GH and I had been talking about meeting up one day this week and as of Tue night it didnt look like it was going to happen, but a quick phone call yesterday morning changed that. Hung up the phone at 7AM with a departure time of 8AM. Since this was my first full day of riding of the season and it was not much above freezing yet as i started my day i started doing all of the mental check lists to make sure i was properly prepared for the trip. Around 7:40 I started up the bike to let it warm up as i started to put all of the needed layers of clothing on. around 7:50 i was pulling out of the driveway and headed toward the mass pike (US 90). After clearing the toll booth and getting settled in westbound i locked in the cruise and cranked up the tunes, before long i had passed the interchange for I84 and the pike drops from 3 lanes to 2, almost no traffic now got the gerbings turned up and the butt warmer on low, disengaging the cruise a few times to eases up around the state police cruisers, look down at the GPS and and i'm already half way to lake george.
I was approaching the last rest stop on the mass pike, make a quick stop to top off on fuel and decide to remove the leather face wrap, still kept all other layers on including the head sock. Pull back onto the mass pike its only about 10 miles to the NY border. before long i'm approaching albany and turning north, now about an hour left till i get to lake george. tempted to stop and pull off the head sock as its starting to warm up slightly but decide to keep going i arrive in lake george just before 11AM took about 3 hrs to do the 205 miles GPS says 3:17 but that includes the warm up time in my driveway.
i pull up to the adirondak brew pub and see that we will need to change our plans......
GH rolls up about 15 minutes later and we agree we need to find a hot cup of coffee before we do anything else. Once we warmed up we spent some time walking around lake george looking for a place for lunch, it was slim pickins in mid april as most places are not yet open for the season, we finally decide to try "pizza jerks", it was a good choice the pizza was good as was the local
we tried. time goes by a bit too quickly on us before we knew it it was after 2PM and we were both looking at 3+ hr rides home depending on the routes we chose, for the return trip i looked it coming east into VT and back down into MA, but instead followed the champlain canal south i was making good time and river along side, i continued south till i hit rt4 and continued on to troy where i picked up rt2, the nice lady in the GPS was telling me i had lost some time on this route and has to make some decisions i decide to stay on rt2 until i get into MA and will decide on my best route from there, i really wanted to stay on 2 as it's a really nice ride but instead i take rt7 south to the mass pike and head for home, once back on the mass pike i lock in the cruise, content with the choices made, over 300 miles down and still plenty to go till i get home. i found myself riding more defenseivly on the return trip had myself considering exit strategy a few time but not needing to follow through, that is until about 6 or 7 miles from home. i was in the center lane with a vehicle on wither side of me when the one on the right side put on their left directional and started moving left...... survival instinct kicked in as i grabbed front and rear brakes and she passed a few feet in front of me, i think most of the highway heard me as i voiced my opinion of her manuver. with my adreneline rush in high gear i start to grab throttle to catch back up and giver her more
but i instead decide with only 1 or 2 miles till my exit its not worth it i pull into the right and lane and ease up. i get home at almost 7PM on the dot GPS showed the return trip at 221 miles 4:53
SERK and SERG3
overall route for the day 427 miles
Author
Topic: last minute ride to lake george (Read 2388 times)