The LazyAssGeek’s

Another gorgeous day to finish up our trip, though a little warmer than the previous days.  We decided to head to my parents’ place in the Poconos as a stop along the way, so we re-traced our steps from Friday in NY, heading back down NY routes 212, 375 and 28 until we eventually got to US209.  NY-28 was a hornets’ nest of cops running radar in Ulster. Shortly after getting flipped off by a couple of kids in their POS hatchback, because I had the nerve to pass them when they were chugging along under the speed limit in the left lane, the Valentine 1 went nuts.  We passed 2 cops that had people pulled over on the right and while the V1 was still warning us I spotted the cop on the right shooting for another. Between spotting the folks pulled over and the V1′s warnings we had slowed down and cruised safely by.

A parking area along 209 in NY.

We continued down 209 and into PA.  Just as we were getting ready to head into a 15-20 mile stretch of middle-of-forest Andy says “next gas station.”  We decided against risking them running out and had the Garmin guide us to the closest gas station.. which of course wasn’t there.  Fortunately we found a station another mile or so down the road at the intersection of US209 & PA739 – full service and ridiculously priced but as this picture shows… we were in no position to be choosy!

It was a place something out-of-time as it was full service and no pay-at-the-pump.  A rare site these days and a nice change of pace from the megastations, even though there’s a price to be paid for that.

We decided to follow PA739 and let the Garmin choose the way.  Had a few fun roads when Andy hit the DETOUR button a couple of times, but being a holiday weekend we almost inevitably got stuck behind somebody hauling a camper.  The Poconos have gotten quite crowded as the area has become as much a suburb of NYC as weekend getaway.  You can still find some quiet roads to enjoy (quiet until Andy & Biggi’s exhaust splits the air!) but it’s tough and you have to deal with nightmare intersections like the nightmare that is the 5-way convergence of PA routes 611, 940 and 196. After sitting through that light we finally got to 940 and on to Pocono Lake for a rest stop and lunch.

Mom had some burgers ready to go, so I fired up the grill and got them cooking while Andy & Biggi enjoyed a walk around the lake and took some pictures.

Thanks Mom & Dad for lunch and the rest stop, and to Aunt Trish for the great pickled beets & eggs!

Back on the road for the last leg of the trip.  We grabbed PA-903 just South of I-80 off PA-115 and headed into Jim Thorpe.  You pick up US209 from there, strangely enough US209 North while heading due South, and on over to PA-248, passing the site where I got my ticket back in July. We followed PA145 South through Allentown, which started out very nice but then was 2-3 lanes of traffic hell through Allentown itself and ended, dumping us into PA309.  We stayed on 309 into Quakertown and grabbed Trumbauersville Road to head Southwest towards home.

On Trumbauersville Road we came across a motorcyle accident.  It looked like the rider had lost the bike coming down the hill and around the corner near Fox Hollow Golf Club. There were a bunch of people helping him, though we still asked if there was anything we could do to help. They had already called for an ambulance.  There’s a guard rail on the corner there and the bike didn’t look like it had much damage (had the look of one of those smallish Italian sport bikes).  The rider look like a leg was hurting and he had his bell run pretty hard.  We didn’t see a helmet but he had riding pants and a jacket and I suspect there was a helmet somewhere as there wasn’t any blood that I spotted. Biggi was glad we came across that scene at the END of the trip, as were Andy & I.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and we arrived home safe, sound and tired.  A great ride and a great weekend with friends, not many better ways to spend a holiday weekend!

It was long day on the road. Started with a run to York, ME to see Cape Neddick Light, which is known as Nubble Light. Absolutely gorgeous spot, I’d almost forgotten how much I liked the coast of Maine(ex-wife memories can do that to ya).

And of coure the requisite pic of the Vette.

After taking tons of pictures and taking in the sights it was time to do some miles. We decided to try the Vette’s nav today but that didn’t work so well. It was making us stick to US-1 and it was just too big a road, more like sitting in traffic than enjoying a drive. So Andy took the lead again with the Garmin and we started on some smaller New Hampshire routes, far too many to remember except the first of which was 107.

The most fun road to drive of the trip was NH-149. The stretch from Deering over to Hillsborough was great, tons of curves with lots of elevation change. There was a local in front of us driving a POS Grand Am, but he knew the roads so we were able to take them faster than we might have otherwise by following him. I had Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills” cranking on the stereo and was inspired to take some video.

We stopped in Hillsborough to catch our breath and a smoke break for Andy & Biggi. No mushy problems this time, just that it was Sunday, so Biggi had to call Mom.

The rest of the roads in NH weren’t particularly memorable, except to Biggi who hated the last bits of NH-9 and made us pull over cause it was too big & busy. After some map consulation and a stop for gas.. she had to suck it up cause in the SW corner of NH that’s all there is!

On to Vermont after that, first time I’d actually crossed that state’s border. Very pretty and great fun driving through the mountains. Though the roads didn’t have the fast sweepers that made NH-149 so much fun the definite “coolest road of the trip” was in Vermont. Appropriately enough it was Dover Rd. It was a very narrow mountain road with great curves, though you couldn’t take them at any kind of speed.  There was even this covered bridge:

Another mile or so down the road we came across exactly (genauso!) the kind of spot Biggi had been whining about not being able to find – a creek she could walk down to in the sun.  OK, it was a very nice spot and it did stop the whining and she of course looked damn good.

Coming down out of the mountain in Vermont was damn cold and though it warmed up when we got back into the sun an hour Biggi was in the Vette’s passenger seat and the top was up. We crossed over into NY at Hoosick onto NY-7 and it became something of an exercise in completion after that.  We went through an… interesting section of Albany after experiencing one of the typical upstate NY octopus-like cloverleafs and headed down US-9W before finally getting over to NY-32 and on into Saugerties.  The last hour was in the dark and Andy was very much ready to get off that bike, no matter what Mr. He-Man says!

We re-visited Johnny G’s Diner for dinner and it again was a good decision. Biggi was incapable of making decisions at that point, but she did seem to enjoy the stuffed cabbage.  A few beers to wind down back in the rooms ended a long, but great day.

The Vette nav didn’t know where the Comfort Suites in Dover is, so it was Garmin’s turn today. Quick shot across NY-32 and over the Rip Van Winkle Bridge to MA-9.  The bridge is being re-painted but there was still some of it that wasn’t under-cover and there were some nice views of the Hudson River.

MA-9 took us into Amherst, MA and by Umass. Sorry, no leg-humper pics, they make you stop for the crosswalks so I actually had to pay attention to my driving.  We stopped for gas at a price-gouging tourist trap, and some folks on their way to a tractor-pull stopped for some coffee. So I took this really crappy picture.

Andy & Biggi became the motorcyle-meat in a Corvette bread sandwich so of course I had to take a picture of that too.

We rode along with a couple of folks on a Harley for a while.  Memorable because not long after I took this picture an enormous hawk (Jim would have known what kind it was, cause he’s gay that way) dropped out of a tree at the side of the road and damn near hit them!  I left off the gas immediately because I was sure they were going to wind up under my wheels.  Biggi missed the whole thing because she was busy trying to wake up whatever body part had fallen asleep this time(ask somebody that knows German slang what “mushy” means).

 The rest of the trip into Dover was far less eventful, though Biggi did make us make one last sleepy-body-part stop 10 minutes short of the hotel. We took a ride over to the excuse for this road trip, the company Vygon bought up here.   We asked the hotel clerk for a dinner recommendation and he gave us a pretty good one, Cartelli’s Bar & Grill. Service wasn’t the best, but they made up for it by being very friendly(and by friendly I mean that she leaned over alot).

A short visit to Portsmouth tomorrow, and then more driving though the fun back roads back to Saugerties.