Kirkwood LOH - Carol and Dede's Excellent Adventure
We started with where we were going to end up (Newburgh, New York) and worked our way back to St. Louis. Was there anything in between we wanted to see? Carol wanted to go to the H-D factory in York, PA. Okay, so we could take our time and get there Sunday 7/4/10 and go on the tour on Monday. Guess what, that was a holiday and the factory was closed. So what else do we want to do? I had an idea, we would go to Carol’s sister’s house in Indy (thanks Wayne and Kim, you are the best!!) on Saturday, and I wanted to go back to Pittsburgh, so we could go there on Sunday and just waste time sightseeing and get to York, PA on Monday night. As we were riding (boy was it hot), I’m thinking we brought the heat and humidity with us. Luckily Carol had a cooler on her bike, so we would buy water and ice and have cold drinks on the way.
See the Photos from Carol and Dede's Adventure
Saturday 7/3/10 - We left St. Louis around 9:30 am. First stop was out of St. Louis (4th of July parade was happening in downtown St. Louis) was a gas station to get gas, water and ice. We stopped in Edwardsville. Next stop was Legacy H-D to roam around and see if there was anything to buy. We get to Legacy and they are having a toy drive, auction and raffle tickets. Carol just gave them $10 and they give her two tickets to fill out. Carol gives me one and I joke what’s the point, you always win!! Didn’t buy anything but had a Walking Taco. They take a bag of Fritos, or Doritos, cut the bag open, add taco meat, lettuce, tomato and sour cream. It was the neatest taco I have ever eaten. No mess at all because it’s in the bag and you use a spoon to eat it. Off we go and I notice about 1 hour later that Carol’s left blinker is not working. When we stop for gas I let her know and so we head for the closes H-D dealer to get it fixed. We end up at Wabash H-D just west of Indy. They were the best, got us in and fixed and out within 1 hour. It was great hanging with the Hoosiers!! We spend the night at Kim and Wayne’s. Wayne is the BBQ king as far as I’m concerned. The best BBQ chicken I have ever had!! After dinner it’s a couple mile walk for ice cream, shower and then bed.
Sunday 7/4/10 - Great breakfast and off we go towards Pittsburgh. As we are riding through Ohio, right around Dayton, Ohio; I see my 1st 1% biker and boy they don’t even smile while they are riding. We eat lunch in Columbus. Around 3 we stop at a rest stop to just get off the bikes and get some shade and Carol has found out she won. The raffle ticket from Legacy and it’s a $50 gift card to Wal-Mart. Like I said, she wins all the time, well, most of the time. While we are at the rest stop I start shopping for a hotel near Pittsburgh on Hotels.com. I end up with one in Butler, PA. It ends up being 20 miles north of Pittsburgh. We eat dinner, shower and get ready for bed. I can’t believe that we have been in 4 states in one day…Carol was sneaky and took a short detour down into West Virginia on our way to PA. I bet the look on my face when I saw the West Virginia sign was priceless since I was waiting to get to Pennsylvania.
Monday 7/5/10 – We have one of many to come, waffle for breakfast at the hotel and head out towards York, PA. Just changed my mind on Pittsburgh, let’s just get to York. We have been talking to people and I found out that in York, there is the Hershey factory and they have a tour. So the Adventure today has been 2 ½ hours of twisties in the mountains, sweet Hershey’s tour and then onto York for the night.
Tuesday 7/6/10 - So here is what we have…Carol has finally gotten a good nights sleep, check. Harley tour, check, Five Guys Burgers & Fries, check. Riding in the mountains of Pennsylvania…priceless!! Carol ends up calling a friend (Sue) in Bemus Point, New York and Sue sets us up in a Bed and Breakfast that a friend of hers runs!! So around 6pm we finally cross into New York headed to Bemus Point, have dinner at Guppy’s Tavern (Excellent, fall off the bone pork ribs). So the farm house Bed and Breakfast (Great Tree Inn and Stables) is so totally awesome!! And it’s 82 degrees here by the lake and they have horses being boarded here and you can also show up with your horses and let them stay for the night also.
Wednesday 7/7/10 – Had the best breakfast ever!!! French toast to die for and cantaloupe!! Carol and I walk around the stables. While I was researching going to Niagara Falls, I came upon something called Jet Boat Ride. Where you get really wet from the rapids on this boat ride, sounds like fun, let’s go!! Well, you just have to look at the pictures to get the idea on how awesome the boat ride was and it was 105 degrees, so getting soaking wet was really, really nice. After the jet boat ride we head back to Niagara Falls because the jet boat ride was in Lewiston, New York, just northeast of the Falls. Again, with Niagara Falls, you just have to look at the pictures and the video to get the idea of how awesome it really is. We leave and start heading to our destination of Newburgh and make it all the way to Henrietta, New York.
Thursday 7/8/10 – We reach our destination of the Ramada Inn at Newburgh, New York. There is the Women in the Wind Summer Nationals Meet and Greet with appetizers. We check in with registration and get all of our stuff, head to the room and then onto the Meet and Greet. We also start our laundry and go to Wal-Mart for water and soda.
Friday 7/9/10 – We ride to the OCC (Orange County Choppers). The OCC opens early for us, since there are 278 registered members for the Summer Nationals. I end up winning the tour behind the scenes where they film the OCC and they are in the middle of filming while we are back there. We get to see all the equipment and get to sit on a chopper (see my picture on the chopper along with a ton of photos from the OCC). The group rides to Bethel Woods, the site of Woodstock. The museum there was really great, brings you back to 1969 with the music, photos and souvenirs. We have lunch at Bethel Woods. It’s very hot, so we head back to the hotel and tonight we head to a park in Wappingers Falls for the JDRF function that Mikey (from the OCC) might show up. But we end up walking into town to the busiest Dairy Queen I have ever seen.
Saturday 7/10/10 – We wake up to rain and the ride they have scheduled for today has been moved to Sunday. We have been lucky so far on the trip, this is the 1st rain we have encountered. The meeting starts around 9 am and they have vendors there. Tonight is the big party with most people dressing up in 1969 stuff, tie die, peace signs and you remember that stuff. Carol and I end up going to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner. The parade, or should I call it runway of people modeling hippy clothes is great. Time to start packing for the ride home on Sunday.
Sunday 7/11/10 – Pack up bikes and leave around 8 am…destination St. Louis!! Rode out of New York and all the way across Pennsylvania and spent the night just east of Akron, Ohio. Same ole, same ole…dinner, showers and then nite, nite. Riding makes me so tired!!
Monday 7/12/10 – Guess what….RAIN!!! Man and it’s hot, but we have to put on the rain gear and get in gear. The rain makes riding much slower then we have been. We finally made it to Indy and Carol’s sister’s house around 4 pm. What a long day!! Wayne and Kim, thanks again for putting us up for the night, you guys are great.
Tuesday 7/13/10 – Guess what…RAIN!!! Well, not yet, but it looks really bad in the direction we will be riding. Again, on with the rain gear and the rain was not hard, just a small sprinkling of water. We finally pull off the highway at an exit and pull onto the entrance ramp to the highway, stop and start taking off the rain gear…it hasn’t rained for a couple of hours and it’s getting really hot with this stuff on. Back on the road and before you know it we are only 50 miles from home. We have to stop for gas and say our goodbye’s for we will be going our separate ways…until next time. We travelled almost 3,000 miles on our 10 day journey…Can’t wait to see what the next destination will be for “Carol and Dede’s Excellent Adventure”!!