Day eighteen, niagara falls, ny to williAmsport pa.

Well, what an interesting day, the 19th of July and day eighteen of the road trip. We started with an 0700 jog from the hotel, basically retraced our steps around the Niagara Falls State Park as it is open 24/7 and costs nothing. There were zero people in the park at that time so as well as a bit of a trot, we had primo views over everything with no tourists. Great.

Local knowledge again, suggestion from reception we don’t leave Niagara Falls to take the I190 down through Buffalo until after 9.30 am to avoid massive queues with commuter traffic. Took that advice, leisurely breakfast then hit the road down the I190. Buffalo is about 260,000 people so like the size of Wellington and we went straight down the river, past the peace bridge, the bridge from Buffalo to Canada and in down the I 90 to then take the 400 south to a place called Traffic was a breeze, non existent at that time of day.

Now Niagara to Olean is a total of 150 kms and is nothing to write home about, needless to say a caffeine injection was needed at about the time we hit Olean. Cruising in we saw the usual suspects of Burger King, Wendy,s blah blah until on our right by the third roundabout was a REAL coffee shop, check out the pic of Olean Coffee Traders. Best coffee we have had for days and likely the only real coffee shop in town. Riders knocking out the route we are about to disclose to you, should include Olean Coffee Traders as a must do stop, just saying.

Caffeined up, the riding was about to get better. Now these routes chosen for today were located by using Mr Google on Scenic drives in Pennsylvania and best motorcycle rides in Pennsylvania. We were not disappointed. Any NY riders taking a bit of a jaunt up to Niagara Falls should definitely take the long way home by heading south into Pennsylvania to take in these roads, truly awesome.

From Olean we took the 417 to Ceres then turned right on the PA44 ( into Pennsylvania here) and had an awesome ride through the Susquehannock State Forest, for some 42 kms between Ceres and Coudersport.

We rode into Coudersport thinking a bite to eat could be on as it was closing in on lunchtime and the caffeine fix from Olean was wearing off. As we rode in, a dude walked across the pedestrian crossing in front of us carrying a Thompson sub machine gun and dressed in 30’s mafia getup. There were old school Police cars everywhere and a fair in the town square, including of course the requisite takeaway stands.

Whilst squaffing down an awesome pulled pork and salad sandwich we learnt Coudersport was the retirement home of none other than Gman Eliot Ness who took down Al Capone back in the day. Ness retired to Coudersport in 1956 but sadly died in May 1957 of a massive heart attack. He had bought a house in 3rd street.

Because of his notoriety, Coudersport celebrate Ness having retired to their fair town every year with a big party weekend, re-enactments of GMen taking down a bank robbery, executing a warrant in a house of ill repute, blah blah. people come from far and wide to this wee town of 1200 people, including Police museums from all over the country bringing along period cars and uniforms.

Spent over an hour there chatting to locals and looking around.

The next section of riding was equally as awesome as the ride south to Coudersport. We took the 44 then the 144 south through Cross Forks to Renovo.

Lets tell you what happened at Renovo, see below the pic of the four bikes lined up, yes that’s 3 motorcycles and the 4th wee bike, also backed in to the curb like ours. No sooner had we parked our bikes by the river to have a rest in the shade, than up rocked a local bikie chick on her own set of wheels to have a bit of a yarn. She had on a pair of togs and as you can see had dual wheels on the back of her bike and literally slid in to reverse park the same as us, showing off as she did so. This bikie chick was not at school yet, she was four years old, going on eighteen. What a hard case, told us about her brother and sister, Mum and dad and her boyfriend at Kindy, asked where we were from and where we were going, next up rocks her best friend from next door, maybe 6 years old. No sign of any parents nearby and she stayed and yarned to us the whole time and waved as we rode off. Only in America.

From Renovo we took the 120 down to Lock Haven then jumped on the I80 to nail the last 30 odd kms through to Williamsport.

Ignoring the 150 kms of interstate to start the day from Niagara to Olean, the riding in Pennsylvania was idyllic and with barely a car to be seen anywhere. Outstanding ride and I could not recommend this ride highly enough.

Do it.

Back in Newark, NJ, Mark and Tracey uplifted their bike from Mainfreight and rode back to their accomm ready to head east and meet up with us at East Stroudsburg tommorrow. A High of 36.5 today, getting a bit toastie.