother to set an alarm.  So it was no surprise when we woke up and found it was 9:15.  D’oh.  We had a lot of miles to get through, so we got cleaned up and were on the road by 10.

Our route today was an easy one.  A straight shot; route 11 south, to 95 south.  Still, after the prior days’ navigation foibles, I figured we’d be better off if Rex led us home.  We were on 11 in no time and soon came upon a logging truck.  At first chance, Rex took us around and past it and then…well…then he started slowing down.  Which meant the logging truck was catching up to us.  Not wanting to be dicks (we just passed him, so why stack him up behind us now?), I saddled up next to Rex and motioned that he should put a little more coals on the fire.  That turned out to be a potential mistake, because from then on, we were doing between 90 and 100 miles an hour (between towns).  Bear in mind that the posted limit (between towns) is only 55, so this was pretty chancy but we made it to 95 safely, and in good time.

Once out on 95, Rex settled things down to a comfortable 90(+).  Posted limit here is 70, so that was better than on route 11, but I was still pretty certain that any LEO’s wouldn’t be thrilled with our rate of passage.

At our lunchtime gas stop, I commented about his speed and he said “What…I’m only doing between 75 and 80.”  LOL, no you’re not, Chum.  You’re doing about 90, and sometimes over.  “Oh…I wondered why we were passing everyone.”  Haha, good times!

We knew traffic would be a bear once we got down into NH and MA, so we had a plan in place.  Rex has a buddy with a place in Old Orchard Beach, so we detoured to his place and kicked back for a few hours with Rich, his brother Mike, and their buddy Kelly.  Sitting in the shade, bullshitting with the guys, a few cold frosties in-hand…it was a great way to wind down the afternoon and let the roadways clear out.

The last leg of the trip was uneventful and while traffic hadn’t completely disappeared, we didn’t have any major slowdowns.  Well, except for that one spot where there were about 3 cruisers, 8 cars pulled off to the side, and one car deep in the woods.  Everyone seemed to be milling around and not in bad shape, so that was good to see.  Also good to see was that the traffic slowdown was only about a half-mile long, so we were soon boppin’ along at a good pace again, and finally into our respective driveways.

And now the planning starts for the next corner…

 

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Tony's Track Days

This past Monday, Greg and I took our bikes out to the Palmer Motorsports Park so that we could open the throttles up and shred some pavement without having to worry about cars, potholes, or other nonsense.  Good news, neither of us crashed!

We'd agreed to meet up at the Post @ 5am for the ~2 hour ride out to Palmer.  I was woken before the alarm by the sound of rain absolutely pummling my windows.  Getting up and looking outside, I was greeted with the sight of a complete deluge.  Turning the TV on for the weather, I found that there was a tornado warning in effect!  Sweet!

The impacted area was north of us, but not that far away that it wasn't touching on the area we were headed toward.  Fortunately, though, the warning (and most of the rain) had passed by the time we hit the road.

We arrived safe and sound and took our spot in line at the inspection station...and were then told we had to turn around, go tape up our mirrors, and then come back for inspection.  Ok, no problem.  I did a tight u-turn and found a place to park out of the way.  We taped up our mirrors  and headlights - I thought the website had said we needed to do that.  Greg said he assumed the mirrors got taped so that we'd only be focused on what's in front of us and not what's behind, I thought it was so that if anyone crashed, it'd be less of a mess to clean up.  Turns out; Greg was right.  They don't want us worrying about what's behind us, but instead; solely on what's in front of us.  Made perfect sense.  (We also didn't need to tape our headlights, but they thanked me for the effort.)

Heading back to inspection, the two guys running it actually complimented me on the u-turn I'd made. Tony then asked me what group I was planning on riding in (they split us into 3 groups, based mostly on bike capabilities).  I said I was hoping for the top one but would defer to them.  He thought for a second and then said ok, he'd put me in that group and see how I did.  Nice!

They first brought us out onto the track for a number of laps to follow one of the other instructors around so that we can learn the track and get a feel for the corners.  After that, we headed in for a bit of instruction, and then off we went!

It was f'ing crazy as hell to be ripping around these corners.  The floorboards and frame were screaming their objections, as they came into contact with the pavement at just about every corner.  And this track isn't an oval track, it's almost nothing but corners!

In said corners, I was doing fine, and even able to pass a couple of the bikes in the shorter distances (timing the apex of the curve is where this comes in), but the one handicap was that the sportbikes had much too much top end power for me, and were easily able to pass me whenever we hit the single stretch without a corner.  Dammit - there weren't supposed to be any sport bikes here (it was billed as a non-sport bike day).

After our session was up (20 minutes each), we headed back in to the classroom for discussion about lean, cornering, speed, etc.  I had one of the sportbikes guys come up and introduce himself, saying he just had to say hello to the guy who was throwing the Harley around like nobody's business, and who had even been pulling away from him in some of the corners.  I laughed and said yeah, but then you guys are sailing past me in the long stretch.  Oh well.

After our next session on the track, Tony came up and asked if I'd be ok being bumped to the middle group.  He said my cornering was great but that some of the faster bikes were stacking up behind me.  I completely understood and said sure, put me wherever you think is best.  He kept stressing that it wasn't any reflection of my ability, but simply; my bike doesn't have the same abilities as the sport bikes do, and I couldn't argue with that.

The one good thing is that it meant I got to go right back out onto the track with that new group, instead of sitting in the classroom again.  Sweet!

After a few more sessions on the track, I had a guy from this second group come up and compliment me as well (and he was riding a sport bike).  But no worries about my head getting too big.  All I had to do was watch some of the instructors.  They were amazing!  Doing nearly double my speeds in some spots, minimal braking, leaning their bikes over to the 30 degree angle (or more).  Pure mastery of the sport, and so much fun to watch.  I found myself thinking that I should get a sport bike and start learning how to ride like this...but that would probably be a bad idea as I'm sure I would do stupid things out on the roads, rather than saving the racing for the track.

The event ran all the way to 5pm, making it a long day overall.  It's amazing how tiring it can be to be so focused.  Imagine (for those who have ridden it) doing the Tail of the Dragon at 2x - 3x that speed, all while trying to (safely) pass anyone in front of you, and while trying not to be passed by anyone coming from behind you.  Tony and Ken (the other main guy) kept stressing to drink fluids, and I have to say that I was pee'ing after every session on the track.  It's crazy how amped your body gets while doing this!

After we'd had our last run on the track, there was no more class so we said some goodbyes and headed home.  Following straight travel lanes on the highway, and keeping marginally within the speed limits, felt boring and slow but they are necessary evils if we didn't want to have any encounters with the law.

It was a really fun day.  Not what I expected; I was expecting it to teach us overall driving techniques  The focus here was a little about cornering and leaning, but mostly to learn this track and then ride it with good technique - at as fast a pace as you were comfortable with.

Would I do it again?  Probably not, if on my bike.  If I ever do wind up with a sport bike, then hell yeah, I'd be here in a heartbeat.

So, let's get to some pics.

First; the track!

This is obviously an artist's rendition but it gives you an idea of the curves, as well as the elevation.  This isn't flat at all.  The long stretch at the bottom is the lowest part of the track.  You're racing from left to right, so at the end of that long stretch, you're already heading up again, then down briefly as you start heading to the left again and from there on, it's almost entirely 'up', until you reach the last full turn in the midde left, which is a very fast descent.

A nice shade of painter's tape, courtesy of Greg.

Lined up for inspection.  Nice - looks like some cruisers in here.  This is going to be easy!

Hmmm...what's with those sport bikes that are showing up?

Blue sticker!  I'm in the speed group!

(This would later be changed to a yellow sticker...)

Lined up and ready for our turn on the track.  (What's with the sport bikes??)

Here's some pics of the track itself.   You can see the elevation in the top right of the pic...

The corner that you can't see; connecting the elevated part in the top rght, to the long sweeping stretch on the left, is rather sharp, all at a significant decline.

A nice row of fire extinguishers, just in case...

One last pic, showing the elevation in the background.

There you go; Monday's adventure.

Stay tuned; the next two days found me at the highest elevation in the NorthEast, as well as at the northeastern corner of the US, and I'm going to see if I can get that posted up, tomorrow.

Ride Hard, Take Chances

The Perils Of Amateurs

The Dedham Post run a fundraiser motorcycle run today to benefit the families of fallen heroes.  It's a good cause, the weather was perfect, and folks were looking forward to a good day.

The problem with many runs is it brings out the novices and amateurs; folks that don't know how to ride well on their own, let alone in a group.  Too many times these brainfarts think a run is a great place to gain some riding experience.  It's not.  All you're gonna do is fuck things up for those of us who are trying to have a decent day, so do everyone a favor and stay the fuck home.

Today's run was a prime example.  Some shithead with more dollars than cents decided to bring his bike to the run.  It was a custom jobber with I'm sure lots of time spent redoing the stock workings and in turn; making the bike less reliable.  He arrived with a group of other riders and they took their place in line.  As it turns out, this wound up being in the middle of the pack.

Sharon had been asked to help out with blocking so we were in the front to start but began to stack up at the rear, after we'd each taken our turns in the various intersections.  This is a normal part of a run, and things were flowing smoothly.

Fast forward to about half way through the run and this asshat with the custom job apparently has a problem with his bike so he pulls over into a gas station.  Ok, that's fine.  But then all his idiot buddies jacked their brakes and jammed the rear of the column to a stop so they could pull off with him.  This was about 8 or 10 bikes, which left a huge gaping hole in the middle of the column, which only got bigger and bigger as the front of the column proceeded off into the distance while the rear of the column was stuck behind these idiots trying to jockey their way off into the gas station.  And what happens when there's a huge hole in a column?  It gets filled with impatien cars and other vehicles.  And the folks in the rear of the column often don't know the route, so they don't know what turns to make or where to go, so it just turns into a collective cluster fuck.

Good news and bad news. The bad news is I had to come in to work today (yes, I'm at work right now).  The good news is that since I had to come in today, I was already planning on peeling off early.  Well, when this bullshit happened, it just meant I got to peel off a little earlier.  I took the next detour and headed back to my house, grabbed some paperwork, and headed in here.

I hope the folks found their way back ok.

And I hope the asshat's bike exploded and took his idiot buddies out with him.

Ride Hard, Stay The Fuck Home If You're Too Stupid To Ride In A Group.

The Saga of the Two Wheels

Relax, this is nothing serious or bad about the motorcycle, this is about the other two wheels I mentioned, back in July.  I was doing some more talking with Maynard and he seriously recommended against the single gear bike, especially since I’m just (re) entering the cycling gig.  He convinced me that a few gears would not be a bad thing at all, and since the SS I’d been looking at wasn’t going to be available until October, it wouldn’t hurt me to do some more looking.

So of course, the next bike I found that fit the bill of what I was looking for has 27 gears.  What the…??  How the hell did I go from 1 gear to 27?  Simple; the 3-gear options were only available on bikes which did not appeal to me.  Same with the 12-speed, 15, 18, etc.  The bike style, tire size, derailaeiour, seat height, etc. that I liked came in a minimum of 27 gears.  Oh, and a lock-out front suspension.  Fine, let’s do this so I can get rolling.  I’m only getting fatter each day so I need to get going on this.

So I placed the order.  They ship UPS and are very up front about shipping things “signature required”.  No problem, I can just have it delivered to a UPS store and then I’ll sign for it there and pick it up.  Well, in order to ship it to a UPS store, I have to sign up for an account on UPS.com.  I don’t like to sign up for things unless absolutely necessary, but this seemed a necessity so I did it.  Account name, password…done.  Ok, they have my shipment tracking number…click this link to change destination…selected the UPS store in Walpole…done. Ta da!

And then an hour later I received an email from UPS saying they can’t deliver it to their store because a signature is required.  Huh?  But…it’s your store.  I will sign for it when I come to pick it up.  Nope, they have to deliver it to my home address.  But…I work all day and won’t be home??  What the crap…

Let’s see if I can change the delivery location to my work.  Yes, I can do that but it’ll cost and I have to upgrade my (currently) free account to a paying account, and I have to accept emails and texts from them and from their business partners.  No, you can go pound sand instead.

Let’s see if I can get a delivery time from them.  Yes, they send out delivery notifications so I signed up for that.  And voila!  I got an email!  It said my bike would be delivered “by end of day”.  Huh?  That doesn’t help much at all, is there any way to get a tighter window?  Maybe in the morning, or the afternoon?  Nope.  “by end of day” means they can’t give a time window.  And even better; there’s no way to contact the driver to find out where he is or when he might be in my area.  So basically what they’re saying is “It will be delivered sometime between 7am and 7pm, but it could fall outside that window”. (Their words.)

Awesome.

Needless to say I was not surprised to get home last night and find a note on my door which notified me that I hadn’t been home when they’d tried to deliver the bike.  No shit.

The note did say they were going to try again today to deliver it.  Fortunately for me, Tara is just back from vaca and not at work today so she’s going to hang out at my house for a bit and hopefully will be there when the delivery guy shows up.

I used to work for UPS, unloading trucks when I was in college.  I knew the drivers worked hard but I didn’t realize they were hamstrung by the stupidity of their corporation.  The guy delivering my bike today had to make two trips.  It would have been so much easier if they’d just sent it to the UPS store.  Yes, I understand that the stores are independently owned and operated franchises, but still; they’re an extension of UPS, so it would make things easier all around if they’d let deliveries go there.

It’s no wonder the thought going through my head “Fuck UPS” also translates into fuckups.

Anyway.  Hopefully I’ll have a bike when I get home this afternoon.  Wish me luck.

Ride Hard, Take Chances if you use UPS.

Shayne's Run Pre Run

Summer is flying by and there’s not much we can do about it other than try and cram in as much riding and enjoyment as possible.  This time; the annual pre run of the route we use for the Shayne’s Run.  We like to do a recon on it about a month ahead of time to make sure there’s no major construction going on which we’d need to account for, or detour around.  The good news is this year is the first time I can recall that had zero construction or major issue to deal with.  And, we had 12 bikes and about 15 bodies; not a bad turnout at all.

First stop; the cemetery in Canton where Shayne lies.  We aren’t able to stop here during the run itself, for obvious logistical reasons, but we do like to stop here with the smaller group as part of the pre run.

Canton has done a great job here in creating a memorial to the different wars and conflicts which have occurred over the years  (I don't know why some of these pics are loading sideways...)

 

Here, visiting Shayne.

Behind Shayne; a memorial to someone lost on 9/11.

 

From the cemetery, the next stop is for food and drink!  Victory Lane in Millis!

 

Why are those other bikes parked out in the sunshine?  Don’t they want a nice cool seat when they come back out?  J

The only hiccup on the day was Rex’s bike died suddenly after we'd gotten back out on the road after lunch...

 

 

Fortunately for him, Ziggy was thinking, and cracked his gas cap.  Turned out to be a simple case of vapor lock and we were soon on our way again.

Back at the Post we settled in for a little more beerfreshment and agreed that the route looks good.  Now if only it'll stay that way for one more month...

Thank you again for your sacrifice, Shayne.  We continue to work to honor your memory.

Ride Hard, Thank a Vet.

Gotta Use Protection!

Greg and I have signed up for a race track day at...at...huh, I forget where.  But I've got the info saved so I'll find the place when I need to.  Anyway, it's a race track that has days when sport bikes aren't allowed and they just let cruisers and baggers come in and rip up the place.  The experience includes instruction on how to corner faster and better, and overall; is supposed to help you get more out of your bike's abilities.

They have requirements, though.  Your bike must be in sound shape, no leaks, lots of beef on the brake pads, and lots of rubber on the skins.  When on their track, you have to remove your side mirrors (or tape them over, and tape up your headlight.  If you crash, they want to minimize the stuff that has to be cleaned up, which is understandable.

As for our bodies, they have a requirement for those, too.   You have to wear protective body armor, and the list of things they accept isn't very large.  They did suggest a body suit which I looked in to it.  I'm not gonna lie; this stuff isn't cheap, but I figured; what the hell.  Maybe I'll even get smart and wear this stuff on a regular basis. After all, the reviews said you can wear this under jeans and shirts and no one will know.

So I ordered it and it arrived last night.  Opening the shipping bag it came in, a number of promotional flyers and cards came dropping out onto the floor, along with the pants and the jacket (two packages).

 

Opening up one of the packages, more promotional business cards, flyers, adverts, etc. came falling out.  (Yes, if you look at them, they are differen than the first picture.)

Viola!  The suit.

The material is a fine mesh (air flow) which will allow air to pass through so you stay somewhat cool and won't overheat (which is the main problem with so much of the protective stuff out there).

The pads laid out on the side are thigh pads.

The rest of the pads come pre-loaded into the pockets but they leave the thigh ones out in case you don't want to use them.  I bought 'em so I was gonna use them, at least for on the race track.  Holy hell, they weren't easy to get in!  The pockets were inside the leggings (of course) and the pads are held in by the pouch cover which is slit down the middle and overlaps itself.  Suffice to say it took me a while to figure out how to get them loaded in.

The material being mesh means it takes some TLC to pull on.  Too rough and it'll tear, so I took my time.  Actually, I didn't have much choice.  The reviews I'd read on line said to go a size smaller than what the sizing guide suggested, which I'd done.  The pants were super tight around the upper thighs and belly (gotta cut down on the beers and burgers!) and it took a bit to get them all the way on.  (The jacket went on very easily and took no time at all.)

Ta da!

The suit does fit super tight, which is what you want so the pads won't go flopping out of place.  I could see these easily staying put with a pair of jeans over them.  I wasn't sold on the comfort, though.  They were tight in the area where guys don't like things to be tight, and since these things are going to be under a pair of jeans; it'd be tough to make adjustments on the fly, if you know what I mean.

I had to admit; all the important joints were covered...

Thighs, knees and shins (boots will protect the ankle and feet)...

A side shot of the lower leg.  They come with zippers to help get them off...

Shoulders...

Elbows and forearms.

I tried using the standing mirror to get a picture of the back, but I wasn't able to finagle the angle and the lighting.  Suffice to say that this thing also has pads protecting the back/spine, and the lower back (bottom of the spine).

As long as you've got something over this thing to keep everything in place, I think it'll work just fine.

Here's hoping I don't wind up testing it any time soon...

Ride Hard, Use Protection

NYC; Ground Zero

The planning for this trip had been in the works for months, and it was finally here!  I'd never been to GZ before and was eagerly looking forward to visiting, even if it meant going to the heart of NYC.  No, I'm not a Yankee hater or dislike NYC in general, it's just that I've found the city to be a shithole when I've gone through it before.  Time would tell if that opinion was changed.

The night before, I'd resigned myself to not getting much sleep, but I cranked up the AC, nestled deep under the covers, and amazingly wound up with a fairly decent night's rest.  Maybe I've stumbled onto the key?

Anyway, the morning of departure had arrived and I was up and ready to go.  The first rally point was the Post and amazingly; everyone was early!  So we hit the road to N. Attleboro to the second rally point, and those folks were early, too!  Which meant we were on the road about a half hour earlier than I'd hoped.  Sweet!!

The ride down 295 to 6 to 395 to 95 went very smoothly.  Merritt parkway was backed up in a couple of spots, but nothing like the traffic headed in the other direction.  Holy crap, that was miles and miles of continuous logjam and we were so happy to not be in it.

 

First gas stop; everyone still in good spirits, LOL.

 

Arriving at the outskirts of NYC, we encountered a toll booth which had gates.  WTF.  Who the F still uses these antiquated things?  They never work right, especially for motorcycles!  And sure enough; I arrived at the booth, approached the gate...and...nothing.  I pulled my transponder off my windshield and waved it around, but no luck.  The rest of the crew was stacked up behind me, and behind them; an ever growing line of cars.  Fantastic.

Eventually, a toll collector appeared, took my transponder and held it up to a reader on the booth.  The arm opened, I grabbed my transponder, and rolled forward just far enough to let the crew behind me stack up together so we weren't trying to catch up to each other out in traffic.  When the last person was through, off we went, picked up the FDR south, and were slammy-slammed in traffic.  And what traffic.  These idiots are bombing between lanes and just missing each other by inches.  We're only going 40 miles an hour, and there's nowhere to go!  What's the point?  And then there was the NYPD cruiser in the slow lane, ambling along with its lights on, paying no attention to anything around it, or anyone paying attention to it.  We even came upon a fender bender in the middle lane.  Cars stopped in the lane, other drivers working their way around them...and the cruiser just slides on by.  No pause, no look, no anything.  I guess they were on their way to something more important...which was surprising, given their utter lack of interest in speed.

And then word came up from behind; we'd lost Kevin and Heather.  Huh?  How??  I'd stacked us up in a single lane at the tolls, and...what's that?  Oh, they peeled off into a different lane?  Well why would they do that???

There was nothing to do but just keep on going.  We found our street, made the turn and found a place to park.  I texted Heather (passenger) and she replied that they were using GPS and would find us shortly.

Waiting for them...

 

About this time, a text from Mike arrived.  He'd taken the train from Jersey City and was in the neighborhood.  We were trying to locate each other and as a reference, he said he was standing at the corner of Broad and Beaver streets.  Ha, that stud. 

 

Kevin and Heather finally arrived, we got rolling again, and hit the hotel we'd be staying at.

We lined up in front of the hotel (in the taxi stand section)...

 

...and I ran in and asked where we were to park.  The clerk gave me the name and directions of their parking garage, and I ran back out, ready to get the bikes settled.  Some folks wanted to leave their bags here rather than carry them back (the parking garage was a few blocks away), so we pulled off some things and got ready to roll.  Wait, now we're missing someone.  Bob...where is Bob?  Nobody knew where Bob was.  But then one of the crew came out (had used the bathroom) and said that Bob had checked in and gone to his room.  Say what?  Oh, I'm going to strangle him!  He finally came back out, we got the bikes fired up and off we went.

Down two streets and took a right.  And there was the parking garage.  We pulled in...and were greeted by a steel grate gate across the opening.  What the...?  I dismounted, went up to the window and asked the attendant about parking.  They were full.  Huh?  Whaddya mean 'full'?  We've got hotel reservations and this is the garage they use and they said we'd have parking.  No luck, the guy was full and not accepting any vehicles.  Well that's just awesome as fuck.  Now what are we supposed to do.  Fortunately there was a patron hanging out and he informed us there was a parking garage on the other side of the building, so we rolled back out to the street, two more right turns, and there's the garage.  And the entry ramp was quite steep, but we rolled on down, found the very nice attendant who moved some cars for us and we were finally parked in our own two slots (crammed 6 bikes in) and set the kickstands.  Here, Bob made up for his past sins by breaking out a cooler and handing out very cold Bud Lights.  His timing was perfect for we were all hot, tired and sweaty.  The temps were in the 90's and the humidity seemed like it was 100%.  These frosty libations were just what we needed.  Ahhhh!  Oh Bob, you rapscallion.  You raised my ire before, but all is forgiven now!

 

Here's Ed playing "Hide the empties" while the nice parking attendant was printout out our parking passes.

Back at the hotel, a quick plan was agreed upon; everyone shower and meet back at the hotel bar.  Mike, not having had a bike to park, had already showered and was down in the bar.  I headed up to get cleaned up, and as I was opening the door to the room, I thought "I wonder how small this room is going to be...".  I was immediately answered as the door swung into the side desk, preventing the door from opening all the way.  Huh.  I guess that answers that question (as I turned sideways to make my way in).

 

Nothing says "upscale Wall Street hotel" like industrial plumbing...

 

And just look at that view outside our window...

 

Cleaned up and ready we assembled in the bar and laid in to the stores.  I needed something good and boy did I find it!  16 ounces of 8+ABV chocolatey goodness!

 

We discussed the trip down and the headaches of traffic and the parking, and agreed that next time; we do what Mike suggested in the first place.  Ride to Jersey City, park there (for free), get hotel rooms there, then just take the train into the city for GZ and then head back out.  Plenty of night life out there, he says, so we will definitely have to give that some thought for next time.

 

After about three or four of those Youngs, I realized I needed to switch to something lighter.  Having not eaten since this morning and then riding all day in the heat and humidity, they were going right to my head.

 

As can be attested to by the look on my face in this pic...

I don't know what the statue was there for but the hostess seemed intent on not letting anyone get up next to it so I had to surreptitiously keep an eye on her and when she left her post, bammo; I got my pic!

 

The bar also had this giant bull on display which seemed too cool not to take a picture of...

 

...and there was a placque describing the legend behind it...

 

Checking the time we decided we should get moving.  The Observatory was on tonight's docket (museum was tomorrow), so we needed to get rolling.  It was drizzling off and on but not too bad.  We came across a restaurant along the way and headed in for dinner.  The waitresses set us up at tables inside the place but its front opened up to the sidewalk so we commandeered a couple of small tables and proceeded to set ourselves up right there so we could watch all that was going on outside; mostly people.

Dinner was fun and then we were on our way again, off to Ground Zero.  We were a little early so we walked around the memorial plaza, looking at the reflecting pools and the grass and trees that now grew here.

 

 

We couldn't see how deep the center holes were but someone said they were as deep as the visibile (gray) side walls were, so it seemed they were designed to be just deep enough that from the street, it looked like they were bottomless.

 

The water actually flowed out from the sides, creating long slivers of reflections, before cascading over the edges and into the pool, below.

 

 

 

All along the outer edges were the names of all the people who had been killed that day.  Office workers, emergency responders, plane passengers.

Underneath the edges, there was open space where the water was being pumped up and out to the top flat level.

 

The cascades were very cool; the water was actually funnelled into thin streams as it crested over the edge, giving the impression of falling rain, rather than just a solid fluid fall.

 

Looking up at the new World Trade Center building, it was amazing to see the glass stories going up and up and up, seemingly right through the sky.

 

I found myself thinking of the people who had been forced to jump from the burning towers.  Was I standing on a spot where someone had landed?  What thoughts would they have been thinking as they fell?  How horrible their choices were if they were forced to leap to certain death, rather than stay and certainly die.  The mood was completely somber and sad, and it seemed everyone on the plaza felt the same.  Anywhere there were conversations, they seemed muted and respectful.

Our turn to enter the Observatory arrived and we strolled in.  This image was faded in and out on the wall at one point.  I tried to time it so I'd get a clear picture but you can see how I made out.  (If you click on and open the pic, you'll be able to read what it says.)

 

The elevator ride up was amazingly quick (my ears popped 5 times in 30 seconds) and in no time at all, we were exiting near the top of the building.  The view was spectacular and we had a near 360 degree view around the building.  There were two floors which we could look out from, and folks were gazing out across the city in all directions, cameras saving memories, and excited fingers pointing out different landmarks.

 

Ellis Island in the middle...

...and zoomed in on...

 

 

A little Chinese Junk ship...

 

The city extends out seemingly to the horizon, and beyond...

The tickets allow you a specific time of entry so we assumed you'd be shuffled along and have to exit at a given time as well.  As it turns out this is not the case and you can stay put as long as you like. 

 

They had a mini cooler off on one side which actually served beer...well...sorta...

...Miller Lite and IPA.  I will pass, thank you.  But turning around, we found a full mini café and fully stocked bar behind us, so of course...well...you know what happened next.

I met a nice couple from Michigan and spent a fair amount of time talking to her beautiful blue eyes...er...I mean, talking to the guy (Scott) because that's the respectful thing to do (talk to the guy so he doesn't think you're interested in his girlfriend, which of course; I was).  They were funny as hell and not pretentious at all, so the conversation flowed easily and we had a lot of laughs with them.  I snapped some pics of the sunset as well as the traffic down below...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...and after a while (when it'd gotten completely dark and there wasn't much else to see outside), it was time to head on back down and join in the night life.

 

But not before taking in the sights of the reflecing pools once again; so unchanged, but so different at night time...

 

 

They had an awesome effect with the lighting.  At first, we couldn't figure out how they were making it look like a bank of lights were behind the water, as well as right at the bottom where it was landing.  After looking at it from another angle, we realized the bank of lights were at the base of the wall, thus behind the water.  The cascading water wasn't riding down the face of the wall, it was free-falling and landed several feet in front of the base.  So the light was actually behind the water when it hit, illuminating it from behind, but also casting illumination on the point of impact, where water was tossed up and the droplets would catch and reflect the light.

 

Another discovery; the names weren't just cut in the metal, they were backlit, once the sun went down.

 

From here, we slowly wound our way back up some streets, looking for a specific tavern that had been recommended.  Along the way, we came across some street art; a giant cube, standing on one point.  I tried convincing Nelly and Ed that we could spin it (and those of you on FB have seen those pics).

 

We found the bar and settled in, sampled some whiskey...

 

...we asked for Johnny Walked Blue but the bartender said they didn't carry any expensive whiskeys.  Huh?  In the heart of the city??  Anyway, he recommended this stuff...

 

It wasn't bad, but it was no Johnny Walker, either.

 

Hey look; more industrial plumbing...sorta.  Man, what's with the color scheme??

 

We tried several other things, had some mixed drinks, and fully enjoyed ourselves before deciding we needed to find another place to check out.  I mean, we were in downtown NYC, let's not spend the entire evening in just one establishment.

 

Besides, Ed was getting tired of this place...

 

The next place (I forget the name of it); we'd asked for a place that would have some good stouts, and man, this place didn't disappoint.  Just check out their sign!

 

We capped out our night here but lasted well into the evening.  I'm not quite sure what time we retired but I think it was about midnight.  I know; that doesn't sound terribly late, but it'd been a long hot day for us and we'd had an early start (~2-ish), so it was a respectable showing on our part.

The next morning we were up and looking for breakfast.  No food here at the hotel, and the hotel bar wasn't open yet, so we found a small breakfast place on a side street, filled our bellies, and headed off to the museum.

 

Along the way, we found this place...

 

And this place...

 

 

 

 

I kept hearing people talking about "Trinity Church" but didn't make any connection...until I overheard a conversation in a group of tourists "You know...from the movie National Treasure?"  Oh!  That place!

No visit to Wall Street can apparently be complete withouth visiting The Bull.

I think it's supposed to bring you good luck if you touch it, and judging from all the shiny spots, there's been a lot of touching going on...

...and judging from those shiny nuts; a lot of inappropriate touching, too.

Sure eough, no sooner had I taken this picture than a father had his two young kids go up and each kid held a ball in their hands and the dad took a picture.  Nice, a family portrait worthy of the mantle back home.

Oh yeah; here's that cube from last night!  (I'd been pretty lit up the night before and wouldn't have been able to find this thing again on my own, but it happened to be on our way to the museum.)

The museum is located right at Ground Zero, which afforded me another opportunity to take a picture of the new World Trade Center.

 

And with that; it was into the museum.  As with the Observatory, museum tickets granted you a specified entry time.  The info said to allow about two hours to see what's in the museum, so that's what we'd gauged.  We needed to get our bikes out @ 1 or else possibly be charged a second day's fee, so we were tied to a 2 hour deadline because that's what we'd planned for.  Unfortunately, the info was (in our opinions) misleading.  We spent the two hours inside and could have easily spent another two hours.  There were so many things I had to skip over because we'd run out of time.  Afterward, as we were talking about what we'd looked at (because we'd all split up, inside), we all found there were all kinds of exhibits, displays, etc. which we hadn't seen.

The museum is located underground, in much of what was the footprint of one of the towers.  They've excavated down to the bedrock where the steel beams were anchored.

They've cut the beams off just above the cement footing, but then in one section; went even deeper so you can see how the beams were affixed. 

 

The periphery of the footprint is lined with displays of the engineering required to build the buildings (giant slurry wall, still standing), as well as artifacts from the attacks.  Some of them were amazing, some of them were quite sorrowful.

 

Here, alongside the stairs going down into the museum were remnants from one of the towers.

 

 

 

 

One of the walkways leading from the first floor to the second, has some of the wall beams on display, beside it.  They were so tall that I couldn't get them all into one shot.  Here, I'd leaned over the railing and aimed the camera downward to the bottom of them.

 

Here's a picture from below, looking up.  I was able to fit them all into the shot but due to lack of perspective, they look small in this shot.  Believe me; they are not.

 

We were talking about the sheer force/weight that had to be exerted on these things to bend and twist them so much.  As it turns out, they were located right where the plane hit the North Tower...

 

 

 

The section of the slurry wall that is still original...

 

The last column..

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry that some of these pics are blurry and/or upside down.  There were tons of people there and everyone was patiently waiting for each person to take their pics and then move out of the way, so I was kind of hurried.

 

Here; the Survivors' Stairs...

 

This is a section of the radio antenna from on top of the North Tower...

 

 

When I came around a corner and saw this, it almost stopped me in my tracks.

 

Fire truck from Ladder Company 3.

 

Due to the lighting, these look like different exhibits, but they're the same.  One side has a dark background, the other side is facing a lit up backdrop.

 

 

 

 

 

Within the center of the museum is where the bulk of things are to be found.  They stipulate that no photography is allowed inside so we weren't able to take any pictures of things inside, but it was amazing, in a respectful way.  Timelines of that day, voice messages left from those that perished (played over speakers), mini film-type displays playing audio from survivors, relaying the events of the day, pictures, newscasts, on and on and on.  And even a small area walled off from the rest, which cautioned that images within might be disturbing.  Here, they showed picture after picture of those who had fallen; all of them in various stages of tumbling, and I again found myself wondering what would go through one's mind in such a terrible instance.

There was so much more to see, to go back and revisit, to think about, to appreciate, to mourn...but the time had come and we needed to leave.  Texts went out to locate each other and we gathered once again out on the plaza, took in the reflecting pools again, and then made our way to the parking garage.  We retrieved our bikes without issue...

 

...even navigating the steep slope back to the streets above...

 

...returned to the hotel to collect our bags, and were then on the road headed home again.

The crew wanted to make more stops on the way back than we had on the way down, so the trip took a while.

 

The first stop, of many...

 

 

Another stop...

 

At one of the stops, we actully did a sit-down lunch, which is a bit of a novelty for me.  But, it gave me a chance to enjoy this fine specimen, and let me tell ya; it was delicious!

 

We pulled out of NYC around 2 and I didn't roll into my driveway until 8:30.  Ordinarily, doubling a trip's travel time isn't something I've very crazy about, but this time I didn't mind.  We'd tried to find ways around traffic backups (according to GPS) and had stumbled onto some very scenic roadways.  We hit a couple of gas stops where instead of just gassing-and-going, we stood around and chatted for a bit, and we stopped in Danbury (for that full sit-down meal where we got to reminisce about the trip some more).  It was definitely something I'm not used to but it wasn't bad at all.

 

If the success of a trip is gauged by the level of enjoyment and the desire to return, then this trip was definitely a huge hit.  I can't wait to go back and immerse myself again.  In the museum, not in the city.  The city can kiss my ass.  It's still a shithole - we were staying in the Wall Street section!  You'd think it would be classy but no; there was trash all over the streets, scaffolding on all the buildings, lots of potholes and lousy drivers (any city where cars have "bumper protectors" attached to their rear bumpers is not a city that is motorcycle friendly).  So yes, I want to get back, but when I do go again, I'm going to talk to Mike about Jersey City.

 

And speaking of which, Mike sent us this pic once he'd returned to the other side of the river.  It's a great shot, and seemed fitting to wrap the day up with.

There you have it.  The run to NYC and Ground Zero.  It was amazing.

 

Ride Hard, Never Forget