ON THE ROAD TO ADVENTURE, The Prelude Ride

[piccola]

As many of you may know from my previous posts, I'm hoping to ride across country next summer. To see if it is at all feasible, I planned a prelude ride this summer. My plan was to visit my daughter in OH and my cousin in MI.

I left my house near Norwich, CT on Sun, July 10, '11 at 5:30 in the morning. The temperature was 56 degrees when I left. Even with a sweater under my summer riding jacket, I was freezing!!! I froze for the whole first 2 hours I was riding.

Made good time down I-95 through CT. Stopped at the last rest area in CT and had a Micky D's breakfast. No problem over the Tappen Zee Bridge. Scooted around the outskirts of NJ on 287 to I-80 west. Made it to PA by 10:30 A.M. Hit some traffic on the way, but it kept moving at 60 or better. By the time I reached Danville, PA, I was getting pretty tired since I had been up so early. So I decided to call it a day.

All those years of staying at Super 8s finally paid off. I got a nice big room with a king bed, micro, fridge and coffee maker for FREE. Next door was a nice little local restaurant, Mom's Dutch Kitchen. I had a really good Philly cheese steak sandwich with some great fries for supper there.

On Monday morning, did a better job of loading the scoot and it took less time. I am carrying WAY too much. I didn't want to have to do laundry on the trip, so I packed enough clean clothes for 2 weeks. I have a good sized duffel under the seat and 2 fully packed overnight cases strapped to the seat and rack. Between the wind and weight, I'm using an extra half gallon of gas per hundred miles. When I go cross country next year, I will have to severely cut back on clothes.

Interstate 80 has a lot of heavy truck traffic and some serious cross winds up in the higher elevations, but it is one beautiful road to ride across PA. It is just a feast for the eyes. Lots of tree covered hills along with open vistas of peaceful farms.

The National Weather Service said that there would be showers and thunder storms along I-80 in the late afternoon. I was hoping to make it to West Middlesex, PA
before the storms hit. Reached West Middlesex by noon. The sky looked fine, so I kept going. When I crossed over into OH, there was a lot of traffic on the hwy. Was tired of riding the hwy, so I got off and took local roads. BIG mistake. Got stuck behind slow moving trucks and narrow roads with no possibility of passing. Got to within one mile of my daughter's house in the late afternoon, and the sky opened up and it poured BUCKETS!!! Oh well, the Mod Quad needed a bath anyway.

[shalomdawg]

howdy, i'ma ridin' with ya so keep up the good reporting

lotsa miles and smiles to ya

[newguy]

Hey, Sound's like yer off to a good start. Whatcha ride'n? 150,250,1,000,000,000? A 50 cc?
Do tell! And post some pic's. Peep us posted.

[piccola]

I'm riding my Mod Quad, a Honda Silver Wing 600 with a Tow Pac trike kit. My legs are just too short to ride the wing without the extra wheels.

I spent 3 days with my daughter and grandchildren. Had lunch with my college room mate. Then went back on the road to MI. Made good time on the OH TNPK. Cost me $9.50, but I had a time constraint and had to get to my cousins by Thursday afternoon. When I arrived, my cousin's husband said, "Your trike wheels are bald." I hadn't even thought to look at them. Thank goodness he noticed them. I would have been stuck in the middle of nowhere with 2 flat tires. He was so good. He jacked up the Quad and took off the wheels then took me to town to get new ones. Then he reinstalled the wheels.

On Friday my cousin, her daughter and I went up to the northern end of the Michigan peninsula. We stayed at a cabin in Mackinaw City. I had a great time. We went to Mackinac Island on Sat. There are no motorized vehicles on the island. There is an old fort up there. It was very interesting. We got back to my cousin's on Mon. evening.

I spent this morning getting my stuff together and sending home a box of dirty clothes. I left my cousin's at 12:00 noon. Didn't get far. Stopped for gas and noticed oil all over the muffler. The dipstick wasn't screwed in and oil had been flying out while I rode.

I was really worried. There was very little oil on the dipstick. A very nice man gave me directions to a cycle shop in a nearby town. A young man at the shop filled the scoot with oil then tried to tighten the dipstick and couldn't. In my hurry at the gas station, I had stripped the threads.

Naturally, they didn't have the part. The part isn't that expensive, but I had to pay $25 for overnight shipping. So now I am stuck for an extra day while I wait for the part. Hopefully it will get here early and I can still get some miles in tomorrow.

[piccola]

I called the cycle shop at 9:30 the next morning and a guy told me the shipment was in. They would need about an hour to log everything into their computer then they would be ready to replace the dipstick. So one hour later I had checked out of the hotel and rode over the the cycle shop.

Got there and another guy told me my part hadn't arrived. So I reminded him that I had paid $25 for overnight delivery and I couldn't afford to spend another night in the hotel while waiting for the part. It was also 98 degrees and humid outside, where was I supposed to wait, (they had no waiting room at the shop).

Then he looked through his computer and discovered a vehicle he had on the showroom floor had the same dipstick. So he took the one out of it and put it on my scoot. Why the heck couldn't he do that the day before. Would have saved me well over $100.

It was after 11:00 AM by the time I got on the road and hot as blazes. I made it to the OH TNPK in a fairly short time. I had to stop every hour or so to hydrate and cool off in the air conditioning at the rest stops. I made it to PA in the early evening. I was just too hot to continue, so I found a hotel for the night.

[piccola]

Since the hwy had been so hot, I decided to ride RT 6 through PA. Bad choice. It added over 200 miles to the trip and an extra day on the road. It wouldn't have mattered much if the temperaturs weren't about 105 on the heat index with the humidity. It was slow going through all the little towns and VERY HOT. I had ridden about 300 miles and stopped for lunch about 2:00. Since it was a Thurs., I thought I should make a motel res for the night.

The folks at the restaurant were very helpful with motel info. But I discovered the next 3 towns up the line had no available rooms. To go further than that would have been well over 2 more hours of riding and in the heat, I thought it would be more than I was willing to do.

I asked if there was a motel in that town, (Smethport). There was, but it usually filled up early in the afternoon. But I gave them a try and they did have a room available for the night. I asked them to hold it for me and jumped back on the scoot and hot footed it over to the motel. It must have been 110 degrees!!!

Go out early the next morning, but by 10:00 A.M., it was already hot. Made it to the border of NY and CT and just gave up in the heat. It was another 2 to 3 hours home but I was just too hot to continue riding. Since it was a Fri., lots of hotels were full, but got a smoking room at a Super 8 for $125. The maid was kind enough to give me a bottle fabreeze. I kept spraying the rug, drapes, bedspread and chairs. By the time I went to sleep, the room was tolerable.

Sat. dawned cloudy. I didn't mind. I figured if the sun wasn't out it wouldn't be so hot. I got everything ready to go by 8:00. Rode next door to the gas station and it started to rain. It looked clear over in the east. So I go on I-84 and just rode like the wind in an attempt to out run the rain. After about half an hour, I succeeded. I made it home before noon. Round trip, I rode 1718 miles.

It was a great trip, but 4 consecutive days of riding in temps above 94 degrees with high humidity, was a bit much.

Lessons learned for the cross country trip:

Get a vehicle with large trike wheels. If you don't know the area, stay on the hwy. Pack A LOT LESS clothing. Carry oil. Plan more lay over days in case of heat and humidity. Find less expensive overnight lodging. Can't afford hotels all the way across country and back.

[howardr]

One thing you can try for the real thing, is mailing clothes to yourself at certain places along the way. A number of long distance riders I've spoken to do this regularly. You take out the clean clothes, the repack the box with dirty ones. When you get home, empty all the box and do some serious laundry.

Nice report. Do you have any pics?

Howard

[piccola]

Mailing clean clothes and sending home dirty ones is a good idea. I may try that.

The only pics I have are of Mackinac Island. For most of the ride there were no safe places to pull over and shoot. I still haven't gotten around to loading the pics from either of my vacations this year onto the computer. I'm working on rewriting my curriculum for 2 of my classes and it is just taking up a lot of my time.